Collaborating authors

ALLI authors meet up at the London Book Fair April 2014

ALLI authors meet up at the London Book Fair April 2014

Writing is a solitary thing – it’s you, the writing medium and hard graft alone together. Your imagination/brain/mind/muse and the pen or keyboard are it. Perhaps you have a writing buddy, known sometimes as a critique partner, or belong to a writers’ circle or a writers’ association, but if you’re an independently published author, you have another layer of questions to ask and topics to discuss.

ALLi badgeI’ve found two groups for independent authors which I would recommend: both are friendly, open and collaborative. The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLI) fosters the independent sector as a valuable, fruitful and contributing part of the publishing industry, but above all, it is driven by and for its authors – ‘connection and collaboration, advice and education,’.  A blog about trends, successes, writing craft and marketing go hand in hand with member support and industry campaigns such as ‘Open Up To Indies‘. I’ve never regretted a penny of my £75 annual membership fee! And you get a great badge…

AIAAs a self-publisher you are totally in control of publishing your books, but you don’t have the backing of a publishing house or their marketing and publicity services. Before somebody else says it, I know that all authors have to market themselves, however they are published, but indies have to be a tad more energetic about it. And they need to collaborate. Awesome Indies operates a quality control system for fiction – have a stroll through its website – but its director, Tahlia Newland, is very pro-active on marketing. If readers don’t know about a book, how can they buy and read it?

Recently, they interviewed some of their authors and posted the results on You Tube in a theme-based series of  two-minute videos – start here. (I appear in most of them!)

Brag logoAnd, of course, the fabulous Indie B.R.A.G. which is primarily a quality vetting organisation for self-published books, but one which runs a splendid blog for authors, readers and anybody with an interest in self-publishing. This brilliant post on how to support authors is typical of their generous spirit.

 

My experience is that these international sites complement each other; I’ve met new friends, new colleagues and garnered some pretty savvy advice.

 

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers, INCEPTIO, and PERFIDITAS. Third in series, SUCCESSIO, is now out.

Find out about Roma Nova news, writing tips and info by signing up for my free monthly email newsletter.

2 comments to Collaborating authors