A Guy for Everything
The last time I went to visit my parents, my dad very kindly sent me home with ten pounds of frozen meat.
"I bought a cow from my meat guy," he said.
I raised an eyebrow, watching him pack me a giant cooler bag of ground beef. "Your meat guy?"
"Yeah, my meat guy," he repeated.
My dad has a guy for everything.
Whenever my dad has an issue with his laptop, he takes it to his computer guy in town.
He has a gas guy for all his propane needs.
He has a car guy for whenever his vehicle needs work he doesn't want to do himself. Car Guy is not to be confused with Tire Guy, though.
Oh, and just in case you were wondering, these people are listed in his phone not by their real names, but as Meat Guy, Computer Guy, Gas Guy, and so on.
My dad has a guy for everything.
Personally, I have... zero guys.
I don't have a specific guy that I buy meat from at the deli. My computer gets fixed by the (un)kind people of Best Buy, my car gets taken to whatever mechanic near me whose waiting room has the best coffee, and that mechanic is likely also the one who installs my tires. I don't have a guy; I have Google.
When I decided to launch Dorlisa Frank Editorial, though, I started questioning my methods.
Every single freelancer I've ever talked to has one piece of advice: Network.
"Network, network, network," they say. "Reach out to your author friends! Add everyone you know who works in publishing on LinkedIn! Have your marketing guy optimize your SEO!"
I'm sorry, but I don't really have a guy for any of that.
I don't have any friends who do what I do, all the people I know who have written books already have copyeditors they like working with, and I'm my own marketing guy.
Recently, I asked my dad how he managed to get a guy for everything.
He answered, "The longer you do somethin', the more people you meet. I've been around a long time."
That, to me, is a much better answer than "network." My dad acknowledges that he has so many guys because he's had the time to collect them. He didn't start out with a guy for everything; he's spent over 50 years acquiring them.
I think seasoned freelancers who offer a generic "networking" answer as their best piece of advice come from one of two places: privilege or age.
I'm not blessed enough to have a whole network of authors just waiting for me to message them on LinkedIn. I don't come from a place where people write books—hell, I don't even come from a place where people read books. I don't have the luxury of having a built-in guy for any of this.
Also, I'm only in my twenties. Editors who have been in the business for a long time often forget what it was like when they were first starting out. When asked, they often mention that they had a tough time finding jobs and that money was tight for a long time, but they never seem to remember precisely how they got that to change for themselves.
"Networking," they say.
I'm sorry, but that's just not a good enough answer. Network with whom, exactly? Who did you reach out to? Did your friend have a friend? Did you just have a guy? Where'd you get them? Can you find me one? I am begging you to be specific.
It seems it's human nature to remember the problems but forget the solutions.
That said, I'm working really hard on finding some guys of my own. (For the record, I use "guys" as a gender-neutral identifier. You'll notice I also refer to myself as a guy somewhere in this post.) I'm enrolled in a certificate program through UCLA that is introducing me to all kinds of up-and-coming freelance copyeditors, as well as seasoned professionals. I've been able to make a couple of connections through that program.
Additionally, the Editorial Freelancers Association is an incredible organization with indispensable resources for freelance editors.
Also, I've been using Instagram as a networking platform. I've been following hashtags that are relevant to my work, then sending a DM to indie authors I find, offering my services. This method is not fool-proof, of course, but I've had some moderate success with it.
In this day and age, networking can't just be calling everyone you already know and passing out business cards at church. Networking must be done intentionally, patiently, and constantly.
For those of you reading this who don't have a guy, you're not alone. We all start somewhere. For some of us, we just happen to have to start at the bottom.
But so did my dad. Now look at him: He's got a guy for everything.
What are some specific ways you networked when you first started freelancing?