How to use this Page

Only lenders make a profit from loaning out any product. Most of the time, the product is money. As we know, borrowers have to pay a loan back, with interest.

Oddly, within the writing biz, that rule doesn’t apply. Each day thousands of writers borrow from each other, with permission. The lender, many times, gains only satisfaction from knowing that something they have learned has gone on to someone else. The process is a kind of benevolent Round Robin.

It works something like this:

I learn about a new market opening up to submission that had previously been agented manuscripts only. (Where did I learn it? The publisher will have sent out a notification to various media sources.) I send out the word to all of those writers I personally deal with on a regular basis. Those writers post the info for all of their followers to use or not. And so on down the line.

Writers use blogs, Twitter, Google +, Facebook, She Writes Network, BlogHer Network, Jacketflap Network, Branch Out Network, LinkedIn Network, and several others to form our circles. We talk to each other, giving and receiving information daily. Anyone who wants such info can download it, save it, use it, and/or pass it on. It wouldn’t be presumptuous to expect it to blanket the globe in a matter of hours.

Writers are an info-hungry group of people and we’re everywhere.

Providing Information for Free

The reason we perform this service for each other is simple. We know how difficult this business is to establish a career. At the same time the work can get frenzied to maintain such a career. No one outside the writing circle can really help any of us, unless that help comes in the form of a commission of some kind or additional information.

By communicating with one another, writers pass information around like bon bons. Little markets today can springboard a career next year. We remember those who’ve kindly passed on publishing info, and we reciprocate.

We promote each other with contests and giveaways, all in an effort to help another writer to broaden the audience pool for a new book or blog. We share information to ensure that everyone is on the same playing field. I’ve met very few greedy or selfish writers, but I can’t begin to count those who’ll share their last market with someone who’s run into a seemingly insurmountable genre wall.

Also, we’re an eager bunch concerning solicited and unsolicited assistance or advice about regarding the craft or marketing. We feel one another’s rejection pangs and celebrate successful submissions. We care about how others’ writing lives are going.

Borrowing and Lending

With tens of thousands of us out there, one would think that we’d overload the consumer ability to read the volumes written on any given subject. After all, we roam freely in the world, passing around all of this information. That’s the beauty of this business.

Communications research has shown that regardless of how strenuously a person tries to pass on a bit of information, misinterpretation and impaired hearing will change that info from one person to the next. The same holds true for writers but with a twist. Writers are individuals wh