You Know You Wanna Do It… <3
You’ve wanted to do it for so long. Every year you promise yourself you’ll break free and finally take the plunge. If you’re already doing it, you’ve probably told yourself to do it more often, even when it would be easier to just roll over and go to sleep.
Guess what? Now is a perfect time to start. The leftover turkey is dwindling; soon to become soup, and the major rush of the latest holiday is over. We have an opportunity to sit and soak our feet, letting our bruises heal from the battle known as Black Friday, and reflect upon the last forty-eight hours of our lives. We have eaten until we are bursting at the seams, and shopped until our credit cards are tapped out… it’s been a good week.
Now that the opportunity to breath has arrived how about we reflect upon one of the most important days of the year? It may not even be a day you’ve heard of with all of the noise surrounding Black Friday, Amazon Flash Deals, and once in a lifetime price reductions, but let’s talk about SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY!
I’ve run small businesses for the majority of my life, so I know how hard it can be. Being an author, blogger, or book reviewer is no different. Sure, there is no inventory per se, or employees, or even client meetings necessarily, but the desire to sell your product or service (book blogging and reviewing is a service) is exactly like any other business. Our clients and customers are a special group of folks, they are readers and fans… they are… you.
In this day and age of self-published mayhem, how do you, the reader, find something worthwhile to read while you wait for your favorite independent author to publish his next book? It may be a year, or two, before you see the next installment of the written mastery you fell in love with. How do you, the reader, support independent authors, and small business people, in a manner that allows them the ability to afford to write? We all know it is next to impossible to browse the Amazon catalog by genre, hoping to find the gem of an independent author we wish to support. The numbers are just too big and the nature of Amazon is to show the books that have been viewed the most… which historically is not the demographic of the independent author.
Let me make a suggestion, or two, that might help on multiple fronts. Online book groups, and online book bloggers, might just help you narrow down the list and expose you to some of the most amazing books currently available in the independent author arena. As a side benefit, many book bloggers also receive affiliation fees from Amazon when you click through to purchase a book off of their site. With one single purchase you are helping two small business people, the author and the blogger. It isn’t a scam, it’s a win/win/win. The author makes money, the book blogger makes money, and you get the opportunity of read an amazing book from an author you may never have heard of.
Here are a few of the book clubs and blogs I follow, although there are many more and several that are genre specific. Hopefully you will find them useful the next time you are sitting at home, next to a fire and wondering, “what should I read next?” (After you read my award winning novels, of course, that can be found on right here on embosso.net: SMAFU And FBoM ):
FACEBOOK GROUPS
https://www.facebook.com/ThebookclubTBC1/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionforbooks/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/COBauthorsgroup/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BookAholicCafe/
BOOK BLOGGERS (Partial list, there are thousands and I’m sure you will find one that fits your interests)
http://noemptyshelveshere.blogspot.co.uk/
https://booknvolume.com/2016/08/20/in-the-lime-light-authorspotlight-e-m-bosso/
www.baattyaboutbooks.wordpress.com
www.traciedelaney.wordpress.com
http://sueandherbooks.blogspot.co.uk/
Finally, although this particular post is about supporting authors and the reviewers that support them, I would also like to throw out into the world that small business people frequently have a difficult time competing with the big guys on price and selection, but more than make up for it with service and caring. In my humble opinion, it’s worth the extra couple of percent the small business may charge to be treated as a valued person and customer instead of just one of the thousands of people walking through a big companies doors every day. So maybe… just maybe… the next time you are out shopping and see something being sold at a small store, or service provider, skip the quick look on the internet to compare prices and ask yourself, “Will the giant retailer I just bought that from remember my name if I happen to run into them on the street? Does that corporation really need the extra couple of bucks I’m saving by not buying that item from a neighbor?”… Just a random thought.