I want to tell you about two things that happened recently.

 

 

First, I was on Facebook and I saw one of my author friends talking about how well one of her friend’s books was doing. It was not 100% humor related but my friend has a terrific sense of humor and she was basically saying this other book is very funny book even though it’s a different genre than humor.

 

So I messaged my friend and I said hey that might be good for this humor anthology I’m doing. Would you reach out to your friend?

 

She replied that the friend was very busy but she would ask.

 

A few hours later we got the reply that was kind of indicated – the friend was too busy but very flattered to be asked.

 

No problem.

 

Later that same day a different author friend shared a link to a blog post that was a very funny piece.

 

After reading it, I contacted the blogger. Coincidentally, he had just finished a project and was looking around for his next thing to do

 

I basically explained that I thought his piece was great and I would like to use it in the humor anthology and if he had some other stuff I would be interested in looking at them, too.

 

He thought it was intriguing and we are now corresponding, but it looks good!

 

My point is this:

reaching out a little bit is probably uncomfortable for most of us, but you have to remember the person on the other side is equally uncomfortable with reaching out most of the time.

When you do it, and they receive it, from their viewpoint it’s very flattering!

 

You never know where that will lead you.

 

Because I was not afraid to reach out a few times, I met a really good author and helped her launch her book that became a bestseller, and she and I now are very good friends and we edit each other‘s books. Similarly, I reached out to another person in a similar way and we also became very good friends and she’s very influential on my work as well as joining me on an internet show we did.

 

You just never know where things like this are going to lead.

Each day is another opportunity to make something amazing happen.

 

• Because I chatted with an audience member at the conference about his book, he invited me to be on his radio show. It reaches 30,000 listeners. I could use 30,000 more readers…
• Because I asked my two author friends to come to the FWA conference, they applied along with me and we were all accepted as presenters.
• Because I did that, I’ve been asked to look at taking on a larger role at FWA – and I’m considering it.
• Because I asked them and some other writer types to participate in a scary anthology, we gained another book on top of the Amazon bestseller list.

 

I could go on and on.

Focus on your books and focus on your family, and not necessarily in that order, but every once in a while don’t be afraid to reach out, or God forbid if somebody is reaching out to you, don’t slap the hand of opportunity away.

 

I don’t have all the good ideas but I sure try to run hard with the ones I do get.

If I can do it, you can do it.