One of the benefits of getting older – yes, I must count the benefits! – is engaging in downsizing. Of simplifying, streamlining, engineering pleasure into my life. And the latest incarnation of the process has been reading through fat folders of newspaper articles, job reviews, a variety of communication and pieces of long-forgotten writing.

The following item in The Writing Life column was written back in the day, when I was president of Portland’s Willamette Writers:

I started writing when I was ten. I wrote everything and everywhere I could. I loved it and they said I was good. I wrote book reports, letters, even my first ad. Then I wrote for school papers and yearbooks. And, following a sojourn to Europe, as a high school faculty wife and mother of five I wrote outraged letters-to-the-editor and outrageous PTA newsletters.

As a secretary/admin assistant I wrote unique business letters, created and edited a diverse bunch of company newsletters. And a dozen years away from school, as a divorcee in search of “self,” it dawned on me that maybe – just maybe – I could earn money writing!

I have to admit it’s taken more than just the click of the proverbial lightbulb … Along the way I perfected the admin art, counseled in an employment agency, did promotion in an airline office, traveled, got out of another (disastrous) marriage, promoted and marketed real estate, paid my dues in an advertising agency, developed a raft of interests and abilities.

An interest in jazz led me to freelancing, promotion and agenting in that way-out world. And voila! The First Book of Oregon Jazz, Rock & All Sorts of Music was published in 1982. I promptly went broke and lost my copyright, but I learned a lot, got critical acclaim and gratitude from musicians. But now I needed to redefine my “self,” so I joined Willamette Writers and met loads of people – writers and wanna-be’s, people in publishing, fascinating individuals – and kept churning out ideas and a variety of writing projects.

Tada! At last I discovered that the one unbroken thread through my life was marketing and promotion! Not only could I write but I seemed to innately understand how to peddle someone’s skills, the way to promote a band, a musician, a book, a writer. In short, I could develop and sell ideas. My own or those of other people – no matter.

After working with many writers as a combination teacher/mentor/editor/word processor/agent/crying shoulder, there are a few projects in the marketing process and I supply a quarterly newsletter free to interested writers. Plus a slim volume titled Be A Successful Writer is soon due off the presses.

For writers or anyone ...

As writers, our sales tools consist of all the “hardware” and every last little bit of the “software” we possess or can generate for use in the inevitable ritual of marketing. Begin with an impeccable manuscript. Add query letters, the synopsis, the book proposal, as well as any writing credits and other pertinent credentials you may possess. And top if off with the attitude presented to potential agents, editors and publishers.

Then, along the way, remember to take time to live life, have fun, learn about everything. Write to live – but also LIVE in order to write – because one day every half-forgotten experience or piece of information could well become part of your memoir or great American novel.

Positively,
Carolan