By Eric on 2006-05-27
Part 13 publishing series.
Networking. I know some of you might cringe at this word. I know I do. Some people are born with it. They can make friends with a sasquatch and then do some projects together. I unfortunately don’t have this gift. I don’t make friends easily, I don’t drink, I don’t go to many parties, bars, or too many places for that matter. So where does that leave me with networking? Maybe the fella who commented negatively on the Mike Patton photo is right. I don’t fit in, I am better with “comics, toys, and fat people!” The good thing about the rise of kids who grew up with these things, (fat people?! – how does that fit in?) is that there might be more of us. We communicate in different ways.
Back in the day, I remember writing a letter to Boylan’s soda. I was thinking, why not, I really like the drinks, so I just dropped a letter in the mail saying how good they are. About a month later, a package comes in the mail and it’s a four pack of soda, a t shirt, and a letter from the president of the company. I was impressed. Now, years later, we opened gr/eats, and guess what? We carry Boylan’s soda. I suppose you can network over the mail or internet. Perhaps that can work too.
The only tip I can give is that in publishing, and in many other world of business, being a good networker only helps. It may get you better distribution, media coverage, advertisements, and even articles. The sky’s the limit when you have the gift of being a crowd pleaser. You may want to work with whoever you meet, but remember, you have to be able to offer them something as well. It seems a lot of people don’t understand that and only want to take. If you’re good at this, tell me what it does for you. I see people who network well, and it seems to help them a lot.
Giant Robot has always an uphill battle. At the same time, since I’m not out “networking”, I am spending time trying to make GR better. That’s important since no matter what connections you make, you’ll still need to back up your words with some proof of a good product or project.