Saturday, March 9, 2013

Karma

“What goes around comes around.”
I’m sure we’ve all heard that saying. Others may refer to it as Karma, a transcendent form of ‘cause & effect’.
The way you treat others will eventually come back and reflect on you.
As authors, it’s a good idea to remember that.
Yes, we put a great deal of work into our projects. It takes time and effort to produce something worthy of being published. We obviously want it to do well, and are keen to establish the contacts that will get our stories out there and into readers’ hands...
...But, do we sometimes forget our fellow authors? In the sense of helping them promote their books? I know some might feel reticent about ‘pushing sales’ the way of another author. After all, aren’t they on the other side? A competitor? An opponent?
Well, in a sense...yes they are. But thankfully, this isn’t the Hunger Games with just one winner. The odds are definitely in our favour. How can we be so sure? Just look at the thousands, upon thousands of stories on the shelves out there...and all so refreshingly different!
Variety certainly is the spice of life.
Sometimes we forget that!
Think of it like food.
I’ve got to say, my favourite food is chicken. But, if I only ate chicken, all day and every day, I’d soon get sick of it. So, I vary my diet. That diet includes other preference foods...fish, salads, vegetables, and so on.
Now apply that to the food for our souls. The nourishment we feed and stimulate our minds with. Our imagination needs a healthy variety too!
When we offer to promote our friends and fellow authors book...what goes around, comes around.
Your ‘competitor’s’ reader isn’t just going to buy one book. They’ll want more! Yes, they may have their favourite, ‘flavour’, but they’ll enjoy variety too. When they’ve finished a good story, they’ll simply go and find another to read...and this time, it might be one of yours!
I regularly tweet/advertise for other authors. True, most write in much the same genre as I do. However, that doesn't scare me at all, because I know that once the reader has finished their book they might go looking for recommendations from that author, and that leads them to me.  
Tastes vary from time to time. Who knows, doing this more regularly may help us become someone else’s favourite for a while. As the years pass, we may even stay on their list of preference foods.
I can only speak from personal experience. As a youngster, I was an avid sci-fi fan. Everything else was boring. But, as time passed, my tastes widened. I grew to love fantasy, paranormal, action adventure, thrillers, and biographies. Some of those genres were actually recommended by the authors I read.
 
So, back to ‘Cause and effect’. It is said, “Your actions determine your karma.”
If it’s not something you do, try it. Cast your efforts ‘out there’ and see what comes back. No, most of the time it won’t return as fast as we would like, or perhaps in the specific way we would prefer. But...return it will.
 
...And who knows what a right word, at the right time, in the right place might accomplish?

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