Why Re-Read Some Books

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Do you have some books on your shelf that you re-read from time to time or maybe even once a year? One of my friends re-reads The Lord of the Rings every year. Through each reading experience, she sees something new about the story.

For many years, I have been reading and re-reading a single book, The Bible. Reading The Bible is how I begin my day. Each year I choose a different version and this year, I’m reading The Daily Bible NLT. With each reading, I learn something different.

There are merits to re-reading and that’s what I want to examine in this article and give you a couple of resources to read and then re-read. If you follow me on one of my social media platforms like X/Twitter, you know I am a follower and fan of Darren Hardy and his Darren Daily. For years, I have posted them five days a week, because I watch them each time and believe in his encouragement to become “better every day.” 

As I’ve written in these articles, new books for my limited reading pour into my office several times a week. I rarely re-read a book but recently I re-read

The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy.  I got this bestselling book directly from the author--and you can too if you follow the link. For the postage of $6.95, you will receive the book but also the audio version. As I read through the book again, at the same time, I listened to the words. Each time I go through the book, I have different insights about how to apply the information to my writing life. I hope it will be a resource for your writing life. 

With personal stories and insights, Darren Hardy gives the honest truth about how to survive and thrive in the middle of the ups and downs of life as an entrepreneur--and every writer is an entrepreneur (whether you call it that or not). Hardy compares it to the thrill of riding a roller coaster. The book also includes worksheets and other resources for you to apply the information to your life.

After re-reading The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster, I returned to Darren Hardy's first book, The Compound Effect. If you follow the link, you can also get the hardcover version and the audio book of The Compound Effect for only the postage of $6.95. As I re-read the book, I’m listening to the audio of each chapter. I’ve learned to download them to my phone and can listen to them anywhere. I love the flexibility and the insights for my writing life from listening and reading this information.  

The essence of the compound effect is how making small incremental changes in your life, can give you the edge you need to find success. The book is aligned with Darren Hardy's hashtag for Darren Daily #BetterEveryDay. If you make small changes in an area of your life, it can have big results. For example, no one sits at their desk and writes a complete 50,000 or 100,000 word book. Instead you write a page, then a chapter, then another chapter over a series of days and weeks until you complete the manuscript. The writing process is a mirror of what Hardy is discussing throughout The Compound Effect. 

Do you re-read books on a regular basis? Which books and why? Let me know in the comments below. 

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Some books are worth re-reading. This prolific author and editor gives a couple of examples and some resources for every writer. Read the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

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The Work Behind A New Path

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

It begins with a dream and a goal. Since 2004, I’ve been blogging each week in these articles about The Writing Life. It’s grown into a large body of work and I’ve been recognized as one of the top 27 content writers with millions of blogs. About 400 people get these articles on their email and many others read it online. Yet I want to reach more people. How can that happen?

The first step is to create a plan, and then execute your plan, test it and keep telling others. I began to look for new places and ways to tell others about how to subscribe to my blog.

For example, I am active on Facebook and I’ve joined a number of private groups. Overall I do not actively post in any of these groups. I read their posts but do not issue any of my own. Some of these groups are small and others have thousands of members. I crafted some words and worked on refining them off and on for several weeks. Finally I settled on these words:

“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”

Notice my straight-forward explanation and I send the reader to a single place. Also each time I used an image to draw the reader’s attention to my words. 

Some of my posts to these groups posted immediately. Others required an administrator to approve them. For some of these groups with administrators, my post got rejected because they saw it as an ad or spam or overly self-promotional. A couple of administrators rejected my post but pointed out a different place I could post my words. The rules are different for each group but overall my words have gone out to many different writing groups and I will see if my campaign or effort increases my number of blog subscribers (my goal). 

Also my campaign is not limited to this one strategy, I’ve written a short email that I will be sending out to my newsletter list as another tool to use in my campaign. 

Some of these efforts will work and some will fail. From my years in publishing I have learned this simple truth which is pointed out in this quotation from P.T. Barnum: “Without promotion, something terrible happens. Nothing.”

If you don’t try, then it will not fly. What area of your writing do you want to grow? Your newsletter list? Your speaking engagements? Your radio interviews and podcast interviews? Or maybe it writing articles for print magazines or your next book with a publisher? 

