Adopt an Indie Author Today! #IndiePrideDay


I had a tough time at school - for lots of reasons, but the one that's relevant here is competitiveness, and not my own. By the time I figured out what the problem was, I was in my mid-twenties and studying for a degree.

For brevity: I was fairly clever but shy, not good at sports, lousy at socialising, average height, average looking, an average musician - in general a bit of a wall flower. With adolescence, I put on weight, and that was so not the attention I wanted to bring to myself. In fact, I didn't want attention at all. I just wanted to get on with being me, doing what I was good at, which is also what I enjoy:

  • People watching.
  • Writing.
  • Reading.
  • Listening to music.
  • Discovering new things I'm good at.
  • Thinking round corners.
  • Being the best I can be.

So, all those competitive team sports? Pure torture. Being ranked on exam results? Much the same. Eventually, I realised that my position relative to my peers was of no consequence. I knew if I'd done my best, and that was absolutely good enough. It's my motivation, it's how I measure my achievements (or my progress towards achieving).

What has all that got to do with Indie Pride Day?

Well, there are an awful lot of authors out there, and all of us share the same goal - not necessarily to write a bestseller or make a living from our books. Many of us write for ourselves, but we publish for other reasons. I publish because I want to challenge people to think about the complexities of day-to-day life and enjoy my stories. If they don't, that's OK. There are plenty of other stories out there.

Which is the point of all the above. Like my performance on an undergraduate essay was not affected by the performance of my peers, nor does the success of other authors have any bearing on my success. Except, maybe, if we're all happy and bigging each other up. That's surely got to be a positive thing.

There are plenty of readers, all with different tastes, all looking for different kinds of stories. It doesn't really matter that the market is saturated with books, other than it makes it really hard for us wee indies to get noticed.

Thus, here's a shout out to my indie author buddies. Go visit their websites, find their books, buy/download and read them. And if you like them, tell people about it. Share the love.

And, in return, we will love you forever. 💙💜💗

Some Indie Loveliness For You!

On the NewsNibbles blog, you'll find a round-up of Sparkly Badgers' recommendations, with links to books and authors:
http://www.newsnibbles.co.uk/2018/06/30/sparkly-badgers-recommend/

You can also find a whole bunch of indie authors on Beaten Track Publishing:
http://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/authors

And also on Supposed Crimes: https://supposedcrimes.com/

Quite a few authors I know have books available at discounted prices this month:

A.M. Leibowitz
C H Clepitt
Claire Buss
L.N. Denison
Lyra Shanti
Joanne Van Leerdam
Jacqueline Church Simonds
Margaret Adams Holmes
Timothy Casey

I'm going to link to Goodreads profiles (in no particular order), as this is the easiest place to find comprehensive links to authors' work:

Jeanne G'Fellers
Carrie Pack
Kaje Harper
Edmond Manning
Russell Ricard
Amelia Faulkner
Martin Belk
Donna Jay
David E. Manuel
Jonathan Hill
Kath Middleton
Julie McLaren
Matthew Drzymala
David Wailing
Tim Arnot

As always, thanks a million for reading.
Deb x

Comments

  1. AM Leibowitz12:21 am

    All. of. this.

    Thank you.

    And grown-up me wishes pre-religious teenage-me had known teenage-you. I think we'd have gotten along nicely. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debbie McGowan10:30 am

      I agree! :) Although I was churchified back then, so we'd have been good either way.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LGBT Pride: A Roundtable Discussion

Image
This week on my blog, we're trying something a little different. In honor of LGBT Pride month, I am among a great group of panelists who will be hosting a month long discussion about Pride, LGBT Youth, Allies, and more. Our panelists are a diverse group of readers, writers, and supporters of gay fiction, including Larry Benjamin , Rick Bettencourt , Brandilyn Carpenter , Rob Colton , Andrew Q Gordon , Lane Hayes , Debbie McGowan , and Brandon Shire . Each week, two people will answer two questions related LGBT pride, rights, and related topics. We will also be giveaway free copies of eBooks by our participating authors and a Amazon gift card. You can enter on the RC below. There are special entries for each week of June, so don't miss out on those. Please join in the discussion in the comments. You can gain entries into the giveaway, but more importantly, you can be part of a important and fun discussion. Though only 2 panelists will be posting each week, we will all be j...
Read more

Ironing, lie-ins, Zion

Image
It's Sunday morning! That's excellent news if dull skies and musty churches are your idea of fun; I did find myself momentarily wishing for rain this morning, as it's also mid-October and the privet needs one last haircut. I won't be going to church either, but that's another story for another day. So there I was sitting in the thinking room, and it came to me that had I ever aspired to be a more domesticated type, I could spend today cooking meals to fill the freezer. Unfortunately I have never been that person and so the freezer is safe. However, it did get me thinking that I might share some recipe ideas with the world. I know it's perhaps not what any previous visitors to this weblog might expect, and I could no doubt produce an acidic and lengthy commentary on a bit of a battle Nige has had with the organisers of PodcastCon UK 2006 over the past couple of weeks. In brief, for the sake of consistency, I will say this: it has been apparent for quite some time...
Read more

Reunions - Josh and George: Stating the Obvious #RainbowSnippets #LGBTQ

Image
Brief explanation: This is another snippet from Reunions (Hiding Behind The Couch Season Seven), which continues to grow. And grow. Current word count: 209,000. I’m aiming to stay under the word count of Two by Two (Hiding Behind The Couch Season Seven) …now I’ve passed all the other limits I set at the start. ;) Here’s a little more of Josh and George, this time together. Here’s the snippet: Josh looked him up and down as he got in the car. “Whose clothes are they?” “Mine.” George was thrown by the question and forgot to deliver his customary kiss. He attempted to rectify that, but Josh dodged him. He was still eyeing George’s clothes. “Are they?” “Who else’s would they be?” “Well, Jake’s, or…I don’t know. It just dawned on me you came to work in overalls.” “Under which I wear clothes,” George said like he was stating the obvious, because he was, in fact, stating the obvious. Josh remained perplexed. “What’s up?” * * * * * Rainbow Snippets is a group for L...
Read more