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Linda Ruggeri and Alexa met on a trivia team at Publishing University in 2022, won the game, and watched Linda take home an IBPA Silver Medal that same week, so a conversation about networking was overdue. Linda is a bilingual nonfiction developmental editor and the author of Networking for Writers, written after she and co-author Brittany Dowdle counted ten different people who touched their first book before it published. She walks through who belongs on your publishing team, why your editor is really your reader’s advocate, how to introduce yourself at a conference without reciting your life story, and why the best opportunities show up in hallways and wine lines. If you’ve been building alone, this one gives you a plan for building your village. Linda sits on the Women in Publishing Summit selection committee, and the 10th summit is March 2027.

Key Takeaways from This Episode

Your book will pass through many hands. Linda and her co-author thought they were writing their first book alone. By publication, ten people had worked on it, from the manuscript evaluator and copy editor to beta readers, proofreaders, the interior designer, and an EPUB coder who made it accessible.

Know your reader before you spend a dollar. Linda sees lovely manuscripts with no clear target audience, and without one, the money you put into editing, design, and marketing goes out the window. Beta readers tell you early whether the book meets that reader’s needs.

A good editor is your reader’s advocate. Linda only edits nonfiction because she reads it constantly and knows what readers are asking for. She even checks in monthly with two cookbook stores to learn what’s selling before she advises cookbook clients.

Networking isn’t a trade. Linda’s rule is to walk into any room asking what you can learn and what you can bring. Whatever stage you’re at, your lived experience is useful to the writer standing next to you.

Introduce yourself in one sentence. At a busy conference, “I write romantic comedies usually set in France” is memorable. The full origin story of your first book isn’t. Pitch yourself as the person that room needs to meet, writer at writing events, editor at editing events.

The opportunities are in the in-between. Hallways, coffee lines, and the wine line are where Linda finds her best connections. Alexa met Joel and Laura Pitney of Launch My Book, now a major summit sponsor, standing in line for wine at Publishing University in Denver.

Leave a review today. One sentence is enough. Reviews, social shares, newsletter mentions, and donating a copy to your local library are small ways to show up for other authors, and they’re how your own village forms.

Linda Ruggeri is a bilingual English and Spanish nonfiction editor and writer based in Napa Valley, California, specializing in developmental editing, copyediting, and Spanish translation review. She’s the author of Networking for Writers: Practical Strategies for Networking Success and co-author, with Brittany Dowdle, of Networking for Freelance Editors, which won an IBPA Silver Medal in 2022. She runs The Networking Studio, a curated community for freelance editors, co-founded the Argentinian writers community Tres Vías Creativas, and serves on the Women in Publishing Summit selection committee. Find her at theinsightfuleditor.com.