The key is to create the goal, then plan how to reach a new audience. I hope the details of how I’m trying to grow my blog subscribers is helpful information to stir your own action and application to your writing life. It’s not easy and takes planning, execution, failure then adjustment. It does not happen without your actions. What area do you need to do this type of work and follow a new path for your own growth? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

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Writers Are Readers

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

I’ve been making regular trips to my local library since I was a young reader. As a child, I read stacks of biographies from the local library on different well-known people. My bent toward reading such stories, has influenced my own writing and partially explains how I’ve written a number of biographies on people like Billy Graham, Luis Palau, Chuck Colson, Billy Sunday, Samuel Morris, John Perkins, Sojourner Truth and others. Throughout the US, there are thousands of libraries. Do you use them on a regular basis?

When I speak with writers about their manuscripts, I will often ask if they read books in their particular area of expertise. Years ago I met an older author who had written a romance novel. Romance is the largest genre of fiction and a popular area. When I asked if he read romance novels. He said, “No, but I write romance.” His weak response did not help his pitch for his romance manuscript.

As a general rule, writers are readers. To support other writers, as I read a book or even hear an audio book, I will write a short review and post it on Goodreads (almost 900 reviews) and Amazon (over 1,000 reviews). No one pays me for these reviews and I do them outside of my work time and in my free time. Publicity expert Brian Feinblum has written about how to support books and authors. Some people estimate over 11,000 new books are published every day (including the self-published books). Each of these authors need people to read their books and write a review. To help people in this area, I created a free teleseminar (follow the link). 

Do you have a To Be Read (TBR) pile of books? I know some people have several stacks of TBR books. On a regular basis, authors and publishers will send books to me. Here’s a couple of books which arrived last week. Bob Tiede offered to mail six books and knowing my volume of books TBR, I encouraged him to only send a couple. One of the books he sent was Leading With Questions. He asked me to take a photo of myself with the book and send it to him (which I did). Then he also asked me to post my photo on social media (which I also did). At this point, I’m still working on whether I’m going to read and review this book or not. Even if I were reading full-time and getting paid for it, I would not be able to read and review all of the books which come into my home. It is simply impossible. 

I opened a package of books and it included a hardcover copy of The Dragon’s Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days wrapped in this package. Notice this book does not release in the bookstores until September 3rd. I’m unsure if I will read it or not since in general I do not read or write about books on Biblical prophecy. I do applaud the creativity of the publicity people sending this package. It definitely caught my attention. 

Sometimes a publisher will send me an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of a forthcoming book. Scholastic Press sent me an ARC of When We Flew Away, A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman which releases September 17th. This 8 to 12 year old book from a bestselling novelist looks intriguing and like something I “might” read. As of this writing, I’m uncertain. These books are just a few of the ones which came into my mailbox this past week and show the variety of books.

Do you read in the area where you are writing? What is on your To Be Read pile? Do you support other authors and write reviews? In the comments, let me know and I look forward to reading your experiences.

Tweetable:

This prolific author and editor explains how writers are readers. He gives the details about why this simple habit is important for every writer.  (ClickToTweet)

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Critical Editorial Decisions

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an acquisitions editor at a New York publisher, I’ve read many submissions from potential authors. It’s one of my main tasks to read these submissions and speak with the author to see if they are the right fit for the publishing house. Often these authors have received little feedback about their submission. 

From my decades of experience in this business and writing for many different publishers, I know firsthand how submissions are handled. The editor or literary agent is reading the submission for their own needs. If it looks like something they could use in their bsuiness, then they will reach out to the author. If not, they will not respond and instead press on to the next submission. The author is left with little to zero feedback about what can be done to improve the submission so it could fit the needs of the publishing house.

Understanding these foundational details is a critical part of the publishing process. It’s like the concrete in the image above in this article. The concrete mixture has to be correct or the foundation of the building will not be a strong one. It's the same process in publishing. Every writer must have the right mixture in their submission to hit the right target. From my experience, I will see something different from another person. There is definitely a process and the author needs to enter this submission process.

As an editor, I’ve watched writers make critical editorial choices which affect the results of their work. Because they are new to the business, often they will not understand these critical junctures until months or even years after the fact. In this article I want to give some detailed examples in hopes it will help you become more aware and sensitive to the importance of these decisions.

