Thrive With Your Wolf-Pack Image by Flickr’s Metassus
By Matthew Ashdown Many authors are fiercely independent: They are the lone wolves. This is especially true for those who have had negative experiences when working with other people, or the hermit who would rather be in a house up on a hill than engaging with other human beings. If that is you, I encourage you to open up once more to connecting with like-minded souls. Community and co-operation is the 21st century way of business! If you ever catch yourself thinking, “If you want something done properly you have to do it yourself,” then you may even be bordering on having what Dr Robert Holden calls, “dysfunctional independence.” The fact is that we have a need for others, so building community has a place in the mind for the author who wants to be truly happy.
“You don’t have all the answers. I don’t.” In self-publishing you are told often that you need to do a lot of it by yourself, and I agree, you do need to be highly self-directed. But, the truth is that you are never doing it by yourself. In order to grow your promotions you need community: they retweet you, they post you on Facebook, they buy from you, and they talk about you. You need community as much as they need you and your book. Watch how hard it becomes when you don’t have any of this community around you and supporting you.
32 | AuthorEntrepreneurMagazine.com July 2012
Here are 6 steps to take to gradually connect (or re-connect) with community. 1. Make sure you have both alone and relationship/group time. In order to be part of community we need to be good at managing time and relationships. As a writer, you definitely need time for yourself to write, to meditate, to take care of yourself, and to work. And I would recommend time with others, whether it is family, writers groups, or online communities. (Online communities are great, but there is still much benefit to our wellbeing when we step outside into the wider world.) Schedule time for both yourself and others within your day. 2. Be okay with not knowing. You don’t have all the answers. I don’t. The industry of publishing is changing rapidly, and who knows what it will look like five years from now. We have to be comfortable with not knowing all the answers, and realizing that it is okay to ask for help. When others offer guidance, listen to them. You don’t have to follow all their advice, but if they have been where you have not, then you have something to learn from them. This is a definite plus for being involved in community. 3. You are not a failure if you ask for help. Or maybe you did fail and are embarrassed to ask for help. I know I failed because I failed to ask for help. I had too much pride to ask for help, because I thought I should be able Continued on pg. 34