Write Is a Verb Blog

My email is stacking up on the flight deck again. I get hundreds of emails per week. Some percentage of those emails, as I have become more well known, are from supplicants asking me to help them get published. They want me to read their manuscript, give them a blurb, recommend an agent or editor, pass their book along to my agent or editor, collaborate with them on their great book idea, and so on.

I am a kind and generous person, but sometimes I get a little put off by these requests. First, because as one gets even a little well known (and I know I am not that well known at all-I can’t imagine how much more pressed really well known people are with these requests), the number of them increases. Many people are looking for a leg up and you look to be a person who can give them that boost. But if I responded to each of these requests, I would not have much time to get my writing done or to have a life outside of my work.

Second, there is often an off-putting insensitivity in these requests. Some people acknowledge that I must be busy and that if I can’t find my way to help or I am too busy, they will understand perfectly. But others seem to assume I will be happy to take the time to both read their requests and to help them no matter the time it takes or the burden of the request (my agent would be very unhappy if I referred everyone who asked me to to her). These people occasionally express resentment when I do not provide whatever help they expected.

I have had one person seriously request that I read their dissertation in German and tell them if they missed any references to a particular subject I had some expertise on. I have had others ask me to essentially write their class papers on my area of expertise.

Besides not assuming that the person you make a request of will comply, I have a simple suggestion that may serve you well in life. If you want something from someone, give them something of value first, whether it be a compliment, a kindness or some useful information. Establish a relationship.

I have a correspondent who, noticing I like quotations, regularly sends me interesting quotations. I always take the time to read her emails. If she asked me for a favor, I would likely do it because has built up some credit with me (although I wouldn’t read her dissertation in German).

End of rant.

“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning.” Peter De Vries

If I had waited to write until I was inspired, I would have far fewer books written. I decided to work and wait for inspiration to show up while I was working. Writing, and any creative act, is a funny thing. You are not always inspired and you can’t directly control inspiration. But I find that when I work hard at the craft of writing, the art becomes easier. I am more confident that because I have pulled it off before (that is, completed a book and gotten it published) that I can do it again. And that seems to prime the pump of creativity so that I come up with ideas for books quite regularly. Most working writers I know have more ideas than they have time to write in a lifetime.

So, start working at writing and maybe the Muse will deign to visit you when you are at the writing desk or your computer or the coffee shop or the kitchen table or wherever you write. Once she knows where and when you’ll be there, especially if you develop regular habits, she is more likely to know where to find you.

The New York Times recently ran an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/fashion/30web.html?ref=books) about a guy who began blogging only a short time before he reportedly got a $300,000 advance from Random House for a book derived from his blog, Stuff White People Like (stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com). He has gotten 19 million hits on his blog since he started. (A few more than this blog, it must be noted.)

Have you started blogging your way to a book yet?

Platform building.Out of the blue, I was invited to be on The Today Show on Monday, March 17, 2008. Since I am already on the East Coast (I’m in D.C. at the Psychotherapy Networker Symposium teaching until Sunday), I agreed.A few people I have mentioned this to wanted to know how it happened. I was contacted by a writer asking me to comment on some Irish proverbs (I had never heard any of these proverbs) and their relevance to relationships. The resulting article was published in Women’s Health magazine and timed to come out in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Since I have an Irish background and name and am male, they wanted to know whether I would come on The Today Show for a “He Said/She Said” segment featuring the theme and Women’s Health editor/columnist Nicole Beland.I don’t really have a current book to hawk (my Write is a Verb is the latest book and that really doesn’t fit with the theme), so I plan to just have fun with it. They tell me it will be on during the 10 O’clock hour.  

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. –Edward Gibbon

I came across this quotation today and it really struck a chord. That was me when I started writing (okay, maybe I did have some habits of thinking, but the other two are right on). I just started writing even though I wasn’t a good writer and didn’t know a thing about the publishing industry.

I attended a writing workshop once with former screenwriter turned therapist, Dennis Palumbo. He began the workshop telling a story about an encounter he had with Robert Redford in which Redford expressed some envy about Paul Newman. Redford thought Newman had it made and Palumbo was thinking that everyone else thought Redford [fixed typo, thanks Tony!] had it made. It occurred to Palumbo that this was an indication of scarcity. If Redford didn’t think he had enough at that level of success, fame and financial success, it was never going to be enough. That led him to develop one of his three rules for writing: Who you are and what you know right now is enough to start writing.

