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Author Support Network

4K views 35 replies 15 participants last post by  Becca Mills 
#1 ·
I've not seen any announcement here, so thought I may as well make it.

INDIE AUTHORS!
A new organization, the Indie Author Support Network, is forming to give indie authors a seat at the table with the important stakeholders in our business. If you'd like to be part of this exciting new effort to advocate for indie authors, let us know you're IN by April 30. If we have 1,000 founding authors willing to move forward by then, we'll make it happen (and we're about halfway there in our first 12 hours).
For more information, join the Author Support Network at facebook.com/groups/AuthorSupportNetwork (make sure to answer the three required entry questions).
I removed some of the details. Mods, if the link is not appropriate, remove it. The title is the Facebook group name, so should be easily findable.

I've joined the FB group to see where this goes.

It may interest others here who have definite opinions about Amazon, KDP and KU.

It is only for authors, and you have to prove you are an author before they let you in. It also has very strict posting instructions.
 
#2 ·
TimothyEllis said:
I've not seen any announcement here, so thought I may as well make it.

I removed some of the details. Mods, if the link is not appropriate, remove it. The title is the Facebook group name, so should be easily findable.

I've joined the FB group to see where this goes.

It may interest others here who have definite opinions about Amazon, KDP and KU.

It is only for authors, and you have to prove you are an author before they let you in. It also has very strict posting instructions.
Thanks for the info. It sounds like an interesting idea.
 
#4 ·
Avery342 said:
I hope I joined the right one (followed your link), because the group is showing over 5000 members! I had thought this was a new group forming?
Yes indeed. 5000+ members of the group already.

If you read the sticky post, there is an email if you want to officially join. The group is one thing, but they want 1000 paid up members (nominal fee to be announced how to pay) to form things officially.

So 5000+ is just a show of support. Getting their 1000 paid members will show if this really has legs. Apparently they had over 500 commitments at the last message I saw about it.
 
#7 ·
Avery342 said:
Ah, I see. Prospective members can't see the sticky post yet, though. Now it makes sense.
Ah, ok.

The author in charge of it all is a powerhouse, and the group is great for brainstorming and general suppprt. :)

p.s. Here's a little more information:

A new organization, the Indie Author Support Network, is forming to give indie authors a seat at the table with the important stakeholders in our business. If you'd like to be part of this exciting new effort to advocate for indie authors, let us know you're IN by April 30. If we have 1,000 founding authors willing to move forward by then, we'll make it happen (and we're about halfway there in our first 12 hours). To show your support:
1. Email indie@marieforce.com
2. Tell us if you'd like to serve on a steering committee or volunteer another skill/service
3. Follow us on Twitter @author_indie
 
#8 ·
I'm in - blogged about it today. What I particularly like is the tight focus of the group - exclusively for high-level advocacy and interfacing directly with retailers. Great idea, and great timing too. Really interested to see how it develops. Huge need for it IMO.
 
#9 ·
What do they need a 1000 authors for?

A steering committee that large is never going to agree on anything.

I like the general idea. No idea yet if what they are doing is practical. While KDP might be making nice at the moment, I can see them issuing their usual emails once things get down to brass tacks.
 
#10 ·
TimothyEllis said:
What do they need a 1000 authors for?

A steering committee that large is never going to agree on anything.

I like the general idea. No idea yet if what they are doing is practical. While KDP might be making nice at the moment, I can see them issuing their usual emails once things get down to brass tacks.
It's my understanding that the actual steering committee is only 12 or so people.

As for the larger group, it's more that discussion occurs, ideas are collected and imparted by a highly connected group of authors. I get the skepticism but to me it's an improvement (a vast one) over sitting on my hands and wondering what horrible implosion will occur next.

The FB group has over 5K members but there are some great, productive discussions that go on, on a regular basis.
 
#11 ·
TimothyEllis said:
What do they need a 1000 authors for?

A steering committee that large is never going to agree on anything.
I'm assuming the "1000 authors" thing is to check how solid interest is in an idea like this, whether it could scale up to size with actual heft in a short space of time, etc.

AFAIK the steering committee doesn't relate to that number in any way (no special knowledge here or anything, but that's my reading of it).
 
#12 ·
dgaughran said:
I'm assuming the "1000 authors" thing is to check how solid interest is in an idea like this, whether it could scale up to size with actual heft in a short space of time, etc.

AFAIK the steering committee doesn't relate to that number in any way (no special knowledge here or anything, but that's my reading of it).
This is correct on all fronts. You're to state if you want to be part of the steering committee (if you have special skills, etc to offer). It's significantly smaller.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, I've been in the group for a while and am watching with interest to see how this idea develops. I believe the '1000 founding members' part is to do with raising capital to cover initial setup/operating expenses--Ms. Force is asking for interested authors to pledge $20 in support for the organization to get off the ground. So far, it seems to be going well. The FB group itself (as others have stated) has been around for some time and is a general author support / discussion group.
 
