Writing is Not a Competition

I was very fortunate to come to a writer event with my friend Michael Ignacio. He was displaying his books for sale for the first time and kindly offered to share space with me.

Here’s us with editor Danny Wilkens. We’re all in the same local writing group together.

If we were competitors, it would make little sense for us to be in a writing group together. Why help the competition if you can avoid it?

We are planning on working on a couple of anthologies together in the near future–but those are future projects.

Vitamin F isn’t even a Kapuha Press book. Yet it shared shelf space with all of Michael’s books.

I made a point prior to and during the event to play up what Michael has been doing. As he explained what his books were about he would always segue into me talking about Vitamin F. These are not the actions of competitors.

Coke doesn’t work with Pepsi. DC doesn’t work with Marvel. Those are competitors.

Writers tend to do better when they speak well of other writers. We help each other. We provide advice, share criticism. We learn from each other’s mistakes and thrive from the success of other writers.

I sold a copy of Vitamin F during that event. If I was Michael’s competitor, he wouldn’t have talked my book up or offered me shelf space.

Michael Ignacio is not my competitor. If you’re a writer, neither are you.