Sometimes doors open unexpectedly. Most of the time when it happens, it’s because of your network.

I just had a completely unexpected door open. As most of you know, I’ve been planning to self-publish my book: Networking and Social Media. Well, I might land a traditional publishing contract instead. There’s upsides and downsides to that, and it might not happen, but it’s exciting to explore the possibility.

While I’m eager to share that news with you, the real purpose of this post is to show how it happened and demonstrate that networking is more about giving than getting. (@BobBurg would be proud!)

This all started when I “met” a fiction author on the KindleKorner Yahoo Group. I read a couple of his books, liked them and started following him on Twitter. A few weeks ago, I saw a tweet from him that a website proposal had been accepted. I hadn’t known he was a web designer. I asked him if he had a portfolio site, and he sent me a link. I was pleased to discover that he specializes in websites for authors. The more I talk about self-publishing, the more questions I get, and having him as a resource is a good thing. By the way, check out his site (link above).

I forwarded his link to a couple of freelance writers I know. One of them mentioned she had posted it to a LinkedIn group. I asked her for the name of the group, and I joined it. I lurked for a few days and then responded to a question.

A couple of days after that, I received a connection request from a member of the group, who is also a publisher. We exchanged emails, and this morning I received an email from him asking to see my manuscript.

That’s a long way of saying that I helped a connection by promoting his work, and that led to a connection that could help me.

Will I get the contract? Maybe. Maybe not. Networking opened the door. Now the book has to stand on its merits. But no matter how it turns out, this is a success.

Tags: Giving, Referrals, social media, writing

This entry was posted on Friday, September 24th, 2010 at 10:13 am and is filed under Referrals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.