Being Professional -- Marc Z Jeffrey

Photo by Oli Dale on Unsplash

Professional. It is a word we hear all the time: ‘He has turned professional. She needs to be more professional.’ The word has several nuances of meaning. Macquarie Dictionary (MacMillan Publishers Australia, 2021) lists ten. Three are: 

a) ‘someone who makes a business of an occupation etc., especially of an art or sport, in which amateurs engage for amusement or recreation,’ (noun), 

b) ‘following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain,’ (adjective), and 

c) ‘as would be done by a professional; expert,’ (adjective).

So, you want to make money from your writing; or have at least toyed with the idea? No? Then, am I right you want to communicate with your intended audience; you want to honour God, who put the desire to write within you? You want to do it well? Produce something that would please a professional? Then read on.

Being professional gives us credibility in a world that can devalue creativity. For a nation that loves story, Australians can sure be critical of those creating them. The statement, ‘You need to be more professional,’ may mask bias. Many writers and artists, especially those who are trying to make a living through their art, battle stigma. There is a prevailing attitude that unless someone traditionally employs you for what you are doing, then you are wasting your time. Income derived from what has the look of hard work can give much status. But doing a lot where there is no clear connection between effort and financial reward can appear ‘wasteful.’

Now, shake the negative stuff off. What does a professional writer do that distinguishes them from one writing purely for fun or personal fulfilment? What do we need to consider?

In summary, to be professional, we need to research the market, understand our readers, and be engaged with the writing community – which all helps us surf change whenever that’s needed.

First, a professional writer researches the market. The writer needs to understand what readers want and don’t want to read, as well as how and where they choose to access content. We might work our fingerprints off to create; but building our knowledge of marketing is just as important. How and when we sell or distribute our works is as important as the writing and editing them. Being able to judge whether it is time to reinvent how we are promoting ourselves rings true whether you have an agent or are self-publishing.

Second, if we explicitly or implicitly promise a reader something, we need to deliver. That might be as simple as not using cover art that suggests the content is a thriller, when you’ve written a romance. It damages our brand if we fail; and it could scuttle our business. A professional knows how to create an expectation and knows how to deliver on it. If we give the customer over and above what they expect, they are more likely to come back. 

Finally, writing can be a solitary occupation, but if you are a writer, you are a part of a community of people. Christian Writers Downunder is such a community. You can find us on Facebook or via this ‘blog spot’. 

Professional people take time to build their brands. Sharing knowledge is brand central for writers and creators. If you need to make a change in what you are doing, a little knowledge is invaluable in getting it right, so share yours. Sharing knowledge is not giving away trade secrets, it’s sharing what you know and what you have learnt. Knowledge is like the ocean, an open resource of facts; what you are doing is drawing attention to what you’ve found helpful in that ocean. 

Photo by Avi Richards on Unsplash

So, if you want to write for a living, or supplement your other job by writing, or just have fun with your words — then be professional because God calls us to be excellent in all that we do. That is: research the market and understand your readers, deliver on what you promise and engage with your community. Have a clear, well-thought-out plan of action and execute it. When things don’t work, rethink, pray. Then try again.

Marc Jeffrey is an Adelaide-based author and poet who loves to craft words in times when his beautiful wife and lively dog (Shih tzu cross Chihuahua) are asleep. He writes of hope and justice, depositing his characters in the nexus between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what if’ – while wondering if he can leave the house without waking anyone up. 

He is long-time member of the ‘Literati’ writing group, that grew out of the Tabor Adelaide Creative Writing program. When he’s not writing, Marc listens to his favourite music, which ranges from Cold Chisel to Claude Debussy

Pot-pourri books

I've had the privilege of reading some unpublished manuscripts and writing reports on them for their authors. A couple of outstanding ones have come my way, full of whimsical, incredible originality combined with the sort of plot I'd imagine only dreams are made of. They shine with the outstanding and unexpected on almost every page. Such stories are clearly inspired because nobody else could possibly have written them.

