Become a Bestselling Author

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

What does it take to become a bestselling author? There is no simple formula to follow. If a step-by-step process existed, every book would become a bestseller--which does not happen. Instead there are simple practices and experiments each author has to make in this process of learning how to tell others about your book.

Let me begin with a bit of a reality check about book publishing. Some publishing experts estimate there are over 11,000 new books published every day. This number includes the self-publishing titles but that amounts to a lot of print material pouring into our world. Depending on how you publish, your publisher may or may not do much to market and sell your book. 

As the author, you have the greatest passion and interest in selling books. You may not like marketing. Some authors say they hate it. Those feelings are valid. I encourage you to push beyond those concerns and actively work to tell others about your book. Someone has to hear about your book at least a dozen times before they decide to purchase the book. There are many ways to tell others about your book. Pick one or two, then use that method to stress the benefits or reasons readers should get and read your book.

The repeated process of telling readers about your book can become boring. Don't let it and instead change it up and use different methods, tools and systems for this process. On a regular basis I read that social media does not sell books. You want to become active on social media for the exposure to the benefits of your book to readers in a steady stream of information. It’s the reason publishers and literary agents are interested in your social media numbers. They use this information to evaluate your actions and exposure in the marketplace.

The foundation of every good book is the storytelling and the writing. As writers, we have to find the right topic then produce an excellent manuscript. Work with freelance editors and others to shape your story into the right foundation. Then select a way to publish your book which will make it easily available to your readers. Broad distribution is another critical element in this process. When your book is going to release, gather a team of friends to read the book and write a series of honest reviews to be published in multiple online places. This season when your book is new is also an opportunity to book radio and podcast interviews about you and your book. 

How do you break through the noise of the marketplace and get attention for your book and message? From my experience, it comes from consistent and persistent author action.  

Recently a prospective Morgan James Publishing author asked me about the sales of my book, Billy Graham, A Biography of America's Greatest Evangelist. I’ll admit I do not watch my sales numbers on Amazon or Nielsen BookScan or the publisher author portal. My book on Mr. Graham released November 4, 2014 and I went to Amazon Author Central which lets every author look at the sales numbers for the last two years. I discovered my book has sold over 10,000 copies during this period. Here’s the evidence:

In 2014, the original version of my biography was out of print. I’m one of the few living biographers of Mr. Graham and he was in poor health. Through Morgan James Publishing, I updated and revised my old book with new stories from interviews. Also I gathered a foreword and endorsements then checked every word of the final content with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association--even though I worked outside of the organization. When the book launched, I hired an outside publicist who scheduled over 50 radio interviews. After these interviews, I collected the recordings and stored them on my own website where they are continually available. You can learn more about my biography in the online press room I built for this book.

How did my book become a bestselling book and continues to sell long after the release? Every day since the book released, I’ve been telling others about the benefits of my book in various words and images. Also I worked with my colleagues at Morgan James to create the audiobook version. Follow this link to hear a sample of the audiobook. My persistence and consistency continue to get readers interested and learn about the life of Billy Graham. 

If you have a book that isn’t selling in the marketplace, it is not too late. The reader doesn’t care about your publisher or the release date. Instead if you tell them about it, they will be attracted to your story and the benefits for them from your book. I encourage you to take persistent and consistent action. It doesn’t happen overnight but can happen if you work at telling others.

What insights are you seeing for your book in this article? Which actions are you going to take for your writing and your book? Let me know in the comments. I’m eager to learn from you.

Tweetable:

How can you become a bestselling author? While there is no formula, this prolific author and editor gives authors the actions and specifics.  (ClickToTweet)

During my decades in publishing, I’ve spoken with hundreds of writers about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything an author can control. 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.

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Publishing Decisions Ramifications

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an acquisitions editor, I’m often talking with authors about their publishing plans. Sometimes they will tell me, “I’m going to publish with _____ (a publisher that I've never heard of).” It’s a red flag of concern that they named a publisher I’ve not heard about since I’ve been in this industry for decades.

Or they will object to publishing with Morgan James Publishing because of our model which requires an initial investment. There are good reasons for author investment requirement. In over 20 years of working with authors and literary agents, we’ve learned if there is no initial investment from the author, then that author has little incentive to market and promote their book to the bookstores. As a publisher, our money is made not making books but selling books. If the author does not participate, then their book does not sell (and the bookstore will return it). When a book is returned to the publisher, often it is returned in poor shape for reselling and has to be destroyed. The publisher loses money and opportunity when that happens. I hope you are seeing some of the publishing challenges. These authors have made a simple decision with big ramifications. 

