I'm new to LinkedIn. Yeah, I've had an account for a while but until recently, its been little more than a ghost presence; unsubstantial and faceless, without any activity for months and months.
LinkedIn ain't writing, which is why I've done little with it.
But writing is also a business. It's a reflection of our dependence on Internet publicity and e-books, that writers are doing more than simply writing books these days. Moreover, it is this business sense that has catapulted self-published authors above their more traditionally published rivals.
They've achieved this not because the self-published's story-telling is superior.
They've achieved this because they understand the business of writing more than the traditionally published.
The self-published bestselling author has more control over their own affairs than their traditionally published because they’ve become business people.
So in order for the traditionally published to match that success, they’ve had to become business people too. But that's a good thing. It might seem like an arms race now, rather than the crapshoot of three years ago, but it means that good writing will find an audience and not because of a price point. Business acumen and awareness in writing has made it that way.
You can’t learn to be an excellent writer, but you can learn to be an excellent businessperson.
Now before I go on, I have a confession: I'm not a fan of the business side of writing - it's too close to my day-job, and I've always believed it restrains creativity. I don't need someone telling me what I can or can't write, right?
Wrong. Because that's naivety. Creative naivety, okay, but it's still naivety. Being a businessman isn't about restricting my creativity but giving me more freedom to do what I want to do, which is write. There are times I've had to remind myself of that, because I've made decisions in the past that weren't good business. Good for that creative soul, yes, but not good for pocket, which breeds freedom. Money still rotates the world, whether the Artist likes that or not.
In my situation, I still I have a day-job to get me by. I don't particularly love my day-job. I serve the community and I get plenty satisfaction from it, but everyone knows I'd rather be writing instead. The only way to do that is become a businessman, earn enough money to live on through my writing and be one of the lucky 10% of people in the world who actually do a job they love.
So how do you become a businessperson as well as a writer?
Well, the chances are that if you are already published, you’ve started being one and haven’t noticed. For me, it started with this blog, and the setting up of the Macmillan New Writers blog. It then continued with Twitter, the setting up of Thirst eDition Fiction, the websites etc etc.
And networking, let’s not forget networking.
The last two publishing contracts I've signed have been wholly down to contacts. It is doubtful my current publisher would have found me without them. And when I signed with Dorothy Lumley a few years back, again it was down to contacts. I didn't go down the traditional route of the aspiring writer, sending letters and the opening chapters of my current project. I met Dorothy face-to-face, we chatted, got on well, and she signed me up.
It's expected that once those golden doors of publishing are opened, you network, or you stagnate. Nine years later, dozens of book launches, editorial and agent lunches have taught me that.
So I guess I have been a businessman already. But not a conscious one, and certainly not an industrious businessman, despite first impressions and what I’ve achieved so far. I’ve worked hard building up opportunities, but I haven’t dealt with them with that cool, business-head which I use in my day-job.
And that’s the difference. An aware businessperson seizes opportunities and makes the most of them. A writer who doesn’t know they are a businessperson, is too passive to take advantage of a good thing and because of that, opportunities pass by like buses.
Infrequent buses, in this competitive world of publishing.
So, I've gone to LinkedIn, because LinkedIn is about making contacts, which is really important in becoming a self-aware businessperson.
For me at least, this move is timely: my first bond fide young adult book comes out this week. (I say bona fide, because for all intents the first two Secret War books and Sandcastles on the Moon, were kinda YA, or rather "adult-young-adult" books, if you wanna pigeon-hole 'em.) After the Sea Rose is being marketed as YA by my publisher, which means it's school territory, and that means school visits to promote it. There's even talk of it becoming part of the French National Curriculum.
As one teacher said to me, your effectiveness in reaching a wider YA audience will depend on who you know in academia, and they suggested LinkedIn be that starting place, as well as a place to meet up with other writers and creatives.
And that is just as important to me. Currently, my writing isn’t just about young adult fiction; and it isn’t just about my science fictions, or historical fictions either; I’ve got scripts, ideas for graphic novels, plays etc etc. So many ideas, I’ve got files under the desk full of them, but not the time or the contacts to realise them. And like my books, these other projects are burning a whole in my imagination. They want to get out, but I can't do it alone.
LinkedIn may or may not increase opportunities, either to speak at schools, co-create a graphic novel, write a collection of short stories, or just understand the quickly changing publishing world out there, but it’s worth the endeavor. That’s what a businessperson would say.
So here I am, LinkedIn, and ready. I’ve started to take this business-malarkey a bit more seriously now. That should mean I’m properly damned. But if I am, it should at least give me more freedom to do what I wanna do, damned or not…
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