The book writing process begins with a well-designed foundation. Bestselling novelist James Scott Bell talking about this element in this article, The Art of the Outline. It’s worth studying the patterns and habits of other writers to see how you can improve your own creation process. Notice the creativity that is poured into this storytelling and how it is the foundation of their manuscript. Just look at the detailed planning that J.K. Rowling poured into her Harry Potter books.

Some of the basics why your submission is getting rejected or no response:

--Your word count is too large. For a nonfiction book, the ideal length is 50,000 to 60,000 words. For a fiction submission, it is around 60,000 to 80,000. If your novel is 100,000 words (a common length), you are going to get rejected with no idea why. The published book will be too large and require a high retail price (affecting sales). The word count details are important.

--Is the submission poorly written or not appropriate for the publishing house? If so, you are asking for silence or rejection.

--The editor or literary agent doesn’t understand the title or the overview or the pitch. This situation happens and can why you are getting rejected.

Recently a novelist sent a submission to Morgan James Publishing. He had worked on this novel for years. It was a good length and had an interesting pitch and storyline. The story was something we would possibly publish. I put the submission through our system. The internal feedback was a pass (for now). This author needed a developmental editor to improve his manuscript and change the pass to a contract offer. We recommended an excellent developmental editor who this author hired to help him. He got the feedback from the editor and the path to get his revised work was steep and required a lot of changes and revision. He set everything aside and self-published. 

I understood what this author did but his choice greatly limited the reach of his novel. He has some other writing possibilities so we are still exploring them. My key point is achieving excellence and good storytelling is hard and sometimes as authors we have to choose the hard path. I’ve watched this process happen with many authors through the years.

If you are in this situation, here’s some actions to take:

--join a critique group with some honest feedback

--use some honest beta readers and get their feedback

--hire an experienced developmental editor and follow their suggestions and feedback. There are many different editors and potential costs for this process. I encourage you to ask around and choose carefully. A novelist told me that he had hired some well-known editor and was paying $500 a chapter for editing (excessive in my view). Each author should make careful editing choices.

The publishing process is filled with critical decisions. During each stage, you need to make wise choices to have a solid foundation and find the right publisher. What critical editorial decisions did I miss? Let me know in the comments below.

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Pitching Failures

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

While I’ve been reading pitches and making pitches for decades, sometimes I miss the mark. A pitch are some carefully selected words targeted to a decisionmaker to get a specific result. There are many different types of pitches because you have a variety of possible results. You pitch a magazine article to an editor. Or you pitch a book idea in a proposal or a query letter. 

When you pitch, it is not about you. Readers don’t care about you. They care about themselves--so focus on the reader and what they want--their needs, the benefit to them and these sorts of details. The focus of your pitch is a critical aspect so you make the right presentation and aim at the right target.

Each week I get an email from an author who has a large email list. In this email, she encouraged people to pitch her something that she will include in a future email. I crafted a pitch and sent it to her. 

Here’s my pitch to her:

I launched a weekly blog in 2008 and have been consistently writing each week with over 1700 entries. I found this article which listed my name as one of the top 27 content producers:  https://izea.com/resources/top-blog-content-writers/ Here’s the link where you (and others) can receive the entries in their email: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA  

My pitch caught her attention (good) and she responded (also good). My pitch failed because I neglected to focus on her readers and her audience. In her response, she called me on it and pointed out my pitching failure. I understood and rewrote my pitch with the right focus. 

Here’s my second pitch:

Millions of book ideas are circulating in publishing offices. The majority are ghosted without even a form rejection letter. New York publisher acquisitions editor Terry Whalin is one of the top content producers with his weekly blog, The Writing Life. You can gain his insights and teaching on email. Subscribe at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Notice my second pitch has the right focus on her readers and only includeds a single focus point or website link. My first pitch did not have this proper focus. What happened with my revised second pitch? Nothing. I was ghosted and she didn’t respond a second time. I didn’t get another opportunity.

My commitment to you in these articles about The Writing Life is to tell you about these experiences and what I’ve learned--for myself but also to help you. Here’s some of those lessons from my pitching failures:

1. First impressions count. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. You can’t redo that first pitch. Sometimes you get grace from the decisionmaker and a second opportunity, but you should not expect to receive it. The other person has no obligation or responsibility to tell you why your first pitch didn’t work. I recognized that I was given a gift of a response. The same sort of expectation should be involved with a submission to an editor or literary agent. If you get a response, it is likely a generic pass letter. That professional is not responsible to tell you what was missing and why they made their decision (nor do they have time for such answers). If you get the information (and occasionally you do) then recognize those words as a valuable gift from that person.

