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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