Walking on the Respectable Side
I’m off to ConCarolinas soon. (Hooray!) I actually leave Thursday for my parents’ place for a short visit and to hand off the kiddo, then on to Charlotte.
The con got me thinking about business cards. I mocked up a design and may or may not distribute a few while I’m there. Anyway, business cards got me thinking about my amateurish email address. How juvenile is it to put an unpronounceable email on a business card? So I set out to explore the options of receiving email through this site’s domain name. Thanks to Google Apps, it turns out it’s easy. So now I can be reached at writer@scottwbaker.net. I have not abandoned my old addresses, osomuerte@gmail.com or osomuerte@hotmail.com, so there’s no need to alter any contact info you have for me. I have simply added a small degree of legitimacy to my persona.
Is it that important to portray myself professionally? Probably not. But here;s a short list of things I have done over the past year or so to improve my apparent professionalism:
- Purchase my domain name. It’s cheap, like 15 bucks a year, if I recall. I was too late to grab the .com name, but it’s tough to mistake me for a NYC photographer.
- Abandoned my web handle. I’m still “Oso” in a few circles, but mostly I use my name. A handle from a character in a role playing game is not the way to present myself to the SF world. Not that the SF world doesn’t get it (most do), just that the SF world knows that I should know better.
- Cons. I’ve been a guest at a con (thanks ChattaCon!) and am doing what I can to attend cons periodically. Why? Connections! I made some great ones in Chattanooga in January and I hope to continue the trend this weekend. The best way to do that? So far my luck has been at the bar. Just saying…
…and that’s about it. I’ve done so little to seem like a pro. The most important things to do are writing (which I need to do more of) and selling (which I need to do a LOT more of). Until then I will present myself with dignity and competence, even though I’ll still do it in a Hawaiian shirt.
Scott W. Baker: Chaos out of Chaos 
I do keep a couple of my old web handles just so I can do things in anonymity. Nothing crazy, but if I want to fritter a little time away playing video games I’d prefer it not to be tied to my writing. That way if I ever get famous people can’t tell it’s me. 😉
An e-mail is a good start, especially if you’re getting business cards made up. I just recently got my own business cards made, designed by a friend who’s a graphic designer. Right now I can only give it to people I know as I don’t go out to conferences and such to make connections. I probably should though…
As for the web handle, I hear you on that. Unfortunately, my username for WordPress sometimes still shows up as Justice4JC, even when I change it to show publicly as S.C. Wade. I thought about just creating a new account, but I’m not sure if I can transfer my current wordpress domain under a new account. I haven’t researched it though….
Have a good time at ConCarolinas!