Don't Count Your Chickens

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

There is an old saying that figures into our lives as writers, “Don’t count on your chickens until they hatch.” These chickens lay eggs but the reality is until they hatch, you can’t depend on getting a new baby chick.

In the early days of my writing life, I’ll admit I counted chickens before they hatched. I wrote query letters to magazine editors and counted on an acceptance and payment. I crafted book proposals then pitched them to agents and editors. The agent would take my proposal to pitch traditional publishers. I believed the literary agent would find a publisher. I believed the publisher would sell my book into bookstores and I would earn royalties. I believed my book would earn back it’s advance and then additional royalties.

For the last 13 years, I’ve been an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. With authors and agents, I work to understand their book, see if it is a good fit for our publisher, then pitch the book to my colleagues. When I get a contract, I send it to the author (or agent) and believe they will sign it and publish with us. When I bring an active author into the publisher, I believe they will sell books in the bookstore. I believe bookstores will carry the book and sell it to readers.

While it is great to be optimistic and have these beliefs, here's the downside: I'm counting my publishing before it happens. I'm assuming actions outside of anything that I can control. The truth is many of these things don’t happen and breed disappointment and regret. 

Without beating the image, I hope you can begin to see the challenge with this attitude of counting on actions which are outside of your control. 

What I Do Instead

These actions are not easy because in many ways I loved counting on results which were outside of my control. I encourage you to take a different mindset. Here’s a series of actions you can do:

1. Enjoy the journey. Celebrate the new relationships you can form and foster. For example, last week I connected with a new person on LinkedIN. She emailed me and told about reading a couple of my books. I looked up her contact information which included her phone number. I dialed the number and had a great 30+ minute conversation. It’s a simple example of what you can do. Keep expanding your relationships and helping others. As you enjoy the journey, you will find new opportunities for your writing life.

2. Continual to learn and grow. No working writer ever stops learning and trying new possibilities--including me. Recently one of my friends, Alice Crider, offered a five day book proposal challenge. It starts on Monday but use the link and you can still do it.  While I have a lot of book proposal experience (and a book about it), I know I will learn some new insights in these sessions. 

3. When Others Succeed, Celebrate. Often throughout my day, I will read newsletters and other things from authors. I celebrate their success and will write a short email or repost somthing on a social media website. There are dozens of different actions but I’m encouraging you to celebrate others.

4. With Your Opportunities, follow-up. I have a number of authors where I’ve championed their book to my colleagues and gotten them a book contract. They have not signed it and returned it (as I said earlier, it's something I can’t control or predict). I can gently follow-up with them and see if they have any questions. Last week I made a number of these calls. Frequently I got their voicemail where I left a cheerful and enthusiastic message for them. Maybe I sent them a contract weeks or months ago. I continued to follow-up. My experience in this area tells me that the longer it takes someone to respond and return their contract, the less likely it is they will publish their book with Morgan James Publishing. Knowing this track record does not prevent me from making those follow-up calls. Through the years, I’ve had a few authors surprise me and engage with questions, sign and return their contract. 

I have one certain fact: if I don’t follow-up, then the author will not know that I continue to pull for their success and want them to publish with Morgan James. The follow-up work is something that I can do. Maybe they will not publish the book that I'm calling about but because of the good experience with my follow-up, they will give us an opportunty on their next book. See the optimism and hope and action that is built into my attitude about follow-up? I hope so.

What actions are you going to take so that you have the right mindset? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

What does counting your chickens have to do with the writing life? Get the details here from this prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

When I’ve worked with different publishers on a variety of  books, I’ve learned the hard way that much of the publishing process is outside of anything an author can control. As an editor, I’ve spoken with different authors about their books, I’ve found many unrealistic expectations. There are actions every author can take with their books. 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.

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:

Author and coach Tommy Thompson (@TommyPThompson) I spoke for a second time on the Space for Life Podcast. Here’s our first conversation: https://bit.ly/4g4b5uO In this new podcast, we talked about how to start writing and actually get published at: https://bit.ly/46gBov3  Also check out my book Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams at: https://jumpstartdreams.com/ 

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The Importance of Story

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

 

During the holidays, I was speaking with one of my relatives who I don't see often. She is a prolific reader and was talking with me about various books she was reading. Then she turned the conversation toward my books. “I loved reading your book Sojourner Truth,” she said. “I was amazed to learn in about a freed slave in upper state New York and her role in American history.”

