The Price Tag of Innovation

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In these entries on The Writing Life, I talk about different aspects of the world of publishing. In about a week, I begin to teach a continuing class at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in Asheville, North Carolina. This event is one of the largest in the country with over 600 people last year. It’s been my honor to teach at this event a number of times. Like other aspects of publishing that I’ve mentioned, to be considered on their faculty, I have to pitch what I will teach. To give myself the best opportunity to be selected, I intentionally pitch something different than I’ve taught in the past. 

Months ago I pitched teaching a continuing session (Making Books Is Easy but Selling Books Is Hard. Unlock the Mystery: How Do Authors Sell Books?). I created a brief paragraph about each session. My personal challenge is that when I teach, I pour a great deal of time and effort into my handouts and the information which I will be giving to my class. 

Because of the size of this conference and the other classes, I never know ahead of time how many people will be at my session. Some years I have taught a full class with someone in every seat. Other years I have had two or three people (yes that number is correct). Other times I have had a dozen people in my class. I always prepare as though I will have an overflow crowd--whether that happens or not.

My challenge is finding the time to prepare for these new sessions. My handouts for the sessions are due ahead of time. Instead of printing a bunch of handouts which are not used, all of the handout information will be stored in a password protected area (just for people who have paid for the conference) to access and use. Unlike some of the other instructors, I do not use a powerpoint or an online slide deck. Through my years of attending these conferences, I  been in the audience where the instructor spends the bulk of the hour trying to get their computer to work or some other glitch prevents the audience from receiving the information. Instead when I teach, I focus on producing handouts with a lot of information (way more data than I can teach during the time period) and put it online for the participants to use when they return back to their homes.

On top of this continuing class responsibility, I’ve been invited to give one of the keynote talks to the entire conference. It’s another opportunity that I do not take lightly. I've worked and reworked my stories and what I will be saying during this time. I’ve prepared a special business sized card which I’m carrying to the event and plan to give to each person at the end of my talk. They can put this card on their computer or bathroom mirror or some other place where they will be reminded of my different key points. 

I learn a great deal as I prepare to teach and it helps me crystalize some of the actions that I take on a regular basis for my own books. Also I’m intentionally telling stories of my various experiences in publishing combined with some how-to steps for every listener. I can’t make any listener take action for their own writing life. All I can do is give them the various resources and point to where they can go on their own journey.

What do you want to accomplish? Write a specific goal and give yourself a deadline for that goal. What will it take for you to complete it? How can you break the tasks into short bursts that you can mark off and move forward? It will be your persistence and consistency that will eventually get it done. 

As authors, each of us are on this journey to find our readers, sell our books and help others. I called this article, The Price Tag of Innovation. There is definitely a cost and investment for every speaker or teacher at these events. It costs time and energy away from my office and other responsibilities. It costs time and energy away from my family. Yet from my experience of attending writer’s conferences for many years, I know the teaching to the right person can be life-changing. From my experience, the price tag of innovation is worth it.

What price tag are you paying for innovation? Maybe it’s an investment in a writer’s conference or taking an online course or maybe you are getting up an hour earlier each day to crank out some pages on your current manuscript. It could be dozens of things that need to be accomplished to reach more readers with your words. Let me know in the comments below.

My Writing In Other Places:

With these articles, I encourage you to publish your work beyond your blog in other places. Below are a couple of locations where my work has been recently published.

Each month I write an article about book proposal creation for Almost an Author. This site recently was hacked and went down but is now back up. I encourage writers to Build and Maintain Editor Relationships at: https://bit.ly/4jRmRKK 

Each month I guest blog for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference blog. In this article, I encourage authors saying: You Can Reach Your Writing Goals at: https://bit.ly/4j3uUTC

Tweetable:

According to this prolific author and editor, there is a price tag for innovation. Are you aware of this cost and how to move forward with your writing? Get the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

During my decades in publishing, I’ve heard the unrealistic expectations of writers. The reality is many aspects of the publishing process are outside of anything an author can control. 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. 

Get these articles on your email: 

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

Be Aware of Your Choices

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Throughout your day, you are making choices, whether you are aware of it or not. What actions you take? Write this page or watch a movie or television program or read more on a book. What you eat? When you get some exercise? When do you organize your desk or your computer or learn something new? We are surrounded with good choices. 

