I've held a lot of different kinds of jobs in my life, as most of us have, working our way toward That One Thing We Are SUPPOSED To Be Doing. One of my least favorite- but completely necessary at the time because we needed food on the table- was sales.
ANY kind of sales, but worst of all, telemarketing. WE ALL HATE TELEMARKETERS! I can tell you from the telemarketers' standpoint, they don't want to be doing it either. I have never met a happy telemarketer...
Oh, yes, my point: sometimes selling yourself as a writer gets to feeling like that- like telemarketing. You feel embarassed to "put yourself out there", "toot your own horn" and various other epithets. However, it is something that we, as writers, MUST do. It's a tough thing- many of us are shy, loving that private writing time, holed up in our hidey holes, wearing the letters off our keyboards... ("Nana, why doesn't your 'puter have ALL the letters??")
I've been busy sending queries out to agents. I have to take a deep breath every time I lick an envelope or press SEND on the email. It feels like I am 14 feet tall and 600 pounds, wearing a clown suit, dancing and shouting "Look at me! Look at me!" It's not a good feeling.
Promoting yourself is scary. Sometimes it feels like people might be laughing at you behind your back. (And maybe they are.) You feel big and clumsy and obvious- but if you don't believe in yourself, I ask you, WHO WILL?
While I believe (and my belief only, not all writers) that having an agent is important, I have to be my own best agent first- believe in my work, have an energy for it, pitch it and NEVER STOP TRYING. Take advantage of any doors that open to me- because I never know when I might happen on the RIGHT ONE.
Such is my schpiel today, as I send out three more queries. Pitch yourself today, to someone. Practice on friends and family. It gets easier. I promise.
Keep opening doors. And windows. And cave openings. And phone lines. It's all good.
Make something happen.
-Dev
No comments:
Post a Comment