Celebrate The Joy of Anticipation

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As you read this article, I’m attending to one of the largest Christian writers conferences in the country--the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writer’s Conference in Asheville, North Carolina. Last year there were 600 people at this event which translates into a wide variety of types of writers and publishing professionals. It’s been my privilege to attend this event numerous times through the years. I’m teaching a continuing class and a single workshop plus meeting one-on-one with many people throughout the event. 

In this article, I want to capture some of the preparation steps and the joy I’ve been feeling about this event. I wrote these words to give you a hint at the diverse activities and how they can be life-changing for you and your writing.  I encourage every writer to make plans to get to at least one or two of these events each year. At each one, you will make new connections and expand your worldview and resources for your writing life. Admittedly it takes effort and planning on your part to attend these events but the opportunities are priceless from them. 

For over ten years, I’ve been working with hundreds of authors through Morgan James Publishing. Many of those authors I have never met face to face. A number of them (less than a dozen) are coming to this event. It will give me an opportunity to get to know them better and strengthen a bond which is already in place. I’m excited to have such meetings. Several of them have already published their books with us and I’m bringing my copies so they can sign them for me. I’m a genuine fan of their work and I have joyful anticipation about these forthcoming meetings.

While to some the Christian publishing world seems large, it is actually a small community. I have not seen a number of people on the faculty for many years. For other faculty, I’m familiar with their name but have never spoken with them. The opportunity to talk with these seasoned professionals face to face is precious. There are things which aren’t easily put in an email or a phone call that will be said. As you go to these events, I encourage you to do what I’m doing. Be curious and be prepared to ask questions. I’m praying for the opportunity to have those conversations--early, late or during the day. These things happens at these events.

Also a conference is an opportunity meet new people and form new friendships. One of the faculty is a children’s author coming from Australia. I’ve already connected with her on LinkedIN. I noticed her book had no Amazon reviews. I purchased her book, read it and reviewed it. Since she is traveling internationally, she is limited on the number of books she can bring. I’ll be bringing my book to get her autograph. Also I’m anticipating a possible opportunity to work together. I have other Australian authors. Morgan James prints and distributes in Australia--or maybe my reason for meeting this author is to encourage her. 

During the conference, I’m teaching four parts of a continuing session on the actions every author can take to make a difference in their publishing experience. I’m taking some of my former teaching and reworking it around these themes and developing new material. This information comes from my working writer and editor perspective. I’m praying and expecting it to be life-changing for the conferees.

Each faculty member and attender have a full life and we are stepping away from that life for a few days of different activities. It’s not easy but we do it because of the immense value each of us find from these events. 

There are many of these writer’s conferences around the country. My encouragement is for you to get it on your schedule and then plan your interactions (to a degree). Select your classes and then let the Lord guide your steps. How do you anticipate going to a conference? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

When you attend a conference, do you celebrate the joy of anticipation? Get ideas here from this prolific writer and editor gives some insights here. (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Before You Create a "New" Category of Books

It happens fairly often. An unpublished writer will pitch a new genre or type of a novel. Or it happens in the children's area, another inexperienced writer will create a new type of children's book. What they don't understand is their pitch sets off all sorts of warning bells to the editor or literary agent (at least if they are actively thinking about the market when they read the submission).

For example, I read a novel manuscript that had several recipes in the final pages. These recipes ties to the story line and weren't random that the author included it but these recipes are not the reason the target audience picks up the book. They will purchase the novel for entertainment or escape. The inclusion of the extra material does not fit the expectations of the market. If someone is going to need a recipe, they will purchase a cookbook.

I've also met authors who believe they are creating a new genre of fiction. Yes they have created a catchy name for this new category. The question the literary agent or editor is asking (internally), how will this book fit into the marketplace? If they can't answer this question, then the author will receive a polite “thanks but no thanks” rejection/ pass letter.

I also see this experience in the children's book area—particularly in the picture book market. Writers will read tons of picture books to their own children and decide to write a book. While they may have a terrific concept and story and their manuscript may be well written, they have never stopped to learn the details of how the children's book market works. 

The children's book market is very segmented. Your book will not reach all ages of children but needs to have an expected target. This target age will affect the words you use for your manuscript, the illustrations, the subjects and much more. Also picture books have a specific format and length. The shortest picture book is 24 pages and make sure you layout those 24 pages properly with a trial “dummy” book. Just use google to find some examples, then follow the expectations. If your book is short, then you need to rework your story until it is the right length.

