…the ultimate readership for all we quill-scrapers may include other Authors, but generally, the majority of those buying/downloading our wee masterpieces are just—readers… however, particularly for newbies, or any of the rest of us trying to ‘build the platform’ of meaningful relationships, this ol‘ Jurassic suggests we look closer to home… ‘home’ in the sense of the vast universal Internet ‘house’ in which there are ‘many mansions’ filled with our fellow scribblers… ‘home’ in the sense of people who care for our literary careers and well-being… ‘home’ in the sense of unconditional, non-competitive support for our labours… and so often, that all starts even before we sell a single copy of our tomes… I learned very early in the sojourn onto the self-publishing arena the phrase ‘paying it forward’… and I LUV IT!… what began as a hard-nosed commercial decision, pitched simply at an effort to develop more sales outlets has morphed into an ocean of wunnerful pals…
…and it applies not only to the good folks ploughing the solitary furrow of self-publishing, but to any writer engaged in the SOSYAL NETWURKS… I ‘pay it forward’ in my own small ways these days, principally now coz I enjoy doing so… I ‘pay it forward’ by downloading other authors’ books, on average about one per week, and I prefer to select newbies, as I know how valuable that backing was to me when I first ventured on here… I ‘pay it forward’ by doing regular reviews for others on the Great God Amazon pages, remembering to post on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com (they don’t automatically cross-register) and on Goodreads… also, I ‘pay it forward’ by responding as much as I can on other people’s blogs—comments, Guest Posting and such… oh, and by the way, I also try to find time to write novels… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…
ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!
I do a regular amount of ‘paying it forward’ ie buying other author’s books and hosting them on my blog. That readership you mention above, those buying my own novels, is a wee bit shy and elusive though, and needs to shout out ‘here we come’! 🙂
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..yes, sum’times I think it would be useful to have ‘barkers’ out there on our behalf, m’Lady, Nancy :):)
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Great philosophy, and one that I’m trying to adopt too.
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…more power to you :):)
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I try to buy books from my indie author friends whenever possible. I have been meaning to blog about my growing collection…thanks for the motivation to do so!
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…well done, m’Lady, Michelle::)
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Your enthusiasm shows. I try to do the same. It may not do much for my sales at the moment, but it makes me happy anyway. Kindness matters. It’s like a daily vitamin to the soul.
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..you betcha, m’Lady 🙂
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I’ve been reblogging and spreading the news on the social networks. I plan to do more reviews in future. 🙂
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..you are a super ‘payer-forward’, m’Lady, Suzanne 🙂 mwaaah 🙂
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Once again we are like minded Seumas. That was the biggest motivation for my website; to support, promote, uplift fellow artists. It has been as satisfying as writing books, maybe more so. If you ever want to post anything on my site, I’d be honored. http://www.folkstalesthings.com
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..I’d be glad to contribute a Guest Post, m’Lady, Barbara… will get sum’thing to you in the near future …I have your email address from the ‘contact us’ page …I’m on seumasgallacher@yahoo.com mwaaah 🙂
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I think of all the social networking stuff, I definitely find blogging is the most fun. I buy quite a few other author’s books. I even read them, too. I should write more reviews but I find them really hard to do. I also try to offer support and advice where I can, to make up for all the reviews I havent written (about which I feel bad). I’m not sure it’s helped my sales as such, but as a community of like minded, supportive folks whose company I enjoy, it has done wonders for my morale. And if that’s helped my selling technique then yes, maybe. 🙂
Cheers
MTM
Cheers
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…we can only do so much, m’Lady… at the base of it all, we still have to keep our own scribbling as the priority .. but I agree, it’s great fun blogging :):) cheers 🙂
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Agree…a great community of people that stands by each other. Blessed to be a part of it 🙂
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…one of the great benefits of the internet age 😉
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Super Friends indeed. Love this community! Happy to pay it forward whenever I can. Thanks for such an uplifting post, Seamus.
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…cheeeers , m’Lady… LUVZYA! 🙂
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