Supporting Your Writing Friends

During my professional life, I’ve been lucky enough to see the SFF book industry from under several different hats: as publicist, as author, and, more recently, as bookseller. Sometimes, these separate points of view can see things quite differently (booktok being a classic example).

Sometimes, though, all three perspectives see something exactly the same. And this time, it’s the role of your fellow authors.

If you haven’t read the most recent industry debacle on how one certain author was sock-puppet-review-bombing their peers, there’s a good summary here. And it’s suitably horrific.

Your fellows are not your competition. They’re your support. There’s not some limited pool of approval that we’re all scrabbling to access, and other people’s successes do not demean your own. Every author I know has been uplifted by their colleagues, and has paid that forward in turn. It was attending the EasterCon in 2008, meeting so many wonderful people, that gave me the courage to pick up my pen (keyboard) and to finish Ecko. Other authors have put me forward for work, and have supported that work with shout outs and retweets, with interviews and promotions. And, of course, I’ve done the same, both personally and professionally.

Writing may be a solitary profession, but we form communities, it’s what we do. 

From a publicist’s viewpoint, cross-pollination is healthy, necessary. It expands your outreach and readership. All those multi-author events at FP, were signings where fans would come in to see one person and buy books from three more. Every Con panel or is there to introduce readers to more authors who write or know about a particular subject. And as a bookseller, the same is true: customers come in because they like one book, and you recommend them three more.

I realise I’m preaching to the choir, but that’s how this stuff works.

Interjecting: professional jealousy can occasionally be a real thing. We’re human, and there are just times when it spikes all of us. But for the love of whatever Gods you can remember, you never do anything about it. You give yourself the side-eye, you feel a suitable amount of shame, and that’s the end of the matter.

Writing is hard, we understand that. And most of us are insecure. We’ve all lost heart, felt threatened, had our confidence battered, had too many one-star reviews and wondered if we’d ever sentence a string together again. Sometimes, those one-star reviews can be so bloody vicious that we curl up inside and die. But surely this just brings us empathy? It’s all the more reason to support and help each other.

Not to hurt and damage our fellows, in some vain and ghastly hope that it will bring us success and/or make us feel better about ourselves.

I know I don’t need to tell you lot, but: be nice.

Reading: Just started Laura Lam and Elizabeth May’s Seven Mercies, after reading Seven Devils (which was wonderful) on audio, earlier in the year.

Watching: Well, Who, obviously. Neil Patrick Harris with a staggering performance as the Toymaker (honestly, he was electric), and very much looking forwards to seeing Ncuti as the Doc.

Playing: Bit of a game hangover, after finishing Baldur’s Gate. Tempted to go back to Skyrim, which I’ve never managed to finish (see earlier comments about the maps), but foundering somewhat. I guess we’ll have to see!