Calling All Indie Authors!
I’m opening up the opportunity for you to promote your books. What’s the catch? Well it’s not as simple as a drive by “Buy My Book” link drop. We’re looking for articles that are between 500-1200 words long that focus on what you do best for your books and/or series, something that you feel is representative of your personal brand. BUT! (there’s always a but) It has to be done in a way that helps your fellow indies.
Most indies struggle with marketing, processes, and the various writing tools (process). They struggle with reviews, sales, ads, newsletters… Seems like everything BUT writing (but writing is totally a pain point too even if they don’t recognize it). Think of it this way, if you struggled with it, one of your peers are probably struggling too. Help a dude out!
What’s in it for you
First, you get a backlink to your author site or a link directly to the book(s)/series that you’re promoting. Guaranteed! Which means, you have access to the growing Author Brand Audit audience.
Second, you will be promoted through our socials too. Full disclosure, this part doesn’t mean much right this second, but it may be worth something in the future as legacy content. We intend to branch out to other platforms as we get comfortable with our posting schedule.
Third, Legacy links! Short of you requesting the removal of your content, your backlink will be there for the foreseeable future. This is extra juicy because readers of this type of content tend to dig through backlogs.
Caveat: I cannot guarantee sales. I can’t even guarantee traffic, because that depends on what the reader hopes to find and if your stuff resonates with that specific reader. I CAN guarantee that you’ll get a boost in SEO which in turn boost relevancy for organic searches for your content (assuming you’re linking to your author website).
What’s in it for me
I suffer from slow writer syndrome and a mild case of over explaining. I like to write deep level content which tends to takes a while to write, combine that with a mild dose of perfectionism and now you have the whole reason why I’m a slow writer.
While sure, filling out the help section of this website is part of what I’m doing, it’s not the full story.
You see, this is site is all about authentic branding. I’ll be using your content to spring board my content. As an example, if you write about the time you bought an author logo, I’ll write about what to think about in terms of branding when purchasing or designing your logo (i.e. Simple is better when it comes to logos. Elaborate and intricate logos are beautiful, but make for terrible logos).
If you write about swapping Amazon categories every other day, I’ll write the branding pros and cons of that marketing tactic, and what to consider should you chose to prioritize this tactic over authentic branding/marketing.
In a nutshell, you’re giving me something to point to and discuss. This is not about being critical (though I am critical by nature), this about teaching authors how to think about their brand decisions, and how to decide which path to take. It’s not about whether or not I agree with the tactic, it’s about giving indies options that may align align with their brand, and ideally reduce stress and burnout.
Topic Ideas
Short of ideas? Here’s a few to help you along:
How you use Scrivner to plot your series/book
How you deal with writing burn out
How you handle negative reviews
How you’ve worked reviews into your process
What you’ve learned from your reviews
How you generate reviews through your newsletter
The biggest lesson you’ve learned since starting this who writing for profit journey
The thing you wish you knew when you just got started (would you have listened?)
The good advice you were given but flat out ignored (mindset discussion)
How you use Calibre/Reedsy/The other one… for formatting
Reviews of review sites - and how you incorporated it into your process
Running ads for your books, what does that look like?
How do you run your social?
How did you get your first subs, followers, readers? (retrospective)
Building your newsletter
Building promotions
Author’s site
Blog content ideas, how do you come up with them
Remember I’m looking for anything writing related that will help your fellow indies.