2. Haste makes waste. I cranked out my pitch and fired it off on email--and it failed. It would have been better if I drafted the pitch and then held it for a day or two. I could have reviewed and edited that pitch to refine it and make sure it was focused on the reader. 

3. There is value in a thoughtful pitch. If you draft the material and hold it for several days, it gives you an opportunity to make sure it is complete and not missing some element. For example, for my work with Morgan James Publishing, authors will often send me their book proposal. It is common to find their proposal is missing a critical section or is incomplete in a section. If the author had held it for a few days, then he could have filled in those missing pieces and presented a thorough proposal instead of a partial proposal. 

How do you find a missing section in your proposal? The most difficult thing to see is something that is not there. It’s why checklists have value because they point out missing sections. I have a free book proposal checklist (just follow this link). 

4. Keep pitching. The only way you can permanently fail in your pitching is to quit or stop. It takes work for you to find the right fit and the right place for your pitches. I encourage you to continue forming new relationships and connections at writers’ conferences, online and through LinkedIN. As you make these connections look for new opportunities. I suspect these opportunities are all around you but you aren’t aware of them and not pitching or making the right pitch.

As I’ve said before in these entries, if I can help you, let me know. My personal email address is in the top of my X/Twitter profile. What steps do you take with a pitching failure? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

When your pitching fails, what actions do you take? This prolific author and editor gives the details about his pitching failure and what he learned for the next time. Get the details 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.

Like Herding Cats

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In my work as an acquisitions editor, I speak with many first-time authors. These authors have little concept of the steps to get published and likely do not understand the limited time editors and agents will take with their pitch. These professionals receive many email pitches and are looking for reasons to click delete and press on to the next one. If you pitch the wrong book, wrong length, and other wrongs, you will never know the reason. Instead of a response, you will not receive anything (ghosted) or you will receive a form rejection letter which is more and more rare.

In this article, I compare this editorial process to herding cats. There is almost nothing you can do to control the process but continue forward. From my seasoned experience, it is frustrating but all I can do is look for the people open to my insights and willing to do the necessary work to refine their pitch and find the right connection. It’s not easy but possible if the details line up.

For example, a recent author submitted a Christian nonfiction book with a word count of over 115,000 words. As an editor, I speak with the author as a part of our submission process. I planned to tell this author he was pitching a book with a printed page count of over 400 pages. As I was preparing to speak with this author, he looked at the Morgan James Publishing website and decided not to meet with me and instead to press on to other publishing options. I had a scheduled conference phone call with this author and shortly before our call, he emailed and cancelled. I attempted to encourage him to continue but he would not change his mind.

Another author with a devotional book submission withdrew her submission because she had signed with a literary agent. For decades, I have worked with literary agents. I have numerous friends who are agents and believe in their work and the importance of it. I have a free list of over 400 agents that I give away (just follow this link to get it). 

Here’s a little publishing detail that agents will not tell you because it doesn’t help them: they don’t sell all their books which they are pitching. In fact, agents get rejected more than anyone else in this business because they hear “no” many times when they simultaneously send a single submission to multiple places. Here’s another detail to factor into the process of working with an agent. If your agent does locate a publisher and get you a book contract, it is likely to be at least 18 to 24 months before that publisher will get the book into the bookstores. Many authors are in a rush to get their book into the marketplace. With a traditional publishing model, it would be unusual for them to get your book out any quicker because of how books are sold into the bookstores. I was prepared to possibly tell this information to the author who signed with an agent but she withdrew her submission and dismissed me. 

For each of these two author situations, I encouraged the author to reach out to me down the road and hope we can work together in the future. If potential authors are treated with respect and kindness, I often find these authors will reach out to me at a later point in time. As an editor I was frustrated with each of these situations because the author failed to explore their possibilities which I could see but they could not. At times I find the acquisition process like herding cats--not possible. 

How can authors avoid these missteps and possibly get the attention of an acquisitions editor or literary agent? No matter how the professional responds to your pitch, each of us are actively looking for another bestselling author. We are reading online. We are listening to our phone conversations and most importantly reading our email (the major way people pitch these days). 