If they are objecting to Morgan James because of the initial investment, I encourage them to use a free tool like Publishizer to do pre-sales and raise the funds. One of my authors raised over $10,000 using Publishizer. That author invested time and energy into this process and it paid off.

Every author has a story about their book and why they are publishing it. When I speak with them, I often ask for the story behind the story. I want to learn why they have invested their time and energy into a particular book. The author will tell me about their vision for why their book needs to get into the world. They have their connection to the market or are finding their connection to the market. Frequently these authors don't have experience in writing or storytelling or publishing. 

These authors have people relationships and ideas for who could write the foreword and endorsements (blurbs) for their book. In one recent case, the author had a foreword from someone and company I’d not heard about but when I did some online searching, I learned the name recognition of this person and his company. I applauded this author’s initiative for going ahead and getting the foreword then putting it into his proposal or pitch. This added foreword was only one unusual and different way this author distinguished his submission from others. It’s something every author needs to do for their submission--figure out a way to standout for that agent or editor.

Another author submitted a 5,000 word manuscript. With a glance at this word count, I could see the challenge for this author. Their manuscript is too short for a book and too long for a magazine article. I encouraged this author to craft something that is at least 23,000 words and preferrably 50,000 words. Inside a bookstore, you only see the spine of the book. Your word count needs to be large enough to show up on the shelf. It’s a simple reason but the author hasn’t considered this detail.

Other authors respond they don’t want an independent or hybrid publisher like Morgan James Publishing. They are shopping for a traditional publisher. I understand and have published over 60 traditional books. To get a traditional deal, you have to first sign with a literary agent to represent your book. For years, publishers have been sorting through inappropriate and poor submissions. Rather than waste that staff time, these traditional publishers announce every submission must come from an agent.The agents have become the gatekeepers for traditional publishing. For the agent to sell the book, they have to craft or teach the author how to craft the right pitch or book proposal. Why does an agent do this work? Because the publishers have an ever increasing standard of the author they want to publish. 

Agents receive many rejections and traditional agents do not make any money from those submissions until they sell the book to a publisher.  With some projects, agents are getting repeatedly rejection and their author wants to get their book produced and into the marketplace. In recent days, I’ve been receiving more Morgan James submissions from literary agents. The market is shifting.

As a writer, what can you do in these situation?

1. Explore the various publishing paths: traditional, self-publishing and independent / hybrid publishing. Get The Babylon Blueprint for Authors (follow this link). It includes over 40 pages comparing these options. Also this book includes many no-cost and low-cost book marketing ideas for every author.

2. Produce an excellent and complete book proposal and/or manuscript. It takes effort to learn then produce an excellent book proposal or pitch. Download the free copy of my Book Proposals That Sell whch has over 150 Five Star reviews and has helped many other writers. Then read and study this book then apply it to your writing. On my book shelf, I have books with valuable insights for my writing. Unless I read the contents then apply the information, it has no application to my everyday work.  

Here’s an example of how a reader marked up my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams book.

3. Get feedback from others before you submit. You can join a critique group or hire an outside editor or a writing coach. My point is to receive and process these insights from someone in the writing community before you submit to an editor or literary agent.

4. Ask better questions then listen for the answers. Where are they selling books? Is it only online or in brick and mortar bookstores? How and how long do they market the book? Do they charge you for marketing training? Have their books been on bestseller lists and can they show you these listings? Can you speak with some of their authors? Where can you see some of their books? Also use a search engine to look for that particular publisher. Every publisher has complaints but if you find pages and pages of complaints then take that as a warning about this company.

5. Gather all of the publishing information which is free before you make a decision about your path. Each one has different pros and cons.

6. Keep working on reaching readers and expanding your connections and network. If you need the help, ask for it and follow-up.

Throughout my decades in publishing, I’ve learned that many decisions are outside of my control. In fact, there is only one person where I have any control: me. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to get my 10 Publishing Myths which is focused on unrealistic publisihing expectations and practical information for every author. Pick up a copy for only $10 including the shipping with over $200 of free bonsuses. You must take action and become aware of the results of your decisions.

