Tip: Name-Dropping, Its Practical Uses

Blogging a little less frequently this week as house and schedule are in a bit of an uproar. My husband, as I may have mentioned, is an independent filmmaker currently shooting a "no-budget" (the new "low-budget") vampire flick. Spent all Sunday dressed as a Goth in a club scene. Went pretty well except we think that three of the extras who showed up, the ones no one else knew, stole the club owner's penis-shaped ashtray, which we feel pretty bad about. Hanging around movie sets is one of those things that sounds very jet-setty but, as anyone who ever does it knows, is actually amazingly tedious. As my husband's favorite film teacher, Larry Clark at SF State, once said, "Making a movie is as glamorous as changing a tire." And sometimes there's no jack.

But anyway.

I wanted to talk about name-dropping as a help to new writers, especially in query letters. Believe it or not, and whether or not it's fair, a judicious amount of quiet, unpretentious name-dropping can indeed make you stand out from the crowd as literary reviews, zines, publishers, and agents look over your work, trying to find a reason to look at your stuff instead of the other ninety-nine unsolicited manuscripts on their desks. A lot of gratuitous self-aggrandizing won't help, but there's an acceptable way to drop names.

Go though these questions and see if you can come up with any names: What writing classes have you taken? Were any of your teachers published writers? (Usually they are.) Have you attended any seminars taught by published writers? Have you had a friendly connection with any published writers at readings, conferences, or via email?

Okay. Do you have at least a couple of names now? In your query letters, where you would list any credentials you have (don't worry if you don't have any yet and these names you're about to drop are it) put down that you have studied with [insert the names of the writers whose classes or seminars you have taken]. Put the titles, publishers, and years of their books in parenthesis after their names. For example,

I've studied with Author Bigname (The Best Book in the World, Simon & Schuster, 2003).

This can be helpful wherever you're trying to get published: agent, short-story mag, publisher, whatever. It just lets them know that you have something of a professional background and know some people in the industry.

Now then, how about any friendly connections with other authors? Publishers and agents are interested in who might give your proposed project a blurb (literary reviews, magazines, and zines won't be interested in that, so don't bother with this where they're concerned). So, you might write, "I believe I could get an endorsement for My Book from Author Bigname, who has been very encouraging of my writing." No one will sue you if Author Bigname decides not to blurb you should it come to the point (and in point of fact many authors try to help each other out this way).

None of this will guarantee that you will get published. But anything that shows your commitment, seriousness, and involvement in the writing/publishing world helps.

As always, good luck!