You can create a literary ecosystem: a balanced, organic, evolving, sustainable, inter-dependent, international, environmentally sensitive community. Your system will be unified by two holy trinities and by passion, interest, service, connection, and commerce. The ten circular, integrated elements of your literary ecosystem will be
- Passion—your love for creating and communicating your work
- Purpose—literary, publishing, and community goals that inspire you to achieve them
- Professionalism
–knowledge about writing, publishing, and your field
--the holy trinity of craft: reading, writing, and sharing
–the holy trinity of commerce: communities, a platform, and test-marketing
–using the technology you need to succeed
- Perspective—understanding that developing your craft and career is a long-term process
- Products and services—being a contentpreneur by producing a steady stream of work in your field in different forms and lengths that you re-purpose in other media
- People—win-win relationships with engaged, committed, growing communities of people you serve who want to help you, because they know, like, and trust you
- Platform–your continuing visibility, online and off, on your subject or the kind of book you write with your communities and potential buyers
- Pre-promotion–test-marketing your work in as many ways as you can
- Promotion— serving your communities by using your passion and platform to share the value of your work
- Profit—what you need to achieve your personal and professional goals and maintain the system
The importance of each element will vary, depending on what you write. Promotion and test-marketing will be more important for a book than a blog post.
Your ecosystem has to keep learning from and contributing to your communities, the hyper-connected human family, and the planet. Your system will continue to build synergy as long as you sustain it by enriching its soil with content and communication. Make cultivating your ecosystem a lifelong quest. You will accomplish more than you can imagine.
The blog aspires to help us both understand writing and publishing. To make the blog as helpful as it can be, please respond with your questions and suggestions for changes. I hope you find it worth sharing.
Do one thing every day to make the world better . –John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman
The 10th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 14-17, 2013 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com /
Keynoters: Bella Andre, Anne Perry, and R. L. Stine
http://sfwriters.info/blog /@SFWC/ www.facebook.com/SanFranciscoWritersConference
San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn
Laurie McLean, Dean/free classes/www.sfwritersu.com/sfwritersu@gmail.com/@SFWritersU
415-673-0939 / 1029 Jones Street / San Francisco, 94109
The 5th San Francisco Writing for Change Conference / Changing the World One Book at a Time
September 2013 / Unitarian Universalist Center / Geary and Franklin
www.sfwritingforchange.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com
Michael Larsen is a literary agent and consultant to nonfiction writers. He and his partner Elizabeth Pomada are co-directors of the San Francisco Writers Conference and the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference.
