The Hugbox Dilemma

There is often a trend among new indie authors to stay within the boundaries of safety. The willingness to hide oneself from criticism, consciously or not, can be cancerous to ones writing career. Not only can it leave you ignorant of your potential writing flaws, it can also leave you absent from places that can make you money.

It can be difficult on one’s sensibilities to be around critics, but it is a necessity if you want to grow as a writer and as a business. I made this same mistake when I first started, I knew that I needed a social media presence, but all I did was surround myself with people that are fellow authors. Don’t do this.

Fellow authors can be great if you need advice on where to find services or you need an opinion publication processes. However, you should not count on fellow authors to be your marketplace. All authors are the same in that they are looking to sell books. If your entire social media group is people selling and not buying, then you’ve made not a single sale.

Fellow authors are also not as likely to be as honest with you about your writing as customers. Afterall, they have no reason to care or think critically about your book. They haven’t invested in it. But somebody who paid good money for your book will surely let you know what they liked or disliked. They have skin in the game.

The solution to this dreaded hugbox problem is to not only be part of author communities but to also be part of reading communities. More than likely, if you write books, then you also read them. And it will be easy enough to find such people on various social media platforms. Engross yourself in these communities genuinely, make it known you’re an author and make friends. People will come to you naturally interested in your opinions and your own works. Also, do not rely on only one social media platform. Not everyone that uses Facebook also uses Twitter. You need to branch out. It might also help to buy ads in some of these places if you can afford to do so.

Now, this is just a quick little how-to to help newer indie writers gain a following of customers – not just colleagues. Starting from nothing – no fame and no money and turning that into a sale is one of the hardest things you can do as a new author. These are things I’m still trying to master being only a year into this myself. I know it seems like a lot and that’s because it is. Being an indie author means you’re taking on every responsibility of a publisher. You need to take that seriously if you want to be successful. But if you do your research and be good to your potential customers you have a chance!

This blog post was written by S.C. Vincent. He’s an American author of Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction. He began his journey as an author in May of 2021 with the release of ‘The Arcadian Destiny’. His upcoming fantasy novella, ‘Ys The Fallen’ releases on July 18th, 2022. You can find his social media links here: https://linktr.ee/scvincent