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Saturday, March 29, 2014


Get My Personal Insights At These Events

Throughout my years in publishing, some of my greatest insights have come from attending a small group seminar. In this environment, you can:


  • gain personal insights from the instructor
  • have the opportunity to ask specific questions
  • receive the attention of the instructor for your needs
 
Your relationships in the publishing community are key and I hope you are continuing every day to build those relationships through tools like Twitter and Facebook. You never know when one of those relationships will be important to you and move you forward in your publishing life. 

In the next few weeks, I'm holding two events that will provide you with this type of opportunity.

First, I'm teaching a four-hour workshop on How to Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. It will be held in Irvine on Wednesday, April 23rd. The topic goes with the updated version of my book, Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. I will be giving at least a dozen different ways for you to propel forward your publishing life. 

Second, I'm teaching a two-hour workshop on Go Viral: Making Sense of the Social Media Networks. It will also be held in Irvine on Wednesday, May 14th. Social media does not have to consume massive amount of time but it is something you have to tackle consistently to grow your target audience. I've got almost 100,000 followers on Twitter and large numbers on other social networks. I'm going to give you my step-by-step insights during this workshop. You will leave with an action plan for your social media.

These workshops are not for everyone. In fact the room only holds ten people. Talk about some personalized attention! 

Each of these workshops are backed up with my “no questions asked” money-back guarantee. I hope to see you at one or both of these events.

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Friday, March 28, 2014


Be The Exception



This past weekend I was speaking in Spokane, Washington at the Inland Northwest Christian Writers Conference. It was my first time at this terrific event and the fourth year for this conference. 

Besides giving a couple of workshops, I met throughout the day with various writers to speak with them about their book projects and to guide them about what they can do next to achieve their dreams.

I love this opportunity to hear about different books and help them learn more publishing. I heard about some wonderful books for different target audiences. In each case, I gave the author my business card and encouraged them to send me their material so we can consider publishing it at Morgan James. While I know our program isn't right for every author, our company has many unique benefits which I stressed during the meetings.
 
I've been meeting with authors at these conferences for years and here's what I understand: few of these authors will carry through and actually send me their material. If they do, then they will be the exception. I'm actively looking for terrific authors that I can champion to my publication board and get them a book contract. For the last two years, I've been sending contracts to authors almost every week.
 
Yes we receive many submissions at Morgan James (over 5,000 each year) and less than 3% of those submissions are actually contracted and published. It's a long shot for every author—but here's the reality: you can't get published if you don't send in your proposal or part of your manuscript. You have to take action as an author to achieve your dreams.
 
During the conference, I saw a woman who looked familiar. Over a year earlier, we had met at the Seattle conference and talked about her book idea. She reminded me of the idea and I expressed my continued interest to champion this author and her idea.
 
“What happened to your book?,” I asked.
 
“Oh, life got in the way and I haven't sent it anywhere,” she admitted.
 
This sort of situation happens much more frequently than you would think. People are amazed at my number of published books (over 60) or the number of magazines that I've had articles published (over 50–-I stopped counting a long time ago).
 
This type of publishing success does not come from being the best writer in the room or the most skilled communicator. I am persistent and I do follow through on the open doors. If an editor says to me, “That's a good idea. Write that up and send it to me.” Then I take that editor's statement at face value for the opportunity. I go home, write up the material and send it to the editor.
 
Yes I get rejected and not every one of my submissions get published. Rejection is a part of the process of finding the right opportunity at the right time at the right place. Yes a number of rights need to line up for that opportunity to happen.
 
You can't get published simply cranking out the material on your computer and leaving it there. You have to take action and follow-through and send it to the editor. If you do this simple step, you will be the exception and give yourself the best possible chance for success.
 
You have to do the work and craft an excellent manuscript. Writing is hard work and takes a lot of effort from you as an author. But you have to take one more step—connect with an editor and follow-through on what they requested.
 
I'm hoping you will be one of those authors in the small percentage who actually send in their material and get their books into print. It is possible for you if you will be the exception.

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Sunday, March 02, 2014


Affirmation from Peers

While there are many different awards in Hollywood, the pinnacle of achievement in the motion picture industry is to receive an Oscar. That little gold statue is highly prized because the affirmation comes from peers. While there are other awards which are appreciated, the award from industry professionals makes a huge difference.

Watching this process, I started thinking about what equivalent we have in the book publishing world. In some ways, when an author get his book listed on the New York Times list, that is something they carry with them throughout their career. They are introduced as “a New York Times bestselling author.”

Ok, that is great for authors but what about publishers? The reality is that many readers aren't even aware of who published a particular book. They recall the author and the title of the book but don't remember who published it. As someone in the publishing world, I do look at a book to see who published it and if it is a publisher that I know or not.


In the publishing world, Publishers Weekly is the news magazine publishing professionals, authors, librarians and booksellers read to follow the world of books. In this week's issue (which I haven't received in the mail yet since it takes longer), Publishers Weekly compiled a list of the fast-growing independent publishers. Morgan James Publishing was the seventh publisher on the small list of 11 different companies.


For almost two years, I've been working as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James. It was exciting and an affirmation from our peers to make this small list. You can read the complete article called Shaking It Up (follow the link). The online version looks a bit different from the magazine version. You can see the magazine version here.


It has been exciting and fun for me to help other authors get their books into the bookstores through my work at Morgan James. I explained many details about Morgan James in this article or this one. You can download these interviewed to your computer and listen to them.


This coming week I will be with some of my colleagues from Morgan James at Author 101 University in Los Angeles. I look forward to meeting with many new writers at this conference. If you can't make this event, then I hope to see you at the Author 101 University in the fall (October 23–26). The fall event will also be in Los Angeles at the Westin Hotel—right down the street from the Los Angeles airport.


Many times we receive little affirmation from our peers in the publishing world. I'm celebrating that Morgan James has made this list of the Fastest-Growing Indie Publishers.

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Saturday, March 01, 2014


At 110, Let's Mark a Dr. Seuss Milestone


It has never been my writing gift to write rhyming verse. This talent is especially important for children's books. The man who wrote The Cat in the Hat and other children's classics, Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel would have turned 110 tomorrow (Sunday, March 2nd).

As a child, I loved Dr. Seuss' sixth book, McElligot's Pool and asked my mother to read it over and over until she almost couldn't read it again. 

Each morning I read The Orange County Register and in Friday's newspaper, they had a beautiful illustration of Dr. Seuss celebrating his publishing life and his 110th birthday. Thankfully I found it saved as a PDF when I searched online. Make sure you follow this link to see the full effect.

Many beginning writers have this mistaken idea that they can sit down and in a few minutes whip out a children's book. From my years in this business, it's rare for anyone to write a quick children's book. Instead every word in these books is a labor of love and carefully selected and crafted to work.

Today I want to celebrate the gift and talent of Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel and the way his work continues to be something which children love and demand be read to them over and over. How many times have you read Go Dog Go or Green Eggs and Ham?

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

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