I saw a thing going around the other day, as happens from time to time, bemoaning the insider nature of publishing, and specifically bemoaning writer cliques, so I thought I’d address that.

First off, I hate the word clique. But that’s just because it’s a homonym and homonyms are the devil, because they remind us how ridiculous the English language is. But I’m guessing that’s not why people have an issue with them.

Cliques, or the notion of them, are scary because they prey on our fears of being left out. Publishing is filled with dark secrets, and it gives the idea that someone else–some group of someone elses–has all the answers and they’re not sharing them with anybody who doesn’t know the secret handshake. Or, alternately, that there are groups of writers going around and terrorizing the uninitiated. Which…if you’ve actually met writers, probably manifests as them standing awkwardly in a circle in the corner not talking to anybody and not really making eye contact with each other.

On the more serious side, there’s the idea that there are groups that know who the bad actors are in the industry and aren’t sharing that with the greater world, thus leaving those not in the know vulnerable. And yeah, that’s a problem in our industry. But in general, it’s not because there are evil writer groups who just don’t care about people.

Are there closed groups of writers that you don’t have access to? Absolutely. I’m in a few. And while I can’t speak for all of them, I also know others who are in groups. So as I often do, let me tell you what I know. The caveat here is that I don’t know everything, and this is just one person’s thoughts. Doesn’t mean I’m right. But you can read it and use it for what it’s worth.

I think I just have a problem with the idea that a group of people gathered together for mutual benefit is somehow hurting other people. Yeah…if you’re outside and want to be inside, it doesn’t feel great. But it doesn’t make the concept inherently evil.

1. Writer’s groups tend to be pretty quiet. I’m in a couple of them on various online platforms where someone might post something two or three times a week. Sometimes less. And often that’s someone announcing their public or soon-to-be public news. In my experience, the natural cycle of a writer’s group is something like this: Someone forms it, and gets other people to join, often for a specific reason or around a specific project or interest. There is much rejoicing. Everybody introduces themselves and there’s a lot of chatter. And a month later nobody uses it anymore.

In the ones that are more active, it tends to be more of a social thing than an industry thing most of the time. In one of my writer groups, we’re posting pictures of flowers in our yards. Really. You can’t make that up.

Just so you don’t feel left out, here’s a picture of the rose bush in front of my house.

2. The barriers to entry tend to be pretty random. To me, this speaks to the idea of exclusion–the thought that groups are specifically trying to keep people out. That has rarely been the case in my experience. Like the idea that there’s some group out there where if you could only reach this career milestone, they’d let you in…I don’t think that’s the case. Or the idea that group members are getting together and saying ‘let’s specifically exclude this person.’ (Unless you’re just a known dick. Because, well…don’t be a dick. But that would be extremely rare.)

The groups I’m in have all started one of two ways: a shared experience/identity, or you happened to know the person who decided to start a group, or someone in the group said ‘hey, this person is cool. Can we invite them in?’

a. Shared identity. I’ve seen groups formed by authors who all have the same representation. Who are published by the same publisher. Who went to the same class or retreat or program. Who are guests at the same convention. In most cases, the groups are more of a way to stay in touch than anything else. The discussion tends to be focused around topics of mutual interest. Not saying that once in a while someone won’t go into the group with a problem, or a query, but it tends to be more of a general inquiry, or a ‘does anybody know someone?’ kind of thing.

I also know of groups formed by people with specific challenges with relation to the industry. I’m not really part of any of those, but I’m glad they exist. Because the groups I am in tend to be focused mostly toward support, and who needs more support than those facing systemic challenges?

b. The groups formed by knowing someone might seem more sinister. Because it’s about who you know, right? I guess. I honestly don’t know what to say. I get how it could feel exclusive. It probably isn’t. But I get it if you don’t believe me.

3. Most of the secret stuff doesn’t have a lot of value to the general world. I think there’s this idea that secret writer groups are sharing big industry secrets and gaining advantage because they’re in the know. In reality? The big secret is often just something that you can’t say in public. Like ‘I got a shitty review, and I feel bad.’ Can a writer just go in public and say that? No. Does it help them to get it off their chest and have others say supportive things? Yes. Are you missing out because you didn’t hear it? Probably not.

It’s just stuff that people can’t say in public (or don’t want to.) Like if I’m stressed because I’m struggling to put my book together, maybe I don’t want to announce that on twitter (It’s fine if someone wants to do that, but it’s also fine if they don’t.) Or if someone wants to just rant about something in the industry. Even if it’s something that everybody knows, like mid list authors not getting much support from their publisher. Sometimes you just want to scream and have people understand and not get fifty people in your mentions that absolutely don’t understand.

