Interview With David Njoku: Book Promoter
As an indie author I’m always looking for new places to promote my books and, as I have discovered via social media, there are countless options available. Finding out what works and what doesn’t is an ongoing learning curve for me. When I first discovered Indie Author Land on Twitter (@IndieAuthorLand) I have to admit to being very impressed with their website and completely intrigued by their handy little “find that one perfect book” device. Try it, it works:
http://www.indieauthorland.com/archiv...
Their author interview questions looked like fun to answer and, as their services are completely free of charge, I thought, “What have I got to lose”? I’ve granted them two interviews so far and I’m planning a third when Trouble at Toff Towers III comes out later this year.
So, yes, the site offers free book promotion and I have seen first hand that the service is both reliable and innovative, but does this sort of promotion actually work? I decided to turn the tables and invited David Njoku from Indie Author Land to grant me an interview. He very kindly agreed so I hastily gathered together a few of my fellow indies (Amanda Egan, Elaine R Chissick, Steve Briggs, Jamie Tucker Dougan, Ephraim Gadsby and Alan Reynolds) and we settled in for a friendly interrogation:
JAMIE: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people.
DAVID: My life's like a dream. No, I'm not talking of sun-swept beaches, leggy models and drinks with little umbrellas in them. I mean my life is like a dream in that while it's interesting to live, it's definitely boring to recount.
But if you insist, my dinner party story is about the time I was locked up in Senegal because the immigration officials had never seen a black Briton before and assumed my passport must be a forgery. I spent two days in a cell and then was booted out of the country. I never did get to see their pink lakes, which I hear are a wonder to behold.
AMANDA: What drove you to start up a website in support of indie authors and would you consider writing a book of your own?
DAVID: We started Indie Author Land because my wife, Sola, was bored and needed a hobby. We'd just read an article in The Guardian on how indies were on the cusp of taking over the industry and decided to start a site to help us - and others - discover self-published books worth reading.
Would I ever write a book? I'm not sure. I used to be a short story writer, and it's still the form I'm most in love with. I might one day publish a collection of my stories.
ANNE AND ELAINE: You must be inundated with information about great books every day. What genres do you like to read and, having read an author interview, how often are you unable to resist downloading a copy of his/her book for yourself? Do you look at the reviews before giving in to temptation?
DAVID: Right now I'm reading a book called The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth. It's a (very funny) romp through the weird history of words. These days I tend to read books that'll enable me to sound clever at dinner parties. That probably says something about me, and I'm not sure it's something complimentary!
When it comes to fiction, I live at the extremes - I love unashamedly genre fiction and densely boring "big L" Literature. And yes, I often buy a book on the strength of an interview; although, yes, I do check out the reviews first.
AMANDA: Speaking of reviews, if you really dislike a book, do you say it as it is, do you sweeten the pill or do you decide against leaving a review?
DAVID: I am far too aware of how much effort goes into writing a book to leave a negative review. Having said that, I do get very, very angry whenever I see an indie who's written a sloppy book. Good indies have a tough enough time without having the whole group besmirched by some pre-educated yahoo with a typewriter.
STEVE: Do you think that offering their books for free is a genuinely effective marketing ploy for an indie author or does it just suggest that their sales are struggling?
DAVID: Honestly, I don't know. In my day job, I work with data and statistics, and I am planning to one day do some analysis on the subject, but I haven't got round to it yet. I'm too busy with the leggy models and the drinks with umbrellas in them!
ANNE: I sometimes wonder whether most websites that profess to promote indie authors simply end up being places for us to discover each other. What proportion of visitors to your site are readers rather than writers?
DAVID: This is a great question, and one that bothered me a great deal.
In the early days of Indie Author Land, we wrote a lot of clever code to link interviews with other interviews for similar books. Our thinking was that if the only people who come to read an interview are the author themselves and their immediate family then we have to find ways to subtly urge them to also check out other novels they might enjoy. If every author 'shared' their readers with the rest of the group then everyone gains. That system worked, and still works, although these days the vast majority of our visitors come from Google and are not authors themselves.
EPHRAIM: What one piece of advice would you give to a new indie author and, in your opinion, what is the strongest marketing tool we can use?
