Building Your Author Tribe

Are you having a tough time building your author tribe? Running out of ideas on how to get loyal followers? Would like to branch out a bit from online dependence?

There are many takes on the answers to these questions for a new author. The best piece of advice is you just have to be ready to put yourself out there in a face to face way. I know this is tough for us introverts. But it does work when you are getting started.

Keep in mind my advice is a bit old school but honestly it has worked for me….so my author peeps consider this timeless information.

Building your author tribe! Who does this include?

The obvious….family…friends and relatives. But be careful with asking them to leave reviews. Our friend Amazon has some crazy algorithms that don’t allow your family, friends, and relatives to leave reviews. Some get through of course but you can’t rely with this pool of peeps.

Amazon deletes reviews, refuses reviews, and who know what else Amazon may do. It has happened to me, my clients, my colleagues, and it could happen to you.

But, they sure as heck can buy your books. So don’t be shy to ask them when you are running a $.99 promo.

One must think beyond the box when self-publishing

Here is what I did and it can help you when building your author tribe.

1. Printed flyers and posted them on any public bulletin board. Both for fiction and non
2. Had business cards made up with my name, website, landing page and if available my author central url. I passed these out where ever I went and whomever I spoke to…pet shops, my dentist, cashiers at stores after we spoke about pets…literally everyone got a card.
3. I also carried my iPad so if people were really interested, I would show them my website or landing page and they could sign up right away.

Now, you may be saying I don’t have a webpage….no problem get a facebook page and put the address on your card so people can follow you from the beginning of your journey.

When I was a new author, I found this procedure to be invaluable. I didn’t rely on the gutting it out online. Face to face with peeps was terrifically successful for me.