In my new novel, “The Emerald Dragon”, one of the baby Aguiva Warbirds felt it necessary to learn how to stand on a bowling ball. In the end, it helped his balance, strengthened his legs and made him incredibly more observant. In learning how to be a good Indie Author, I discovered the similarities between authorship and a baby Aguiva Warbird.

In other words, we need a balanced approach, a higher level of observancy of peoples’ needs and a new level of strength to get up every day to be an author.  Anyone who’s tried it knows exactly what I mean.  So, metaphorically speaking, I decided I needed to learn how to stand on a bowling ball.

So where is this crazy metaphor going, you ask???

I recently read a blog post written by Merry Farmer, a guest writer on the Novel Publicity blog, in which she discussed the importance of finding what she called a “tribe” – a group of like-minded individuals with similar goals. She states that this is important, especially for the Indie Author, because “There is not only safety in numbers, there is caring, support, and networking.” An author has a far better chance at making it in this “Indie Revolution” with encouragement from others on our journey to climb our way from the unknown to our ultimate success as a writer. Merry writes, “In essence, we have banded together in this vast sea of independent authors to form a tribe.” The founder of Novel Publicity, Emlyn Chand, also describes it as “karma”; you give what you get. In helping one another, we build “our writerly karma”.

With all of this in mind, I have been exploring the many avenues for building relationships with fellow Indie Authors and exploring what it is that we can do to reach our ultimate goal…our book/s in the hands of the Reader.

Here are some of the channels I have found to be of great help! (Listed in no particular order)

• Goodreads Groups  such as:
  • Goodreads Authors/Readers – (over 5,000 members) Contains an amazing array of discussion groups, including an author list, a folder index of the many genres where you can specifically mention your books with links, a list of giveaways, author bloggers, reviewers and supporters…and the list goes on!
  • Novel Publicity’s Author Karma – (over 200 members) A great place to meet with other authors for “Author Blog Swaps” and where you can share your book trailers and get friendly feedback!

There are so many wonderful groups on Goodreads, look through them and find what fits for you!

• Novel Publicity & Co.– This website is a fantastic source of information! Emlyn Chand has really outdone herself! The blog features such categories as: Writing Advice, Publishing Advice and Social Media Advice. There’s tons of information for bloggers and those interested in blogging. Novel Publicity also offers their services in Marketing, Editing and Design for all budgets! One of my favorite features is the “Karmic Initiative”!!
  • Karma – Novel Publicity’s free initiatives help to build our social media family! Be sure to visit their website to learn about their Karmic Fan Chains on Goodreads, Karmic Liking Chain on Facebook and their Retweet Chain on Twitter!

• My Pathway to Books: Indie Revolution – this is a blog devoted only to Indie/Self Published Authors! The creator, Tess, has started her own initiative – “Indie Revolution“ and is a weekly feature on Thursdays that will spotlight a different author each week with Giveaways, Guest Posts, Interviews, Excerpts, etc. She has an awesome “Indie Revolution” badge you can add to your website, blog, facebook, etc. Be sure to check out her blog and submit the application provided on her site!

• For those of us that write poetry, I found a blog called “Novelista” (created by IE Castellano, a Speculative Fiction author), that loves to feature poetry submissions every Wednesday!  The Face of Love from my book “Tapestry” will be featured on the blog this Wednesday, May 2^nd!

The list could go on, but I’ll save that for part two! I encourage you to go check out these sites and start forming your “tribe”! That my friends is my introduction to…learning how to stand on a bowling ball!

One last thing…a lot of people have one tucked away in a closet somewhere. Go on, pull the bowling ball out…you know you want to. Give it a whirl! It’s harder than it looks! 🙂