Lisa Dempster's Guide to Being a Publishing Success PART TWO

This is Lisa

With the opening of the 2011 Emerging Writers Festival imminent, this year's Director still had time to discuss her Top 7 Tips to becoming a success in the Publishing Biz.

On Tuesday in Lisa Dempster's Guide to Being a Publishing Success PART ONE I shared Lisa's Tips #1-4

#1 Forget about a career path

#2 Embrace DIY: Independent Publishing

#3 No opportunity is too small

#3a Show up to things

#4 Put your writing out there

Let's continue!

#5 Anyone can be successful

Why does Lisa know this? Because SHE is successful. And if SHE can be successful…(her words!)

The most visible example I can see this by the number of indie authors finding success with ebooks. 

Lisa considers herself “deeply average” but she says YES a lot and puts herself in positions in which she can be successful. For example, if you want to be published in McSweeney’s but you don’t submit to them they can't publish you.

#6 You will fail and make enormous mistakes: But that’s okay.

This is what stops people from trying.

When you put yourself and your work out there, there is a really big chance of failure. The potential for success is enormous but so is the potential for failure.

Lisa knows people who lost $50k when starting an independent press, went broke but started a new press later and became successful. These people failed huge but learnt from it.

And nothing lasts forever! People move on, they forget, and it never looks as bad to the outside world as it feels to you.

By trying something and making mistakes, you have gained experience and know ways NOT to do something next time you try it.

And finally,

#7 Do what you care about

Pursue your passions because at the end of the day, nothing else matters. You will naturally be much more successful doing something you love than if you were doing something you are not passionate about.

Find a niche. Eg Lisa is a vegan food writer. If she had been an omnivore, her career would not have progressed as fast, as there is so much competition. But she has a niche, she is the only person doing vegan food writing so she gets a lot of writing gigs because of it. 

Find your passion, people, and do that!

If you're in Melbourne, it's well worth checking out the Emerging Writers Festival between May 26 and June 5 2011 as there will be a lot of great speakers, panels and workshops on a variety of topics, including Trends in Publishing, Faking it vs Making it, Going Global, Beyond Academia and Stand up. My personal faves are the Getting into Genre panels, YA Fiction, Romance, Crime and Speculative Fiction. You might even find me there! If not, take notes, 'kay?

Lisa Dempster is a jack of all trades in the publishing industry. She is a vegan food writer, has worked on a contract basis for publishing companies, bought out a small press and created her very own, Vignette Press, and is currently the Director of a two week festival for writers here in Melbourne, The Emerging Writers Festival (which starts this week) as well as being a Bachelor of Writing & Publishing Lecturer at NMIT, Fairfield. Phew!

http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/

Lisa Dempster's Guide To Being a Publishing Success PART ONE

Lisa Dempster

With the opening of the 2011 Emerging Writers Festival imminent, this year's Director still had time to discuss her Top 7 Tips to becoming a success in the Publishing Biz.


Tips 1-4 are below.


#1 Forget about a career path


In creative industries, your career path will not necessarily be linear, heading up the promotion totem pole. Creative industries most often promote based on your skill level. The best writer may have been writing for a year, but if they are the best, they will be the one to get the book deal. The cover designer that produces evocative covers that fit the book are the ones that will be commissioned again.
Lisa hasn't had a linear carer path by any means. She is a freelance vegan food writer, started her own small press, is currently Director of the Emerging Writers Festival and is a Publishing Lecturer at NMIT Fairfield.


#2 Embrace DIY - Independent Publishing


Lisa claims that she has learnt way more by teaching herself to be a publisher than she would have by working ten years in a big publishing house. At big publishing houses, you work in a department, either editorial, marketing, sales etc, and though you learn that role well, you won't learn other areas of the industry. By starting her own small press, Vignette, Lisa had to learn every facet of publishing, be it proof reading, pitching titles to booksellers, invoicing or taxes. 
Lisa has produced two "Mooks" (Magazine/Books) The Sex Mook and the Death Mook through Vignette Press.

(Vignette Press will soon open submissions to the Geek Mook, check out deets here)

Whether you want to start a music festival, make a film, self publish a book – go out and do it. You will learn SO much by giving it a go.

#3 No opportunity is too small

You never know where the people you meet and things you do will lead you in the future.

Five years ago no one would have thought that Lisa would be heading a writers festival

Related to #3, Lisa also suggests you: 

#3a Show up to things

This is a big one, people. One I'm not fantastic at yet, but it's not because I underestimate how important it is. Lisa says you should go to book launches, programs and submit things to journals and competitions. You might meet a like-minded stranger at a festival and make a best friend or even a business partner out of them. You might submit some work to a journal and it is rejected by the committee, but when the committee member who loved your story moves on to another position, they will very well remember you and your talent. 

Personally, I attended two SCBWI Conferences in 2009 and made some of the best writing friends I could have there.

#4 Put your writing out there

Lisa says keep writing. That's so important. But don’t keep it to yourself – put it out there.

Lisa is a big advocate of blogging and says that if you’re interesting or a good writer, people will read you.

Blogging helped her to learn to write succinctly, in her own voice and regularly.

But there are other things you can do other than blogging. If you’re a poet, go to spoken word events. A political commentator or comedian? Twitter is a great place to test out your skills.

That's it for today! What are your thoughts?


On Thursday, find PART TWO, with Lisa's Tips #5-7.


#5 Anyone can be successful


#6 You will fail and make enormous mistakes. And that's okay.


#7 Do what you care about.


Lisa Dempster is a jack of all trades in the publishing industry. She is a vegan food writer, has worked on a contract basis for publishing companies, bought out a small press and created her very own, Vignette Press, and is currently the Director of a two week festival for writers here in Melbourne, The Emerging Writers Festival (which starts this week) as well as being a Bachelor of Writing & Publishing Lecturer at NMIT, Fairfield. Phew!