Networking. Self-Promotion. Business skills. Talent. Which of these does a writer need to make it in the publishing industry? All of them.
If anyone ever tells you that a writing career only requires talent, feel free to tell them they are full of it. Networking is one of the most important skills a writer can have. Even if you’re not good at it, you can learn it. I know because I’ve had to learn it.
When I started out, I was the most awkward fan-girl wanna-be writer I know of. I put off a lot of people with my attempts to barge into conversations and hand out business cards. Self-promotion is important, but so is learning how to be in the right place at the right time. There’s an element of luck to the whole thing, but if you are persistent, patient, and learn how to come off as a professional (not a needy nerd like I did), you can be a well-networked writer.
As an example, here is my writing career in a nutshell:
Elementary School – Inspired by my father, who is trying to become a published author, I start writing short (flash fiction before “flash fiction” was a classified story length) stories.
Junior High – A few of my flash fiction pieces get published in the local newspaper. No money or contracts involved.
High School – I tell my English teacher I want to write a novel. With her permission (and an assignment due date of 1 chapter a week), I get to spend a whole semester in the school library during this class to write. I finish my first novel, a YA mystery book called “The Mystery of the Missing Clue,” and am very proud of myself. I get an A for the semester too. WHOO! (Lesson for young writers: Talk to your English teacher. See if you can make the same arrangement.)
1999 or 2000 – I finish my second novel, a Transformers fan-fiction novel called Chosen. I primarily wrote it for myself, but shared it out in the fanfic community. Lots of TransFans love it and my SO convinces me it’s good enough to get published for real.
2000-2004 – I try sending Chosen to a dozen or so publishing houses to get published because I didn’t understand how media tie-in fiction worked. WHOOPS. No one wants it.
2004 contin. – Chosen comes to the attention of someone who is impressed enough to forward it to iBooks, Inc. (the then-current holder of the Transformers prose license.* iBooks declines to publish it. (First networking experience. It’s both heady and disappointing.)
2004 contin. – iBooks decides to do a Transformers anthology instead of a fourth novel because the first three novels tanked. The editor (aliased as David Cian) needs as many authors as he can get and calls me while I’m making brownies because my name was floated to him as a possible candidate. One week later, I send him a 7000 word (approximately) newly written story called “Two for the Price of One.” He approves of it, sends me a contract, and suddenly I’m a published author. HOORAY! I use this publication to join SFWA (which I had only heard of the year before via another author mentioning it in a book he wrote) because I want to become a professional author. (OMG, networking works?)
NOTE: Before “David” called me, I always thought of myself as a novelist, despite my flash fiction beginnings. When he offered to pay me for a short story, I decided I could write any length of story if someone really wanted to buy it.
2004 contin. (late) to 2005 – I volunteer for Nebula Jury duty. (Back in those days, SFWA had a different procedure in place for the Nebula Awards. Juries would recommend one or two stories / books for the awards in addition to member-nominated works.) Jean Rabe, fellow Transformers‘ author, is head of this jury and recognizes my name. She invites me to join the IAMTW (International Association of Media Tie-in Writers). (Wait… am I networking again? I didn’t mean to!)
2006 – I join IAMTW and get to know a lot of media tie-in writers. Jean Rabe & Stephen R. Sullivan invite me to write a story for their Pirates of the Blue Kingdoms anthology. I get published a second time! (book comes out in 2007)
2007 – I get invited to submit for the second Blue Kingdoms anthology, Shades & Specters. I send in story and it gets published in Dec. 2007 / Jan. 2008.
2008 – The Year of Nothing. Nada. No writing gigs. No invitations. Circle of Fire (my novel) is not going well. I’m so close to being finished, but it just keeps getting longer. Getting depressed now. I join a local writers group at the invitation of Sandra MacDonald (also a SFWA member who sees my name and location in the SFWA member directory). Hey, NETWORKING WORKS! So does being a member of SFWA. Then I get another invitation to submit a story for the third Blue Kingdoms anthology, but I can’t get the story done in time. Book gets published without me.
early 2009 – Catalyst Game Labs puts a note on the IAMTW board looking for tie-in writers for the Eclipse Phase RPG. I sign on after a few weeks of discussion with the line dev in question. A few months later, I get on the Shadowrun forums and ask if I can “cross-pollinate” between the games (which they encouraged). I spend the next year proof-reading EP material and submitting proposals to Shadowrun (which are rejected for not taking enough risks). Getting depressed again.
2009 – I learn that the SFWA Nebula Awards are in Cocoa Beach, FL. I can drive there! I buy a ticket at the last minute and volunteer to help out. I get to know a lot of people, embarrassing a lot of people by being pushy networking girl and learning quick how to tone it down. I impress with my volunteering skills, though, and am asked by Mary Kowal Robinette to do other volunteering work for SFWA.
2009 – I apply (and am accepted) to the Viable Paradise writing workshop in Martha’s Vineyard. I learn a LOT about my writing (apparently I’m a style monkey). Elizabeth Bear and Teresa Nielson-Hayden are my crit group teachers. Wow. Did I learn some things. Steven Gould asks me Very Important Questions about Circle of Fire (my still-WIP) that changes how I see the world and the story in progress. Uncle Jim gives me a personal crit that would require a complete re-write. I come out of the workshop in mental pieces trying to figure out how to absorb everything and pull myself back together. But feeling really good despite not getting the coveted “Send this to me at Tor NOW” request.
