I believe that people rarely get anywhere on their own. I for one have not achieved the level of professional success that I have by leaning on my own skills and neglecting everyone else. I would go so far as to say that most of my success in the military has been based on my readiness to help others.

There are quite a few out there that say the indie writing community is the same. That one of the best ways to be successful is to be involved.  I don’t know if this is 100% correct, but it should be. I know that there is no way I could ask a bunch of strangers to help me promote my new book. If I had spent time and energy promoting other peoples work and building relationships based on shared goals (and struggles) those are the people I could turn to with confidence.

I am not a very outgoing person, by nature. I have to “fake it” at work and it leaves my socializing store-house pretty empty most days. Thankfully we have social media! I have a Twitter account –@RayeThomas1 where I follow many authors, most of them indies like myself. Since I have nothing to sell at the moment, I can search my Twitter feed looking for ways to do good deeds and generally build relationships that aren’t based on me being a needy twerp.

I have also joined the “Street Team” for the awesome authors at Sterling and Stone. The way it works is they allow me early access to some of their books if I will leave an honest review. Since you need to first be a reader if you are to be a writer this seems like a good deal! I get to read new books, I provide some indie authors with reviews which is helpful when selling and I am giving to the community that is supporting my initial baby steps into the “biz”.

A word of caution: Social networking does not get your work written. It can be pretty easy to say you are “working” when you are networking on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter and whatever else. But that isn’t writing and as a writer you need to produce items to sell. So, yes, get involved. A little. Be a writer first.