Saturday, May 21, 2016

Can't Do It Alone

I have written before about the importance of surrounding yourself with a strong team. I wanted to take some time and share the people that stand behind me and help make me who I am. There are a number of people and while I will name them in a certain order it is important to mention that I couldn't do anything without the support of each and every one.

The first person I want to focus on is my manager. She brainstorms ideas for books and promotions, beta reads everything I have ever written and is my biggest moral support of all. She is also my mom. There is a piece of advice that when you are going to submit your work or really anytime you want someone to take you seriously you want to have someone unbiased review your work and not just your mother. In my case though she is more honest with me than anyone else has ever been. She reviews what I have written and is not afraid to tell me everything she does and doesn't like. I count on her now and have been listening to her encouragement and advice my entire life.

The next person I could not succeed without is my partner. In promotions and in life my boyfriend stands by me and is always coming up with new ways for me to get my name out to a greater audience. Unlike my mom he does not read my work though he will brainstorm ideas with me or listen as I talk through a plot whole or character development issue. He is however very creative and technologically savvy. He helps me make flyers and comes up with promotional ideas that I can incorporate for shows and online events. He is my photographer, my cheerleader and perhaps an even bigger help, he is there to give me a hug when things fall apart.

There are three other individuals and a group that I want to show some love for because I am eternally grateful for them. Chelo Felice Biggerstaff, she is an inspiration and most of all an honest friend. She tells me how it is and keeps me from falling to far into a depression or letting my ambitions get too high without a realistic plan to achieve my goals. Kate Marie Robbins, she is a friend and inspiration as well. She created a charity series that gave me the idea to share my own and has been my partner with my Rescue Me series. She is also the one that has created all of my covers so far and makes the promos to share online for my books and submissions helping me achieve my dreams. Jeffrey Cook is out there living as a full time author and making me believe it can happen. He is another charity author as well as a Steampunk Indie author. I find his tenacity and knowledge amazing. I even bought a book he cowrote to try and learn some tricks to help me emulate even a small amount of his success.

The group I want to bring attention to is the number one group any author could ask for, my readers and reviewers. I can write everyday, polish the words into something resembling quality and send it off to my editor. I can come up with a cover I am proud of and finish off the edits then hit publish on Amazon or whatever platform I am using but without someone to read and review my work it wouldn't mean much. Of course I would still be a published author but I create for the sake of sharing and I will always be eternally grateful to those that, buy, read, review and recommend my books. You are the ones that help me reach my goals, thank you!

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