Networking is key

Networking is key.

I heard that phrase many moons ago when I was a young man and starting to get involved with the Collins CoBuild Project. In those days 1986 or 87 through our network of English Schools I used to help market and implement task-based learning. With a marketing budget that was almost close to zero, networking HAD to be key, so by getting to know people, sending them LETTERS BY POST (snail mail in today’s parlance), visiting them and attending events or organizing events for big authors to come and talk to their ‘audience’, at a certain point I became Mr TBL. Through my network of contacts we used to sell more TBL based methodology books than by any other means.

Why did people trust me?

Because I made an effort to connect...to be there.I say all this because the next Brit Writers Awards big night is coming up in London. When I see that announced I think of all the chances we will have to meet, greet and get to know so many people who share with us all the passion for stories, books, the publishing business.

I can’t help thinking about what would have happened if  back in 1987 I’d had the benefit of instant messaging, cheap travel, high-tech comfortable venues where to set up shop (hiring a space for a table and chair where to chat to people), banners printed for only a few pounds…  My networking would have increased a hundred-fold.

Conversely, I can’t help thinking of so many writers, or people in the book industry nowadays, who are still averse to networking. Through a good network we can, for example, “exchange translations” with a fellow author in another country (Google does a fairly good enough idea of what the text is about, if the text is logical, it just needs (albeit heavy) editing and we’d be cutting the costs of publishing our book abroad, making it more attractive to a smaller publishing house. We can also do collaborative authoring. Quite recently I had one of my Brazilian authors, who had been unsuccessfully trying to break into the USA market for years, and an American author, who vied for the Brazilian market, through networking at one of my events in the USA (Write in Atlanta) met, greeted each other, discovered about each others’ talents and produced a wonderful motivational book together in the space I had provided. (http://elianabarbosa.com.br/) The site is in Portuguese, but of you scroll down you can see the book in the two languages and both the authors signing books in São Paulo and Los Angeles. In my view, this is the future. Or this is just the beginning!

More anon

Jamie