Support Indie Black Authors: A Black History Month post
Feb 1, 2023
It's Black History Month 2023. As people "acknowledge it with a wish to Black Americans for a "Happy Black History Month," I want to ask for more than "thoughts and prayers." I want to encourage the financial support of Black Indie authors writing fiction. As an Indie romance author, I've been thinking about what we do to see our work into readers' hands and the world.
Indies pay for everything related to their publications, so we see some financial benefits when their books are purchased, read, and reviewed. Those benefits then go into the publication of the next book, and the next one. Indies (including me) have to be creative and tenacious. We distribute across many online platforms and sell to libraries. We promo frequently. We offer sales. We do giveaways. We price our books to sell, so we don't have to do deep discounts. We do all this, often while working or caring for family full-time.
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We don't get advances to help fund the next book(s) because we don't have a traditional publisher (Random House, St. Martin, Harlequin, etc.). We rely on the royalties we get from each sold book (a different kettle of fish when dealing with online publishers) and side gigs (editing, cover design, Patreon, Substack, etc.) to fund our book projects.
We do all this to ensure Black Romance exists when traditional publishing could care less. We do this because we love Black Romance, Black love, and Black peoples. We write across genres because Black fiction shouldn't be bound. We are playful with genre conventions, accept criticism, and keep writing. We do all this and most often from our pockets.
We ask you to buy our books, and we ask you to recommend our books, especially when there's a call for Black Romance, or Black Fantasy/SF, or Black Historical Fiction recs. We ask that you give to our funding sources (Ko-fi, Patreon, Substack pledges or paid subscription, PayPal, Cash App, whatever payment we use). We ask you to buy and gift our books and support our paperback efforts if you can but definitely the eBook (the cheapest version).
This message is mostly for non-Black folk: if you are keen to celebrate BHM and eager to acknowledge the accomplishments of Black creatives, I urge you to provide Black indie authors financial support. Give to all of us fighting to make sure that Black Romance remains on the "shelves." Celebrate an Indie Black Romance author, Black mystery or thriller author, Black fantasy/SF author, Black poet, or Black essayist by becoming a Patron (in the traditional sense of patronage). Buy their books and give them monetary gifts if you enjoy their work so they can produce more. Your gifts can fund cover artists and editors (freelance), subscription services to promote their books, and more.
Finally, I am an Indie romance author. I'm a Black Romance Indie author. I'm also an essayist on this site. Support me; support Black authors and creatives; support Black Indie Romance.
Website: www.elysabethgrace.com
Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/elysabethgrace1
Substack: https://margohendricks.substack.com/
PayPal: elysabethgraceauthor@gmail.com
MargoH's Musings is reader-supported. Consider becoming a paid subscriber.
© 2024 Margo Hendricks
