Blogger: Rachel Kent
It’s important to keep up a writing resume. If you don’t keep track of what is going on in your writing career right when it happens, back-tracking will be very difficult. Having an up-to-date resume will help you put together proposals, show the strength of your platform, and may also help you get speaking/teaching engagements. Here are some of the items to keep track of on your writing resume:
Awards: Many Books & Such clients are up for awards this year. We have Genesis semi-finalists, Christy finalists, Inspy finalists, Christian Book Award finalists and many others. (We are very proud!) When you receive notification that you are a semi-finalist, finalist, or winner be sure to add that to your resume. This goes for writing contests, too. If you’ve been awarded any honor for your writing, be sure to keep track of it.
Conferences: Another part of your resume should be conferences attended. It’s a great idea to show on your resume how you are continuing to grow as a writer by attending conferences and learning from experienced writers and marketers.
Speaking: Keep track of your speaking engagements, too. Be sure to get down the date of the event, the location, the topic you spoke on, and approximately how many people were in the audience. If you’ve taught at conferences, keep track of those events as well.
Books/Articles published: Keep track of all of your published works. When and where did your published work appear? If you’ve written an article, what is the readership of the magazine? If you’ve written a book, keep track of how many copies have been sold.
Subscriptions/Memberships: Are you a member of RWA, ACFW, CWG, SCBWI, a critique group, or do you subscribe to something like Mike Hyatt’s online platform university? Be sure to keep track of these items and put the start and end dates of your involvement.
I hope you all have been keeping good track of your writing profiles on your resumes! I know that I haven’t kept track of my speaking engagements and conferences. If I were to put together my “agent resume” it would take me weeks at this point, and I’m sure I would forget to include important items.
If you have a writing resume already, what other types of things do you put on it?
How have you done with keeping track of your writing profile?
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I have much of that information in my proposal and some of it on my regular resume, but I don’t have a seperate writing specific resume. I’ll have to work on compiling all that information. Who might ask for a resume instead of just a proposal? Thanks for the list! Great post, Rachel!
People won’t necessarily ask for your writing resume, but they might want to know what you’ve been doing to build your platform, or what kind of speaking experience you have and if you have this information all together you are ready to go.
Until a few weeks ago, I didn’t have a writing résumé for the simple fact that except for subscribing to ACFW, there was nothing to put on it. Then I semi finaled twice in the Genesis contest. I wrote up an author bio for the Seekerville blog’s perfect pitch contest as part of my proposal, in which I included my contest results. So does that constitute a résumé? Do I need to write up something new?
The resume is really for your own benefit so you can quickly pull these details together for a proposal or for a marketing meeting. It sounds like you have some exciting things to add to yours!
These are great things to keep in mind, Rachel. I have this written down, but not in a formal place. I need to do this. I appreciate the tip for planning ahead so when I need the info and the resumé, I’ve got it.
Thank you for this!
A question – are writers’ resumes now ‘virtual’, with live links to works and references available on line?
When I had to maintain an academic resume, there were a few procedures I used that might be useful
* Uncluttered design and font; make it easy to read
* Logical and consistent organization – clear category headers with the important information placed first. For me it was
Name and address
Current position
Education
Professional memberships
Awards & Honors
Current research (with funding source)
Current teaching
Current school & community service work
Past research
Summary of teaching experience
Past school & community service work
Journal papers
Conference papers and proceedings
Conference presentations
Technical reports
* Be concise, not chatty
* Update as things ‘happen’
* Have a ‘one-sheet’ version that hits the highlights; my academic resume eventually ran to eleven pages, single-spaced. A bit cumbersome.
* Include an attractive picture; I used Brad Pitt’s.
Where pertinent, I pit links in mine–particularly to blog posts, YouTube videos and important interviews.
Brad Pitt?
Oh come on, just use one of the photos from the first wedding. B had them on FB a few days ago. You look…cleaned up! And, you’re googly eyed and in a tux, dude, seriously. Okay, maybe not the googly eye one.
That WAS Brad. He was my photo stand-in.
A. Sock. In it. Put.
Will Smith was busy that week.
Bursts out laughing…
I have seen proposals with links, but I don’t think going virtual is necessary.
🙂 Brad Pitt does take good pictures.
Rachel, I was encouraged to do this when I first started writing. Since I have many under my belt now and mostly write for one magazine, for a proposal, should I list the “number” of articles only, specifying “cover stories” or ones on my book topic?
I keep track of payment for tax purposes.
And I’m thankful for this post … I need to update my resume for this year. I keep a spiral notebook with each contract and a copy of the article attached, making it easy to look back and update. Thank you for the reminder.
Spiral notebook? I googled it, but couldn’t find where you can download that app.
Andrew, you made me have to eat my cereal fast so I could comment! Ha! Spiral … old school … hard habit to break, I guess! Computer updates are to keep one from having to keep the spiral … but I go backwards! I fell into a “Pitt” and can’t climb out! 🙂 The paper contracts … what do you do with them? Scan them so you can toss them?
Hahaha! 🙂 You are all too funny!
I hear that people scan and toss…I put ’em into old dog biscuit boxes, and then forget about them.
So they had the biscuit, eh?
Seriously, the scan and toss idea does have a flaw, and that is the possible impermanence of digital media.
