Last year when visiting our journalist friend Eve Conant in D.C., I asked Eve for advice in getting my own writing career started. She passed on some advice that had been given to her at one point by a mentor, and that advice stuck with me. While I don’t remember her exact words, the gist of it was to think about building my writing career on three pillars:

  1. The actual writing practice. For me that means writing most weekdays, usually in the morning. It means getting some words down even if I’m not feeling especially inspired.
  2. The business. Submitting work, tracking submissions, contracts, meeting production deadlines, promoting your work, etc.
  3. The relationships. Establishing a writing community. Meeting and exchanging work and advice and encouragement with other authors. Meeting editors and agents and publishers (in person) and ultimately finding/building your own personal team.

While there’s no way to guarantee a successful writing career, not having those three pillars in place reduces one’s chances significantly. At the time (October of 2017) it was clear to me that while I had a grip on first two, my writing circle was very small. I had trusted readers who gave me feedback, but that was pretty much it.

Conferences–The Big Hurdle

The months following my conversation with Eve I thought about her advice and how to apply it. I started with Twitter, following more writers and publications. I had some nice brief exchanges on Twitter, but of course social media is no substitute for getting to know someone in person.

Soon after I became an active SFWA member, I decided to take the plunge and attend my first writing conference. The Nebula Conference in Pittsburgh seemed as good a place to start as any. I was nervous about going. I didn’t know anyone there, and I was afraid it would be a waste of time and money.

My fears were unfounded–it was easy to meet people at the Nebula Conference. I wrote about the experience here. Though it’s obvious in hindsight, attending writing conferences is the easiest and fastest way to meet other people in the industry. There are other ways to do it (joining writing groups, attending readings, writing workshops, academic programs, social media interactions, etc.) but in terms of taking the plunge and meeting a lot of people in a short period of time, conferences appear to be the way to go.

Of course I’ve only attended one so far. I’ll write an update once I return from WorldCon76 in San Jose.

The Platform Beneath The Pillar?

Continuing the metaphor, maybe there’s one more element that should be included. The foundation beneath it all. And that’s the desire to have a writing career in the first place. Not everyone who writes wants a writing career. Some just want to write, some want to publish a story or two, or write a few articles for their favorite magazines. Or drop that bomb of a memoir once all is said and done.

Nothing wrong with that. I can relate.

I never wanted to be a DJ, or event promoter, or label runner, or even a music producer in the traditional sense. Once I learned what a drum machine was I wanted to make tracks with my friends and see people dance to our music at parties. Which we eventually did, and I accidentally had a music career, one that was quite lucrative and fancy at times (and I have no regrets). But I do wonder if I was fundamentally limited by my lack of desire to be any of those roles, officially, and with complete commitment.

On the other hand I’ve known I wanted to be a novelist since about age eight or nine. I vividly remember visualizing my own series of novels neatly arranged on a bookshelf. And later, when I was an idealistic teenager, I had a clear vision of how I was going to save the world with my influential environmentalist utopian fiction.

It took me long enough to get around to it. Writing novels, that is. But like I said, no regrets. And maybe I’m guilty of revisionist history. Maybe I made dance tracks for exactly as long as I wanted to, and now I’m ready to do something else. (Except that I’m still making dance tracks for the exact same reasons I started making them in the first place, and I still don’t want to be a music producer or DJ or label runner, not really–I just want to make beats with my bros.)

My point is that it’s worth some introspection in regards to what kind of career you really want. Don’t try to build a huge structure on a tiny foundation. Get the scale right.

Last Hours of Book Contest

I’m celebrating the recent release of “The Icelandic Cure” novelette/chapbook (winner of the Omnidawn Fabulist Fiction prize). It’s simple to enter, just buy a copy of the book (on amazon or directly from Omnidawn) and send me a proof of purchase at jd_moyer@looq.com (or DM me on Twitter @johndavidmoyer).

The prize is a 23andMe Health & Ancestry Kit, retail value about $150 (or cash equivalent).

I’ll keep accepting entries until the end of the day. So far there are fewer than thirty entries, so chances of winning are pretty good.

For those of you who have purchased the chapbook and/or reviewed it, many thanks. I really appreciate it.

Hope you are enjoying the summer!