When I ponder what I know about the public as an entity, I wonder, if these stories were published, how would they fare in the big wide world? Would they be received well by the masses in general? We live in a world in which some publishers even give perspective authors formulas as required reading because they fill such a niche in the market and know what they want to sell.

An editor once asked me what genre a manuscript of mine was, because she'd got a few chapters into it and couldn't tell. "Is it inspirational, sweet romance, adventure, chit-lit, family saga or what?" She said it was important that I tell her as the knowledge would influence the way she approached the editing. And I couldn't really tell myself. I simply wrote a story that appealed to me. I thought it a pity there is no genre called pot-pourri but it's easy to understand the reason there isn't. Many readers don't want to risk pot luck when it comes to spending their hard-earned money on books.

I've heard of authors writing stories out of their established 'genres', receiving flak from their fan bases and suffering in resulting sales. It seems the only viable option for these writers may be to consider using pseudonyms for certain projects.

My pot-pourri manuscript was eventually worked on by another editor who enjoyed all the disparate elements. It was published as A Design of Gold and its cover was once featured on a romance double page of a Koorong catalogue. I flinched when I saw it there because it is definitely not pure romance and looked odd among all the covers and blurbs of books that were. My kids even laughed at me and I gloomily predicted, "I don't think many will sell." I turned out to be right.

So what is the phenomenon we have? Sometimes I think of it as the "McDonalds" system of marketing books. Many people want to feel safe. They like the predictability of knowing exactly what they can expect when they buy a burger or a book. That's why I've come across many blurbs like the following.

Mary-Belle is contentedly preparing for her wedding to small town lawyer, Tim, when the brash and rude town-planner Hugo sweeps into her peaceful, rural life, determined to raise a civic shopping centre. As she fights him on this, mayhem ensues. Could the brusque villain really be nursing a broken heart? 

Have you read that book before? Well, in one way, it's impossible because I just made up that blurb now. On the other hand, yes, you have, if you're coming from the, "seen one, seen 'em all" perspective. My Design of Gold was up against several similar blurbs to this. Would you feel tempted to read about Mary-Belle and Hugo based on that blurb? I'm sure many people would, in the same way they like to grab a chicken fillet meal deal at the end of a long day. We're worn out and we know we'll get to see the pompous guy with attitude eventually kiss the sassy girl with the perfect figure.

What happens if readers think what you're offering may appear a bit unpredictable at first sight? That, I believe, is one of the things I've struggled with over time, although I wouldn't change it for the world. My books are sort of eclectic with bits from all sorts of sources. Just like real life itself, I like to think my stories have body, flavour and offer a substantial feast.

Do they suffer in sales from being hard to squeeze into cut-and-dried genres? Yes, probably. I call my books 'contemporary dramas' as pot-pourri books would probably get raised eyebrows, and I add that there are elements of romance, mystery and suspense. They aren't totally off-the-wall, like going to a smorgasbord restaurant with goulash, meat pies, pavlovas, mi-goreng, baked trout, chocolate mousse and a Sunday roast all offered on the same table. That would be like having vampires in a time machine suddenly appearing in the middle of your Amish community to whisk Jacob and Rachel away just as they're about to have their first kiss. My books aren't that weird.

But would I struggle to write a novel according to a formula to fit squarely into a defined genre on the off-chance of more success? No, I honestly think that would take the heart out of writing for me. I prefer to keep doing what I've been doing because they have to reflect me and have lifeblood in their veins. Some readers can do that within the confines of definite genres and I think they're lucky, but I prefer to plod on, perhaps making pot-pourri drama romances my own particular brand for the sort of reader who may consider trying something like cayenne pepper in their hot chocolate and discovering that it goes together really nicely.

Paula Vince is an award-winning author and homeschooling mother who lives in South Australia's Adelaide Hills, a beautiful spot for inspiration. Her novel, Best Forgotten, won the 2011 CALEB prize for fiction and Picking up the Pieces won the 2011 International Book Award in the religious fiction category. She believes a well-written story has a way of igniting the imagination like nothing else.

