The Power of Mentors, Community, and Relationships

Last night, Chris Guillebeau paid a visit to Cincinnati, as part of his Unconventional Book Tour. (I had the honor of helping arrange some of the logistics of his stop.)

If you're not familiar with Chris, here are 2 good places to start:

Several of us went out to dinner with Chris after his talk last night, including:

Matt & Adam haven't yet been contracted for a book, and at one point during the evening, the discussion naturally drifted toward how one gets a book deal. Does the agent come calling you, or do you go calling the agent?

There were examples of both scenarios, but perhaps what was most interesting (from my perspective) is that no one really spoke of the query process, or mentioned listings/websites for finding agents.

Rather, much of the discussion focused on serendipitous connections, existing networks, and referrals—which, to me, seemed like a much less painful way to go about getting a book deal.

What if you want to bypass the cold query process? Can you do it too?

My thoughts:

Not everyone is going to have the community-building and networking strengths of some of the people I had dinner with. But every writer should consider at least one or two ways they can build a support network, become active in a community of like-minded people, and/or find a mentor. Getting published is much easier when you know a few people—who have the distance, experience, and savvy—to tell you how to navigate a tricky industry.

P.S. That said, I highly encourage everyone to read this piece by Everett Maroon that analyzes stories of how authors found their agents, and identifies 7 factors for success.