I have a dream about how it could be for authors. Mostly my dream is for helping and supporting Indie authors, but my dream works for all authors, too. The dream is co-operation. The dream is me, not making money off of you, my fellow-struggling authors. Rather, I’d like to make a fair wage for my labors from readers. My dream is authors helping authors by pooling their resources.

Our competition is not one another. We are competing with ourselves. Our last book. How to make the next one better. How to keep growing and going as an author?

My idea is author cells. Not just authors being a member of a big endlessly growing group, but letting that bigger group be broken into smaller groups of twelve. They could be broken down by genres or by fiction or nonfiction. And, an author is not limited by participation to one cell. An author can decide how much work she or he has time and ambition to do. But it’s one book you’ve written per cell. You commit to the other eleven authors in the cell. You agree to read one another’s title via gifted pdf or direct purchase of an author’s book (1.99 or less) and review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you want more from one another, you negotiate that in the cell. For instance, you may also agree to tweet one another’s title, or post it, etc. And why not? You agree in the cell. But you need to be serious and ride it through until you’ve read and reviewed all eleven books. And then you are ready to receive eleven reviews. If you have multiple titles, it’s one title per cell. Those of you more driven can take on as much work as you want. No more waiting for your turn or a special event in a big group. These are small, productive, tit for tat groups within a larger group. We work for one another’s success as success comes back to us.

We have started the first cell here: ttps://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18600327

It is generosity and other-centeredness bringing good things back to yourself. I believe in that principle for life and it’s no different as an author. I welcome your comments.