y o u r w r i t e r s g r o u p...

A Selling Networking Marketing Post! (I know!)

I know. I feel the same way about marketing as you do. Even saying the word makes the sunshine in my soul go out just a little bit.

But if it's actually time for you to "increase your network," I think I may have found something that I can actually recommend. And it doesn't involve you being forced to start using such phrases as "increasing your network."

I've been asked several times if I'd write on marketing, networking, advertising, promoting, publicity and selling. I've resisted the subject for so long, hoping it would go away, but like a bad boil (yes, exactly, there isn't any other kind) it keeps popping up.

So being the helpful, considerate person I am, I've decided to lance this subject once and for all by deferring to a great case study which is the best way I know to help people out, pay it forward and still get out of having to actually do something myself.

So, check out Tony Hsieh, author of the New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness and CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. and his guest review of Peter Guber's new book, Tell to Win.

And you're welcome.

It Starts Today

Today. The word carries such power. 

Today! It's what you make it. What will you do with it? How will you use it?

Does it compel you to suit up, face your fears, believe the evidence that it will pass so soon, and seize it while you can?

Do you hear the voices calling out from the picture on the wall?

 

It starts today. Do you believe it? Do you trust the vision you've been given enough to show up? Will you act on it? 

You've been chosen for this, here and now, to do this and make it live. To influence your readers and make them live. To influence their lives that others can live. You can't possibly know how much depends on today.

Do you know how unbelievably rare you are? Do you want to? Do you want to stop simply knowing it and do something about it? Do you want to feel it and live it? That's an inspiration to others, to see you living as one of God's true rarities. Will it be a stretch to say you never knew the person you saw in the mirror every morning before today? 

How would you like to respond?

  

What would it take to draw out the real you, the one who loves like no one else, who sees the opportunities and runs toward them? To take your vision and combine it with your compassion and release it, make it influence your sphere, make those around you deal with it? To do that, to live that, it is the greatest power in this messed up world. And you have it.

Maybe you've been waiting, waiting like everyone else, being too-easily convinced that it's not the right time, not appropriate, not really needed.

Which today are you waiting for?

Every great story is about a person just like you and then one day, for no better reason than you have today, everything comes together. The decision to act is made. The experience and growth and maturing and preparing, and all the conditions come together and it's time to produce. 

That, my friend, is today.

If you will think ahead to a day down the road when it's all been done and you've become polished like a well-worn walking stick by this experience, you can imagine what you'll feel. Having committed to showing up to the writing every day, to the preparations, the sacrifice, and being progressively changed by the work of a thousand todays, with this insight having shaped the journey of your character, one day soon it will be time to share. And on that today eyes are opened, lives changed, sparks brought back to life, and no one will be able to deny what you decided back there, so many days ago.

   

That's today.

That flavor in your work, unlike anything they've ever tasted, some of them didn't know what tasting was until you showed them. You awoke their mouths, gave them a taste for something and created a desire they will never forget as long as they live. That's their life they're remembering, being brought back to, maybe forgotten so long it was almost dead. But from the flavor, they'll remember and their heads will raise.

"Today. It's right here. I can use it, taste it, live it."

That's what you'll have done.

And then, a today a little further off, you'll see a smile waiting for you just ahead. And you'll go toward it, knowing you are the reason for it.

Can you imagine it? I hope you can. Use what's around you, whatever you have, and don't put it off with excuses. You have to realize what an incredible opportunity you have before you. Don't give in to pressure to make you forget! Can you even imagine what this knowledge is really worth? And what will it be worth if you forget, give into doubts and let another today slip by?

Today, the next day, and the next, they're all connected. It's true. Believe it. Choose it. Trust it. And begin your training as you run for the next today and the next....

So many people are hoping and praying for someone exactly like you, to show them what you know. But you can only be the one if you decide today.

 

Continue the thoughts at Dick Staub's blog today. Something in the air...

The Formula

You know how I know books are children? Because they can be such snots to their parents.

