Ifyou've made it through the first 40 ideas in this series spelled out in Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, you should be well on your way to understanding the thinking behind — and power of — ongoing relationship cultivation to the sustainable success of your authorpreneurship ventures.

Below are my final ten, #41–50. From here, I challenge you to add your own best ideas to this list (and feel free to share in the comments).

  1. Follow David J. P. Fisher and read any or all of his 10 books on networking and selling, human-to-human, in the 21st century. Fisher and other networking/relationship experts know what they're talking about. Customize their advice for your needs and situations and set about implementing as many tips as possible and testing their effectiveness for you. Remember, something tried that doesn't work or work as well as expected is still successful data gathering. Now you know something you didn't know before…what will you do differently next time?
  2. Check in on others more than once when you know they're going through hard times: job losses, injuries, tough diagnoses (their own or family member's), grieving, etc. If you know them well enough or if it's appropriate, you can take things to a deeper level by asking them how are they really? Sincerity and concern are needed, endearing, appreciated, and memorable.
  3. Have an annual donation budget and donate to other people's causes. Even small amounts are big gestures that can make an impact.
  4. Buy the Girl Scout cookies and popcorn tins from co-workers' and neighbors' kids. Perhaps it will be easier and you won't feel so bad, guilty, awkward, uncertain when you invite them to your next booksigning! You will understand that they are already on your side.
  5. If they're not your thing, regift those Girl Scout cookies and popcorn tins to someone else in your network. Really, it's a twofer. Make it work for you.
  6. Before you travel, ask your LinkedIn, Facebook, or in-person friends if they have friends or business associates at your destination who they think you'd like to meet. Ask for an intro. Scheduling at least one such meeting adds an extra personal dimension to your trip and extends your network in new ways. Your author enterprise needs relationships broad and deep, near and far. And, mostly, it grows and endures through a steady influx of new leads, connections, and friendly business relationships.
  7. Organize a weekly or monthly happy hour open to all of your contacts and your contacts' contacts and see it grow in size and impact over time. Be the one who makes it normal, entertaining, and indispensable for those in your area's writing, book reading, and bookselling worlds to stay in touch and offer ongoing mutual support and camaraderie.
  8. Organize anything fun and invite others to join in. We all need more fun and could be more fun (speaking for myself here). My cousin's son is playing hockey in my city in a couple weeks, and I threw out an open invite on Facebook. All of a sudden, we are now a cheering squad of 26, also gathering for a potluck dinner and drinks before the game. Invite your book world contacts to something non-literary to spark new conversations, ideas, and connections when you're out of your normal element.
  9. Tell people what you need and want in the way of work. You can work your business needs, pitches, hints into almost any conversation in almost any crowd, just use sparingly and not to the exclusion of all other topics. I'll start! For example: Follow me here on medium and share my services with other authors you know. (Thanks in advance.)
  10. Realize that connecting with people, asking and answering questions and requests, giving and taking, sharing good times and hard times, meeting new people and re-connecting with old friends should be ongoing, daily activities intricately interwoven into the things we are already doing. This is how the seeds are planted, the spores dispersed, and the relationships cultivated for social capital reserves and sustainable business. Start today, continue tomorrow, keep a list of ideas, and keep on going.

More in this series

Sharon Woodhouse is the owner of Conspire Creative, which offers strategic collaboration services for post-publishing author rewards: coaching, publishing consulting, project management, author business development/management, and ongoing group coaching for authors in a private Facebook group, A Profitable Author Life You Love.

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