Be "The Exception" Author

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

From my years in publishing. I know there are many authors who want to write a bestselling book. They take classes and courses and work hard at learning the craft of storytelling and writing. They join a critique group and even hire an outside editor to produce an excellent manuscript and proposal. They go to conferences and meet literary agents and editors, then follow up with their writing. Each of these steps are important and essential to the process.

Publishing has a lot of competition as a part of the mixture. Thousands of new books enter the marketplace every day and there are many books already in print with those authors trying to sell their books. While self-publishing is always an option, it is not a route that I recommend to authors because most of it is not successful (doesn't sell) and you end up doing everything on your own (everything—including functions that you have no interest in doing).

As an acquisitions editor, I'm looking for authors who are the exception. As an author, I'm trying to be the exception in my approach and life. Such an approach is not easy-and if it were, everyone would be doing it. The path is filled with failure and restarts yet there is a path and you can continue in spite of the failure and restarts. From my experience, those persistent authors are the ones who eventually succeed and find their way. Here's a couple of examples of these authors:

Cec Murphey has written many books including his bestselling 90 Minutes in Heaven. He had written many books before this title and received a modest advance (and expectation) from the publisher regarding this book. Through the tireless promotion of Don Piper, this book got on the New York Times bestseller list and has continued to sell year after year. Cec has written many different types of books and he is a great example of someone who is an exception as an author.

Jerry B. Jenkins has published 195 books and been #1 on the New York Times bestseller list 21 times. Left Behind was his 125^th book so he was not an overnight success. The Left Behind series has sold over 70 million copies. Jerry has written many different kinds of books and is another example of an author who is the exception.

While you have probably heard of these last two authors, I'm intentionally selecting a third author who is the exception and you've probably not heard of him: Alan Williams. He is the author of The Little Teammate which is a Morgan James children's book. I understand this book has sold over 400,000 copies—and you would not know it from the BookScan numbers or the Amazon ranking. How did it happen? The author is selling copies in bulk to corporation.  Every author can use this strategy to sell books but few do so Alan Williams is an exception. You can learn about bulk sales through this free teleseminar that I did on the topic. 

Here's a few of my lessons from these exceptional authors:

1. Be consistent and persistent.

2. Timing is not in your control but you can control your effort—so make it consistent and persistent.

3. Look for the open doors and march through them. Most people give up but the ones who succeed keep on knocking and trying and working to find the right place. Persistence and the right connection will pay off in the long run.

Are you an “exception” author? Or maybe you know of one and their actions. Let me know in the comments below.

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Why You Should Try Ghostwriting

Years ago, I decided there were a finite number of stories and articles and books that I could write from my own experiences. I've written personal experience magazine articles from my own life and published in various publications.  Also I've written many different types of books such as devotionals or biographies or how-to books.

For any writer, there are many different types of writing. In fact, I list the variety in the first chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. The first chapter is free with this extensive list.  If you are looking to diversify your writing, I encourage you to look at this list and try a different type of writing.

Today I want to highlight one of the most overlooked types of writing called ghostwriting. When you write a book for another person is called ghostwriting. Cec Murphey is one of the most skilled writers in this area with over 140 published books to his credit and a number of New York Times best-selling books. Many writers have never attempted ghostwriting or co-authoring or collaborating to write the story of someone else. Murphey has tackled this type of writing over and over. He has recently published a new book called GHOSTWRITING.

Through a combination of his own personal experience, he takes the mystery away from this area and helps writers learn the value. He gives them a vision for how they too could earn good money but also help others birth stories which would never be written.

Murphey covers the gamut of topics in this well-written book. He defines the terms like book doctor or collaborator or ghostwriter. He goes into ethical concerns and where you find subjects and answers a critical writer question: how do you make money and what do you charge for this service.
I’ve got shelves of how-to writing books and only have one other book on this topic (written years ago). This new book is fresh and engaging. Also Murphey has tapped his wide network of other ghostwriters for their experiences and added it to enrich his book. The key application points for the reader are distilled at the end of each chapter into a series of bullet points called a Takeaway.