Michaelangelo, when asked why he didn’t have a wife or children, said his wife was his art and his works were his children. And when those children are little, they can be completely irrational.

If you want to be a parent of this type, you only need 3 characteristics: persistence, intelligence, and quirkiness.

That’s it. Soon as you’ve got those, you’re ready to be an author. But if you want to survive, you’ll need something else.

You don’t need a great plot. And you don’t need beautiful, special, larger-than-life characters, though if you are one, good for you. Enjoy that. I'm not one, don't want to be and I don’t want to read about them. I don't deny people liking such books, but to say all of them should be this way is ignorant. Such a prejudice deepens our culture of dissatisfaction and encourages people to forfeit the more meaningful things of life. And books can do this because as children they’re powerful, persuasive little boogers.

So it doesn’t take action, adventure, romance, riches, power, fame, or beauty. All it takes is a character who is extraordinary (or remarkable) in some way and uses it to escape moral and/or romantic peril. That is enough. The peril had better be worthy of bookhood or I'll think the author didn't look hard enough before choosing his story. Stand-out stories stand out. 

But the greatest, deeper fact about this truth is that everyone is extraordinary. Think about it. Ordinary doesn't really exist, and this is the theme of the most incredible stories. Show me the simplest stuff transformed into the grandest and I’ll show you a successful author. Want to realize a holy calling? Open people’s eyes to see majesty in a dirt clod. Transformation is not magic—it’s a simple matter of perspective. God constantly makes all things new, all things alive again, and if you want to inspire readers to buy a lot of books, inspire them to agree.

Authors who breathe life into seemingly flat people and situations will become well-known authors.

"Look closer," the story can say. "Don't be fooled." That's a holy awakening when it happens. Those are the stories we live for. 

Of course, that's hard to do well. There are no shortcuts. And there are bell-curves of taste, preference and experience dictating how stories hit different readers. But when an author can open my eyes to the extraordinary, I feel enlightened. I feel comforted.

How is your work opening readers’ eyes to the extraordinary in the ordinary? Asking the question of your work may help you discover some real key characteristics.

At holidays, ebooks sell more than print

In a move that had Asia's trees all a-flutter, this season during the holidays it happened: ebooks sales of the top 6 bestsellers outsold print.

Thursday's USA Today bestseller list (1/6/11) "will show digital's new popularity: E-book versions of the top six books outsold the print versions last week. And of the top 50, 19 had higher e-book than print sales." (Thanks to The Literary Saloon!)

Okay. Who got e-readers for Christmas? 

Though the question will remain what % of publisher revenue came directly from ebooks (not to mention author revenue), this factoid is proof positive that at least for those shopping for books last week, most were (1) online, and (2) strongly favoring the anti-product over the packaged, processed, shipped and stored product when it came to the paradoxical front-list (the most-valuable-and-simultaneously-disposable titles).

It's also anyone's guess how much publishers' idea to print on toilet paper contributed to buyers' decisions, but it seems most folks were already well-stocked there. (Also, don't expect any traditional publishers to feel bad for you when you drop your iPad in the toilet. I found that one out the hard way!)

But woah. Not bad for a "derivative product" that didn't even exist a few seasons ago...

Why the New Books Want to Be Free

Convergence.

Moving toward union or uniformity; especially coordinated movement of the two eyes so that the image of a single point is formed.

We might hold such truth to be self-evident, but convergence, the merging of distinct ideas, people, industries, and technologies into a unified whole balanced in equality, is the basis of our government, healthy relationships, of spiritual lives, and many things in between. It’s in the ying and yang of the ancients, predating our understanding of the perfect balance of love and justice found in God.

And this concept is just as operational in our world today. The synthesis of ideas, is happening at a faster rate today than it ever has before. So the ability to “hold to one without letting go of the other” is becoming increasingly difficult as well.

