Besides buying the book, there are several others ways to support an indie author without even spending a dime. The publishing world is not what it used to be and thousands of books are spewed out of the printer on a daily basis. How can you keep up as a reader? And how can an author ensure not to get buried under this growing pile of new books? Is your friend an indie author and are you looking for ways to help him/her?
Here’s a list of things you can do in support.
- Buy the book
- Leave a book review on Amazon or Goodreads – preferably both
- Reviews help to get a book noticed. The more reviews, the better.
- Share your review with a link to the book on social media
- Review their book on your blog
- Add their book to your Goodreads list
- Engage with their blog (by leaving comments and sharing blog posts for example)
- Follow the author on social media and share his/her tweets, Pins, Facebook posts, etc.
- Sign up for their email list.
- Tell friends and family about it, ask them to buy the book
- Get the book as gifts for others
- Read it for your book club
- If your company or school hosts a book fair, ask them to include your friend’s book(s)
- When people ask about your favorite books or authors, don’t forget to mention them.
- Post a selfie with the book on social media with a nice comment and tag the author. This will make their day!
- Contact the author directly. Send them an email or letter, letting them know your thoughts about your book. Believe me, that will brighten their day too.
- In 2013 I received an envelope from a student who had read my first published book (published under my real name, Lila is my penname), and I have kept that letter. Reading her words warmed my heart. That letter is safely stored in a paperback copy of that book)
Any of the above are a great help and they do not cost a thing, except for buying the book, but most books have the price of a cup of coffee, so it’s not a huge expense 😉
Thank you for visiting my blog post and wanting to support an indie author!
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There are several indie authors that I like and I have left Amazon reviews for them. However, I didn’t know I could do much more to support them . This is exciting because we can actually give them a hand (even though it’s a tiny one) for their success. I will start leaving a review on Goodreads and add their books to my list.
Hi Paolo,
That’s great and very much appreciated! Every little bit helps 🙂
Thanks for the support!
It is very worthwhile for you to publish this article. There is a saying that reading books completes man. So it would be great to give a hand to someone who writes books. You did it well. Thank you for posting this article.
Saminda.
Thanks for stopping by!
Great post on supporting your favourite indie author. I have a couple of authors I read in the crime fiction genre on Amazon. After reading your post I will be certainly be leaving reviews and following the authors on social media. I have really enjoyed reading their books so it is the least I can do. Thanks again for a great post.
The authors will thank you. It means a lot!
Hi Lila, Yes some good ideas here. I can not really think of anything else. I suppose buying the book, reading it and leaving a review is probably the most helpful thing. Recommending to others and reaching out to the author personally to give feedback I guess is quite a special thing. It would definitely help spur me on I think to write newer material. All this you’ve mentioned though so will finish this comment here.
Many thanks;
Alex
I’m glad that this gave you some ideas.
Thanks for sharing this list filled with great ideas.
I’ll pass it on to my family and friends when I write a book to let them know how they can support me, haha 🙂
However, I assume these things are only going to work if my book is good and they like it. Otherwise, they will look bad by recommending it.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Andrew,
Definitely, pass it on to friends and family 😉
Hi Lila,
Thanks for sharing ways to help an indie author. One of my uni friends publishes her books independently, and the journey of being an indie author must be more challenging than we could imagine. So, I will love to do something if that can support her directly or indirectly.
I never thought to contact the author to let them know my opinions about their books, so I will try this next time she publishes a new one.
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
The journey of an indie author can be challenging, very true. Your friend will surely appreciate your support! 🙂
Hi Christine, I haven’t had any idea so far what an Indie Author is. We learn so much every day! 🙂 Thank you very much! 😉
I think the same! It is so important to share on social media and in our private circles, as well writing a review will help them very much! My manner of reading books has changed so much. In these times I have bought quite a lot of ebooks, but also paper books which I still prefer the most. However, downloading books as pdf is also great, because I have them on my computer, which is convenient! It is not much work to support the Indie Author, and I am sure they would appreciate it very much! 🙂
Hi Sylvia,
I also still prefer to read a paperback. Although ebooks can all be stored in your Kindle reader and save you a lot of weight when traveling, there’s nothing like holding a paperback in your hands, is there? 😉
It’s indeed not much work to support an indie author. Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks for this post. It was an eye-opener for me. Yes, I will comment and review the books after I read them. I didn’t realize that the more reviews you have, the more chances of it getting noticed.
I am not familiar with any Indie authors, but I will start researching and reading them. My future daughter-in-law is Indian and I would love to be able to show her I am truly interested in her culture by being familiar with some of their writers.
Nina