Other Authors – Friend or Competition?

Are you in direct competition with other writers? Or do you prefer to be friends with them? Is there a benefit to both? This is something some authors have trouble with. One way can make things go smoothly, while the other can create bad blood.

I think it’s best to be friends with other authors. Sure, they may be competition, but it’s not that simple. You may compete for sales, but if you’re writing in the same genre, the same readers will buy both of your books. Isn’t it more mutually beneficial to support each other’s writing? If you share your friend’s books and they share yours, both of your sales should improve.  Isn’t that right?

But then, what if you’re sharing everyone’s writing, and all of your sales increase? Your Amazon rankings might not change. Well, I doubt that’ll happen, since you can’t share thousands of authors’ writing. But think about this, if you share another person’s writing, and they share yours, their readers will discover you. They will then talk about your books to other people, and they will also buy your books. Your sales increase.

Isn’t it better to be friends? I’ve seen so much fighting between authors on platforms such as Goodreads. They’re only hurting themselves, as they’re seen as vindictive and not worth supporting. Be friends, get along with your competition. They aren’t really competition after all. They may be your best marketing tool, and you theirs.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Happy Birthday to a Four-Year-Old

Happy birthday to my incredible daughter! She’s four years old today.

Static! She’s looking a bit older, more like a kid. Growing up too fast.

Looking cute. She loves to pose for pictures.

It feels like it’s been such a short time, but my daughter has grown from a newborn baby to a smart, creative, and loving girl. She tells us she loves us every day, many, many times. She loves to cuddle. Her new favourite sentence is “I like…” And now that it’s her birthday, she gets to open her birthday present. And yes, she got what she asked for.

Four years old means she gets to start kindergarten. She needs to improve her English, but she’s been making big strides lately. By the time September comes around, she’ll be speaking pretty fluently in English, I think. This is also the year that she finally gets to go to Canada. And she’ll be meeting her grandparents in person for the first time, and many other relatives. It’ll be a big year.

So, happy birthday to my little girl! Love ya!