ALLi is the Alliance of Independent Authors, the professional association for self-publishing writers. They host an EXCELLENT self-publishing advice blog HERE.
Award-winning Jamaican indie author Ezekel Alan pens an article for ALLi’s ‘Top Tips from Top Indie Authors’ series. From the article:
“My novel Disposable People became the first self-published book to win a major prize.” Jamaican indie author Ezekel Alan shares the story of his groundbreaking achievement.
What’s the secret of your success?
I wouldn’t as yet consider myself successful, but I hope I am getting there. Winning the Commonwealth Book Prize Regional Award gave my novel a major boost and drew a lot of attention not only from readers but also publishers and agents. I hope this will not only propel the existing novel to greater success, but also future novels.
In terms of what I think worked well for me it is the voice in my writing. Readers say they enjoy the uniqueness of the voice, it is compelling and refreshingly different. It is also very blunt and real. I try to push boundaries a bit, and I combine different forms of story-telling into a novel. I think this helps to set my work apart and creates interest. Some writers write with the reader in mind and it works for them; I come at it from the point of view of what I would like to read. I read a lot, and much of what I read, while good, is generally conventional. I aim to do something innovative.
What was the single best thing you ever did?
I wrote the novel they way I wanted. This was perhaps the advantage of not having an agent or publisher for that first book – all the ideas came out the way I intended, with poems, drawings, sketches and all. It wasn’t that I wanted to be different per se, it was more the case that this was how the ideas came to me. I was pleased to read some of the comments left by readers on Amazon and Goodreads; quite a few thought this type of story-telling was ‘bold’ and unconventional.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
You can find Ezekel Alan’s eBook on Amazon HERE.