P is for Professional

Professional behavior is important even online and it's something we shouldn't forget. While it's easy to get carried away online, to think that what we write won't matter in the future, that is not the case.

Professional behavior has many facets. It's more than just posting personal attacks on Internet forums or lewd pictures on facebook. And it affects every social media site. Any page that can be found through a search could potentially be used against a person if they let too much get out of control online. Yet in the moment people seem to forget this fact.

Now, this doesn't mean you can't be yourself. You don't have to be rigid and bland in order to avoid an "unprofessional" presence online. It's more of a matter of being conscience of what you post will say about you to others and whether you want that image attached to you in the future.

It's okay to talk about your personal life to a degree. Talk about the pets. Because guess what: agents and editors often have pets too. When I was at my first conference, one of the main things a lot of the writers there (including the big name fantasy ones) talked about their cats.

So go ahead. Talk about little miss kitty. But maybe lay off on the bowel movements unless you're bringing up jokes about Sheldon from Big Bang Theory.

What I see the most and why I'm doing this post is the complaining. I've seen people complain in forums or blogs or on twitter about the industry. These vary from "oh the publisher/agent takes too long to respond" all the way to "these word count limits suck, why can't I write whatever length I want" types. Which we all understand, however, when you then go and submit, that message might pop up and it doesn't look good.

It also goes hand in hand with building your band. So every fight over a book review, every post about how bad others in the community are and every questionable picture may have an impact on the brand you are creating for yourself. But how professional you look is up to you.


What is professional behavior to you?
Do you watch the impression you leave online?