Some really good advice from Kevin J. Anderson and his wife, Rebecca Moesta. The panel was entitled “Things I Wish Some Pro Had Told Me.”
Here are some of the highlights:
- Always be professional. Dress professionally whenever you appear as your author-self. Act in a professional manner at all times – especially when you are online. It’s easy to forget that “The internet is forever” and say or do something unprofessional. An author is a public persona, so prepare to be “on stage” at any time.
- Always be kind. There is nobody so unimportant that you can afford to be unkind to them. Everyone is a potential reader, a fellow author, an editor or agent or publisher – and you don’t know who is who most of the time, so treat everyone politely. That author you dissed in public or on Facebook might just end up editing an anthology you really want to be part of.
- Don’t whine. If someone else has better success than you, don’t act like a child and complain about how much better your work is – get back to writing and prove it. Don’t bitch and moan about that short story assignment – turn it in and be grateful you have the opportunity. Nobody likes a whiner.
- Always do your best. No matter what you write, it’s going to be somebody’s introduction to your work. Make sure it’s a good example.
- Get used to rejection. Kevin’s first writing award is a trophy he got for having the most rejection slips at a conference. Rejection doesn’t mean you’re a failure – it means that particular editor or agent or publisher, for whatever reason, doesn’t want that particular work at that particular time. You have to put your best work out there until it sells.
- Don’t quit your day job. Writing is a risky business. Kevin and Rebecca have to write one extra book each year just to pay for health insurance. If you’ve got a job, no matter how little you like it, keep it for the benefits. When you’re regularly making the best-seller lists and have a couple of years’ worth of expenses in the bank, you can think about writing full time. Until then, play it safe.
Kevin and Rebecca’s website is a great place to read more. It also has a link to their publishing house and the writing seminar they run, called Superstars.