Next week I promise to write more. It’s
past midnight and I am dozing off at my computer.
But anyway, I needed to leave a quick note
here, a word of thanks for the dozens of e-mails I got from my previous blog.
Yes! There are opportunities galore and I hope to be able to engage in wonderful things with you all soon.
The reason why I am so busy?
Well, next week I will start my “travelling
season”. I know it is the age of Skype and free phone calls, but I like to get
on a plane (or ship, as I will be doing next week) and visit places and meet
people face to face. I still prefer doing business with who I know - if I can,
rather than with people I might think I know. Kind of old-fashioned, but I am
55, and I can still recall the good old days of handshakes and business
lunches. I work some 12 hours a day with people I haven’t met yet, but relish
the opportunity to meet them in person during events, conferences, training
courses, retreats and the like.
Publishing is a business - a flourishing
business - and a brand-new exciting market in many parts of the world. If I
want to market what I do, i.e. story consultancy, career management, publishing
advisor and corporate storytelling training, I feel I have to go where the
action is. In over three decades “on the road”, I have made friends all over
the world. I like the feeling that in a very harsh industry I can be on a first
name basis with lots of guys (and gals) out there who’d be willing to help me
get one of my authors in print, who would help me organise a training event for
aspiring writers, and who can apply the principles of storytelling to change
lives and save companies! In short, you have to be seen to be “believed”. As I
travel a lot to the Latin World, kisses and hugs at a stand at some conference
faraway in the Argentinean Pampas bring me more work than fancy business cards
or even an all-singing all-dancing website. In the UK the kisses and hugs would
be frowned upon (???), fancy business cards are a must, but I wouldn’t go
without a good stand at any conference. A bit of a private space where I can
close business deals at my own pace, a bit of territory that is only mine.
So my friends, next week it will be Holland,
Belgium and then Germany, then shortly after many states of Brazil, Chile, then
back to the UK, Brazil again and back home for Christmas. To all those who have
written to me and who haven’t heard back from me, I will be contacting you this
weekend regarding the opportunities I have been talking about. I hope that when
I am out and about this time I should be able to let people know that many
friends are being made through the Brit Writers Group. Thanks Imran!
If you haven’t contacted me, please do. I
want to hear from publishers, all sizes and types, anyone who’d like to be part
of a group of professionals willing to take storytelling principles to the
Latin World and beyond, editors, translators and anyone else who may think they
have a project which would interest me.
Jamie
Good work and good job for this.
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