So someone has asked you to join a group of authors. Let’s do a blog. Let’s do a bookset. Let’s support each other on social media. Let’s cross-promote our works.
What am I getting into? Will I gain exposure and more sales? Is it worth the time?
It was time to do a study of the author groups and the teamwork
needed to succeed. As I usually do, I seek advice from my Spotlight Crew. They
are a group of authors I have interviewed during the years (over 1300 interviews
and book showcases since 2012). I have included some of the information from their
answers related to groups for this study and their interviews.
For authors, there are advantages to joining a group of like-minded authors. Forming a bound to a group of active authors has a great upside. And there is the other side. You are making a commitment to work with the other authors and spent time and resources to aid the team.
Study includes advise from over 20 outstanding authors and leaders of group hugs.
Covers topics like: Leader driven, Forming groups, Setting goals, Cross-promotion, Scheduling tasks, Marketing books, Booksets, Using Kindle unlimited
Read the study: https://.........
Cheryl Bradshaw
Cheryl is the New York Times & ten time USA Today bestselling mystery, thriller, and suspense author.
Website - Twitter: @cherylbradshaw - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
Indie Writers Unite, a group I founded about ten years ago. It was the first author group on Facebook. I am also a member of several other groups, including: 20Booksto50k, Authors Optimizing Amazon and Facebook Ads, Author Support Network, 20Books Thrillers, SPF Community, et al. Most of the groups I'm involved in are geared around marketing, tips on staying relevant, growing your brand, and learning what's working and what isn't in the industry today. In my group, Indie Writers Unite, we focus on helping new indie writers learn about the industry and offer tips on how to be successful in the business. I usually get involved in one bookset a year, depending on my availability. I've been involved in sets that have done well, and others that didn't do well. For me to get on board with other authors for a bookset, I am looking to work with authors who have an established group of followers and are willing to promote the set and give it a lot of visibility. I also take part in multi-author book promos each month. It's a great way to gain more exposure with readers who have never read my books before.
Bonnie Edwards
Bonnie writes Romance, Contemporary and Paranormal novels and novellas.
Website - Twitter: @BonnieEdwards - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
I belong to Romance Gems, a blog group that formed from a long ago email loop of Kensington Books authors. Some of us wanted to strengthen our connections and started a group blog of a previous name. I'm an original member but didn't form the group. Our driving force is Joan Reeves, but I'm a member of the team that works behind the scenes. We blog on our specified days and have a readers' group on FB where members there are updated regularly on our news. Our main objective is exposure, support, and marketing. We have monthly themes and sometimes we offer free books or chances to win. We've done some box sets and have some others in the works. These are fun because now that we've created our setting, we'll revisit and write more stories in the same towns. There's nothing like having a whole team of us supporting and marketing at the same time. Here's a link to the blog: https://romancegems.blogspot.com/
Nancy Fraser
Nancy is a Top 100 Bestselling Author. She writes Romance novels and short stories.
Website - Twitter: @nfraserauthor - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
I currently belong to two formal groups, The Romance Gems (http://romancegems.blogspot.com) and The Highway Cafe (https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheHighwayCafe). The second group is made up mostly of Canadian authors and active exclusively on Facebook, rather than have a blog. The Romance Gems is a collective of authors, most who began their careers in the mid 1990s with the Precious Gems line from Kensington Publishing. Although we all went our separate ways, twenty-two of us have banded back together to form/support the group. The current group, in its latest incarnation, is overseen by author Joan Reeves. We are going through some reorganization pains at the moment in an effort to streamline our blog and get more bang for our promotion buck. As for The Highway Cafe, this is strictly a support group on Facebook. We discuss writer's issues, share information, and post and share about our new releases. As with most authors, I follow a number of online/Facebook promotional groups, as well as some author-only support groups.
The main objective of Romance Gems is group promotion of all the members' books. We have a group Twitter account, Instagram, and Facebook readers group in addition to the blog itself. We are quite active in supporting each other on Goodreads and Bookbub as well. We've just recently put together a newsletter sharing program, as well as a new listing of our authors' private blogs and days they take submissions.
