Writing is a solitary craft, but connecting with other people in the writing community is invaluable. I’m a firm believer in networking, but my disclaimer is always this: networking doesn’t mean schmoozing and hand-shaking your way through an event, exchanging business cards the whole time. In my definition, networking means connecting with people in a genuine and mutually beneficial way.
So how do you do that? Here are three tips:
1.) We’ve heard a lot about social media, but I want to put in a special plug for Twitter. In the latest issue of Writer’s Digest, author Jeanne V. Bowerman, @jeannevb, (whose site you should definitely visit because she has an entire blog post about what networking is and isn’t) has a great story about how Twitter helped her connect with other writers and how that changed her whole writing paradigm. There are hundreds of great writers and resources on Twitter sharing information and ideas and supporting each other. In my case, I met a friend on Twitter, Neil Shurley, (@thatNeilGuy) because we share a passion for donuts. He wound up using Twitter to recommend Donut Days to some donut franchises including Dunkin’ Donuts, who actually responded. He did it because we genuinely connected over a topic that we both love, not because I gave him my business card then asked him to. If you’re new to this and, heck, even if you’re not, check out Jeannie Ruesch’s blog post on how writers can use Twitter to connect and learn from others in the writing biz.
2.) In addition to sharing, networking also means learning. Want to meet other writers? Want to connect with agents and publishers? Try attending conferences, seminars, and workshops. Can’t afford a plane ticket to get to travel somewhere to engage in the latter? Never fear: Writer’s Digest hosts numerous webinars on a variety of topics. Recently, I had a friend who attended a query letter webinar through WD. As part of the webinar, the agent hosting it read and reviewed the attendee’s queries. She read my friend’s, offered feedback, then asked to see the first 30 pages of the manuscript. Now, my friend didn’t attend to because she was expecting to get her book in the door, but it was a wonderful outcome from her genuine efforts to simply learn more about the industry.
3.) Send hand-written cards in an e-world. What does that mean? In part, it means say thank you. For everything. Now, I’m not perfect about this — in fact, I want to be better at it — but saying thank you, for everything, goes a long way. And part of really saying thank you is taking the time to write something out instead of typing it. That might seem like a contradictory statement when I just told you to get on to Twitter. But Twitter is not the means for giving thanks. We live in a world where sending an email or an IM is the easy thing to do. Has anyone bought wedding gift and been thanked for it on email? I have, and it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth. But thanking someone sincerely with a hand-written, hand-stamped card can certainly show someone how much their efforts meant to you. Similarly, hand-written notes can go a long way toward forging a genuine connection. Case in point: I just launched a hand-written postcard campaign where I wrote and mailed a number of postcards to librarians across the country telling them that Donut Days is now out in paperback. I have seen some great results, which I probably wouldn’t have seen if I’d just sent an email.
Got a networking best practice? Feel free to share here. How about a question? This is a topic I’ll be revisiting, so I’d love to hear from you!
[Image source: The Write Solution]
If you live in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area and are curious about self-published ebooks, mark your calendar for February 9, from 7:00-8:30 P.M. The super smart Margaret Yang and I will be at the Ann Arbor District Library’s Traverwood branch with a workshop that will help you navigate the brave new world of indie books. Please help me spread the word about this event, or email me with questions at: at lara [at] help4writers [dot] com.
