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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