The Romance Gems have done a couple of projects together, with more to come in the future. A couple of years ago, we did a sampler collection of first chapters, although that book is no longer available. In 2020, we put together a box set titled Last Chance Beach: Summer's End with fourteen of the Gems participating. Then, later in the year, ten of us produced a holiday anthology, Christmas Comes to Dickens, which is now available in both ebook and print. Both collections will be expanding in the coming year. But, rather than a box set or anthology, each individual author will publish their own book in the series. The books will be linked to the series with cover graphics and wording and considered our little "world".
Dani Haviland
Dani is a USA Today best-selling romance author. She writes the timetravel series, The Fairies Saga.
Website - Twitter: @dani_haviland - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
I've been a part of Mimi's Gang for nearly five years now. We're a group of thirty-three romance authors who have banded together to help each other promote our single and cooperative works. Mimi Barbour is our founder and fearless Canadian leader. In 2016, she suggested we start putting together box sets by themes, filling them with our backlist stories that weren't doing as well as we'd like. I jumped in as the publisher (and banker) to help coordinate the finances and contracts. Chill Out! Books has published nearly one hundred titles so far! We've put out so many that now we're pushing ourselves to write more. Tamara Ferguson and her company, Tammysdragonfly Publishing, has lifted some of the burden and taken on some of these sets.
The group has a website they support: www.authorsbillboard.com. We share the responsibility of writing a blog once a month, sharing links to the site (and its monthly contests), and advertise weekly and or monthly on it to support the prizes to the contests. We also list the box sets we write for and promote. @gr8authors, @mimisgang1, and #mgtab are ways to find us on Twitter. Many of our books and box sets can be found by searching 'ABB Chill Out' in the Kindle search bar on Amazon.
Doug Hocking
Doug is the author of Western Mysteries and Historical Fiction.
Website - Twitter: @HockingDoug - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
Many of the members of the Western Writers of America wanted to participate in the Tucson Festival of Books which used to draw over 130,000 people by selling their books. This was impossible for the WWA staff to accomplish. Being licensed as a vendor in Arizona and looking at the very high expense of obtaining a booth for the Festival, over $800, I put together a group of 8 authors who know each other well and who enjoy working together. We share the expense making it manageable for all of us. The group has come to be known as Amigos and Ladies of the West https://doughocking.com/shop. One of the original members, Miles Swarthout, who wrote the script for John Wayne’s last movie, the Shootist, proposed the name and so it shall remain.
I’m not sure that the other groups I belong to are the sort you’re thinking of. I’m a member of Western Writers of America https://westernwriters.org/, which is a very large group and a great place to learn about publishing and make contacts. I’m Ink Slinger, for the Cochise County Corral of the Westerners, which in turn is part of Westerners International. In that capacity I edit a monthly newsletter, The Fremont Street Mail https://cochisecountycorral.org/fremont-street-mail, and a quarterly journal, The Border Vidette https://cochisecountycorral.org/the-border-vidette. Both of these exist only on-line, so we don’t have to worry about the number of illustrations or the length of an article. I’m always looking for folks who want to publish a bit of frontier history.
I also belong to the Southern Trails Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Santa Fe Trail Association, and the Wild West History Association.
The main objectives of Amigos and Ladies of the West is to i. Promote sales, ii. Make ourselves known in new markets, iii. Meet our public and learn what they are interested in, iv. Make the Tucson Festival of Books affordable to our members.
B. In 2020 there was no Festival, and in 2021 the Festival is virtual and offered us the opportunity to be advertised on their website. The Tucson Festival of Books (2021 Exhibitors) https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/?id=1480 website connects to my sales page, where all of the authors books are listed https://doughocking.com/shop, and to a Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/Amigos-Ladies-of-the-West-102806635095747. Will it work? A definite maybe.
