New…Fall’s Resolution

Now that my book is out and I’m actually bothering to market the thing, I’ve tapped into this wonderful community of Indie authors via Goodreads.  As one author pointed out, it’s often the people closest to you who are least interested in the fact that you’ve written a book.  My guess is that this is because everyone in your real life is sick of hearing you talk about it.  Tapping into this author community, however, I’ve seen that everyone gets it. We share the same type of creativity.  We share the struggles of writing on our own.  We know the isolation of writing and jump at the chance to swap stories (literally), share experience, etc.  I have to say it’s really been quite wonderful to become a part of, no matter what my book gets out of it.

One interesting comparison I’ve found is between Indie authors and Indie musicians.  Some have pointed out that it is, of course, way easier to listen to a 4 minute song than it is to read a full-length novel, therefore making Indie music more accessible.  Someone else has suggested that there’s more of a “good for you!” view towards Indie musicians for making their own albums, whereas Indie authors are somehow not as accomplished for not being traditionally published.  Another author (we’re not a bitter people, I swear) mentioned how musicians can charge $10 for a home-made CD, but people seem to always expect free copies of self-published books.

So anyway, here’s my new resolution:  I’m going to PURCHASE one self-published book per month, READ it, and at least RATE it on Goodreads.  There are a lot of free eBooks out there as well, and I’ll probably read some of these too, but I’m going to buy at least one book a month.   I can talk all I want about being supportive of Indie authors, but the most basic way to be supportive is to actually purchase their work.  It just is.  And of course reading the work and giving feedback is gratifying for an artist. (“Affirm me!” comes to mind.)

If anyone has suggestions, I’d love to hear ‘em.