Have you heard of Indie Author Day? Today, I’m excited to share with you an interview with Allie McKinney about this event and how it will be beneficial for authors who are self-published, published by an indie press or hybrid authors.
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A Little Background
My guest for today is Allie McKinney. She manages programs that support Author to Library relationships in the United States and abroad. I wanted to interview her because I know so many of you have not really dove into this whole area of libraries yet.
So we’re going to be talking about several different things today. She works a lot in that area. She works for Bibliolabs where she coordinates opportunities for libraries to make an impact on the Indie Writing Community, like Indie Author Day, which we’re going to be talking about, and Self-E.
The Interview
SHELLEY: Welcome to Author Audience, where I’m on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It’s time to let your light shine. Today, I’m rolling out the red carpet and inviting you to join me on this expert interview with Allie Mckinney. Hey Allie, welcome.
ALLIE: Hi! Thanks so much for having me.
SHELLEY: You are welcome. I’m Shelley Hitz, and I’m the owner of Author Audience Academy. I’m a true believer that success leaves clues that’s why I love doing these interviews. I love introducing my audience to authors and experts that have amazing success and are willing to share their tips and strategies.
ALLIE: Yeah. It’s so great to be here. I’m really happy to be able to offer any advice that I can for your author base.
SHELLEY: Yes, and I am really excited to dive in more to Indie Author Day, what it is about, how authors can get on board how your company, Bibliolabs, is supporting that. I also would like to talk a little bit about libraries. So, let’s dive right in!
What exactly is Indie Author Day?
ALLIE: That’s a great question! Indie Author Day is an opportunity for libraries to support their local writing communities and to feature independently published authors; whether they be self-published, published by an indie press, or hybrid authors.
It’s often difficult for indie authors to get out there and get featured within the library system. So this is just helping libraries to do that in an easy and compact way, and for authors to make that crucial connection within the library system as well.
SHELLEY: I love that! There is so much noise out there, so much competition, but local communities is a great place to start when you’re wanting to promote your book.
What is the exact date of Indie Author Day?
ALLIE: The date is October 8, 2016. So it’s right around the corner.
SHELLEY: Awesome! You guys should write this down, get out your calendar and mark October 8th. It looks like it’s a Saturday.
So Allie, what are some tips or things that authors can do to take advantage of this date, October 8th? What can they do to take advantage of this to promote their books?
ALLIE: That’s a great question as well. The first thing is to check out the website IndieAuthorDay.com and see what other people are doing.
On the home page we have examples of what people have done in the past. Authors can also click onto the “Where page” to see which libraries are hosting events. That is very crucial so they can find out, “What is my closest library that’s hosting an event?”
Then you can reach out to your local library and find out. Some libraries might have an event up on their website and some might still be in the planning stages. So if your library is still planning, see if you can sign books and get involved in that way, or just attending, because there are going to be people from all across the industry at your library to talk to and learn from. So you can learn from one another.
So it’s a really good way to meet crucial influencers and to make a connection with your local library. Librarians are the people recommending books, and local is very important to librarians. So, meeting you is very important to them as well.
We also have a form on our website where authors can reach out to us and let us know if they want to get involved if their library is not hosting an event, or if they just want to be in touch with a librarian as well.
SHELLEY: That’s awesome. After I get off this call I’m going to look up and see what my library is doing.
ALLIE: We’d love to have you get out there and be speaking.
SHELLEY: Yeah! So let me ask you these questions for the sake of the authors;
- If their library isn’t involved, do you think they can reach out to their library and let them know about this?
- Do you think all libraries already know about this?
- If the libraries are going to be involved, will they already be included on this event?
- Do you think there would be any benefit to talking to a library if they don’t have something already planned?
ALLIE: Definitely! So the deadline is coming up; it’s September 1st for libraries to sign on. If they reach out through the website we will actually help them out with getting in touch with their library.
We have a template email that makes it really easy, just so that they can get started. It tells what Indie Author Day is so that they don’t have to find that language. Then, we also give them a contact of the person who would be most likely to be organizing an event if that particular library was to do one.
SHELLEY: I love that, that’s great! Is this something that will be ongoing every year?