4. Even within groups there are groups. There are levels of trust in anything. The smallest, most trustworthy groups I’m in consist of two people, one of those being me. And that’s the nature of groups. The less exclusive it is, the less people are going to be comfortable sharing. For me, as soon as the group is big enough where I don’t know who is reading what I’m posting, I’m not sharing nearly as much. On the other hand, I share a lot of stuff with the entire world, so maybe I’m not the best example. The point is, there’s a correlation between size, how long you’ve been in the group, and what people are willing to share. And there are different levels of information that you’re going to be willing to share with different circles. I’ve got a couple people that I’ll DM about anything, no matter how petty. But that’s a pretty exclusive group. And then another circle where I’ll share insider stuff about the industry where I wouldn’t be mortified if it got out, even though I’d rather it didn’t. And then a circle where I’d tell secret stuff that’s going to be public soon but hey, you got to hear it first. You get the point.

The bottom line on that is this: if you let everyone in, then you might as well just post on twitter.

5. So what do you want in a writing group? I’m a big believer in small groups of people at the same stage of writing. You will be in a good position to share resources and information that applies to everybody. At the same time, it’s tricky, because as it turns out, writers don’t tend to stay at the same level, and in any group you’re going to have different levels of commitment.

Ideally, you want people who are good at different things and who have different based of knowledge.

Also, these things take time and investment. Trust takes time. Not every group is going to work out for you right away. So you start with little things and it grows from there. Or it doesn’t. But even that’s okay. Because even when a group stops functioning, some sub-groups might come out of it. One more critique partner. One good contact. And then one day, you realize that all those ones add up and you’ve got your own network of people.

6. So why do these things feel so exclusive? Well maybe they are. But maybe there are good reasons for that. With writer relationships, you often get out of it what you put in. Look, maybe you’ll luck into a group where everyone knows more than you and they’re willing to share and just let you be a sponge. But probably not. Because everyone there wants to get something from it.

For example, for me, it’s really useful to be in groups with other writers published by the big 5. Which, on the surface, sounds pretty snooty, right? Ooh, look at me, I only hang out with traditionally published authors. Aren’t I special? But when you dive into why then it’s not nearly as sinister. I’m published by Harper Voyager. It’s really useful to me to talk to an author published by, say, Tor, and be able to say ‘hey, here’s what my publisher does here, and I think it’s weird. What does yours do?’ And we both learn something from that. And I get that someone else, say a querying author, might love to hear that discussion, because it’s kind of cool to know stuff about your business, but what are they really going to do with the information? And at the same time, what are they going to add to the conversation?

And I get how that feels exclusive. Because look at me, excluding authors who aren’t as successful as I am. Except I wasn’t part of a group like that when I was querying. I was in groups with other querying writers (and, BTW, am still in those groups in some cases, where some of us have been published and some haven’t. But it’s more of a social thing at this point.)

7. So where do I find my own group? I didn’t start this post to be an instructional manual, but I do feel like I have to address this obvious question. Even though I don’t really know. My advice would be to put yourself in online spaces with other authors at similar places in their careers. Join existing groups, even if they’re huge, and interact. Make a couple of contacts. I’m not saying to go out and share all your secrets with them. But you can share a ton of stuff that’s not secret at all. “Hey, here’s this cool resource I read about querying, and I think it makes sense. What do you think?”

Reach out. That’s the hard thing, right? I guarantee you if you’re on twitter and you’re a debut author/agented author on sub/querying author/beginning author that you’ve met people at a similar stage as you and the only reason you don’t know it is because neither of you made the first move. Because it’s scary, right? What if they reject me?

They will. Sometimes. Not every connection you make is going to be a good one. But if you try ten times and after a time you’ve make three good contacts, that’s a win. But I think it’s easy to get focused on the seven that didn’t work out.

To make it easier, put yourself into places where those kinds of discussions are happening. Go to forums of people who are all querying. Join your debut group. Reach out to people who share your agent. Wherever you are in the business, there are other people like you. Most of them are looking for connections too. You’ll be surprised how often it works out. Or, more accurately, you’ll at least be surprised how often it’s not horrible. And if it’s meh, well, we can all live with a bit of meh if we have to.

At this point, I’ve kind of lost the bubble on what it is I was trying to say and I have a novel to finish. So I’m going to end it here, but do feel free to discuss things in the comments.

Tags: Writer cliques, Writers groups