Building Your Network of Allies

When I mention "networking," I receive stares that one usually finds on freshly-sexed teenagers in a slasher film. I mean I fully understand! It's tough to leave one's creative cocoon in order to interact with strangers. But here's the thing ... they aren't strangers ... they're potential FRIENDS!

And you've got to make new friends because your old, crappy friends probably never got you any work. Heck, most of them probably never gave you a single word of encouragement. I'd betcha they even told you that you were wasting your time and should give up. And go on ... how many of them bought a single book from you, or plan to once you publish? Yeah, mine either.

Actually, a number of my best friends have come since I began publishing. They support me, restore my mojo when it's feeling low, and push me to challenge myself creatively. Talk about the best kind of friends! Anyway, in person, it's as easy as walking up and saying, "Hi, I'm [tell them your first name]. How are you?" Practice extending your hand to deliver a firm, but non-painful, handshake. See if you can work in a smile too. Yeah, that's as difficult as it gets.

Compliment the other person. Start the small talk. Don't enjoy small talk? TOUGH! Learn to like it! And treat your new friends as you'd like to be treated. What about your fellow pros? Same thing, same process. Introduce yourself. If you are familiar with the other person's work, find something nice to say about it. Share your positive impressions. Talk to them like you'd like to be talked to, with respect and some good humor. Then exchange business cards. Always have your cards on you! If you don't have cards, make some. (I will cover this in a future blog)

Online, similar principles apply. You have a great opportunity to reach out to fellow writers and become friends, perhaps collaborators down the road. The latter should NEVER be your main objective as you want to carve out your own path in the writing world. When you sign up for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever, start by seeing if your fave writers are on the same service. If they are, follow them. I wouldn't recommend friending them if you've never met them. However, if you have their business card, that's a good reason to hook up and drop them a PM, saying something to the effect of, "It was great to meet you at (name event and day of meeting) and hope our paths cross again." If you don't have a prior meeting with that person, just follow for now. Then read their posts. Give the posts a LIKE. Eventually, start making comments. This may eventually lead to discussions and other benefits that we'll cover later on. (Keep in mind that some of the Big Name Authors hire people to "ghost" their social media presences, mostly to ensure their work and other ventures get noticed. But many of us don't employ those shills because we enjoy making new contacts and friends ... and we can't afford to take those helpers on right now. FULL DISCLOSURE: The only other "ghost writer" I use on social media is on my Rising Tide Facebook page. The other writer there is my wife, Cookie. Most of the time, however, I will post something and sign my name -- Brian! with the exclamation mark, which is how my mother pronounced it -- or it will be in first person. On the other hand, I often go "third person" on the Silver Phoenix Entertainment and the Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove pages. Now you know ... the REST of the STORY!) But the goal is MAKING FRIENDS ... not mining for work, not pestering the pros for writing opportunities, not interrogating them on how they rose to their level, not asking them to read and/or edit your work. So just read their posts, appreciate them, take what good advice they offer, and it could become a full-blown friendship.

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Cover Copy and Other Feats of Mental Agility

NEXT THURSDAY: Your Online You

NEXT APPEARANCE: On April 1st, I will be at the INDYpendent Show inside the great Who's Yer Con, a great gaming show. We'll be at the Wyndham West Hotel & Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. A GREAT group of creators will be on hand to help you level up in your writing, art, marketing, crafts work, whatever! Did I mention it's FREE? For more information, go to www.indypendentshow.com and we fully expect to see you there! And on April 7th, I will be at the Purdue University Student Center from 4 pm to 8 pm for BOILER CON! I'll be appearing with Bill & Linda Reinhold (artist and colorist, respectively, and they've worked on some of your favorite Marvel, DC, and First Comics titles, trust me), Andy "Shaggy" Korty (The Manor and my artistic collaborator on the upcoming InDELLiprose anthology), and many more will be in attendance. Please search for "Boiler Con 2018" on Facebook to find their event page.

SPECIAL NOTE: My newest book, The Haunting Scripts of Bachelors Grove​, is currently on sale. It's part memoir, part grimoire. The first half deals with my entry into writing indie comics and joining Silver Phoenix Entertainment. I print four of my comic scripts for The Haunting Tales of Bachelors Grove, three of which have not been produced yet. Then I add four horror prose tales, three of which are NEW.All this behind a great cover by my Art Sherpa, Trevor Erick Hawkins, over 300 pages of terror and history for only $19.95 in paperback, $2.99 in e-book (FREE if you belong to Amazon Prime).

If you have any questions for me, write to me at Brian@RisingTide.pub. No attachments, please, for security reasons.

Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to this blog. We're going to put out something every WEDNESDAY morning or you'll know the reason why. We plan to beef up our output to five times a week this year. Yeah, that's another goal and we've already included THURSDAYs now.

As if this isn't enough, I send out a monthly e-mail newsletter around the first week of every month. There's news, graphics (when I have them), personal appearance information, and the occasional cool money-saving offer. You can sign up HERE!

And of course, I'd love for you to purchase my books.I'm also on Twitter and Instagram.As long as you're at it, give a LIKE to my Facebook page for Vulcana.

And every Monday and Thursday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, I host a live interactive broadcast entitled NEVERMIND THE FURTHERMORE (yes, it's all caps). You type in the comments, I read those comments, you type back, we have a conversation. Also, if you are present during the LIVE broadcast, you may post a link to your business/blog/website/creative endeavor/charity. Then we SHARE the show and get YOUR message out to MORE PEOPLE! Pretty cool, huh? See you on Wednesday!

#Writing #MakingFriends #Networking #INDYpendentShow #BoilerCon