Indie Author Champions

Hundreds of thousands of indie authors are out there trying to promote their books. There are a lot of websites and blogs committed to indie publishing values, but how many people take the time to actually help out another author by posting a review?

This shouldn’t be an accidental afterthought, this should be a deliberate effort. If you have books of your own, reviewing other author’s books is:

A) good social karma and

B) good marketing

I put up www.blurbtrade.com to help authors connect and trade book blurbs (a mutually beneficially relationship) but I think we need to do more. Book reviews are important. If not us, then who?

So I’m starting an “Indie Author Champions” program and I’d like you to be involved.

Here’s how it will work.

#1: Review 7 Indie Books each month

That may sound like a lot, but it isn’t. Most cost only a dollar or two. Some are short.

Don’t buy random stuff – buy things that look interesting to you. But also take a chance on books that aren’t selling well and don’t have many reviews. Maybe you’re the first person to take the risk. They don’t have to be positive reviews, but they shouldn’t be awful. A two or three star, fair review (I liked these things, but didn’t like these…) will still help sell the book and allow that author connect to new readers.

Post your reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and Apple iBooks if you can (those are the big three).

#2: Post your reviews on your blog in one post

You can title it “some great new indie fiction I discovered this month” or “7 reviews for new indie books” or something like that. If you write a specific genre, reviewing books in your genre and posting a roundup (“7 new science fiction novellas I think you’ll enjoy”) is amazing for book marketing. You’ll be helping the authors you’ve chosen, but also helping yourself find new readers.

#3: Send me a link to your post

I’ll collect all the articles and post them together at the end of each month in one mega post. I’m building a network of high traffic blogs and growing my platform rapidly. My article will show that you’re involved in the community, help raise your SEO and traffic, and demonstrate that you give a damn about indie authors and are working to help others be successful (more good social karma).

It’s a win-win for everybody.

You don’t have to participate every month (but why not, it’s a good cause, and easy marketing to help build your platform).

After you post the reviews you can use one of these graphics on your website with a link to this page.

I’ll put up some easy code later so you can just copy and paste.