I've seen a number of unpublished picture book authors that just decide to “fill in” the blank pages in the back of their book with other information (not connected to the story or the concept). Or maybe they use CreateSpace to create their book but see extra pages in the smallest format and “fill in.” Here's the insight for you: “fill-ins” are probably landing in the rejection stack. They will not garner serious consideration because they break the expectations of the picture book market.

As a writer who wants to find a publishing home, you need to learn the expectations for a particular type of writing and write with excellence before you try and break those patterns.   Yes you can always self-publish but this action is full of challenges and potential dangers (spending a lot of money with little return for example). Writers who are not in publishing don't understand there are thousands of people (at least 50,000 for most of these self-publishers) and on average sell only a few copies. That is not where as a writer I want to put my limited time and resources.

Publishers have to meet the expectations of their authors but also to produce excellent books which will be prized, discussed and promoted among booksellers and librarians as well as the general public. If you haven't seen a particular type of book, often there is a good reason why you haven't. I encourage you to get into a writer's group, attend a writer's conference, join a critique group and get into the community to learn before you leap. It will help propel your writing life forward.

I have a mixing bowl illustration because many writers believe writing a book is like mixing a cake. You simply gather the ingredients (words) and put them into a document and fire them off to an editor or agent. Just like with a cake, if you put in the wrong ingredient, you can ruin your cake. It's the same with a manuscript. The unexpected additional element could ruin your opportunity to get published.

On the Move

In the last couple of weeks for the first time in eight years, I moved physical locations. I've had several job transitions during my years in Arizona but not a physical change. Our family moved to Irvine, California to be near family and also to downsize. The experience has thrown off my regular writing.

While I've heard (and followed) the various writing maxims for many years such as write every day and take action every day. Over the last few weeks my efforts have been focused in some other area than my writing. It has meant I've done very limited writing and most of that writing has been limited to emails and nothing which shows up on these entries about The Writing Life.

From my moving experience, I rediscovered the cleansing nature of downsizing. For example, I had three bookcases in my office but in my new place, I only had room for two bookcases. Also in the moving process, I sorted through boxes of books which I was stacking in my garage. I hauled 30 boxes of books to my public library where I donated them. In the process of sorting, I made snap decisions about hundreds of books—whether to give away or keep them.

To be honest, I have looked for a couple of books on my shelf and not found them (which means I gave them away). Yet overall the elimination process has been valuable because I eliminated the “stuff” clogging my bookshelf. What action can you take today to sort through some books on your shelf and donate them to a good place like the public library?

To compound all of the change in my life from the physical move, I also changed jobs right in the middle of it. Each day I've been actively calling and emailing authors about their projects with Morgan James Publishing. As a publisher, we're excited to have another book on the New York Times bestseller list (the week of July 15^th). Congratulations to Gordon D'Angelo and his book, Vision: Pathway to Victory. Getting on this list points out one important fact: Morgan James is selling books through the bookstores. 

On the writing front, what are you actively doing to be on the move? Many writers dream but never take action. They read about writing but never write. Or they try a couple of times and get rejected—and every writer gets rejected—and put their writing away. To succeed with your writing you have to be on the move and taking daily action.

Here's some active steps you can take:

—get connected. As a writer, you need to know others who are writing in your area of the market. Reach out to them via email or on the telephone or face to face. Don't see them as competition but instead view them as colleagues. Reach out and help them and they will help you. I've learned a tremendous amount from other writers—in forums, in face to face interaction, in books, in blogs and much more. If you and I are not connected on some place like LinkedIn, then take the initiative and send me an invitation. LinkedIn goes to my personal email address and while my public profile says I have 500+ connections, I actually have close to 2300 connections. Here's the key—just like everyone else, I started with one connection. You can build it as well but need to be taking action on a consistent basis.

—get published. I've written a great deal about how to get published in these pages. I'm talking about print magazines, online publications, newsletters and yes even books. Print magazines in general have a higher standard and are more respected than online publications. Take some time and study the details in my article on the basics of writing for magazines—then take action and write some query letters and get published. It does not get published sitting in your computer. You have to take action to get published.

—get educated. I repeatedly learn from others and a writer's conference is a great place to increase your learning about the marketplace and be on the move. This coming Saturday and Sunday I will be at the Greater Los Angeles Writers Conference. In a couple of weeks, I will be at the Texas Christian Writers Conference in Houston. I have a number of live events where I will be speaking this fall (use this link to keep up on my schedule).