2010 – I attend the Nebula Awards again, volunteer again, hoping for more connections and contacts. I meet a lot of editors and agents. I think this is the year I have an author signing table (can’t remember). I also meet Lee Martindale who has an open anthology invite posted. I mention in passing that I saw it and am thinking of subbing. She threatens to “beat you with my cane” if I do NOT submit. (She was joking, but man, that’s a heck of a confidence booster). When I query her about my longer than wordcount story, she says to send it on in. She remembers me from the awards ceremony. I get accepted for the Ladies of Trade Town with my fourth contracted story and my first novelette.
Late 2009 or in 2010 – I receive a private invitation to participate in the A Career Guide to Your Job in Hell anthology from an IAMTW author. (It’s official, networking ROCKS.) Publication is delayed until 2011, but I’m contracted and happy.
2010 – Call goes out for the fourth Blue Kingdoms anthology, Mages and Magic. I submit my sixth contracted short story. This writing thing is finally working! Then the gaming world explodes with controversy over Catalyst Game Labs payment & contract issues with freelancer authors. Writers quit. CGL scrambles. An emergency rewrite for a Corporate Guide chapter is needed. I volunteer and the line dev gives me a week to write 10,000 words. I get it done and get my first RPG writing credit in June of that year. Having proven myself, I go on to continue writing various Shadowrun adventures, sourcebook chapters, etc. through the current date (2013).
2010 contin. – The IAMTW wants to educate people about media tie-in fiction and puts out a call to the membership. I volunteer to write a chapter (unpaid) for the Tied-In: The Business, History and Craft of Media Tie-In Writing. Paying it forward to all the people, like I used to be, who try to get in the wrong way.
2011 – Things are coming together. I go to Kevin J. Anderson’s Superstars Writing Seminar, relearning some VP lessons and learning new lessons for professional authors. I meet a lot of other authors / editors and another VP grad. More Shadowrun writing is done, proof-reading as well. Spurred on by Kevin’s recommendations, I sign up for major industry conventions WorldCon and World Fantasy.
2011 contin. – A publisher I met on Twitter has invited me to run a few Twitter chats. Later he recommends me to Jennifer Brozek for an anthology she is doing and she sends me an invite. I get contracted for another short story to appear in Space Tramps.
2011 contin. – I am invited by an agent I met at the Nebula Awards to send in the first 30 pages of Circle of Fire, but the writing community tells me to wait until I’m done rewriting it to send it in. Disappointment sets in as well as determination. Alas, I become too busy to actually finish the rewrite this year.
2011 contin. – I go to GenCon, run some Shadowrun games, volunteer for CGL, and meet all the Shadowrun peeps I’ve only ever known online. Propose an adventure to the Line Dev (in person) and he likes the idea. He tells me to email it to him post-con. I do, he contracts it, and in 2012 I get my first ever solo-written Shadowrun piece, Sacrificial Limb. (It gets several good reviews, BTW).
2011 contin. – WorldCon puts me on a panel about character stupidity (my first convention panel!) and World Fantasy is where I meet Celina Summers of Musa Publishing. This puts me on track to get two of my written-but-unloved short pieces published. A dinner at the end of World Fantasy gets me and several authors in the same room as Celina and somehow an anthology (Jack Gorman Got Cut by a Girl) comes out of the conversation.
2011 contin. – Buzzy Magazine accepts my biblical horror story, Feast of the Torn (free to read), and I become a member of the Horror Writers Association.
2012 – I volunteer to help Celina out with the Jack Gorman antho and suddenly get hired on as an intern for Penumbra eMag and Urania. Six months later, Celina offers me a job as Urania Publications Coordinator. I get my first editing credits in Penumbra eMag and an article published in the SFWA Bulletin (professionally paid rates too!). I attend the Rainforest Writers Retreat for the first time and get a LOT of writing done. I cut 70k words from Circle of Fire, write 20k more, leaving it at about 90k+ in length. Let the rewrite begin! Jennifer Brozek, my Space Tramps editor, invites me to write for two other anthologies. I only get a story finished for one, Coins of Chaos (not yet published).
2013 – Overscheduled, I’m slushreading for Penumbra eMag, trying to pull a special submissions call together for Urania, trying to write Shadowrun stuff, and finish Circle of Fire. This year is The Year of Too Much Crap and it’s only halfway over. Cascade Writers Workshop and GenCon are in my immediate future as well as other stuff I can’t talk about right now.
There’s so much more I could discuss, like the Latchkeys project that I formed with other members of the IAMTW, and other little jobs or recognition, but I think I’ve made my point. 90% of my writing and editing career has been driven by networking. I go out, I meet people, I exchange business cards (take them EVERYWHERE), and we talk about stuff. Sometimes it’s publishing related, sometimes not. I lucked out with my first publication. But the fact of the matter is, if I hadn’t joined SFWA, none of the rest of this would have fallen into place. The moral of this journey is: talent is good, but without networking, how will an author get anywhere?
Do you have a networking story you’d like to share?
*Generally I don’t tell the story of my Transformers journey because I don’t want others to repeat the rule-breaking I did. But if you’re truly interested, it can be found in the “Tied In” book.
