Write On! Roundup #4

On Writing Communities, Literary Agents, and Book Publicists

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

Welcome to Write On! Roundup, where I turn my many years as an author, ghostwriter, and MFA professor to your benefit as a writer. This week’s questions circle around issues of book promotion, getting an agent, and the importance of community.

Make and keep as many friends in and around the writing world as you possibly can. They’re good for your soul and your writing long before they’re good for promoting your books!

I’m going to bundle the first two questions below, because both involve the issue of community, and, in a way, they speak to each other.

Q:

How do I connect with other writers for readings rather than having events only by myself or only when my book first comes out?

I would like to know how to connect/build a community with people who might become readers of my future book. Is it necessary to be proactive? Or do I worry too much or should I just focus on my writing? I'm testing the water here on Substack, using it as a sandbox to build connections and see what kind of content creates traction. But I find it challenging. How do I even know what kind of audience I should reach out to?

A:

Writing communities are SO important, but the reasons are multifold. Long before your book is published, you need community to support, encourage, advise, and simply to take an honest interest in you as a writer. Building community is an essential part of “just focusing on your writing.” Think of this community as your tribe, the people who get you and love you and care about you and are personally invested in your ideas and stories. Yes, eventually they will read your book, but in the meantime they may be a source of feedback, resources, referrals, and moral support when you badly need it.

The challenge for writers is that most of us are introverts. We don’t like crowds or feel particularly comfortable in groups, especially groups of strangers. That was me before I started grad school. But the low-residency MFA taught me that like-minded people (including introverts) all excited by the same writing goals can enjoy an astonishing esprit de corps, especially when they gather for intensive but relatively brief periods. At Bennington, our residencies were 2 weeks in winter and summer. I then taught in Goddard’s MFA program, where residencies were just 1 week, winter and summer, yet the camaraderie of the Goddard community was even stronger.

I firmly believe that low-residency MFA programs model the type of community and connection that’s ideal for writers. At MFA residencies, friendships are forged over meals, walks, lectures and classes. Writers gather for readings, recommend books, exchange writing tips, and generally geek out together over literature. Then friendships continue to grow on social media and through personal correspondence after everyone goes home. After graduation, when people start to publish, the whole tribe celebrates and helps to spread the word. If and when there’s a book tour, fellow alumni show up for readings and buy the book. [Please note that showing up to buy the book comes last on this list of benefits, not first!]

You don’t have to get an MFA to build your own community on that model. But if you don’t already have a circle of writer/booklover friends, you will need to go where writers and booklovers are actively interacting.

True story: I live in Los Angeles, where writing groups and programs abound. I found my very first writing group by taking a class at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Over several weeks, I got to know everyone’s style of work and personality and figured out which writers in the class would make good writing partners for me. At the end of the course, I approached them and we formed an informal writing group, which continued to meet for years. One of the founding members of that group was the extraordinary novelist Cai Emmons. Cai and I remained friends long after various relocations forced us to disband the group. We helped promote each other’s work by interviewing each other for publications like Ms. and Writer’s Digest, and I was supremely honored to share the page with Cai on one of her final posts in 2022, just days before she died.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that friendship based on writing and books forms a terrific foundation for community, and you only need to make one friend to get started. If you have friends who love to read and/or write, form a book and/or writing group, online or in person. If you don’t have such friends yet, look for local gatherings of writers at your library, open mic readings at coffee shops or neighborhood book stores. Consider reaching out to your school/college connections to find other local writers who’d like to gather. And local writing classes can be a great way to meet future writing group members.

You might also consider getting an MFA, but if that is not an option, apply for a writers’ conference or retreat like Community of Writers , Hedgebrook, or Tin House (check out Poets & Writers for many more listings). The intensive nature of these gatherings tends to ignite passionate conversations and ideas, and you’ll likely leave with several friends who can help you build your literary tribe. [At writers’ conferences you will also meet agents, who will be more likely to consider your work after they’ve met you in person. See below.]

While in-person connections are most likely to lead to genuine friendships, online connections can also be powerful. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people on social media whose ideas about literature or writing resonate with you. If you have thoughtful questions for your favorite author after reading their book, by all means write and tell them! You can now connect with most authors via their websites, and they generally will welcome your notes and humbly write back. The same goes for writers you read on Substack and Medium. That’s why Substack Notes and Chat are so important – to help you forge connections and build community within the platform.

True story: Katie Gee Salisbury and I commented on each other’s Medium pieces after we realized we both were invested in the history of Asians in Hollywood. Katie was writing a book about Anna May Wong, Not Your China Doll, due out next year, and I’m (still) working on a memoir about my father, who was an actor in Hollywood at the same time as Wong. We had a lot to talk about! So we met in person when Katie came to LA. Then we decided to interview each other. And we just did an online discussion for Medium.

When writers like each other and have shared interests, they tend to help each other. But it all starts with friendship. Your friends will always be your first and most important readers and audience. And you’d be surprised how many friends you’ll gain, once you start sharing your passion for the subjects you’re writing about. That’s another reversal in the order of items in your question: start with what most interests you, rather than “content that gets traction.”

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard agents complaining about submissions that are DOA purely because of mistakes in the cover letter.

Q: 

Who are the mysterious 'readers' who decide whether an agent or publisher is going to even see our work? As I understand it they are the first hurdle to cross when submitting work and often they are young and inexperienced working their way into the publishing world.  Doesn't that skew things?