Career Management for Writers Clear-eyed tips and techniques for maximizing your potential as a writer. Breaking in to your chosen writing field is harder than ever, thanks to increasingly sophisticated market and readers demands. Maintaining your career despite the "mid-list slump", and a shrinking pool of publishers takes skill and astute judgment. Give yourself an edge by applying career management and business techniques to your writing activities, and developing a level-headed, approach to the industry . Course Outline Your perception of your writing career Cash cow, business, vocation, calling, or hobby? "Writer", or dabbler? Making it as a writer and what’s involved. Hard work Professionalism Organization Staying informed Business techniques Savvy self-promotion & PR Image Perfecting your craft Honing your talent Marketing Record keeping Breaking in & apprenticeships Is any of this necessary? The writer as "artist" Facts of writing life. Choices, and life’s purpose. Goal setting Long Range goals Short range goals Priorities in life -- and keeping a balance Editors and publishers What editors are looking for -- beyond your current manuscript Etiquette & protocol 101; or: How not to shoot yourself in the foot. Marketing & market research Why bother? Figures and facts of a writing life Writing to market demands Writing to editorial demands Writing to please yourself. "Hack" writers Finding markets Keeping up with your genre Following leads Making leads Cold calling Reading as market/category research for pleasure & entertainment for improvement deconstructing Saleable ideas Assessing the worth of your ideas "High concept" ideas Discipline and every day habits The job, and getting it done. Word count minimum Long work sessions -- tactics Short work sessions -- tactics Interruptions, and how to deal with them. Getting back into the story Getting to "flow" Suspending judgment Despondency swings. The fifty page theory Time saving techniques Plotting ahead vs. discovery Rejection blues, and reassessment-itis Space and equipment Room Furniture Equipment needs Equipment wants References Other resources Self-promotion Your self-image as a writer Image on paper Image in person Telephone techniques Pitching Professionalism Agents Do you need one? What agents do for you. Agents vs. Business managers What agents don’t do. Horror stories The upside. How to find them How to deal with them Agent facts and figures Networking Critique groups Writing groups - local Writing groups - provincial and national The Internet Newsletters Professional affiliations and associations Feedback & improvement Self-assessment Fellow writers your work Their work Editors and agents Readers How-to books Courses Record keeping Expenses Taxation Submissions Markets Correspondence Public relations and advertising Pre-planning as a survival skill Interviews Advanced self-promotion What your publisher can do for you What you’re expected to do for your publisher Your agent as PR man. Public image Privacy issues Plagiarism and other nasties "Stealing" ideas Copyright Plagiarism Libel Invasion of privacy The full-time writer When to quit your day job. Advantages and disadvantages Advanced career planning Time management Writing vs.: Your family Keeping food on the table a social life housework & keeping up appearances Priorities, and comfort zones Minimum needs Finding time The journey Enjoying the process Goals as bonuses. Staying positive Writing for yourself first -- the ultimate paradox Contact Susan Lieberman, Writing Works Manager, at Grant MacEwan Community College for enrolment information. Ebooks & Romance Novels * Sherlock Holmes Pastiches * Creative Writing Instruction * Home