Scribes & Archers

Do you have a friend or family member who’s an indie author? Have you ever wanted to support their work but been unsure how? Here are five ways you can help support them and their work.

1. Buy Their Book

This one’s fairly obvious, but if you want to support an indie author then the most direct way is to buy their book. You get a cool book, they get royalties and the satisfaction of knowing they’ve reached another reader (and also the imminent panic of “WHAT IF THEY DON’T LIKE IT???”, but that’s far outweighed by the joy of knowing their book is being read). It’s a win-win. And you’ll help produce their next book, because the knowledge that their stories aren’t going unread will encourage them to keep writing and the royalties will help fund their next publishing venture.

2. Review Their Book

Reviews mean so much to indie authors. Even if it’s just a few sentences, your honest opinion of the book helps to build the credibility of the author and inform potential readers whether or not the book is a good fit for them. Even if you didn’t like the book, an honest review is of huge value to the author and future readers alike. The most helpful places to post a review are on Amazon and Goodreads.

3. Recommend Their Book

Ultimately, an author’s main goal is to reach readers and entertain and impact them. You can help with this by spreading the word about their book. Do you have a niece who loves the genre your indie author friend writes? Do you just LOVE the book and recommend it for EVERYONE? Has your best friend been wanting a book with family dynamics just like the ones in your sister’s indie book? Tell your friend or sister or niece or co-worker about your indie’s book!

You can also request the book at your library and potentially open it up to discovery by a lot more readers.

4. Become a Patron

Tools like Patreon and Ko-fi allow users to support creators with monthly donations, sometimes as little as $1 per month. Patreon does this with reward tiers, so if you pledge above a certain amount each month you get rewards from the author in exchange. Rewards can be anywhere from regular writing updates to behind-the-scenes artwork to free books. Ko-fi has a set donation of $3, which is about the price of a coffee. On either platform, there’s generally a low-cost option that still makes a huge difference to the author and helps them fund their publishing projects.

5. Help Fund Their Projects

Sites like Kickstarter work similarly to Patreon with their reward tiers, but with a large one-time goal and deadline. If an author is aiming to raise funds to get their current project edited and formatted, for instance, they may start a Kickstarter campaign. This is generally a more expensive way to support an indie (though not always), but I promise you’ll have their eternal gratitude if you do have the resources to share (plus whatever awesome goodies they have as rewards).

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What’s your favorite way to support indie authors? Who are a couple of your favorite indie authors?

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