One visitor to this blog used the title of this post as a search phrase. I’m guessing, but he or she probably is running, or plans to run, a site with more than one writer contributing. As a former publisher, editor-in-chief, and copyeditor, I’ve done my fair share of pissing writers off with my brutal copyediting. But most of them thanked me for it later. Those who didn’t probably aren’t writing anymore.

If you’re an offline publisher, you’re unlikely to have to inspire and develop writers. That’s traditionally the role of the editor-in-chief or his/her managing editor. Unfortunately, for the past 10-15 years, developing writers has not been a core part of publishing houses, whether for fiction or non-fiction. During my time as the “Books Editor” for a now-defunct bi-weekly magazine, as well as for my own “Review” magazine, I spoke to a lot of publishing house reps, all of whom told me that it was too costly to develop writers anymore.

What’s more, a few of them said that some of the best writers in the world would never be published because of the economics of publishing and the low level of interest in books. This was in 1994-95. Enter the Internet, and a revolution occurred for both readers and writers, even if some of the lattter still don’t realize it.

When the Internet went public around 1995 (not including newsgroups and Archie servers, which came out a few years previous), many famous writers still balked at having to use a word processor, preferring instead to stick with their IBM Selectrics, or even their trusty, frustrating manual typewriter.

Well, unless someone has come up with a manual typewriter with a USB cable to hook up to a computer, writers have to get with the ages and get a computer. It’s intrinsic to your career. And while you’re at it, put blogging on your agenda. I believe that blogging will develop those writers who are still building their careers.

But if you are an online publisher looking for writers to develop for your website, blog, or network, good luck. If you don’t have an editor-in-chief, you need to do that role yourself. To develop good writers, of course, you first have to be a good writer yourself. But online, you have to be a diplomat. How do you tell someone you’re only paying a few bucks per post to, to learn to be a better writer? You can only get away with pulling a Perry White (Clark Kent/ Superman’s boss) or J. Jonah Jameson (Spiderman’s boss) if you’re paying a lot per story.

You could moderate articles/ blog posts and copyedit them. But while copyediting was a relatively easy process on paper, it’s a nuisance in the digital world. It’s just faster to make the changes yourself. Do you have the time to do that? Do you have the time to develop writers?

One possible course of action is to tell writers new to your network that their writing will be moderated and edited as necessary. (Completely different than censoring.) If they cannot learn to edit themselves after being instructed how to for, say, ten or so posts, maybe they are not a writer you want. Also, as a publisher, you need to do your market research to determine what kind of writers you want. What topics do you want them to write about? Do you want them to write lots of short pieces, or fewer feature-length posts/ articles?

Don’t be afraid to guide your writers. It’s your network, and both your reputations are on the line. Or, at least you should behave as if they are. Determine what your network’s agenda really is, then draft up rules for each writer. Every print magazine worth its salt has a Writer’s Guidelines. Why should a blog network be any different?

Note: Spiderman(tm) and Superman/ Clark Kent ™ are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

(c) Copyright: 2006-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://blogspinner.countwordula.com/

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,