Welcome!
What is this, why am I getting this email, and some thoughts on the Writing Community
The Quick & Dirty:
Why am I getting this email:
You signed up for email & updates on my author website (authorjbaugher.com) somewhere between 2019 - present. I have been building an email newsletter list since that time but have never officially launched one. This is that newsletter.
If you’re the type of person who likes supporting artists with paid subscriptions to their work, I’ve included the “subscribe” button right here to make it easy for you.
If you signed up for this mailing list by mistake and you’d like to unsubscribe, there is an “unsubscribe” link at the top of this email and at the bottom.
What is this:
An email newsletter I’ve created for writing updates, thoughts on the writing community/industry, and the Archetypist podcast. I envision this being a newsletter about both the industry, my own personal writing process, and the thoughts of the other writers who contribute to the Archetypist podcast (archive of episodes available on the Spotify, Substack, or wherever you get your podcasts).
The long version:
Writing is a notoriously lonely endeavor, and it kind of has to be. For me, as a “mostly-extravert,” this has always been one of the toughest parts of the process. However, ever since I started writing, I had the urge to build a community.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the greater “Writing Community” and how I fit into it. After ten+ years of trying to break into the industry, attending conventions, book signings, and other events, I feel like I finally have a pulse on how to contribute and what the community is — and more importantly, what it is not.
Let me tell you a few stories:
It’s 2014. You’ve recently been accepted to an MFA program and are attending your first World Fantasy Convention in Washington, DC. It’s overwhelming. There are agents and editors everywhere. Famous authors & aspiring authors mingle at every one of the three bars in the hotel. Every night, there’s multiple “room parties” put on by prestigious presses like Clarkesworld and TOR. You feel like your dreams are within your grasp, even though your manuscript is half-finished and you have no idea how to pitch to agents. You also feel intimidated, so you spend most of the convention attending programming with your friends, maybe meeting a few people. One night, you get into an elevator. A man walks in behind you. You can’t read his entire nametag, but you do see it says LITERARY AGENT in big, capital letters at the bottom.
This is the dream, right? The literal reason why you’ve written an “elevator pitch.” You open your mouth to introduce yourself, but before you can get a word out, the agent presses his hands to his face, and mutters “Jesus Christ,” under his breath.
You pivot and say, “Hey man, everything ok?”
The agent stares at the wall and says, “Yeah, just, can I give you some advice?”
You agree.
“I don’t know if you’re new here or not, but if you see an agent you want to pitch to, don't just interrupt them in the middle of their conversation and yell your book pitch in their face. Offer to buy them a drink, at least.”
He then proceeds to tell you about how he’s been trying to meet with one of his clients for the last two hours. Everywhere they’ve tried to meet, they’ve been interrupted multiple times by writers who believe, just like you do, that how you get an agent is interrupting them, cornering them, and talking at them about your book. This isn’t your fault. It’s just the popular perception that’s been sold to you.
Fast forward to 2019. You’re at another convention in Los Angeles, California. You meet a writer in the con suite at breakfast who seems friendly. Talk quickly turns to your respective stories and dreams of getting your first book deals — maybe a TV deal too, if you’re lucky. This writer asks you what agents you know and if you know any here. Very quickly, it becomes apparent that this person isn’t actually interested in you, your book, your career, or really anything aside from their own success. They’re just looking for leads on who to talk to. Later, you watch this same aspiring writer shove one of your best friends out of the way to talk to an agent.
These stories are not the norm, but they are not the exception, either. In every writing community — hell, every artistic community — I’ve been a part of, there always seem to be a few people who come in with an objective: commercial success. And they are willing to trample pretty much anyone in their way to get to it.
This may come as a shock to some (heavy sarcasm), but that’s not really how communities work. To be part of a community, it kind of requires a contribution to the community for the good of the community. And that’s what I want to do with this newsletter/podcast hybrid: contribute to the greater writing community because that community is worth contributing to.
That’s sort of what healthy networking is: it’s not about what someone can do for you, it’s about the relationship that you cultivate because that relationship is worth cultivating. And some relationships aren’t worth cultivating. Sometimes, two perfectly nice and pleasant people just aren’t on the same wave-length — even when one or both parties really, really want the relationship to blossom. It’s better to be true to yourself than to try to be someone else for the sake of forcing success.
In short: I’ve always subscribed to the “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy when it comes to the industry. If one person in the community finds commercial success, we all succeed. Not because that successful writer has a connection that can be exploited, but because our friend, an aspiring author, took a leap in fulfilling their dreams.
So, what can you expect from this newsletter:
Weekly posts,
My thoughts on the industry, writing, AI, books, & other things,
Podcast episodes / text interviews with industry professionals, agents, other authors, etc.,
Posts from other authors who contribute to the Archetypist,
Book reviews / things I’ve found helpful,
Updates on my own writing journey,
Writing exercises & more.
Thanks for sticking around if you’ve read this far. Please leave a comment about your own industry story, what community means to you & what you hope to bring to the greater writing community.
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