#16 ·
solo said:
Shucks! Don't have Facebook. Avoided it before. Any other option for joining? (assuming indie is defined as non-tradpub)
What dgaughran said, and as Indiecognito mentioned you can contact Marie Force too.

Indiecognito said:
A new organization, the Indie Author Support Network, is forming to give indie authors a seat at the table with the important stakeholders in our business. If you'd like to be part of this exciting new effort to advocate for indie authors, let us know you're IN by April 30. If we have 1,000 founding authors willing to move forward by then, we'll make it happen (and we're about halfway there in our first 12 hours). To show your support:
1. Email indie@marieforce.com
2. Tell us if you'd like to serve on a steering committee or volunteer another skill/service
3. Follow us on Twitter @author_indie
 
#18 ·
This is going around in a lot of private places too and I will say the same thing I am saying there:

I am hesitant about something like this. Too many of us have very different needs, goals, and philosophies on publishing that it makes me nervous we are now going to lobby for what's for the common good? In my opinion, Amazon is operating for their bottom line, as we all should, if we are to remain in business. The assumption that if we en masse tell Amazon we want such and such changed that it will be changed, that it won't then adversly affect our fellow author, and that some really bad consequence won't follow is very dangerous to me.

Remember, we went from 10% read = a payout to this non-auditable, virtual currency of a page read that Amazon makes up, adjusts, and fluctuates all because of complaints the system didn't work.

As someone who often publishes differently than the norm, I am uncomfortable relying on a steering committee to determine what's right for me and what everyone needs Amazon et al to change.

Just my opinion though.
 
#19 ·
Elizabeth Ann West said:
I am uncomfortable relying on a steering committee to determine what's right for me and what everyone needs Amazon et al to change.
I would presume that the steering committee's role would be organizational and that they would reflect the views of the members rather than arbitrarily deciding what positions to advocate for - I certainly would have no interest in participating in something which just ruled by fiat or whatever.

Also I think there are a broad set of things that people would generally agree with are issues common to us all with little or no disagreement. E.g.:

*Amazon's TOS could and should be clearer so that everyone knows exactly what is permitted and what isn't.
*Authors should have a right to due process regarding any sanctions such as rank stripping etc.
*There should be more transparency surrounding KU in general.

And I'm sure there are lots of "positive" things rather than "negative" things such a group could theoretically advocate for, like a better breakdown of sub-categories in a certain niche or whatever.

We've done such efforts before in a very informal way, and approached Amazon with a bunch of feature requests, pain points, suggestions, and gripes, and got some movement on some of them. One such effort was crowdsourced here about 5 years ago. Marie Force did another one before with a load of romance authors which got people at Amazon to listen and make some good, positive changes. This would just be a little more organized.

At least, that's how I HOPE all this plays out.
 
#22 ·
There is no payment required at this stage, merely an expression of interest before April 30 in joining and potentially paying $20 as initial dues towards the set-up costs of the organization. Marie Force - who is setting all this up, and would be collecting any such fee, presumably - proposed that idea.
 
#23 ·
Elizabeth Ann West said:
As someone who often publishes differently than the norm, I am uncomfortable relying on a steering committee to determine what's right for me and what everyone needs Amazon et al to change.
This is the way I'm leaning, too. We are all following different career trajectories. I think the intention is laudable, and there's a case for some kind of conduit between indie authors and Amazon, and there are some matters that desperately need to be addressed, as David pointed out:

dgaughran said:
*Amazon's TOS could and should be clearer so that everyone knows exactly what is permitted and what isn't.
*Authors should have a right to due process regarding any sanctions such as rank stripping etc.
*There should be more transparency surrounding KU in general.
But on the other hand, this is item number 1 on Marie's original posting:

1. Please fix the scamming/stuffing issue in KU and give authors an effective mechanism to report abuses so we can help make the system fair to everyone.
There are so many problematic words in there... scamming, stuffing, abuses, fair... Who defines these terms? Who decides if a practice is scamming or stuffing or an abuse? Who decides what is fair, and to whom? One person's stuffing is another person's bonus content, and even if indies could agree on that, there's still the question of what could or should be done about it. The recent l-o-n-g threads on these topics suggests that there is no way of uniting indies behind any particular proposal.

So although I like the idea in theory, I remain to be convinced that this will work, or that it will benefit the wider indie community.
 
G
#25 ·
And so it begins... 1000 reasons why any initiative is a doomed initiative. :) IMO, the real reason the hive mind here almost always comes to that conclusion is that kboards is a great place for DISCUSSING - after all, it's a discussion forum - but not for DOING or for heralding CHANGE.  I love kboards, I do, but I'm delighted Marie Force didn't come here first to test the waters. And now she has nearly 1K authors (including me!) who believe her initiative has a solid chance, who trust her to do it right, and who are happy to contribute $20 to make it happen.
 
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