DAVID: I'm biased, of course, but I would definitely recommend Indie Author Land. There are lots of author interview sites, but I doubt that any other site goes to bat for you as heavily as we do. Months after your interview, we'll still be tweeting about it and urging readers to check your book out. And because of the algorithms we've developed, if a reader visits us to read about a similar book, even if it's years later, we'll nudge them towards yours.
The best piece of non self-interested advice I'd give is: get the best cover you can afford. We all judge books by their covers.
ALAN: In a world of myopic literary agents and blinkered publishers, I would like to ask you what your views are on indie authors in general and how we can take that next step to become more widely accepted.
DAVID: I think we all have to be careful with the term "indie". We've got a fantastically supportive community, but while the word is a positive signal to other members of the tribe, it is still a negative one to the average reader. My advice would be that authors leave the fact of their "indie-ness" off all marketing aimed at readers and let the book win on its own merit.
I know this is strange coming from a website with Indie in its name, but these days we push books on their own strengths and do not expect readers to buy anything for any other reason.
But frankly, I do not know what else an author can do to overcome the handicap of not having a huge publicity machine behind them.
JAMIE: Where do you see yourself in twenty years time?
DAVID: Did I mention the beach, the models and the cocktails? (I hope my wife never reads this - or the closest I'd get to a beach is when my corpse washes ashore!)
ELAINE: How do I get my books on your website?
We offer two services, and they're both completely free. We interview authors about their books, and we also help them promote any of their books that are discounted or temporarily free. We do this on our website, using social media, and through a weekly newsletter that goes out to a few thousand readers. You can get your books on our site using this link:
http://www.indieauthorland.com/ourser...
With thanks to my fellow authors (David - please note, I did not say “indie”!):
Amanda Egan: http://mummymisfit.blogspot.com/
Elaine R Chissick: http://elainechissick.wix.com/chissic...
Steve Briggs: http://batsby.blogspot.co.uk/
Jamie Tucker Dougan: http://jamietuckerdougan.com/
Ephraim Gadsby: http://ephraimgadsby.wix.com/whatho
Alan Reynolds: http://www.alanreynoldsauthor.com/
Join me for more bookish banter at: https://www.facebook.com/anneullahwri...
http://www.indieauthorland.com/archiv...
Their author interview questions looked like fun to answer and, as their services are completely free of charge, I thought, “What have I got to lose”? I’ve granted them two interviews so far and I’m planning a third when Trouble at Toff Towers III comes out later this year.
So, yes, the site offers free book promotion and I have seen first hand that the service is both reliable and innovative, but does this sort of promotion actually work? I decided to turn the tables and invited David Njoku from Indie Author Land to grant me an interview. He very kindly agreed so I hastily gathered together a few of my fellow indies (Amanda Egan, Elaine R Chissick, Steve Briggs, Jamie Tucker Dougan, Ephraim Gadsby and Alan Reynolds) and we settled in for a friendly interrogation:
JAMIE: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise people.
DAVID: My life's like a dream. No, I'm not talking of sun-swept beaches, leggy models and drinks with little umbrellas in them. I mean my life is like a dream in that while it's interesting to live, it's definitely boring to recount.
But if you insist, my dinner party story is about the time I was locked up in Senegal because the immigration officials had never seen a black Briton before and assumed my passport must be a forgery. I spent two days in a cell and then was booted out of the country. I never did get to see their pink lakes, which I hear are a wonder to behold.
AMANDA: What drove you to start up a website in support of indie authors and would you consider writing a book of your own?
DAVID: We started Indie Author Land because my wife, Sola, was bored and needed a hobby. We'd just read an article in The Guardian on how indies were on the cusp of taking over the industry and decided to start a site to help us - and others - discover self-published books worth reading.
Would I ever write a book? I'm not sure. I used to be a short story writer, and it's still the form I'm most in love with. I might one day publish a collection of my stories.
ANNE AND ELAINE: You must be inundated with information about great books every day. What genres do you like to read and, having read an author interview, how often are you unable to resist downloading a copy of his/her book for yourself? Do you look at the reviews before giving in to temptation?
