Learning from the Pro Writers without Stalking Them

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Friends of ACFW, tips 2 Comments

By DiAnn Mills

We all want to be called pro writers and to raise our status to bestselling. In our excitement, we follow the award-winning, best-selling writers whose success make us drool. Their books are read and reread, often with highlights. Their blogs are ingested like candy, and whenever they speak, we’re there. At conferences, we sign-up for one-on-one appointments and sit at their tables at mealtimes. We devour their blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, and whatever other social media posts used to capture our attention while we’re learning the craft.

That’s not a bad practice. In fact, emulating our favorite writers can establish professional habits, whether it be in the writing process or in marketing and promotion. Modeling our careers after successful writers is commendable. But stalking a writer through harassment and unwanted attention shoots the follower straight out of the unprofessional canon. What exactly do I mean? Here are nine naughty ways to give us the status of a stalker.

  1. Multiple requests for the writer to read your work. Free of course.
  2. Numerous comments on social media.
  3. Pushing a piece of toilet tissue from one stall to another with a note of devotion. (I had this happen during a writer’s conference. I avoided the writer for the remainder of the time.)
  4. Repeated emails of your fan status and how you’d do anything for him/her.
  5. Sending an abundance of gifts.
  6. Shoving a manuscript in his/her face before the first sip of coffee at a writer’s conference. (I had this done. I wanted to bite the writer’s hand.)
  7. Planting your rear outside of the writer’s residence. (A good reason for a professional writer to use a post office box.)
  8. Waiting outside the hotel door of a writer at conference.
  9. Avoid plagiarism – it’s a crime.

So what can a writer do to increase agent, editor, and professional recognition without being a nuisance? The following are twelve ways to model our career after successful writers—the smart way.

  1. Approach our writing as a business. To make a business prosper, an investment of time, education, and money is a necessity.
  2. Invest designated hours to learn the craft and write.
  3. Invest in how-to books, time to read and reread.
  4. Invest in the novels from our genre and read them.
  5. Invest in a writer’s conference that provides sound teaching and is well attended by agents, editors, and respected writers.
  6. Involvement in a critique and/or writers’ group, via online or face-to-face.
  7. Social Media is a must in today’s world of publishing. Learn it. Do it. That means a quality website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, blog regularly and/or guest blog. Practice the philosophy that social media is not about us but what we can offer to others.
  8. Subscribe to blogs and newsletters from those within the industry who have a proven track record: agents, editors, publicists, marketing and promotion specialists.
  9. Understand there is no easy road to publication.
  10. Willingness to provide instruction to other serious writers.
  11. Wisdom to discern what guideline work for us.
  12. Never stop learning!

Note there are more smart items than naughty ones. A professional writer embarks upon a journey on the road to publication. It may take six months, a year, two years or more to reach publication goals, but we can do it by incorporating the habits of a successful writer into our lives.

Join in the conversation. What have you learned that you can share about your writing career?

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; the Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests. Connect with DiAnn here: www.diannmills.com.

 

 

 

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Comments 2

  1. DiAnn, I almost did a spit-take when I read your list of don’ts. Some of them sound like outtakes from a bad movie. And your suggestions are quite valid. Unfortunately, there are still those out there who will either ignore or misunderstand them. But thanks for sharing.

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