Just as this wonderful community of Novel Spaces authors come together on a regular basis to blog about writing, I think it's important for authors to come together in general to support one another, discuss the business in general, and reach out to readers as a group.This business is changing, not only from an electronic standpoint, but also as we've gone through a major recession and the business in general has taken a big hit. I find that more authors are writing collaborations and coming up up with ways to reach out in an effort to keep up with the changing and challenging times.
Recently, I organized a group of writers called Georgia Peach Authors (photo above - http://www.gapeachauthors.blogspot.com/). We're appearing at libraries, military bases, and local events. There's something special about sharing time and thoughts with fellow writers who "get it" and all walk similar paths, with similar interests, no matter the genre.
Also, the site I mentioned in a previous Novel Spaces post, http://www.achapteramonth.com/, is a group of twenty talented authors offering their works, one month at a time. My contribution debuts today, called Turnabout Is Fair Play. I think this concept is ingenious!
More of us should reach out to each other and write anthologies, or appear to discuss reading and writing, Skype with bookclubs, create joint FaceBook and Twitter pages, and/or invite readers to sit down and chat with us, etc. Author Mary B. Morrison had a Heart-to-Heart reader/author chat in her hotel room in Atlanta recently, and it was an amazing experience. It was a group of women coming together in complete honestly, without judgement, to discuss our past, present and future, and all of the insecurities, dysfunctions and accomplishments that go along with life in general.
Have you thought about the strength that "numbers" would bring in your career? The ability to reach out to others as a unit is so beneficial. Think about it, and share this journey with new and established authors. We're all in this thing together and we all need each other. It's not a competition. And there are definitely enough readers to go around.
Write on!
3 comments:
I definitely try to connect whenever I can with writers. Strength in numbers for sure. And these days there are a lot of writers out there.
As I blogged last month, I found strength in numbers with a mega book signing that gave me confidence to have a book signing. I think collaborations, joint projects, promotions and marketing are definitely going to increase as the internet and social networks continue to make it easier.
Great ideas, Marissa. The world of authors is shrinking as the Internet makes it so very easy to connect. As it is, I've corresponded in the past with two of the authors in that photo (not counting that Monteilh girl). I'd join you guys if I didn't live on a rock in the Caribbean a coupla thousand miles away from GA...
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