Please.
Collectively – just shut up, and think about what you want to say. Just take a second.
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Thanks. This greatly improves our chances of connecting in a meaningful way.
I recently saw a writer jump into a very tech-savvy crowd and pitch a very low-level eBook. Worse, the writer used an inanely simplistic marketing method. “Buy this color-by-numbers book, because I say I am a writer.”
This crowd and their normal discussions of online marketing were light years beyond this pitch. If it had not received the wall of indifference it ran into, this pitch may have easily been seen as a little insulting.
But the pros there did not say a thing about it.
Like a tiny fart on the breeze, this pitch was unwanted, ignored, and quickly forgotten.
Oops
The young writer unknowingly torched their own cornfield here. An inability to shut up about the obvious became the lasting impression only because this writer did not take the time to accurately understand the landscape.
Not only were no eBooks sold, but this connection was burned to the ground for this unknowing young writer because these tech-savvy folks remember bad pitches as much or more than they remember good ones. No contracts, no contacts, no progress.
Wasted spend all around, mainly because this rookie was too green to realize the useless e-book they were (re)selling was more-or-less the repackaged ideas of the very people being sold to here.
Ooops.
If you are new to the trade, chances are good you should probably shut up for a while. Same goes when you are brand new to a forum, group or association.
Read more, do some homework, and develop an understanding before you pose question one. Before you freak on that one, let me clarify.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, even if they are unorthodox – logical questions quickly rise to the top of conversations, and for good reason. Good questions can literally build good communities.
But these are always good questions, asked after diving into the deep end once or twice to find your own pearls.
Break a few of your own eggs before you start demanding omlettes from others.
Don’t go into a new place, and just start yelling, or pitching, or spewing. Go in, feel it out, and take time to understand the natural flow. In this way, when you ask a question or offer a pitch, you are adding to what is happening, not impeding it.
Shutting-up for a minute helps.
And don’t underestimate the true reach of your online neighborhood. Anonymous nicknames can hide lots.
Just saying. This poor young writer has no idea how much potential was pooped on here.
Shutting up for just a minute first may have meant the difference – turning this lesson into a different one entirely.
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