As I read GHOSTWRITING cover to cover, I found myself nodding in agreement at the wisdom in this book. I’ve written more than a dozen books for other people as a collaborator and rarely a ghostwriter. I highly recommend GHOSTWRITING for anyone who wants to learn the inside story about this much needed area of the writing world.

Many writers are trying to figure out how to make a living with their writing. One of the most lucrative and needed ways to earn a living and tell the stories is in this area of ghostwriting. I encourage you to get GHOSTWRITING to learn how to open up this possibility.

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The Unexpected Discovery of My Book

Last weekend I was in Hershey, Pennsylvania at the Hershey Lodge for a conference called Writer to Writer. It was a terrific event which will be repeated in the fall and I met some new writers. Also I got to hang out with a couple of my long-term friends. Jerry B. Jenkins taught the fiction track and Cecil Murphey taught the nonfiction track of the conference. I had the opportunity to speak at a breakfast to the group and also to teach a couple of workshops.

After the conference was completed, the Hershey Lodge was hosting a regional Christian bookseller conference. On Sunday afternoon, I signed over 125 copies of my Billy Graham biography as a way to introduce the book to these retail stores. The experience was a terrific way to help retailers know about the book and its availability. Also it gave me a chance to tell them about the benefits and distinctions of my biography for their customers. My biography is an easy-to-read 172 pages and in a couple of evenings readers can gain an overview of Mr. Graham's life. I included a number of new stories and the book is completely up-to-date.

If you don't know, I worked for Mr. Graham about 20 years ago as the Associate Editor at Decision, the official publication of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I gathered endorsements and a foreword from Luis Palau for my book. You can see these endorsements and a short book trailer on my website. You can order it different ways from my website—even get an autographed copy if you want.

Depending on the time of year, traveling can be challenging. It's exactly what I found on Monday when I traveled home. I was on the early flight from Harrisburg to Philadelphia. I had an hour and a half to change planes but my flight was delayed for over an hour. Supposedly it was because of weather—some other place than Harrisburg where the sun was shining with a blue sky. I missed my connection from Philadelphia to Denver and the next flight was about 6:30 p.m. Yes, I was stuck all day in the Philadelphia airport. 

Since I had a lot of time on my hands, I wandered into Heritage Books. As I looked around, I discovered copies of my Billy Graham biography:

I asked the shopkeeper if I could sign my books. She called her manager to check and the manager said, “Yes.” I pulled out my pen and autographed all of the copies. Throughout November, December and January, my book has been in 25 different airports besides other bookstores across the country. Here's the list:

Travel delays are a nuisance but I made an unexpected discovery of my book in the Philadelphia airport. Fun.

Writers Need Resilience

It happens to everyone. Throughout life, we have large and small experiences which stir internal questions which appear to have no answers.

There is no one better than Cecil Murphey to help us understand "The Secrets to Thriving in Tough Times" and his book, MAKING SENSE WHEN LIFE DOESN'T. As a former pastor and long-term writer, Cec has co-authored and written more than 100 books. Through capturing the experiences of others as well as living his own, he has accumulated a lifetime of wisdom and insights. In short doses, this book serves up these nuggets in an ideal format for readers.

I loved the chapter called Becoming Resilient. Cec writes about his mother facing the death of her husband of more than sixty years and the immediate death of her fifty-three-year-old firstborn son. In the face of such tragedy, we wonder how anyone copes. He writes, "Resilience—the ability to accept what can't be changed and not be defeated by it. My mother had become a strong Christian, and certainly her faith enabled her to hold up. And I believe that's when faith becomes most important—when life falls apart. Some go through a painful divorce, or the deception by someone previously considered a friend. Perhaps a request for a loan to buy a house gets turned down. Or a car does on you, or you're involved in a serious accident. That's when faith makes sense. That's when we realize we need help and call on a power beyond our own abilities. If we call out and trust God's loving care through our hard-times, we survive and build resilience….Life doesn't always make sense, and we have no explanations for the disappointments or setbacks, yet we can become tougher and stronger than we were before the confusion invaded our world. If I live through hardships, resilience is the payoff." (page 57-58)

That's a small sample of what you will find in the pages of MAKING SENSE WHEN LIFE DOESN'T. I recommend you get this book. You will be surprised and blessed with what it contains.

