Rod Raglin's Blog - Posts Tagged "writers"
The distasteful business of self-promotion
Most the lessons I’ve learned in life are not from people who excelled, but from people who were jerks, morons, mind-numbingly boring, or teeth grinding obnoxious.
I have this moment when I realize I am or have been that person. I’ve actually displayed that kind of attitude or conducted myself in that manner.
Believe me, this kind of epiphany is the best behavior modification I can think of.
This brings me to the subject of self-promotion, or self-aggrandizement, defined as “an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance.”
For me, even the definition, sounds distasteful and a huge personal turn-off. This is probably because, as a former aspiring politician, I’ve done so much of it myself – until, you guessed it, I had one of those behavioral modifying moments.
Perhaps only second to the previously mentioned calling, we writers seem to be the most flagrant self-promoters. Indeed, we are encouraged to be. Some agents and publishers, as part of their submission process, start by asking how we personally plan to promote our work – this even before they decide whether what is being submitted has merit.
Many people in the industry suggest you begin building your profile even before you’re published. Just what you would say, and who would be interested I’m sure I don’t know.
A new twist to the self-promotion game came with the launching of Harper Collins website authonomy.com. Here’s what this publishing giant has to say about their site.
The site “…invites unpublished and self published authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project - and must make at least 10,000 words available for the public to read.
“Visitors to authonomy can comment on these submissions – and can personally recommend their favourites to the community. authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site.
HarperCollins hopes to find new, talented writers we can sign up for our traditional book publishing programmes – we’ll be reading the most popular manuscripts each month as part of this search.”
When you upload your manuscript or wip you immediately receive requests from other authors basically saying, “if you plug mine, I’ll plug yours.”
There is no caveat about it being well written or a good story, or requests for suggestions on how to improve the work. The emphasis is on self-promotion and networking not good writing with these ambitious wannabes hoping to secure enough recommendations to get their work before the decision makers at HC.
The assumption appears to be that HC will be so impressed with their self-promotion skills that they will over look the fact that the work is crap.
Frightening, but maybe they’re right.
I think the importance of self-promotion is blown way out of proportion. Contributing to blogs, managing Facebook and Twitter, uploading stuff onto U-Tube and MySpace, keeping a website up-to-date and sending out that newsletter takes time. Time that might be better spent, well, writing, since that’s what it’s really all about.
Beyond putting you’re work out there, self-promotion is only marginally effective, in my opinion, because it lacks a most important ingredient – credibility.
However, an unsolicited* endorsement has the sincerity that can generate a word of mouth ground swell that spreads exponentially. I believe that a worthwhile story told by a good writer can do this, and will ultimately prevail over all the hi-tech gimmicks and new age marketing chicanery.
Naïve? Unspohisticated? Old-fashioned? Out-of-touch with reality? Maybe, probably, but I’ve learned the hard way that, indeed, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but in the end the merit and true value of what you’re doing becomes apparent to almost everyone (except maybe yourself), and what you’ve sacrificed blowing your own horn is dignity, self-esteem and character.
Perhaps a certain amount of self-promoting has to be done but surely it can be done graciously and with humility.
As we build confidence in our ability and our work, hopefully the need to applaud one-self in public will diminish. If not, we’ll be the ones avoided at social gatherings.
As Emerson said; ‘A little integrity is better than any career.’
*Unsolicited as in without conflict of interest. Anyone that stands to gain either personally or financially in supporting your writing is suspect including; your publisher, agent, publicist, spouse, friends, family, etc.
I have this moment when I realize I am or have been that person. I’ve actually displayed that kind of attitude or conducted myself in that manner.
Believe me, this kind of epiphany is the best behavior modification I can think of.
This brings me to the subject of self-promotion, or self-aggrandizement, defined as “an act undertaken to increase your own power and influence or to draw attention to your own importance.”
For me, even the definition, sounds distasteful and a huge personal turn-off. This is probably because, as a former aspiring politician, I’ve done so much of it myself – until, you guessed it, I had one of those behavioral modifying moments.