Maybe you feel this in your own life, this pull toward the “comfort” of extremes. Too often we’re attracted like magnets to the poles, wowed by the height the pendulum swings. These are the extremes. The world is full of them and they’re unbalancing factors and should be ignored. The unbalanced wants to be heard. But it also wants to be ignored as it argues for its own irrelevance (to pick on political talk show hosts: if they got what they “wanted” they’d go extinct).

This involves paradox and paradox is everywhere. If you’ve seen it and dealt with it honestly, you know that convergence is the answer.

Does God still speak today? And would he speak through prophets who are paid no heed? What if we’re missing his words because we don’t have ears to hear? Would God choose to have a prophet speak through publishing a book? My question to the traditional publishers, most now owned by conglomerates: Can you hear above the other master’s voice? And if you can, what special measures are you taking to ensure your readers reckon with it?

What needs to happen now? Chris Anderson reminds us in Free, “information wants to be free, it also wants to be expensive because it’s so valuable.” (Stewart Brand)

Paradox. Convergence.

I believe we’re entering a new age where the ideas of freedom that were relegated to the control of gatekeepers can no longer tolerate the restriction. Publishing is a game of “rights management,” a euphemism for ownership and control, but the information wants to be free. And despite their “purchase” price and devoted resources, the publishers do not own it. Not even the authors own the ideas, any more than they created their own brains and the life that sustains them. We can’t even control the influences that go into shaping the new ideas. And as for who “owns” wisdom and understanding, let alone the capacities for such things, we can all agree, it isn’t us.

Why shouldn’t everyone benefit from the current convergence of an idea surplus and the unlimited access to publishing it?

It’s time to hack in. To circumnavigate. To rethink and rebuild the new system.

Democratization of publishing is underway. I don’t believe my job is to help someone control the information. I’d rather make it easier to distribute. And that means convincing people to share their ideas for free. If enough innovative authors agree, publishers will be forced to change.

I think it’s relatively inevitable, but that doesn’t change the hard truth. Some will ask why this should happen. And it’s simple: the idea of controlling someone’s message, idea, or intellectual property, is profoundly connected to the control of those people themselves, and ultimately leads to a no-win for everyone involved. Author becomes indentured servant, publisher becomes greedier, and end consumer is charged increasingly more for a decreasing quality product.

It may not always bear out in every instance, but tending toward entropy is the natural cycle. New opportunities overthrow existing paradigms. Revolutions and tyrannies are cyclical. This is simply a current one. Or maybe, as Anderson says, it’s simply the most recent part of the continuing revolution that bits (computers) have made possible.

And something in me is encouraged to think it’s all outside my control.

 

The Greatest Secret to Ultimate Comfort

If it’s true that no one had a perfect childhood, seeking comfort for what we lacked as children is something of a universal.

So where do you go for comfort?

Christians know God is supposed to be our comfort. But most people still search for false escapes in music, television, drugs, sex, games, books, even work. The most human of all qualities isn’t self-awareness; it’s the possession of a mind that can make even the opposite, the very fear of comfort, into a familiar comfort.

If you trusted God to fill all your comfort need, do you believe you’d be a better writer? Since that's what I'm all about, I figured this was a good meditation for us today--maybe a way to use our extra hour.

Of course, he could miraculously break your bad habits. Stories of drug addicts and smokers suddenly losing their cravings and having no withdrawal symptoms are common. Habits are usually only replaceable with another, better habit, but when you know God, the changes often do come more easily.

And how do you know God? I always believe I know an author best when I've read his book. But listening and asking his opinions, talking and showing your truest self—that’s a relationship. And that’s where ultimate comfort is found. All other comforts are doomed to fail.

How do I know this is true? I always love finding principles that govern the invisible world, but you really start to believe when you see the principles in action. Today, I found one of the most important principles governing comfort in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount:

“You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.”

--Matthew 5:9 (The Message)

In other words, when you’re a peacemaker, you’ll be blessed by knowing your purpose in God’s world! Did you know that was related? Peacemaking isn't automatic knowledge. You have to learn it. Helping others put aside what they want is hard. And we have to do it ourselves first. But if you work it out, the word says you'll be blessed with knowing your purpose.

