As a Publicity Manager with W Publishing Group, a commercial nonfiction imprint of Thomas Nelson, Elizabeth Hawkins always treats her relationship with authors as a partnership. She sees it as a collaboration of the connections the author brings to the table, with the connections that her team and publishing company have. When she takes on a new author client, she starts with the author's "owned audience", which is the network they already have in place. She combines this with the owned audience she has access to, and then works to expand that network.Hawkins looks to her authors to make introductions where relevant, leverage opportunities to write excerpts and op-eds, and partner on strategies, ideas, and goals. She wants the relationship to be as collaborative as the author would like it to be.