The Importance and Cost of Consistency

    

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In my writing life, I have a number of consistent actions that I take which play into my continued presence and impact on my world and readers. In this article, I want to detail some of those actions and the systems I’ve created to execute them. I’m writing about these elements with the hope you will emulate them for your own writing life--but also understand the cost and importance of consistency.

People love someone who is a regular and consistent communicator: newsletter, social media posts, article submissions to guest blogs, and writing on deadlines and processing manuscripts--doing what you say you will do. Yet many people are inconsistent and do not communicate on a regular basis. 

When you start something continue with it For example years ago I decided to post on my social media 12-15 times a day. I’m still carrying out that decision on a consistent basis. Many years ago I decided to use Hootsuite as a scheduling tool then I created a system for the various types of articles I would post. For example, I begin each day with an inspirational quotation along with an image of that person making the quotation. I post every hour throughout the day but have created a pattern of these posts. I gather information from other writers that I read and plug these articles into my pattern. The fact that I’ve made a pattern in my head, helps me to do it quickly and consistently. Also I only spend about 30 minutes a day on this task but it happens like clockwork whether I am in my office (as normal) or on the road and away from my office. This consistent effort to post on social media is important and also has a cost related to the consistent time I spend on it.

Last year I decided to be more consistent with my newsletter once a week and have carried forth on that decision over and over. I’m using the scheduling feature on my newsletter program and formatting each one and faithfully sending it out to my targeted readers. 

These examples are only a few areas where I’m practicing consistency. Other areas would be my work as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. I process submissions, speak with authors to see if they are a fit for our program, answer emails with their questions, send them contracts then negotiate those contracts. Each detail in the process takes consistent effort and costs time and energy.

In these articles I’ve mentioned working at booking Podcasts and using PodMatch. On a consistent basis I’m pitching new podcasts, getting turned down by some of them but also booking others and then recording others. According to the internal documents on PodMatch, in my two months at this effort, I have reached over 2,750 downloads or new people. I can see from my results that it is beginning to work for me. It is not perfect or where I want to be in this area but I’m continuing to consistently work at this area.

Also I am consistently making new connections with people. Maybe you are using the suggested connections on LinkedIN to connect with others in the publishing world. What steps do you take to reach out to them? Some people have annoying automatic responder messages on LinkedIN which ask me to set up a phone conference and chat with them. I am not interested and I instantly block these people. Instead I suggest you figure out how can you help that person. Can you write something they are looking for? Can you read their new book and write a review, then tell them about your review? Instead of trying to get them on the phone, look for ways to help and serve this new connection. 

Each of these areas involve planning, time commitment, consistency and persistence. If you aren’t achieving what you want in the publishing area, I encourage you to take some new and consistent actions. The opportunities are there but you have to seize the day. If I can do it, you can do it. What steps are you taking to consistently work on your writing. Let me know in the comments below.

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Why The Tech Details Matter

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

 

My life as a writer is filled with many details. These large and small details don’t seem important in some regards but they add up to making a difference.

 

Create It To Open When Clicked

Whenever I add a website link to a blog post, I make sure when someone clicks it, the reader opens a new window and doesn’t click away from the page. This detail is important to keep people on your website and not moving away from where you want them to be reading. On a monthly basis, I write for a website. When the post launched recently, I checked the various links to make sure this advanced feature was initiated. It took a few minutes but I carefully reviewed each one and in many cases added this feature. It’s just one example of where the tech details matter.

 

Tag Others on Facebook

When I post on Facebook, I will often tag others. Why make this additional effort? When you tag someone, Facebook adds your post to their news feed. It is a simple way to get more readers. I’ve seen some people make excessive use of tags. They will tag me when I'm not involved at all in their article so I will remove the tag. Use it wisely and in a limited fashion but do use it. 

 

Use Hashtags with Your Social Posts

For each of my social media posts, I include two hashtags. You can certainly include more than two but the general standard is two. Many people search by hashtags and use it to read social media posts. I include this tool to get some additional readers. 