Your purpose may not be as a mediator or conflict manager. But God said that employing that skill will help you find your purpose in his world.

It seems strange, doesn't it? But today I'm asking God to show me how to be a peacemaker anyway. I’m betting he’ll help me do it, too. And if the principle is true, I’ll discover more of my purpose in his reality and more of my ultimate comfort as well. 

I'm not doing it to be a better writer, but even if I was selfishly motivated here, I'll bet it'd work anyway. Because I know another principle: God always takes what he can get. (Or does he? Leave a comment, let's discuss!)

Book Proposals Made Easy

This is part 3 in a 6-part series, "Your Best Book Now." Or "Everything You Need to Know to Create a Bestseller." Or "Breaking Into the Publishing Sweatshop, er, Industry". This week's episode: "How to Write a Top-Notch Proposal."

 

So, dear authors, you’ve got your 3 wheels, or 3 legs well on their way and you’re becoming a Perfect-3 Author. Next stop, the proposal:

The creativity, craftsmanship, and care reflected in your proposal reflects on your book, and ultimately on you.

Go ahead and write that down, but keep reading—there are 10 essentials to cover here as well….

There are a variety of proposal approaches that can work, but job #1, your proposal should convey the uniqueness of the author and your message. Show them both your understanding of that message and your heart commitment to it, and like Psalm 15:2 says, they’ll know you are a writer “who speaks the truth from his heart.”

So with that, here are your 10 steps to a winning book proposal:

  1.  Summarize in 30 words or less, the unique, compelling appeal of your message.

(Why would anyone care to read it?)

  2. Describe the realistic and specific audience for your book.

(What is the profile of the reader who will likely buy it?)

When you’ve written your manuscript—and if you’re a first-time author, you need to finish it before proposal stage—describe the profile of the reader you wrote the book to (a writer without a royalty book contract is a first-time writer).

  3.  Describe felt need—what’s the reader’s problem?

(Why does the reader need this book, and not to simply explore the topic?)

  4.  Describe how your message will meet that need.

(What’s your solution to the reader’s problem? Be specific.)

Ask, Where is this reader mentally, emotionally, spiritually when he or she picks up my book? Where will she be after she’s read it? What exactly will my book do for her? Why should she bother to read your book rather than someone else’s?

  5.  Provide much support as possible to prove your market exists.

(What stats, research, trend reports, etc. can you point out?)

  6.  Survey the competition.

(What other books are like this currently in print from competing publishers? How are they different? How does yours differ or improve on theirs?)

  7.  Outline your writing experience. Embellish as needed.

  8.  Outline your educational and career background.

  9.  Explain your qualifications to write on this topic and your natural platform.

    (speaking ministry, affiliations with ministries, churches, other groups, endorsers, influencers     you have access to, etc. And how will you promote the book?)

Bonus:

    * Find an influencer to write an endo or foreword to vouch for the importance of your ms, and     put it with your proposal. This can really help sway the room when your proposal reaches the     publishing board.

   10. Include a short writing sample of the work. (30 pages max)

Put all ingredients in a blender and whip until frothy. Submit your shiny new proposal to your favorite editor at the next writers conference.

You can do this. Yes, you can. And now you have no excuses.

Are You a PERFECT 3 Author?

This is part 2 in a 6-part series on writing your best book now. With apologies to Thomas Nelson and Joel Osteen.

You’ve noticed the perfect 3. It’s holding together your beginning, your complication, and your resolution. It’s in liquid, ice, and steam. It’s the animal, the mineral, and the vegetable. It makes up the trinity, the cord of 3 strands, the what was, what is, and is to come.

The perfect 3 defines our lives in a number of deeply profound ways, a number which is probably even divisible by 3. Our veteran editorial veep at WaterBrook Multnomah likes to say the best books need 3 legs to be stable: platform, subject, and writing. Someone recently improved upon the metaphor by suggesting a tricycle.

