Came across this as I was reading through my news this morning; thought you might get a kick out of this video. Something to think about if you’re pitching to an agent!
Be sure to visit Christie and Faye online through www.WriteWithUs.net.
Tips on How to Be a Professional | Part One of Three
Did you know that your chances of getting published increase the more professional you act? In this series of posts, I’d like to share with you some tips from other professionals working as freelancers, writers, publishers and editors. I’d also like to cover some tips that you might find interesting to think about as you navigate along your own path.
To start, I’d like to share with you an editor’s perspective. Besides her many other talents, Jennifer Brozek is an editor for Apex Book Company. She writes:
In the writing industry, it is always easier to work with a professional author than a non-professional one. I’m not talking just “published” authors. I’m talking about those authors (published or not) who have their acts together. They present themselves well in face-to-face meetings, have appropriate business cards and know when it is time to leave the editor to other business. They communicated well in an online forum, meet the specifications of the contract—on time every time—and they don’t tell tales out of school.—- Jennifer Brozek, submission editor for the Apex Book Company and author of In a Gilded Light
To start off the series, here are ten tips on how to be a professional that I’d like to share with you. These tips are related to acting like a professional writer, but some of them also echo with other creative fields like art and illustration or other freelancing roles as well.
- 1. Try Not To Act Desperate. Have you submitted a short story or a query for a non-fiction article? Can’t wait to hear back from an agent? Great! Guess what? You are not the only writer that has submitted something. Editors, agents, publishers wade through hundreds of submissions and often have other responsibilities besides addressing your work. Depending upon their workload (and whether or not they’ve worked with you before) it could take weeks, maybe even months, before they get back to you. Incessantly badgering people to read your submission will not make the process go any faster and it can actually hurt your chances of getting published.
So what is a good guideline for communication? Use your best judgment; some submission guidelines will cover what you should expect and some don’t. Also, I have seen some agents communicate generalities through social media, like Twitter. For queries, I like to follow-up within a week to confirm receipt, and say that I’ll follow-up again in a month if I haven’t heard anything. I’m usually more vigilant about other forms of communication, because a quick turn-around time can make (or break) a contract.
2. Read and Follow the Submission Guidelines – I’m not sure how much clearer I can be than that. Funny thing is, one of the most common reasons why people get rejected is because they don’t read or follow the guidelines. Did you know that they’re often there to see if a writer will follow directions? Don’t waste an editor’s time by avoiding pre-established rules. Seriously.
3. Write What You Want to Write – Do you like writing about flower pots? Then read similar articles on flower pots, research gardening magazines and write about flower pots. Do you hate writing about vampires? Then don’t write about them! It is easier to find work and establish your reputation as a writer if you enjoy what you’re writing. If your assignments turn into a chore, not only do you run the risk of approaching burn-out faster, but your quality might suffer, too.
4. Write Professional Correspondence – I talked a little bit about this previously when I said, “Please Write Out Your Emails.” I cannot stress enough the importance of writing a good query letter, email, cover letter, etc. If you don’t know how to do it, there are several books and blogs on the subject.
5. Do Not Publicly Bitch About Your Bad Experiences – While it is important to be yourself, in today’s environment anything you say can and will be overhead by someone you don’t know. I wrote a very tongue-in-cheek post about How To Ruin Your Online Reputation In 10 Easy Steps a while ago. Many of those comments apply to being a professional writer as well. Publicly bitching about your experiences in a way that reflects poorly on the publication (or agent) you’ve submitted to, an editor, etc. is a BIG no-no. Think about it this way: Would you want to hire an employee who’s complaining that they can’t get published? Or that an editor gave them a crappy review?
6. Don’t Overstate Your Abilities (Or Your Credits) – Take a good, long look at your list of publications. Is it accurate? Or did you fluff your credits with things you didn’t actually contribute to? While Credit is the Greatest (and Cheapest) Gift You Can Give, be conscientious of giving yourself too much credit. The publishing industry is not as big as you might think; people know other people in this business and they are not afraid to ask questions about you.