ALLIE: Yes, it will. Right now we’re working on nailing down a date for next year and should have that up in the next couple of weeks. Beyond that we’re also planning on keeping this going throughout the next year.
So we’re just offering librarian-to-author resources and helping them to connect as much as we can between this year and next year’s Indie Author Day.
SHELLEY: I love this and it’s such a great idea. I’m so glad you guys are taking the initiative and offering this for authors.
What are some of the types of activities that the participating libraries will offer authors?
ALLIE: Each library is different and their events are geared towards their specific community.
- Some libraries will be hosting workshops throughout the day to really help work on all the different skills that their authors need.
- Some will be doing book signings and readings, and will be more patron based. Some will be doing presentations and panels.
- Some libraries in particular have local authors that are independently published and some that are traditionally published so they’ll be doing panels that have them talking about their publishing routes and why they went the way they went. This is to help educate other authors that might be interested.
- Some are doing mixes of all those different things.
At 2 PM Eastern everyone will be joining together for a digital panel presentation.
SHELLEY: Cool. Where will that be streamed from? Will the digital panel be online then?
ALLIE: Yes, it will be available on YouTube. So even if you don’t have a library anywhere near the vicinity, you can pop in and see the panel, and learn from everybody on it.
SHELLEY: Where do you access that?
ALLIE: We’re setting up the URL now and will be posting it on our website in a week. It will have information just on what the YouTube page is looking like and we plan on keeping things up to date on there as well throughout the next year.
SHELLEY: Awesome. So they can find everything at IndieAuthorDay.com?
ALLIE: Yes.
SHELLEY: This is a really fun thing! I’ve been an independent author since 2008, and I love that there is some connections now happening between libraries and independently published authors.
Who do you think is more excited about Indie Author Day, authors or libraries?
ALLIE: That’s hard to say. It’s really great for libraries because it’s often difficult for them to find these indie authors and meet the authors in the community.
So, it’s a well packaged event. We’re helping them to find those who are nearby and interested in the event, helping put on the event, sending posters and just about everything.
Authors, especially indie authors, are feeling like they finally are getting the recognition that they need, which is really exciting for everybody.
SHELLEY: Yes, I love it. I really do! You also work with what’s called Self-E, right?
Talk to me a little bit more about that. I’ve looked into it, but I haven’t fully dove into it myself, and I know I would love for my listeners to learn more about it too.
ALLIE: Self-E is a program that’s helping to get your eBooks physically within the library.
Authors submit their books and the first level of the program is that we have a local curation of all the books submitted to Self-E that are statewide. So you would have Indie New York that would be one collection and that would be available throughout libraries that are subscribing in New York.
Then there’s also another level where your book goes over to Library Journal reviewers and they pick the very best. These best books are curated into a genre based collections that can be accessed by libraries all over the US and Canada.
It really is a good program and it ties nicely into Indie Author Day since it helps you get your book into the library so that any patrons that are coming on Indie Author Day could go and get started reading your book.
We often suggest putting in your first book in a series, or something that you think would hook readers so that they go on to continue reading and purchasing your other books.
SHELLEY: So for Self-E, you just submit your book, and it’s basically like offering it for a free promotional? It’s for free to get more exposure, is that correct?
ALLIE: Exactly. Within California we saw, for instance, one author submitted the first book and second book in a series and we saw that within November his book was one of the top read books in California; the first one in the series. But then the next month the second one in the series was the most popular.
So, it shows that he’s kind of hooking readers by having it in there. The third book in the series, we spoke with him and he said that they increased in sales within that time period as well. It really is just a great way to get exposure and to introduce yourself to people who might not be able to find your books elsewhere.
SHELLEY: Oh yeah, I totally am all about discoverability. I know there are a lot of debates on whether or not you should do free, but I totally believe that when you are not discovered yet, it makes such a great opportunity when you put a first book in a series or one of your books out there so that people can find you. It could be a free promotion or it’s like this with Self-E.
Does it cost any money to submit the book to Self-E?
ALLIE: No, there’s no cost to authors.
SHELLEY: There’s no cost and there’s really no risk, right? So to authors out there, you’re getting new readers, maybe you’ll even get new reviews and you may actually get loyal fans.
Some people, once they read your book, they’re hooked, and they want to read your next book and your next book.
