I’ve been participating in a Valentine’s Blog Chain all this week and it inspired me to write about writing karma today on Working Writers. It also has me thinking about writers supporting other writers. In the chain, a group of writers visits other writer’s blogs and gives each other traffic. Sounds simple enough, right?

It used to be that writers could work alone, writing feverishly over their typewriters, and the only interaction with another writer they had was maybe drinks or dinner. Writers didn’t need to support one another because they had agents and editors and publishers for that. Well today, writers still have editors, agents, and publishers, but they need to do so much more to promote their books that they need support from their fellow writer. It might sound counter-intuitive, but writers supporting each other in today’s world brings each writer up rather than takes them down.

I recently saw an article from author Robin Maxwell where she talked about publishing today versus ten or fifteen years ago. Robin did an extensive blog tour to promote her book O, Juliet and also worked with fellow writers C.W. Gortner and Michelle Moran. Both C.W. and Michelle are also historical fiction writers, and have actively promoted Robin along with their own books. The result? More readers for each of them.

I also noticed a big push of writers this week sending out the word for Past Life, based on M.J. Rose’s work. In helping getting the word out about M.J.’s achievement, it helps everyone realize the important of great writing.

I’ve been amazed at some of the collaborative efforts with my fellow writers, and I hope it continues. I think this is an era where we can all learn from each other and build each other up as we search for readers.