I have found the writing community very helpful,
especially the blogging community. Everyone is so eager to share helpful
writing tips, writing resources and other writing related information. When a
blogging buddy’s book is released, we all share in the happiness. It always
feels nice to see a writer friend’s book reviews, blog tours and interviews on all
our blogs.
There are many ways we can help writers. I know that we all have time constraints and cannot afford to critique many books (I feel bad when I say no to authors who want me to critique their books). I already have a couple of critique partners and between critiquing their books and writing my own and my teaching and free-lance writing, I have no time. And I won’t be able to do justice If I take on more work.
But I am always eager to help other writers in my own
small way. I am ever ready to critique a few chapters, their synopsis, query
letters and pitches. As these require less time, I do it often especially via
Twitter and Facebook. Many writers when they enter Twitter Pitch contests DM me
their pitches and I help them tweak and polish the pitches.
And if an Indie writer Tweets about their book release
I Retweet them. It’s so important to help other writers, especially the ones
published by small presses, as they don’t have the marketing budget of the Big Six.
I read on Twitter that its very helpful if we leave
book reviews on Amazon and other sites. I have done a few. Favourable book
reviews is a good way to promote books. And I am big on word of mouth
publicity. If I have liked a book I recommend it to everyone I know (except
stopping people on the roads and telling them about it).
I also make it a point to give books as gifts. It’s so
important to help the publishing industry survive.
As I know for a certainty that you all help other writers, I
will just ask you all, are there any other ways in which we can help writers?