Three wheels. Very stable. You can stand on it, if you want. A bicycle can also get you where you’re going, though less safely. But a unicycle is always inadvisable. For a number of reasons (again divisible by 3). Doesn’t mean people don’t use unicycles and succeed at staying aloft. Just involves more training. More time.

And often laughing crowds.

Now it’s a sad little publishing truism that you do not need great writing or an excellent subject from a platform author, but that book will still sell. At least for a while. But eventually it’ll fall down and the other books will laugh at it. There are also excellently written books from no-name authors who wouldn’t know a proper subject if they spent all day searching their cabinets and sock drawers.

Yet what I see most often in the writers I meet at conferences is some great people with great subjects…and very little writing ability or platform. I’ve seen people at it so long they despise the words “craft” and “platform.” Without those other legs, they’re going to remain imbalanced.

But here’s where The Perfect 3 can help. Many things go into those other two legs besides time.

Research.

Analyzation.

Prayer.

Focus.

Self-awareness.

Acuity. 

Sacrifice.

Support.

A strong will.

Good bladder control.

An eye for opportunity. Great personality. Tooth whitening. Sense of humor. Confidence. Basically, all the unmentioned things that go into making a wonderful, attractive, well-rounded person.

Are you weak in any of those things? Me too! (Let's hear it for bladder control!)

So, author, what do you want to do about the rest of those?

Most people don’t have the strength, discipline, and humility to accept where they’re weak and decide to fix it. Many of those areas will require assistance that’s too painful. Of course, that's not you, is it?

And despite what my mom used to say about my uncanny ability to get out of traffic tickets, no one is born charmed.

The 3 essential qualities that build The Perfect 3 author are:

            1) the determination to continually push yourself to acquire new skills,

2) the tenacity to get up again and again after failure, and

3) the humility to learn the essential lessons from it each time.

Do this.

Don’t skip corners.

Don’t even look for a shortcut. You are not a cheater.

Show up every time, do it until you’re done, and do it again tomorrow with all 3 of those legs (or wheels) of your project:

·               Researching your subject (& is it a good and needed one?),

·               Writing (and the rewriting, revising, & macro and micro editing),

·               Platform building (and the resulting back-breaking publicity)

In the end, your creativity, craftsmanship, and care shows your audience you’re the perfectly-balanced author you’ve worked to become.

How to Write Your Best Book Now

This is part one in a 6-part, totally free master class on everything you need to know to write "your best book now," with apologies to Joel Osteen and Thomas Nelson.

Part 1: The manuscript

You have 6 jobs before your manuscript is ready for professional editing, and then submission to an editor. 

Job #1: Start by reading (preferably memorizing) The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. 

Next, pick up Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass and the accompanying workbook and work through the exercises there. If you're writing nonfiction, you still need narrative techniques, so consider reading Maass' book anyway, or Zinsser’s On Writing is a good one too.

Other greats include Stein On Writing, Stephen King's On Writing, and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. But my new favorite is Susan Bell’s The Artful Edit which details the macro and micro elements of getting the words and phrasing and style right, but it's for writers who have already gotten a good portion of their million crappy words out of the way already.

I also recommend fiction writers give Self-Editing for Fiction Writers a read for the basic elements to be aware of.

Also, anything by Orson Scott Card, James Scott Bell, Sol Stein, and Arthur Plotnik, feel free to supplement your reading with any or all of them. Card’s book on character development is excellent. Characters and Viewpoint. And there’s always the incomparable Max Perkins, generally regarded to be the greatest editor ever.

Writers must first read, read, read. Aspire to read above your comprehension level. And find the redeeming qualities of that beneath you. Read Books & Culture. Read PW. Read poetry. Follow what your favorite writers do and who they follow, watch their interviews on B&N and learn what they did. There's so much available now. Go to Ted.com and watch the videos that interest you. JK Rowling’s Harvard address on failure is excellent.