In recent weeks, my focus has not been on these entries—to my regret. I've recommitted to writing here on a regular basis. I'm back on the move and hope you will be as well.

Years ago I heard author Paul E. Little speak about how to find direction for our life. He said something that has stuck with me, “God can't steer a parked car.” Are you on the move?

Take Action for Your Dreams

Over the last few days, I've been pulling together my handouts and teaching notes for the Colorado Christian Writers Conference and the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. If you check the dates on these two events you will see they are back to back or I will be nine days on the road. I'll be teaching six hours in Colorado and three hours in North Carolina plus meeting with many writers one-on-one and enjoying the conference experience.

At each of these conferences, I meet new people and also can catch up with long-term publishing friends. Every conference is an event with many conversations and benefits which happen from these exchanges.

Are you planning on going to a conference this year? I highly recommend that every writer or would-be writer make the effort to get to a conference. If you want to see my schedule for the year, here's where I keep it. I've added a couple of events over the last few weeks.

These events seem to start and end quickly. In between there are many interactions and dozens of ideas which are discussed. Resources are offered and sold. Many people leave these conferences enthused and energized about the opportunties for them in the publishing world. Yet there is one key distinction of the people who would like to be published and the ones who eventually get published: the ones who get published take action on the ideas and teaching.

If you could come along with me to these events, you'd be surprised at the number of times I offer to help someone--and I never hear from them again. They do not take an active follow-up role after the conference. The participants who take action will eventually succeed. That perserverance will pay off.

Over the last few weeks, I've been listening a second time to Arielle Ford's Everything You Should Know series. In some cases, I'm listening to the teaching for the third time. Why? It is a great deal of information to absorb and recall and especially to apply to your writing life.

I heard Arielle Ford affirm something that I've found true as well: there is no such thing as an overnight success. Every author who ultimately becomes a bestselling author or well-known has been in the trenches for years. They've been interviewed on the small radio stations and they've been telling people about their books for years and faithfully working on learning the writing craft.

Arielle told about an author she was promoting years ago who was a PhD and was riding the train over from Connecticut to a small cable TV station for an interview about his book. As this author rode the train, he felt regretted making the effort and time for this interview. He wondered if anyone would be watching the interview. That day, a reporter from the Wall Street Journal was home sick and caught this interview. The journalist was fascinated with the author and eventually wrote a front page story for the Wall Street Journal. That article propelled the author into the media eye and ultimately on the New York Times bestseller list.

You can't always tell the value of an interview or a review from what you see on the surface. Instead, you need to continue to take action and work toward achieving your dreams.

In each chapter of Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, I have a dig deeper section with additional resources and a section for the reader called Awaken the Dream. I'm pushing the reader to take action and apply the material to their writing life. It's what I will be doing in Colorado and North Carolina--encouraging writers to take action. It's the only way to achieve their dreams.

What steps are you taking today to move forward and achieve your own plans in the publishing world? For some people that will involve learning the craft of writing. For others, it will mean reaching out and forming new relationships with editors or writing some magazine articles. For others, it will mean looking for new ways to reach their audience and tell them about their book.

From my years in the publishing world, every editor and agent that I know are actively looking for the best projects to bring into print. My encouragement is that you make a plan then take action on your plan--today and tomorrow and the next day. It will pay off for you.

Jumpstart Your Conference Experience

Several days ago, I wrote a post for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writer's Conference Blog. What I didn't mention on that entry is the Blue Ridge Conference will be my second one--in a row. There are a number of us at the Blue Ridge Conference who are traveling from Denver, where we will be attending the Colorado Christian Writers Conference in Estes, Park. I leave on Wednesday for Colorado. Without returning home, we go straight to the Blue Ridge conference. It will make blogging difficult (if not impossible) because time will be spent in other places.

Here's what I wrote about how to Jumpstart Your Conference Experience:

In a few days, I’m traveling to Asheville and the glorious Ridgecrest Conference center. I love the crisp clean air of the North Carolina Mountains and look forward to it. I’ve been preparing to teach my continuing workshop, Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. I’ve been sorting through my 20+ years in publishing and preparing which stories to tell during my classes.

I love writers’ conferences. It’s a grand idea haven to talk shop and learn from other writers. If you want to succeed in the writing business, I’ve got four keys to Jumpstart your Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference experience:

1. Take daily time to pray about the various people you will meet and the ideas you will discuss. Ask the Lord to guide you through each detail of the conference such as who you will sit with at the opening meeting or where you will sit at each meal and what will be discussed. Ask for God to give you divine appointments. These encounters will be far beyond anything that you could have orchestrated or planned. Be looking for the Lord’s handiwork at the conference.

