I have had the pleasure or displeasure (depending on how you look at it) of seeing some authors be threatened by other authors out there. In the good scenarios, the author took their fears and let it challenge them to do better. In the bad scenarios, I have seen authors let their fears and jealousy turn them into really ugly people. I have seen authors send their fans to attack other authors who are succeeding or flood their books with nasty reviews. It is ugly and not necessary.
There are authors who I look up to and hope to one day have the success that have. My plan is to pull up my big girl pants, roll up my sleeves, and work my butt off. What I will not do is try to bring someone down so that I can step on them to gain the success that I desire.
My motto has always been where I go, the authors that I work with and who have supported me, go too. I want success for all of us. There is no me without the people who have been in my corner from day one. I love them and thank them for taking a chance on me. That goes for the authors that I have worked with and the readers who have taken a chance on a new author and picked up a book that I have written.
The book world is big enough for all of us to succeed. There are enough readers to go around. It is also ok to share readers with other authors. We need to be supporting each other and building each other up, instead of tearing each other down. There is enough ugliness in the world right now. We really don't need anymore.
I challenge all my author friends to support a new-to-you author. I promise that it will not hurt. Who knows, maybe you will be the author someone else recommends ;-)
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