C. I think the next step is for us to join together on a Zoom site and schedule our own events and talks. I’m already set up with a home studio and I’m offering myself to libraries, museums, and the organizations I belong to as a speaker on Zoom. I think this has the best potential of anything so far.
Joan Reeves
Joan is a NY Times & USAToday best-selling author of Contemporary Romance.
Website - Twitter: @JoanReeves - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
Writing is said to be a lonely business, but that was before the internet! In today's world, writing is lonely only if you choose to make it so. For several years, I've belonged to 6 author groups, each started initially for the purpose of group blogging. Of those, 2 were disbanded, I resigned from 1, and I'm still with 3 groups. I'll focus on the one that I organized which takes most of my spare time, and that is Romance Gems which debuted February 1, 2019. We are now 2 years old and we are 22 great authors strong. We've morphed into friends who support each other, publish together, and market/promote together.
When I organized Romance Gems, I set it up with an Executive Team and invited my friends to join in. The marvelous Bonnie Edwards, Jan Scarbrough, and Nancy Fraser did so for which I'm eternally grateful. We invite authors to join our group based on their body of work, professionalism, and personality. We read some of the nominated author's work and discuss whether she will be a good fit in the group dynamic. We want not only good writers but also an author who is professional and plays well with others. No drama divas or authors who aren't willing to work for the success of the group and each other. That's basically our mission statement. Support each other, support the group blog, work together, and have fun doing all of that.
We have giveaways, Book Fairs on a special holiday, and we have Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. Our Facebook page "Romance Gems…Where Authors and Readers Meet" (https://www.facebook.com/groups/332592250930075/) is the most active. Our authors sign up to front a discussion on a certain day. That way we have a fresh content for our readers. Last August, we published a box set together, the bestselling Last Chance Beach: Summer's End. This year, as the creator of the Last Chance Beach legend and premise, I've taken that setting and am launched a series of books under the LAST CHANCE BEACH ROMANCE banner. All but one of the authors are Romance Gems authors. This will be a series of books rather than box sets. The first one is DECEPTIVELY YOURS, and I'm the author of that. It will publish the week before Memorial weekend in the U.S. A new book will publish every 6 weeks.
The friendship and support our authors extend to each other is priceless. We've had members who have lost family members, and we're there to help them any way we can. Yes, we're all separate by many miles, but we're just an email away if someone needs a shoulder to cry on, someone to lift them up in prayer, or send a caring message. We're there if an author needs to vent about a bad review or ask for a favor.
Quoting from our Author Agreement: "We agree to support you and offer friendship and information to help you be successful in today’s competitive publishing arena. In return, we, the Executive Team, expect Authors to exhibit Professionalism …and to sign the Author Agreement as her commitment to the goals of this group [stated in the agreement] and an acceptance of her responsibilities."
Mike Wells
Mike is an American bestselling author including Lust, Money & Murder and Passion, Power & Sin.
Website - Twitter: @MikeWellsAuthor - Facebook - Goodreads
2/9/2021
About the groups, yes, I see the same thing but I have never done much with that approach. The one and only time was when I offered one of my books as part of a 99 cent box set back in about 2015--I was invited to do that, didn't seek it out. That was hugely successful, generated a couple of thousand dollars in sales for me, completely unexpected. But since then I haven't done anything, mainly because nobody has approached me. I'm a kind of lone wolf, always have been. Not a team player, and not very "social', don't participate in any author's groups or need any kind of emotional support, the way many authors need it (I get that from my wife, who's my editor). I tend to "lurk" on some forums (like that 20to50k Facebook group) to pick up tips, but that's about it.
Terry Ambrose
Terry is the author of the McKenna Mystery series and the Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery series.
Website - Twitter: @suspense_writer - Facebook - Goodreads
I belong to an author group called Booklovers Bench. When I discovered the group was now all cozy mystery authors, I was eager to return. There’s a good division of labor in Booklovers Bench, so no one person get saddled with the entire load.
