Ch-ch-changes

Life is all about change. We all know that. If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't adapt to change, we get left behind. The last couple weeks have been nothing but changes.

• We converted two of our business computers, including my main one, to MacBook Pros.
• I moved into a real office. Well, not real as in I have to leave the house to go to work, but real as in I'm no longer working in a corner of my bedroom. I invaded the college boy's room, leaving him a sliver for the weekends, and now have a space of my own. Yippee! I'll share pics - or maybe even a video - soon, once it's done.
• Then there's Facebook. Need I say more? Didn't think so.

However, there is another online change that's been going on for quite a while that you, reader and writer friends, may not be aware of. Last spring and over the summer, Amazon significantly altered its algorithms, changing how books are ranked and how they get placed on high traffic pages.

This new method seems to be hurting the indies while allowing even bigger pushes for the Big 6 publishers, which is kind of odd because Amazon and the Big 6 really don't get along too well. But Amazon does still make lots of money off Big 6 books, so there you go.

For indies, though, it makes it harder to get on the best-sellers lists and even more difficult to stay there. The new algorithm seems to give a lot of weight to pre-orders, which Amazon doesn't even offer as an option for indies and small presses.

I'm telling you this because there are ways you can help your favorite indie authors that only take a few minutes of your time, cost nothing and can make a ginormous difference:

• "Like" the book (right under the title on the Amazon page)
• Write a review
• Mark or create some tags (under the reviews section)

If you want to go further:

• Recommend the book to your friends and in your social media outlets to get them to buy (sales = higher rankings = more exposure)
• Talk about the book in Amazon communities and forums
• Make lists of your favorites - fave books, fave characters, fave couples, fave werewolves/vampires/warlocks, etc. Get creative and have fun with your lists.

Again, these make a big difference in rankings and getting the book noticed by new readers.

I thank you in advance for any help and support you give indie authors. And also for any good thoughts you send out for the world to settle down a little bit. Just for a while, so we can all get caught up. Because even those of us who adapt easily and want to change are falling behind.

Are you a change agent? Or do you follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp? Do you think we'll ever get used to Facebook's changes just like we always seem to do or did they go too far this time?