#AskMeAnything Women who rule the indie industry uncover hints for success
As we enter a more gender equal world, we are seeing more women entering all industries that were once dominated by men. This same thing is happening in the indie industry. Many women who came from other male-dominated industries think those experiences helped them when starting their own presses. For women in particular, a strong personal brand can open the door to new business and career opportunities. Smart female professionals know that closing the gender gap in the workplace begins with supporting your female colleagues, and putting yourself out there is the best way to make important networking connections with other women in business.
The industry has changed, forced into embracing the digital revolution, just like the music industry. Independent artists are everywhere now. Authors don’t self-publish because they’re too lazy to go through the slog of submitting queries to agents, or editing their manuscripts properly, or simply out of impatience to see their work in print, just like independent musicians aren’t too lazy to find a record deal. They simply have a different sound. Or they don’t want to be told by the record label what they should and shouldn’t record. In a saturated market, where publishers, music producers, game designers and other artists have millions and millions of queries and proposals, independent artists are driven by self-belief and a passion that their work deserves a place.
This month AMAfeed celebrates the forward-thinking women who have had a significant impact on their industries, whether locally, regionally, nationally, or globally. Inspiring female leaders across diverse industries have shared their insights and experience by hosting AMA events. Their stories reveal the barriers they overcame as well as key actions that enabled them to reach their goals in the indie industry. These women have taken different journeys, but each has an inspiring story to tell. These stories are filling the history of the global indie industry — and continue to shape its future. And every indie maker path is unique. Whether you choose to pursue a mainstream contract, go the small press route, or dive straight into self-publishing, your path will be unique to you. Let’s hear these ladies.
It’s that time when many people look to the year ahead as an opportunity to reassess their goals. As more and more writers become indie authors, and as current self-published authors learn to adopt professional publishing practices, indie authors will capture an increased share of the market. But that’s not the only reason for you to write your book. Being an author of a published book gives you loads of credibility, authority, and name recognition.
Coral McCallum — Indie author and blogger
The beauty of indie publishing is the very thing that critics say is its downfall: there is room for everyone. Have a unique voice that doesn’t fit the mass market? Want to write another angel book, even though publishing experts say angel books are “dead”? Indie publishing allows the readers who love exactly the kind of books you write to find you, even if that number is too small to interest a mainstream press. And if you have written a book that has mainstream appeal? There are even more readers who will scoop up your value-priced indie book. The climate of the publishing industry nowadays is pretty exciting for indie authors. And the stigma attached to non-traditional publishing is well on its way to the paper shredder.
Characters are the heart and soul of every story. Almost every great story is about people. Plot, setting, theme, and every other element of fiction is secondary to realistic characters that an audience can connect with on an intellectual or emotional level. There are exceptions, of course. Some readers enjoy plot-driven stories, but they never seem to achieve the massive popularity that stories with rich, layered characters achieve.
Elaine Calloway — Amazon Bestselling Paranormal Author
Marketing your book is going to take TIME. It sounds crazy, especially if all you really want to do is write, but you should be investing as much, if not more time in your PR and marketing as you do in actually writing the book. So, be patient. It’s understandable why most authors fail at marketing their books though, in the end, they are writers, not marketers. Many self-publishers (especially those who are writing non-fiction) give themselves the best chance of success by thinking about marketing before they’ve even begun to write their books. Why is this? The reason you are writing your book and what your readers have to gain from reading it are the essential questions that determine how you are going to market your book. Writers that decide to go with an editorial don’t have to worry about marketing as much as indie authors do, what they pay an editorial for is precisely for their social connections and book marketing and promotion expertise.
Your book might be the greatest on the planet, but who cares? There are millions of books out there. You need to prove yours is worth your readers’ time. How? By making sure everything else you put out there into the world is top quality. Blog every day, offer interesting insights and make sure your website is SEO optimized. Your website is the gateway point for publishers and fans to find out about you and your books. Once you start offering the good stuff, trust us, people will be back. As with everything in self-publishing, the successful self-publisher is always one that solves this problem differently, often with surprising ingenuity. Authors might derive their success from online traffic keyword strategies, others through their online social media following, while others still become experts in their niche fields such as for instance, independent book publishing. And some find their readers by putting their books at the library, bookstore, or even grocery store shelves, or by peddling their books in backrooms of workshops, conventions, or presentations.
Krystal Brown — Indie singer/songwriter and Youtuber
If you have an online presence, you have a personal brand. Just like a corporate brand, every status update, tweet, blog post and photo you share becomes a part of your cumulative image. Anyone who views your social profiles — be it a colleague, an employer or a potential business partner — can form an opinion about you based on what’s there. That’s why so many of today’s professionals invest time in building and curating an authentic presence that highlights their best qualities.
Unlike mainstream publication houses that have a plethora of resources at hand such as TV interviews, advertisements, radio, newspapers, etc. indie makers have very limited resources to work with. However, there is no need to lose sleep over it. Luckily, social media can help. Social media is an easy and excellent way to promote yourself online. Not only is it free to use, but it has an expansive reach which is always helpful when you are trying to market yourself.
Chloe Flanagan — Author and blogger
If you want your books to sell, you need to start building relationships 6 months to a year before release, with key reviewers/influencers on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads. Engage every day. Use Tweetadder or Hootsuite to schedule Tweets. Add their pages to your social media feeds and start getting involved. It’s a good idea to dedicate an hour or so every day, just to interact with fans. Follow back. Connect. Communicate. Entertain. Inform. Share.
As an independent maker, you have the kind of social media assets that most social media marketers dream about. Creating a new page on your site is like taking a really great selfie. You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for selfies and landing pages, well-placed social media posts can make all the difference. If you’re doing it right, social media will lead to real relationship building. The internet gives everyone the freedom to choose anything that they like and social media is just a medium to drive somebody to the desired platform. Today, every small and medium business uses social media to reach the desired audience.
Crowdfunding pulls together a community — tightly knit or disparate — to fund a project, business or cause, usually via the Internet. Although the rules differ from site to site, generally people (or businesses or charities) pitch an idea, set a fundraising goal and set a deadline for raising funds. Potential patrons can review the pitches and decide if there are any they’d like to support. On most crowdfunding sites, people are not investing in the project or business; rather, they are funding it. They are rewarded if the project comes to fruition but don’t end up owning any part of the business or project.
Your project has a better chance of reaching its funding goal if you break the project into smaller, bite-sized pieces. You might break your video into filming, editing, and distribution. Rather than trying to raise enough to start a business and make payroll for two years, start by raising enough to build a prototype of that solar-powered toothbrush you’ve been dreaming about.It’s always worth the trouble to find out a contact’s desires and concerns. The chances are high that you’ll be able to find something worthwhile you can offer.
Christina Danelon — Freelance Animator/Indie Game Developer
We all have it, we all hate it, and most of us don’t know how to deal with it. STRESS. But what if it gets so stressful you feel like you have no time to relax? You end up bringing piles of work home with you, and it starts to cut into the time you should be spending on yourself or with your friends and family.
Make a list of the things that are important to you and decide how much time you want to spend on them each week. These could include hanging out with your family, playing an instrument, reading, learning a new skill, practicing a hobby or just kicking back and watching a movie. No matter what the activity is, make sure to have some “me time” planned for your week.
Marlin Alicea Fernández — Indie author
Written by our genius blogger Tina based on advice from our great Hosts in www.IndieAMA.com and originally published on www.AMAfeed.com
