Being an indie author can be a very lonely endeavour and I have very quickly learned how important it is to work with other authors.
Since joining a few key Facebook groups, I have noticed chatter about my books increase. It has been so cool to help each other out. Promoting is made easier as they all tell their followers about your stuff and you return the favour. Your audience is instantly mutliplied with very little effort on your part. Promoting another author’s work is a privilege for me and to have them promote mine is an extra bonus. There is power in working together.
We don’t have big publishing companies promoting us. We don’t have bookstores stocking our novels and putting up mammoth posters and advertising. What we do have is the power of mutual promotion.
There are two key things I have been involved in this year that have yielded really good results for me – group giveaways and group sales.
These are not hard to put together. My Indie Inked Facebook group put together a Mother’s Day Sale. We all donated an e-book, some swag and $10 to go towards two Amazon giftcards. With 10 authors joining in on the fun we were able to put together two amazing prize packs. We had nearly 9000 entries and all of us gained multiple LIKES on our author pages and a vast number of Twitter followers. Not only that, there was huge buzz generated around our group, which scored us all some extra attention.
Group sales are another way to garner a lot of attention. I am involved with three coming up over the next few weeks. Two of them are massive, another is on a much smaller scale. Cost and time-wise, it is not too bad for me. I lower one of my books to 99c for four days each time, I donate $5 towards the prize pool and then I help promote the event throughout its duration. Without too much effort, my work is being seen by the masses alongside a plethora of authors, some much bigger names than me. There is a strong chance my work will be discovered by new readers simply because my book is listed next to some of these better known writers.
I have always believed there is power in unity. Surround yourself with like-minded authors. Give your time to promote them and they will return the favour. Support each other, promote each other, celebrate with each other. It will make the whole writing experience a million times better for you…at least that’s been the case for me.
That’s a really great idea. Thanks for posting this wonderful way to work as a group.
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you found it helpful 🙂
I’m on my way to explore Facebook some more!
Haha 🙂 Yes – it is definitely worth it.
Great suggestions, Melissa. 🙂
Great ideas, Melissa! Must go investigate…
Awesome post, Melissa! Working together is what being an indie is all about 🙂
I’ve always believed in working in teams and applied it successfully in my business life. You’ve written a great post and reminded us of the value of teamwork. Thank you.
I’ve always kept Facebook as a personal medium. So I am not so familiar with it as a marketing tool. Can I ask which groups you are involved with?
My most successful group is called Indie Inked. We are a bunch of authors that write in the YA and NA genres. We probably work the most collaboratively out of all of them. It has opened up other avenues and connections for me, which has been great 🙂
I think it’s about finding like minded people who write similar things to you so that you can feed off each other’s fan bases and support each other in the best way possible.
Great post Melissa. I’m like Monica and know very little about FB groups. Maybe it’s time I explored a little more. 🙂
I’ve been a bit absent this week Melissa, very busy with my other hat on, just catching up now but better late than never. I certainly don’t utilise Facebook as I should, I really do have to find the time to make more use of social media.
Great post, Melissa.
Cool idea! Thanks for sharing.