Thanks to best-selling author Martin Crosbie for this guest post! (Graphic courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

There are things that occur organically when you’re a new, self-published author, and if you allow them to, they’ll help you succeed. It’s easy, you just have to stand back and let it happen. There are rules though; there always have to be some rules.

When I was trying to find readers for my first novel, I took a novel approach (sorry, had to do that). I emailed other self-published authors who’d had some success. I “friended” them on Facebook, bought their books, and on some occasions, gifted them copies of my book. And then I asked them questions.

You see, I thought I had a pretty good book. Beta readers were asking for more, the few reviews I had were all five stars and I believed in my work, but I wasn’t selling as many books as some other authors out there, and I wanted to know why.

Surprisingly, most of my fellow authors took the time to respond. Some of them just gave words of encouragement, but some of them gave me their time and made suggestions. And, the ones who are still part of my support system told me the truth. One of them in particular told me I had a um, in his words, “crappy cover and poor synopsis.” He said my cover wasn’t indicative of my story and the synopsis just wasn’t interesting at all. He was brave enough to tell me the truth and because of that I made some changes and almost immediately, I began selling more books. Needless to say, he’s still in my circle of colleagues today.

When you release your book, you’ll come into contact with other authors. You’ll meet them through Kindle boards, Facebook, Twitter, or they may just email you. There will be lots of them. In a fairly short time you’ll be able to determine whether they’re on the same road as you are, and that’s very important.

Writing is now my full-time career. Thanks to the success of my books I’m able to write for a living, so it’s very important to me that I’m surrounded by like-minded authors. That means I want to have authors in my circle who are willing to make the commitment to make this work. That’s where the rules come into play.

When it comes to helping you reach the next level in terms of the quality of your content and the way you penetrate the market you need to have people in your circle who will tell you the truth. There are lots of groups with members who’ll encourage you and tell you you’ve got a great product. That’s easy to find, but if you don’t have colleagues who are willing to tell you that you’re missing out on something, or that you’re approaching a situation in the wrong manner, or have a “crappy cover” then you may not have the right support system.

If you have the right people in your circle, you’ll have immediate access to what’s working and what isn’t in terms of promotions, access to their team of beta readers, critical responses to all the little things that come up during the creation and publishing of your work, and of course, encouragement. That comes because you’ve chosen authors who are on the same path as you are. Pick them carefully because you’ll rise or fall based on the feedback you get from them and just as you help them they’ll help you reach that next level.

How have you worked with fellow authors to build a support system for your writing or author marketing?

Martin Crosbie is the self-published author of the Amazon bestseller, MY TEMPORARY LIFE and the follow up novel, MY NAME IS HARDLY, as well as a collection of short stories-LIES I NEVER TOLD. His next self-publishing workshop takes place in Vancouver, Canada in September 2013. Details can be found here Bestseller-Lists-Secrets-Weekend