What it Takes

Dear Reader,

Thank you for stopping by today. It does truly mean a lot. I want to tell you a little bit about what it takes to be an indie author, for those of you visiting who are that rare unicorn of a writer, please feel free to chime in for skip down to the next section.  Being an indie author or even a traditional (trad) author you take a huge risk every day. You write the words you have floating around in your head that are just trying desperately to escape. You type them out, you string them together and then you actually let someone else read it. Yes, you should get a bravery medal for handing off your work to another person for the first time. It is one of the scariest things you can do. Once, you’ve done that and survived you think okay, I’m going to publish these words for everyone to see. And you hit the publish button and something really amazing happens. No one sees your words. You just put your heart and soul into a book, you took a big personal risk and put it out there and somehow the world is clueless about your words and your efforts.  Now what?

Now comes the part that hopefully you prepared for, but maybe didn’t realize just how hard it would be, marketing. Yes, marketing, as in that business class in college you skipped or maybe a friend was taking. Marketing as in that thing they do on “Mad Men”. Yep, you publish a book especially if you’re an indie, and now you are not only the author but the marketing director, the event coordinator and the accountant.

Not only did you pay for a book cover, an editor and maybe even print copies of your book so that you could attend a book signing, but now you have to pay to advertise your book. So the world knows your story and all the hard work that has gone into it.

There is no one “right” way to market your book. There is no one marketing strategy that will help you recoup your investment. There are as many ways to market your book as there are genres. So part of the challenge is finding what works the best for you and your story.

If you enjoy the works of an indie author please consider supporting their efforts through the purchase of their books if they have multiple books, but if they only have a few books available look for the author on Patreon. Patreon is a great way to support authors who are just getting started and it is a lot of fun, too.

You can support my indie business efforts at https://www.patreon.com/MilissaStory.