I’m so honored to be invited back for another lap at The Storyreading Ape’s blog. Chris is a huge supporter of independent authors, and that’s kind of the topic of this post.
When we start off, we tend to write in solitude. The dream is to quietly slip a book onto Amazon or iBooks and wake up to an exploding email box. Reality doesn’t work that way. There’s so much competition out there it’s hard to get noticed even with a quality product.
We soon find out that we need friends if we’re going to make a run at success. This blog is one that all authors should get familiar with. There are others out there, and you’re going to need several avenues.
It doesn’t take long to figure out that self publishing isn’t the new gold rush. Oh sure, the stories are out there, but their best purpose is to motivate us to keep trying. Most of us spend some serious cash to bring our books to market. With editing, cover art, paid promotions, and more, breaking even isn’t a bad goal these days.
The good news is that we can accomplish more together than we can alone. I believe in paying it forward. It works like this; I host plenty of blog tours, cover reveals, and even reblog release announcements from time to time. I share things from my friends across several forms of social media daily.
I know that eventually I’ll need places to talk about my next release, and if I help authors out they might be there when I ask. I have blog followers, you have blog followers, add them up and we gain a larger footprint.
I use one of my original characters as a spokesmodel these days, and have for a few years now. Lisa Burton, the robot girl, is expanding her footprint and I decided to share that success in 2016. I started something called Lisa Burton Radio.
The radio posts are simple blog interviews, but with characters from your books. Last year, Lisa interviewed dark lords, ghosts, heroines, heroes, and even a dog. Lisa interviewed a couple of popular web-comic characters, and one that has a couple of movies. We have a great time, and the posts are pretty popular. This is my way of paying it forward. I want to keep this going, and Lisa needs guests. This is an open invitation to promote your books on my blog by taking advantage of a character interview.
HERE’s a link where you can get more information and it includes my contact info.
I have a new idea brewing called Dear Lisa. I’d like to turn her radio show into something where she answers questions from listeners/readers. These would be more occasional than the interviews, but also bring something fresh to the posts. I hope to have a couple of writing related questions, and something off-the-wall in each post. Then I’d like to have a sponsor to advertise, and that’s the point of these posts. This allows cover artists, editors, blog tour companies, and more to take advantage of Lisa’s popularity too. This is a work in progress, but if you’d like to be a sponsor, or to ask a question, use the same link above to contact me. I don’t charge a thing, and this is another attempt to pay it forward. Maybe a sponsor like Chris Graham cover art services…just saying.
Supporting your fellow authors can be a small thing too. WordPress blogs include social media sharing buttons. It takes about a second to tweet out one of your friend’s promotions. Look at the bottom of this post, and you’ll see Chris’ sharing buttons. A second or two of effort, and I add my followers to Chris’ followers, to your followers etc. That’s how it gets done these days.
When I see someone supporting me, I always click on their profile. If they have a pinned tweet, I try to re-tweet it to my followers. Seems more productive and shows a bit more gratitude than clicking on the little heart.
My experience is that when I ask for beta readers, blog friends to help tour my books, or sites to post a cover reveal, I get a pretty good response. I believe it’s because I paid it forward when they needed help.
What are you doing to support your fellow and favorite authors?
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Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Wonderful post, Craig. Thanks as always, Chris. Shared across my pages 🙂 ♥
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Thank you for sharing, and glad you liked the post.
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A terrific post. Without the help of others who spread the word, my blog would never have gotten off the ground. Thanks Chris and Craig.
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There is such a great community here. Helping each other makes it all work better.
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Great post Craig and Chris! I’m glad to see more bloggers making others aware of sharing by hitting a button or two. 🙂
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I started doing this on the interviews. My guests are trying to get the word out, and people get used to not using the sharing buttons. It’s a gentle reminder of why the author is participating in an interview.
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Fantastic! 🙂 We have to keep reminding.
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Reblogged this on Don Massenzio's Blog and commented:
Check out this guest post from Craig Boyack via The Story Reading Ape blog
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Thank you, Don.
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My pleasure
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You’re full of amazing ideas.
I tend to tweet post I enjoy. 🙂
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It really helps, and I’m sure the guests appreciate it.
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Like Robbie said, it’s quick and d.o.n.e.
😀
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This is a brilliant post. I always try and tweet posts as that is quick and easy for me to do. I love the idea of the interviews.
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Twitter is great for sharing. I do it all the time too. Don’t forget to check for a pinned tweet when someone supports you. I think it’s more supportive to share that, and doesn’t take any more time. The interviews are fun.
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Lovely, supportive sentiments here, well worth articulating!
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Thank you.
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All great points, Craig. I retweet a lot, I rely heavily on Triberr, and I’m a huge fan of the guest post. Case in point, this one. I may never have found this blog without you guesting here. And now I’m a follower here, too. Really good post.
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You need to know Chris. He casts a big shadow and is very helpful. Glad you liked the post.
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I love your idea of the character interviews, a real breath of fresh air, as well as a great help to other authors.
I hope that I am supportive towards fellow authors. Once I have read a book, I will write a review as I know how important that is! 🙂
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That’s the best thing you can do. I enjoy character interviews, and nobody else was doing them like this. It makes a good stop on a blog tour or push of some kind.
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Definitely! 🙂
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The online writing community is great! There’s so much support among authors it always humbles me to see it in action.
Although I don’t reblog, I share as much as I can and my blog is always open to other authors for guest posts and promos. I’ve also made great friends by visiting the blogs of others. It isn’t just about writing and selling books, but about community too. Enjoyed your post!
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Reblogging isn’t everything. Hosting others, inviting guests, and more all helps. In some ways that helps more than a simple reblog. I agree, the community aspect is wonderful.
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