Each of us have the same 24 hours of the day to take action and do something. Some of my days are filled with high energy and scheduled meetings with authors. On other days my calendar is empty and every hour I make choices how to fill my time. For example, with my role as an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. For 13 years, I’ve been actively doing this work with authors--and even longer since I was doing this work with other publishers. The process of getting a book contract for an author has multiple steps which I have to accomplish for my colleagues to send me a contract. Working for a New York publisher is different from the two other publishers where I have worked in acquisitions. Also the process is different from self-publishing (where everything falls to the author’s responsibility). For my part, I have a series of steps that need to be completed in this process. I’m aware my choices and even how quickly I get the various steps completed will affect whether an author receives a contract or not. If I don’t complete some of the process, then that author will never receive the offer to publish their book. 

During my years working in this process, I have also learned there is much of the process which is outside of anything that I can control. For example, I can’t determine if an author will sign and return their contract or if they will send me a simple note they have decided to go in a different direction (happens) or they don’t respond at all to my contract offer (yes, editors do get ghosted in response as well as writers). While I can’t control the response and action of others, I can control my own actions and choices. Some days I feel overwhelmed with the amount of work and the details that have to be pulled together for a book to move forward. Other days I keep chipping away at the work and some of the details come together and move forward with my colleagues. I’m saying it is not a black and white process but a fluid one which is filled with choices.

Another illustration about choices would be the management of my calendar. As a part of the submission process at Morgan James Publishing, I speak with the author, record the conversation and send that author a copy of our recording. My authors are scattered all over the world--not just in different parts of the United States and Canada. In the last few weeks, I’ve spoken with a couple of different authors in Switzerland about their submissions. I will send an email with a proposed time. I use a world clock tool so my proposed time will likely work for that author. With the authors in Europe, it is often early morning in California but late afternoon in Switzerland for that author. 

It is a continual process to propose a meeting time, see if that time will work, then set up a conference call with that author (another online tool I use in this process). During the call, I make sure I ask the author for the various details I need for my colleagues (such as the links to their online presence on LinkedIN, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). If I don’t have these details, then I can’t fill out their paperwork for my colleagues and see if I can get them a book contract. Throughout this internal process, I am making many choices about how I will spend my time and which authors to move forward in the process. Hopefully from these few specifics, you can see even as an editor, I have an endless stream of choices whether to go this way or that way.

For this article on The Writing Life, I want to give you several steps to help you move forward with whatever you face.

1. Be aware of your choices. Monitor how you spend your time throughout a day. Are you aimlessly scrolling on social media or sitting at your desk with your fingers on your keyboard and moving forward on your writing? If you can’t find a block of time to write, can you write in short bursts to keep it moving forward? Break up the patterns of what you have done in the past and try something different to move ahead. 

2. Use wisdom of experience and prayer with your choices. As a Christian, I understand that prayer is one of our greatest assets in deciding which direction to move forward. I encourage you to pray throughout this process as you make your choices.

3. Handle the interruptions. No one is promised smooth sailing in the publishing process. From my years in this business, I can almost guarantee that something will spring into your life to interrupt your goals or plans. The key is your determination to keep moving forward and meet your writing deadline inspite of the interruption. 

4. Be committed to growing and improving throughout your publishing journey. As I’ve written in these articles, the publishing process is much more of a marathon than a sprint. Each of us are on the journey with an endless supply of opportunities. Which opportunities will you choose to move ahead and which opportunities will you delay or refuse?

I’m excited about the various authors and books that I work with day in and day out. The process is not simple nor straightforward but complex with many variables and choices. I hope this article helps you become more aware of your choices and possibilities in the journey. What am I missing or would you add to this process? Let me know in the comments below.

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week another podcast recording launched.

Mark Graban and I spoke about Selling Books Isn’t the Publisher’s Job: What Authors Must Learn Early On the My Favorite Mistake Podcast. Listen at: https://bit.ly/3GByvel 

Get to a Conference:

One of the best ways to boost your writing life is to attend a writer’s conference. Here’s two upcoming possibilities for us to meet.

May 26th to 30th, I’m teaching a continuing class on a rarely discussed (yet critical) topic for authors: Unlock the Mystery: How Do Authors Sell Books? Let’s meet in person, learn the details and get registered at: https://bit.ly/4j2HVxd 

Let’s meet in Oregon next month. I will be teaching about how to Jumpstart Your Publishing at the Cascade Christian Writers Conference June 22nd to 25th plus meeting with authors about their publishing plans. Get registered at: https://bit.ly/3Z5dSNF

Tweetable:

Whether you are aware of it or not, our lives and work in publishing has many choices. This prolific author and editor gives some examples, then action steps to help you to make better choices. (ClickToTweet)

There are many other aspects of the publishing process that authors need to have realistic expectations and plans. From speaking with hundreds of authors through my years in this business, I find many of their plans are unrealistic. A great deal of the publishing process is unpredictable and outside of the author’s control. It’s why I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS, which is a practical easy reading book to help you. Get my decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses.

