Support for Indie Authors discussion

This is something I have been curious about for some time. On Good Reads there are a lot of established authors who are accepting messages and friends requests. Quite often I have considered sending them a message to ask if they would be interested in looking at my work. I stop myself because I imagine that they may see it as cheeky, since I am asking them for help to get into the same field as them. Also I've heard a number of them avoid reading other people's work because they are concerned that they may be done for plagiarism down the line. Stephen King has mentioned this happening to him before. I am still curious though, because I believe a good testimonial from an established author could be a very helpful advertising tool. Has anyone ever tried asking before? If so are there any authors you know of who are more open to it?

This is where networking comes in as it helps if you have at least met the author. I've met several well known authors at conferences. One thing Heather Graham told us was that she didn't do testimonials unless the work was in the genre she writes, so keep that in mind. Also, she stressed the need to develop a relationship with them. If they have a website, comment on it, read their books, if they are going to be near you, go and meet them, etc. Many authors won't do a testimonial for someone they don't know, so become their fan.

It is a good marketing tool, but not something you can get easily. If you have a few books out with good reviews, that will help. If it's your first book, you might want to get established first. Remember, most overnight successes were 5 years or more in the making.

Yeah, B.A. has it right. You'd want to start by having a connection with the author, and then, maybe, they'd recommend something. They're not going to want to donate a bunch of time or their reputation to a total stranger.

"Remember, most overnight successes were 5 years or more in the making."


OHMYGOSH. I never thought of it that way. It's not really something that a lot of people tell you when you first get started as an author.

In taking Dan Brown's master class, he says his success took ten years. James Patterson also tells you the same thing.

Author Media has a five year program to best seller. The two men who do the podcasts are honest in that it took them over five years to become a success, so don't stress out if your first book doesn't sell well. You can find it on their website, just add .com to the title.

What they have you doing is learning the basics of writing. The first year is all the things you need to learn to write a good book. Things like plot and structure, different methods of writing, character development, dialogue, etc. I lucked out in that I had already read a couple of the books and did the exercises in them as I knew I needed to learn the craft of writing.

Surprisingly, most of the books I've been reading are ones other famous writers use on a regular basis, such as the Elements of Style, Plot and Structure, Getting into Character, Writing Fiction for Dummies (yes, three authors recommended it), Word Painting, How to write Dazzling Dialogue, Story by Robert Mckee, A Writer's Guide to Active Setting, and the First 5 Pages are only a few.

These are some of the reference books on writing other authors use and will recommend. Like all things, there is a learning curve and you need to put in the time to learn how to write.

I met Anne Perry at a conference and she gave me a nice quote for my first book. She was too busy at the time my second one came out, though.

Thank you, B.A!

I have never approached a famous writer, but with the novel I am presently working on, I have contacted established writers and they have provided excellent feedback. I think I would want to get acquainted with established writers first, who could then take my work up the chain, incrementally, to some famous writer. From what I can tell, it takes some time to become a great writer, thus a famous writer might be fairly cautious in endorsing the work of a striving, promising writer.

I think it's reasonable if you've written a great book to ask for a blurb, but not for advice. Asking for advice does feel like an imposition to me, maybe because I've had a novel published 'the regular way' and one result was a lot of yet-to-be-published writers asked me to read their scripts or introduce them to my agent...it was frankly not fun to be asked when I had no connection and I need my time to do my own writing.

Some writers are very open to blurbing though if there is some connection between your audience and theirs.

oh I forgot to answer your question about success/not asking for testimonials from established authors! My answer is yes. Authors are amazingly willing to help one another if you ask carefully and ask only people whose own work has an obvious affinity with the book you've written. I've published three very different books and very different authors agreed to blurb them.

I wrote to my favorite author when I was 15 and she responded back with an awesome letter that encouraged me to pursue my dream of writing! It was a pivotal moment in my life :-)

I imagine it’s situational when it comes to authors approaching established authors in hopes of book reviews. I think most authors are bothered by it though. I’ve self-published one book that’s doing good as a debut, and I mostly decline author book swaps (even though the authors who reviewed my debut were actually brutally honest, which I truly appreciated). I have a hard time being that honest, because I know how it feels, even if it helps the author.

As an author who’s only published once and isn’t established yet, I will say that when new authors ask me to review their book (usually a book swap), I decline. This is because I want to be honest and in many cases I can’t bring myself to give under 3 stars for a book not written well. Many new authors just have a dream of being a writer without knowing much about the craft or knowing how to write well. I’m too empathetic to kill that dream. I’ve tried in the past to help a friend who falls in this category, and it didn’t go so well. Said author continued to write the same without improvement and continued to distress about books not doing well.

Personally, I wouldn’t ask an established author to review my book. If I happened to establish a positive relationship with an established author and that author offered to read and review, that’s one thing. But even then, most author swaps that result in review are not exactly honest.

As I stated in another comment, you don’t truly feel a sense of accomplishment until you receive unbiased reader reviews from strangers. But first you must study the craft, and write an interesting and well-written story with strong editing. If you fail once, try try again. It takes time and effort. We can’t expect instant reward for under satisfactory work (even if there are many books out there not written well that have created a buzz).

I have asked and received lovely reviews/blurbs from well-established authors, which my publisher will be using in the upcoming releases. How? Network, network, network. In person. Go to conferences and ask “what are you working on?” Listen, don’t talk about yourself or your books hardly at all. Be a person, someone who genuinely cares about the well-known author. Keep in touch with him/her. One author I sent snail mail after we’d met once and we actually spent a year corresponding via cards just for fun and she did a wonderful review at one point. Always look in your genre, always be gracious of time, and care about the author as a person. It goes a long way. :)

well said Sara!

An interesting conversation that's quite helpful.

I find defining my genre a little tricky, let alone finding someone else within it.

I shall continue contemplating, of course. What else can one do?