7. Don’t Talk About Your Personal Finances – Would you go to a job interview and say, “I really need this job because I’m broke and my cat just died?” Do. Not. Talk. About. Your. Money. Why? First of all, when you say that you are a) a writer and b) you’re broke, you are leaving an impression in someone’s mind that you are a shitty writer who can’t get published or make enough money to keep writing. Even if that isn’t true, no one wants to hire someone out of pity. Seriously. When my cat had emergency treatment, my SO and I talked about setting up a fundable page, partly because people asked how they could help. We did end up setting one up, but I didn’t post about it extensively, nor did I post about it on this site. Yes, emergencies do happen but the professional will always reign supreme. Unfortunately, it is very hard to keep the lines of “personal” versus “professional” separate online. Regardless of what you choose to reveal about your personal life, it is very bad form to beg.
8. Don’t Take Bad News Personally – Bad reviews, rejection letters, harsh critics…they’re all part and parcel to being anyone who produces creative works for a living. It sucks, it does…but it’s part of the job. When you get bad news, usually there’s a good reason for it. Maybe your story didn’t fit a magazine. Maybe your book didn’t hit the market at the right time. Maybe you’re query letter was terrible. Or maybe, just maybe, your story wasn’t good enough to get published. Whatever reason lurks behind getting bad news, that news has to do with what you wrote. It is not a personal attack on you. Keep that in mind as you navigate through your career. Yes, you have every right to feel and react to those emotions when you do get the bad news, but try not to go off the deep end.
9. Don’t Expect Other Authors To Do You Any Favors – As I was working on this post, John Scalzi wrote, “On the asking of favors from established writers.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
10. Be Strategic About What You Give Away For Free – Earlier, I wrote about My Stance On Writing For Free where I talked about how writing for free works if it is part of your business model. Throwing up stories and other content haphazardly is “not” a good way to get writing credits. Seriously. Some free sites have excellent reputations, and some do not. Check out a website thoroughly to see whether or not you want to be associated with it. (Please note that “fan fiction” is not a professional writing credit in most circumstances. For more information, read my explanation about What Is Shared World, Tie-In and Fan Fiction?)
The other reason why you want to be careful about writing for free, is that it is counter intuitive to your goal for becoming a professional author. In most cases, pros get paid. Saying that you’ll work for free just to get in on a sweet project is akin to saying that you don’t think your work is worth money. Keep in mind that I determine what I’ll write for free based on “what” it is, too. For example, I’ll occasionally write non-fiction for a little self-promotion, which I’ll cover in a later point.
In my next installment, I’ll cover more examples of being a professional and some other tips that you might want to consider. Are you a true professional that would like to chime in? Feel free to offer your tips for others in the comments below.
Is Your Next Writing Project Worth the Trouble? Use the K.I.S.S. System and Find Out!
There are a lot of ways to communicate your point, but sometimes the simplest vocabulary and the shortest sentences offer the the biggest benefit. While every writer knows and understands that, what’s not so simple is our process for making decisions.
Enter the K.I.S.S. system, which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. (The acronym can also be used to describe Keep It Short and Simple, too.)
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the challenge for a lot of writers is this little thing called “the brain.” This spongy mass tends to get in the way of great writing because it’s easy to “over-think” your projects and what you’re working on. Having a strategy to write is one thing, but thinking about your writing so much that you end up either a) not writing or b) writing something you’re not happy about. Our writing ends up suffering because we feel obligated to write something rather than focus on something we want to write.
If you feel you’re over-rationalizing your projects, then read on because I’ve got good news for you. You can use the K.I.S.S. system to simplify your woes and get back to writing what you want to write. All you have to do is ask yourself these simple questions and limit your responses to one, two or three word answers.