DAVID: Right now I'm reading a book called The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth. It's a (very funny) romp through the weird history of words. These days I tend to read books that'll enable me to sound clever at dinner parties. That probably says something about me, and I'm not sure it's something complimentary!
When it comes to fiction, I live at the extremes - I love unashamedly genre fiction and densely boring "big L" Literature. And yes, I often buy a book on the strength of an interview; although, yes, I do check out the reviews first.
AMANDA: Speaking of reviews, if you really dislike a book, do you say it as it is, do you sweeten the pill or do you decide against leaving a review?
DAVID: I am far too aware of how much effort goes into writing a book to leave a negative review. Having said that, I do get very, very angry whenever I see an indie who's written a sloppy book. Good indies have a tough enough time without having the whole group besmirched by some pre-educated yahoo with a typewriter.
STEVE: Do you think that offering their books for free is a genuinely effective marketing ploy for an indie author or does it just suggest that their sales are struggling?
DAVID: Honestly, I don't know. In my day job, I work with data and statistics, and I am planning to one day do some analysis on the subject, but I haven't got round to it yet. I'm too busy with the leggy models and the drinks with umbrellas in them!
ANNE: I sometimes wonder whether most websites that profess to promote indie authors simply end up being places for us to discover each other. What proportion of visitors to your site are readers rather than writers?
DAVID: This is a great question, and one that bothered me a great deal.
In the early days of Indie Author Land, we wrote a lot of clever code to link interviews with other interviews for similar books. Our thinking was that if the only people who come to read an interview are the author themselves and their immediate family then we have to find ways to subtly urge them to also check out other novels they might enjoy. If every author 'shared' their readers with the rest of the group then everyone gains. That system worked, and still works, although these days the vast majority of our visitors come from Google and are not authors themselves.
EPHRAIM: What one piece of advice would you give to a new indie author and, in your opinion, what is the strongest marketing tool we can use?
DAVID: I'm biased, of course, but I would definitely recommend Indie Author Land. There are lots of author interview sites, but I doubt that any other site goes to bat for you as heavily as we do. Months after your interview, we'll still be tweeting about it and urging readers to check your book out. And because of the algorithms we've developed, if a reader visits us to read about a similar book, even if it's years later, we'll nudge them towards yours.
The best piece of non self-interested advice I'd give is: get the best cover you can afford. We all judge books by their covers.
ALAN: In a world of myopic literary agents and blinkered publishers, I would like to ask you what your views are on indie authors in general and how we can take that next step to become more widely accepted.
DAVID: I think we all have to be careful with the term "indie". We've got a fantastically supportive community, but while the word is a positive signal to other members of the tribe, it is still a negative one to the average reader. My advice would be that authors leave the fact of their "indie-ness" off all marketing aimed at readers and let the book win on its own merit.
I know this is strange coming from a website with Indie in its name, but these days we push books on their own strengths and do not expect readers to buy anything for any other reason.
But frankly, I do not know what else an author can do to overcome the handicap of not having a huge publicity machine behind them.
JAMIE: Where do you see yourself in twenty years time?
DAVID: Did I mention the beach, the models and the cocktails? (I hope my wife never reads this - or the closest I'd get to a beach is when my corpse washes ashore!)
ELAINE: How do I get my books on your website?
We offer two services, and they're both completely free. We interview authors about their books, and we also help them promote any of their books that are discounted or temporarily free. We do this on our website, using social media, and through a weekly newsletter that goes out to a few thousand readers. You can get your books on our site using this link:
http://www.indieauthorland.com/ourser...
With thanks to my fellow authors (David - please note, I did not say “indie”!):
Amanda Egan: http://mummymisfit.blogspot.com/
Elaine R Chissick: http://elainechissick.wix.com/chissic...
Steve Briggs: http://batsby.blogspot.co.uk/
Jamie Tucker Dougan: http://jamietuckerdougan.com/
Ephraim Gadsby: http://ephraimgadsby.wix.com/whatho
Alan Reynolds: http://www.alanreynoldsauthor.com/
Join me for more bookish banter at: https://www.facebook.com/anneullahwri...
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