For this topic of publishing decisions and the ramifications, I’ve only scratched the surface and must be missing some elements? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Small publishing decisions can have big ramifications according to this bestselling author and editor. Learn the stories and details here.  (ClickToTweet)

During my decades in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything an author can control. 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.

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

When Writers Don't Respond

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

It happens quite often with writers: I reach out to them--even with a publishing contract--and they do not respond. I could be calling or emailing them and encouraging their submission or any number of other publishing details. Instead of a response, I get nothing.  In case you don’t know, I’m an acquisitions editor at a New York publishing house, Morgan James Publishing. We have a 21-year track record with over 6,000 published books, 29 New York Times bestsellers and over 200 times on the Well Street Journal or USA Today bestseller list. This bestselling detail is important because it shows that MJP is not just making books but selling books. 

From my many years in publishing, when an author gets a book publishing contract from Morgan James, that event is a huge cause for celebration--even if they don’t sign it. Silence or no response from the author is not what I expect.

Morgan James is not a self-publisher but one of the top independent publishers (10 times on a list from Publishers Weekly). In fact, we receive over 5,000 submissions every year and only publish about 150 books a year. Behind the scenes, there is a detailed team approach procedure that I have to use to reach the opportunity to offer an author a publishing contract. I’ve worked for this company doing this work for the last 14 years. Despite emailing and calling these authors about their contract, they do not respond.

In this article I want to give some of my speculation reasons then a consistent pattern that I've seen from my years in publishing. First some possible reasons why the author didn’t respond via email, phone or text:

--the author was traveling or on vacation and away from their computer

--this author is working on other publishing paths such as finding a literary agent or crafting a book proposal or pitch for a traditional publisher. Each of these paths take time and could be a reason for a delayed response.

--the author doesn’t have the financial resources to work with Morgan James. While I understand this concern, I also know there are many possible creative ways for the author to get these resources like Publishizer (follow this link to learn more and explore).

If I have sent the author a publishing contract, I will follow-up multiple times and still I receive silence for a response. Through the years, I’ve learned the longer the author does not respond (even a short email or call), the less likely they will publish with Morgan James Publishing. Over the years, it has happened a few times but overall I know the silence is heading in the direction of “no thank you” (even if all I receive is silence).

Because of my years in publishing, I understand the different options and paths. If you want to increase your understanding, I encourage you to get this free Ebook, The Babylon Blueprint for Authors (follow the link). This book has many marketing ideas and strategies along with 40+ pages comparing traditional, self-publishing and independent or hybrid publishing. 

If you are in one of these situations where you have not responded. I encourage you to communicate with the editor or agent--even if you send a short email. The development and continuation of your relationship is important. You may need this relationship in the days ahead--even if you can’t see it now. For my part as the editor, I will continue to follow-up and reach out to these silent authors. I can’t control their response but I can do my part in the process. I encourage you to do your part.

What reasons am I missing that writers do not respond to an offer to publish their book? Let me know in the comments. I look forward to reading them and learning some new perspectives.

Tweetable:

Sometimes when writers receive a New York publishing contract, they do not respond. This editor gives some ideas and encourages maintaining your relationship. Get the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week three new podcast recordings launched: 

Ali Alhajji and I spoke on the Reading the World Podcast about Publishing Myths: Why Being Published Is Not the Same as Being Read. Listen at: https://bit.ly/3Sv0QIZ

Imma and I spoke on the Beyond the Draft Podcast about The Truth About Publishing Nobody Else Will Tell You. Listen at: https://bit.ly/4xGergJ 

Noah May (@noahspodcasts)and I spoke on the Southern Reads Podcast about Publishing Myths. Listen at: https://bit.ly/4oFfsRZ

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. 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.

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

What To Do with Strange Experiences

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Throughout my life, I’ve had a number of strange personal experiences. It’s part of our lives that we have these different encounters and experiences. As a writer, what do you do with these stuations?

Some people write a book manuscript. Others use the material as background for their novel and other storytelling methods. While I love books and work as an acquisitions editor for a New York publisher, this usage for your stories and experiences has limitations. Thousands of new books enter the marketplace every day. I’ve read estimates between 4,500 and 11,000 new books enter our world every day (depending on your source and including the self-published books). These numbers involve a lot of competition for readers for your books.