I’d like to help you by using an example. Let’s say you are tasked with writing an e-book about how to use WordPress. Here’s how the K.I.S.S. system can help you:
- 1. What am I writing? – e-book
2. Who am I writing it for? – first-time users
3. What is the format of my project? – how-to, non-fiction
4. What is the primary focus? – explain main features
5. Do I need to do any research for this project? – no
6. Do I need to use any additional skills? – yes, screen shots
7. Is the project paid or unpaid? – paid
8. What do I achieve by working on this project? – money, publication credit
9. Do I own the rights to the content? – no
10. Is there a contract? – yes, work-for-hire
11. Are edits including in the contract? – no
12. Is this a project I want to write or have to write? – have to, money
13. Am I getting paid fairly? – no
14. Is the publisher reputable? – yes
15. How much time will this take? – 10 to 15 hours
Here you can see that fifteen questions, broken down into simple answers, offer a wealth of information. In this example, the writer can see at-a-glance what the project will entail from the legal side of things to the production side. Based on these fifteen questions and responses, is this a project you would take on in your schedule?
If you’re interested in a related topic, I offered a little bit of information on this when I designed some writing exercises to learn word conservation. The K.I.S.S. system can also be applied to the way in which you write as well. A writer’s style is often something that develops naturally over time. Using simple, clear phrases can help improve your writing in some cases, but may not work for every project that you’re writing for.
What kinds of questions would you ask yourself when working on a project? Can you limit your answers like I did?
How to Make Your Voice Heard in a Sea of Content
Earlier I talked about the concept of content saturation, which spelled out the sheer volume of content added every month and how it’s affecting your writing. Do you have any ideas as to how you can navigate through this sea of content?
First, the cold hard truth is that no amount of yelling, screaming or crying is going to get your content read. Think about the amount of content added every day as an actual “ocean” of words and your potential visitors are akin to “fish” that you want to catch. If you’re on a boat, screaming your head off, are you going to catch a fish? If you tell your potential visitors that “This is the best article I’ve read in a long time. By the way, I wrote it!” will they come to your site? Probably not.
Instead, ask yourself why you are writing your content to figure out what kinds of fish you want to catch. Is it “just” because you need to write something down? Are you writing for SEO value? Customers? What?
Before you can catch the right kinds of visitors, you need to figure out what you’re going to write and why you’re going to write it. In other words, you’re determining which “net” of specific topics you’re going to publish to attract the visitors you want. Think about it this way: just because you have a great article about widgets, doesn’t mean you need to get as many eyeballs as possible on the page. What you need is to ensure that the people who care about widgets read your article.
Once you determine why you are writing your content, the next step is to figure out what action you want your readers to take. Do you want your readers to comment? Subscribe to your RSS feed? Or do you want your reader to contact you to find out more about these widgets you’re writing about?
Depending upon what action you want your visitors to take, you can develop a content strategy that will attract “qualified” visitors to your website or blog.
Build a Strategy Based on a Stream of Qualified Visitors
So now that you know why you want someone to read your content, you can build a strategy to help attract or “bait” those readers. Before you start second-guessing what your visitors might want to read, think about building a customer profile aimed at their behavior.
Customer profiles can be pretty challenging to create for new websites, but they are a bit easier to develop if you have an existing base of content. This is where your web analytics package comes into play. Start taking a peek at your visitor behavior through the lens of “visitor acquisition.” In other words, how do visitors find your site? What types of content are they reading?
After you’ve developed some basic impressions, you can figure out what types of visitors you’re looking for and begin catering content to them. This is a win-win for both you and your readers, because your reader is getting something of value and you are getting what you desire. On the flip side, if you discover that the readers coming to your site are not interested in your desired actions, you may want to re-think your content strategy and test new ideas. As part of your content strategy, I also highly recommend that you test your new strategies on a 30-60-90 day basis, especially if you are unsure of what kinds of content you want to create.
If you don’t have an existing website or blog yet, my best advice to you is to determine why you want to develop an online presence in the first place. If it’s to help manage your online reputation, then perhaps you don’t need to create a ton of content to achieve your goal. Perhaps all you need to achieve your goals is to set up your “boat” and cast a line.
Whether you start catering to visitors by creating more of a particular type of content or look for ways through social media to “spread the word,” you can make intelligent, strategy-based decisions to attract qualified visitors.
In summary, to make your voice heard in a sea of content I recommend asking yourself these simple questions:
- Why are you creating content?
- What action do you want your readers to take?
- How are you determining what to write?
- Who are you writing your content for?
- When is the best time to publish/promote your content?
- Where are you publishing/promoting your content?
Happy fishing!