Make Small & Significant Adjustments

     

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As writers, our days are full of activity. Can you make some small yet significant adjustments in your writing life and reach more people as a result?

Last spring through my email, I learned that my shopping cart which I had been using for over 20 years was going to close. When I called customer service, they affirmed that they were shutting down because their server was old and not preforming well. I paid this company monthly for a diverse set of tools including my newsletter, the autoresponders for my various lead magnets, and a few digital products that I sold. I didn’t have a technical person managing it for me because I didn’t want to pay those monthly fees. Instead, I had slowly learned to create a newsletter, add new products and new autoresponders. At times the learning curve was steep and I had to reach out to customer service for advise and help. Overall my shopping cart was working but I had a deadline when it would no longer function.

There are a number of companies which serve this function. I did some research and selected where I would change my newsletter. The changeover was overwhelming and something I could not fit into my schedule. I reached out and located a technical expert to move everything. The change was costly and took several weeks and almost everything was moved. There are a few things which still need some clean up. 

Through the years my newsletter has been sporadic and leading people to different places. It’s not the path that I would recommend. Over a year ago, I decided issue my newsletter each week. As my subscribers will tell you, I’ve faithfully sent this newsletter each week. My issue was moving those email addresses from my old list. I reached out to a newsletter specialist who has moved and merged several lists into a single newsletter. It has definitely been a process which is almost finished. If you aren’t subscribed to my newsletter, I encourage you to use this link, subscribe and you will receive an 87 page ebook filled with writing encouragement.

Besides my weekly newsletter, I have these articles for The Writing Life which I create each week. I have a smaller group of subscribers who receive these articles on their email. I use a tool called Feedblitz for this list. I used their standard and plain form:

For many years, my form has been the same with no changes or improvements. I wondered if I could make a small but significant change in the form. Then it would be identified to the reader that it was tied to The Writing Life. I reached out to ask for help. They responded with step-by-step instructions. I followed them and changed my subscription form to:

This change would not be helpful if I didn’t promote my new form. As the great circus P.T. Barnum has said, “Without promotion something terrible happens. Nothing.” In my weekly newsletter, I added a postscript with a simple sentence and a link to my new form. I will be doing some additional promotion of this form in the days ahead. It is a simple but true principle that you have to do the marketing otherwise it does not increase. There are dozens of ways and places to do this promotion but it takes continued action to make these increases.

I’m telling you these stories to ask you a few questions? What is it you want to improve? Is there a way to make some small but significant changes which will move you in the direction that you want or need to go? I encourage you to take a moment and think about the areas you want to improve. Maybe you need to sell a book project and create a book proposal. Or maybe you want to reach more people through magazine articles or personal experience stories. Or maybe you want to do more speaking or podcasting or any number of other aspects of the writing life. 

In straight forward language, write your goals. Then plan how are you going to get there? Who could help you and guide you? Will you email them asking for their help or call them or meet with them on person? As writers we have many choices for each aspect of our lives but need to find the different options then select one and take action on it. Maybe your change or shift will be small or maybe a big shift will transpire. The key is to understand it and move forward. 

I encourage you to get the help you need--even if you have to pay for the coaching or training. It is critical for you to keep improving, growing and learning to reach your goals and remain consistent toward them--in spite of any challenges, discouragement, rejection or roadblocks. Recognize the challenges, rejection and roadblocks will come but your persistence and consistency will eventually move you beyond the resistence. 

What small but significant adjustments do you need to make in your writing life? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

What happens to your writing life when you make small and significant adjustments? Read the stories and actions from this prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week one more podcast recording launched:

Bestselling novelist Steven James (@readstevenjames) and I talked about the importance of showing instead of telling, looking at the bigger picture, giving readers a reason to flip the page, and The 11th Myth on The Story Blender Podcast: https://bit.ly/3WtbsXJ

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses. 

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Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA