11 Steps to Find and Connect with Other Authors in Your Genre #AuthorToolboxBlogHop

~ Kristina Stanley

Nano Blog and Social Media Hop2Thank you, Raimey Gallant for organizing the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop.

This is a monthly blog hop on the theme of resources/learning for authors: posts related to the craft of writing, editing, querying, marketing, publishing, blogging tips for authors, reviews of author-related products, anything that an author would find helpful.

To continue hopping through other great blogs in the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop or to join, just hop on over to Ramey Gallant!

This week, I’ve chosen to do something a little special for everyone.

Even before you publish your first book, building an online network will help you when the exciting moment of releasing your novel to the world arrives.

 

Today, Donna Galanti, an expert in building a network for authors, is here to share her advice and she has a very generous offer for you (you can find it at the bottom of post).

11 Steps to Find and Connect with Other Authors in Your Genre

-by Donna Galanti

I’ve befriended many bestselling authors, online and in person, who want to help new writers. They’ve advised me, allowed me to guest post on their blogs, and have written blurbs for my work. They pay it forward. Someday you will too.

Remember, this is all about community and you are an author (or will be!) and you need to surround yourself with your author community. You are a member of the party now. And every party needs people to make it successful! 😊

Act respectful, professional, and positive in your reaching out to other authors and they will reciprocate. These people can be your biggest influencers when it comes to industry advice and connections with agents, editors, and publishers.

First — how to FIND Comparable Authors

1. Start with authors you are familiar with in your genre and connect online and in-person.

2. Conduct research to find other successful authors in your genre. Create a list from this and research these authors to connect with online.

3. Are you a debut author? Connect with other debut authors. Search online for “debut authors” and the year your book releases, plus “your genre,” to locate comparable debuts. On Goodreads, search in Lists for debut books by year and genre to match yours.

4. Go to the Amazon page of a similar author in your genre. Click on their books and scroll down the page to see books readers also bought like theirs. Hop on over to those book pages and check out those authors to see if a good fit for you to connect with as well.

Second — How to CONNECT with Comparable Authors

5. Add new author connections to a special private Twitter list called “Comparable Authors” and connect with them there on a regular basis and give them a shout out.

6. Engage on their Facebook author pages with useful, positive comments. Share their posts to your audience.

7. Comment on their blog posts with a useful remark or refer to something that you connected with in their post. This is a helpful tactic to draw the author and their followers into a conversation there, and they may connect back to your website and follow you online.

8. Connect via a conference, book event, or convention. In connecting with authors online, check out their events page to see what events they may be attending in person. Are any local to you or ones you have an interest in also attending? Be sure to connect in person at the event. Share why you love their books or follow their blog. Ask them a question that shows you’re interested in their work or ask for their best bit of advice for new authors on how to build a reader audience. Email them or post on social media after the event, letting them know you enjoyed meeting them and thank them for their time.

9. Ask the authors you engage with to guest blog on your blog. Authors love to be interviewed and provide guest posts, if they have time. It’s exposure for them and you — and content for your website!

10. Ask if YOU can guest blog on their blog and pitch an article idea that fits their audience (most folks love content for their blog!). I’ve had authors on group blogs ask me to fill in their monthly date spot if they are too busy, like The Kill Zone and Jungle Red Writers.

11. Join a group of debut authors. Start your own group if none! A book marketing collective is a strong way to help boost other authors and your own books. There is power in numbers. Banding with similar authors is a wonderful way to reach potential new readers while building a writer community as a resource

Be Sure to Avoid This Rookie Mistake:

Spamming an author’s Facebook wall and tagging them with your book or other promotion.

Go the Extra Mile:

Reach out to co-author blogs in your genre and ask if they are accepting new members as well as guest posts.

Banding with similar authors is a wonderful way to reach potential new readers while building a writer community as a resource.

Have you banded with other authors to build your influencer network? What worked for you? What are you willing to try that you haven’t done yet?

About Donna:

Donna Galanti is the author of the bestselling paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Roadseries. She is represented by Bill Contardi of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and regularly presents as a guest author at schools. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna has long been a leader in the Mid-Atlantic writing scene as a workshop presenter. She’s taught on writing craft and marketing at writing conferences, retreats, regional writing organizations, and colleges and is also a writing contest judge at nycmidnight.com. Donna also loves teaching writers about building author brand and platform through her free training series at yourawesomeauthorlife.com. Visit her author website at donnagalanti.com

Special Promotion For Writers!:

Donna is offering a special deal just for Fictionary readers. Get 50% off Donna’s online course, Create Your Awesome Community for Debut Authors. Are you a debut novelist or a writer seeking publication? Then this course is perfect for you.

Create Your Awesome Community for Debut Authors (CYAC) is Donna’s proven complete step-by-step system designed to take you by the hand (as in step 1, step 2, step 3) to create community by connecting and collaborating with readers and writers for author platform and brand success. Reach more readers and sell more books! No ambiguity or confusion. Literally, step-by-step nothing is left out.

Create Your Awesome Community for Debut Authors includes instant access to:

  • Kick Butt Step-By-Step Modules
  • 15 Awesome Bonuses
  • 7 “Bigger Than a Bonus” Meet the Experts (insider secrets to success from the Masters!)
  • Lifetime access and login 24/7 (it is all digital + downloadable so you can log in to access the content and download the course and take it with you on the go)

For all the course details, including a peek in-depth into each module and bonus, and to take advantage of this 50% off special deal visit:https://www.createyourawesomecommunity.com/special

Why not check out Fictionary’s free 14-day trial and turn your draft into a story readers love?

50 thoughts on “11 Steps to Find and Connect with Other Authors in Your Genre #AuthorToolboxBlogHop”

  1. I think blogging is a great way to connect, as are ARC reviews. Recently I reviewed an anthology, and was able to find some of the authors online. Since I’d already provided one review, and liked their work, some chose to offer me additional ARCs. Now I’m following their blogs, and occasionally asking them for advice or insight into their experiences on the road to publication.
    I think a big factor is patience, letting connections form gradually, and not trying to move too quickly.
    I admit, I’d be hesitant to ask someone to guest on my site, or vice versa, though now that I think about it, if I’m hesitant to do either, how would it ever happen?
    I think I might start by reposting/sharing something they had already posted to their site, and let that serve as a foundation for potentially asking about one of us guest posting on the other’s site.
    Of course, I tend to worry about being too forward…😅 which is ironic, since I’m an introvert by nature.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Hi Adam, I think you are off to a good start! Starting slow and engaging with others and making the right connections are all positive ways to find the right peers to be supportive of one another. It does take time and often happens organically – which can be the best way. Great idea to repost/share article by others that are a good fit for your site!

      Liked by 2 people

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    1. Raimey, thanks for your encouragement! So glad some of it resonated with you 🙂 . Totally steal my idea of creating that comparable list! I hope you can nurture some great connections that way.

      I actually connected with an author via Twitter who was a perfect blurber for my first children’s book. As Twitter was my only way of connecting with her online, I actually queried her to blurb my book via Twitter (I posted my request in several messages) and she said yes! Even better, she was my son’s favorite author and he was over the moon that her blurb is on the front of my book, Joshua and the Lightning Road (Jenny Nimmo, NYT bestseller of the Charlie Bone series). So you never know where a Twitter connection can lead!

      Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks Ronel! This is a great way to engage with people who can elevate you and that you can make connections with. I like to call it “telescoping” where you engage with an intimate group on a large platform.

      Liked by 2 people

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  7. All great ideas. I appreciate the support I get from other authors. My face-to-face interaction has been minimal, but I recently joined a regional group of writers who meet monthly. I’m looking forward to the discussions.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Thanks for sharing! I have had many instances where online interactions led to face-to-face meet ups. Actually, a group of women writers and myself have been meeting weekly at a Wegman’s Cafe. We write all different genres and for different audiences but we spend the day writing alongside each other and offering advice. We are one great mind hive collective! We’ve elevated each other and seen each other have successes over the years. I hope you find similar success with your group!

      Liked by 2 people

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  11. Excellent tips!

