5 Good Reasons to Join Indie Authors United

Are you an indie author? Maybe you self-publish your books, or maybe you publish through a small publisher that leaves you with most of the burden of selling your books. If this describes you, then you have a job to do—the business of publishing needs your attention! You can't just occasionally publish a title and hope that it somehow finds readers. This can happen, but if you don't put much effort into publishing then you shouldn't expect much out of it.

Since it can be hard to know what to do, to maximize your sales, I set up a new forum specifically to discuss the business side of indie publishing. There are many places online where you can engage with other writers to talk about the craft of writing, but it's good to have places to talk about the business of publishing too. My new forum certainly isn't the first, there are others. Read more to see why you might want to join Indie Authors United.

Here are five reasons you might want to join my new forum:

1. Focus on Business

It's important to pay attention to the craft of writing, but when you're ready to discuss the business side of things, you should be able to do that without distraction. This includes avoiding arguments about whether art and money are incompatible.

2. Free Advertising

Advertising your books to other authors may not be the most lucrative thing to do, but it's not without value. After all, writers read too. In the Promotion forum on Indie Authors United, you can promote your books at no cost. The system will clean up the forum automatically, by expiring posts after awhile.

3. Minimal Moderation, Maximum Discussion

Some online communities have heavy-handed moderation, and some of those are very specific to the views and interests of the moderator(s). The opposite approach is taken on Indie Authors United—moderation is kept to a minimum, mostly to remove abusive behavior (spam, personal attacks, etc.). Off-topic conversations may be moved to one side, but the goal is to maximize discussion, not limit it.

4. Open to the Public, No Gatekeepers

For good reason, some business-focused online communities for writers are closed to the public. Unfortunately, some ugly behavior from a few people can make others wary of sharing online. While this is unfortunate, I believe there is value in also providing public discussions where anyone, even people who don't create an account and just "lurk," can read the forums and learn from what others post. Therefore, anybody can join, there is no invitation or approval process (other than proving you're not a spammer).

5. Mobile-friendly Design

You're probably familiar with how difficult it can be to use forum sites on a phone. The theme installed on Indie Authors United is very mobile-friendly. Give it a try!

Stop by, take a look, and set up your free account if you think it will meet your needs!

Image credit: Illustration created using clip art from Openclipart user bocian and a photo from morgueFile user penywise.