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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Good Choices and Good Habits Are Important

We are faced with dozens of choices every day. At times these choices are complicated because of the many possibilities. For example, when you purchase toothpaste, there are endless variations even among the same brand. 

I'm keenly aware of the many choices we have as writers and editors. For example, do I answer emails from authors, do I set up phone calls with authors, do I make follow-up calls with authors who have contracts but haven't responded? Do I work on getting more conference speaking or do I write some query letters for more magazine writing? Do I create a new marketing campaign for one of my books? Do I reconnect with some agent friends to see if they have something I could contract with Morgan James? Do I send an email to my mailing list? These are only a few of a multitude of choices but you get the idea. There are many different possibilities. Which do I select and accomplish today?

Each of us are locked into time and space limitations. We only have a certain number of work hours for each day before we run out of energy. I've recently been listening to the audiobook for Atomic Habits by James Clear. If we are honest, we have bad habits that we want to lose and some good habits that we would like to acquire. James Clear is a habit expert and in this engaging audiobook helps us understand and develop habits—yet in an uncomplicated, "everybody can do it" sort of way.

Atomic Habits opens with the story of the British cycling team who instead of huge goals decided to change things by one percent.  When most of us want to change a habit like lose weight or make more money or ???, we set a major goal then most of us fail in this process. Clear advocates and teaches how to change in small increments which is much more possible. The British cycling team made incremental one percent changes in their pillow, their clothing, the massage oil, and many other elements. It transformed the team into winning Olympic gold medals.

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.

What do you want to achieve with your writing? If you are writing a book, are you establishing a system (habit) which will accomplish your goal? For example, you could decide to write 1,000 words (about four pages) every day until you finish a draft of your book. You create a system that will allow you to develop a writing habit which will accomplish your larger goal of completing a book manuscript.

If you want to get the attention of a literary agent to get a book deal with a publisher. What are you doing to craft an eye-catching book proposal? Are you regularly contacting agents or going to a conference where you will meet them and develop your relationship? Create a system (habit) which moves you toward your goal. The steps can be small but your consistent effort will pay off.

Do you want to develop a social media presence? What are you doing to consistently grow that presence? Are you posting on different sites on a consistent basis and growing your audience? As you post where are you leading this audience? Does it lead to exposure for your book? Or does it lead to getting sign ups for your email list? What is your system (habit)? Without consistent effort and a system (habit), it will be a good thought but not translate into reality (at least this is true from my experience). 

Our habits and choices are important. I encourage you to make good ones—not just once but every day. If I can help you in this process, don't hesitate to email or reach out to me.

What habits and choices are you making with your writing life? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:


How do your choices and habits grow your writing and life in publishing? Get ideas and help from this prolific editor and writer. (ClickToTweet)
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