Hello, and welcome to The Empowered Author. I set up this site to support authors in a friendly and accessible way and hopefully answer a lot or the questions you have along the way.
I write blog posts, collate useful links from trusted resources and am lucky enough to know a lot of publishing experts who generously share insight on the blog too. These four posts will get you started.
Start here
Find out about author associations and societies
Writing is a solitary pursuit, I highly recommend you join as many support networks as possible. There are lots of author associations and societies that you can join and benefit from - events, social activity, discounts, professional support and much more. I will add to this list, but here a few of the associations and what they offer.
Find book bloggers, booktubers and influencers to work with
Book bloggers, booktubers and bookstagrammers are an army of book-lovers busily talking about our books to their audiences. They have a huge amount of credibility with book-lovers, so are very valuable contacts for you to build. Find them here:
These are the top 20 book influencers as chosen by book-lovers on Twitter.
You can search for book bloggers who review in your genre, review self-publishing books & more.
Instagram is the perfect place for book-lovers. Check out these 24 bookstagrammers.
Here are my favourite 8 booktubers sharing their love of books on YouTube.
Learn from these podcasts
Another thing I put a lot of my effort into is finding and highlighting great advice and content from around the web. There are quite a few resources that I trust for valuable ideas, tips and insight and I’ve group them together in posts below.
Learn about marketing and publishing.
The best podcasts for writers.
Podcasts for book-lovers.
LEARN FROM OTHER AUTHORS
One of the best ways to learn about the different elements of book marketing is to look at more experienced authors. It is perfectly acceptable to adapt ideas to suit you, your books and your readers - no need to reinvent the wheel.
5 author newsletters I love
Authors who are brilliant at Twitter
13 great author websites
ASK THE EXPERTS
The Empowered Author Q&As fall into a few categories - Literary Agents, Authors, Marketing Experts, Influencers and Publicists. Some of them are member-only, but most of them will be open to all authors. Newsletter subscribers will hear about them first, so make sure you’re signed up.
FIND SUPPLIERS & SERVICES
Irresepctive of which publishing route you have taken, or indeed where you’re at in your writing career, you will probably need to find companies and individuals to support you. Check out my supplier and services listing here.
Cover designers
Web developers
Editorial services
Publishing services
Most of the content on this site is free for all authors. I also share lots of tips, industry news and insight on my Twitter feed. If you find what I do valuable, and would like to buy me a virtual coffee, that would be wonderful.
For lots of additional perks, discount and content, you can also become a member of The Empowered Author, find out more here.
I’d love to hear from you, so please get in touch.
Are you a traditionally published author hoping to add to what your publisher is doing? This post will give you some pointers.