Is there an artist, maybe a writer or a musician, that you really dig but you know they don’t have much visibility and a lot of people don’t know about them?  Wonder what you could do to help?  If so, I have good news for you.

A new title has just been released by my friend Anthony Horvath called Superfan.  It is essentially a manual written to those who are  fans of an indie artist.  It is only 10,000 words (very short) and reads even quicker than that.  I highly recommend it to people who either know an indie writer/musician/artist or to someone engaged in that venture and who is trying to break through the noise.  It is cheap on the Kindle and also available in paperback.

Horvath’s book is chock-full-o stuff, but I have included here three easy peasy things you can do to help your favorite writer/author out.

1.  Rate books and stories on Amazon, Goodreads.com, Barnesandnoble.com and wherever else you can.  These things really really really matter.  Amazon uses these metrics in determining all kinds of stuff–not the least of which is the “you may also like…”  Don’t just rate it though, take the time to write a review–three or four sentences about what you liked in the book or story.  Caution–write it like you don’t now the author, even though you do.  If you write the review like you’ll be having lunch with the author tomorrow, then people will discredit your review.

2.  Share links to the author’s work on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.  If you really like the artist and want good things for him or her, then do a little free and easy promo work.  I mean, after all, you passed along that funny picture of the cockatoo or the kitty cat so it is not like you’ll lose any professional cred by recommending some awesome literature.

3.  Okay, this one requires a little nuance, but it is still super easy peasy.  Mention this person you like in the same breadth that you mention other writers that everyone admires.  So if you’re talking to someone at work, say, about the newest zombie movie, mention something like, “Yeah, I read a story the other day by that cool Indie author Derek Elkins about Zombies.  It’s called The Driving Dead.  I just love zombie satire,” and then let it go.  A better one would be, “I read Jamie Greening’s science fiction story The Deep Cove Lineage the other day and I just kept thinking about how much it reminded me of Dean Koontz.”  Now be careful, because you could come across as pushy.  Don’t be pushy and don’t go on and on and on everyday.  That would do more harm than good.

I know this all sounds like shilling, but the truth is the deck is stacked so much against real writers (TV personalities who have books ghost written for them don’t count) that we need every edge we can get.  The best stuff ever is being published right now and it is out there for anyone to read and find, but no one knows about it.  You are doing the world a favor by making them aware of something they weren’t aware of before, and that is a noble task.