In this article, I want to suggest a different starting place for your experiences. Instead of a book, I encourage you to use your personal experiences as storytelling material for magazine articles. When you write a magazine article, it’s easy to reach 100,000 to a million readers (depending on the circulation of the publication). Magazine editors tell writers what they are looking to publish in their writer’s guidelines. Often you can find these guidelines on their website or in a market guide. 

Each publication has a specific readership or audience. As you craft your article or your query (pitch), you have to be focused on the audience. When I worked as the Association Editor at Decision with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, we were printing 1.8 million copies of each issue. This circulation has dropped through the years but is still over 400,000 (see this link).

Some of the greatest readership for my writing has come through my personal experience stories in Decision. Decades ago we taught our oldest child about death through the passing of our second child. I called this article Schooled In Death. As I went through this difficult personal experience in a journal, I captured little pieces of dialogue and feelings. Then later as I wrote my story, I used these snippets in my magazine storytelling. 

It’s a pattern I suggest you use for your personal experiences--write down the feelings and dialogue then use them in a magazine article. When you write a magazine article, you learn some specific skills which will build into your writing life. You learn how to create an interesting title and how to begin your article and pull the reader into your story. Magazine articles have a limited word count (500 to 1,200 words--again depending on the publication. As you write your article, you learn how to have a beginning, middle and a strong ending which leads the reader to a single point called a takeaway. 

Where do you find these magazines? First, which ones do you read on a regular basis? I would begin there because you are familiar with their readership and target audience. Almost every magazine will take a well-crafted personal experience story for their publication. If you sell “first rights” to the magazine (noted at the top of your first page of your submission), then these rights return to you once the magazine publishes your article.

I’m suggesting a simpe strategy with your personal experience stories. Write a series of these types of articles which likely can be interconnected. With some editorial adjustments, each article can be the start of the chapter in a book. If you string together 15 to 20 of these articles, then you have a book manuscript. I have a lot more detail about this type of strategy in my free webinar Get More Mileage from Your Content.

As writers, we have an abundance of opportunity. I encourage you to use the Christian Writers’ Market Guide to look for more publications and opportunties to publish your writing. From going to writer’s conferences, many writers are focused on getting their book published and never consider teh magazine world.  You can do both--write for publications and write books. Your magazine articles can tell people about your latest book in your one-sentence bio at the end of the article. Your persistence and consistency as a writer will pay off.

What steps are you going to take to write and publish your strange experiences? Let me know in the comments and I look foward to hearing about it. 

Tweetable:

As a writer, what do you do with your strange personal experiences? This prolific author and editor encourages an unexpected series of actions.  (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week one more podcast recording launched:

David Newman (@dnewman) and I spoke about Real Deal Publishing on The Selling Show Podcast. Listen at: https://bit.ly/4q7yDDl 

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. 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. 

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

A Cautionary Tale: Tech Error

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Since 2004, each week I’ve been writing and posting these articles about The Writing Life.  I’ve had many different experiences and enjoy helping you with these stories and the various resources. Don’t worry. I’m not going to stop writing these pieces and giving back to the writing community through them. 

I had a tech error which interrupted the article I was going to show you today. Throughout my week I get ideas for these articles and will write a few sentences into a file then save it.

Yesterday I took one of those ideas and wrote the article for today. It contained links to other resources and a series of action steps for writers. In the completion process, I swept through it several final times and perfected every detail including ClickToTweet and even posting it into my social media plans.When I “published” it, one of the settings was wrong and instead of publishing it on the typical Sunday morning time, it instantly published it.

I did not want this article released. I checked the behind-the-scenes setting and could not determine how to put it back on schedule. Then I made a fatal error to this article: I deleted it and put it into the trash. It disappeared and when I searched the help menu, I learned it could not be recovered.

As I look back, I could have prevented this error by opening a new post, cutting and pasting my work into a new article, then saving it. But that possibility disappeared when I deleted the article. I was disappointed with my error. While I knew I created it in the first place and can write it again, I could not muster the energy to start it immediately. Instead I went on to other tasks for the rest of my day. 

Sometime in the future, I will write again that deleted article and post it in The Writing Life. Instead today, I’m posting this cautionary tale about a tech error. In my writing life, I’ve rarely lost a piece of writing because I have faced this situation in the past. Admittedly it has happened rarely but happened. It’s why I often draft my writing in a Microsoft Word file then save it and return to finish it off and finalize it. That carefully created process didn’t happen this time. Instead I pushed the delete button and it erased.

