Gordon Burgett's Blog

Why you should thank the writer of a great article…

It dawned on me yesterday that I’m as bad as they get about thanking other writers for articles they wrote that are great, or made me laugh out loud, or changed my life or others’ lives. So I’m reminding myself with this blog, and you, if you are eager for an unsought reminder.

A pinch of background. I’ve given “writing” seminars for about 25 years, but really “how to sell your freelance writing” is the core theme. (After all, if you can’t write, that’s one thing, but if you can write but can’t sell, that’s much worse. It can be rectified.) One of the most frequent questions I get at the seminars is “How many people reading your article write back? What do they say?”

Maybe what I send out is awful, but with 1700+ articles and 41 books somewhere in print, I figure I’ve had 100 letters or enotes in total, and about 25% of those ask if I’m that guy who went to XXX grade school (or high school) with them…” There must be a lot of Gordon Burgetts around (the national white book lists six, and I’ve only ever met one) because only about five were actually former schoolmates. Most of the remaining 75 or so lightly praised the article in question (there could never be enough praise for it to be “heavily.”) Mostly, they asked about a fact or a person mentioned. In other words, you can die of anonymity writing either lousy or awesome printed prose!

I encourage you to write to those article authors who make a difference in your life not because I or they want pen pals, God forbid, but because it’s a good way to make friends, get more good articles written by encouraged authors, keep the Post Office open, and because it’s just the right thing to do, like not spitting in a crowd, holding a door open for a person trucking a huge box, and telling your wife how good she looks in that get up. (Why not cc: a copy to the editor as well?)

Apropos, I read an article about “book selling to teachers by Skype” yesterday in the IBPA Independent, and it was precisely what some of my firm’s K-12 authors needed to know so they don’t have to drive to every hamlet in the Midwest to “save” the administrators and teachers. I wrote Barbara Techel a short thank-you email and explained why I was grateful. (Which reminds me of another reason why we should all do more of that: it makes us feel righteous!)

I was so stoked I then added some thank-you notes in an email to a super editor who not only uses my ramblings, she edits them up so even I want to write myself reams of undeserved praise. In fact (sort of), I did just that. I wrote myself a long, effusive enote of salutations and obrigados that was so supportive it, in turn, started me writing a flowing letter of gratitude to Christopher Hitchens about his book Arguably Essays–until I remembered that he was dead.

Let me close with another strong reason for writing and thanking good writers, particularly if you are a fellow byte-jockey. How many times have I zeroed in on a new idea or a provocative fact from which I could build a super article? Most of the time. And what I’ve found is that writers are, almost without exception, very generous sharing sources or extra information about something they already liked enough to write about. With my question always comes a deserved pinch of praise, since they stirred my usually idling curiosity enough to ask. Naturally I start my query by telling them that I particularly liked the example used (or invented), a process explained, or the quote from so-and-so (so-and-so is also my favorite interviewee). That’s two reasons in one.

And that’s enough. On behalf of the lowly underpaid servant of the pen sharing, perhaps inadvertently, sterling or catchy prose, I thank you.

Best wishes,

Gordon Burgett

P.S. If you’re in/near Santa Rosa, CA, the afternoon of 2/25/12, I’m offering yet another of those “writing seminars”: “Writing Travel Articles That Sell!”– (707) 527-4372. If not, my book the Travel Writer’s Guide pretty much explains what you are missing, minus a few jokes.

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Is your book almost finished but it needs a final, last-step professional review by a no-nonsense editor with 40 books in print and 30+ years in publishing? That's what I mostly do, plus run a publishing company. Email, call, or check this link for details. Other things: my website, a free monthly newsletter, bio, and my latest book, How to Get Your Book Published Free in Minutes and Published Worldwide in Days. Also, daily tweets as GLeeBurgett and other social networking links at about.me.

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