Aiming to deliver excellence

Last week, I took my daughter, mother and sister to a local cafe. I don't often eat out but this was a special occasion, because my sister was visiting all the way down from Cairns and even my mum hadn't been up into the Adelaide Hills to visit me for several years. We wanted to give them a good day out.

Our cafe experience began well. My mum and sister had frothy lattes and cappucinos brought out piping hot and straight away. I suggested to Emma, my daughter, that we ought to start using the cafe's vouchers whenever we find them in our letter-box, as it was such a lovely place.

However, time began to drag. The hot drinks were finished and still they hadn't brought out my soup or the bowl of wedges we'd ordered. Eventually, my sister went over to remind them. In another ten minutes, we had our wedges, which were obviously the type tipped straight from a plastic bag and deep fried. The question, "What took them so long?" hung between us. They obviously didn't have to peel the potatoes.

There was still no sign of my bowl of soup. We'd finished the wedges. My sister and daughter decided to keep shopping. I went up to the counter and the girl cried out over her shoulder, "Yeah, your soup's coming," in a flustered manner. At long last, they brought out a shallow, luke-warm bowl. I decided it was just OK. Perhaps if I'd had it as a starter before the potato wedges, when soup is meant to be enjoyed, I might have said it was yummy. I guess the cafe thought they'd delivered what we'd ordered but by the time I left, my mind had done a sharp turn-around. I won't be going back there again, no matter how many vouchers they shove in my mail. They didn't realize they'd lost a potential regular customer.

I am well aware that the same thing can happen to authors of books. Readers, like customers, have put aside valuable time with the hope of enjoying what we have to offer. They deserve for their reading experience to be as great as it possibly can. When I write a novel, I like to think of it as a 'service' as well as a 'good.' I know that if it's slipshod and rough around the edges, readers have a perfect right to say, "I'm never going to read anything else by her." Knowing that a lot of the excellence is in the finishing touches, I try to do the following.

* Go through paragraphs to make sure I don't use the same word more than once in the same cluster of sentences. If I can't think of an alternative word, I get out my Thesaurus to find one. It's worth the extra time taken.
* Make sure there are no unnecessary tags such as, 'he said' or 'she asked' when it's obvious from the context who is talking.
* Carefully evaluate every sentence to make sure the story actually requires it to help carry it along. If it doesn't, out it goes. In writing, less is definitely more.
* Weed out extraneous words such as most adverbs, and also lots of waffle such as, "When he got out of bed..." or "he nodded his head" (what else would he nod?)
* Change the syntax every so often, when the order or arrangement of words in sentences may make even the slightest difference. Even in this blog post, I changed, "perhaps if I'd had it before the potato wedges as a starter when soup is meant to be enjoyed" to "perhaps if I'd it as a starter before the potato wedges, when soup is meant to be enjoyed." Isn't that just being pedantic? No, I really think such fine tuning makes a difference to the reading experience.
* Try to make sure not too much about a character is being revealed before it should.
* When it comes to descriptions, use all five senses wherever possible without making the slabs thick enough to disrupt the flow of the story.
* Make sure an editor gives it another thorough going-over (and if I've done all the above, which is really only the tip of the ice berg, I know editors and publishers appreciate it.)

I'm sure I could think of more, but that's enough for the point I'm making today. None of us want to be perfectionists, as we can't be perfect anyway. There are always things in a manuscript we may miss, but this cafe experience reminded me how important it is when we commit ourselves to writing with an attitude of pursuing excellence. When I say that I want my readers to get the enjoyable reading experience they hope for, I really mean it. There have been many half-hearted people who say that they'd love to read my books but never get around to it. When people actually do choose to invest the time, I want to do all in my power to make sure they won't regret it.

Paula Vince is the award-winning author of 7 novels. She is a homeschooling mother who lives in the beautiful Adelaide Hills with her husband and three children.