Indie authors are like the redheaded step-child of
publishing.
But it’s their own fault!
Mean? Yes, Cruel? Yes, True? Yes!
"Aaron, come on, we all know you like to hit
the touchy issues, but why so hatful?" I'll tell you my friends and stalkers.
I have been involved in writing and publishing for only three years now but in
that time I have seen and done many things. I have watched the Indie publishers
and authors grow and I consider myself an Indie as well. But we are at that
point where we need to put on our suit, brush our teeth and come to the party
looking good. Right now we look like we spent the last year under a
bridge.
Now before you write me off—lol small writing joke
there—take a moment t consider what I am about to tell you. I also understand
that some Indie authors do not fit this bill, guys like Joshua Graham and CJ
Lyons are what to shoot for, doing it right and all that. But the bulk of
Indies will fit my title rant perfectly.
I like to sum up things...so here is a list that
about nails the Indie:
Lazy
Ignorant
Petty
Jealous
Gullible
If you are still with me, Gratz! You have thick
skin or you just want to see what is wrong with me. =)
Lazy:
What, you mean I have to market? I don't want to do
a blog tour! Aaron, can't you just do it for me? I can't count the times I see
an author work like mad to get their book published and once it is out they
fall off the face of the earth. They see that this is a business and takes
work. Don't be lazy, don't cut corners and hire your neighbor to do your cover.
You are in the race with New York and big money, if you cannot put out a book
that at least looks the part, than keep your day job. Yes, it is a ton of work;
yes you will put in hours and not see a return right away. But the difference
between a successful author and one who is not, is one put in the work and the
other one gave up. Don't be lazy.
Ignorant:
Don't get me started! Educate yourself! Take classes,
webinars, learn all you can about the business you are in. Would you take a job
and expect to do well if you have no clue what you are doing? Don't know how to
use Facebook, learn. Twitter? Learn. You should know that you don't auto tweet
someone your book link, or email your FB friends your book info. No one cares
about your book; if they want to buy it they will find you. Social media is
SOCIAL! The hard part about this point is most ignorant people don't even know
that they are ignorant. Everyone is looking around wondering who I am talking
about...good chance it is you.
Big sign that you are ignorant.
You hound people on social media.
You have to beg for people to interact on your blog
or FB wall.
You never have someone say how amazing your cover
is... without you asking.
You can't understand why your sales are not higher,
cuz you market all the time!
You don't know what a blog tour, auto tweet,
metadata, author central, keyword, tag, SEO, or the difference between Mobi and
ePub.
You are not selling on Apple because it is hard and
requires an ISBN number.
You think this list is me just being a jerk.
I really want to help you, because helping you
means helping me. I am in the same campground as other Indies and I want us all
to rock, not suck!
What can you do? Imagine you were going to school
to be a doctor. Spend 4-6 years teaching yourself everything there is to know
about publishing and what is going on with eBooks. This is your job, if you
ever want it to being in enough money to be your job that is...
Petty:
Fill in the blank. You get mad when another author
does well, you may even leave them a bad review. You worry about what everyone
else is doing and forget about your own house. Stress out over someone pirating
your book and spend hours hunting them down only to make yourself look bad and
miss the point. Come on guys, we are adults. We are in business. Do you think
Trump stresses over what people think about his hair? He is working, making
deals and pushing forward. He does not have time to worry about petty things.
Look at the big picture, does it really matter? Where are you going, will this
(Whatever is getting to you) get you there? Again, I see this all the time. We
worry about things that just don't matter, but I covered this in another post,
the one about chilling out.
Jealous:
Be happy for others who make it. And if someone
does not do it like you do it, don't worry. Learn all you can and see what
bestsellers do, some of it may work for you and some of it won't. But this
"We 4 and no more" attitude is just lame. There is enough room at the
top for all of us. People buy books, it is not like a car where they only but
Ford or Chevy. Help each other out, share links to other books, don't fall into
the trap that if you help out another author that that will hurt your own
sales, if anything, it will help.
Pretend that you are 3 years old, and your mom
tells you to share! Share!
Gullible:
We all want the lazy way out. The silver bullet.
Face it, we just want it to be easy, buy that lottery ticket and cash it in.
But life does not work that way. So what do we do? We jump on that site that
offers a tweet for our book link, oh, they are going to market me for free and
they care about women or pets or whatever! Think about it, what’s in it for
them?
I know of one site that is a Mecca for this crap.
They claim to be there just to help and all they do is get ignorant Indie
authors into their tagging chain or tweet list. They will tweet their own books
back to you like 10X a day and just use you the ignorant author to ride their
way to bigger sales. We all think that if we hang out with authors that do well
that we will start selling. Think people! They just want to build a list, and
if you watch they will start offering stuff for sale.
Want an award? Here is the cost...oh but it is
special.
Want more tweets from us...here is the fee.
Now some sites like Pixel of Ink are good,
they are up front, they market books and some plans they charge and some are
free. But the point is, they just tell you. There is no bait and switch, no
"I am here to help Indie authors cuz my heart is just so big and
juicy!" Cross these guys and they will rip your head off...believe me I
know.
You might wonder how this falls in with what we are
doing over at StoneHouse University. Yes, there is a fee for classes but that
is only there to pay the speakers and the administrator, so she can make her
house payment. Look out for scams; don't think you are going to get something
for nothing. There is always a catch even if it is to get you to buy a book so
they can ride off your back up the bestseller list.
Because I believe in being real and up front I am
gonna tell you my evil little plan. You ready?
I wand to build a list of 50-100 books by the time
I am 65 and take over after James Patterson dies. I know, mean. I would love to
see StoneHouse Ink grow to have 100 authors and over 60% of them hit bestseller
status. I want to teach and help other indie authors because it helps the little
guy and I really want to see the big 6 go down. If I can take away a few of the
big guys and make some waves I will giggle. I want authors to GET PAID! So many
for so many years have been getting raped. Everyone should be making 50%, not
just Indies. So, you see... I just want to take over the world. Is that bad?
lol
Oh, and have fun. If you know me you know that I
love my job, love writing and publishing and love marketing! It is fun! Join me
and some will see us coming and cringe and others will smile.
