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Media Bistro: Joining The Community of Writers

Many of us writers prefer the shelter of the closeted life, pursuing our private dreams of becoming a writer and publishing worthwhile work. Active writers we may be, but invisible, out of sight – at least for that side of our lives. Even our spouses may not know about it.

Yet, when we reach for our dream of publication, print out the manuscript, lick the envelop, we need to network: to find advice about agents, to track down names of editors appropriate for our work, to receive comfort in the face of repeated rejection. We may need critiques of a difficult, yet pivotal chapter or a tangled explanation about contemporary events for the local newspaper. We may require direction in devising a marketing and promotion campaign. No longer can we hide in our closet.

In fact, it may be best that we start building our networks long before a book approaches completion or the first article is ready to be pitched to Atlantic Monthly or Budget Travel. We need to start now.

Fortunately, there’s been no better time for writers to find one another.

Back in 1992, free-lance writer Laurel Toubey felt a need to network, to brush shoulders with other writers, agents and editors in New York. She did something about it: she started organizing informal drop-in cocktail parties at mid-Manhattan bars. The circle grew, and the needs of the writing community began to clarify. Out of these parties emerged a networking center for all of us in North America: Media Bistro.

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Media Bistro was discovered by some dot-com venture capitalists and soon a thriving website was underway. Over a few years, Media Bistro grew into a small company offering services to writers around the country. Now it publishes a series of email newsletters, offers workshops in major media centers around the US or online for those farther away and lists job openings. And the parties continue, now in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, in addition to New York.

Nothing will be more helpful to you in joining the community of writers than Media Bistro.

The website pulls together an awesome range of material directed explicitly to writers – and agents and editors, by extension. Daily news reports detail publishing trends, media purchases, major appointments and departures. Feature articles offer insider tips about pitching specific magazines, insights into the world of reality TV, summaries of panel discussions about building characters in novels. Major media, as well as corporate PR offices, have discovered the website to be an excellent source of media professionals. Job listings, now numbering anywhere from 1000 to 1500 at any given moment, are posted for four weeks only, to keep the list current. Today, for example, the site lists 1655 jobs, a bumper crop.

A number of specific blogs are centered here as well. MBToolbox, for example, gathers information from readers and across the web about writing technique and tools. Links often take the reader out to other bloggers with content special for writers. Other blogs follow media news in specific cities or commentary about the state of the media.

VISIT THE WEBSITE and sign up for its free email newsletters. The Daily News e-letter [SEE sample above] puts a summary of what’s new at the website into your email box, providing links that will take you direct to whatever piece of information interests you.

You will also learn about courses and workshops offered by Media Bistro. In 2002, Taffy Brodesser-Akner was hired to develop the educational program. By 2006, Media Bistro was offering over 1000 classes a year, all with teachers currently active and productive as writers, editors or agents. Many take place in media centers around the country. Many others are offered online – no matter where you live, you have access to learning opportunities that cover a very broad range of topics, from how to write to how to manage the business aspects of writing.

When you sign up for the Media Bistro newsletter, you will be invited to join Avant Guild, a $49.00-per-year add-on that may well be worth the price to you. Some of Media Bistro’s content is reserved for Avant Guild members, such as full access to it’s How To Pitch series. Members also receive a discount on course offerings. Avant Guild also has negotiated special pricing on professional essentials such as insurance and books at Barnes & Noble.

The Revolving Door news, available online to all and by email to Avant Guard members reports on who is moving where within the publishing world. You don’t need to read it all, of course – but a brief scan puts you in touch with developments in the writing world. Or you can also visit the website and read over past articles.

One may join the Freelance Marketplace — Avant Guild members receive a discount — where one can create an online presence, complete with resume and work samples — not a bad option for a writer without his or her own website. In fact, a listing here can even draw inquiries from clients searching for your kind of skills.

If you join this community — and I guess you can tell that I highly recommend it — you will join over one million who are served each month.

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