 

Of the many books I've written, I was surprised with her choice. I wrote this book over 20 years ago. My name isn't on the cover or the spine of the book (something the publisher controlled). I wrote this book during a season when I was writing a number of books each year (and many of them were work made for hire—like this one—no royalties). This book is still in print and occasionally I will receive letters from school children about it.

 

Why did my relative love it? It was simply the unusual nature of the story.  The role of story is important in every book and every magazine article. How do you learn to tell these stories? I believe it comes from years of writing (practice) and reading good stories. You can also learn about story through reading and studying how-to books like Story by Robert McKee.

 

One of the key ways to practice is writing short stories or magazine articles. These types of writing are not 40,000 to 50,000 word pieces but more like 800 to 1500 word pieces which make them easier to produce yet effective to learn and reach readers. If you haven't written for magazines, I recommend you carefully study this article I wrote about the basics of a magazine article. While writing these shorter articles you will learn:

• how to create an effective headline
• how to draw the reader into your story with an opening
• how to move the reader along with the middle section and maintain interest
• how to draw the reader to a single point or takeaway
• how to write to a word count of the publication (read their guidelines)
• and many other related skills

What type of stories can you write?

 

I recommend you begin with the personal experience story. Each of us have personal experiences and some of those incidents can be woven into interesting magazine articles. Almost every type of publication will take these types of stories. You can use a market guide or search online for guidelines to see which places. If writing for the Christian market, make sure you have the latest edition of the guide since a lot of this information changes every year. Then you can submit the article or write a query to get it published. Yes it takes effort and time to learn the skill of telling good stories and getting them into print—but it is a key part of the writing life.

 

It might even take you into American history to write about someone like Sojourner Truth. How have you  learned the importance of story for your writing? Let me know in the comments below.

 

Tweetable:

Story is one of the key elements in our writing. Get ideas about how to practice this important element in your writing from this prolific editor and author. (ClickToTweet)

Isaiah is one of the best-loved Old Testament prophets. Check out this new Isaiah Study Guide for the Passion Translation by Brian Simmons (@BrianWSimmon) I was honored to write a portion of this book and highly recommend it. (If you like the image and want to get the same for your book, check out this tool.)

Where To Begin Publishing

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Recently I got a direct message from someone working on a Master's degree with an interesting topic. She wanted to know where to start the process of publishing. I'm fairly certain when she asked this question, she was thinking about how to get her thesis published as a book. I'm going to answer this question in this article but first let me say sending a direct message is often not the best way to reach me. I have my email address in my twitter profile and prefer email to direct messages. I may miss a direct message but do not miss my emails.

I understand the confusion about where to begin the publishing process. There are many options. My go-to option is to suggest you begin with a magazine article. Anyone can publish anything online like in a blog and the standard of excellence is higher for a print publication. Magazine writing is a great place to learn the skill of publishing. You learn to choose an intriguing title. Also you have to have an interesting first sentence to pull the reader into your article. Magazine articles have a structure and form and expected length. In the process of writing a magazine article, you craft a beginning, solid middle and an ending with a single point for the reader. This point is often called “a takeaway” because it is what you as the author want the reader to take away from reading your piece.See all the various writing skills you gain writing for magazines? And in this process, you are working with a 1000 to 1500 word piece of writing instead of a 60,000 to 100,000 word document (a typical book manuscript).

In general, the print magazine community has a high standard for publication. Online has a lesser standard. Anyone can write a blog or a piece online but it takes work and effort to craft a magazine article. Those of us in the publishing community understand this effort and respect the work involved in getting published in magazines.

There are many possible magazines. Like any submission, I recommend you google their submission guidelines, read the publications online or write for the guidelines and a sample of the publication. Then write a query letter or complete manuscript and send it to the appropriate editor for consideration.

Here's several other action steps besides selecting a few magazines to pitch.

1. Persistence and consistency counts. If you get rejected (and everyone including me gets rejected), try again. The people who only try once or twice typically don't get published. Persistence will pay off for you with magazine editors.

2. Be learning about book publishing and one of the best places I recommend for you to have a realistic expectation is in my most recent book, 10 Publishing Myths. Visit my website and get it from one of the several different options I give on my website. Beyond getting the book, read it and study it and apply the lessons to your own writing goals. I have a number of books on my shelf that I've purchased and never read. 10 Publishing Myths will help you more if you read it and apply the lessons.

Where do you suggest people begin the publishing journey? Where did you begin? Are there other tips you would suggest? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Where do you begin publishing? It's probably not where people typically answer. Get the details here from this prolific editor and writer. (ClickToTweet)