Reading Habits

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Whether we are conscious of it or not, we are creatures of habit. It is certainly true in my life in publishing. Since a small child, I have loved reading books. Yes I have a reading habit and I encourage every writer to read in many different areas and styles of books.

 

In my case, most of what I read is nonfiction. It seems natural because I've written over 60 nonfiction books. I listen to audiobook—all nonfiction.  I do most of my reading in a comfortable leather chair in my office. I have a once-a-year indulgence (which I wrote about several years ago) reading the current Daniel Silva book. The latest book, The Cellist launched last week and is the 21 Gabriel Allon book. In early May, I ordered my signed copy (still available as of this writing follow the link)  because I receive his email newsletter and knew it was available. The signed copy costs exactly the same as the regular book but includes a page called a tip-in. On a Facebook Live, I heard Silva say it took him several days to sign all these pages and return them to his publisher for the printing process. 

 

Each of these sales are pre-sales and count toward the sales of the first week of release. Daniel Silva made several television appearances like on The Today Show plus a Facebook Live interview. The Cellist will be the #1 fiction book on the New York Times bestseller list this week.

 

In my office bookshelf, I have a number of signed Daniel Silva books but only one of them was actually signed with my name on it: The Rembrandt Affair. For the release of that book, I lived in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended a signing at the Poisionous Pen Bookstore and Daniel Silva spoke and signed books. Before the pandemic, he regularly traveled to various key cities when his book releases. Hopefully this pattern will return in future years but this year he handled the release with virtual events and still landed on the bestseller list (which shows his strong fan base—including me). 

 

From listening to different author interviews, I learned Silva's parents were schoolteachers and reading has always been a part of his life and habits as well. He loves The Great Gatsby and said that 1984 by George Orwell was his favorite novel.  I enjoyed the Facebook Live interview and learning his writing routine on a legal pad with a pencil on his office floor. Plus he is already working on the next novel with about 65 pages in the works on that book.

 

I'm currently reading The Cellist. I love the storytelling and find it a page turner (hard to stop reading). I often do this sort of reading in the evenings. What are your reading habits? Do you have a particular type of book you read? Where do you read? Let me know in the comments below.

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Why Writers Should Care About Contract Details

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

One of the important elements in every book deal is the publishing contract. Yes I can see you possibly yawning and clicking away but I hope you will hang in there with me. First, I am not an attorney but I have studied publishing contract law and read numerous books on the topic—plus I've signed over 60 book contracts. Two of these contracts were lengthy with six-figure advances—and yes from well-known publishers.  I've learned some hard lessons in this process and often I hire my own literary attorney to review an agreement before I sign it because of those hard lessons.

 

Most contracts are buried in file cabinets and not in the public domain to show you for this article. The exception that I'm going to show you in this article is because this contract is in the public domain from a court case.

 

As a writer, I get a lot of enjoyment telling stories—whether the stories of others or my own stories. Crafting those details on my computer screen is a lot of fun. Yet as a writer, the task is much more diverse than just telling stories. As writers, we must wear many different hats and play many different roles. One of these roles is to carefully read and review our contracts and ask questions and clarifications. If I need help in this area of contracts, then I turn to my literary attorney or The Author's Guild. Even if you have never published a book, if you have a contract, you can join the author's guild. As a part of your membership, you can get their feedback and suggestions for your publishing contract. The time to get these clarifications and understanding for your contract is before you sign it.

 

Some publishers have lengthy contracts for a reason. Normally some author before you has caused an issue, so the resolution to that issue is an additional clause to their contract. For this reason, many of these agreements are lengthy and can have some innocent words with big meaning behind them. Part of the reason many publishing contracts are lengthy is because some author ahead of you has caused a challenge for the publishing company and they added a clause so this situation does not happen in future books. The exact words are important and another reason why you want an expert (someone who is looking out only for your interest) that you get to review the contract before signing.

 

Every publishing contract has an “acceptability” clause where the publisher gets to determine if the writer has delivered a manuscript which is acceptable to be published. This issue is why one of these dusty contracts is in the public domain and something I can show you in this article. The contract was done in the pre-computer days so it has crossed out sections and handwritten sections. It includes a four million dollar advance for two novels. Hopefully I've given you some motivation to look at this Joan Collins agreement. You can follow this link to see the agreement from the public domain.

 

As I understand the story, her agent crossed out the acceptability clause and she did not deliver a novel to the specified requirements. Random House balked at paying the remainder of the advance and the parties went to court. Because this acceptability clause was crossed out in the signed agreement, Random House lost the case—and publishers will always have this clause in their contract.  

 

How did I get a copy of this contract to show you? Years ago, I chaired a workshop at the American Society of Journalists and Authors annual conference in New York. I had three literary attorneys and a literary agent on my panel. One of those panelists was the former deputy consul at Simon and Schuster and brought this story and gave me the electronic version. When I heard these details, I pay attention. I also attend conferences and learn (something I recommend to every writer). Admittedly I've scratched the surface of a complex topic but hopefully given you some things to consider when you sign a contract in your future.

