A Thank You To Bloggers.

I was browsing Facebook and Twitter last night as you do, and I was really disturbed to find a tweet that had been posted by a small time publisher which basically insulted bloggers and what they do.

Now alarming as it is to find a publisher who has started shunning social media in general when they have a responsibility to market their authors, I was disgusted that they would dis an entire percentage of the book community with such a sweeping statement.

It got better- the comments kept coming and the smugness too.

This post is not about that though… It’s in light of this that I feel as an author and a publishing company director that I want to say this.

Bloggers – You do an amazing job and your exposure for writers has a massive impact. We cannot thank you enough xx

If you were one of the commenter’s on that post, then please ignore it. One persons ill informed opinion should not be taken seriously. Especially when delivered with such attitude.

You publicise books relentlessly. With passion and determination. You spend many hours reading and writing about the books you are involved with, sometimes running yourself ragged to meet deadlines and you are the unsung hero’s in the book community.

Indie authors galore rely on you to help spread the word in a market that is over saturated. That includes me.

Even if your audience is small, even if you are new and do not have many reviews. Your social media and tireless loyalty to helping is what makes this a great community and I have lost count of the amount of authors who praise blog tours.

You contribute to the searchability of books, the word of mouth and the exposure.

If a book isn’t selling it is not because you have not slogged your guts out to make it be seen. That is not on you.

My books hit the market in December 2016. I never knew one single blogger. I was not in book groups but I was a social media queen and busted my ass to be seen. A few months later, limping up in popularity and sales and doing well considering – I went to a book signing.

From that one signing I met a lot of bloggers who all frequent these events and secured myself some exposure because most if not all of you are lovely, and truly want to help. Within 2-3 months my sales quadrupled from blog exposure alone and pushed my books to best selling status and instantly recognisable among book groups. You propelled my books.

What this publisher fails to recognise is this – bloggers do not just blog. They push their reviews on many platforms and their reach can be very impressive, even with small audiences.

They passionately post in groups and on all forms of social media tirelessly.

Accumulating a response is not always immediate and as blogs never disappear, sometimes sales can build up over months it is unfair to critiscise a blogger for their reach or audience. They have way more accumulative audience than what you see on blogs.

I once stumbled upon a book review for a book, 4 months after it had been posted. By sheer accident, and on the review of that blog I bought the E book. I now own the paperback too.

Bloggers are also paying customers and passionate readers, they are the bread and butter to a lot of small Indie writers with no budget to push ads and paid tours.

Bloggers are in fact so important to the book community that all of the big 5 publishers sue them and send out frequent blog tour requests.

Do not doubt your worth or ask yourself if you have value. You do. More than you know , and I for one can testify that bloggers are a huge help to authors whether they are Trad or Indie published and should be recognised for that.

Much love to you and if you want to review my books, drop me a message LOL