Writers Must Communicate
By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin
As a child, I recall connecting
two tin cans with string then using it to speak with a friend. It was a simple
yet effective communication tool that we made and had fun with it. In this
article, I want to highlight the importance of communication for writers.
Writers are regularly
communicating to their readers, their literary agent, their editors and crafting their books,
proposals, query
letters, magazine articles, and many other types of writing. If your
books aren't selling, then you need to be taking more action to create content
and show your readers the benefits from your writing. The bottom-line is if you are a
writer, you are in the communication business.
As I think about publishing, from my decades of working in it, I understand it is a
business filled with noncommunication (silence) and miscommunication. When you
send your material into an agent or publisher, you often don't hear any
response—for weeks or months. Sometimes the way you learn "no" is through no response which is poor communication. Waiting for a response is a huge part of our
lives as writers. Because publishers are slow to respond, I've always
encouraged writers to simultaneously submit or send to multiple places at the
same time. Admittedly when you simultaneously submit, you have to keep track of
these submissions so if someone contracts a piece of writing, you have a
responsibility to notify the others and withdraw it from
consideration.
Because of the lack of
communication in many areas of the publishing community, I've learned that if
you do communicate, you will stand out as someone who is different. While the
communication process isn't always easy, I use multiple ways to reach people
such as email, physical mail and sometimes the telephone. I've found great value
in my LinkedIn account because while people may change positions and move around
within publishing, they will take their LinkedIN account with them. For my last
book, I reached out to some people I had not been in communication for years.
LinkedIN gave me a place to begin this process with their email address and
sometimes even a phone number.
If you want to reach a particular
editor or literary agent and do not hear from them, use multiple methods to
reach them. If email doesn't work, then try mailing something through the US
mail. If that doesn't work, see where they are speaking and plan to attend that
event. Make sure you are pitching something excellent but your persistence to
reach them will eventually pay off (or so I have found).
Do you have a set of boundaries
about when you communicate? For example, I have colleagues at Morgan James Publishing who have decided to only answer emails
Monday through Friday during their standard work hours. I understand their
creation of such a boundary and respect their personal choice. I've made a
different one (which many of my authors have learned). I will answer email
almost any time during the day or evening. It's my personal choice and pattern
and my desire to be a good communicator in a world that doesn't.
Sometimes I will review an email
after I've sent it and to my horror find some typographical errors. I'm
imperfect in this communication process yet determined to take my own
responsibility and continue to press forward and learn to be a good
communicator. My emails don't have to be lengthy but they do have to be clear and
timely.
What steps are you taking to be a
good communicator? Let me know in the comments below.
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Labels: book proposal, communication publishing, consistency, persistence, query, standing out, Terry Whalin, The Writing Life, Writers Must Communicate
