Welcome back, boys, girls, and everyone in-between. (Or off to one side, or whatever is least offensive.) I, Gideon U. Eklund, your amazing guru of… whatever the hell this blog is about, have returned to shower you with more kernels of wisdom, as golden as the pedestal I descend from whenever I speak upon the masses. …A golden shower, if you will! Sit back and enjoy—it’s hot stuff.
Recently, I’ve been thinking on the subject of “networking,” and I had a few questions pop into my head:
-What is it, and is it important?
-Where can I buy it?
-Do I need, like, special connectors for it, or anything? I mean, I’m not stupid; if I need them, I’m going to get them. Maybe some extras, in case I fuck it up.
Being the high-brow book scientist that I am, (again, despite MIT’s lack of calls,) I decided to do some research on the matter. I never really thought about networking before, so I wasn’t sure if it was something I needed, but this could be one of those situations where I didn’t know I’d need it until I show up one day in a situation where I do need it, but don’t have it. (Like pants at the mall; you show up without them one time, because nobody told you they were mandatory, and suddenly, you’re the jerk. Instead of everyone just being cool, and having a good time, you’re asked to leave the ball pit by policemen with pepper spray and a stun gun. Hands-down, worst birthday ever.)
So, yeah. Networking is not just important, it is vital. A writer’s success will not coast on their ability to string a sentence together in an appealing way. That’s just a fraction of the job.
Networking, for those of you who have been struck in the head with a brick recently, is when you know people, who know people, who know people, ad infinitum. Have you ever looked for a job, and gotten it because a friend referred you? That’s networking. Have you suggested a website or gone to a website based on someone’s advice, then turned around and recommended it to someone else? (Like this blog, for example? AND IF NOT, WHY NOT?! This shit is good, people; damn.) That’s networking, too.
There are other ways networking helps—in the world of publishing, editors and agents may not like what you’re selling, but may know someone who does. Or, alternately, they may know someone looking to publish something new in a specific genre, and they may say, “Hey, I know someone who pitched this very thing to me just the other day…”
So get out there, and make your presence known to the world. Attend a writing conference. (They’re expensive—I couldn’t afford to go this year, and it kills me.) Go to a writer’s group or a workshop in your area. (Seriously. They exist in some form or another in your area.) Even if you live in the middle of nowhere, you can find like-minded people online. If you live in the middle of nowhere and don’t have internet… well, okay- at that point you have bigger problems than networking. But, you can still hit a book fair or something, maybe?
Now, that being said, you don’t have to go out there, shake hands, and make friends with anyone and everyone who put pen to page. Genres are a thing in writing, and they should be a thing in your networking. If you write westerns, you aren’t going to need to hob-nob with the local slam poetry club. If you’re a sci-fi writer, you’re going to avoid that writer who does westerns only, but who hangs out at the slam poetry club all the time for some weird reason.
Author’s note: Do NOT associate with the slam poetry club cowboy. He knows what he did, and is the reason we can’t have nice things.
You can’t exactly buy networking, but it isn’t always free, either. Like I mentioned before, most writer’s conferences are expensive. They are your chance to really network, though; meet other writers, attend classes, pitch to real-live agents, and start leaving your best first impression on people. Now, you aren’t me—you won’t all make an instantly dynamic, lasting impression on the world as I do everywhere I go. That’s just a side-effect of my natural, inherent greatness, and is hard to bottle. (Also, when you try to bottle it and sell it, people will report you to the police for conning them out of their hard-earned cash by selling sweat in a bottle as a ‘magical charisma potion,’ you get arrested in front of everyone, and you’ve ruined the champagne at your sister’s wedding. …And probably your sister’s wedding. Once.)
I’ve also been told that it’s important to have a business card. I know it sounds like a weird, trivial thing, but if you’re out and about, and you want people to remember you, (and be able to contact you without having to write anything down for themselves,) that’s the way to go about it. There’s lots of places online where you can make a business card for yourself, in bulk, for dirt cheap. Put your name and an email address on there. Boom! You’re done. Throw on your Twitter handle, or your Facebook link, and that’s going to steer people right to your Web Presence.
Oh, right! I forgot another important networking tip: Have a Web Presence. All those people you’re meeting with? They’re going to want to look you up. (It’s the world we live in, like it or not.) Make a Twitter for yourself, or your pen name. (Or Instagram, Facebook, or hell—all three.) I have a Twitter and a Facebook for my Gideon U. Eklund stuff, and this blog was designed specifically for increasing my Web Presence. Whether or not it was a good idea to put this into the universe, I have no idea. Time will tell.
…And fucking VINDICATE ME.
Now, I do come off as a bit of a hypocrite with this post. At present, my networking is very nil, and my Web Presence is still shiny new territory. I barely know what to do with Facebook, let alone a three-pronged attack using Facebook, Twitter, and an amazing SuperBlog all at once. (SuperBlog is going on my list of band names. It’s a very long list.) At this point, I’m working to put these networking tips I’ve researched and shared with you to use. There’s a lot more of it out there, and I strongly encourage each and every one of you delve into your end of the internet to do your own research on the subject.
One man’s networking technique is not necessarily another man’s treasure. See you next time!
That guy at the networking store sold me the wrong fucking connectors, damn it. Turns out he was the slam poetry club cowboy all along.