The umpteenth piece on self-promotion

Why your content matters way more than anything else.

Photo by 苏寒 赵 on Unsplash

Let me tell you two very different stories about networking. At my first writers’ conference, a friend of mine tried to pitch her novel to an agent at the opening reception. We were both nobodies, and the agent was a superstar. He kindly said, “Not right now.”

My friend spent a fair deal of time cajoling me, when she wasn’t schmoozing. Act more assertive, she said. Otherwise I’d never get a book deal.

So I tried, and failed. Meanwhile, my friend did actually make some sweet connections with editors at big publishing houses. Three months later, they all rejected her book proposal.

After a while, I let go of everything popular culture had taught me about networking and just started expressing my chiller, easygoing self. Traveled some — stateside — and read my ass off.

And I wrote a lot.

And made some poor life decisions — like every writer should.

Now here’s my second networking story. Years later, I managed to publish in some decent venues. At another writers’ conference, I browsed and chatted with editors at press booths for half an hour. My point wasn’t to sell myself, just to kill some time between panels. When I’d run out of social…