I can't believe they misspelled your name, Kathryn! What a mixed bag of a thrill.

I agree writing with our community is more supportive and fun. Writing, and any creative field, can be tough. It's hard to put your ideas into the world and face criticism, but that is one way our groups keep us growing in our craft.

And nice comment about:
I can’t begin to tell you the things I’ve learned researching materials for a blog.
It's so true!

It really is a big comfort to know that there are others out the who understand what your going through because they've been there.

I was terrified the first time I attended a critique group. You should know since you were there! You also know who's breakout group I ended up in. I learned so much that night.

Sharing knowledge is a great way to engage. I answer a lot of questions on Twitter and it leads to more discussion and the opportunity to learn something new.

I agree Amazon and Goodreads are crapshoot, but kind of a necessary evil, so you just have to post and cross your fingers. Luckily there are a lot of other places to post reviews, even if it's just putting them on your social media platforms and tagging the author.

Agreed. Blurbing other authors can lead to some pretty great exposure.

I try to do that.

I remember how terrified I felt in the first few critique meetings and how thoughtful everyone was about my work. Sharing your book-baby with the world is not easy, and those empathetic writers made a huge difference for me. I've been fortunate to have many good role models.