Our main focus is marketing—we take turns with a weekly post and then host a monthly contest. But it also goes beyond that. We’ll read each others’ works to provide reviews, help with marketing quotes, and serve as a sounding board for ideas. We’re on the web at https://bookloversbench.com.
Cheryl Bradshaw
Cheryl is the New York Times & ten time USA Today bestselling mystery, thriller, and suspense author.
Website - Twitter: @cherylbradshaw - Facebook - Goodreads
Indie Writers Unite, a group I founded about ten years ago. It was the first author group on Facebook. I am also a member of several other groups, including: 20Booksto50k, Authors Optimizing Amazon and Facebook Ads, Author Support Network, 20Books Thrillers, SPF Community, et al.
Most of the groups I'm involved in are geared around marketing, tips on staying relevant, growing your brand, and learning what's working and what isn't in the industry today. In my group, Indie Writers Unite, we focus on helping new indie writers learn about the industry and offer tips on how to be successful in the business.
… usually get involved in one bookset a year, depending on my availability. I've been involved in sets that have done well, and others that didn't do well. For me to get on board with other authors for a bookset, I am looking to work with authors who have an established group of followers and are willing to promote the set and give it a lot of visibility. I also take part in multi-author book promos each month. It's a great way to gain more exposure with readers who have never read my books before.
Julia Crane
Julia writes YA paranormal fiction novels including the Keegan's Chronicles. She is a member of the Indie Chicks author's group.
Website - Twitter: @juliacrane2 - Facebook - Goodreads
Julia Crane @juliacrane2 commented on a recent writing project with Indie Chicks members.
“I’ve co-written with two separate authors Heather Adkins and Talia Jager. I was friends with both women before we decided to write together. I think we feed off each other when writing, and the process is a lot faster. It’s fun to brainstorm with someone that is also mentally in the head of the characters.”
Stacy Eaton
Stacy is a USA Today Best Selling Crime, Thriller and Mystery author.
Website - Twitter: @StacySEaton - Facebook - Goodreads
One of the prominent members, Author Stacy Eaton @StacySEaton had this to say:
“They are a great group! I love the WLC and Melissa is amazing. Those of us that work with the WLC do it because we love it. … we want to help others to succeed.
The biggest benefit that I get from the WLC is the network I have built and the friendships I have formed with so many authors and readers who visit and use the site on a daily basis.
Donna Fasano
Donna is an award winning author. She writes Sweet Romance novels.
Website - Twitter: @Donna_Fasano - Facebook - Goodreads
One of the authors from the Indie Chicks, Donna Fasano @DonnaFaz, had nothing but praise for the Indie Chicks.
“I am so lucky to a part this group of talented women. They offer support and a wealth of knowledge, and they're always willing to help in any way they can. I believe the book (Indie Chicks: 25 Independent Women 25 Personal Stories) is successful because we wrote our stories from the heart. When emotion is poured into a story, readers can't help but notice.”
Tamara Ferguson
Tamara is an award-winning author who writes Romance and Suspense novels.
Website - Twitter: @Tammysdragonfly - Facebook - Goodreads
The romance bundle for A Touch of Passion is comprised with full-length novels. When my dear friend Uvi Poznansky invited me into the group, I immediately said yes. She is the most amazing organizer I’ve ever met when it comes to putting together an anthology, and setting up promotions and Facebook events, and she’s very talented graphic designer as well. It takes a lot of patience to work in a group; particularly when some members don’t have the ability to contribute as much time as others, because of previous commitments.
The goal, of course, is to boost the sales of books for each author in the group. And, if in the process, we take it to the next level and become Amazon bestsellers (which we did), it would assuredly boost our sales even more.
What many authors don’t realize is the category rankings for anthology sales will also be associated individually with your numbers.
A bestselling anthology can definitely boost your career as an author, and you should always think carefully before turning an offer down.
Melissa Foster
Melissa writes Mystery and Thrillers. She is an award-winning author of several International bestselling novels.
