Opinion: 1000+ Reasons to Love the ALLi Facebook Forum

Meeting Facebook friends in real life for a change: Debbie Young (right) with Ben Galley and Jessica Bell at at the Dublin Writers' Conference 2016

As we celebrate all forms of partnership for indie authors here on the blog this month, ALLi has welcomed the 1,000th member to its members-only Facebook forum. Blog editor Debbie Young celebrates the joy of being able to network with author friends around the world any time of day or night.

For me, the novelty of hooking up with author friends around the world never gets old. In the six years that I've been working from home, spending most of most days writing alone in my study in a small English village, I've always valued the power of social media as a substitute for the social side of working in a large organisation.

While Facebook and the like have a serious and constructive role to play as part of any indie author's marketing plan, it also provides great water-cooler moments when you can just grab a bit of companionship and moral support. I've never met such a friendly and caring bunch of colleagues as those I meet online in the indie author community.

When we ask in our Sunday series of member interviews “what has been your biggest surprise about self-publishing?”, the answer is consistently how helpful everyone else is

Of course, just as in a more traditional work environment, you have to make sure the water-cooler chat takes no longer than is justified by the benefits it brings. But I for one would not be without it, especially when I have a specific question to put to the hive.

With over 1,000 out of many more active ALLi members around the world, our closed Facebook provides a fantastic resource to ask any question I have, day or night, about any of the seven stages of self-publishing, from writing through to selling rights.

Reasons to Join the ALLi Facebook Forum

ALLi, like the three musketeers only far more numerous – all for one, and one for all!

But you don't have to take my word for it. Here's are some of the comments our forum members made when we announced hitting the magic number:

• “Best forum ever!”
• “Absolutely the best most useful and friendly Facebook forum”
• “It makes such a difference knowing that whatever problem you are having, someone has had it before.”
• “Such a great group of people -so glad I found this group.”
• “I've not been here long but I've learnt a lot already and enjoy the camaraderie.”
• “It made my day to discover there were likeminded folk out there after 2 years of working in isolation researching and implementing self publishing!”
• “ALLi is my second home!”

But it's not all about taking what you can get from a group like this. It is also a great feeling to stick around long enough to realise that you are now in a position to pay it forward with what you've learned, answering newbie questions that not that long ago you were asking yourself.

Here's what ALLi founder and director Orna Ross has to say about the forum that has grown from her founding idea:

Thank you to you all for being here, for asking and answering, for reading and learning, and in the process helping to change how books are written, published and read. Tuning into the generosity and camaraderie here is always a highlight in my day.

Other Ways to Access ALLi's Collective Wisdom and Generosity

Orna Ross and Joanna Penn – regularly available for you to access online as part of the ALLi family

Reading this Author Advice Center blog is of course free to all. You don't have to be a member to do so.

You can also access our public Facebook page here, where we post notification of all our new blog posts, inspiring messages and other news.

But to join our closed Facebook group, where the discussion is more two-way (multi-way, in fact, with most of our many daily discussion threads running well into double figures with multiple participants), you need to be a paid member.

Many ALLi members say that having access to our closed Facebook forum – just one of 21 benefits of being a paid member of ALLi – is in itself worth the annual membership fee. But there are 20 other  benefits that you should know about – click here to find out more and to help you decide if joining ALLi would be a good investment for you in 2017. And you know what? ALLi's so confident that you'll like what you find here, that if you pay to join and then find ALLi's not right for you, we'll refund your fee, no questions asked.