Every Writer Can Get Publishing Connections

Within the publishing community, who you know is almost as
important as what you know. Yes, it is important to pitch an excellent book
proposal or manuscript to the right publisher. As an editor and an author, I
also understand people buy (books or manuscripts) from people they know, like
and trust. How can you know more publishing people? From my years in publishing,
one of the challenges is keeping track of the moving people. 



Years ago, one of my six-figure book deals was cancelled because
my New York editor had changed companies. My book was orphaned or without an
editor directly responsible for my project. It taught me the importance of
having a champion within the publishing house for each book.



How does a new author with no connections, begin to get
connected to publishing people? Everyone can use a social network which has over
562 million users: LinkedIn. This network is primarily business related and
publishing is a business. 







To get connected, you need to take several
actions:



1. Rework your LinkedIn profile to show your activity in publishing. Do you
write for magazines? Have you published books? Or possibly you have some other
explicit publishing role such as leading a local writer’s group. If you have
these types of qualifications, then add them to your LinkedIn profile.



2. Begin to send connection requests to different people in publishing. These
people could be book editors, literary agents, magazine editors, authors and
many other roles. In some cases you will want to send them a little personalized
message with your invitation. In other cases, you simply send out the generic
invitation that you want to connect with the person.



For many years, I received LinkedIn invitations and ignored them. I had very
few connections on LinkedIn and was not connected. Then I began to look at the
background of the person and for most people, I accepted their invitation to
connect. My number of connections increased and my public
profile says the common “over 500 connections.” The real number of my
LinkedIn connections, as of this writing, is over 7,900. These connections are
varied with many different roles (mostly within publishing) Here’s the critical
reason you want to be connected: when I need to reach someone that I’ve not
emailed or called in a long-time, I check their LinkedIn contact information.




While there is a lot of movement within the publishing community, when they
change positions or companies or physical location, everyone takes their
LinkedIn account with them. This account belongs to the individual and is a way
to consistently keep up and reach them.



LinkedIn has a lot of other functions as well but being connected and
maintaining those connections is one of the basics and best reasons to
consistently use this network. Are we connected on LinkedIn? If
not, send me an invitation and let's get connected.



How are you using LinkedIn? Let me know in the comments below.



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