When You Feel Like Giving Up

If we are honest, not every day in publishing is fun. Sometimes it feels like we are on one of those climbing walls and the way forward looks impossible. Yet even in those difficult days, I continue hitting the keyboard and cranking out words and stories. Other days I spend on the phone with authors or answering emails and questions about contracts or other issues.

Yet in the midst of the opportunities or challenges, I continue helping authors create new books through my work as an acquisitions editor. I continue to write for new blogs or magazines and working on my social media and growing my own measure of influence in the marketplace.  I continue the work because I believe in the life-changing effects of books. I know that first hand as I explained in this short video several years ago:


Often we can't see the results of our writing and how it is affecting others. Recently I was listening to actress Lauren Graham's memoir, Talking As Fast As I Can. I enjoyed this story she told about bestselling author James Patterson. Graham was in Atlanta and about to begin filming Middle School, based on the books by Patterson and Chris Tebbetts. At the cast dinner, Graham was seated next to Patterson. She turned and asked him a question that he had probably been asked many times, “How do you do it?”

“He turned to and said, “Keep going, keep going, keep going.”

I found this story encouraging that even  mega-bestselling author like James Patterson has to use this mantra of keep going. Each of face different curve balls along the publishing journey. Maybe your editor leaves the publishing house and you have to work with a different editor. Maybe your publishing house closes or gets sold to another publisher. Maybe you face an unexpected family crisis of health or any number of other situations. The challenges of life are plenty for everyone and enough for some people to throw in the towel and not move forward.

From my experience and listening to numerous stories from bestselling authors, the people who succeed and write their bestseller or find their best publishing opportunity, are the ones who keep going.  Many authors give up too early in the process and do not keep looking for the right publisher at the right time and the right place.

As someone who has been studying about publishing for many years, admittedly there is a lot to learn for every writer. You need to learn how to craft a pitch to an editor or a literary agent. You need to learn how to write excellent stories and then do the long-term work of telling people about your book (marketing).

I love the advice best-selling author Harvey MacKay gave in this recent article called Never Give Up. MacKay gives terrific specific details in this article and then he always has a summary statement that he calls a MacKay Moral: The hardest sale you'll ever make is to yourself.  But once you're convinced you can do it, you can.

When you face the bump in the road of your writing life, I encourage you to keep going.

Tweetable:

As a writer, read this encouragement when you feel like giving up. (ClickToTweet)
 

The Outrageous Offer

If you follow my tweets from Twitter, you know I'm a fan of bestselling author, Harvey Mackay. I met him several years ago when he spoke at a Mark Victor Hansen Mega Book Marketing University in Los Angeles. I subscribe to his column online but I also read it each Monday in the Arizona Republic, my local newspaper.

I found today's column, 'Outrageous' has instant advertising potential to be fascinating. Are you dissatisfied with the results of your advertising or promotion efforts? Mackay quotes Bill Glazer saying, 99% of small business owners are dissatisfied with the results from their advertising. Glazer wrote a book called Outrageous Advertising That's Outrageously Successful. If you click this link, you can get the book for $4.95. BTW, notice the simple website where they are selling this book: billsnewbook.com. The site is at the end of Harvey Mackay's syndicated column which is in business sections around the country.

When I read this article and looked at the book website, I understood that I could learn something from this book and the extra bonuses. I took action and purchased the book. I will receive it and plan to read it and take action on the information that I learn from it.

Why would they make such a great offer? As I purchased the book, I found out and Bill Glazer is quite explicit about it in the materials. One of the bonuses is a free month trial in their $59.95 a month Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle Gold Membership. If I don't cancel within the first month, then this amount will be automatically deducted from my credit card each month. Through the offer they are counting on a certain percentage of people who will continue with this membership. I will consider it but I strongly doubt that I will be staying as a Gold Member. Yet their offer has tremendous value and I believe I can learn something from the book and other materials.

I wanted to tell you about this experience for several reasons.

First, I'm constantly learning new techniques and information about how to become a better communicator / writer. I'm determined to continue growing in my craft and ability to reach the marketplace. I take action when I see these types of offers because I can learn something. Also I'm actively working on the new material which I will be teaching in Oregon and Philadelphia next month. I've gained some new insights which I will be passing on to the people in my sessions (maybe you? I hope so).

Second, I wanted to point out the necessity of taking action and moving forward. Not everything I try works but at least I am actively looking. When I meet with writers and even long-term professionals at conferences, often they are quick to confide in me about the lack of sales or the decline in the market and the demise of a number of well-known publications. Yes, those things are happening in the marketplace--but do not get mired in those conversations!

I encourage you to press forward. You are looking for the open doors of opportunities. It make mean you have to make some outrageous offers and create some new products for the marketplace.

Committed To Regular Reading

Over a year ago in these entries, I gave some reading statistics from bestselling author Harvey Mackay's newspaper column. They are disappointing:

"* Only 14 percent of adults with a grade-school education read literature in 2002.

* 51 percent of the American population never reads a book of more than 400 pages after they complete their formal education.

* 73 percent of all books in libraries are never checked out.

* The average American watches 32 hours of TV every week.

* The average American reads only eight hours (books, newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, etc.) every week.

* The average American annually spends 10 times more on what he puts on his head than what puts into his head."

With these statistics, it is little wonder that parts of the publishing business are struggling (and even predicting the struggle will continue for some.)

If you want to be involved in some aspect of publishing (books or magazine writing where your work appears in print), then you need to be committed to reading on a regular basis. It's important to take in great information through reading. The experience will fill your mind and heart with something important which will influence your writing. Create a habit of reading. Why?

Consider these additional statistics from Harvey Mackay:

* "If you read just one book a month for 12 straight months, you will be in the top 25 percentile of all intellectuals in the world.

* If you read five books on one subject, you are one of the world's foremost leading authorities on that subject

* If you read just 15 minutes a day -- every day for one year -- you can complete 20 books."

Often my own reading for pleasure happens early in the morning or late at night. It is a consistent part of my writing life to be reading nonfiction and fiction in many different areas. I read way beyond the books and magazines that I write about in these entries--and I do it on a planned, disciplined and regular basis. Reading is just as much a part of my publishing life as writing and the two disciplines work in tandem. Do they for you and your writing life? Even 15 minutes of reading can make a huge difference--if done on a consistent basis.

Finally, some readers are concerned if they don't see consistent tweets from me or entries about the writing life. Early tomorrow morning my wife and I are flying to the Austin, Texas area. It's a quick family related trip and I'm unplugging from my computer and not taking any gadget to connect. I will admit to slipping my AlphaSmart in my carry-on in case I get some huge inspiration. My wife's aunt turns 100 tomorrow and we'll be there with other parts of the family to celebrate Aunt Mary's milestone. I'll be back and continue my entries about writing and publishing.

In the meantime, I've got one of my biggest decisions to make: which books to carry on this quick trip for my own reading time.

What Happens To Unsold Books

Last night I was teaching another teleseminar as a part of the faculty of Virtual Book Tour Secrets for Alex Mandossian about book proposal creation. It's one of my favorite topics for would-be authors. Why?

I firmly believe the more you understand about book publishing, then the more you will be able to deliver what editors and literary agents need to successfully get your book idea into print. My encouragement to each listener is every agent and book editor that I know are actively looking for good projects. The more you know about what we are looking for, then the more likely you can deliver the right idea at the right time. I believe through information and education, you can gain the right elements and knowledge-base that you need to find success.

We spend a lot of time on the front end of creating a book to get it to the marketplace. Whether we are crafting a book proposal or pitching an editor or agent or negotiating a book contract or finishing up the requested editorial changes for a book or working with the marketing and sales department on their plans to launch the book, there are a myriad of details on this front end of the process.

During the question and answer section of my teleseminar, someone asked about what happens to the unsold books. If you've ever wondered about the answer, take a look at this column from Jonathan Karp who is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Twelve, an imprint within the Hachette Book Group (one of the major New York Publishers). While the entire article is worthy of your attention and reading, I'm going to excerpt his first paragraph for this post. He wrote (and his emphasis in italics), "Many years ago, as a new editorial assistant at a venerable publishing house, I was warned by a senior colleague never to use a certain word when telling authors what would happen to their unsold books. The forbidden word was: mulched. My colleague, a compassionate sort, worried that the word might shatter the fragile psyches of authors who had toiled for years on their manuscripts. It was better to let them believe their work was being discounted, or perhaps donated to some inner-city literacy program. Today a tactful publisher might simply invoke environmental concerns and emphasize the global imperative of recycling to prevent the melting of polar ice caps, in effect telling authors: Destroying your book will save coastal cities!"

Make sure you see what Karp writes about the future of publishing and the continual search for quality. This piece is a clarion call for writers to craft excellent works--but also to actively be involved in the selling of that work--on the front end to the publisher through crafting a remarkable proposal but also after the book gets into print so it stays in print and isn't turned into mulch. Yes the reality is that some books are remainders but after they can't be remainder (discounted any more), they are destroyed. It's a sobering reality that most authors never want to consider.

Rather than end my post today on that sobering reality, I want to turn this topic into something that encourages you. After you are armed with this reality about the unsold books, I hope it will drive you to even greater determination to succeed with your book idea or novel or nonfiction project.

For that dose of weekly encouragement, I subscribe to Harvey MacKay's column. I read it in my local newspaper each week--and marvel at the encouragement. Then later in the week, I get the column in my email box (because I've subscribed--and you can too on his page). This week's column is called, "Those who itch for success must keep scratching." How true is that statement!

Like Jonathan Karp's work, I encourage you to read MacKay's full column but here's something that I will use to encourage you. He wrote, "Years ago, I wrote about a formula for success: Determination + goal setting + concentration = success. I received a letter from a Harvard graduate saying that I was missing a fourth quality—courage. His point was that determination could be undermined by the fear that comes with a new venture."

