Q&A Thursday

Decorative Gourd Edition

Hello friends!

You have questions and I have answers!

M asks: Thank you for doing this series! I was wondering if you could speak to any tips or insights into getting traction with readers/reviewers when you've published with a traditional but indie press [ed: i.e. one a lot of people have heard of but still small and not part of the big-5] My debut novel is coming out with one and I am very, very happy about it, but also am aware there won't be a budget for, say, sending me on a book tour. I'm prepared to hustle in terms of social media, etc, to get myself a little extra marketing but am curious if there's anything in particular indie authors should consider or plan for? Even insight into any additional barriers or downsides is helpful, as most of what I see online for indie presses tends to be about hybrid publishers instead. (I've talked to my agent about all of this, and they've been great, but the whole thing still feels a little opaque.)

You are right, it is all opaque. And it’s opaque because there is not one way to do any of this and also it will be different for your book than it will be for another book coming out by the same publisher on the same day in the same genre. I don’t mean to be flip, but only to say this is not opaque because you don’t know what you’re doing. It’s opaque because it’s just opaque.

Re: tours. Read this and don’t worry about book tours. Even with all this you can still do something!