Authors come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. We write tough, soft, humorous, horrifying, and thrilling. Our styles reach from lean prose to the profuse. Our voices strike all tones and notes. But the one thing we all have in common is the need for our work to be liked, enjoyed, praised, loved. It's no secret we can be a vulnerable lot often consumed with self-doubt and dread of failure. Oddly enough the main way those feelings can be disspelled is for strangers to exalt us.The writing community is clique-ish. Like-minded souls bonding. Authors from certain publishing houses banding together. Lovers of genres forming groups to encourage and bolster one another.
Let's remember the need to extol the virtues of a favorite writer. Readers who don't write books - and some who do - can forget how much a simple word of praise for someone's novel can propel another reader to try it. A recommendation from a published author can go a long way in convincing a reader to pick up a copy from a writer with whom they're unfamiliar. And what it does for the author is immeasurable.
Established authors, don't forget how much you needed that special conformation that, yes, you were indeed a talented scribe. If you can, read one unpublished author's work a year just because. Hopefully, somebody gave you that time, that urging to continue. Remember what you needed the most . . . and return it to another.
Nicole Petrino-Salter writes love stories with a passion.
Raw, Romantic, Redemptive . . .
