I’ve been involved in indie book promoting for a couple of years now and I’m becoming alarmed at a new trend. There are suddenly a number of sites that either used to be indie friendly or were indie friendly until their sites got “legs” and all of a sudden there are restrictions on what books they will promote or you have to almost win the lottery to get listed in their newsletter or posted on their site. Now since this is their business model we have to accept it. Or do we?
As an indie author you choose to publish your book yourself because the “gatekeepers” (publishers) either didn’t want your books or you decided *you* didn’t need *them* to be able to publish your book. One of the things publishers did in the past and don’t do as much now is promote their authors’ books. As indies got out there and started promoting their books they started getting on websites like ours that are happy to give almost all books a place to be listed, promoted and give their authors a place to speak out. But wait! Now many of those *other* sites want you to have 4 or even 5 star reviews. And LOTS of reviews. And sales ranking. *Before* they will list you or promote your free or bargain priced book.
How are you supposed to get those reviews and sales if they won’t let you promote your book? I smell gatekeepers trying to decide who gets to promote and who doesn’t. Personally, I don’t like gatekeepers. I’m one of those people that wants to be able to decide for myself whether a book is good or bad. As a reader do YOU want someone to decide what you get to even look at? Sounds like some people left the publishing companies or PR companies and decided to set up their own way of gatekeeping that doesn’t really look like gatekeeping.
There are discussions in almost every Facebook group I belong to (I belong to many!) where people are trying to figure out how to “get accepted” on this site or that site. They have to be *approved* to spend their money. In print publications there are space restrictions so I get that your ads there need to be approved. Price keeps a lot of people out anyway. I can also sort of see companies wanting to keep their promotional emails short. Sort of. As a reader I like having choices.
Some of the most popular free book emails (Author Marketing Club and Awesome Gang come to mind) don’t restrict who can post in their newsletter. It goes out with however many books have been submitted as free that day. The same with ours. And none of us charge to be included in our daily emails or site listings. We have a paid feature as an option, but again we don’t punish you because you are a new release or don’t have enough reviews.
I’m not saying the sites that have requirements are bad, I’m saying why let another gatekeeper take up your time and energy when you can use that time to write more or add your book to more places that are happy to list you. Why do you need to worry about more rejection emails?
I’m and indie author and plan to stay that way. My books are niche and don’t have and probably *won’t* have 25 or more 5 star reviews. At least not until my books have been around a while. I’m proud of what I am putting out there and won’t be discouraged or distracted by trying to get on a site that doesn’t fit my books profile. I don’t want or need more gatekeepers. I get emails directly from people that enjoy my books. That’s enough for me.
What about you?
It will always be the case that big moneyed interests will find a way to regain control, probably by controlling the means of distribution and publicity (which is what you are describing), because that’s how capitalism works. The day of the genuine Indie is probably destined to be fairly short; what follows will look like Indiism (I’m sorry :-)) the way LBJ looked like a hippy when he sang “We Shall Overcome”. It isn’t a happy prospect–but anything other than capitalism would be worse. The Bill Gateses and Mark Zuckerbergs of this world will always rule because they want tomore than we do.
What a great article and you hit so many points right on the head! I’ve definitely noticed the last couple of books that I published with publishers haven’t been promoted very much, if at all. Very disappointing. And I find myself searching for reviewers for those books as much as my self-published ones.
And speaking of those sites that won’t let you promote your books if they don’t have so many 5-star reviews, they obviously aren’t writers, and have no clue how hard it is to get folks to take the time and leave a review.. We can’t make readers leave reviews. One of my free promo days at Amazon my book was downloaded 1600 times and I only yielded 10 reviews.
I’m with you Deborah, let the readers decide for themselves if they like your work by giving them the opportunity to find out about what’s out there. Writers can’t do that if they can’t promote.
I thought is was just me as well. I completely agree and know exactly what it is you are talking about. It’s tough enough to compete and get your book recognized, let alone get the reviews you are needing. Also, the threat of so much ebook piracy is also on the rise, which makes it even tougher to sell anything for indies. Wonderful points made in your article! Thank you Deborah!
Deborah, I came across this when looking at places to use paid advertising for my books. I couldn’t believe that even though I was paying, I would still have to have a certain amount of reviews too before being accepted. Then, indies are faced with bloggers who won’t review indie writing. It makes marketing very difficult. Thankfully there are places and bloggers who are happy to do this though.
I’ve noticed it too, Deborah. Four years ago, when I published my first novel, it felt like Indie Authors had a movement of like-minded people sweeping into the business arena of publishing. We carried each others banners. We stood defiantly behind our self-erected barricades, shouting out slogans of equality. We learned by stumbling and found our readers anyway. Now, I wonder if the like-minded folks who used to provide us forums and alternate channel promotional coverage have simply discovered that in order to keep a site alive and get the big subscription numbers, you need some coin in your pocket. You must monetize. I’m like most Indies I know in that I really don’t have independent funds to buy into the kind of promotion these sites now promise. Often, looking back to see if writers paid promotions have worked, I see they haven’t really increased sales; just provided freebies, etc. to the growing horde that won’t pay for reading material. Self publishing isn’t derided as it was four years back, nor does it have the cache of a Cause Celebre (did I spell that right?). The bandwagon’s band has definitely tuned down, and now, the real gatekeepers seem to be the weight of a writer’s wallet.