Resilience is a valuable characteristic for every writer. If you haven't faced hardships with your writing, then get ready because it will likely come for you. The question is how willyou handle it and make sense of it? Cec Murphey has packed a lot of wisdom and insight into the pages of his new book.

Facing Rejections

Editor's note: I rarely have guest bloggers but today I'm using an excerpt by my friend Cecil Murphey from his new book, Making Sense When Life Doesn't, The Secret of Thriving in Tough Times. This article is particularly valuable for writers.

By Cecil Murphey

“Don’t take this personally,” my friend said.

I stared at him and wondered how I could not take the rebuff personally. It had happened to me. It seemed easy enough for him to talk like that because my crisis didn’t affect him. I was bleeding emotionally, and he was telling me how not to feel.

I had been rejected. It wasn’t the first time in my life, but that fact didn’t make it easier to accept. And it’s probably true with most of us. Rejections aren’t new to any of us. We experienced them the day Mom took our favorite toy and gave it to our sibling, when we were the last one chosen on the playground, and when we applied for a job and the human resources person smirked at our résumé.

I’m a specialist in rejection because I’m a professional writer. Part of the job description includes learning to accept rejections— many rejections—and most of us never get beyond that. That’s true with anyone in sales, and in one sense, I’m in sales.

For any of us who sell books, real estate, clothes, or insurance policies, the principle applies. None of us wins every time. Sometimes the customer says no. Or we don’t get the promotion we’re convinced we’re owed. Or we hear the buzzword downsize, and it means, “I’m out of a job.”

How can I not take that personally?

I’ve read dozens of articles and books and heard many lectures about rejections, but they haven’t helped a great deal. When someone says no to me and it’s something I want, it is personal.

As a writer, I came to terms with the despised word by telling myself jokingly that I was selling a product (my book manuscript), and the editor wasn’t bright enough to sense the value of my pristine prose. That helped me objectify the situation.

Even so, it took me a long, long time to be able to depersonalize a refusal. Part of that was because I was trying to make a good living from my craft, and to receive a non-acceptance was like a major detour off the highway I wanted to follow.

It is personal. What happens when the rejection is something that affects your livelihood? What happens when you need a loan and the bank says, “Sorry, you’re not qualified”? Or how do you take it objectively when your spouse, whom you love, wants to leave?

I don’t know the answer to those situations, but I can share my insights in dealing with them.

It’s all right to wallow in pain, hurt, anger, depression, or any other emotion you feel. It’s all right—for a while.

What’s wrong with feeling those things that hurt us? Real living means being honest about ourselves.

In the middle of the pain, talk to a few friends—the right friends. Find a shoulder or two on which to rest your head. A hug. A word of encouragement and empathy.

When someone says no to me and it’s something I want, it is personal.

The time comes when we need to move beyond self-pity (and that’s what it really is). We’ve admitted we failed or didn’t get what we wanted. Now what do we do?

I can respond in two ways.

First, because of my faith in God, I realize I’ve been in situations as bad or worse, and my faith has pulled me through. I made it in the past, I can make it in the present.

When my life doesn’t make sense, I have one statement that I say to myself, and it works: “Who am I to think that I should be immune?”

Some people seem to think that if we believe in God, that separates us from others who have misfortune. Or they assume that if we’re morally upright, we won’t face injustice.

I don’t agree with that attitude. My faith is in a God who doesn’t shield me from chaos but who is with me during the chaos.