Get these articles on your email: 

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

The Most Difficult Aspect to Find

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

You’ve been working on your book proposal or book manuscript for a long time. On a consistent basis, you have been at your computer crafting your words and telling your stories. Or you have been working on your business plan or book proposal for your book. After weeks of effort and work, you are poised at your computer and ready to submit it to a literary agent or an editor. In this article, I want to help you understand the most difficult factor for you to find at this juncture: something that is not there. How do you find what you are missing and make sure you add it before submitting?

For this article, I added an image of a woman looking at a map. Let’s say you were going to be the printer or publisher of that map. What would be the most difficult aspect to check in the proofreading process before you printed it? The answer is something which is supposed to be on that map but is not there. With a book, it could be the table of contents page. An editor friend who read my Pivot Driven Devotions wrote an email and called it to my attention this book does not have a table of contents page. For other books, they have a foreword but in the proofreading process the foreword isn’t added to the table of contents. In other books, the word foreword is misspelled as forward. Foreword is one of the most misspelled words in publishing. As a writer, you want to get the details right no matter what you are publishing.

Now that you understand the challenge for the author, I want to suggest several ideas to help you in this process.

1. Use a checklist. The checklist helps you see the elements which may be missing then add them into your manuscript, book proposal or any other type of submission or pitch. For example, in the book proposal area, I have a free book proposal checklist (follow the link to get it or go to this page for more information).  My book proposal checklist is a number of pages (when you subscribe to my newsletter). I’ve written two book proposals that received six-figure advances and reviewed hundreds of proposal submissions. I encourage you to read my checklist then carefully review it and see if anything is missing that you need to add before your submission. Submitting a complete document is important. Sometimes authors will notice they are missing something and ask if they can resubmit their proposal. Often with reluctance I agree to such a request but it causes more internal work and does not make the right impression on the editor or agent that you have asked. As a writer, you can to come across in a professional manner. Use the checklist before you hit the send button to an editor or agent.

2. Hire a proofreader or outside editor. Another way to find missing elements in your submission is to hire a proofreader or outside editor. At Morgan James Publishing, we have a vetted list of editors that I will send to the authors during the submission process. The list is fluid and changes from time to time if we get complaints about a particular editor. There are a number of these professionals who can help you. The Christian Writers’ Market Guide has a list of editors and resources. Make sure you use a current edition because this type of information changes from year to year. 

Before you submit, you want to make sure your material is complete and in the best possible shape. An outside editor can help you in this process--especially when you understand that an excellent submission is a great way to stand out to the editor or literary agent. Some people estimate there are millions of submissions in process at any given moment. From the stack of material I receive as an editor, I believe that statement is true.

3. Join a Critique Group.

The final way I would give you to find something missing in your query letter or book proposal or manuscript or any sort of pitch is to join a critique group or find an accountability partner. Each of us need someone with fresh eyes to look at our material and give us input and improvement. I’ve been in a number of these groups through the years and learned it is important to find the right group. That process will take some search and effort but it is well worth it from my experience. Follow this link to learn some more ideas about finding and participating in a critique group. 

The publishing process is not easy for anyone. The overall message in this article is that you do not have to face the journey alone. Use one or more of these ideas to find whatever is missing in your material--and do it before you send it. What other ideas or resources do you have in this area? Let me know in the comments below.

New Podcasts:

In these articles, I’ve encouraged you to use PodMatch or some similar tool to book and record podcasts. Last week another podcast recording launched.

Want your book to be a success? Author Terry Whalin says, “Take five small actions every day.” That’s it. Repeat daily. Momentum comes from small, strategic actions over time.🎧 Hear the full strategy in the Author’s Edge: https://bit.ly/4iQuAYw

Some of My Writing In Other Places:

In recent weeks, I’ve had a couple of guest blog post articles.

Each month I guest blog at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference and this month I encourage writers that The Opportunity To Publish Is Everywhere at: https://bit.ly/42AXgOL 

Once a month, I guest blog at Writers on the Move and in this article, I explain why I give away books and you should too at: https://bit.ly/3Es76KY 

Tweetable:

What is the most difficult aspect for any author to find? Get the specific details in this article from this prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

After speaking with authors for years, I know many authors have a unrealistic ideas about the details of publishing—and these details are important for your book to succeed. 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS is a practical easy reading book to help you. Get my decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of

bonuses. 

Get these articles on your email: 

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