Knowing and Using Your Resources

 We're talking about that wonderful digital world again.

Although we all thought that the digital world would make things easier in many ways, it has now made the work of an author even harder. Sure, we can reach out to editors and agents quicker. Sure we can sign contracts digitally and share work with one another in a matter of seconds. But, with all of these options, were are now finding that to be successful, you have to know a lot of things about a ton of different things. 

Is that really possible? Probably not!

If we really took the time to try to learn all of the different twists and turns of this publishing business, we would not likely get to any of the real publishing "stuff". There is simply too much for a single person to know and learn. For this reason, to be truly successful, authors need to know and use all of the outside resources they can get their hands on.

Now, obviously when you land an agent, that is going to help a lot. The agent now has access to many things the every day authors simply cannot connect with. But even then, authors need to start looking to other resources that might make their lives even easier.

Maybe you are great with knowing how to navigate the basic social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, but what about expanding those avenues? Do you have someone who can guide you on IGTV? How about finding new connections and groups to advertise your books? 

Maybe you see a lot of people with great marketing campaigns and you just are not that savvy when it comes to the artistic side of things? Who can you reach out to?

Even on the writing level - What connections do you have with things such as grammar, world building and so forth?

The key to being successful is the ability to track down these resources, but at the same time, having the initiative to actually reach out to these people. 

So, what are the resources you have found to be the most successful for you?