I had a ‘good’ external HD go down, and it took some irreplaceable stuff with it. Backing up in two or more places is vital, but I do try to keep hard copies of everything important.
Right. I just don’t 100% trust computers. Or back-ups. Horrible, I know! 🙂 I just finished an article recently using my new laptop … my desktop had a good back-up … but this laptop doesn’t. I was thinking I need to email the finished article to myself till I can get a better back-up plan for the laptop. Well, I do have the “cloud” on the new laptop … but I’ve heard there is limited storage there. Guess I should use it until it tells me it is full. 🙂
Shelli, I have two email accounts and I also had cloud storage, I frequently email files of my work to both emails and up into the cloud. Which does NOT sound secure to me, just sayin’.
I know … in the “clouds” doesn’t sound too secure. Dissipate. 🙂
I keep each and every hard copy of anything important. I even keep expired passports, just in case I need one. (H is for hoard) But, if I lose my current one, I can take my old one to the passport office and prove I’m who I say I am.
I have my one and only, actual, real live contract safely tucked away in a cabinet that is solely for writing stuff.
Jennifer, I’m glad I’m not the only one! Just in case!!
Shared brilliance across the miles!!
Or perhaps prudence across the prairie?
Hmmm…good title for a historical romance….
Prudence Across The Prairie…
Ha ha! “Prudence Across the Prairie!” That works for me!
Shelli, I think you should keep track of everything. You can pick out relevant articles to include in one proposal or another, but if you have all of the information already ready to go it will be easier to sort through it when you need to.
Rachel, like many others I started out with a detailed writing resume, but I have to admit that for the past three years or so I’ve let it slide. Your post stimulated me to bring it up to date and put it in much more usable form.
Thanks for the reminder.
You are very welcome!
Great ideas. I’ve been wondering whether conference attendances are important for inclusion on proposals. Now you’ve cleared that up for me. Thanks!
I think it’s great that conferences count. I haven’t been to one yet. But they are a huge financial investment … reason I haven’t been to one coupled with timing. It should count!!
For me too, Angela. 🙂 I guess, especially for those of us who are pre-pubbed, anything we can use is helpful, right? 🙂
Rachel, one thing I have learned by being part of the B&S Blog, is that there are many things we can do to be “better”. If we are diligent and put time and effort in our presentation, we increase our chances of being published immensely. Thanks for all your help.
There are so many things we can improve on. This is one I really need to work on for myself, too!
My thing is, I went decades in between anything resume-ish…although I have done things worthy of some kind of credit. And those adventures helped shape my writing, so they’re in the biography part of my proposal.
I have yet to actually be asked to speak anywhere, although I’m quite willing to do so. Which is weird. I can stand up as Jennifer Major, Missionary, or Jennifer Major, Writer, but I’d hurl if I was up on stage as Jennifer Major.
What about Jennifer Major, Stand-Up Comedienne? You keep me laughing! I have a comedian friend that might could help you … oh wait, I haven’t seen him in 25 years! 🙂
Oh my word!
Actually, my brother did stand-up, and he is far more amusing that I am. Trust me when I say this, he is quicker, sharper and far more brilliant than I ever hope to be.
When I go to Vancouver in October, he is planning on coming to visit. Pray for my parents. The combination of my brother and I? That’s my idea of perfect, and my poor parent’s idea of a perfect storm!
Y’all will have a blast, Jennifer! I saw that on your vlog … I know you are so excited!
My uncle is a comedian, too. My sister tells him he missed his call. But he’d rather be out in the woods, hunting, walking … finding arrowheads (in Arkansas).
Hurling? Isn’t that a Canadian sport played on ice with big rocks?
Hey now!!!
And I think you must be a great speaker.
You have a daft touch with words.
thank you
Well, it is a more sensible sport than rugby, a game for hooligans played by gentlemen.
Which is probably why I play rugby.
I am a gentleman.
Swave and Deboner to the soles of my feet.
You keep me laughing, Andrew. 🙂
Me, too, Jeanne.
Yikes, I haven’t kept track of stuff in a writer’s resume. Hmmm…this hasn’t really been a problem until recently as there wasn’t really anything in it. But now I’ve sold a couple of things to a magazine and semi-finaled in a contest…I guess I better start. OK, you’ve inspired me Rachel. I’m off to open up a new folder on my computer!
Yay! Good idea.
Looks like it’s time to update my resume. While I mention some of these things, I haven’t mention the workshops I’ve held in schools, conferences I’ve attended or panels I’ve sat on, and I don’t have a list of articles I’ve written: even though I do mention the website and that they were the highest viewed on the website when I was writing for them.
How about classes you’ve taken? I started out by entering the Breaking into Print program from Long Ridge Writer’s Group.
Classes taken! Good one! Yes, you should include this.
I wish I had started this a few years ago. I was recently asked for my writing history and I had to try to remember it all. I am keeping track for now on!
A resume summary (that you can find here ) is an informative one-to-two-line professional introductory statement that you could include on the very top of your resume, to emphasize your key professional achievements and skills. The resume summary helps employers quickly assess whether you possess the requisite skills and educational background that they need. It also helps the hiring manager determine which sections of your resume you need to focus on. The summary gives you an opportunity to make a personal connection to the company, and it also shows that you are serious about pursuing your career goals.