Immerse yourself in the writing world of working writers. Read their blogs, check out their advice and links.

#2: Here's a very important piece of advice I stole from Bernard Cornwell: read your top 3 books and study them. How simple is that? But I'd add, use a book like Susan Bell's and/or Maass' to focus on the important elements and break them down chapter by chapter. Use your favorite writing books as guides and you'll learn more than you ever would at a writers conference about the actual tools and skills of working writers.

Pay attention to the way the sentences sound, the way the chapters work, how you’re drawn in, what’s said and not said. Consider metaphor and symbolism. What elements are your favorite? What parts do you like least? Keep a writing journal and mark your progress, then go over it at the end of the week and synthesize what you've learned.

#3 Figure out your writing system. Try different things until you get it. No one is able to tell you how you work best and you may change, so stay at it. I write best starting at the end and working backwards. I often start with the final image and write that last sentence and work back from there. It's taken me an embarrassing amount of time and effort to realize (and accept) this. You will no doubt work differently. You might want to consider using organizing software. Scrivener is a great one for Mac users.

As Ray Bradbury said, you must write 1 million crappy words before you're any good. So don’t worry, be crappy.

#4 Figure out if you’re writing in the right area, targeting the right reader by asking those close to you what they see as your unique gifts, abilities, and bent. And objective friend can save you much time if they're willing to be honest. Buy them lunch or dinner.

#5 Figure out if you are able to devote the needed time to this. There’s a time of life issue. Much prayer and consideration is required before you set out to write, let alone publish (we'll get that that in a couple weeks). Myself, I can’t do much more than write an hour a day right now b/c I can’t take the time away from my life to travel & commit to publicity work.

Know where you are and prepare accordingly. Exercise in the meantime and commit to the work.

#6 Finally, get hard, trustworthy critiques from qualified writers. This is so essential. You have no idea how you need this until you've received it, but take it from me, there's nothing more important than the insights of a seasoned writer or editor on your work. Nothing. 

This may be tough to find as you’re starting out, but strive for it and you will find people you can connect with through conferences and online groups like ACFW and CWG. You don't need people writing what you write necessarily, but you do need people as committed to the craft, and who are devoted to encouraging and shepherding your talent. 

My hope is that this will be that kind of group very soon, so if that's you, hang tight and leave a comment. We'll be hooking people up very shortly for you to grow with.

And tune in next time for Part 2: The Proposal.

Four-Minute Blog Post for Time-Starved Writers

This is an experiment in speed--how much can I say in 4 minutes? That's all that's left of my time today. It's been getting away from me, as some have noticed, this writing regularly thing. I could blame the season of preparation, or the insane cold we've been having, the mountain of work waiting to be checked off before vacation travel, etc. But priorities are priorities, and I've always considered this blog a top one (ridiculous as that may be to some).

So how do YOU stay on top of the things you really want to do? When duty and responsibilities dictate your time, how do you remain active in pursuing those things that don't produce a quantifiable result, but that take you to where you really want to go?

My own process of prioritizing has changed several times over the course of my adult life. The decade I've been in a professional role, I've probably changed 6 times, adjusting as needed or as the inspiration struck. Basically, I'd find myself under water and realize that I needed to do something besides sputter and thrash. You may think others don't struggle with this, but any writer or publishing pro who's not drowning has surely experienced their share of sputtering. And you can take that to the bank.

I've got 30 seconds, but I think the secret is making use of the time you do have--whatever it is. Stolen minutes are all we have anyway. Using them wisely is a matter of recognizing what's driving you and doing it. Making no excuses and hacking out the precious moments where they appear (Yes, that was a hidden ad, did you notice?).

I'm going to quit complaining about the time I have or don't have. I'm going to take the few minutes I can and just write them full. Let this be your inspiration to do the same and we'll see what comes of it in the new year. I'm thinking it's the only thing that will really work and the rest of our responsibilities will fall in line. Or not. But either way, we'll have produced something.

And that's saying something. Which is better than nothing.

Ding.