Q: I was excited reading ABOUT your book, and even more as I actually read it over, but the whole idea of meeting and pitching face-to-face with corporate bigwigs is something I don’t see myself doing. Any way to make the biz work without this pressure-packed step? Or should I just keep on dreaming? I’ve just got this “thing” about being thought of as a peon by the authorities.
A: Well, you could try and build it using email marketing, which is becoming more and more legit as a way to reach prospects (esp. if you’ve got a web site you can link them to with your samples, etc.) but I still believe that the face-to-face thing is key. People are simply more likely to hire those they’ve met.
More importantly, I say you want to shift your thinking about this. I’m not sure what you envision when you say “corporate bigwigs” but I’m guessing that it’s different from the reality. These are just regular folks, not super-stuffy as a rule, and especially if you end up getting a lot of your work from MM clients, like design firms, marketing companies, etc (like I do), the crowd is even more laid-back, funky, creative, etc. And they don’t expect their writers to be suited up. You’re a writer, not a corporate wonk and they know that. It’s pretty casual. They DO expect a good job and on deadline and within budget and all that good stuff but don’t sweat the image thing.
And funny you should talk about the “peon” thing. Paradoxically speaking, it’s in the corporate writing arena where, I say, writers actually get a lot more respect. Certainly implicitly through much higher wages, but from a professional standpoint as well. Not in all cases and not by everyone (there are still plenty of clients who view writers as “the help,” but when I’m making $125 an hour, they can think anything they want…).
Contrast that with most other writing gigs (like magazine writing, for instance), where writers are generally treated like you-know-what, not only in how little they’re paid, but in having to chase down their money, etc. More food for thought.