Get Diversity in Your Communication Skills

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Persistence and perserverance are important skills for every writer to develop and use. As writers we need to reach the right person (an editor or a literary agent) to move our book forward and get it into the bookstores. This process involves using a variety of communication skills.

Recently I was trying to reconnect with a long-time editor friend. We had not spoken or emailed in many years. I tried to reach this friend on email (bounced) and phone (didn’t connect). Then I looked at LinkedIN and her contact information there didn’t help me to connect. As a last resort, I turned to something I rarely use: Facebook Messenger. I was still connected with this friend on Facebook and used the messenger feature to send her a personal note. It turned out that worked and I revived my connection with this friend.

As an acqusitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, I’m in touch with a number of authors and their agents. I need to reach them in a timely manner and don’t always use email but other methods as well. If I have not connected with this person in a long time (read years), my first action is to look at the contact area their LinkedIN profile. Here’s where my LinkedIN profile is located. If you and I are not connected, let’s get connected on LinkedIN. Often people will put an email on that form which will be active even if they have changed companies. There is a lot of movement and transition in the publishing world. 

Also through the years, I’ve collected a lot of information in my own address book. I will use this information (in particular email and phone numbers--including their cell phone) to reach out to this person. Sometimes they bounce or do not work. 

When you need to reach someone, I encourage you to use different forms of communication but match your response with the one you got from the person. For example, I received a text from an author where I sent them a new contract. They were asking for a phone call to go over next steps. Ironically to me, one of the items I sent them as an attachment with the contract was called “next steps.” None-the-less, I responded to this text with a text giving some options to this author.

Are you showing your diversity in the types of writing? Do you only write books? How about magazine articles? How abouts short stories or guest blog posts or devotions or many other things. There are many different ways and places to publish our writing. In the opening chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, I created a detailed list (follow this link to download this chapter if you need some ideas). 

In the publishing community, there are also multiple ways to communicate with each other. Some people prefer a phone call. As I’ve often written in these articles, the phone is probably the last option to use with an unknown publishing professional like an editor or literary agent. Others use email or text. I'm not the best at texting but because I know some people will respond and view their text before an email, I will use this form of communication. The key action from my perspective is to use various forms and find the one which will work for you to communicate what you need to commuicate. 

Many people downplay email but that is one of the most effective and consistent communication tools every writer needs to use. If you do not have an email list, I encourage you to start one--then use it on a consistent and persistent basis. If you are not one of my newsletter subscribers, I encourage you to follow this link. When you subscribe, with my gratitude, you will receive a free 87-page Ebook. 

Are you diverse in your communication skills? If not, what steps can you take to grow in this area and become better. Let me know in the comments what skills you are working on or if I am missing something. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tweetable:

It is important to have diverse communication skills according to this prolific author and editor. Read the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week I recorded a second podcast with Lou and Teresa from the Earrings Off Podcast. Here’s my first conversation with them where we spoke about publishing myths at: https://bit.ly/4iFaP6z:

 

Whatever type of writing you do, I know that writing contains its own complexity. Many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything that an author can control. Through the years, I’ve spoken with many authors, I find many of them have unrealistic expectations about publishing. I wrote  10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. Get my decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses. 

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