🚀 go-pugleaf

I'm a published professional writer looking to network with 
other professionals in central Massachusetts or northern Connecticut.  
I feel isolated from the business-marketing side of writing because 
I don't know anybody else in the publishing industry.  I think there 
must be a better way to market my work than sending out manuscripts 
and waiting for months for a response. I'd like to meet other writers 
and editors and learn how the industry works so I can be more 
intelligent about trying to sell my stuff.  Can anyone recommend a 
reputable, serious writers' group in my locale? I have published one 
academic book already and several articles in academic journals.
I have a completed novel under consideration at a press and am writing
another novel right now.  I say this because I want to network with other
serious writers.  I joined one group which was full of wannabes who never
wrote anything but talked about it a lot. I also wish to avoid
university-affiliated MFA type groups.  I teach in a university which is
rather hostile to people who write commercial fiction.  Where are the other
commercial novelists in central New England?  I would like to meet you.