Keeping Up With the Times

One of my favorite things about being an indie author is the need to constantly adapt and learn new skills. It’s also one of the most stressful parts of being an indie author, but we’ll discuss that some other day.

Some of the keeping up with the times work does affect the artistic end of being an author. I need to read in my genre to know what readers are looking for―what tropes are hot, what narration styles are getting gobbled up, even how far you can push the maturity boundaries within the young adult sphere.

A lot of the keeping up is on the business end. What are the Amazon algorithms up to? Have the also-boughts moved again? What are the best distributions sites?

The ways that authors connect with readers has changed as well.

A few years ago, having a blog was the big thing that every author needed to invest their time in. Then Facebook groups and parties were a massive thing. Then it became accessing your audience through Facebook messenger bots (that one I never understood.)

As voice technology moves forward, podcasting has become the connection tool of the moment. And it makes a ton of sense. You can listen to your favorite author while you commute. You can catch up on book news while you cook.

I love listening to podcasts, and starting the A Book and A Dream podcast has been super fun. It feels like such a more straightforward and human way to share my love of books and journey as an author.

Now that I have this platform I can use to connect, my new question becomes how best to use this venture to deliver quality content to my readers.

I have a lot of plans in the works, including some really exciting guests, some behind-the-scenes peeks at upcoming projects, and fun topics like fantasy stories that could have turned out completely differently if one sentence had been changed.

Here’s to new challenges in the evolving reader-author connection.