Perhaps only second to the previously mentioned calling, we writers seem to be the most flagrant self-promoters. Indeed, we are encouraged to be. Some agents and publishers, as part of their submission process, start by asking how we personally plan to promote our work – this even before they decide whether what is being submitted has merit.
Many people in the industry suggest you begin building your profile even before you’re published. Just what you would say, and who would be interested I’m sure I don’t know.
A new twist to the self-promotion game came with the launching of Harper Collins website authonomy.com. Here’s what this publishing giant has to say about their site.
The site “…invites unpublished and self published authors to post their manuscripts for visitors to read online. Authors create their own personal page on the site to host their project - and must make at least 10,000 words available for the public to read.
“Visitors to authonomy can comment on these submissions – and can personally recommend their favourites to the community. authonomy counts the number of recommendations each book receives, and uses it to rank the books on the site.
HarperCollins hopes to find new, talented writers we can sign up for our traditional book publishing programmes – we’ll be reading the most popular manuscripts each month as part of this search.”
When you upload your manuscript or wip you immediately receive requests from other authors basically saying, “if you plug mine, I’ll plug yours.”
There is no caveat about it being well written or a good story, or requests for suggestions on how to improve the work. The emphasis is on self-promotion and networking not good writing with these ambitious wannabes hoping to secure enough recommendations to get their work before the decision makers at HC.
The assumption appears to be that HC will be so impressed with their self-promotion skills that they will over look the fact that the work is crap.
Frightening, but maybe they’re right.
I think the importance of self-promotion is blown way out of proportion. Contributing to blogs, managing Facebook and Twitter, uploading stuff onto U-Tube and MySpace, keeping a website up-to-date and sending out that newsletter takes time. Time that might be better spent, well, writing, since that’s what it’s really all about.
Beyond putting you’re work out there, self-promotion is only marginally effective, in my opinion, because it lacks a most important ingredient – credibility.
However, an unsolicited* endorsement has the sincerity that can generate a word of mouth ground swell that spreads exponentially. I believe that a worthwhile story told by a good writer can do this, and will ultimately prevail over all the hi-tech gimmicks and new age marketing chicanery.
Naïve? Unspohisticated? Old-fashioned? Out-of-touch with reality? Maybe, probably, but I’ve learned the hard way that, indeed, you can fool some of the people all of the time, but in the end the merit and true value of what you’re doing becomes apparent to almost everyone (except maybe yourself), and what you’ve sacrificed blowing your own horn is dignity, self-esteem and character.
Perhaps a certain amount of self-promoting has to be done but surely it can be done graciously and with humility.
As we build confidence in our ability and our work, hopefully the need to applaud one-self in public will diminish. If not, we’ll be the ones avoided at social gatherings.
As Emerson said; ‘A little integrity is better than any career.’
*Unsolicited as in without conflict of interest. Anyone that stands to gain either personally or financially in supporting your writing is suspect including; your publisher, agent, publicist, spouse, friends, family, etc.
An agent by any other name
For most of my working life I’ve been a salesman.
I may have had different titles but I was a salesman – and a good one.
I sold advertising for newspapers, then for my own.
Even when I assumed the title publisher and editor I kept an active client list. My most valued employees were my sales staff.
Eventually, like everything else you enjoy but do too often, the thrill of the sale became not exciting as it once was. It was time to move on.
Fortunately, I’d sold enough.
What has this got do with finding an agent for my novels? An agent by any other name is a salesperson.
I know they vaunt themselves as the key to your success as a writer, the gatekeeper to all the fame that will come once you’re published, the oracle that guards all the secrets to the nether world of the publishing industry, but they’re salespeople.
The only reason they have such power and esteem is that we authors give it to them. They are only as good as the product they’re selling. Which means even a good agent can’t sell a bad book.
The opposite is probably true as well, but the emphasis is on the product, not the salesperson. In other words, you, the writer, the creator of the product, hold the key to success. Agents are the conduit.
So what do agents offer as their qualifications to rep my book? What do they include in their resumé, their curriculum vitae?
Some tell you they love books and are prolific readers.
Most people I know have read a lot of ads but that didn’t mean they could sell advertising.
Some have written books.
