Using Linkedin To Build a Referral Market

Today the WritersView Community is discussing networking. As writers, we live sometimes very solitary lives. I am at home alone right now speaking to a keyboard. You can become accustomed to this lifestyle. But to be prolific, to be about Kingdom Building your writing has to go beyond this keyboard. You will have to meet people. Wouldn't it be better to meet people who have the power to bring more people to your words? Here are my five tips. Please add more in comments.

5 Networking Tips for Writers

1. Join Civic Groups.
I joined the Atlanta Jaycees and the Junior League in my twenties. Those two organizations still help even now and I've been disabled/retired from architecture for seven years. I joined the Atlanta Press Club and the Association of Black Journalists a few years back. My suggestion is to find an organization within your community that shares some common threads and become active.

2. Write for a local publication.
The best networking tool I've used as a writer was becoming a local staff writer for a Christian newspaper(Rejoice Atlanta) and (Atlanta Christian Family) magazine. All of my first clients came from them contacting me after reading my columns. Now I run on referrals via those first clients.

3. Build a Yellow Market of Referrals via Social Networks.
My clients now are referral based. I obtain referrals after every writing gig. The best way to get them is to ask or have a letter printed with your invoice requesting a referral. A good social network that can help you catalog referrals as well as showcase them is LinkedIn.

4. Network Your Blog
If you have a blog, this year spend more time blogging quality content and commenting on other blogs, then blogging for the sake of blogging. Put value in your blogging time.

5. Host a Reading Event
I have hosted two summer event series in Atlanta, which combined authors, musicians, poets at new coffeehouses. It helps drive traffic to the coffeehouse, it helps your community realize that you're not just some salesperson, and its great free publicity.

Perry's latest enterprise: 'Trek' trainer

Powered by    * Please note, the sender's email address has not been verified.       Tyler Perry will head the Starfleet Academy in J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" feature for Paramount. Perry joins an ensemble that includes Chris Pine, Eric Bana, Winona Ryder and Leonard Nimoy in the film, which chronicles the early days of the Starship Enterprise crew. it is going to be odd, but exciting to see Tyler Perry in something outside of his own works. I wanted to see this movie when Quinto and Pine were cast, then I heard Leonard Nimoy and Eric Bana. This cast is sick! And Wenona Ryder, perfect. I hope this movie is good. Can't you visualize it?             Click the following to access the sent link:       Perry's latest enterprise: 'Trek' trainer*                 Get your EMAIL THIS Browser Button and use it to email information from any Web site.   *This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i483285045a5ab9c6893f37e6926ca25b

Lifting Wikipedia Kills a Romance

Publishers Weekly and the Associated Press question Signet Historical Romance author, Cassie Edwards practice of taking excerpts from online content and encyclopedia's to pad her novels with historical fodder. Smart B's Who Love Trashy Books Blog sparked the investigation when they fact checked content from one of Edwards's books on their blog via Google.

I don't know a thing about Mrs. Edwards, but her research methods do cause me to wonder. It is a known fact that pastors use each other sermons verbatim without referencing the other. However, as a Christian author does this back door plagiarism fly with your moral compass? More than that have you read a novel that sniffs of wikipedia pages?

Your thoughts...