How do you protect your writing from such errors? What steps to you take with your creative work? When it happens does it throw off your work? Does it make you take a break? How do you return and keep moving forward? This situation has the possibility of quiting and ending the writing process. It’s not an alternative I’m willing to take. Instead I take a break from it, then return to it and continue. I’m committed to continuing to post these articles about the writing life.

A Broader Perspective

For this article, I have focused on my crafted then deleted article. I want to conclude this article with another step I took to focus on some of the other things that happened in my publishing life. Because of my work with Morgan James Publishing, I championed the work of authors and my publication board agreed with the merits of these authors and sent me three book contracts. I sent these contracts on to the authors. Also I established some new publishing relationships in the community.  These activities are only a few of what I accomplished last week including sending my weekly email newsletter and posting on social media 12-15 times a day. In addition, I learned a book that I championed and was published through Morgan James Publishing ten years ago in 2015. It was one of the top five books MJP sold this year.

The Paleo Cardiologist: The Natural Way to Heart Health was this book. I refuse to let one tech error downgrade the other positive things which happened during the week. 

Each of us are on this publishing journey. What steps are you taking to continue and move forward in your journey? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Have you accidentally deleted a new piece of writing? This prolific author and editor gives the details and a cautionary tele of his tech error. (ClickToTweet)

During my decades in publishing, I’ve spoken with hundreds of writers about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything an author can control. 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. 

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,800 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

When You Feel Behind...

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

It’s a common feeling but rarely discussed--feeling like you are behind and can’t get caught up. I often have this concern and in this article I want to give you some ideas and action steps for your writing. 

I encourage you to recognize that each of us have overwhelming days when there is more to be done like:

• More email to answer. 
• More editors to pitch. 
• More places to speak and podcasts to pitch. 
• More books to read and write reviews. 
• More articles to write for magazines.
• More conferences to attend.
• More new connections to make and explore.
• More follow-up calls and emails to send.
• More social media posts. 

You get the idea: everyone feels like there is more to be done.

I encourage you to realize everyone (including me) feels like this from time to time. Each of us have the same amount of time in a day and limitations on what we can do. Every day we are making choices how we spend our time. Here’s some ideas for actions each of us can take.

Take a hard look at what you are doing. 

Can you ask someone for help or hire someone to help you? Can you say “no thank you” to an opportunity? Recently a long-term writing friend asked me to endorse or blurb her forthcoming book. She offered to write it for me and gave a short deadline for when she needed it. Also she followed up reminding me of her deadline. I didn’t want someone else to write my endorsement and I passed on the opportunity. I recognize the choice and each of us make them every day.

Write shorter emails.

I want to be a good communicator and answer my emails from authors and others. My actions in this area are a simple way to stand out from other editors who ghost writers and do not respond. I can’t answer all of my emails so some of them do not get response. Also I can write shorter emails and responses. These actions can help me to answer more emails.

Repurpose Your Writing. 

Each month I have a series of deadlines for guest blog posts and articles. I understand the value of these articles because others read them and follow my links and advice. One option to complete these deadlines is to repurpose or use writing that I’ve done in other places. For example, I’ve written several how-to-write books. I can take a portion of this writing and repurpose it into a guest blog post with only a little revision. If you have written a nonfiction book or a devotional or a Christian living book which contains your stories, you can take these stories and submit them to magazines. When you get them published, they will likely reach more readers than your books and could lead readers to know (and hopefully buy) your books. You can be wise about how you repurpose and use your writing but you have to be thinking about these aspects.

Take a break during the day.

It’s easy for me to sit long hours at my keyboard and work on different aspects of my writing life. Also throughout my day, I need to take care of myself as a writer in this process. Maybe I need to drink more water or walk around the block and get outside. When I take these breaks, I am taking care of physical self but also often return to my keyboard with an increased enthusiasm for my work.

Revise your writing goals.

This week a writer asked me how long it would take to write her book. It's a common question that I hear and answer in an unexpected way. I do not give a word count or page count for the author because each of us are different. I may write a complete book in a few weeks where another author will take all year to write that same amount of material. Each of us have to carve out the writing time, select a word count goal that works for us then do it over and over. If you aren’t meeting your writing goals, then you need to revise them. It's that straightforward.

