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Indie Author Resources

Resources That Helped Me As An Author

By Chloe GilholyPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Indie Author Resources
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Disclaimer

This article contains no sponsorship and is entirely based on my experiences. A lot of these resources are based in the U.K, but I am sure that there are alternates in some other countries too.

Introduction

A lot of us on this site are all here because they want to write and support themselves with their writing. It’s a challenge because writing is one of the most expensive hobbies out there. Every craft born is a gamble you may never know if it will lay off. Many of us are working on their first book. I have ten published, and hope that my experiences as an author will help others achieve their goals. I’ve been creating written content all my life and I learn things all the time.

Once you’ve finished your first draft, gone over it a few times and has gone through rounds of editing, the next stages for me are the more daunting parts. Writing the book is the easy party, everything else is an uphill struggle. There’s budgeting, marketin, research, promotion, events and then there’s the pressure to work on the next book.

There are many more writing opportunities now, then there was when I first started out writing online. Back then, the only place were I felt I could soar as a writer was through fan fiction and online sites. Now there’s audiobooks, hardback, paperbacks and live lit events. It can be overwhelming at the best of times.

Nielsen ISBN Store

As far as I know, the only legitimate way to buy a ISBN in the UK is with Nielsen. A lot of places that you publish with will provide an ISBN for free, but if you’re trying to get your book into libraries and major retailllers, it’s worth considering purchasing an ISBN. They’re £89 each, but a block of 10 is £164. The more you buy, the cheaper they become. The big publishing companies buy them in bulk which is why KPD, Lulu, Smashwords and Draft2digital are able to give them you for free. ISBNs can only be used once, and you need a different ISBN for each different edition of your book.

Publisher Of Choice

There are a lot of publishers out there, including independant and hybrid ones. There are some dodgey vanity publishers out there who charge that charge thousands for something you can do yourself for free. Once I’ve saved up some money to buy more ISBNs, I plan to give Ingram a try. I’ve first published direct through Kindle Direct Publishing and Lulu Press, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to Smashwords and Draft2Digital, Imprefer the latter because it formats the work for you, even though they both do the same job of getting your e-book out to other e-book stores. If you choose to go exclusive, that’s fin, but I feel going nin-exclusive gives you more freedom.

Writing Magazines

There are two main writing magazines in the UK: Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum. Both offer free and discounted competitions for their subscribers. They also give nice star prizes to the star letters. I’ve found them both to be good in their own way and I like how the work shops and contests work as both a bit of free marketing with the subscriber’s spotlight and advice. I’ve had mixed experiance. Some of it was very positive and then there was one contest I entered where I didn’t understand the judge’s comment at all.

The writing magazines are a good window to the writing industry. They advertise dozens of writing and publishing opportunities that aren’t always found online.

Unions

I’m a part of The Writer’s Guild UK which is a Union which has does a lot of work for writers that work in theatre, TV and film. They’ve expanded to video games and self-published author. What I like about them is that they stand up for all authors. Their weekly bulletin that they email to all memebers helps me broadcast my news. There’s access to free and discounted courses, many of which I have found useful.

ALCS (Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society)

Lifetime membership is just £36. You can get it free if you’re part of The Writer’s Guild. Even if you’re not in a creative union, I’d say it’s worth the money. If you’ve had any written or visual works in print or online in the past three years, as long as it has a UK ISSN or an ISBN, you can claim for it. Books are immune to the three year rule, I believe. Self-published books count too. They pay twice a year in September and March. If you’re entitled to any, they will send it to your account. A big chunk of my earnings as a writer has come through ALCS. They have a really great support team. Their site is so easy to use.

PLR (Public Lending Rights)

This is also tied into ALCS. I did set up an account with PLR, and I’ve found it difficult to log on, but I’m gonna ring up at some point and change my password to see if that helps. Once my account there is sorted, I will be reimbursed every time somebody takes one of my books out of the library.

Social Media & Writing Groups

I put these two together because they do interlink a lot. There’s not gonna be writing groups in real life at the moment due to the Covid pandemic. I miss the writing groups. I miss my fortnightly trips to Oxford. I’d get a bubble tea on the way, and after the group, if I wasn’t working in the morning, a few drinks at the pub before the last train to Banbury. The group I use to go to on Wednesday was nice, there were some great characters there and a lot of Mikes.

Social Media has its pros and cons, but if you play Devil’s advocate it has kept us in contact during these isolating times. And through it, I’ve found some practical tips.

One of my favourite youtubers, Alexa Donne actually recommended Reddit, which I found to be a surprisingly useful tip. Self Publishing With Dale is another one of my favourite YouTube channels about self-publishing.

I enjoy the book reviews as well because it gives insight to what readers are thinking and you get to see what‘s trending. Sometimes I’m watching randi stuff on YouTube and then something clicks: that’s my next poem/story.

Libraries

I know they’re all closed at the moment, but I think they’re fantastic sources. We need them. And if we can’t go to a physical one, the we should make our own libraries at home. Even a virtual one is fine. My goal as a writer is to get my work in the big libraries. Today, I found out about legal depositing. In the UK, all publishers have to send a print copy of their work to The British Library. Other libraries may request more. Today, I sent of all ten of my books to The Legal Deposit Office of The British Library.

Thank you for reading

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About the Creator

Chloe Gilholy

Former healthcare worker and lab worker from Oxfordshire. Author of ten books including Drinking Poetry and Game of Mass Destruction. Travelled to over 20 countries.

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