Today’s guest post is from Dimitri Halkidis, an aspiring indie author with two books in the works. Follow Dimitri on Twitter to track his publishing progress.
It’s 1am, and my eyes hate me. They flicker from side to side, following that little mouse icon as it clicks on ‘just one more’ link and catapults me through interspace to another indie author’s little corner of the world wide web. I read the post. It’s the author’s affirmation that they are going to maintain this blog, that their dream of becoming a published author shall not be denied.
I check the date. Last update: 20th July, 2011.
It’s just one of countless millions of derelict, defunct, destitute blogs that litter the internet, a tiny capsule of hope and dreams discarded and left to rot forever on the dusty servers of Blogspot or WordPress.
It’s disheartening, knowing that someone shared the same dream as me, once upon a time. Yet, for some reason or another, they were unable to turn that dream into a reality.
We have the wrong mindset. It’s taken me a bit of time to come to this realization. When we make the decision to start a blog, to become a writer, we often feel like we’re ‘competing’ with all the other indie authors out there. It’s an understandable thought to have: I’m a writer, so are they. They write similar stuff to me, and are targeting the same audience as me. Ergo, they are my competitor.
But that’s not true.
Think of yourself as a reader, rather than a writer.
What books do you like to read? If you answered with a genre, then you’re not going to care (too much) who wrote a particular book. If it’s of the genre you like, you’re going to read it. Right? Right. Take me for example.
I like fantasy, but just because I’m a fan of Patrick Rothfuss’ most excellent Name of the Wind series, doesn’t mean I’m going to turn my nose up and Scott Lynch’s fantastic Lies of Locke Lamora series. Same goes with any avid reader, because a reader likes reading, and reading a single book or a single author’s series of books just isn’t going to cut it.
So if we’re not competitors, what are we?
We’re writers. We are outcasts, weirdlings, oddballs. We are this strange subset of of humanity that prefers to write words, rather than speak them. In fact, many of us, introverted as we are, tend to shy away from speaking in general. I know, I’m the same. And yet, we are hundreds of millions strong, each working on their own unique story.
And our collective strength is so much more than the sum of its parts.
So next time you come across a writer in a position you’ve been in, and know very well, don’t think of them as a competitor. Don’t think that they’re going to steal your thunder, siphon your followers, rob you of your ‘writing aura’ (whatever that may be). Think of them as a brother or a sister. Think of them as you, a little while ago, and help.
It can be as simple a gesture as commenting on their blog, or re-tweeting their link to your followers. Or, it can be as crazy and hare-brained as letting them guest post on your well-established blog. Either way, while we may not be in the same boat, we’re all trying to traverse the same unforgiving ocean.
And maybe, just maybe, that little act of solidarity will mean there’s one less abandoned blog out there, filling up with unfiltered spam comments.
Dimitri out.
Dimitri Halkidis is a self-publishing enthusiast, social media fanatic and aspiring writer. As his first book is slowly working its way through the self-publishing process, he’s already hard at work on his second. He also has some pretty fancy business cards that he’s absurdly proud of. Follow him at: www.arthurrendine.com, on Twitter at: @dimitrihalkidis, and on Facebook: /dimitrihalkidis
