Twenty

Hey guys! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I have a really fun topic for us this month, and I hope you’ll stick around through the whole thing. It's something that's near and dear to my heart, and not just because I'm also an indie author. Mostly, it's because of the indie authors I work with, who come to me with questions about their freshly minted novels.

This month, let’s talk about something I think all of you have dealt with at least once, judging by how often it is these days, how common it is for authors to emerge. And most of us, as you should know by now, are (obviously) indie authors.

8 of the Best Ways to Help Your Indie Author Friends

I know, just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? I’ll see if I can come up with a better name over the month, but for now, we’re going with that.

See, indie authors are everywhere. I know very many of them. I meet a lot of authors in my everyday life. And I know a lot of people who are friends with those indie authors, and who are breaking their little author hearts over and over again.

So I’m going to take the month of August to tell you how not to break their hearts, and how to be a better friend to your budding indie author.

#1: Buy the Book

I know, it sounds like it should be the simplest thing in the world, but for some reason, it’s not. I don’t care if the book interests you, if you don’t really read, or if you think the book will be bad. By buying the book, you’re at least doing something to support your friend.

Trust me, I get it. Not all of us have the money to afford buying books all the time. I know how it is. My books aren’t cheap. I understand. But you know what? You’ve probably had a few months building up to this release, where you’ve known the book was coming out. And honestly, twenty bucks isn’t hard to save if you have a couple months to do it.

So why don’t you?

Even if you never want to read the book, even if all you’re wanting to do is support your friend in their new endeavor, save some pesos and buy their book. Even better, put it out on a shelf in your house, so they’ll see it whenever they come over. Make it clear that you want to support them, that you do support them.

Why?

Because for most of us, we barely believe in ourselves. We write because we love to write, but we’d love to get something out of it, too. And if our friends would even be so kind as to buy our books, it leaves us with a warm fuzzy feeling and lets us know that you care, that you think it’s cool that we got published, too.

Really, it’s the simplest thing in the world. The easiest thing you can do. And also the very least that you should be doing for your author friends.

Buy the book. Even if you don’t think you’ll like it.

Besides, you never know. Your friend might be a pretty great writer, and you might find yourself loving it.

[love]

{Rani D.}