5 Things Indie Authors Should Be Doing

Doing these 5 things can make a huge difference in the career of an Indie Author

In the past ten years alone, the publishing world has seen a vast amount of change.

The most major change was the evolution of self-publishing.

Mainly because it removed barriers for authors who ventured on their own to get their work in front of readers. These authors only needed to know enough about writing, publishing, and marketing to allow it all to come to fruition. However, no one can argue that it hasn’t come without some snags along the way.

What snags am I talking about?

• Poor editing

• Bad or very generic book covers

• Little to no marketing

• Lack of knowledge in regard to uploading their books to platforms like Amazon, Book Baby, Kobo Books, and more

And as a result of this, numerous readers were weary of the self-published side of the industry.

However, now that there is more information on how to accomplish this and do so successfully, the self-publishing side is witnessing some major wins. Which also paved the way for more writers to enter the field.

For indie authors who are either embarking on their writing career or are trying to figure it out along the way, there are some major things you should be doing to help your audience find you.

Having a platform

It is astonishing how many indie authors have yet to create a platform. (Social media presence and a website.)

If indie authors truly want to begin building an audience and following, it is difficult to achieve without a platform. Mainly due to the fact that you aren’t able to build momentum or awareness about any of your work in the public eye. And you aren’t able to make connections with other authors in your genre or potential readers.

Without a concrete platform, readers aren’t sure where to look for your work or how to locate it.

And this can cause them to give up looking for you.

Consistency

Once this platform has been created, the best thing that can be done for it is to create consistency.

By this, I am referring to the cohesive look that should span from your social media to your website. Because it is going to make it easier to recognize your platform if you are using the same color scheme and images. Which also means regularly updating your platform when necessary.

When you achieve this consistent and cohesive look among your platform pieces, you grab the attention of your audience.

Dedication

As difficult as it can be to do so, it is crucial to continue to create content.

This can be from your work-in-progress manuscript to the social media posts you create. When you dedicate yourself to continue creating new content, you show your audience they can expect more from you. And this goes a long way.

If you have trouble posting on social media regularly, set one hour or a half hour a week toward brainstorming ideas.

Having something written down is better than nothing. Or, if posting it is the problem, find a scheduling application like Hypefury to do it for you. All you do is plug in what you want it to post and it posts it for you throughout the day.

As for books, posting your progress on social media is a huge bonus for potential readers.

Knowledge

Reading and learning about the self-publishing business will take you far in terms of money wisely spent and growing an audience.

There are so many people out there sharing their knowledge and tricks for indie authors that you could learn most of what you need in a few weeks. It just takes setting aside time to do so and realizing that waiting to publish until you know more is important to the success of your book.

Some things you should learn before publishing include:

• How to publish your manuscript to platforms such as Kobo Books, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, and Amazon

• How to properly run advertisements in order to allow your book to be seen

• What a decent price is for professional grammatical and developmental editing

• How to design a book cover

• How to properly research your target audience

• How to write a good book description for your books details page

Knowing these will increase your book's chances of success.

How to properly launch a book

It wasn’t until 8 years into my career that I finally got down a system to launch my books.

And even then, I am still tweaking and changing the process as I go.

A books launch is important for numerous reasons:

1. This is the only time it will be listed as a new release and will be near the top of charts like Amazon for a limited time

2. The readers who see your book first are taking a chance on it with little to no reviews

3. Hoping that the momentum you built before the release date will carry over into sales

Being able to have a successful book launch means that you have done everything you possibly could to get your book in front of readers.

Many indie authors don’t know that you should be:

• Offering free ebook copies of the book to book reviews and bloggers for one to two months before the books release date and provide them with links to places to leave a review (Amazon, Bookbub, or Goodreads)

• Offering ARC ebook copies to readers about one to two months before the books release date and provide them with links to places to leave a review (Amazon, Bookbub, or Goodreads)

• Hosting giveaways for the book through Goodreads or social media the week of its release

• Sharing location, characters, description, and cover reveals to build momentum

• Talking about the book far before it releases

• Creating book trailers with platforms such as Visme or Canva.com

Indie authors who want to build a following need to be willing to pave the way to achieve it.