Some people call those divine appointments or “a pack your bags experience.” That means if you had to leave the conference early for some reason, then you would have had such a great experience with the greatest personal benefit. Through prayer you will come to the conference full of expectation and a spiritual sensitivity that God will work while you are on the conference grounds.

2. The second way to Jumpstart Your Conference Experience is to come prepared to meet others and start new relationships. Prepare some business cards and be prepared to give them out to everyone you meet—but don’t make it a one way exchange. When you give a business card, make sure you receive a business card. Writing is a solitary occupation and we need each other. You will form new and lasting friendships at the conference if you come prepared for it.

3. The third way to Jumpstart Your Conference Experience is to study the background for the various faculty members and get familiar with their different roles. Publishing is constantly changing. I’m in a different role as a publisher than my last time I came to Blue Ridge as a literary agent or when I’ve been as an acquisitions editor. Your familiarity with the different faculty will help you form deeper relationships during the conference. I believe your time in preparation will be rewarded.

4. The final way to Jumpstart Your Conference Experience is to come with the right heart attitude. Many writers come to their first conference expecting to sell their book manuscript or magazine article. Yes, there will be some of those exchanges at the conference. A much more central part of every writer’s conference is where individuals learn new aspects of publishing and take great strides of personal growth. Come with expectations and a willingness to learn and grow. With the right heart attitude, I’m convinced that you will not be disappointed but your expectations will actually be exceeded.

How can I say that expectations will be exceeded? Because I know each member of the faculty is a Christian and a person who is filled with the Spirit of the Living God. I love the verse in Ephesians 3:20 which says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”

Today God is preparing for you the people and lives that will be touched during the time we are together in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I will be coming with high expectations and anticipations. I’ve not ever been disappointed in the past.

See you soon in the mountains!

Catch The Replay Of Yesterday's Teleseminar

Does life seem a bit overwhelming at times and you wonder which way to jump? It happens to all of us--yes all of us. It is key when you are in one of these situations to push aside all of the noise and find the energy to focus on the task at hand and move it ahead toward completion.

It's what I've been doing lately since I've had the best of intentions to handle some matters which are not getting handled. There are several explosions of activity going on at the moment.

Yesterday I participated in two different teleseminars. They were great exchanges of information but the one in particular that I want to tell you about was the connection between platform and book proposals. It was a great class and you can listen to the replay online at this link. Or you can right click here (save link as) and immediately download the teleseminar to your computer or iPod.

During the call Rosey Dow mentioned ten special bonuses where people who attend the Spread the Word conference will get a 15-minute one-on-one session free with me during the conference. I'll use that time to listen to your book idea and look over your proposal and give you valuable feedback. In addition to my bonus, you will receive a free 30-minute consultation with Rosey Dow.

In this hurry up world, it's hard to get anyone to give you this important feedback about your proposal and pitch. It could make the critical difference between serious interest from a publisher or literary agent or instant rejection. As I've mentioned before in these entries about The Writing Life. Some experts have estimated that at any given time there are millions of manuscripts and proposals which are in circulation.

Just yesterday I was talking with a publisher at a major house. He told me that they have been pressed internally to find anything fresh and different--even with the agent proposals which they have been receiving. It's all in the pitch and positioning. If you haven't listened to Secrets About Proposals. I recommend you get this resource because through one workshop you can hear the perspective of eight different leading agents and editors about what attracted them to a particular book idea.

I hope you will seriously consider the opportunity to learn in Atlanta. Hope to see you there. Follow this banner to learn more:

Add Value With Repurposed Content

Recently I wrote about the value of repurposed content. As writers and editors, we have a lot of this material which is "hanging around." Are you using it?

In the next few weeks, I will be releasing a new product into the marketplace. It is premature to write about the specifics but I can tell you about the process and hopefully help some of you readers to think creatively about some of your material and how it can be repurposed.

I'm still in the preparation stage to release this new product. I have purchased a website address and I'm in the process of building a landing page. If you don't know this term, landing page, it is a one-page website with persuasive words where someone can purchase the new product. If you want to learn more in depth about this process, I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of Bob Bly's four audio CD set called The Internet Marketing Retirement Plan. While many people try to make the Internet marketing process into something complex (and charge an expensive price to teach it to you), Bob and Fred Gleeck reduce it into three simple steps. This set of CDs is packed with information. I've listened to all of it twice and learn something new each time. I'm sure I would benefit from a third session with it.