Why are they agents?
Some have a successful, clever blog.
What has this got to do with anything except self-aggrandizement? I’m thinking the time they spend promoting themselves might be better spent promoting their clients.
Some tell you how to write.
I never, never, ever (to infinity) told a client how to run their business no matter how dumb they were. It just pissed them off and was the kiss of death for closing the deal.
Some have degrees in English Literature, Creative Writing, blah, blah, blah.
So you’re educated? I sold to businesses but I didn’t have, nor did I need, an MBA.
If an agent is a salesperson by any other name than shouldn’t the qualities of a good agent be the same as those of a good salesman?
What qualities did I look for when hiring sales staff? What qualities do I have that made me a successful salesman?
I made more calls.
The success of salespeople is directly related to the number of calls they make. The more you make the greater the success. I made more calls.
I was self-motivated.
I didn’t need to be prodded, pushed, pumped or primed. Hour after hour, day after day, month after year I was up for the job.
I was hungry.
For money, recognition, success, self-esteem. I was/am never satisfied, never complacent.
I sold smart.
I had knowledge of the market, the industry, the needs of my clients.
The one ingredient that put me over the top, the one that is intangible and can’t be taught is the ability to make people like you.
If you’ve got this you can forget the rest. If the client won’t take your call all the motivation, hunger and smarts aren’t worth bugger all. I can make people like me, though these days I’m less and less inclined to.
Wouldn’t you know, it’s all about relationships – again.
So that’s it. The agent I’m looking for is self-motivated, hungry, smart, and has consummate people skills. He or she should also be looking to take on a new author with a dubious track record.
Any takers?
Rod Raglin is the author of three e-published books in the past year. Visit his website at www.rodraglin.com
I may have had different titles but I was a salesman – and a good one.
I sold advertising for newspapers, then for my own.
Even when I assumed the title publisher and editor I kept an active client list. My most valued employees were my sales staff.
Eventually, like everything else you enjoy but do too often, the thrill of the sale became not exciting as it once was. It was time to move on.
Fortunately, I’d sold enough.
What has this got do with finding an agent for my novels? An agent by any other name is a salesperson.
I know they vaunt themselves as the key to your success as a writer, the gatekeeper to all the fame that will come once you’re published, the oracle that guards all the secrets to the nether world of the publishing industry, but they’re salespeople.
The only reason they have such power and esteem is that we authors give it to them. They are only as good as the product they’re selling. Which means even a good agent can’t sell a bad book.
The opposite is probably true as well, but the emphasis is on the product, not the salesperson. In other words, you, the writer, the creator of the product, hold the key to success. Agents are the conduit.
So what do agents offer as their qualifications to rep my book? What do they include in their resumé, their curriculum vitae?
Some tell you they love books and are prolific readers.
Most people I know have read a lot of ads but that didn’t mean they could sell advertising.
Some have written books.
Why are they agents?
Some have a successful, clever blog.
What has this got to do with anything except self-aggrandizement? I’m thinking the time they spend promoting themselves might be better spent promoting their clients.
Some tell you how to write.
I never, never, ever (to infinity) told a client how to run their business no matter how dumb they were. It just pissed them off and was the kiss of death for closing the deal.
Some have degrees in English Literature, Creative Writing, blah, blah, blah.
So you’re educated? I sold to businesses but I didn’t have, nor did I need, an MBA.
If an agent is a salesperson by any other name than shouldn’t the qualities of a good agent be the same as those of a good salesman?
What qualities did I look for when hiring sales staff? What qualities do I have that made me a successful salesman?
I made more calls.
The success of salespeople is directly related to the number of calls they make. The more you make the greater the success. I made more calls.
I was self-motivated.
I didn’t need to be prodded, pushed, pumped or primed. Hour after hour, day after day, month after year I was up for the job.
I was hungry.
For money, recognition, success, self-esteem. I was/am never satisfied, never complacent.
I sold smart.
I had knowledge of the market, the industry, the needs of my clients.
The one ingredient that put me over the top, the one that is intangible and can’t be taught is the ability to make people like you.
