20 Ways to Support Indie Authors

I love my readers. They took a chance on a total unknown who was busy flicking ashes at the perimeter of her genre, and then came back for more. Indie readers are enthusiastic and supportive, but sometimes indie authors need just a little bit more help to succeed. There are many ways to support indie authors, and most of them are free and only require a click or two. Here are twenty of them, in no particular order.

1. Tag our books on Amazon. This helps us climb in rankings when someone searches for one of tagged words.

2. Participate in our contests. Sometimes we have free books to offer, and it usually only takes a click or a comment to win. Free!

3. Listen (or at least be polite and pretend to) when we ramble about our books, characters, or ideas. We are an easily excitable lot and we love what we do.

4. Like our Facebook pages.

5. Occasionally or frequently comment on our Facebook or blog posts. Don't be afraid to converse with us. Writers are people, too, and it gets lonely when people feel too intimidated to interact.

6. Follow us on Goodreads.

7. Follow us on Twitter.

8. Follow and read our blogs.

9. Read our books and leave ratings for them on Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, or wherever else we have our books listed or for sale. It's easy, just write one review and copy and paste it everywhere else if you don't want to write new ones.

10. If you like our books, recommend them to others and click that little "Like" button next to the stars on Amazon.

11. Give our books as gifts. You can even do this with e-books now.

12. Bring us food. Or even well-written recipes. Writers need to eat, too, but sometimes we are too lost in the intricacies of Medieval dining etiquette to remember to make our own dinners. Remind us to feed our cats when you bring us food because we occasionally mistake feline hunger for scathing critique.

13. Recognize that we are not being rude by staring off into space during conversations and social gatherings. We are observing, brainstorming, and most likely mentally writing a bit of dialogue or a scene. We are not ignoring you, we are multitasking.

14. Provide constructive criticism and feedback if we trust you enough to ask you to beta read something. It's scary to entrust others with the contents of our psyches. If you don't like something, tell us why. If you love something, also tell us why so we can try to duplicate the effect in future projects. We want both the good and the bad so we aren't blindsided by some horrible and unexpected plot hole when our babies are booted out of the basement and into the world.

15. Be patient with us. It can take years to write a single book, especially since most of us can't devote as much time as we would like to writing. Some writers can put out multiple books per year, but many of us are slow and meticulous. We don't want to keep you waiting, but we also want to publish the best books we can and leave our readers both satiated and wanting more. Keep us on task and hold us accountable to our words, but don't rush us too much or you will be disappointed with the final book.

16. Mention us on Facebook, Twitter, or by word-of-mouth. It really makes our days when we come across a recommendation someone gives for one of our books. If you're the shy sort, send us a Facebook message or email. We love to hear from our readers. Sometimes it is the motivation we need to slog through a particularly vexing chapter.

17. Recommend your favorite indie books to us so we can help support other writers. Writers are also readers and we love a good book as much as you do.

18. Keep reading. Readers are much of the reason we strive to elevate our work from a hobby to an art.

19. Snag our books if we're running a free or cheap promo, and tell your friends. We run promos for exposure, but we need help generating interest.

20. Buy our books. Many e-books cost less than a cup of coffee, and offer far more hours of satisfaction. You can't re-drink a coffee, but you can reread a book as many times as you like. You don't even need a Kindle or Nook to read an e-book, since there are free apps for most devices out there. If you prefer paper, many of us have created paperbacks or even hardbacks, which can pretty up your shelves. After your read them, of course. 

Thank you, readers! You are awesome!

Shadows of Absolution

My adventurous baby has left home to see what she can accomplish on her own. I'm going to miss her, but now I get to focus my attention on her younger brother. I'm a little frightened of this young woman, but I have a feeling greatness is lurking under her unassuming surface. She's only in e-book right now, but she'll be buying a new outfit in the next week or two so she can go out as a paperback, as well. She's not much for parties, but she does make a great bodyguard and she can tell you which mushrooms are the good ones to eat.

Please Read to the Children

I read the article Reading to Kids in Decline in UK this morning.  It has shocked me in recent years to learn how few people read at all these days.  Many adults have not picked up a book since they were assigned one in school.  I have friends who told me, "Tell me when the movie comes out," when they found out I wrote books.  Way too many friends.  It made it difficult for me to find proofreaders.  Everyone was too busy or claimed they didn't like to read.  I have trouble understanding this point of view because I've always read anything and everything I can get my hands on.

There is a plague of poor grammar and spelling in modern society.  Many native English speakers are not even fluent in their own primary language anymore.  Don't believe me?  Spend some time on Facebook.  You can't comprehend the world around you if you can't interpret the words necessary to describe it.  We need to break out of the trend of willful societal ignorance if humanity is ever going to accomplish anything beyond petty bickering, warfare, and mere survival.  Language and literacy give us tools to not only understand the world, but also to understand each other.  Reading shows us new perspectives, without which we are left unable to empathize with our philosophically diverse neighbors.

We need to make a conscious effort to salvage education and literacy for the next generation.  Read to your children.  It surprises me how many people don't.  I know people who have maybe two or three books for their young children and sometimes even fewer for themselves.  My household has hundreds.  Make a habit of reading to your children right from birth and let them see you reading on your own as well.  Don't think you have time?  Feeding time is and excellent opportunity for reading aloud to babies.  They don't care what you read.  It can be a magazine, a cereal box, a children's book, or whatever you are currently reading.  They need to hear your voice and reading helps them develop their early grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.  It is absolutely necessary to read to children to develop their young minds, and there is no excuse for neglecting that aspect of their cognitive development.  Ebooks can be great compliments to a child's library, but they need physical books as well.  They need to see and touch the pictures and pages to trigger development in different areas of their brains.

My children are being raised on Seuss and Sagan, L'Engle, Pratchett, Gaiman, and the Berenstains.  My toddler has recently started "reading" books back to us, a huge milestone in pre-literacy.  I started reading to him on his first day.  He had four words by nine months old, and at twenty-seven months, he has an extensive vocabulary, speaks in sentences, and has a good sense of plurals and grammar.  Now, some of that may be a result of his innate intelligence and personality, but I also know that nurturing the language centers of his brain from the very beginning contributed to his development.  Children learn by seeing, hearing, and doing.  He sees and hears me read, and now he is gradually working toward doing it on his own.  He loves his books and always sleeps with at least one in his bed at night.  My daughter is being read to as well, and I look forward to seeing how her language skills develop compared to her brother.  That might be my psychology background speaking, but that is okay.  Life is a series of causes and effects, and reading to your children has a life-long effect on them.  They can't change the world for the better without a having foundation on which to construct their structures.