Let's Hear it for the Bloggers!

For an indie author, promoting one's work is a constant problem. Those who are traditionally published have access to and support from their publisher's marketing team. For us indies there's no such thing. We're it! And there are a lot of us. Someone's likened trying to get interest in your work to standing in the middle of a football crowd shouting 'Look at my book!' when 30,000 people around you are all shouting the same thing.

So how do you get to readers? One important route is through bloggers. Book bloggers read books and post reviews on their own, mostly Instagram, pages. Many of them read several books a week and most are sound and experienced judges. And the amazing thing is that they do it for nothing. They do it for the joy of reading and because they know how important fiction is.

I've enjoyed the support of bloggers several times, most recently during the second half of February, when 23 bloggers read and reviewed my latest novel, A Hanging Moon. I'm grateful to them all for taking the time and trouble to read and write about my work, and especially pleased that every single one of them who gave my book a rating awarded it 4 or 5 stars. Yes, no one gave it less than that! Finally, I'm grateful to Kelly Lacey and Love Books Tours for lining up the bloggers, getting my book to them, and publicising their blogs.