“Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”
- Maria, “The Sound of Music.”
When you’re new to going fan to pro, the difference that will make you or break you is how you see yourself. Sure, you’re new to the game. You don’t have all the experience you need. But you DO have the talent, the brains, and the ambition, and if you deny that, you’ll never make it.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to be humble and accept that you’ve got a long way to go. However, you ARE on your way, and you shouldn’t confuse that with settling down and watching others from the starting line. Don’t pass up opportunities because you’re not “there” yet.
Just because you haven’t “made it” yet, it doesn’t mean you’re in a separate league of wannabes. Anyone who has ever really made something of themselves started from Step One.
If you are serious about making your hobby into a career, then the first aspect to make the transition needs to be your attitude. Don’t act like a wannabe. Don’t call yourself a n00b. It can seem hard when you’re self-taught, not getting paid, and not as skilled as the professionals, but that’s how everyone starts. Everyone goes through this phase, and what separates the profans from the wannabes is the will to take it to the next level. Make a consistent effort to improve. Promote yourself like you know what you’re doing. Call yourself a pro.
Here’s a mistake I, as a writer, used to make. I called myself “an aspiring writer.” Kiss of death. If you ever open a query letter with “as an aspiring writer…” you’re basically saying “I’m a n00b!” Don’t call yourself a n00b. “Writer” will do. Okay, so I’m not a writer of J.K. Rowling’s status. Neither was J.K. Rowling, until the first Harry Potter book came out. I don’t know if my books are ever going to be as popular as that, but I’m dropping the word “aspiring” to give them a fighting chance.
In an age of on-demand publishing and the world at our fingertips, everybody and their cousin can create something and get it out there. It’s attitude that sets the progeeks apart from the hobbyists. Well, that and money, but you’re not going to earn any money if you don’t present yourself and your creations professionally (see next week’s post).
If you call your passion a hobby or a timekiller, then that’s all it will be. Call it a job, and you’re going somewhere. That’s the thing about defining your own career: it begins when you say it does. There’s your message. “I am a professional ___[what you want to be]___.”
Acknowledging yourself as a pro is Step One. Step Two is convincing everyone else, and that’s the subject of my next post. Until then, drop “n00b” and its synonyms from your vocabulary.
-Tamara Hecht