Benefits of Membership

IDENTITY

Membership in Authors Innovative Marketing reminds us that we are past the amateur writer’s crisis of identity. Being a member of this limited fraternity, we no longer struggle to convince ourselves we are writers: We are in the business of writing. We are not hobbyists, but entrepreneurs with well-stated goals who actively market our product every day. And when we forget this, there are others in whose best interests it lies to remind us.

COLLEGIALITY

Membership in Authors Innovative Marketing brings us to a monthly table where words hold our interest. We celebrate gains, mourn losses, and drink voraciously from the fount of shared knowledge and experience: We are gathered with people who understand us. Standing together under the banner of AIM, we strive to be better writers, better spokespersons, and better sales representatives for the sake of our colleagues and our shared name.

PARTNERSHIP

Membership in Authors Innovative Marketing brings together the unique sales perspectives and talents of young and old, new writer and seasoned author, picture book composer and author of dense academic tomes, financial whiz and abacus calculator with a duct-tape-cornered shoebox. Whatever ravines one has faced or fallen in head-first, all are now warned. Whatever mountains one has painstakingly scaled, all can view from the summit and skip the long climb. Writers are natural teachers, and we are apt students. One’s gifts and skills strengthen us all.

HOPE AND PROMISE

Membership in a dedicated and particularized marketing group is a start, and we have knit together the bones of the organization. It now functions as a standard to remind us of our identity — and a clarion call to recruit like-minded professionals and discover the right people to grow alongside us.

Where do we go from here? We look to our Mission Statement: We write individually; together we sell what we write. A solid step forward is to frequently spotlight our members within the safety of our monthly meetings – listen, query, put them on the spot, demand more from them, challenge them, recommend paths they’ve not trod, and support them uproariously at each step. Meanwhile, the rest of us are privileged to learn as we facilitate another’s learning.

Our affiliation with Authors Innovative Marketing will change our lives, I am convinced. Under a banner that unites and strengthens us, we will develop protected plans for risk-taking and forge into arenas unthinkable for one single writer. I believe that soon our group will decide to publish from within, and I eagerly look forward to that day. I believe the reach and potential for Authors Innovative Marketing is limitless: We will serve, and we will lead. We need only align thought and action with our Mission Statement; protect our integrity with ethical internal management; and challenge the changing world of publishing with intelligence, creativity, a sense of humor, discernment, the strength of our united wills, and a plan.

(Benefits of Membership researched and written by AIM Author Constance Frankland)