The power of support

I had a perfect day at the Purbeck Literary Fesrival yesterday.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and we were at a gorgeous venue.  Durlston Castle at Durlston Country Park is in a stunning location overlooking the ocean. We were in a beautiful room at the top of the castle, surrounded by sunlight and water.

And I had a great group of writers around me.  It's easier to talk about our work when we're with other writers.  Yesterday I was part of a panel of five crime writers. And we talked for two hours about our work.  I could have done that if I was on my own, but it would have been much more effort.  

Being part of a group means you can bounce ideas off each other.  We have a panel moderator who sets the questions and keeps us in order, so it's a highly structured set-up, but it also gives us the chance to market our books through the answers without feeling self-conscious about it.

I'd really recommend forming a group of some sort for support of your writing endeavours.  Carol Westron, Chris Hammacott and I formed Pentangle Press because we wanted to indie publish as a group.  We pool our skills, copy edit each other's work, give feedback on the manuscript, and Chris does the professional design of cover and text.  Being an imprint allows us to talk about indie publishing as a group, something which not only raises our profiles as writers but gives listeners the inside story on every aspect of indie publishing.  

Certainly if you're nervous about public speaking, being part of a group or panel gives you the support  of others to share the nervousness with.  And if you're clever with the way you structure your sessions you can use them as vehicles to show why you chose to write in the genre you do, and why you chose  your particular characters to write about.  And it allows you to put on a good display of books for sale, which is the whole point of doing events in the first place.  An afternoon with good writing friends, getting to talk about our work, and selling books.  You can't beat it.