The Benefits of Being a PROby Christine Cunningham There are steps in most professions that are necessary to take in order to reach your goal. Medical school is a step doctors can't skip if they really want to be doctors. Teachers need to finish high school, college, and pass the test for their teaching certificate in order to teach in most public schools across the nation. Most actors spend years in off-Broadway plays, working on commercials, and going to countless auditions before they are an 'overnight sensation.' Writers don't necessarily have career steps they have to follow to get published. A writer's career can and does flourish in wildly varying circumstances, differing from writer to writer. We members of Romance Writers of America, however, are lucky in that there IS a step we can take to help reach our dream of developing into a published author. That step is becoming a PRO. One woman I know has four manuscripts finished but admits that her fear of rejection is paralyzing her. It's also paralyzing her career, and until she submits, until she takes that step and open up a dialog with an editor, she's at a standstill. She knows it, and one of her goals for the coming year is to get her requested manuscript in the mail. The best thing is, once she gets that postcard from the editor that they have received her manuscript, she can apply for PRO status. Marian H. Griffin (From the Heart Romance Writers chapter) says, "I think the biggest benefit of being a PRO is the sense of accomplishment. Secondly, you are taken more seriously by the PAN and offered more advanced workshops at conference." Sandra Kleinschmitt (Los Angeles Romance Authors chapter) says, ".when I get down and out about my writing (Don't We All) I look at my (PRO) pin. That tells me that it's not all in my head, that it's not just a hobby." Jill James wrote a terrific article for the Black Diamond Romance Writers chapter newsletter entitled To Pro or Not to Pro. She says, in part, ".your PRO pin represents a major step in your writing career. You are announcing to the world that you completed a manuscript and submitted it for critiquing, possible rejection, or perhaps a contract for publication. It says you are serious about the craft of writing." Serious about the craft of writing. How many of us are asked, in a slightly amused voice, how our "little hobby" is going? How many times do your own demons follow you into a bookstore as you stand there in despair at all the books, wondering if there'll ever be a place on a shelf with your book on it? Well, until you get serious about the craft of writing, you won't get there. And a PRO pin is a step toward getting serious. There are tangible benefits of being a PRO, as well. Thieme Jackson Bittick (Los Angeles Romance Authors chapter), a 2005 Golden Heart Finalist, has this advice to offer. "There are several advantages to being a PRO, starting with the special on-line classes that RWA offers, the RWA PRO Newsletter which is chock-full of industry information you'd never hear about otherwise, and the PRO booklets. Additionally, if you are planning to attend Nationals, it gives you a shot at pitching to the editors and agents ahead of the mass of RWA members who have never finished a book. "Let's not forget the networking opportunities and the PRO loops where you can ask questions of people who are in the same boat as you, and yet may have a different angle of approach. Many of the PROs I have met have since been published, and they are able to pass on inside information about agents and editors that is invaluable. Also, being a PRO makes you look more professional not only to your colleagues, but to those same agents and editors." We are not doctor wannabes, who have to spend grueling years in medical school and time slogging through a residency. We are not teacher wannabes, who must jump through hoops before they're allowed inside a classroom. We are writers, and we acknowledge there is no one right way to publication, no magic formula. But we are given a step, a tool to use, by RWA. That tool is PRO. Write the best novel you can possibly write. Revise it. Send it to an editor with a postcard. Once they send that postcard back to you, apply for your PRO pin, and when you get it, dance with joy! It takes courage to reach out for that status. But then, you're already a writer, so you know how to be courageous. It's just a step. Go ahead and take it. I'll see you at Nationals, at the PRO Retreat. Christine Cunningham has been reading romance for over half her life, and writing it for just five years. She's proud to report that in the last two years three different manuscripts have been rejected by Silhouette, Red Dress Ink, St. Martin's Press, and TOR.
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