by Simon Wright

Created on: February 08, 2011

The act of writing is normally a solitary affair but there’s a lot more to becoming a successful writer than just the time that you spend locked (hopefully not literally!) in your study tapping on a keyboard. Building up a network of writing connections is often every bit as important as the quality and quantity of your written output, although this is an aspect that it either overlooked or poorly executed by many budding writers.

The reason why networking is so important isn’t always self evident to all writers. It is also something that will not always come easily. After all, many writers would happily concede that they are introverts who shy away from social gatherings and feel awkward about actively promoting their writing abilities. Let’s look then at why networking is so important within the writing community and how writers can overcome any reservations to get value and enjoyment from such interactions.

Building your reputation through word of mouth and personal recommendation:

You may know that you are a great writer but it can be a difficult task to spread this message to the people that you are most interested in influencing, namely publishers, agents, and fee-paying content owners. One way that writers can promote themselves, however, is through professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn.com. These offer the potential to become “linked” to other writers (and people from all manner of professions) and you can submit and receive personal recommendations relating to people that you know and have worked with.

Being associated with other good quality writers can help to enhance your credibility as a writer, especially where there is an opportunity to benefit from personal recommendations.

Feedback and ideas generation:

It’s often difficult for writers to gauge the quality of their output and this is especially true for amateur writers. The chances are that you may have received some very basic feedback from publishers on the back of unsuccessful submissions but other than that writers often have to turn to friends and family for feedback and they are often not the best qualified people to offer constructive advice.

Having other writers, that you trust and can use as a sounding board for new material, is often a great way of fine tuning your work, before putting it forward for publication. Speaking and meeting with other writers is also be a great way of coming up with ideas for new writing initiatives. Anyone who

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