Critical Author Habits

    

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

While it was many years ago, I recall my first sip of coffee and the horrible taste.I wondered how or why people drank it. Many people around me were drinking coffee so I continued trying it and developed the habit of loving the taste of coffee. As a young writer, I leaned into the caffiene from my coffee drinking. In my early days of writing, I was drinking a full pot or two of coffee every day. Now many years later, I only drink a couple of cups of coffee but I still love the taste of it.

If you want to learn more about habit formation, I recommend reading or hearing Atomic Habits by James Clear. In 2019, I listened to the audiobook and wrote in my review, “Clear contends to make a new effective habit means developing a system. This audiobook is loaded with insights for every reader. I listened to this audiobook cover to cover and highly recommend ATOMIC HABITS.”

Often in these entries, I’ve written in detail about the various personal systems that I use in my critical author habits. I have over 1800 articles in The Writing Life and encourage you to search for a particular topic if I don’t include what you need in this article.

Today I want to pull out several of these habits with stories and my encouragement for you to incorporate them into your writing life. 

Consistent Writing

No one sits down and writes a novel or a nonfiction book manuscript. The manuscript is written with a consistent and persistent gameplan. The majority of writers use a word count as their benchmark. For example, they decide to write 500 words (which is about two pages) every day or four times a week or whatever pattern. They select a pattern then do that pattern over and over to get a draft of their manuscript. There are many different types of writing. In the first chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dream, I have an extensive list (follow this link to see it). 

Also professional writers learn how to pitch their work to editors and literary agents. They learn how to write a query letter and a book proposal (no matter what type of book they are writing). Your book proposal is your business plan for your book and will include many important details which is not in your manuscript. The consistent use of these tools is an important habit to develop. If you want to know more about these tools, follow the links that I include. I’ve been using these tools for many years to be published in magazines and publishing houses.

Last month in an email, Mike Salisbury literary agent at Yates & Yates wrote about Beth Adams who I met years ago at a Seattle Writers Conference. Mike introduced Beth saying:

“Beth Adams is the Editorial Director for FaithWords and Worthy Books, imprints of the Hachette Book Group, where she’s worked on numerous bestselling and award-winning books. She also writes books as a side-hustle and has published over eighty books to date. Every day at 5 am, you can find her on the couch with her laptop and a strong cup of coffee, making up stories. An introverted book lover/cat lady at heart, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.”

Also Mike included Beth’s advice to writer saying: “Beth: Do it every day. You need to carve out consistent time in your schedule, even if it’s at 5 am, to work every single day. If you write only when you feel like it, you’ll never do it, and if you go more than a day or two without returning to your story, it becomes too hard to get back into it. You have to spend too much time getting back up to speed. But setting a regular rhythm allows you to stay in your work and also forces you to treat it like work, which it is.”

Expanded Connections

Your connections to the publishing world is an important one and should be a part of your habits. Who you know is as important as what you know. Are you continually expanding and using your connections? For example, are we connected on LinkedIN? If not, follow this link and send me a connection invitation.  Publishing professionals move around a great deal and LinkedIN is a great place to begin if you want to connect or reconnect with someone. Often when they move they will take their LinkedIN account with them and their LinkedIN contact information will have this email address. I say “often” because I’ve had several recent situations where I know someone has left their publishing role and not left a non-publishing email address in LinkedIN. 

Grow Readers 

Every author needs to be growing readers for their writing. One of the critical elements is in a consistent newsletter. Everyone begins with a small list but the key habit is to consistently use and grow these connections. I’ve had a newsletter for many years and my downfall has been the lack of consistency. Over a year ago, I changed this pattern and have een sending my newsletter each week to subscribers. Here’s the link to subscribe and with my gratitude you will receive an 87-page ebook.

I spoke with one of my Morgan James Publishing authors who has done multiple books with us. This author knows about the importance of a newsletter but hasn’t started one. If you fall into this category, I encourage you to start a newsletter then send it consistently and grow your readership. I understand a newsletter takes continued time and effor. It is another critical author habit.

Continual Learning 

For decades I’ve been studying and reading about different aspects of publishing. I continue to learn and experiment with differeent areas. In these articles I’ve mentioned doing guest podcasting. In several articles, I’ve detailed my process. As new podcasts launch, I’ve included the links and the details. During the last year, I’ve recorded or booked over 60 podcasts using PodMatch which is connected to over 90,000 podcasts. I encourage you to continue to experiment and learn new skills. At least once a year, get to a writer’s conference and take a class to open a different type of writing for you. The world is full of opportunity but you have to take continued action for it to happen.

Consistency and Persistence

Reading these words is a good first step but what actions are you going to take for your writing life? How can you develop a system where you consistently move forward? Let me know in the comments.

Tweetable:

According to this prolific author and editor, there are a series of critical author habits. You can read the details in this article. (ClickToTweet)

Start Your Writing Year with a Bang

I’m speaking at the Publicity Club on Tuesday, January 6th from 5 pm to 6 pm Pacific. I’m teaching on Seven Simple Actions to Boost Your Publishing This Year. The first meeting is free and here’s the Facebook event link with the details. I will be telling some stories but also including an action-packed handout. I hope many of you will attend and get my free resource.

When I’ve worked with different publishers on a variety of  books, I’ve learned the hard way that much of the publishing process is outside of anything an author can control. As an editor, I’ve spoken with different authors about their books, I’ve found many unrealistic expectations. There are actions every author can take with their books. 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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