A Pound of Flesh: Joining Communities & Investing in The Writer’s Market
July 24, 2008
…a sentence! Come prepare!
The Merchant of Venice
We all can’t do what David Wroblewski did when he set out to write The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: a novel and go back to graduate school to study under Richard Russo when we decide to get creative. Most of us have many pressing day-to-day demands which paint our writing and creative ventures into a corner.
Maybe we get a half-hour before bed or a few minutes during a break at work to focus on our writing and the eventual distribution of our words. That’s why I wanted to speak with you about the writing community and The Writer’s Market. An annual directory of all things publishing, The Writer’s Market does exactly what it sets out to do – it tells you where and how to sell what you write.
Familiarizing yourself with the community of writers and opportunities available for those who have sought this form of expression can only ultimately be to your advantage. The Writer’s Market lists off contact information for most major contests and publications that accept submissions. Using the resources available, you can start to network with others in the industry. Making contacts who share your passion can save you time and money in the long run.
Along the same lines, there are hundreds, if not thousands of growing communities of writers online. Community members share new projects with one another and receive priceless feedback regarding everything from story structure to character development. Members can just as easily host a release party or participate in a book signing as well.
As artists, writers sometimes feel inclined to re-invent the wheel, learning everything the hard-way in a grass-roots marketing campaign. Getting in contact with the community that can help you appropriately focus your resources will not only help you develop as a writer, but as your own publicist as well.
The words expressly are “a pound of flesh.”
|The Merchant of Venice
Entry Filed under: Marketing, Writing. Tags: community, David Wroblewski, Marketing, publicist, Richard Russo, social network, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The Writer's Market, writer.
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1.
Cliff Burns | July 24, 2008 at 11:08 am
But don’t let ANYTHING interfere with your daily practice of writing.
The networking, joining communities and forums is all very fine but writers WRITE and there are already too many worldly distractions and obligations pulling us away from our craft. Concentrate your energies on creation, be disciplined in your work ethic…
2.
jdimos | July 24, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Agreed, Cliff.
Writing must always remain a priority. Hopefully, there’s room in a writer’s life to make space for promoting their titles, too. Could be a nice break from the writing process in that regard - recharge the creative batteries so to speak. But you’re definitely right. Even authors can’t afford to neglect their writing, for fear of atrophy.
Thanks for the comment.
-Justin
3.
Anne Walls | July 24, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I agree that time management and perseverance are two of the most important things in a writer’s life. I used to buy the Writer’s Market, but was tired of how expensive and outdated it quickly became. My partner and I started a writing website called WordHustler.com that has over 3,000 FREE literary markets. Not only that, we’re the first website to take care of the WHOLE process of writing, more than just giving you market listings.
With WordHustler, you upload your projects, search markets you want to submit to, then we print and ship everything for you. It’s easy to track all of your submissions using WordHustler and we cost less than doing it yourself. We give writers a sense of community and, most importantly, save them TIME.
Take a look and good luck writing! http://www.WordHustler.com
- Anne Walls, WordHustler Co-Founder
4.
Fresh novel writer | July 26, 2008 at 8:33 am
I would agree that time management is very important, but I have found that online writing forums and author communities are a great way to not only hone ones craft, but to also learn about agents, publishers, and how other writers go about things. You just have to make sure you don’t spend all your time chatting, and enough time writing.