Don’t wait for the ideal conditions, that new model of computer, the room in your house to get remodeled,  the kids to graduate and leave home, the job to become less hectic, the next writing workshop, and on and on and on. Start now. Write now/right now.

You are enough. You have enough. You know enough.

Right now. 

Bill appeared on Santa Fe Radio Café on Tuesday, August 28, 2007 with host Mary-Charlotte and fellow guests Anne Hillerman of the Hillerman Writers Conference (http://www.hillermanconference.com/) and WordHarvest Writers Workshops (http://www.sfworkshops.com/) and thriller writer David Morrell (http://www.davidmorrell.net). David and I will both be speaking at the Hillerman Writers Conference in Albuquerque in early November 2007. It was a nice radio show. We spoke about writing and our latest projects. David has just completed a graphic novel, I have Write is a Verb out, and Anne, in addition to organizing conferences, has two books coming out in the next while. The host is sharp and we all got along well, I think. You can listen to the show on the site link below, download it or subscribe to their podcast in iTunes.
http://www.santaferadiocafe.org/podcasts/?p=148

I mentioned a study from www.raintoday.com in my last post about the indirect income that can come from getting a book written and published. Another interesting finding in that report was that authors who invested money in publicity (often their own money, from their book advance or just from their own pocket) ended up earning more money from their books and getting more book sales than those who relied on their book publishers to publicize their books.

THE BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN BOOK PUBLICITY

51% of the authors included in the study invested an average of $4500 of their own funds to publicize their books, mostly by hiring outside publicists. The payoff of this investment was significant. The study found that those authors who used outside help sold an average of 10,000 copies of their first book and earned average royalties of $55,000, compared to 4,500 copies sold and royalties of $25,000 for authors who relied solely on their publishers to market and sell their books.

I came across a report from www.raintoday.com in which they measured the indirect impact on professionals of writing a book and getting it published. Obviously, if you get an advance on royalties for your book and if your book “earns out” (that is, earns back at least its advance after publication), you can earn money from your book. But this reports attempts to quantify the indirect income authors earn from their books.

The report found that median indirect income - from more and better speaking engagements, the ability to generate more leads, to charge higher fees, to close more deals, etc. - was approximately $100,000.

I have certainly found the indirect income resulting from a book, mainly in increased fees and speaking engagements, but also from ancillary sales from other products as well (other books, audios, videos, consulting and coaching, boot camp signups).

I’ll discuss another aspect of this report in a future post, but for now you can use this as additional motivation for getting off your duff and getting your book written and published.

By the way, I have just revamped my Online Book Writing and Publishing Course. I have made it even more powerful and easier to take by breaking it up into chapters with specific focuses (foci?).

Chapter 1 - Introduction and Overview of the Course
Chapter 2 - Finding the Energy to Write and Sustain Your Through the Writing and Publishing Process
Chapter 3 - How to Start Writing, Write Fast and Write Well
Chapter 4 - Overcoming Writing Blocks and Fears
Chapter 5 - Developing a Platform to Increase the Odds Your Will Get Published to Agents, Publishers and Readers
Chapter 6 - How to Write a Winning Proposal To Sell Your Book Before You Write It
Chapter 7 - Finding and Getting An Agent (and whether you need one or not)
Chapter 8 - Money and Contract Matters
Chapter 9 - Completion, Recap and Plans for Going Forward with Your Book Project

The small investment you will make in the course (which you can take at your own rate and pace from anywhere you have a computer and Internet access) can, as the report on indirect income from being a published author indicates, pay off handsomely. The course is only $397 (USD) and you can earn that back and more by selling your first book. Visit: http://www.getyourbookwritten.com and click on the About the Online Course tab.

I have a new version of the audio blog/podcast I have been doing. Episodes will be released on a regular basis. I read somewhere that 38% of people are auditory learners, so this may be for you.

Visit: http://www.getyourbookwritten.com/getpublishedinrecordtime/podcast.html