If you’ve got this you can forget the rest. If the client won’t take your call all the motivation, hunger and smarts aren’t worth bugger all. I can make people like me, though these days I’m less and less inclined to.
Wouldn’t you know, it’s all about relationships – again.
So that’s it. The agent I’m looking for is self-motivated, hungry, smart, and has consummate people skills. He or she should also be looking to take on a new author with a dubious track record.
Any takers?
Rod Raglin is the author of three e-published books in the past year. Visit his website at www.rodraglin.com
Are writers borne or made?
A Writer S Space by Maisel EricMy rating: 1 of 5 stars
Are writer’s born or made?
Can anyone become a writer, specifically a writer of fiction, or is the proclivity to writing an innate characteristic?
This is a question I often ask myself, particularly when participants in my creative writing circles ask for writing prompts or inquire where to find story ideas. As if the life you live and all the people you interact with is not material enough.
It’s then that I think these people are not writers, but instead fantasize about the clichéd version of a writer’s life. The distinction could be further defined as those who ‘want’ to write, as opposed to those who ‘have’ to write.
I have to write and, indeed, am writing all the time, at least in my mind. I constantly watch people and ask myself questions about: the way their dressed - what are they trying to say; their activities - whom are they waiting for; and their mannerisms - why is she so jumpy. What would my latest character do in this situation, I wonder? Plot scenarios continually run through my mind. ‘What if’ is a question and the motivation.
So when I sit down it’s like a floodgate opens. I write.
I can write anywhere at anytime. Often I simply can’t wait to write. I grab a napkin, an envelope, the edge of a newspaper and scribble words. I look forward to it, long for it, and find it deeply satisfying. It’s a release, a meditation, a method to make sense of it all.
If you’re one of those that fantasize about writing but are too conflicted to do any, then A Writer’s Space, Make Room to Dream, to Work, to Write, by Eric Maisel, is the book for you.
Maisel is a creativity coach who holds a PH.D. in Counseling Psychology. He believes that writers aren’t borne, they’re cajoled, coaxed, and coached into being. The first step to becoming one is to pick, protect, and honor a physical space specifically for writing. Maisel would have you go on a vision quest to locate the best place in your home to write. Once you’ve divined the location, you must then prepare a security pledge on how you will protect and do the right things in your writing space.
Evidently, the author doesn’t consider life and people enough of a stimuli for a writer and offers all kinds of incentives to inspire one to write. These include a way to access your ‘self-help neurons’ to enter into a state of ‘creative mindfulness’. The next time you decide to be angry, Maisel tells the reader, use creative mindfulness to decide not to be angry, or, I suppose, just say ‘no to anger’. It’s as simple as that.
As well as the appropriate spiritual location to enable you to write, Maisel suggests there are various psychological and emotional ‘spaces’ to psych you up, chill you out, or otherwise evoke or enhance your inner muse. They include an emotional space, reflective space, imagined space, public space, and existential space.
At the end of each chapter, the author offers up lessons to help you enter these ‘spaces’ which will allow you to ‘desire worlds into existence; discover the ‘way of the meaning maker’; and, ‘not be quite so nice’.
If you’re not ‘spaced out’ before applying these techniques and exercises, I imagine you will be afterwards.
There’s also an exercise to ‘upgrade your personality with twelve quick centering incantations’. This might be useful to many of the authentic writers I’ve met since they tend to be reflective, more observers than a participants, and comfortable with their own company, or, depending on your point of view, arrogant, anti-social, loners.
A good portion of A Writer’s Space is given over to anecdotes about the author’s clients/patients, an incredibly flakey sounding bunch who imagine themselves as writers but don’t have the guts and determination to sit down and actually write something. Success comes for the doctor not when one of his charges gets published, but when, after all the positive nurturing and self-help mumbo-jumbo, they finally, actually make marks on paper.
If you haven’t drawn any conclusion on this book from what I’ve told you so far, I’ll close this review with a sampling of Maisel’s profundity:
“You have been hungering for years to write a certain piece while simultaneously curbing your enthusiasm and by curbing it killing it.”
If you can relate to that statement, I’m sorry for you. It’s likely you’ll never be a writer.
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