How to network with other authors?

[giankid007]

Good morning world!

So, I am considering self-publishing again. My local followers are awesome, but I want a wider reach. How should I network with other authors? The best way to self-promote, I believe, is cross-promotion with similar authors. It builds community and mutual benefit. But contacting prolific authors, even ones I met personally, proves challenging. Often with their busy lives, they fail to respond.

Many online suggest to just "build an audience" but writing alone fails that. A great literary work could have the potential to wow the world. But if the world fails to know its existence, there is no point. How to enter the wider community...?

Any advice?

 

[Diana Silver]

You're certainly right it's hard to get a slice out of people's busy schedules. One age-old advice is to make sure you have something to offer.
Can you interview them for a blog on your website, can you reach out letting them know you're happily reposting them because you appreciate their work enough to make them known to your community, offer to platform their books? Getting them to promote your work may come after you promoting theirs.

 

[Finchbearer]

When you say cross-promotion, what does that entail? Most authors will only promote their own book, unless you’re looking for some sort of endorsement. Big authors might give a blurb for another author, but it’s more because they want to read that particular book, and don’t feel obliged to be returning the favour. I’m unsure about this being the practiced strategy. Have you thought of contacting book-influencers (or whatever they call themselves) and see if they’ll agree to give an honest review?

 

[giankid007]

You're certainly right it's hard to get a slice out of people's busy schedules. One age-old advice is to make sure you have something to offer.
Can you interview them for a blog on your website, can you reach out letting them know you're happily reposting them because you appreciate their work enough to make them known to your community, offer to platform their books? Getting them to promote your work may come after you promoting theirs.

That makes sense. First I scratch their back, then they scratch mine. A useful strategy.

When you say cross-promotion, what does that entail? Most authors will only promote their own book, unless you’re looking for some sort of endorsement. Big authors might give a blurb for another author, but it’s more because they want to read that particular book, and don’t feel obliged to be returning the favour. I’m unsure about this being the practiced strategy. Have you thought of contacting book-influencers (or whatever they call themselves) and see if they’ll agree to give an honest review?

It is common for smaller artists to know and recommend each other. As for book-influencers, they share some of the same problems. Busy or they charge for their services.

 

[Prince of Spires]

The easiest 2 ways are to get to know other authors and newsletter swaps.

Getting to know other authors happens in places like this or if you join a writing group or online writing sprints. You connect with other authors get to know and like them. And perhaps at some point you can ask them for help.

Newsletter swaps are easy. If you have a newsletter, then you can join a site like Bookfunnel or Story Origin. They are subscription sites where authors post if they want to do a newsletter swap. That is, they mention your book in their newsletter, and you mention theirs in your newsletter.

They also run group promotions, where you get together a group of authors and you all put together a bunch of discounted (usually) books that you then share with your newsletter.

There are also services like Booksweeps, where you group together with a bunch of authors to create a prize-pool (usually you just give your book for free), and readers can sign up. You get their email addresses which you can add to your newsletter mailinglist. That sort of thing.

As for the advice to "just build an audience", that's both true, but also the hardest thing to do. Everyone wants to build an audience. You're competing with all the other published authors out there. Though of course, it's not a zero-sum game. So competing might not be the best term. However, it's hard. You need to stand out and get noticed. That starts with a great book. After all, a great book is much easier to sell than an average one.

 

[giankid007]

The easiest 2 ways are to get to know other authors and newsletter swaps.

Getting to know other authors happens in places like this or if you join a writing group or online writing sprints. You connect with other authors get to know and like them. And perhaps at some point you can ask them for help.

Newsletter swaps are easy. If you have a newsletter, then you can join a site like Bookfunnel or Story Origin. They are subscription sites where authors post if they want to do a newsletter swap. That is, they mention your book in their newsletter, and you mention theirs in your newsletter.

They also run group promotions, where you get together a group of authors and you all put together a bunch of discounted (usually) books that you then share with your newsletter.

There are also services like Booksweeps, where you group together with a bunch of authors to create a prize-pool (usually you just give your book for free), and readers can sign up. You get their email addresses which you can add to your newsletter mailinglist. That sort of thing.

As for the advice to "just build an audience", that's both true, but also the hardest thing to do. Everyone wants to build an audience. You're competing with all the other published authors out there. Though of course, it's not a zero-sum game. So competing might not be the best term. However, it's hard. You need to stand out and get noticed. That starts with a great book. After all, a great book is much easier to sell than an average one.