Second, I can turn to my experience. If I survived rejections of the past—and I have—I can survive this.

In the past it may have started with not getting the part in a play or losing an election for class president. In our teen years, the one person we wanted to date turned us down—perhaps even laughed at us—but we survived. We can do the same now.

 

Surviving rejections and failed plans in the past assures me that I can handle them in the present.

Real living means being honest about ourselves.

Excerpted from Making Sense When Life Doesn't, The Secret of Thriving in Tough Times page 47–49 Used with Permission.

Why Do You Write?

By Cecil Murphey

Why do you want to write? What pushes or compels you to keep on writing even though you receive rejection after rejection?

Those are the two major questions I’ve often asked writers at the more than 250 conferences where I’ve spoken or taught continuing classes over the past thirty-five years.

The conferees’ responses vary, but the first ones usually begin with high-sounding tones—as if they want to please me, the teacher, or out of a desire to sound erudite. More than once someone has said, “I want to light the way for others to follow.”

Another said, “I see writing as a high and holy occupation because we’re committed to save the world from ignorance.”

That’s commendable—and maybe even true—but I knew those weren’t the deepest reasons.

“I write to make sense of the world,” one man insisted.

“Sounds profound,” I said. “Perhaps a little too profound for me.”

He added that he had so much chaos in his daily living that writing was one way he could make sense of his life. When I pushed him to explain further, he admitted he had read the statement in a book, liked it, and was satisfied with that as an answer.

A woman at a conference in Tennessee held up a laminated 3x5 card she kept in her purse. She said that the words, a quotation from Henry James, inspired her every time she read them. She later mailed me a copy:

To live in the world of creation—to get into it and stay in it—to frequent it and haunt it—to think intensely and fruitfully—to woo combinations and inspirations into being by a depth and continuity of attention and meditation—this is the only thing. I read the quotation many times before copying it here (with her permission). The only thing? That statement seems extreme, although I’m sure some people find the quotation inspirational. The words sound noble and probably inspire others, but they don’t do anything for me. Perhaps I’m too much of a pragmatist.

To get beyond such lofty language, about five years ago I started opening my lectures this way: “Why do you want to write? While you think about your answer, I’m going to give you several reasons I write. After that, I’ll listen to your responses.”

As soon as they focused their attention on me, I said, “I write because I’m so full of myself, I believe the world is waiting to read my brilliant thoughts.”

They laughed, a few nodded, and all seemed to know what I meant. I went on to explain that I also write because I’m driven to share my thoughts and insights on life.

“I’m a needy guy, and out of my need to feel appreciated, valued, and affirmed, I write,” I say. “That’s as simple and direct as I can put it. Our needs express who we are, what we lack, what we yearn for. All of us feel deficient in some ways.”

I make one additional statement that seems to give several conferees the freedom to speak. “Writing is one way to compensate for my feelings of inadequacy.”

The conferees relax. They no longer need to impress me with lofty statements. They’re ready to give me gut-level responses.

Sometimes, to push them to think deeper, I add, “I write to resolve issues and explore possibilities. At times, it’s a form of therapy. I’ve learned so much from my inward exploring, I’ve probably saved half-a-million dollars in therapist’s fees by being a writer.”

They usually laugh again.

Finally, before I allow them to respond, I write one sentence on the board or flip chart:

I write to find out who I am.

Then I wait.

The hands start waving, and they yell out the kind of things I like to hear. From my perspective, they finally speak from deep inside themselves. This is no longer an exam where they have to voice the right answer to please the teacher; they don’t have to sound noble, sophisticated, or even spiritual.

Occasionally someone will say, “I want to have a book to use as a way to open up a public-speaking career.”

That’s certainly a legitimate answer.

Most of them, however, have deeply personal reasons for writing. “I want to share what I know.”

“I have things to say to enrich others.”

“Writing broadens my life. The more I write and ponder,” one man said, “the more I understand human nature, God, and the world in which I live.”