While there are several key factors to building a good landing page, one portion of the process is adding some bonus items to the purchase which have value for the customer. Some times I will purchase a product not because of that particular product but because of the attractive bonus which comes with that product. I suspect my buying habits are fairly typical in this area.

As I was considering the possibilities for the bonus items, I turned to something which has been sitting around in my desk drawer for several years. I’ve been traveling around the United States and Canada teaching at various writers' conferences. Usually, my workshops are recorded and I receive a copy of the CD presentation. Normally I pick it up at the conference (if available), tuck it into my carry-on luggage and bring it home. When I unpack, I put the workshop into my desk drawer where it is not replayed and does absolute zero good for anyone (including me).

Over the last few months, I've been listening to the CDs from Mega Book Marketing University 2006 and Mega Book Marketing University 2007. Each of these presentations begins and ends with the same jazzy little tune. From the instant you turn on the program, the music begins and it mentally prepares you for the next speaker. In simplistic terms, it's called branding and each of these CDs are branded or connected through the music. I've learned this music is called "needle music" and if you search for it online, you can find many different vendors for royalty-free music.

Let's turn back to my need for some bonus items for my forthcoming product. I turned to these workshops which have been taught before live audiences and is my material in a readily available format. In a relatively short amount of time, I extracted the workshop from the CD, selected a short piece of needle music, then branded the workshops so they contain identical music at the beginning and the end of the workshop. I know almost nothing about how to edit audio tapes. I used a program called Sound Forge which is menu-driven and simple to use. Just like you can use Microsoft Word to edit a text file, you can use Sound Forge to edit an audio program. If you are wondering about the illustration for this entry, it is the Sound Forge editing program from my computer. The little blue lines are audio music which I was editing.

The editing process wasn't a chore but actually fun. I snipped out some silence at the beginning of my workshop and added a few seconds of the music introduction. Then I moved to the end of the workshop and again cut out some silence so it ended with some applause from the audience. Then I added a few more seconds of the same music. Now my workshops are a package and I've repurposed my content. These audio workshops will become a valuable addition to my product.

Here's my question with this entry about The Writing Life: what are you doing with your material to repurpose it and add value to your products? Explore the possibilities and the results may surprise you.

The Unusual Request

This week the short email surprised me and it probably shouldn't have done so. Writers ask me all sorts of questions and I've invested a great deal of energy and time to provide resources for them. Part of my motivation for creating sites like Right-Writing.com and these entries about the writing life is to help others succeed with their writing dreams.

From my five years as a book acquisitions editor, I saw many writers floundering and not understanding how to produce what the editor needed to secure a book contract. I poured a great deal of thought and energy into Book Proposals That Sell and I continue to receive feedback about how this book is helping people. In fact, I like to receive feedback about it and find it encouraging.

Earlier this week, I received this email:

"I hope all is well. I have completed reading "Book Proposals that Sell," and I am ready to submit my book proposal to publishers. However,before I submit it, I need your expertise. I have attached a copy of my book proposal to see if you could review it to see if my format is correct. Any advice you can give me will be helpful. Thank you."

The book proposal was attached to this email. For over 20 years, I've read a how-to-write book about once a month but I have never presumed to write the author of one of these many books and ask for their specific input about my project just because I had purchased their book. Notice this person didn't offer any compensation (not that it would have made a difference with my response). Former editors and agents are good at saying no. I did respond to this author and encouraged looking into other resources for input.

If you have created a book proposal or a book manuscript, where do you go to get some professional input? I applaud this writer for wanting to get some professional help before sending it out into the marketplace. Many writers don't get input before they send out their materials and they only get one chance to make a good first impression--and instead make the wrong impression, get rejected and have no understanding of the reason.

In addition to Book Proposals That Sell, I created an audio product with over three hours of my teaching and ideas about book proposal creation called Editor Reveals Book Proposal Secrets. You can order this product which is covered with my 100% Love-It-Or-Leave-It Guarantee. Click the link above and read every word on that page to learn more.

Writing critique groups are another resource to get input from others. This group can be an online group or face-to-face group. For many years, I belonged to a small four-person group that met once a month and we critiqued each other's materials. I learned a great deal as a writer during those years and highly recommend such a simple system. I give a lot of details about critique groups in this article.

