Here is our Part 2 of The Cost of Publishing a Book for an Indie Author  This is where we, the reader, can help.  It also points out some problems with those "free" book sites that we need to be aware of and I never knew.

So how can readers help?  First off, they can make sure they aren’t downloading a pirated copy. Pirating sites do not pay the author for the book downloaded, and most of the time, they don’t even have the copy of the actual book you want. They just use the book cover as click bait and can get you to download a virus instead of a book. If something looks too good to be true…

If $2.99 is just too much to pay for a book you want to read, try your local library. We get a cut of a library purchase. It’s small, but it’s still a cut. If they don’t have it, they can probably get it. Join the author’s pages on social media and enter giveaway contests that they do from time to time (Yet another loss to the author.) Ask a friend if they have a copy you can borrow, but please, please don’t download it from a pirated site. Use the platforms that the author has uploaded their books to. Not sure what ones they are? Ask the author! They will happily tell you.

Another way to help an author is to review their book. It doesn’t need to be a three page book report, in fact, it’s better if it isn’t. No one wants a book spoiled for them anyway. A review tells the greater reading community if you liked the book or not and if you would recommend it. Easy as pie. New rules have made it harder and harder for authors to get reviews so they have become precious in the author community. You’re two sentence review might just be the thing that makes another reader click the ‘buy’ button and help the author save that 2 bucks/.35 cents that they’ll tuck away to pay for their expenses or for their next book release.

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Danielle Bannister lives with her two children in Midcoast Maine along with her precious coffee pot and peppermint-mocha creamer. She holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Southern Maine and her Masters degree in Literary Education from the University of Orono. She has written: a collection of short stories called: SHORT SHORTS, The Twin Flames Trilogy: PULLED, PULLED BACK, and PULLED BACK AGAIN, THE ABC'S OF DEE and ENIGMA. She is also a contributing writer to the website, Venus Scribe. In addition, her work can also be found in the following anthologies: 2012 Goose River Anthology, 2012 Writeous Anthology, 2013 Maine Writes: Maine National Writing Project Anthology; and, 2013 The Stroke of Midnight: A Supernatural New Year's Anthology.

You can visit her website at:

 http://daniellebannister.wordpress.com/

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