part0010

For an author, writing a book and not getting feedback, is like handing in your homework and it never getting marked.

We all crave feedback and acknowledgement of our efforts. If you cook a meal for your friends or family, they say thank you. You leave a tip at a restaurant for good service or food. You may tip a taxi driver, or buy a barmaid or barman a drink. You might even tip a valet or a porter. All of these examples are for people, who are getting paid at least the minimum wage for doing the job in the first place.

An Indie Author's income comes from the books that are sold. The common (and usually expected) selling price is either 99p, or it’s free. Yes free. Can you imagine slogging your guts out for months on a piece of work, then giving it away for free, time and time again? It is heart-breaking. However, I will admit honestly that most of my fiction books on my Kindle are free books, but I justify this to myself by making sure I leave a review once finished.

The only reason an author gives away a free book is to hope that they may gain reviews or that the reader will enjoy the book and buy another in the same series or collection .

A book can take months or years to write, from the moment of conception, through the writing, reviews, rewrites, edits, proofreading, formatting to finally publishing it. Hundreds of hours on one book, this in the end could be given away for free! Sounds crazy to me, but that's what happens. They write for the love of writing and for telling a story, or maybe for helping or offering advice.

But, if they don't get reviews, if the reader doesn't write a review, say thank you, give a written tip of thanks, then it is all for nothing. Even if you hate the book, or did not finish it because the spelling, formatting, or grammar, was so bad you took it to a charity shop, let the author know. How can they ever improve their craft of writing, if they never get feedback?

Apart from being a 'tip' to the author, whether a good or bad review, it will help the author in the long term to develop their skills. The reader is sharing their views and opinions and putting forward a sales or warning pitch. Letting other readers know how great it was, or warning them of the poor storyline or mistakes. Helping them to make up their minds, whether it is worth investing time or money into its purchase. It helps the author (and other readers) to determine its worth.

An author can receive reviews through different means, from requesting a review in exchange for a free book (or payment), a peer review (asking another author to swap reviews), a full editorial review (which usually costs a lot of money) or the customer review. Guess which one is more valuable to the author? You've got it, your review. The customer who went out of their way, gave up their time to read the book and then told them what they thought of it.

I would like to ask you a few questions to think about. When you download a free book, or even pay 99p or 9.99 for one, do you ever check to see who the publisher is? Would you know if the author is an Indie or has a contract with a publishing house? Have you ever checked to see if a book you have read or are reading was written by an Indie Author?

Until I became aware of the Indie movement within authoring a book, I just presumed that the book I was reading was just another published author. I had no idea that it may have been a debut Indie Author, or a bestselling author. We all find authors that we like and then read more of their books. If we can’t find another book by the author, we move on to another author. It never occurred to me that it may be the case that it was the author’s first and only book and others would be on the way, but it may take time .

I am not bashing 'published authors', what I am trying to do is to make you, the reader, realise that Indie Authors write some great books and it is sometimes hard to pick them out from the crowd. I just think they deserve a little more recognition for all their efforts. All books though, should deserve some sort of comment.