Writer's conferences is another place to get specific help about your proposal or project. It is an investment to attend these gatherings and they come in all shapes and sizes. You have to determine what you need at a particular point in your writing life and which conferences to attend. I've got a lot of information about conferences at this link. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this page where I link to some specific conferences.

Beyond these resources, maybe you need to use a ghostwriter or consultant or a book doctor for your proposal. Be prepared to pay a fee for such a service but it’s something else to explore in this realm. There are numerous people who do this sort of work. One large resource with this information is to pick up Rick Frishman's Million Dollar Rolodex as a free resource when you sign up for his newsletter at Author101.com. Rick’s resource is about 55 pages and packed with solid information.

And before you fire off that email asking if I will review your book proposal. Stop and consider some of your other resources. Then you will not be making a memorable impression with your unusual request.

I Participated In Publishing History

Saturday morning I had an early flight to Orange County, California. In the airport crowd I spotted a few readers carrying their orange Harry Potter books. It indicated they had been in the crowd at the bookstores who were able to purchase the book after the stroke of midnight or maybe they bought it in the airport bookstore. I spoke for several hours at the Southern California Writers Association luncheon about Secrets Editors DO Want You To Know. They gathered a terrific crowd for this event and I appreciate the opportunity.

After the event, I spent a bit of time with Bill Kritlow who lives in Fountain Valley. Back in the 1980s, Bill and I were in a local writer's critique group. In this group, four writers once a month for breakfast and worked over each other's material. Bill wanted to go to Barnes & Noble and pick up a couple of copies of the Harry Potter book. It was perfect because I was also looking for an excuse to get to the bookstore. I took the opportunity to purchase the final Harry Potter book. I've read the other six and look forward to this final installment in the series.

In terms of book design, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is wrapped in simplicity. Other than the bar code, there is nothing on the back cover. The front inside flap gives the price, the Jacket artist and the jacket designer along with the words: WE NOW PRESENT THE SEVENTH AND FINAL INSTALLMENT IN THE EPIC TALE OF HARRY POTTER. That’s it.

The back flap gives the contact information for the publisher and nothing else. See why I called it simple? There is no enticing hook or summary of the book or any information about the author. There are no glowing endorsements or reviews or anything to attract additional readers. Scholastic probably decided it wasn't needed and would be overkill.

In the first 24 hours, an estimated 8.3 million copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were sold. It's a new record in publishing history and I was a participant.

The Extra Degree of Effort

What will take your writing to the next level? Is it a writer's conference where you invest and travel across the country and have a significant conversation with an editor? Or maybe it's a class which you take from one person at the conference or several of them. Or it's an email that you get from a writing friend which spurs you ahead in your craft.

It's easy to get discouraged in publishing if you look at the massive amount of material in circulation for consideration or the large number of books which are constantly being released (and few of them selling in a significant way). Rather than look at the negative, it is better to be focused on the positive. What can you do today that will make a difference in your life and move you along the path to success? Where is your personal "tipping point" to use a phrase from the best-selling book by Malcolm Gladwell called The Tipping Point. I've had other entries about this book.

If you need a bit of inspiration, I recommend you check out this short film, 212 The Extra Degree Movie.

May this presentation inspire you to put out the extra effort and not only today but into everything that you write. I've watched this inspirational piece several times. See if you can raise your efforts by one degree.

Why Social Network?

The majority of writers are introverts. It's something that I've read as well as personally observed over and over. Yes, we dig down deep inside to write words and get them out to others. A few writers are extrovert in personality but the majority are not. An editor from a well-known Chicago-based company told me their entire office took the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory Test a few years ago. This company has many different print and online publications. Of the group of editors something like two of them were extrovert and the rest were introvert.

Even someone who is basically an introvert can rise to the occasion. It's what I do when I teach at writers conferences and in other situations. Yet selling books is about creating relationships. You have to reach outside of yourself to create those relationships. The more relationships, the more people who know about your writing and you as a person.

John Kremer at BookMarket.com included a tip about the Book Marketing Network in this week's Book Market Tips. I’ll admit when I read it my curiosity got the best of me—so I went to it and joined. John is the creator of this social network which is a growing network of people interested in the topic of book marketing. If you get real fascinated with social networks, you can even create your own social network. It's another free networking spot. I've not spent a lot of time on my particular page but I have added a few links to some of my resources. There are several hundred people on this spot--and it is growing all the time. I exchanged greetings with a few old friends and have been meeting some new ones. It's another resource to check out and become a bit more social.