Supporting one another in the writing community

The life of an author is never dull, is it? Our writing might take some interesting turn or other we perhaps did not quite foresee, for example, or some new challenge pops up that stretches our current knowledge and abilities and keeps us on our toes. At least, that’s what I’ve found lately—particularly on the promotional side of things.

My latest challenge was to be a part of my very first ‘blog tour’ ever. It was organised by the Australian Christian Readers’ Blog Alliance, under the auspices of our own Narelle Atkins and also Jenny Blake (see http://acrba.blogspot.com.au/). I was a little tentative about this at first, to be honest. I had read about such tours in the USA, but couldn’t seem to wrap my brain about what they were all about. Now here was our very own ‘home-grown’ one, inviting me to be part of it, as an author or as a reader and reviewer.

In the end, I took the plunge and chose to have my non-fiction book Soul Friend: The story of a shared spiritual journey included in a tour last month. What an interesting experience that was! Some reviewers in this alliance chose not to review my book, since they prefer to stick to fiction, which is fine. But those who did choose to read and feature it, either with a review or some thoughtful response to the book, did a wonderful job, for which I am truly grateful. One alliance member who reviewed the book even went to the length of buying another copy via Amazon and posting her review there, which I found amazing—especially since it was such a positive review! As well, some interviewed me with interesting questions or suggested a topic about which I might write a guest blog for them.

I enjoyed all the liaising involved in being part of the tour. Yes, it took some time on my part to write those interview responses and guest blogs, as well as the various emails necessary to expedite matters. But these readers and other authors were doing me a favour, when all is said and done. They were providing me with an opportunity to promote my book amongst their own friends and blog contacts that might never come my way otherwise. It cost me nothing, except my time—my publisher, Even Before Publishing, very generously provided the necessary copies of my book for the reviewers involved. On top of that, I feel I have got to know some of these authors and readers just that little bit more as I have read their feedback and emailed them back and forth.

All this has opened my eyes more to the vital role supporting each other in our writing journeys can play and caused me to be very thankful for such help. Blog tour or no blog tour, we can encourage one another so easily these days through a brief email, blog comment, Facebook post or the like. And this International Christian Fiction Writers group itself is an obvious way we have to share our journeys as well as let the world know what we write.

So today as you read this, may you be encouraged to keep on persevering, not only in your writing but in exploring new promotional opportunities that may come your way. And may God bless and encourage you even more in the process.

Jo-Anne Berthelsen lives in Sydney but grew up in Brisbane. She holds degrees in Arts and Theology and has worked as a high school teacher, editor and secretary, as well as in local church ministry. Jo-Anne is passionate about touching hearts and lives through both the written and spoken word. She is the author of five published novels – Heléna, All the Days of My Life, Laura, Jenna and Heléna’s Legacy—and one non-fiction work, Soul Friend: the story of a shared spiritual journey. Her sixth novel, The Inheritance, will be released in 2013. Jo-Anne is married to a retired minister and has three grown-up children and three grandchildren. For more information, please visit www.jo-anneberthelsen.com or www.soulfriend.com.au.