This section can be summed up in one line that I heard from author and podcaster Mur Lafferty on her I Should Be Writing podcast many years ago in reference to behaving like a professional author.
"Don't be a dick."
It should be self-evident that it's important to maintain professional relationships with agents, editors, publishers, professional freelancers, bloggers, other authors and most importantly, readers, but it's surprising how many authors seem to forget this, especially in an online world.
Writing is a long-term game and over the years, you are likely to run into the same people in the publishing industry. Agents and editors may move companies, but they will remember what you were like, and they all talk amongst themselves. Professional freelancers, like the best cover designers and editors, will only continue to work with those clients who are good to work with and who pay on time.
You will also meet other authors at events or on forums/private groups and you don't know who that author will be in five years or twenty years. The relationships you make early in your career can stick with you for the long term and you may be able to help each other now and in the future. There will always be people ahead of you and behind you on the author journey, so help who you can and you never know what social karma will come back to you.
I might not write fiction that is all rainbows and kittens, but I definitely try to live that way!
The word karma implies that you get back what you give, and I believe this is true in the social environment. If you give, you will receive somehow, though not always from the same source. Being useful, helpful and generous is satisfying to you personally, but also builds up a bank of goodwill. When you later mention that you have a book out, or people are attracted to you because of your generosity, and see that you have books/products available, they are more likely to buy.
This isn't woo-woo. It's based on the science of influence. Read Robert Cialdini's book Influence and you'll see that the principle of reciprocity is one of the keys to influencing people's behavior. I believe that we can utilize such principles, but we don't have to do it in a scammy or unethical manner.
When there is a congruence of interests, cooperating together can create greater value than acting alone. The self-publishing environment in particular is full of entrepreneurial authors, sharing openly. We discuss sales numbers and promote each other through blog posts and social networks, especially when our books are in the same genre. In working and educating ourselves together, we can learn lessons faster, respond and adapt more quickly. Traditionally published authors also do this through promoting each other's books, forming groups that speak together at festivals or doing book signings together.
For example, let's say you write science fiction. There's no need to see other science fiction writers as competition. Instead, think of them as potential collaborators on marketing projects. Both of you bring an interested group of readers who will read your books fast and be ready for the next book. Why not work with other writers in the same genre to promote each other? In that way, everyone benefits. In the same way, non-fiction writers can work with authors in the same area to target the same readers. After all, a reader who buys one diet book will likely want to buy a whole load more of them!
Anything that has your name on it should bolster your reputation, not diminish it. Anything that you share in a supposedly private forum or Facebook group may be screen-grabbed and shared, or talked about by others. Even if what you say is justified, if things make it into the blogosphere or social media, you may be the one left looking bad. So if you're boiling over with anger and want to lash out, don't blog or tweet or Facebook about it, deal with it privately if possible to protect your own brand.
Respond to reader emails graciously and gratefully, because they are the ones who make a success of your book. If you meet fans at events, smile and be nice. A stand-offish author with no time for readers soon gets a reputation. Perhaps that doesn't impact sales in the short term, but reader opinion is often shared across blog networks and social media over time.
"Be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet them on the way down."
Wilson Mizner