Happy #MotivationalMonday! Here’s a thought as you start your week: It costs $0 to support your local entrepreneurs (and indie authors)! Yes, we NEED sales. But we also have other needs like social media engagement, encouragement and, of course, reviews!
So, here’s six quick things you can do to help your local indie authors and entrepreneurs start their new journeys, or rock what they already have established!
- Follow them on social media (AND ENGAGE!). Like their pages (yes, all of them). Like and share their content. Comment on their posts. We do it every day on social media – and it works. Every time you like, comment on or share something, someone else sees it. That is the power of social media!
- Ask your local library to carry books from your favorite author! Chances are, if they are a new indie author, the library hasn’t heard of their books yet. Make sure it doesn’t stay that way!
- Super important: Sign. Up. For. Their. Mailing List. This is how your favorite authors will stay in direct contact with you! You will hear about upcoming releases, new changes, maybe events… Sign up! And then add it to your “whitelist” to make sure their emails don’t end up in your spam!
- Review their book(s) on Amazon, Goodreads and/or your own blog! Tell people how awesome the indie author’s content was so they can pick it up, too! Use good descriptions if you can. Were the illustrations exciting? Did the book have a good flow to it? Was the layout cool? Did you learn anything new? Did you read the book for hours on end? (Reviews are GREAT and really helpful for any type of business, not just authors!)
- Take a book selfie and post it online! This goes back to social media engagement, but deserved it’s own point! Like a review, it’s a quick shoutout to your own friends and followers that this book is awesome and they should consider picking it up for their own personal library! Don’t forget to tag your indie author’s page!
- Last, but certainly not least: Celebrate with your favorite indie authors! Send them a note of encouragement. Shout hooray when they upload a new book to the market! Maybe even send them a video of someone reading their book! Publishing is a lot of work. Sometimes, a good “Way to go” goes a long way!
Jennifer Antonik 