Human potential is limitless. People succeed in all walks of life, some inspirationally even after experiencing tremendous adversity and disability. As an author you want to be the best you can be. You want to be successful. In short, you want to thrive as an author. Below are 3 qualities that will help you to do so:
1. Be a constant learner
These days so many authors are self-publishing their work. Even traditionally published authors are taking it upon themselves to do extra sales and marketing on top of what their publishers do for them. Therefore, being able to learn and even more importantly keeping one’s mind open to learning is a must.
On your journey to becoming a successful author, adopt the mind-set of a young child about learning new skills that will help you to write better, relate and connect with your readers in an enhanced way, and teach yourself all the multitude of things needed to run a book business productively.
One example that comes quickly to mind is technology. Digital publishing makes use of different technologies to write, edit and publish books. As an author you need to be willing to invest some time to learn how to use new platforms enough, so that you can competently work with them, at least until you grow and can recruit staff to help you out.
2. Be willing to go the extra mile
Being a thriving author requires hard work. The accolade you might want and the impact you would like to create on others isn’t going to happen overnight, and if it does, luck probably played a big part to do with it! The best authors will be working extra hard compared to the average. Writing fulltime usually will take you beyond 40 hours a week, and this might even happen before Friday actually comes.
Hard work definitely does pay off. It always has and it always will. However, when you’re putting all the additional hours in, remember to work on activities that will actually help you to get books completed and published. Work on activities that are a priority for the creation of success, rather than spending extra time doing tasks that are not contributing to the end goal.
3. Be a relationship builder
This point goes beyond creating relationships with your readers. It also involves creating fruitful, win-win relationships with other partners in the publishing industry that you can help and in return they can help you, whether it’s through a simple introduction to an editor or agent you want to meet, or to help you access new, potential readers.
Being able to create and build relationships means reaching out to others. It’s about looking at what fellow people in the publishing industry are doing in their daily activities, thinking about how you can add value to their work and then offering to help. People generally are touched when a genuine person offers a hand to help, and in turn will make them more than willing to help the individual in return – in this case that person is you.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published on e-Books India in December 2014.
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]