A week ago I had an email from Orna Ross, founder and director of The Alliance of Independent Authors, a relatively new organisation set up to promote the interests of self-publishing authors. “Congratulations!” she wrote. “BEATRICE has been chosen as our August Book of The Month. I loved it and so did our anonymous readers – a great achievement!” Now this would be a thrill coming from any organisation but I’m doubly proud my book’s been picked by ALLi because it’s a seriously professional group I’m glad to be a member of.
How did I come to join ALLi? Having successfully published BEATRICE in print and eBook format (Kindle and now Kobo) I was ready to move on to the next set of challenges, namely: how to sell subsidiary rights (translation, audio and large print, film and TV) and how to find literary prizes and awards that recognised self-publishing authors even existed. Reading through ALLi’s blog posts I quickly realised there were authors just like me grappling with exactly the same issues! As soon as I read the mission statement it was a no-brainer.
As well as encouraging ethics and excellence in writing, printing, publication and promotion, our aim is to promote, support, advocate for and advance the interests of independent, self-publishing authors.
They had me at ‘ethics’ and ‘excellence’.
So, ALLi, thank you very much for the lovely accolade. I look forward to giving something back.
