It's Time to Unite our Villages and Sell More Books

Back when I was Xena, I wrote a post called It Takes a Village to Sell a Book.  It marked a turning point in my understanding of the supportive writing/blogging community. You'd think we'd all be curled up in jealousy over each other's success, right? But instead writers are the most amazing community imaginable.

To quote from my village post,  "You are creating your own village and as it grows and grows, they will encourage, share, cry and rejoice with you along the way. And ultimately they'll not only buy your book, they'll help sell it. Your village will interview you, post reviews on Goodreads, tell everyone they know, and generally do more good for your sales than the bookstore owner who's struggling to stay in business and focusing largely on whatever is the bestseller of the day.

"This is how it works people. We are building something here, populating the blog world with all of our fun and original little cities, full of fun and interesting inhabitants. We call them followers, but in reality they're our village. They help us, we help them, and we all need each other."

 As I wrote that post, I pondered the great question.

How to turn this highly supportive culture of writers into a mutually beneficial association that will help us do what we are online to do-- sell our books.

Many of you may not be published YET. But when that happy day comes you're going to ask-- How Can Authors & Publishers Sell More Books?  Believe me, it's true, even Charles Dickens had to face it. I've been agonizing over this question for three years, ever since my first book came out. At first blush, we're just thrilled to be published. "Aw shucks, if only a few people buy my book and like it, I'll be thrilled."

Until we realize how much we love this job, and how much we really want to make a living at it.  Then book sales become the overriding concern. And let's face it. Writers aren't complete without readers. We need readers to buy our books, to love them and eagerly await our next release. It's what every author longs for. It's why we toil endless hours over our craptastic manuscripts, and do a zillion revisions. It's for the readers.

Okay, enough philosophizing. You already know this stuff anyway. What you don't know is this. A website for authors is coming that's unlike anything out there right now. It will be a place to consolidate and focus this innate desire authors have to support their own. While enabling us to sell more books and make more money doing it. This new website will unite our villages.

I'm not trying to taunt you. It's for a purpose. I need 100 authors with books to sell-- either print or ebook-- ready to go with their profile pages, cover images and summaries set up in advance of the launch.

If you're interested in being part of the First One Hundred at launch, then email me (karenjonesgowen@gmail.com) and I can tell you exactly what is needed to get started. (And don't worry, I won't ask for money or make you purchase a book on how to sell more books lol.)

I signed a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits me from giving out specific details. You can see my dilemma, since it's my assignment to find the First One Hundred participating authors. I'm not allowed to tell the name of the site yet *as you might have noticed* despite the fact that I am tired of pussy footing around this and I am so ready  to shout it from the rooftops.

But I can't. However, I will continue to provide updates as I can. Have I said enough to pique your curiousity, you published authors? Enough to motivate you to write me an email? Or have I just irritated the crap out of everyone with my non-disclosure, still not saying anything, and hinting around until you're all sick of it? I hope not, because I need you to help spread the word, to find 100 authors ready to go. The village has been built, and it is freakin' awesome. It's time to populate it.

So whether you're traditionally or self- published, if wondering how to sell more books is keeping you awake at night, then this could be your sleep remedy. If you are interested in being part of the First One Hundred, shoot me an email. If you know others in the same sleepless boat, send them a link to this post.

We are authors helping authors, and this planned website, currently set to launch in 6 - 8 weeks, is going to make it a whole lot easier for us to do what we're already doing online. So let's get the word out! Share this post through facebook, twitter, link to it on your blogs, let's unite our villages. This is going to be huge. A revolution. And it starts with the First One Hundred.