How to Collaborate Effectively with Other Indie Authors In Your Genre

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From The Alliance of Independent Authors:

Shortly after releasing my first book in the fall of 2015 I had my first exposure to other indie authors. It was at the Living Dead Horror Con in Portland, Oregon and they taught me two important things:

• There was a lot I didn’t know about when it came to selling books
• Other authors did not have to be seen as competitors.

. . . .

I spent most of 2016 struggling to sell that first book and learning from others. I joined author groups online and started watching to see what others were doing to be successful.

One of the key things I saw that was driving results was authors working together.

There were groups for all the main genres and many sub-genres. I had success working with other horror authors and even the broader sci-fi genre, but there wasn’t one for my particular niche, zombies.

. . . .

At the end of 2016, I began reaching out to other authors writing in our sub-genre and asking them to join together.

The idea was simple, none of us can write fast enough to keep our readers occupied, so let’s not look at each other as competing for the same audience and instead let’s build a shared fan base.

We came together in a Facebook group to network, do cross-promotions, brainstorm, and work together. In short, #authorshelpingauthors. We call ourselves The Reanimated Writers.

. . . .

In 2017 our group grew to over 200 authors strong. I was shocked to learn there were that many of us writing in the zombie sub-genre, and we cover everything from dystopia, romance, humor, action, extreme horror and more underneath that umbrella. A number of authors stepped up to help me grow the group and bring ideas to fruition.

Link to the rest at The Alliance of Independent Authors

PG is once again reminded of one of the great benefits of the online communities of the Internet – groups of people with interests rare enough that they would be unlikely to encounter one another in the physical world can discover one another, cooperate and socialize online.

“The Lonely Lives” authors may have lived on an involuntary basis in earlier times need no longer be quite so lonely if authors do not wish them to be so.

During much of his early life, PG lived in rural areas and attended country schools. His classmates from grades 1-3 were Andy, Danny, Jim, Ernest plus two Sandies. From grades 4-6, his classmates were generally itinerant. He was never the only student in his grade, but was frequently in grades with two students and never recalls being in a grade with more than three.

He mentions grades because the two elementary schools he attended each had two classrooms. In the first, grades 1-4 met in a single classroom taught by one teacher (Edna Lascelles) in the basement while grades 5-8 were in another classroom taught by Mr. Lascelles upstairs. In the second elementary school he attended, grades 1-3 were in one room while grades 4-6 (taught by Betsy Smith) met in another. Betsy’s mother taught grades 1-3.

PG was extremely blessed by two excellent elementary school teachers, among the best he ever had, including college and law school.

PG mentions his early educational background, because, like many indie zombie authors, he never met anyone with interests very similar to his until he went to college. He was a gregarious little guy in elementary school and managed to get along with most of his classmates, but he has sometimes considered how his early life would have been much different if the Internet had been in existence and he could have explored friendships with a wider variety of his contemporaries.