“To use is necessary. And if you can’t be used, then you’re useless.”
— Kanye West
Networking is essential to growth within any field and can assist with your book marketing.
I hope I impressed on you how important a mentor is.
But equally important are the people you continually surround yourself with.
Again, we’ll call this your All-Star Team. Who’s in your starting five?
Networking is building MUTUALLY beneficial relationships.
In other words its equally gratifying to both parties.
Personal relationships make you STAND OUT from the crowd because people help do business with people they like and trust.
I come from a background in finance. I was able to take my work experience in Corporate America, my education, my on the job learning, and the advice from my mentors and apply it to this new publishing world.
I researched the publishing industry and set goals as to where I wanted to be in the near and distant future. But even with that preparation I needed to immerse myself in the literary world. I started attending book festivals, vending opportunities, book signings, etc. and met people from many different backgrounds.
They weren’t all writers.
Some were entrepreneurs, stylists, photographers, graphic designers, web designers, etc.
They are all people I have a mutually beneficial relationship with. Some of these people introduced me to other people and so begins the NETWORKING.
And almost like perfect timing my phone just vibrated. It’s about 9:31 a.m. here in Chicago. And just as I’m finishing up this blog post, I receive a text message from a friend in Atlanta, I met last year while networking. Her text message:
Absolutely, pls call a friend name Stefanie [number redacted]. She is wonderful and can help him.
She does this often when she runs into an aspiring writer. And if the person calls, I spend a few minutes of my time sharing what I’ve learned in the publishing industry.
And when I have an opportunity…I share how she owns a business in Atlanta called Lunch and Learn GA, which I think is just an awesome idea of using a lunch and learn forum where small businesses promote their business through education.
She GETS IT. The power of networking.
See how this works?
Are you currently networking? If so, how has networking helped advance your writing goals? Please share your comments below.
It's franNetworking is not easy. I have a lot of people that read my reviews. I wrote four books but how to get more people to buy them is hard. It is even harder to get a traditional publisher to give a new author a shot. Nice to meet youI need to figure out how to get more people to read my blogs.
Hi Fran – Tomorrow I'm going to talk a little about where to find people to network and how to successfully network. So stick around…I hope I can provide some tips that will be of value.
Just stopped by to say Hi and Happy Easter, Christ is Risen!!!
Hi. I come from the same background :D, accounting & finance. Very interesting post. Networking was always needed, but now with the internet providing such a platform, it is absolutely necessary.
Thank you for posting this 🙂