I Explained My Author Philosophy to a Journalist Yesterday.
A journalist from Ecuador texted me out of nowhere. She had questions. We scheduled a call.
I was not expecting that to turn into one of the most honest conversations I have had in a while about what it actually means to help people without charging for it.
She wanted to know how I approach sharing what I know. The self publishing process, the cover design decisions, what a developmental editor actually does and why most people skip that step and regret it. The kind of thing nobody tells you until you have already made the mistake.
One of the things that came up was knowledge and money. Knowledge is money and money is good. I know that. But if you share what you know, you make friends along the way and you all help each other. I do not know everything. So I learn too. It is an exchange more than anything else.
I told her I do not mind sharing any of it. The tips, the mistakes, the things I wish someone had told me. I told her about why people like me are choosing to demarket — no Avengers, no team, one woman building something real rather than a personal brand that performs being a creator. The genuine discomfort with in-your-face marketing. The desire to build something that lasts. I told her that group work is what makes a book great. That no book worth reading was built entirely alone.
I only figured out what I was describing when I stopped talking.
Today I was listening to an episode of The Creative Penn Podcast with Joanna Penn — Lessons Learned From Author Nation 2025, November 2025 — and she said this:
“The longer you are in this business and the more you join in and help others, the more people you get to know, social karma kicks in. Some of these relationships naturally turn into business opportunities and other author friends will be your support crew over the inevitable challenging years ahead.”
Social karma. That is what I was describing to the journalist yesterday without knowing what to call it.
The idea that showing up generously, helping people at your level, sharing what you know without keeping score — that it comes back. In the form of relationships that arrive when you have completely stopped expecting them to.
I have seen it already. Rhoda Bangerter, who wrote Holding the Fort Abroad, met me for coffee and called the coloring book brilliant. Karina Lagarrigue, a PhD researcher studying expat mothers, found Maternity Abroad through a friend and reached out. Margery Pimentel said yes when I asked. Papa Balla Ndong said wonderful and invited the book to Valencia. Every single one of those conversations started because I was in the room, showing up, sharing what I knew, asking people I admired if they wanted to be part of something.
That is social karma. But now I want to know… have you ever done something for someone without expecting anything back and what came back was something you could not have planned for even if you tried?
Curious to know,
Jessica Gabrielzyk