My straight forward advice about finding the right publisher:

--explore all your options without limitations or preconceived ideas. You are looking for the best way to get published and the answer may surprise you if you are open to it.

--get publishing insights from anyone who offers it--in person on the phone or at a writers’ conference or reading their how-to books

--knock on many different doors and listen to see what opens

Am I missing something that you have experienced in the submission process? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

According to this prolific editor and writer, at times, the process of working with authors on their submissions is like herding cats. Get the specifics 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.

The Craft of Storytelling

   

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

How does any writer learn the craft of telling a good story? Let me say right off the bat, there is not one path but it’s a journey with many different paths and possibilities. In this article I want to give some ideas and direction to you if you want to write and publish stories.

1. Read many stories. Writers are readers. Whatever it is you want to publish, you should be reading this material--to be aware of others who are writing in your area, to form relationships with these people and many other reasons. If you want to publish stories, you need to be reading short stories in magazines and online venues. 

2. Write short stories or magazine articles. It's the first place I recommend you write if you want to get published. Print publications have a much higher standard than online publications. It’s better to write a 1200 word magazine article than a 80,000 word nonfiction book or novel. It’s easier to learn and practice on the short format plus you learn how to write for a particular audience, how to have a great beginning, middle and end. How to hook the editor with your title and other critical skills. Follow some of my links if you don’t write for magazines. 

3. Learn from other writers about the craft. I encourage you to subscribe and read newsletters from other writers. Also read their books about the storytelling craft and take their online courses.

After interviewing more than 150 bestselling authors including many novelists, I learned that the majority never published their first novel or their second novel. In fact, most of these authors wrote several books before the story was worth publishing and having others read it. My experience of talking with authors was validated as I read the book, My First Novel and What Became of It. The Novelist of ChiLibris, a Christian group of novelists, have pulled together 47 authors—and a number of them bestselling authors like Colleen Coble, Jerry B. Jenkins, Angela Hunt and DiAnn Mills. In this slim volume, they tell their personal story about their first novel and entrance into the fiction marketplace. 

In order to contribute to this book, the novelist must be a member of ChiLibris Writers. An invitation must be extended to join and the author must have three traditionally published novels before receiving an invitation. 

As you read My First Novel, it becomes a terrific learning experience for every would-be novelist. I encourage you to study these stories and learn from these seasoned novelists.

For example, Colleen Coble, bestselling novelist of 75 books and leader of the American Christian Fiction Writers wrote, “I had no advice when I was writing my first so let me tell you what I suggest for any aspiring writer, if that first book doesn’t sell right away, put it aside. You learn to write by writing. You can circle back to that book later after you learn more. Don’t be obsessed getting that first novel published like I was. It will delay your progress.” (Page 29)

Many of these novelists include a tip or lesson learned for others. For example, award-winning novelist Tamera Alexander wrote, “Through all of this, the Lord taught me a lesson I’ll never forget ... Every “No” along the way is really part of God’s final “Yes!” when his perfect timing is reached.” (Page 9)

Whether you skip around and read a few chapters or each one as I did, this book is a goldmine of insight for every novelist. 

What is your method to learn the craft of storytelling? Let me know in the comments below. 

My Articles in Other Places:

In these entries, I encourage you to write in other locations. I’ve not included this section for a few months--but here’s the truth: I have continued publishing on other blogs and other places. Here’s some of my latest articles:

How to Hire the “Right” Publicist Once a month, I guest blog on the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference blog. In this article, I give some specifics including a cautionary tale of wasting a great deal of money. I include some specific steps when you want to hire a publicist to promote your book. 

What Is More Valuable Than Fame  I guest blog once a month at Writers on the Move. In this article, I explain connecting your readers to your book is more valuable than becoming well-known or famous. I encourage you to learn more reading this article.

How to Get High Profile Endorsements Each month I guest blog about book proposal creation for the Almost An Author website. Does it sound like a huge exaggeration for a beginning author to get high profile endorsements? It’s not if you take the steps explained in this article then incorporate it into your submission. 

I included these articles to help you to take action and improve the results of your writing life.

Tweetable:

How do you learn the craft of storytelling? This prolific author and editor gives some actions and a resource with detailed insights. (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.