Good advice. I connect with local authors but have little experience networking online. This is a start!
Thanks for mentioning those sights, I will investigate.

 

[pmmg]

Everything Prince of Spires said, I would do.

But...I would want to feel that what I was contributing, and they were contributing, was something close to equal, or in close proximity to it, Meaning, if all the writers are Newbs and want to be on my newsletter, I'd want to know something about the quality of what they can produce, cause its my reputation too. I dont want a reputation for poor quality work, or work that does not represent my brand, so to speak.

Though working with each other through my own blogs and newsletters, I would consider.

As far as building a readership, most of the places I have been working with so far, would penalize efforts by authors to coordinate with other authors for this purpose. Swapping reviews on Amazon will get them pulled down. And swapping reviews, or ratings, in other places may get you in some trouble. And most groups on Goodreads will not allow you to self promote either, or only in very limited areas. While I do plug other authors when I see an avenue to do so, much of that also has to do with the eco system of where I am at. Meaning, if I am in a Romantsy group, and you are not romantasy, it would not be useful to plug your book.

And all of that, still comes down to, do I even have a following? Cause if I don't, who cares what I put on my blog?

I am not sure the value of all of this. I would be open to any avenue that made sense, but there is no getting around that at some point the readers have to take over, and what they do will matter.

I am thinking, the best way to really achieve any of this, is to first have something of value that people will talk about to their friends, without that we could just be dumping good effort over bad.

People are posting about this all over the site. I would suggest you look at the writers work posts of myself, Thinker X, Skip, Dems and some others. We all write about our ups and downs with various efforts to reach an audience.

 

[giankid007]

Everything Prince of Spires said, I would do.

But...I would want to feel that what I was contributing, and they were contributing, was something close to equal, or in close proximity to it, Meaning, if all the writers are Newbs and want to be on my newsletter, I'd want to know something about the quality of what they can produce, cause its my reputation too. I dont want a reputation for poor quality work, or work that does not represent my brand, so to speak.

Though working with each other through my own blogs and newsletters, I would consider.

As far as building a readership, most of the places I have been working with so far, would penalize efforts by authors to coordinate with other authors for this purpose. Swapping reviews on Amazon will get them pulled down. And swapping reviews, or ratings, in other places may get you in some trouble. And most groups on Goodreads will not allow you to self promote either, or only in very limited areas. While I do plug other authors when I see an avenue to do so, much of that also has to do with the eco system of where I am at. Meaning, if I am in a Romantsy group, and you are not romantasy, it would not be useful to plug your book.

And all of that, still comes down to, do I even have a following? Cause if I don't, who cares what I put on my blog?

I am not sure the value of all of this. I would be open to any avenue that made sense, but there is no getting around that at some point the readers have to take over, and what they do will matter.

I am thinking, the best way to really achieve any of this, is to first have something of value that people will talk about to their friends, without that we could just be dumping good effort over bad.

People are posting about this all over the site. I would suggest you look at the writers work posts of myself, Thinker X, Skip, Dems and some others. We all write about our ups and downs with various efforts to reach an audience.

Thanks for sharing! Now that I am outreaching to authors, considering their "style" is important. A book like "Blood God War Death" (imaginary) may be great, but sharing it to my audience would be inappropriate. Not to mention, I have to actually like what I am cross-promoting.

 

[Prince of Spires]

But...I would want to feel that what I was contributing, and they were contributing, was something close to equal, or in close proximity to it, Meaning, if all the writers are Newbs and want to be on my newsletter, I'd want to know something about the quality of what they can produce, cause its my reputation too. I dont want a reputation for poor quality work, or work that does not represent my brand, so to speak.

This is absolutely something to consider of course.

With newsletter swaps you can always see who the other author is and what books they want you to promote, which means that you can decide if they're the same target audience you're aiming for.

I have tried newsletter swapping and in the end I decided to stop doing it. It yielded me relatively low results (one or two sales a swap, that sort of thing). And I decided I didn't like pushing books I hadn't read and knew nothing about to my newsletter subscribers. Currently I will occarionally share a great book I read with my readers, but not some random thing I found on the internet.

That's a personal choice I made for me and my "brand" though. There's nothing wrong with swapping, it just isn't for me.