WRITER'S DREAM; Secrets

Mean Girls

It pays to keep your writer's cards close to your chest.  It took me years to learn this and I learnt it the hard way.  I have always worn my heart on my sleeve. I speak out about my hopes and dreams and goals because I am excited about them.  I talk about my work because I am proud of it and because people often ask me about it and ask for advice, and in the past I was happy to help.  

But just because someone is close to you, doesn't mean that they can be trusted with your dreams or your contacts.  Friends and co-workers might try piggy-backing on your good name; enemies might try to make trouble for you with your editors.  In both instances, I speak from personal experience!

When people discover that I am a writer they immediately ask who my publisher is and I used to tell them. But having been stung by the spite of envy in the past, I now keep this kind of information to myself. I no longer reveal my contacts or mention the names of my editors.  I don't even let people know which publishers I am writing for anymore. I just get on with writing for them.  When the work appears in magazines etc, then obviously the secret is out, but in the meantime, I keep all such information to myself.  I won't have it used against me again. 

People will of course try to goad you into giving them details of your contacts list. A conversation I had some time ago went something like this;  

"Who is your publisher?"  This from an unpublished would-be psychotherapy writer, asking about the psychotherapy features I'd had published. It doesn't take a genius to guess what her motivation was! 

"I don't discuss my contacts." I replied

"Then why should I believe you're published??" she huffed.

"I don't care if you believe it or not. I only care that my editors believe in me and the royalties and the fees keep rolling into the bank because that's what pays my bills!"  

And its true. I don't care who believes that I'm published.  I have a body of work out there to prove my case should anyone care to check, but I certainly don't owe anyone the details of my contacts list!  

It is too easy to dismiss someone's achievements, especially if they have already succeeded where you are still trying. If another counsellor is finding it hard to get their own psychotherapy work published, then that isn't my fault, nor is it my responsibility to get them published.  Not my circus, not my monkeys, as the saying goes. 

Its the same with ideas.  It pays to keep your ideas to yourself, until you have that all important commission, in writing, from a publisher.  Again, I learnt this the hard way when I was asked by my then editor for some possible ideas for features.  The implication was clearly made that if they liked those ideas I would be commissioned to write them.  

Imagine my outrage then when having heard nothing for a while, I saw my ideas shamelessly written up by a staff writer and published alongside my column! 

Needless to say, the next time they asked for my ideas I replied with "I only work to a written commission now.  If you want to commission a feature from me, put the details in an email and I'll be happy to write it for you."  Such a commission never came - they were once again just looking to scrounge from my creativity while not paying me for it.

So it isn't just other writers who might glean your ideas - unscrupulous editors will do it too.  It makes sense then to keep your ideas to yourself.  And not just in writing either...I once described how I planned to decorate and theme out my therapy room should I ever open up a private practice, only to have that idea ripped off too!  Fortunately I am nothing if not imaginative and I have already dreamt up a whole new theme, which is even better that the original one!

The bottom line is, if you don't want your ideas to be ripped off, then keep them to yourself. Likewise any contacts you make in publishing - keep your platform private. And be aware of possible hidden agendas and motivations when speaking to someone who shows a sudden interest in your work. They might make a show of befriending but they could just be out to rip you off or discredit you in some way! 

Get commissions in writing; keep your platform private; and never indulge the foolish vanity to sign a so-called publishing contract that asks you for money.  Most of all, keep your writer's dream secret from those who are mean.