People don’t tell new Indie Authors that publishing a book does not mean people will buy it. That is why the moment you decide you are writing your book must be the moment you also start building your community.
Building a reader community is important because it is the first step toward getting your book noticed by the people who want to read it.
Put plainly: when you focus on connecting with people, you attract a tribe of people ready and excited to buy your book when it drops.
This is critical for Indie Authors, in particular, who do not always have access to the same kind of exposure as authors who publish with publishing houses or small presses with bigger budgets.
No, people will not buy your book just because you posted the link.
No, people will not buy your book just because you’re their favorite cousin.
And no, people will not buy your book because you tell them to.
Please also consider that even if your favorite cousin does buy your book, it doesn’t guarantee that they will:
- Actually read the book
- Review the book
- Join your email list
- Subscribe to your blog
- Engage with your social media
- Be repeat customers
Your real tribe, primarily strangers interested in what your book is about turned avid readers you have built a relationship with, will move differently than the family members you are begging to buy from you.
Here are some things you can do to help find your tribe :
- Share your writing process.
- Give updates on where you are in that process (draft, revisions, editing)
- Talk about your inspirations and motivations
- Talk about your challenges
- Post excerpts from the book to social media
- Start a blog
- Start building your email list
- Educate people about the book you are writing
- Share the book cover when it’s ready
- Talk about life outside of books and writing. What are your other interests?
- Talk about your favorite books and authors
I agree. Building community is not about working tirelessly trying to convince people to read your book who would rather spend that $5 at Starbucks. That’s exhausting and is the frustration of many Indie Authors. That’s that pulling teeth part of the game everyone hates. Suppose building your community feels like you are pulling teeth. In that case, it is probably because you are begging people to support you who are not interested. Do them and yourself a favor and let them go in peace.
What it is about, as Jenn stated, is letting the people already interested in your book know it exists.
I am not trying to get people who are not poetry readers to read my poetry book to put this into perspective. That is not to say I won’t convert some people (tee hee). Still, I am looking for people who are already into poetry, black poetry by black women to be precise.
By sharing our likes, dislikes, challenges, and experiences and connecting with people of like mind, we find people with similar interests as our own. Then, we make the added effort to show up in the places where these people may hang out so we can connect with them on or offline. Maybe your tribe is on Facebook a lot. Maybe they are on YouTube, Instagram, Clubhouse, Twitter, and so on.
It’s 2022, and Indie Publishing has come a long way. Gone are the days of posting links to social media hoping someone will bite. This is known as “Hope Marketing,” or the hope for a sale. This doesn’t help us build community, sell books, or establish meaningful relationships.
Focusing on people who are already into what you are writing will have a tribe of people waiting to buy your next book and save you a lot of time and heartache.
Remember, it is much easier to market to an already interested audience than an audience who you have to convince.
And most important of all, have fun!
Connecting with people is not supposed to be tedious. Building a reader community doesn’t have to feel like work. That takes the fun out of it. Just be yourself and share your journey. The people who are meant to be part of that journey will notice.
The PBS Blog 
I’m on my 12th book now. I wish someone had told me to start building my audience before I finished the first. The trouble is, I think, that until someone has written their first book, they don’t even think of readers, nor connecting with other authors, so they don’t get this advice.
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I can understand that. The good thing is that building an audience isn’t something authors have to check off a list, in my opinion. You know what I mean? Like, it’s never too late. We are always growing our audience as we navigate this journey, whether our first book or 15th.
So, looking at it this way, while it is a good idea to start making those connections initially (because who will buy your book?), it is always time in the process to start to develop those relationships.
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Oh, and to your point about authors who are not thinking about readers when they write their first book, you have just identified a critical issue in the community and one of the reasons I wrote this post. Authors cannot afford not to think about readers when writing a book. That’s like a chef not thinking about who will eat his food when he’s done cooking.
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Good point, Yecheilyah.
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Coming from someone who wants to write a first book and did not know where to start this article is helping me alot. Thank you I will continue to follow you.
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Excellent. I’m so glad it’s helpful and welcome!
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Thank you.
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