For the Alliance… of Independent Authors

Declaration of an independent author…

So while I was first starting my journey self publishing, I joined the Alliance of Independent Authors three–or four?–years ago, and it was a mistake. Let me explain.

The Alliance of Independent Authors is a membership organization dedicated to helping indie authors… but you probably guessed that. They offer help through multiple avenues. They host podcasts and blogs by people within the indie space. They run campaigns to advocate for indie authors. But perhaps their most valuable asset is the discounts that are offered for members for any indie publishing service you may need.

By the way, I’m not trying to sell you on becoming an AOIA member.

In fact, I joined AOIA too soon.

Like I shared in my previous post, I’ve had to fight through the fear of failure to get to this point (having a book finished and available for pre-order). But I’ve had brief breakthroughs in the past. One of those was buying ISBNs, and another was joining AOIA.

I’ve come a long way.

But I joined AOIA three maybe four years ago, thinking I’d be releasing books that year…

I was wrong.

My good ol’ palls, doubt and fear held me back.

So a basic membership with AOIA is 89$, annually. I didn’t use any services that AOIA offers until about two months ago. SO I was throwing money down the drain for three years. In the grand calculus of things, am I going to miss 300$? Probably not.

But I’m a happy member of AOIA now, and I’m actually using the perks they offer… it’s all a part of the process.

The biggest help AOIA has been for my self publishing journey has been the discounts their members can access. This was the primary reason I joined when I did–I figured I’d need the services they’ve vetted, and I might as well get them at a discount.

So far I’ve used AOIA to find an editing service (TypeWrite), and a promotional site (which I will mention only if I see returns with them). I can absolutely recommend TypeWrite if you’re self publishing and looking for an editor. And of course I cut down editing costs through my AOIA membership.

It’s good for me to be a member in the Alliance of Independent Authors, though I should’ve started this year.

Well, I hope you’ve gotten something out of this. If you’re interested in pre-ordering my book, you can find it here. It’s only $0.99 before release, which is quite a steal if I do say so myself… and I do.

Next time I’ll tell you about ISBNs, which is still my largest expense during this long process.

But until then, I hope you have a wonderful day,

Colin J Switalski

*This was originally posted on my old blog on June 5th, 2023.