“Writing satisfies my creative urge.”

“I just have to do it!” one woman yelled. “Many times I tell myself I’ll never write another word, but within a day or two I’m pounding the keyboard again.”

It’s interesting that “to make money” rarely appears on their list of reasons.

Why do you write?

About the Author: New York Times best-selling author and international speaker Cecil Murphey has written or co-written more than 120 books including the runaway bestseller 90 Minutes in Heaven with Don Piper.

Excerpted from Unleash the Writer Within by Cecil Murphey, OakTara © 2011 Used with Permission

A Calculated Risk

Depending on the day that that you take a look, it's fairly easy to get discouraged about the book business. The overall statistics say people are reading less and buying less books yet more books are being published than ever before--especially with the advancing printing technologies.

The good news is that every publisher, editor and literary agent continues searching for the best possible projects. You can create one of these desirable products. As I've mentioned in other entries about The Writing Life, it is not easy to come up with the right idea at the right time and the right place.

Over the weekend, I read 90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey which has been around for several years but is still on the New York Times bestseller list. It's one of the books that Michael Hyatt listed when he read the Christian books on this list. If you don't know the story, a Baptist minister Don Piper was in a horrible car accident on January 18, 1989 where he was declared dead and it is documented that he died for 90 minutes. This personal story is much more than a glimpse about heaven but describes the journey through pain to recovery. Yesterday I wrote a short review for Amazon and joined over 400 others who have positively ranked this book. Just look at this little photo from yesterday's amazon page.

There are many people who want to publish their personal story and Don Piper's story is unusual. When writers read this type of book, they say to themselves, "My personal story needs to get published." And that story can get published if it is pitched to the right publisher at the right time and the right place and in the right manner. Notice all of the rights in that sentence? It's on purpose because many times writers don't put all of those elements together properly and wonder why they can't find a publisher. One of the interesting details that Piper slipped into the acknowledgements section should be called to a writer's attention. He wrote, "I wrote three different manuscripts about this experience to satisfy inquiring minds. None of them satisfied me. That's when I prevailed upon one of America's distinguished authors to partner with me to write a book that would answer the most compelling issues concerning my death and life." I have no idea if Piper had these three manuscripts in his computer or desk drawer or if he had sent them to various publishers and been rejected.

There is a story about 90 Minutes in Heaven that you will often not hear. This book was not an instant barn-burner bestseller. In fact, Revell, the publisher had modest expectations about this book and took a calculated risk to publish the book. How do I know? The book advance is one way publishers reveal some of their expectations for a book's performance. Unless there are other circumstances such as an author's platform and visibility, the publisher will base their advance so the book will earn out these funds within the first 12-16 months that the book is in print. Cec Murphey is a long-time friend of mine. While Cec didn't tell me this information, I've heard that 90 Minutes in Heaven received a modest advance of about $12,000. Those funds earned back a long time ago as the book cover announces, "More Than 1 Million Copies Sold." If you travel, you will find this book everywhere. I've especially noticed it in the airport bookstores.

Here's the other key which many writers miss: Don is a tireless promoter of his books and his work. Many authors don't want to do media or speak yet Piper is constantly on the road. Just look at his speaking schedule and consider this information is only for a few months at a time.

I want to conclude this entry with some encouragement to the writer. When I was in New York City, I met with a new editor-in-chief of a publisher who had been in her position about five weeks. I asked her specifics about which type of books she wanted to publish and explored different types of books. Earlier that day I had been in the offices of Simon and Schuster and was carrying a copy of Mistaken Identity. As I pulled out my copy of the book, she instantly said, "That's what I'm looking for. Bring me one of these types of manuscripts." This book is another unusual story but the reason for her enthusiasm is that she knew the book would sell and earn money for the publisher. Too often writers are focused on the story and not the business of publishing in their pitches. There is a place to focus on the story--and it's important. Yet you have to appeal to the business side of the equation if you want to work with a traditional publisher.