Sometimes being an indie author feels like being a single drop of water in the ocean. There’s so much competition out there as the market is flooded with new releases every day. How can an author make her work stand out in such a big crowd?
It’s a question I didn’t have the answer to when I published my first book in March. I experimented, trying free downloads of my book and several different paid promotions. But my sales weren’t impressive to say the least.
I kept writing, because like reading, writing is a bit of an addiction for me. I do it because I love it. And when I finished my second book, I tried the same things I’d tried with the first one. But something was different this time. A popular blogger agreed to read and review my book. Her acceptance gave me the courage to reach out to other bloggers. As positive reviews started being posted on Goodreads and Amazon, I started selling significantly more books.
With my third and fourth books, I’d learned my lesson. Ads don’t sell books. Readers do. There is nothing like the word of a trusted friend to make me pick up a book and give it a read. And I always end up liking the books my friends recommend.
I’ve finally started building a following of readers who love my books and are passionate about them. There is nothing I love quite as much as a message from a reader who has ideas for my next book or tells me how much she connected with my characters.
What I’m saying is that I literally couldn’t do this without you. To those of you who share, review and promote books for nothing more than the love of them, thank you from the bottom of my heart.