 

Shorten Your Links in Posts

Many times I’ve seen long website links which are too long and broken. When someone clicks a broken link, they do not reach the intended destination. What is an easy way to prevent this issue from happening to you? Use an online tool to shorten the link. There are a number of these tools. I personally use Bitly but there are many others. It takes some extra time to use it but it is worth it to make sure your material gets read.  

 

Make Your Content Easy To Pass To Others

You've invested the time and energy into writing some content. Make sure you create an easy means for the reader to pass this content to others. There are many technical tools in this area which are simple to set up and use. I use ClickToTweet. I add this tool to the end of each of my blog posts. It takes effort to add this tool to my post. From my own social media, I can see others use my ClickToTweet to pass my articles on to others.

 

Why Do These Boring Actions?

The reality is my time is limited and valuable just like your time.  I want to end this article with some motivation about why these technical details are important. These boring actions help you reach more readers and increase the effectiveness of your taking the time to post it in the first place. Sometimes I want to forget it and not do it—but then I do it because it reaches more readers. Figure out your own motivation to keep going but that's the reason I continue doing it. As I handle these various technical details, I know that it will help the effectiveness of my posts and help me reach more readers. Reaching readers takes priority over boring for me every time.

 

These technical details are a few of the ones I use on a regular basis. Which ones do you use? Let me know in the comments below.

 

My Writing On Other Websites

On a regular basis, I encourage you to write for other websites. Here’s several recent articles that I’ve published on other websites.

Don't Depend 100% on Your Publisher It almost sounds counter-intutitive. Don’t you get a publisher to lean on them? This article gives the reasons.

Five Ways to Break Through the Competition Publishing is a competitive field and I give five ways to stand out from others.

 

A Simple Proposal Formula I boil the book proposal process down to a simple formula and explain the details in this article. 

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The technical details are boring but they matter. This prolific editor and author gives examples and the reason why he does it. Get the details here. (ClickToTweet)

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Create Writing Routines

I have a number of writing habits including writing each week for the Writing Life. Every morning I use Refollow to follow 800 new people in my target market.  I've been doing this habit for years and yes clicking my mouse 800 times is a bit boring and routine. Why do it? Because consistent use of this tool is one of the reasons that I have a large following on Twitter. This fact combined with the other habits I've created have gathered a large following or platform. Follow this link to learn the details of my every day actions on Twitter.

Every day I read and/or listen to audiobooks. As I read, I'm learning new things but also feeding into my writing life and habits. As I've mentioned before, for every book that I read or hear (good or bad). I take a few minutes and write a review. I've reviewed over 900 books and products on Amazon and over 500 books on Goodreads. This volume has happened because I've created a writing habit which I execute over and over.

Currently I am listening to an audiobook from historian Doris Kearn Goodwin called Leadership. It's a book on the current bestseller list and I got the book from my local library through Overdrive. Goodwin compares the leadership style of four different U.S. Presidents. In my listening so far, she has included Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. The background and style of each man and how they tackled the leadership issue has been insightful. Eventually when I complete the book, I will write and post a review. Listening to audiobooks is a habit I've cultivated which feeds into my writing.

Whether you write a lot of a little, consistency is one of the keys. If you begin a blog, then I encourage you to grow that blog and consitently write or post on it. Some people use guest bloggers to fill their blog. There are many different ways to do it—just be consistent as a basic principle. You can also reuse this material or a book or in a newsletter or any number of places. I have a free teleseminar about reusing your content. Also I have a 31 Day course on making money from your blog which is risk-free during the guarantee period.

Your writing routines will be different from my routines. Create patterns in your life for your writing. If you do, I believe you will be more consistent, prolific and productive. In some cases, a routine can become boring but change it up to keep it interesting—yet continue doing the action. Each of us as writers needs to be continually building our email list, completing magazine writing deadlines, getting to events and meeting new people.

In my view, the payoff for having a writing routine is completing and getting done what others just dream of doing. Many people want to write a book but if you get that book published you enter a smaller circle of people. And if your book sells (and not just a few but in a large number), then you enter even a smaller number of people who succeed in writing a bestselling book.

One of the basics is creating writing routines then sticking with those routines. What sort of writing routines do you have? Let me know in the comments below.

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