To wrap up this article about feeling behind, I want to recall the fable of the race between the rabbit and the turtle. Who won that race? The rabbit raced ahead and took a nap but the turtle keep moving forward, passed the sleeping rabbit and won the race.

I encourage you to take the long view of your writing. It is not a sprint but a marathon. Keep chipping away and moving ahead with the work and eventually you will succeed. The only way to stop the progress is to quit.

What actions do you take when you feel like you are falling behind? Let me know in the comments. I look forward to reading them.

Tweetable:

As a writer, do you feel like you are behind? This prolific writer and editor also feels behind. In this article, he gives a series of insights: https://bit.ly/477aerc #writinglife #pubtip  (ClickToTweet)

From my years in publishing, I find many authors have unrealistic expectations about publishing. It doesn’t matter what type of book they are writing—fiction, nonfiction, a children’s book or a coffee table book. Each type of book contains its own challenges and complexity. No matter how you publish, many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything an author can control. 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. 

 $200 of bonuses. 

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Expand Your Writing Target

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

With our writing pitches, we are aiming at some publication or some publisher or some literary agent. I'm encouraging you to shift your writing in a new direction and expand your opportunity in a new direction. If you do, then you will expand your publishing efforts and potentially hit a different target.

As an editor, I often speak with authors focused on publishing a book. I'm actively looking for the right authors and the right books for Morgan James Publishing. If you are going to publish a book, I encourage you to send it to me (my work contact information is on the second page of this link). 

I love books and understand their reach yet I also know about their limitations. For example, within the book business if your book sells 5,000 copies during the lifetime of the book, then that is a good number. In the world of magazine writing, it is fairly easy to reach 100,000 or even 500,000 readers with your writing. These two aspects are not a choice of doing one or the other. In this article I want to show you how you can do both and expand your reach and help yourself gain more literary agent and editor attention.

Recently I received a well-crafted devotional book for possible publication. When I spoke to the author, she had never considered submitting a devotion to the Upper Room magazine. This quarterly publication has a circulation of six million. Talk about multiplying your writing efforts. The first step is to read their guidelines and examples of what they need. The Upper Room even has an online submission form for their devotions. Several years ago I wrote four possible devotions and submitted them. Three of my submissions were rejected but one was accepted and published. Before it was published, The Upper Room emailed asking if I would like to publish a blog article on the same day as my devotion. Through studying their blog, I learned occasionally a blog entry would include one website link. I submitted my article and included a link to my book. I seized another opportunity. You can do this as well.

Do your book contain personal stories from your life? Could you take one of these 1,200 to 1,500 word stories and reshape it slightly into a magazine article? Almost every magazine will publish personal experience stories. Learn to write a magazine article. Read their guidelines, then give the editor what they are requesting. At the bottom of your article, you can include a single line (or two) like "Terry Whalin is the author of 10 Publishing Myths and lives in Southern California" with a link to your book. You have expanded your reach with this effort.

If you write fiction, you can also write magazine articles or short stories. Use a current market guide because the details change each year. Read the guidelines and read some articles online, then submit your stories to the publication. It only happens if you submit your articles or stories.

Book editors and literary agents are looking for authors who understand about publishing because these people already know what it takes to get published. You can increase the interest from editors and agents if you publish in magazines. It's one of the reasons I continue to write for different publications. I've shown you the details how you can follow the same path.

Several years ago I recorded a teleseminar about how to get more mileage from your writing. I give a free 27-page ebook with more ideas and details. Follow the link to get this recording and free ebook.

Finally, I want to give you a valuable resource from the founder of Morgan James Publishing, David Hancock. One of his latest books is The Babylon Blueprint for Authors which will help you get promotion ideas. When I speak with authors, many of them decide to self-publish or are looking for a traditional publisher. This book includes about 40 pages which compares self-publishing, traditional publishing and independent publshing (like Morgan James). Follow this link to get your free copy of this resource.

What steps are you taking to expand your writing target? Let me know in the comments.

Tweetable:

Many writers are focused on books. According to this prolific author and editor with a slight shift they can reach more readers. Get the details: https://bit.ly/46LnFgt #writingtip #pubtip  (ClickToTweet)

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week one more podcast recording launched:

Allison Lane and I discussed how to avoid the publishing mistake that kills your book sales at: https://bit.ly/3KEoVcl

During my years in publishing, I’ve reviewed thousands of submissions and spoken with many authors about their plans and dreams for their book. I’ve found many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. From my experience, many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. 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. 