 

How do you process your publishing contracts? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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Productive Social Media

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

How in the world do I post on social 12–15 times a day? To some people it appears that I spend hours each day on social media—when in fact I don't. The truth is I have created my own system. In this article I want to give you some details about what I do in hopes you can adapt it to your own social media plans.

 

I use a scheduling tool. There are several types of these tools but I use the professional version of Hootsuite because I quickly maxed out the free one. Throughout my week, I'm reading and learning from other writers, then adding their content into my social media scheduled posts. The bulk of my posts every day are from others and not my own writing. I envision this section like I am back in my magazine editor days. On my social media feed, here's my mindset for what I'm doing: I'm essentially running a magazine about publishng for anyone who wants to learn about it.  I'm several weeks ahead in my scheduling of these posts. It's something that most people do not do and I'm fairly certain my author friends appreciate that I use their material (at least from the limited feedback I receive from them).  I read each of these articles as I schedule them and it adds to my own knowledge and information about the publishing world.

 

Once a week and often on a Tuesday, I return to my scheduled posts and fill in the rest of them. As with the other posts, I've created my own pattern or system in this process. For example, I have a series of lead magnets or resources I've created to help others. Each of these resources, ask the reader to give me their first name and email address so they are added to my email list when they get the free resource. Many authors use this method but I make sure I don't use it too much so use one of these resources in the morning and one in the afternoon.

 

Each of my posts include an image, a short link to the resource or article (because otherwise sometimes they are broken when posted) and a hashtag. Notice I have created a standard or pattern for each of these posts. If the posts are related to my work like a blog post, a free offer, a book I'm promoting through stressing the benefits or something else related to my own work, I have saved a series of these posts. They are stored in a text file which I use each week.

 

Also I have a series of royalty-free images that I've pulled over the years and stored in a file on my computer. I use this method to repurpose and promote these articles from The Writing Life, which has over 1500 searchable entries (a great deal of content). As a reminder, I've created a search tool for my various blog entries (scroll down to find it) but I use this tool often to find my own articles. These are some of the details that I open and use in this once-a-week process. If I'm traveling or going to be away from my office, then I schedule even more than a week's worth. Because I do this process on a consistent basis, it runs even if I'm away from my computer.

 

As I mentioned, I look at my social media feeds like running a magazine. If I see a potential article and it speaks about a holiday or a deadline earlier than where I'm scheduling, then I use it earlier (often that day) in my social media feed. 

 

I've given you a number of the details which I have not written about before but use each week in my social media feed. I've created my own system—and know you will have to create a system that works for you and your plans. 

 

Do you have a plan or system for your social media? Let me know in the comments below. 

 

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The Importance of Systems and Habits

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As a writer and editor, I'm involved in a number of different projects each week. Many of these tasks are routine and something I do over and over. For example using Hootsuite, I post on social media 12–15 times each day. I write and each week I post an article for The Writing Life. I read books and write book reviews. I speak with authors about their submissions to Morgan James and many other tasks.

 

One of the ways these various projects get done is tied to my habits and various systems that I've created. Do you have such patterns in your own writing life? I encourage you to create habits and systems using tools to be consistent. I've written in these articles about the importance of being consistent. How does consistency happen? From my experience, one of the key ingredients is to develop a habit or system. 

 

Here's a few of the habits and systems I've created in my writing life:

 

--I consistently read books and after reading the book, I write a short review and post it on Amazon and Goodreads. 

--Also I am consistently listening to audiobooks, writing a review and posting it. Each of these actions are intentional.

--Regularly calling people or emailing and looking for new opportunities.

--Consistently emailing or calling and inviting authors to submit their book manuscripts or proposal to Morgan James.

--Also I follow-up consistently with potential Consistent follow-up with my potential Morgan James authors.

 

The Difference Maker

 

There are many functions that I do over and over. Consistent completion is important for many of these tasks. For example, I have a number of monthly writing deadlines. I enter the task in my reminders which helps me complete the task on the deadline. Meeting deadlines is a critical element for every professional writer. You do not want to be asking your editor for more time to meet your deadline. It is not a good impression you are making on them.

 

For almost any task that I do on a regular basis, I often create a system or method which as I do it over and over and eventually it becomes a habit. I’m always looking for ways to streamline and improve the  system with a new tool. The result is these tasks get completed. Are you using systems to create these habits for your writing life? Or are you reinventing it each time?

 

Completing these tasks is important for several reasons:

1. Professionalism
2. Dependability
3. Your Reputation as a Writer
4. To Add to your body of work as a writer
5. To get additional work or assignments

 

From my experience in this business, nothing happens without taking consistent action which involves regular communication (phone or email or in the mail or text). How important are creating systems or habits in your writing life? Let me know in the comments below.

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Last week, Glyndon Greer at the Adazing Podcast published our interview about publishing and how authors can succeed with their books. Listen on Spotify or Apple. 

 

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