The Details of Your Writing Life Are Important

Let me begin with this good news. Every writer can learn the skill of handling the details. Some of us are only focused on the big picture with our writing. We are determined to complete a particular book or magazine article and writing on it every day to meet this goal. Yet the craft of your words and storytelling is important. Are you sending it to the right editor? Are you using the correct spelling of that editor's name? The details matter.

Every Writer Needs This Info

In the last few weeks, I purchased all of the remaining copies of Book Proposals That Sell. With over 130 Five Star reviews and great feedback about this book over the years, I know it has helped many writers to succeed in the world of publishing—no matter what type of book you write. I wrote this book from my passion as a frustrated acquisitions editor to help writers send better submissions. If you don't have a copy, it has never been so inexpensive and available only from me. Follow the link to learn more details.

As a part of this effort, I purchased a website, wrote the words for that website, created special bonuses and have been telling others about this effort through emails, articles and twitter. In the process of setting up this launch, I created five emails on autoresponders. These autoresponders contained the bonus items for those who purchased the book.

Today I received an email from one of these people who purchased Book Proposals That Sell. He had not received these bonus item emails. The email clued me that something was wrong some place in the process. I investigated my shopping cart and learned that I neglected to click one button in one place. From working with computers for years, I've learned one simple truth: the computer only does what you tell it to do.  I had skipped one important detail and no one got their bonus items. Talk about embarrassing!

One by one, I will be sending all five bonus items via email today to each individual.  For anyone who buys the book in the future, I will be watching my shopping cart closely to make sure they are getting these extra messages.

There are several lessons for you from my experience:

1. The details are essential. As writers, you ignore them at your own peril. Your submissions will not hit the target nor get results if you do not work at the details.

2. Listen to your audience. When they tell you something, spring into action or make adjustments.

3. Deliver on your promises. Your word and integrity are important. And if something goes wrong, apologize (everyone is human) and then fix it as soon as possible.

4. Work hard to maintain and keep your relationships. Years ago, I heard John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book say, “Selling books is all about building relationships.” See the truth in this statement?
Whatever you are writing or promoting, the relationship is critical and the details of your writing life are important.

Tweetable:

Why are the details of your writing life important? Here's four practical lessons. (ClickToTweet)

 

Apply The Lessons

Each of us have some things we do very well and others--well, we simply don't do them at all. Maybe that's OK not to do them but maybe you simply aren't applying the lessons that you've been taught. It's always good from my view to continue to grow, change and learn. It's the mode that I'm in these days--and I'm determined to stay in this mode.

I've come to the understanding that I've not been as effective with my teaching for writers as I could be in the future. For many years, I've traveled the United States and Canada teaching at various writers' conferences. It's a rich experience for me and the opportunity to give back as well as learn from other writers. If you look at my schedule, you will see I'm continuing to travel and teach. In fact, I need to get over to the schedule page and add another conference from the last couple of weeks.

Many of these conferences are set up to record the sessions and sell workshop CDs (and it used to be cassette tapes). It's a normal practice for the speakers to sign a release then receive a complementary copy of their workshop if they pick it up on the spot after the session. After my workshop, I'll drop by and get my CD and carry it home. Then I stick it in a drawer and don't think about it again--until I return from another conference. I haven't been irresponsible with this material. I have not been proactive and sharing this wealth of information with others. I'm changing and applying some of what I've been learning.

At the Mega Book Marketing University in Los Angeles, I acquired some equipment to make some changes. I picked up an Edirol R-09 MP3 recorder, a telephone bridge and Sound Forge Audio Studio. I learned about this material from Mike Stewart, who is known as the Internet Audio Guy. You can follow his link to learn more about creating audio products and watch his demonstration videos.

I've been learning how to use the Edirol R-09--which is a complex professional digital recorder with loads of features. In the last couple of days, I managed to record a new introduction to one of my workshops about book proposal creation. Yesterday I used Sound Forge for the first time to make some simple edits to the workshop, then pasted in the new introduction. To my surprise, editing sound was like Mike Stewart had told me--very similar to editing a text file with the same sort of cut and paste functions. With a bit of a learning curve, it worked like the instructions and I managed to edit the audio of my workshop and send it into production. In the coming days, I'll be telling you (and others) more about Editor Reveals Book Proposal Secrets.

One of the challenges with this project was getting the audio files sent to the production company. They told me about a site called Yousendit.com. This site was easy to use and accomplished the task to get the large file sent to someone else. It's a good resource to know about if you need it. I learned the bulk of the techniques to produce audio product from Bob Bly's Internet Marketing Retirement Plan. This four CD package is loaded with insight. I like the simplicity of the program. Bob out sources the majority of his production. I'm learning to apply the lessons from this material.

Each of us are on this journey to learn more information and apply it to our writing life. If you don't have an online e-newsletter, I'd suggest you subscribe to my free newsletter and read the free ebook about it. Also read these articles about producing a newsletter. There are many articles to teach you about different aspects of writing through Right-Writing.com and these entries about the Writing Life. If you are looking for information about a particular publishing topic, use the search engine in the right-hand column of these entries. Then apply the lessons to your own writing life. It's the course I'm taking and you can do the same.

A Lifetime of Learning

Late last night I returned from a marathon of marketing information in Los Angeles called the Mega Book Marketing University. I can't recommend it enough as a life-changing experience. The people that I met were fantastic. The information was vast and diverse and the insight enormous.

Like any learning experience, the proof for the coming months will be in the follow-up and the application of the principles into every day life.

In many ways I'm on informational overload at the moment but over the next few days I'm hopeful to be able to pinpoint a few key lessons from a small portion of the overall experience. It is not going to happen today. In the meantime, if you have not done it, I would encourage you to listen to the preview calls which are stored online from this event.