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Every Book Author Needs a Team

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In the publishing community, there is an explosion of self-publishing. Author struggle to build reader connections or a platform--click for an explanation). They struggle to write a proposal which catches the attention of a literary agent and a traditional house. They decide to follow the bandwagon of others and self-publish. What they don’t consider is that because they self-published, they have established a visible sales record for others in publishing to see through bookscan. This record could affect the response from agents and editors when they pitch another book project. 

One of the greatest challenges for those who self-publish is what actions to take when something goes wrong. Where do they turn and what sort of extra time and money do they have to spend to fix this situation? In this article I want to tell a couple of stories and give you some reasons for having a team.

The Value of a Team

As an acquisitions editor, I work with my Morgan James Publishing authors until they sign and return their contract. At this point, other colleagues take over the responsibility for producing the book. I’m still available to my authors but often I don’t hear from them unless there is some issue.

One of my children’s book authors reached out to me about the pre-sale information in her book listings had some misspellings. I wasn’t sure how to fix this issue so I reached out to a colleague and asked for her help. She quickly pinpointed the issue was in the metadata. This technical information is data that our team creates about the book then disperses it to a series of online bookstores throughout the world. With the work of producing almost 200 books a year, one of our team members works on metadata full-time. In a short amount of time, this team member fixed the metadata and showed us her revision. When she sent the revision, she told us that it would take several days for this information to populate the different bookstores and if it wasn’t resolved in three or four days, to reach back out to her again. The revised metadata corrected these misspellings so my author could promote her book on these bookstores without concern about the incorrect words for her book. 

It took me a bit just to explain what steps we took to correct this metadata error. Now imagine if you were self-publishing and trying to fix it. The task would be huge without a team to help you.

I want to tell you about another Morgan James author I connected with during a writers’ conference. With a lot of distress, she told me about a series of typos in her book. This author paid an editor to fix these errors yet they were in her printed book. I empathized with her situation but wanted to know the details before I did anything. I asked this author to send me a copy of her book and mark the various errors in her book. 

When this author followed through and mailed a print copy of her book (an important part of the process for every author--follow through), I learned she had 15 errors in a book that was published several years ago. Armed with these details I reached out to my Morgan James colleagues to see how we could fix these errors. When this happens, the author normally pays for these corrections. For this author, I learned we didn’t have a lot of copies in the warehouse or bookstore. Also this book was agressively priced when released and the price of paper has increased so it would be a help to the author and Morgan James to raise the retail price on this book. The typos could be fixed in this process. I gathered the necessary internal documents and sent them to this author. It took a few weeks but she filled out the paperwork and returned them. Now these corrections are in production along with other details such as the raised retail price. 

I told this story for several reasons. Every author needs a team to help them with the details for their book. It takes cooperation from multiple people to fix these situations. At the end of the day, the author will have positive feelings about Morgan James and her book to be marketing and promoting it (which every author must do no matter when your book was published). At the conference, this author told me she was writing a second book. Before these errors were fixed, I dolubt she would have considered publishing again with Morgan James but now hopefully she will give us another opportunity to work with her. The relationship and the details are important. 

Finally, every author needs a champion inside the publishing house to help them navigate the relationships. I’ve published where my champion (acquisitions editor) has left the company. Within publishing we call this book an orphaned situation (not where any author wants to be with their book). Without a champion, many details on that book were lost and it did not succeed/ sell. 

As a book author, do you have a team? If not, how can you build or find one? If you want to explore working with Morgan James Publishing (follow this link because my contact information is at the bottom of the second page). I look forward to your comments and insights.

Tweetable:

Every book author needs a team to help them handle the publishing details according to this prolific editor and author. Read the stories and get some action ideas.  (ClickToTweet)

A key part of the writing life is a word I don’t really like but do: the discipline of consistently writing. A blog is an important part of this process for me. Many authors have an unrealistic idea about the details of publishing. 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS is a practical easy reading book to help you. Get my decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses.

Subscribe to Terry’s Newsletter:

During the last year, once a week I’ve been sending a short free newsletter. Just follow this link to subscribe. When you are added to the newsletter, you will receive a FREE 87-page Ebook which is packed with insights for every writer.

Get these articles on your email: 

Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA