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NOW AVAILABLE!
A HERO'S SPARK: the final book in the Wicked Women series!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

There's no resting on the laurels for an indie writer!

Hello everyone!

I got a message from a college friend of mine last week begging me to write another book.  I told her I just released one less than a month ago.

Apparently, she'd already read that one and wanted another.

Which made me realize that there is no down time for an e-pub indie author.

The perception among many traditional authors is that e-pubs live by their own schedule and write when they feel like it.  Speaking as one of those e-pub authors, I can tell you, deadlines are very real, especially since there's no one out there helping you hit those deadlines.  All delays are strictly your fault and there's no one to blame but you when things don't go right.

Add to that the fact that every single e-pub author I know has to work other jobs.  No big advance for us, nope.  We find writing time at either end of what is typically a long work day.  This is not to day that traditionally published authors don't also have to work outside of writing.  Many do.  But many are able to work at jobs that are writing focused because, well, they are recognized authors.  In the world of e-pubbing, we are still working in the shadows, and therefore, to pay the bills, we have to work other jobs. 

So I thought since I'd put out a novel in 2010, 2011, and 2012, that I was okay for a couple months.  Nope, I guess not. 

Some statistics show that e-pubbers are churning out novels more than two a year.  That is a staggering amount of work for a population already working full time, especially considering most e-pubbers do the bulk of their editing, formatting, and marketing.  (I personally would be lost without the help of my wonderful critique partners and the team over at 52 Novels who do my formatting.)

What's the bonus to reading e-pubbed novels?  Well, for one, you're supporting a completely talent driven market. E-pubs don't get Oprah's seal of approval, and most e-pubbers aren't reviewed by the talking head reviewers who tell us what to read.  Our reviews come from readers.

Which means, for those of you who are not writers, you still get to push forward an author's career.  A positive review from reader is so vital to an e-pubber.  Forget leaving reviews for John Grisham's latest pile of words.  He doesn't need them and he doesn't care what you think.  Trust me.  Instead, find a book that has one, maybe two reviews.  E-books typically aren't more than $3, so you're not out that $24.95 I know you probably paid for Snookie's book.  (By the way, don't bother reviewing her book either.  My bet is, she can't read it.)  So spend the $3 and read a book written by someone who is probably more like you than you know.

And leave a review.  Without reader reviews, we indie authors are dead in the water.

Meanwhile, I have to go write another book so my college classmate is happy!

1 comment:

  1. It's only because of Indie publishing that I was able to become a full-time writer w/o a second job this past summer, but the rest of what you say here is true! Great post, and yes, all us authors love reader reviews!

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