“Who published your book?”
Interestingly, no one asked me this question at my appearance Saturday at a homeschooling conference where I gave a talk on children’s literature and maintained a vendor table for my Kingdom of Patria series. No one asked the question simply because no one cared. It wasn’t relevant. The fact that I had been invited to speak at the conference had already created an atmosphere of trust around me and my work, and trust is above all what an author wants to inspire in his or her audience.
The traditionally published author seeks to generate trust with, say, the Scholastic or Walden Pond Press logo on the back of his book. The indie author needs to generate trust in other ways, but the point is that trust can be generated independently of a big name publisher.
How?
Through, for example, public speaking, a blog, positive reviews, professional production standards, consistent and friendly outreach to one’s readers (via email and a newsletter), and the much-coveted word of mouth.
Trust, not a major imprint, is what matters most between author and audience. And trust scales virtually to infinity.
So what are you doing today to earn trust?
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