Helping other authors 📇

As an independent author, I enjoy helping my community. It can be an uphill battle without the support of a traditional, larger publisher. You want to share your book with the world but must compete with best-selling authors, celebrity memoirs, and the internet. Despite your best efforts, it's often a challenge to get your book into a potential reader's hands. 

Trust me, I know.

Although I'm on various social media and try to post regularly on most, I prefer X (Twitter) because it tends to be the stomping ground for most authors. It's so easy to share other authors' books on my page. They often do the same for me too. It allows you to find a whole new set of eyes that might want the exact book you wrote. It's so simple to do, so why not?

I sometimes also purchase other indie authors' books and donate them to my local library. It's another easiest thing to do that helps an author's sales, while giving them a new, potential audience. 

Of course, there are many ways you can promote your book, such as creating and giving out bookmarks, having events at your local library or bookstore, or making videos like I do and hope someone watches. 😉 (hint hint)

Why write books when no one reads anymore?

People often ask me why I bother to write books when no one reads anymore. For most writers, this question is a bit disheartening. After you've put so much time, effort, research, and thought into your book, you'd like to believe that someone appreciates your writing and finds it entertaining. But is that the case? Does anyone read anymore?

I grew up in a time when the internet wasn't a thing. I lived in a rural area, so cable television wasn't accessible. Along with that fact, my mother was a reader, and so was my best friend. We would excitedly run to the bookmobile as children, excited about all the possibilities. It's a world that kids would hate today, in a time when everyone has a device and watch programs on demand. Perhaps my childhood laid the foundation. Is it likely that if you don't become a reader while you're still young, you probably never will?

The beauty of a book (as opposed to watching a movie or show) is that you can fill in the blanks with your imagination. As a reader, you can take part. The handsome stranger can look however you want. The beautiful house can look how you want. You can crawl into the mind and heart of the protagonist in a way that you simply can't when watching them on a screen. There's a connection that you can't capture in the same way.