Mike's July Writer's Salon is a Hit

Here's a summary of topics we covered at the Writer's Salon hosted by Mike this past Tuesday.

First, we'd all like to thank Blaze Kelly Coyle, actress, journalist and playwright, for arranging the meeting spot. The Miracle Bar & Grill in the Village was a perfect spot - excellent food, attentive staff and plenty of room to spread out. They enjoyed having us and we're all looking forward to meeting back there in August.

~ *** ~

After introductions and giving everyone the opportunity to describe their experience and current projects, Mike talked about his own career path and the tactics that worked for him over the years.

We brainstormed about potential markets for our work and shared solid advice for approaching new potential opportunities to grow as writers and sell more. This included a debate on the value of querying versus cold calling editors and each of our successes with both.

Mike shared his knowledge on paying markets and building platform in order to climb the ladder to better and better writing paydays. We discussed the philosophy of pursuing larger projects with bigger paydays, contracts, and the occasional nightmare of collecting payment for your work.

We spent quite a bit of time discussing the art of self marketing for writers and some of the more affordable methods of getting your name out there once you do get a paying byline. We only scratched the surface of this topic so I'm sure we'll go into more detail next time.

The one and a half hour time slot stretched into more than three hours and it flew by, leaving a lot more to cover when we meet again.

Thanks to Mike for arranging the salon, and again to Blaze for finding a great spot.