Over at Glimmer Train, author and editor Kate Gale discusses the importance of stakeholders in your writing life—just as a nonprofit organization needs stakeholders. She says:
You need a group of people who buy into this idea that you want to be a writer. … You only need a few stakeholders. Five is a nice number. But listen to them. The reason you chose them is that you thought they understood something about your writing life.
Click here to read more of her sound advice.
Also check out other authors writing on writing this month at Glimmer Train:
- Anthony Doerr on his dark twin Z, who is very interested in checking e-mail
- Soma Mei Sheng Frazier on “The Frame Game,” a simple strategy of structure and repetition
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
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Great advice – if stakeholders are available. The tag of antisocial eventually becomes the albatross around the neck and people tend to shy away. This is as good as it is bad. Good, because it leaves the writer to do some writing. Bad, because the support-structure melts away in the background. Living alone as I do – in the middle of nowhere – I find it impossible to build a group of stakeholders in the traditional sense. Blogging is a substitute, but a poor one at that. On-line forums and groups offer a theoretical solution, but most of the people on these are really trying to market their own work. What I am saying in a roundabout way: if you have stakeholders, look after them carefully. Be generous with your wine. Laugh at their jokes. Tell them you appreciate them. Don’t take them for granted – they are an important source of inspiration and encouragement.
* Thanks for recommending this post! Without stakeholders, forging on with the writing can be so hard. Gale’s words reminded me to reach out more and be just as supportive.
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