What Makes You a Forest?

The basics of the Forest archetype.

Monica Leonelle

and

Russell Nohelty

Aug 06, 2023

https://authorecosystem.com

The Basics of the Forest Archetype

Most important resource: interconnectivity
Superpowers: Injecting their personalities into their books, high competency and skill stacking, nurturing every project consistently
Examples of Successful Forests: Stephen King, Brandon Sanderson, JK Rowling, Colleen Hoover

Forests march to the beat of their interests and put their own unique spin on everything they do for their readers. They have a close relationship with their fans largely because they inject so much of their own personality into all their books. They could write a murder mystery, a sweet romance, or a cozy comedy and readers will gobble it up because it’s their unique take on a genre.

The biggest problem with Forests is they always think they are some other ecosystem. Forests really want to be “in on the party” so they act like Deserts, but they write too much of themselves in their books to maximize trends.

Forests also really like digging deep into their own nerdy interests so they think they are Grasslands, but when they try to share their interests nobody cares outside their own community.

Forests also really like providing cool stuff for their audience, so they try to launch like Tundras, but they haven’t stacked enough tropes to build excitement outside their own community to get people talking.

When they focus on their superpower of building interconnectivity between all their work and finding people who grok their own slant on the world, they thrive.

Because Forests are multi-passionate, they tend to have multiple pen names going at once. Whereas this might overwhelm other types, Forests are good at watering each of their trees on a consistent schedule so everything grows steadily. They are extremely competent and tend to stack an impressive number of skills to deliver high-quality work across everything they do. Forests are good at being top of the class and being part of the conversation.

To do this, Forests must be consistent, hard-working, and patient, as it takes time, energy, and money to stand up each of their trees (and they still need to do so one at a time to get a bit of momentum in one area before moving on to another). This is also the ecosystem that takes the longest to get momentum, so it’s very important to have at least one standout series that can draw people in as you build your community. However, once they are rocking and rolling, there is usually no stopping them.

Healthy Forests survive by cross-pollinating their work across all their interests. The key connection is their personality, and their fans gravitate toward them for who they are rather than what they do or write. Unhealthy Forests chase trends, focus too much on their existing community without bringing in enough new readers, and don’t pay close enough attention to the marketplace to ensure enough readers will share their interests to draw them into their ecosystem.

Does this sound like you?