15. Start Helping Other Writers
We may not be an official community with like, trials and hazing and union dues, but we certainly are a de facto one. We all need help and so it behooves us to ask for it and give it in return. As I am nothing if not a rampant self-promotional strumpet, I’ll just leave this here: 25 Ways For Writers To Help Other Writers.
This is another step I feel I’m reasonably involved with, but like everything I do, could always be better at. On nearly a weekly basis some contact or another comes to me with a question about how I’ve evolved in the self publishing world. Never one to say ‘I don’t have time for you, I’m too busy working on my own precious stuff,’ I always come through with something from my own experience. Is how I got to publishing the only way? Of course not. Do I have better things to do with my time than go over what’s taken me years of experience and countless rounds of trial and error to get to? Maybe. However, writing a book is an intimidating thing and me crapping on someone who’s just started out isn’t going to help me (or my karma points). Furthermore, even for someone who writes in my genre, I have to think what’s good for one of us is good for all of us. They would not be ‘stealing’ a potential sale away from me.
That being said, I would absolutely LOVE a mentor in this field. Someone to check in with, someone to check in on me and someone to be my cheerleader. Someone who has great suggestions (both for marketing and writing).
Any takers?
annbenjamin 