Not Accepting Failure

The USA Today headline blared, "Entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki doesn't accept failure." What's up with that?

Through the years, I've heard Guy speak a number of times in different settings. When I worked at Christianity.com, I met Guy at a conference (years ago). He is an out-going, highly-visible and innovative person. I encourage you to read the USA Today article and in particular this last quote: "At the end of my life, is it better to say that I empowered people to make great stuff, or that I died with a net worth of $10 billion? " Kawasaki says. "Obviously I'm picking the former, although I would not mind both." You can actually hear Guy Kawasaki tomorrow (Tuesday, November 11th) if you follow this link.

I began to consider what it takes as a writer in today's environment to not accept failure. It means summoning the courage to persist in the middle of rejection. It means continually pitching and knocking on doors until you locate the right one (or ones) which open for your work.

If you want to get your book idea published, are you learning the best possible way to pitch and position your idea when you talk with literary agents and editors? The expectations of editors and agents are high ones for book proposals and manuscripts because of the flood of information coming their direction. You have seconds to capture their attention and you don't want to squander that opportunity.

I've been re-reading Fern Reiss' excellent book, The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days. On page 18, Reiss includes a remarkable list of books which were self-published when introduced to the reading public. Here's just a few of 27 titles:

A Time to Kill by John Grisham

In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The Elements of Style by William Strunk

The Publishing Game is focused on how you can create your own book and push it into the market. It honestly says, "The entry barriers to independent publishers are high. True, by independently publishing you bypass the agents and publishers who wouldn't even unwrap your manuscript. You have control. Unfortunately, unless you have a direct line to your customers, you may nonetheless find it difficult to get your book into circulation." (page 18 & 19). Then the promise of the book, "On the other hand, there are creative ways to bypass these entry barriers. This book tells you how."

The route to getting published is not easy. Can you take a smaller (and shorter) goal such as writing for magazines before your book idea gets into print? Absolutely. Editors and agents are looking for evidence of your involvement in the publishing world--and writing for print magazines can validate and build that confidence.

Keep stretching and learning. The next bit of information you gain from your writing education may provide the key to open the door of opportunity. I encourage you to look into a session I did with eight top editors and literary agents called Secrets About Proposals. You can instantly access this information, download the audio and listen to it. A second tool that I created to help you get on the publisher and agent radar is Proposal Secrets:

This audio coaching program will help answer the typical questions that authors have about pitching and proposals.

Finally I want to return to something everyone can apply to their writing life: attitude. Look inside and summon the courage to persist and move ahead with your dreams and not accept failure. This attitude will show up in your writing.

Plan To Make A Bestselling Book

There are endless discussions inside publishing houses as well as among would-be authors about what it takes to create a bestselling book. I've written about it a number of times in these entries on The Writing Life such as here and here and here. I have written about it other times and if you want to see those entries, please use the search tool in the right-hand column of the blog.

There is no single path to achieving a bestseller book. The marketplace isn't totally predictable and if it were, every single publisher would be making bestsellers (which is not happening). Yesterday I wrote about THE PUBLISHING GAME: PUBLISH A BOOK IN 30 DAYS. Reiss has another excellent book which is focused on how to make your book into a bestseller.

Fern Reiss has made it her personal mission to become a publishing expert. She shows off this expertise in THE PUBLISHING GAME, BESTSELLER IN 30 DAYS. Much of the information and resources and advice in this book is unique and ONLY in these pages. For the author who wants to sell books (and I would hope that is every author), it's like gold to learn the topics that Reiss includes in this book. For example, she writes, "in the next 30 days, you'll learn how to get your book into bookstores, corporations, book clubs, catalogs, and the hands of the public."

Whether your book is self-published or a traditional publisher has released your book, as the author, you need to be involved in the selling process. As Reiss explains in this book--you need a plan. Get this book and begin to plan your steps to becoming a bestselling author.

Win At The Publishing Game

Several years ago at a small writer's conference in the Phoenix area, I had the opportunity to meet Fern Reiss. After talking for a few minutes, neither one of us had plans for lunch so we ate together. From those first moments, I appreciated her knowledge about the publishing world. In fact, at this event with limited attendance, Reiss had a packed room of participants for her publishing seminar. I didn't really understand the reasons until much later when I read The Publishing Game, Publish A Book in 30 Days! She knows publishing inside and out. Why because she's had a starred review of her books in Publishers Weekly and sold her book to chains and other details which I have not done in publishing--at least at the time of this writing.

At first, I wondered about her book title, The Publishing Game yet it makes sense. To play a game and win, you have to have a plan and a strategy. It's also true in publishing where to be published and sell loads of books at a profit, you need a strategy. And if you want to self-publish, then the odds are really against you having success because of the publishing system. There are numerous examples of poorly created self-published books. Retailers have had poor experiences with reordering and the business aspects with these books. Readers (including me) have had terrible experiences with poorly created self-published books. The publishing system is geared toward traditional publishing with recognized publishers, normal ordering techniques, etc. Where do you go to learn the system?

There are many different ways to learn this system. You could take a course such as at Stanford Publishing with great expense. Do check out their free video clips with great information about publishing issues in their blog. Or I'm suggesting you study The Publishing Game and study every page of it.

Here's what I will tell you about Reiss's book: many people want to self-publish a book but fail to learn the publishing business from the inside out BEFORE they take the plunge. They end up with a garage full of products which they can't sell. Don't go down that path. Instead purchase The Publishing Game, Publish A Book in 30 Days! And then follow each of the steps in this well-crafted book.

On the surface you may smile at the name of the publisher, Peanut Butter and Jelly Press. Yes that is the name of Fern Reiss's company but she knows the rules and holds nothing back in this book. With straight-forward information and solid resources, Reiss guides the reader to producing an excellent book which will be accepted in the traditional channels.

Why would any reader following this advice achieve such acceptance when most traditional sales channels like bookstores don't want to have anything to do with self-published books? Because Reiss takes readers through the rigorous process of traditional publishing with resources for editing and proofreading along with the details about how to get your book reviewed and considered in the bookstore channels and book club markets. This author knows her stuff--because she has successfully published using this methodology.

Reiss has served the whole publishing community with this title because she encourages every would-be author to pursue excellence in each aspect of the publishing process. Whether you are a seasoned author or brand-new to publishing, you can gain from the detailed information in this book. I recommend it.