That’s awesome, I love it! Explain to me a little bit how Bibliolabs are involved in Indie Author Day, Self-E, and all that.
ALLIE: Bibliolabs is one of the partners with Self-E. So it’s Bibliolabs and Library Journal. We offer the technological and structural background for it while Library Journal reviews the books in Self-E.
Indie Author Day came about through Self-E actually. We were already doing these events for the libraries to help them to reach out to their Self-E authors and feature them within the library. So, from that we were like, “What’s a way to make this more significant for the library, more successful and more likely to get more people coming into the library?”
So we thought of picking one day and have all our customers host these events on that day. It would then be much larger than just one small library hosting a local event.
So we ran with that and we were amazed to see that it took off and caught the attention of so many libraries beyond our customer base who just wanted to get into that and meet those authors. We figured we would open it up to everybody and then we got great partners coming on board from all across the publishing industry who were interested in helping as well.
So, it has really become something; not just Bibliolabs or not just a Self-E program, but something that is inside the industry and growing. Every time we turn around and see another library sign on we get excited.
SHELLEY: Yeah it is very exciting. If an author is listening right now and they have an opportunity, they have some independently published books and their library is participating in the Indie Author Day, would that be something where they would be able to do a book signing?
Is that what I heard you say? How would that work if they wanted to do a book signing or have their books there?
ALLIE: There are a lot of libraries that are hosting book signings. There are a few that might have restrictions like you can’t sell books in the library, that sort of thing. But it seems that the majority of those who are hosting events are also having signings going on as well on the event.
I think the best thing to do, if your library is participating, is to reach out and let them know you’re interested in getting involved and that you’d be willing to do a signing. There are also some people who are super new and just want to enjoy the experience and maybe they would want to pass out fliers or something smaller.
In any way that you are able and interested in getting involved you should definitely let your library know and they’d be excited to have you.
SHELLEY: So awesome. Our time is winding down, so do you have any other tips for indie authors on working with libraries or getting their books in libraries?
ALLIE: The biggest things is letting librarians know you have your book. Self-E is a great program because if your book is really high quality and Library Journal marks it with their stamp of approval, that’s a big thing you can talk to librarians about too.
“Oh, well Library Journal said it’s a great book,” so instead of just coming in unknown, they can already feel comfortable that you have a high quality book. In general just making those crucial connections, starting local and working your way up, and not forgetting about the library.
SHELLEY: Yeah!
ALLIE: If you can go to bookstores why can’t you go to libraries? Across the US or anywhere that you go.
SHELLEY: We live in Colorado Springs and we have an extremely amazing library system. I was just there last night for a training, and they have an entire video studio and audio studio that we can use.
I’m going to record my next audio book there. It’s amazing the things they have! I was just thinking, “Oh my goodness, I need to be doing more in my library!”
ALLIE: Definitely.
SHELLEY: They have so many things. Smaller towns, granted, there are different library systems around, but I just love that you guys are doing this and I would love to see more authors get involved. Authors are usually book lovers.
ALLIE: Exactly.
SHELLEY: It kind of goes hand in hand. I love to end my sessions with a take action tip. There were several things that we talked about, what would be the specific actions that you would recommend for an author take after they finish listening to this interview?
ALLIE: The biggest thing would be to go to IndieAuthorDay.com and see where in your area a library is hosting an event. Then, from there, see how you can get involved, reach out to your librarian or fill out the form on our website, and see what they need. That’s the biggest thing, finding out how your knowledge, your experience and what you have, fits with this event.
SHELLEY: That’s great. I love this so much. Thank you so much for being here Allie, I really appreciate it. By the way, my niece’s name is Allie, so that’s near and dear to my heart. Thank you so much for being here.
What is the best way for people to connect with you? Is it through Indie Author Day or do you have another website you’d like to share?
ALLIE: IndieAuthorDay.com is a great way, also if they want to go to Self-E.LibraryJournal.com that’s another great way to reach out if you’re more interested in that side of the program. Authors can also email me at info@IndieAuthorDay.com if they want to learn more.
SHELLEY: Awesome, thank you so much Allie.
Thank you all for joining us on this episode. I hope it got you excited and I hope it got you looking forward to how you can join in with your libraries, and be featured.
Until next time!
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