Comments on: Tone Deaf Publishers Need Savvy Writers

By: City Lights Books: Sesshu Foster, World Ball Notebook | Barbara Jane Reyes

City Lights Books: Sesshu Foster, World Ball Notebook | Barbara Jane Reyes — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:14:43 +0000

[...] our own careers, hence, avoiding its consuming you, do read Guy LeCharles Gonzalez’s post here. But po-biz and poetry are two different things, and I am a firm believer in the poem, the work to [...]

By: glecharles

glecharles — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:13:12 +0000

Joanne, thanks for dropping by! Glad you enjoyed the panel and got some reinforcement from it. When it comes to writing successfully, the meek will only inherit the rejections. Good luck with your efforts.

By: glecharles

glecharles — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:13:12 +0000

By: Joanne Tombrakos

Joanne Tombrakos — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:57:56 +0000

Hi Guy,
I had the pleasure of attending your panel at NYCIP. May I add I was as surprised as you at how many in the audience did not have a blog and were not well versed in social media.
It made me realize how much more I know than I think and reinforced the idea that to be successful in this industry it is not enough to just be a good writer. You need to be a salesperson and a marketer as well.
Thank you for your insights.

By: glecharles

glecharles — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:39:25 +0000

Hey, Barbara! Thanks for stepping out of the shadows.

I agree that reticence and entitlement are two very common traits amongst writers when it comes to marketing, but there's a suprising number who are simply clueless. Ignorant in the most literal sense of the word, and totally understandable. I'd say at least half of the attendees at our panel fell into that group, and it was a nice reality check since I sometimes make the mistake of using myself as the benchmark.

By: Barbara Jane Reyes

Barbara Jane Reyes — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:51:29 +0000

Hi Guy, I've decided to stop lurking and actually leave you a comment. Thank you for this post. This author “laziness” is something I've been continually discussing, though I think of it as two other (if not related) things: reticence and entitlement. Either that, or they really are clueless and have yet to learn that marketing savvy is very necessary not only to sell books, but as you say, to control our own careers.

Now, as for blogging as a career/promotion tool: I am a firm believer in this! Though I do see how easily dismissed it is/can be, perhaps among the reticent and/or entitled. It feels like authors tend to perpetuate the belief/myth that other entities are supposed to be doing these things for us.