Independent publishing rewards those who work together rather than compete. Cross-promotion with your fellow authors can expand reach and create loyal, multi-author reader ecosystems. The relationships you build with your fellow authors also enable you to tap into their expertise and extend your own; if one of you is a fantastic ad copywriter and one loves graphic design, you have a winning formula for social media ads.
Successful cross-promotion starts by identifying authors whose work offers the same reader promise you deliver—think not just of the broad genre but of the specific blend of tone, subgenre tropes, and reader emotions your books evoke. For nonfiction, consider commonality in underlying themes or instructional approaches. Both require you to be an active member of the communities where these opportunities lie, such as genre-specific writers’ groups and topic-centric conferences.
Before committing to a cross-promotion, vet each prospect’s backlist and brand voice. Promoting an ill-matched author can frustrate your followers and dilute your own positioning; compatibility of content is critical to keep trust intact.
Aim for overlap rather than duplication: The best partners share your niche’s DNA yet bring fresh titles, formats, or geographic reach that expand, not cannibalize, your collective audience.
Cross-Promotion Strategies by Author Stage
For Beginning Authors: Swap Newsletters and Back Matter
The lowest-barrier form of cross-promotion is a simple exchange: You tell your readers about me, and I’ll tell mine about you. “If you're trying to move your career forward, probably the thing that will bring you the most success at the least cost is group promotion,” ALLi Advisor Russell Nohelty says. “Most of the other ways to get noticed require significant monetary outlay, while group promotions can, and often do, cost nothing.”
These group promotions can include newsletter mentions, in which you agree with another author to feature each other’s new releases or freebies once a quarter. Look for an author whose reach is about the same or slightly larger than your own; a beginning author is not likely to be an attractive cross-promotion option for someone on the bestseller lists. That said, picking the right cross-promotion partners will mean your lists and your impact will grow exponentially, especially if you require readers to sign up to your own list to redeem a freebie download.
If you’ve seen success at growing your audience via mutual newsletter mentions with another author, consider expanding your agreement to a cross-promotion in your respective books. At the end of your ebooks, add text such as “Enjoyed this story? Try [other author]’s books!”
For Emerging Authors: Bundled Books and Group Events
Authors with multiple titles can often afford to contribute a novella or a first-in-series novel to a multi-author bundle—especially when the goal is exposure rather than earnings. Keeping things simple is key to making this effort viable.
- Publish the bundle under the existing imprint of one of the participating authors rather than creating a new imprint for the bundle. This participant will likely then become the cross-promotion project lead, though all participants should be consulted about decisions.
- Consider offering the bundle for free. This eliminates the complexities of splitting royalties. If the bundle is for profit, use a tool like Draft2Digital’s royalty-splitting feature for ebooks.
- Limit how long the bundle is available so that no one is taking on the effort of monitoring the cross-promotion effort over time. This also reduces the chances of needing to accommodate the situation where one participant wants to withdraw from the bundle early.
- Draft a contract at the start of the cross-promotion project to ensure all contributors retain individual copyrights and have the right to republish their story outside the bundle at a later date. A short-term exclusivity period may be agreed upon, but it should be clearly defined and limited.
Consider expanding your cross-promotion beyond the book to in-person or virtual events. Host an event around your topic or genre featuring giveaways and author readings. Asking participants to sign up for the event with their email address enables the participating authors to keep in touch—provided, of course, that this use is clear in the sign-up materials.
For Experienced Authors: Crowdfunding and Merch
At this stage of your author business, the focus of cross-promotion might move from exposure to income earning. Brainstorm inventive ways to capitalize on the common theme of your cross-promoted works with beyond-the-book offerings that can be used for crowdfunding campaign tier rewards or even as joint merchandise lines.
- For Fantasy, commission an artist for a shared universe map poster or trading cards that feature settings or characters from the participating series.
- For Mystery, Thriller, or Crime Fiction, compile a “case files collection”—a set of items such as faux police reports, redacted witness statements, crime scene sketches, or suspect profiles pulled from each author's stories, printed as an interactive dossier or bundled in a sealed manila folder.
- For Romance, hire a third party to create romance baskets featuring items such as scented candles, chocolates, or a small-format print collection of love notes from each author’s characters.
- For nonfiction, create a deck of cards with motivational quotes or quick tips from each author’s work.
The key to joint merch is selecting or developing offerings that are visually compelling and tie into the common themes of your series while offering fans something exclusive and collectible.
Set the Terms for Success
Smooth the way to a successful collaboration by agreeing to the roles and responsibilities, as well as the details of aspects like copyright and royalties, upfront.
“Agree the rules beforehand. Might you drop the price if sales seem to be going slowly? Does everyone agree to that? Some writers feel that would undervalue their work or ‘throw it away’; others feel they should grab any opportunity to woo new readers while they’ve got their attention. How much work will everyone do? Agree on any necessary tasks beforehand. Sort this out before you start, then no one feels they're taking an unequal burden.”
— ALLi Editor-in-Chief Roz Morris
Capture agreement on these aspects in a simple contract to prevent misunderstandings.
Looking for more information? Check out ALLi’s post “The Ultimate Guide to Author Collaboration in Writing and Publishing” at Self-Publishing Advice.
Matty Dalrymple, Campaigns Manager, Alliance of Independent Authors
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