    Also on Goodreads, join groups. There are many groups for writers and readers. You can check out the members and engage with them in the group and send them requests to connect on Goodreads.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. So glad this resonated! Goodreads can be a place we might not think about connecting with other authors but it’s definitely a place to find related authors to connect with in other online places.

      Liked by 1 person

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  12. Connecting with other authors has seemed impossible to me sometimes, just because I don’t really know where to start. The internet is so big! This gives me a great beginning place. Thank you for these actionable, practical ideas!

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. Excellent post – and not just because it reflects a lot of the advice I give authors.

    There is one question I often get when I’m writing or talking about this: how do I find comparable authors? That’s easy to answer when someone writes in a clear genre, but what advice do you give those pre-published authors who either haven’t settled on a genre, or who don’t fit into a standard genre?

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Great question Iola! There are benefits to connecting with authors outside your genre as well. We can learn about other writing and marketing techniques that might cross over, make valuable connections in the industry, gain writing advice or even challenge ourselves to learn about another genre to write in. This is how I actually crossed over from writing thrillers for adults to also writing thrillers for kids.

      I belong to a women’s writing group who meets weekly to write alongside each other and share what we know about craft and marketing – AND we all write in different genres and for different audiences but have learned so much from one another. AND we’ve made great connections with agents, publishers, and helped with query letters, getting in to teaching at conferences, etc.

      Also, writers who don’t fit into a classic genre can definitely identify with some elements they may blend into their work such as romance, thriller, suspense, literary, horror, fantasy, etc. They could pick 1-3 they strongly identify with in their work and connect with related genre-based organizations to make connections. I actually did a guest post on Kristina’s blog about this last year: https://kristinastanley.com/2017/06/20/guest-post-donna-galanti-on-7-reasons-to-join-genre-based-writing-orgs/

      Liked by 1 person

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  15. As always, insightful and actionable advice, Donna. You are amazing. Thanks for giving a clear picture of how to find and start your community. Thanks, Kristina, for inviting this inspirational author over to share her expertise.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Hi M.L., I totally agree that we need our squad! I’ve always believed that we can write alone, but we can’t get published alone. I wouldn’t be where I am today without all the amazing people in the publishing industry who have helped me! It’s also so important to surround yourself with positive people who elevate you – and you elevate them.

      Liked by 2 people

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  17. Thank you, Donna, for an insightful post. We all need to start somewhere. Writing communities truly help each other. Thanks, Kristina, for inviting Donna to offer advice to our Author Toolbox community. All best to you both!

    Liked by 1 person

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  18. I love your creative post Kristina. I think conferences worked for me. Also visiting their blogs. I was ecstatic when I won a gift from an author I loved so much. She posted a scene question and she like my response the best. Happy Hop Day!

    Liked by 2 people

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  19. Thanks for having me on this week Kristina!!

    I wanted to mention too, that once you have a book come out you can submit to present at writer conferences and fan conventions (especially if you write sci-fi/fantasy). These are great places to make writer/author connections and make new reader fans! Presenting on a panel is a good start so you can do it with a group of people, especially if new to public speaking.

    Getting out of your comfort zone in doing public events will benefit writers in so many ways for when they do get published and jump into doing public events like school visits (my fave!) and other book events. Plus, speaking at conferences is another way to make extra money too (plus you sell your books there)!

    Here’s a video I did on public speaking to help folks out: https://youtu.be/Cgk1CsmH7ck
    I also did a blog post on it here with tips at Writer Unboxed: http://writerunboxed.com/2017/10/28/prepare-to-present-with-confidence/

    Happy connecting everyone!

    Liked by 1 person

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  21. Pingback: Friday Roundup – 18th May | Stevie Turner, Indie Author.

  22. Thank you for this. I’ve been more than a bit slapdash when it comes to connectin with people & building my community. It hasn’t worked out too badly but it probably wouldn’t hurt to be a bit more organized about it.

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. Connecting with others has been probably the hardest part of writing…but your post made it seem so free and easy. So thank you for this blog because it helps tremendously and gives me new insights.

    Liked by 1 person

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