Do you work with clients? More writers and authors do than ever before. But then there are more authors and would be authors than ever before. If you’ve worked with authors—as a book shepherd, editor, consultant or what-have-you—for very long, you’ve no doubt met all types of them with many different needs, projects, expectations and quirks.
While some want validation and handholding, others may desire information and all the tips you can share. Some need direction, others hope to get secrets to success. Some of them don’t know what they need. They may ask for a manuscript evaluation—they want you to tell them they’ve written a good story. But their manuscript might truly need serious editing—something they don’t want to pay for. Editing doesn’t come cheap, but the value can be well worth the expenditure.
Some potential clients don’t want to hear about book promotion or any other foreign or time-consuming endeavors. It’s up to the consultant to help the client understand the whole picture, but some of them simply don’t want to look at it.
I had someone call me a few weeks ago. He wondered how he got my business card. He didn’t know if someone gave it to him or if he picked it up somewhere. He wanted me to tell him how he got my card. I didn’t have a clue, especially since he said he’d had the card for a long time.
He asked if he could meet with me. He was in town for an hour or so—could we meet? I asked what he had in mind—how I could help him? He said, “Well, I think I want to start writing. I’d like to hear what you have to say about that.”
I explained to him that most of the time I can respond to questions via email and that I don’t generally meet with someone without knowing what they hope to gain from a meeting with me.
He said that he was just interested in maybe starting to write, that’s all. And he thought that if he saw me he would remember where he got my card. He asked me how I am with faces—if I might recognize him if I gave him my card. I mean, really????
I told him I wasn’t going to be able to meet with him that day. He said that next time he’s in town, he’ll call me.
Can you imagine? He was so curious about where he got my card that he wanted to meet with me to see if he recognized me and would then remember whether I handed it to him. Maybe he picked it up off of a public restroom floor, for all I know. I wonder if it occurred to him to follow the link on the card, go to my website and look at my photograph.
I generally screen people pretty carefully before I meet them and that is mainly in an attempt to save both of us time. Sometimes people are reluctant to tell me why they want to meet with me. I think that often they don’t know. They just hope that I will have some words of wisdom for them—something they actually want to hear (which isn’t always the truth). Sometimes they just want to tell me their ideas—talk to me about their project. I have one client who pays me an hourly fee to speak to me for exactly an hour by phone and he always uses that time to tell me what he’s been doing. When he lets me know the time is up, he is in exactly the same position he was when he called because he didn’t ask me for any advice or suggestions. He just talked.
Sometimes people want to talk to me about something I can’t really help them with. If they are upfront in their emails about what they want to discuss, I can let them know whether this is something I can help them with or not.
I love helping authors with their projects. And there is much I can offer in the form of editing their fiction or nonfiction manuscript, helping them with their query letters or book proposals, advising them with regard to promoting their book, for example. But there are some things I won’t discuss with them. I especially won’t meet with you just so you can see what I look like.
I have turned off my comments, but would still love to hear from you. Contact me here:
PLFry620@yahoo.com
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com