"Let me take that one step further. In my opinion, many people fail to achieve their goals not because they are afraid of the job at hand, but because they have grown so familiar in the comfort zone of their job, they are afraid to meet the challenge of a new job. I once heard someone joke that the road to success is marked with many tempting parking places."

What steps are you taking today to move ahead with your own publishing dreams? Carve out a few consistent moments to make that happen.

The Unwelcomed Teacher: Adversity

This teacher shows up at the most inopportune times and demands your attention. When he arrives will you see it as an opportunity or an obstacle? I've already revealed the teacher in my title: adversity. No one that I know in publishing is immune to it yet it continues to teach valuable lessons.

This week, Harvey Mackay writes about adversity and the way perseverance is a key to success. I loved this line in his column, "We must push through the adversity we face. If we don't, we will be poorly prepared for winning. People are successful because they face adversity head-on to gain strength and skill. They don't take the path of least resistance. Adversity is a powerful teacher." Then a bit later he wrote, "When you get discouraged, when you seem unable to make it, there is one thing you cannot do without. It is the priceless ingredient of success called relentless effort. You must never give up. Success cannot be achieved without experiencing some adversity." I hope you will read his entire column because it is filled with pointed quotable insight.

As one of my projects for the week, I've been preparing to launch a new product. I mentioned using Sound Forge to brand a couple of my workshops for the bonus items. I could not get these files into my shopping cart or figure out how to deliver them. I persevered and tried many different ways--without success. Finally at 2 a.m., I gave up and the next day I turned to a friend who is much more knowledgeable about these audio files and asked for his insight. It turned out I was using the default setting on Sound Forge which saved the audio file in the highest possible quality. There is a direct relationship between the size of the file and the quality of the audio. As the quality is higher, the file size increased. I lessened the quality of the audio and the file became more manageable or something that I could deliver to the customer. I've played the files on my computer and can't tell any difference between the high quality and the lesser quality. While I don't have all of the details completed, I know I can deliver the product to the customer and once again my perseverance has paid off.

Many people are amazed at the volume of my body of writing work. I didn't do it to amaze anyone. I'm convinced there are better writers and communicators in the marketplace who have published fewer books and written for fewer publications. I am doggedly persistent to work through the challenges of the day and discover the solutions.

As you think of your writing life, which way are you headed?

Swim With People Who Love Books

Earlier this year, I met syndicated newspaper columnist and bestselling author Harvey MacKay who wrote the classic business book, Swim With The Sharks. If you haven't heard the statistics about the book business lately, here's a bit of reality check for you--it's in steady decline. If you want more detail, then I recommend you read and follow the links in Mike Hyatt's entry from July 20th about The Current Bookselling Environment.

If you love and respect books like I do, then be prepared for a bit of a downer. But it doesn't have to be that way. Some books continue to move and people are still purchasing books. You have to figure out how to relate to those particular people. My recommendation with this entry is that you try some of the networking websites that Publishers Weekly recently highlighted.

Before you groan and say I'm pushing you toward something that will completely waste your time. It doesn't have to affect you in this way. For example, a friend told me about Shelfari which is one of the networking sites highlighted in the Publishers Weekly article. In a matter of minutes, I registered, added a short biography (which I have from other places) and a photo. I selected a few of the books that are on my shelf and current reading stack and created my profile.

Is there more to do here? Absolutely. Will I be doing more? I don’t know but at least I have a small presence on this particular networking site. It doesn't have to absorb loads of time and effort. I want to be visible wherever people love books and this resource is something else to think about.

How Big Is Your Rolodex File?

This question loomed on the back of a book from best-selling author Harvey Mackay during the recent Mega Book Marketing University in Los Angeles. I was looking forward to Mackay's talk during the sessions because of my long-term admiration for his writing and work. Each Monday I read his syndicated newspaper column in the business section of the Arizona Republic.

While Mackay told entertaining stories and used startling statistics in his talk (which was not recorded as a part of the CDs available after the session), one area stood out to me—his Mackay 66 customer profile (available on his website). This profile was included in our written material at the conference and involves four pages of 66 questions. For each new customer, Mackay trained his employees to collect this information, put it into a database and use it to strengthen their relationships. It's little wonder the Mackay Envelope Company continues today as a huge success.

Each participant in the Mega Book Marketing University was given a copy of a little booklet called, The Harvey Mackay Rolodex Network Builder. As usual with a conference, I brought the booklet home. I wonder how many others in the room did the same but did they read the booklet? I did yesterday. Like the Mackay 66, this booklet talks about the value of collecting and using the information from each person you meet.

I've still got a number of contacts to follow-up from my time in Los Angeles. I'm committed to continuing a number of those relationships and building them. You never know which one or number of them will develop into something important for the days ahead. I suspect many people will return home and toss those business cards from a conference into a desk drawer or throw them away. Instead, I'd encourage you to see those cards as a resource and the start of something potentially important in your future writing life. It has certainly been the case for me and it might be for you.