Networking
Written for student participants on the Writing East Midlands/University of Nottingham Write Here Residency on the Business of Writing
NETWORKING
You’re already networking as a writer. You know people. Each of those people knows other people you can get to know. Each of those people knows other people you could get to know. And so on and on. I have, I suppose, quite a big writer network now, which extends through the East Midlands and beyond. I am constantly surprised at meeting new people in this field who know other people I know. ie writer networks have lots of people in common, otherwise known as, it can be a small world. Which makes it easier. Because when you meet a person you’ve probably already got a connection. And harder. Because you don’t always know who knows who when you launch into a piece of negativity about some buffoon you’ve just been working with.
There are key people in a writer network who are good to know because meet them, and they’ve got masses of knowledge and people contacts. They’re good shortcuts.
So how do you go about building up your network? You simply go out and about wherever there are writers writing, performing, spectating, socializing, or officially gathering for meetings/conferences/training sessions etc, and you get involved. And check out festivals, reading and writing events etc…. You keep an ear to the ground. You observe. And wherever you go you go with the purpose of finding people who share something in common with you. All of them can help you.
Then you talk to one or two You’ll be surprised how readily they’ll talk (well most of them). Observe. Look for the ones who are looking lost and be lost with them, or the ones who seem to have a chain of different people coming up to them who might be good at introducing you to other people (obviously avoid the terribly huggy air-kissing ones). Go to an event/workshop/festival and set yourself the goal of talking to three interesting looking people you don’t know. Don’t just go for the easy option. If you’re in a room with writers you consider to be ‘of standing’, talk to one. They’re likely to be yearning for a sane conversation with someone who is interested in who they are instead of a) how they did it b) how they can do it too. Which gives you a clue to what networking is not.
Be wary of ‘networking training’. I once went to a ‘how to network’ artists business session. We were encouraged to talk about ourselves in positive terms, be basically self-inflating, exchange cards and do this with as many people as possible. We were reminded to ask the other person about themselves (in case we forgot) and not be afraid to even ask things unrelated to business. We were then let loose on the crowd with a reminder that networking is approaching the maximum number of people in the time allowed.
It worked. By the end of the time limit, I had 8 cards and a clear idea of which seven never to work with. I had been asked ‘Do you have a horse?’; ‘Do you think we have anything in common?’ (I sincerely hope not); and conducted every conversation bar one with a person with one eye on the clock and the other on the rest of the people in the room. The eighth person approached me dubiously with a rather weary look and said ‘Hello my name is Sarah and I’m really not enjoying this.’ We went to the bar together afterwards. And she gave me a million pounds worth of work (OK that last bit’s not true but it would have been a nice end to the story).
This kind of networking is not uncommon in life. And it’s horribly transparent. I’ve actually been approached by people at writer events where the words ‘sorry but I’ve had my allotted five minutes and need to move on now but it was nice to meet you’ have been used, and had many conversations transparently designed to find out whether I might be useful or not to said person or can instead be discarded like a piece of the rather limp buffet table salad.
At the aforementioned ‘networking for business’ event, I did raise in ‘feedback on your experience time’ the point that this type of ‘speed hating’ might at times be classed as ‘rude’. I was met with gasps of horror and sharp intakes of managerial breath. A well-meaning suit approached me later conspiratorially and told me I must understand that networking is an art where everyone accepts these are the rules. I weighed this advice up for a milli-second, smiled ingratiatingly with my eyes on everyone else in the room and moved swiftly away.
Almost all my work comes from well-connected people who I like as people and enjoy working with. Don’t get me wrong – I network a fair bit. I know a lot of people, a lot of people know me now. I go around looking for people I can like, respect, laugh with, who share my aims. Through them I meet other nice people. I tell people what I do in the course of an interesting conversation, if I see a link I point it out. If I think we could work together I tell them specifically how. I’m probably not nearly self-promoting enough but I have enough work. If I didn’t I’d perhaps step up the proactivity.
A lot of work can come from one good relationship you forge – if you’re good they’ll use you again and tell their friends who’ll tell their friends you’re good. It’s quality of contacts rather than quantity I think. And the heart of it is simply being interested in other people and them being interested in you. That’s you, what you do being secondary. And that balance being sought and retained. It’s not rocket science. Politeness helps, not boasting, being honest, asking directly if you want something, learning from others, knowing who to walk away from. Using your instincts. There’s a way to do the self-promotion bit within all that of course, and you get to learn how to do that better as you practice. The key to it is believing yourself in what you do and your own worth. There’s more to this, which can be discussed in future chapters. But it’s mainly about being there, being interested and saying hello. Listening,and being decent.
And don’t just network with writers. See networking as part of your everyday life. Talk to someone at the bus stop (steady). And you’d be surprised what your plumber/electrician/postman/hairdresser knows about. Maybe they write best-selling novels in their lunch breaks.
Here’s two networking examples from this very week, entitled ‘If they hadn’t been there ….’, showing you that ‘being there’ is the essential thing.
1. I’m walking down the street with a good friend who is also a freelancer. A woman stops her and they say hello. My friend does an excellent impression of showing pleasure in her recognition of said woman, without having a clue who she actually is. Luckily said woman reminds her they met a couple of months ago at an event and she has remembered my friend because of what she told her she did at that event. After a brief conversation my friend leaves with her card, said woman having told her she has just got funding through, that their meeting was destined and she would like her to help put artists in the schools she’s working in, as she needs her specialist help.
2. I lead a session for a group of writers hitherto unknown to each other. By the end of the session, where they were all networking by virtue of being there, one had joined the poetry group I lead, having searched for such a group for months, one had contacts to shadow writers, they had all asked to be put in touch with each other with a view to setting up their own unique group, and one (who stated that ‘networking is just promoting yourself at every opportunity’) had been firmly re-educated.
Cathy Grindrod
May, 2011
