Self-Publishing Step-by-Step (5) – Partnerships
Self-publishing is sometimes referred to as “going it alone”. I’ve found that’s sort of accurate, but mostly not.
Just take, as an example, my post from last week on the Appaloosa Summer “team”. I really do feel like I’ve been surrounded and buoyed up by a team. And, I now feel like those people’s teams have become my team.
For example, ever since posting the APS cover on Facebook, I’ve been overwhelmed by the response and support from Kacy Hurlbert Todd’s (my cover photographer) friends and family in Georgia. I have all these new FB friends in Georgia! It’s amazing and, once again, I feel so blessed to have found Kacy’s beautiful work (and found her to be a beautiful person).
So, if you self-publish, there’s no need to be alone.
Which is what brings me to the point of this week’s post – partnerships.
It came home to me how important partnerships and networks are when I first accessed Amazon’s Author Central page. This is a very cool feature whereby authors can view their current rank, as well as their sales over time, geographically, etc. Unfortunately the geography is only for the US, but, still, it showed me some interesting patterns. Essentially, everywhere I know somebody in the states, there was a sales hotspot.
My parents winter in Florida – Florida was shaded dark on my sales map. I have two friends in Missouri. Ditto. This, to me, was a very real and visual illustration of the power of individual people to help get the word out.
So, I think any opportunity to form a partnership is a great one. I have two such partnerships to tell you about right now:
(1) Horsing Around Designs - a great Maritime-based business run by Jennifer Roos. Jennifer and I are both small entrepreneurs trying to get noticed in this world, and we both love horses. When I suggested we could help each other out, Jennifer said “yes” and I’m going to let her take over the story:
“Love it or hate it, Facebook is a powerful connector. Thanks to a comment posted by a mutual j-school friend, I’ve reconnected with Tudor Robins. Tudor and I knew each other as horse crazy kids showing ponies in the Ottawa area. Our paths crossed again when we ended up in the same journalism school in Halifax. And now, even though it’s been 18 years since I’ve seen Tudor, our common interests – horses and writing – have brought us together again. Tudor is an Ontario-based author, sharing her love of horses and word skills with a younger generation through her books Objects in Mirror and the upcoming Appaloosa Summer. I’m a New Brunswick-based freelance writer, photographer and saddle pad maker (sounds a bit like a nursery rhyme). Early on in my writing career, a talent for making crafts turned me into a DIY newspaper columnist and photographer. This led to a published book of crafts and a five-year stint as Yahoo! Canada’s craft expert. Like Tudor, I didn’t outgrow horses and these days I combine this obsession with my crafty side to create custom saddle pads for fellow horse lovers. And now because of a mutual love for horses, writing, and a Facebook comment, I look forward to a partnership with Tudor. I’m excited to introduce Tudor’s books to the young horse lovers on Canada’s East Coast and I’m grateful that she’ll show off and promote my saddle pads to the equestrians in her community. It’s a small world.”
(2) Kindred Farm – I so admire Tanya Boyd’s efforts to take care of horses in need. It’s one thing to rescue a cat, or a dog, but rescuing horses takes particular time, effort, commitment and money. That’s why I’d like to bring attention – and some money – to her efforts by declaring that I’ll contribute five per cent of my royalties on every copy of Appaloosa Summer I sell for the first six months, to Tanya’s Rescue & Rehabilitation program. It’s not riches, but it’s something, and I hope to be able to do more in the future.
I also hope to be able to form more partnerships in the future. One of the fun parts of “going it alone” is I get to make all my decisions, so I can form any partnerships I like!
