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The Power of Networking

19th September 2015 By Tina Leave a Comment

Some incredible figures

When it comes to work-related recommendations, nothing beats personal contacts. Yes, it is good to make connections online, but in my experience, personal meetings are even more effective. I first learned about this many years ago, when I attended a talk by Sabine Asgodom, who is a well known  book author and coach in Germany. She presented the audience with these figures:

So what are you waiting for?

In the beginning, I could hardly believe it, but the more I got into networking myself, the more I actually understood that this was not exaggerated. Of course, the 10 % achievements are still vital, but never underestimate the power of networking.

When I think of all the contacts I have made over the years, the opportunities that have come up and frelance jobs that I was able to do just because someone recommended me for something, I can definitely confirm these figures from my own experience.

Is it ethical?

Sometimes I meet people who have moral doubts about networking, they apologize for taking opportunities through contacts and believe they should have achieved everything in a “better” way. Don’t feel guilty, this is how most opportunities come up for everyone else as well, you were just not aware of it.

Those who have doubts are usually thinking of some kind of corruption and taking advantage of others, but this is not networking.

A book with networking advice

Now let’s talk about how to proceed when you are approaching someone you would like to network with. I would definitely think first what you have to give them and only afterwards what they may have to give you.

The book Give and Take gives valuable information and networking advice. And author Adam Grant is also providing a strategy to make sure others are not walking all over you after you have been generous first.

Useful organizations for authors and translators

Joining relevant organizations can make networking easier and I have tried out a numer of them. I am a member of the Society of Authors in the UK, because I find their legal advice and networking opportunities are just what I need – and they give legal advice to both translators and authors.

You can nowadays even join as a self-published author, if you have sold a certain number of books – just check out their eligibility criteria. And they have a network for emerging translators as well.

As a self-published author or someone who would like to beome one, you might also like to join the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Male and female networks

Networks have a long tradition and in the past they were often known as “old boys” networks, which excluded women and therefore women founded their own networks, for example Women in Publishing or Women in Journalism in the UK. A while ago, a man said to me: “It’s not fair, I want a network like this for men as well.” My answer was easy: nobody prevents you from setting up your own “new boys” network. 😉

You can argue whether female networks are still necessary today – theoretically women and men should now be equal, at least where I live. Conditions have definitely improved for women, but we are not quite there yet.

I believe we still need women only organizations, especially with the current influx of refugees in Europe. Although I am very much in favour of supporting refugees, I feel strongly about not going backwards, as they are usually from countries where females have far fewer rights than in our part of the world. In my opinion, women’s organizations can make a positive impact.

 

Related article on a female network: Happy Birthday, Buecherfrauen!

 

 

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Impressions from the Buchmesse 2014

30th October 2014 By Tina Leave a Comment

As usual, there was a lot on offer at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest book fair in the world: gazillions of publishing houses and other companies with stalls plus anything else related to books including an increasing number of self-publishing events and suppliers.

Frankfurt Book Fair Poppy J. Anderson Marah Woolfe Frankfurt

Poppy J. Anderson and Marah Woolfe: “Connecting To Readers” for self-published authors

I attended several events for self-publishers in the German language area. The picture shows two successful German authors, Poppy J. Anderson on the left and Marah Woolf in the middle. They discussed how to connect to readers and both speakers are very much in touch with their audience. Apart from strategies like social media, Poppy mentioned one of her quirky ideas: she once hired a handsome male model who dressed up as an American Football player since her books are dealing with this topic. Her apporach seems to work since several of her books are ranking high in the Kindle charts.

At another event, Sophie Schmidt of Berlin-based Epubli came up with some predictions regarding the future of self-publishing for the year 2020. Here are two of her assumptions:
– Format will not be important anymore, content is king, and there will be more and more interaction with content.
– Many joint projects with more than one creator will come into being.

Interesting stuff for thought, and both points are positive for self-publishers including those who are into international self-publishing because cooperating with people in different parts of the world is so easy these days.

Then I attended an event with self-publishing service providers Tom van Endert of Ruckzuckbuch and Sönke Schulz of  Tredition. Both websites are only in German, though. Sönke Schulz mentioned if you really want to have a chance to get into German bookshops, it is not just important that your provider makes sure it is in the “Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bücher” (list of German books in print), but you need to get your books to wholesalers, too. Both Tredition and Ruckzuckbuch provide this. Theoretically, German bookshops can also order from “Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bücher”, but it involves more hassle for them and they prefer not to. Tredition and Ruckzuckbuch are cooperating with each other, and whereas Tredition have more experience dealing with digital, the people of Ruckzuckbuch have a print tradition using eco-friendly resources and they offer a personal customer service plus a free paperback book with lots of information on self-publishing in general and their service in particular (only available in German).

I had a lot of disscussions with translators in Frankfurt as well, and some of those that I met had already worked with indie authors. There are three models: The majority are being paid a fee, a tiny minority are doing a royalty-split with the author, and then there is the hybrid model, that is receiving a fee, but doing a bit of marketing as well. For authors who want to have their book translated on a split-royalty basis, the platform Babelcube currently still seems to be the most promising way forward. Even after the Fair, I am now still discussing with translators and authors the best possible ways of cooperating with each other.

It didn’t come as a surprise that translators who are native speakers of English are the ones who have been approached by indies more often than anyone else – having a book in English is popular (See also my previous article). I learned about an extreme example in Frankfurt: one author had not been able to pay for a translation into English, but was so desperate to achieve this that he offered the translator to share not just the royalties of the translation, but the royalties of the original book as well!

I also talked with authors at the Fair, and one of our topics was the fact that a lot of English-language books are now written with American spelling using American words, even though the authors are British, because authors usually have more American than British readers. There is another group, however, who feels strongly about keeping their Britisch conventions. I am curious to know from everyone who is reading this: does it really bother you whether you are reading books in “English English” or “American English? And there are even more options, for example Australian and Canadian English…

If you would like to read more about the Fair from the perspective of self-published authors, I recommend the excellent article  Frankfurt For Indies – An Abundance Of Abundance  by Nerys Hudson of the Alliance of Independent Authors.

And here is a picture that is representative of the last couple of days at the Fair. It hosted the German National Cosplay Championship that made everything more colourful and fun – you could see many young people in fancy costumes, which is the whole idea of “costume play”: to dress up like characters from books, films etc. (Look at their ears ;-).

Young people in fancy costumes at Frankfurt Fook Fair

Cosplayers at Frankfurt Book Fair

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Frankfurt Book Fair: New Programme For International Self-Publishers In 2014

28th September 2014 By Tina Leave a Comment

If you have never considered attending Frankfurt Book Fair as a self-publisher, you might want to think again.

Apart from being the biggest book fair in the world, it is also the most important one when it comes to foreign rights. And this year there is even more: on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October, they are offering a new international self-publishing and author programme in English. If you speak German, there are 5 days packed with events for self-publishers. As for the programme in English, you can find more information on the book fair‘s website

It is always advisable to book a hotel room as early as possible, because there is usually a shortage in the end due to the masses of fair visitors.

In case you are used to the size of, let‘s say the London Book Fair, you might be in for a surprise. The area in Frankfurt is so huge that they use shuttle buses to take you from one hall to another. I would advise women who love wearing high heels to think twice whether you really want to torture yourself – I saw ladies suffering badly in the past because they underestimated the long ways.

Due to the dimensions in Frankfurt, I would not advise to just go there to stroll and look whatever you can find. To make the most of it, I would plan ahead. Therefore I think the programme for self-publishers and authors is an interesting one and I intend to visit the fair myself.

 

 

 

Related article:

Impressions from the Buchmesse

 

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