There’s a lot of advice floating around author forums on how to do indie publishing the “right way.”
And there’s no shortage of input from people outside the indie publishing world on it, too.
But how does an indie writer, struggling to make it in a sea of self-published books and authors, know what advice is good and what should be ignored?
Since I’ve started indie publishing, I’ve made some eye-opening discoveries. And I’ve learned some tough lessons, too.
When it was all about writing well in my mind, indie publishing was easy, fun, and exciting. I couldn’t wait. to get to the next book, short story, or whatever.
Then, reality set in, and I learned a dirty word.
I don’t have a typical author web presence. Have you noticed?
Most authors have a web site which, correctly, showcases their writing, offers their books for sale by either allowing sales directly through the web site or linking to those books on other retail sites, and provides information about future works and public offerings. Most of them also have a call to action somewhere, perhaps to join a newsletter or mailing list, and also announce public appearances and news about the author, as warranted.
I do none of those things on my blog here. And that’s where you come in.
Sometimes the fits and starts I go through don’t amount to much. Sometimes they end up blossoming into a new idea for a book, and if I’m really blessed, they’ll become a new series of books.
That’s what happened with my book Scales of Justice. (Available on Amazon, if you’re interested.)
Thanks to everyone out there who stopped by my Facebook page and joined in the Shudderbugs launch this week!
We ended up with 208 downloads over the five day free period. It means a lot to me that you all participated. I know it’s not as much as some of the others got during their free periods, and I think I’m out of freebies from Amazon for the next couple of months (May-ish, I think), but I have a couple of more stories and collections I can recycle and put out to keep interest up.
I have planned full-length works too. Just no time to work on them right now.
Stay tuned and hang with me as we move forward, everyone, and thanks again!
-jdt-
J. Dane Tyler 