Website - Twitter: @Melissa_Foster - Facebook - Goodreads
Here is a comment from the founder, Melissa Foster @Melissa_Foster.
“All of my endeavors are pay-it-forward driven. Readers, writers, bloggers, reviewers, and anyone interested in the literary field can join the World Literary Cafe (WLC).
Our goal is to unite the literary community, bring new-to-you authors to readers, and help author promote their work, while teaching them how to take control of their own success.
The educational arm of WLC is Fostering Success.. At Fostering Success, we offer affordable, effective, easy to understand, courses for writers to learn everything from self-publishing and social media to branding, platform building, and book marketing.”
S.R. Mallery
Sarah is the award-winning author who writes Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction, and Mysteries.
Website - Twitter: @SarahMallery1 - Facebook - Goodreads
Firstly, I cannot claim responsibility for putting together that set. I was graciously invited in by Uvi Poznansky, who knew my work, and wanted to include me if at all possible. This was my first bundle experience, and I couldn’t be happier. All of the authors are far, far better known in the literary world than I, as well as being savvier regarding social media. The result of that has brought me the benefit of a wider audience. (Featured on HBS Author’s Spotlight)
Uvi Poznansky
Uvi is a bestselling, award-winning author, poet and artist. She is the author of Contemporary and Historical Fiction novels.
Website - Twitter: @UviPoznansky - Facebook - Goodreads
Oh, thank you for noticing our win, we could not have done it without our wonderful readers! We are deeply grateful to them.
Despite being a private person I find myself increasingly engaged with readers and listeners. Why? Because of my characters. Having sprung from my mind onto the page, they might die there, pressed between the front and back covers–unless I make it possible for them to spring from the page to your mind.
I thrive on reaching out to my audience. Every day I discover new ways to create this connection and strengthen it. By far the best way is forging alliances with other authors, whose work is of outstanding quality and whose audience appreciates creativity. To this end I review fellow authors on my blog, which is my way of recognizing their talent. I organize author events on Facebook to showcase our work. I read a lot of novels, note their reviews, and actively seek out book recommendations, all of which allows me to choose the best and the brightest for the most ambitious team projects I created to date: boxed sets. In my mind, they are meant to celebrate excellence in writing. They allow you to discover new authors and from there, it is up to you to read more of their books.
Cheryl Shireman
Cheryl is the author of the 'Life is But a Dream' series and the 'Cooper Moon' series and many children's books.
Website - Twitter: @cherylshireman - Facebook - Goodreads
Cheryl Shireman @cherylshireman started the Indie Chicks.
“I love the Indie Chicks. This is such an extraordinary group of writers. When I first came up with the idea of the Indie Chicks, I discarded the idea immediately. It seemed like such a huge idea - fraught with so many logistical problems. But the idea kept returning.
And, eventually, I could no longer ignore the idea. I came up with a list of my “dream team” of women writers and started contacting them. I asked them if they’d like to be part of a group of women writers who worked together to support and encourage one another, not only in writing but sometimes in life. Almost all of the women I contacted replied with a heart.”
Camelia Miron Skiba
Camelia writes Romance, Women's Fiction, Historical Fiction novels. She is the author of the Dacian Legends series.
Website - Twitter: @CamiSkiba - Facebook - Goodreads
4/14/2015
I had a blast at the Festival! It challenges me to come out of my shell, which is a work in progress for the shy person that I am. I’ve met friends I knew from the previous year, and made new ones. I brought enough books (or so I thought) but by the second day I was sold out of two of my books (the Dacian series, BORN IN VENGEANCE and BORN IN SIN), so next year I’ll just bring more books.
James, once again thank you so much for inviting me to visit your blog. And thank you to anyone who took the time to read this interview.
Created by: James Moushon
Mystery Author, Industry blogger and Author Advocate
James is the author of the following blogs:
HBS Author’s Spotlight
Indie Author's Corner
Mystery Reader’s Circle
