Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Silencing the Watcher so that the Writer can WRITE

Silencing the Watcher so that the Writer can WRITE

You may be familiar with this routine:

You write a line. You read it. You change a word. You read it. You change another word. You add a comma. You delete the comma. You add the comma.

You write a line. You read it. You change a word. You change it back. You visit thesaurus.com and find a different word. You read it. You change another word.

You write a line. You read it. You change a word...
This is known as the most painful possible way to write. Unfortunately, it's the only way a lot of beginner - and some veteran - writers seem to be able to do it.

As Geoff Williams says on the Songwriting & Beyond blog, "The worse 'creativity killer' is the analytical part of your mind. This is the part that judges everything you do. If you try and judge something AS you are creating it, the creative part of your mind 'shuts down.'"

I think I was a junior in high school when I first learned of this phenomenon. My English teacher recommended a book about the "Watcher" and the "Writer" - the dual roles we play whenever we sit down to string letters into words into writing that makes sense. If you've become accustomed to letting the Watcher have free reign while you write, it may take some reconditioning to break that habit and silence the buttinsky until it's time for them to do their work - during the editing process.

As a recent post on Copyblogger states, you've got to put the writing first:
So sit down and write. That’s the key. Don’t go back and edit. Don’t sit there and contemplate what you’ll say next. The more you can just write or type your thoughts out as they come to you, the easier the whole project will be. Don’t allow yourself to rethink what you wrote at this point. Don’t stop to go back and make changes yet. Just write it until it’s finished.
My biggest personal challenge is the struggle for precisely the right word. Having lost more than one train of thought on this red herring, however, I've learned to write the closest imperfect word and circle it, highlight it, change the font, or just leave a blank (________) so that I can keep on writing. I can always come back later and find the proper word ... but I can't always call back the creative thoughts that flew out the window while I was needlessly exercising MS Word's thesaurus function.

The thing to remember is that you're changing a habit, so this new behavior is probably going to take some time to develop. And as with developing most new behaviors, the first step toward success is noticing when you're doing the thing you want to change. Although our goal may be effortless, relaxed writing, for the next little while, you'll want to watch for your Watcher and catch him/her in the act. As soon as you notice yourself editing, STOP. Make a note if you need to. And go back to writing.

It may not be easy, but soon this new writing process will become the norm for you, and you'll wonder how you ever let the Watcher have so much control. Only when you've finished with the writing part (blog post, article, chapter, poem) is it the Watcher's time to shine.
Fluency is when self-editing happens so quickly that we can’t see it. ~Copyblogger
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Visit Write | Market | Design today to download your free copy of the eBook: First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A NEW Idea for Garnering Book Reviews

A NEW Idea for Garnering Book Reviews


Every author dreams of writing a book that garners dazzling reviews. They also dream of conquering Amazon. Here's a great idea for a way to do both: reach out to Amazon users who write prolific reviews on the site!

According to a very informative article on the Amazon site, here are a couple of tips:

Identifying and contacting 100 to 300 potential online reviewers and sending a copy of your book to each respondent who expresses willingness to look at it and perhaps post an honest critique.

If you spend two or three days contacting about 300 potential Amazon reviewers, you can expect to receive about 40 to 50 responses, and wind up with perhaps 35 reviews, a quite satisfactory result.

(Author's note: Recently Amazon seems to be restricting communications between authors and readers, and not all Amazon Friends invitations have been going through. Whether this is a policy change by Amazon or simply a glitch isn't known.) 4/13/2009

Look for potential reviewers on Amazon’s Top Reviewers list - and target the people who regularly post reviews of books similar to yours.
Getting your book in front of traditional publications like The New York Times and Booklist would still be a great goal - but why not take your book to the masses, right where they're looking for it anyway?

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Visit Write | Market | Design today to download your free copy of the eBook: First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Are Christmas cards dead?

Are Christmas cards dead?

For many, many years, I took great pride - and an enormous amount of time - in making my own Christmas cards. In fact, I don't think I've bought pre-printed cards in nearly 25 years.

Over the last few years, though, I've taken to making my cards digitally - and sending them that way, too. Interestingly, the images here are samples of the physical cards I've made over the years ... the digital ones seem to have become lost in cyberspace.

In her December 20 post for Slate, Kate Julian asks, "Did Facebook kill the Christmas card?" I would say no - and yes. For me, running a business killed the Christmas card. The wanton unnecessary sacrifice of trees aside, I agree with Kate, in that I absolutely love printed cards. Time, though, is precious. And since I just can't bring myself to buy store cards anymore - not with the nice ones going for upwards of $5 EACH - making my own is the only way I can go. And making individual cards for 50+ people no longer fits in my time budget.

So digital it is. I re-upped my Blue Mountain subscription this year, along with subscribing to a couple other e-card services. The good news is that since they're digital, I make the effort to send them to a lot more people ... more than likely because it's so much easier than buying/making a card, putting a stamp on it, addressing it, and crossing that last hurdle of finding a mailbox into which to deposit it!

I'm with you, Kate - I miss the Christmas cards, too. I hope you're wrong about 2010 being the year they died - maybe if I put it on my calendar now, I'll remember to make my 2011 Christmas cards during the summer lull. In the meantime, here's this year's digital card. Happy Christmas to all!



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Visit Write | Market | Design today to download your free copy of the eBook: First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Rewriting the Classics: Audacity or Common Sense?

Rewriting the Classics: Audacity or Common Sense?

Jesse Kornbluth has a lot of nerve. He had the chutzpah to rewrite one of the most beloved Christmas stories of all time: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The editor of HeadButler.com has what he considers a valid reason: he wants his nearly 8-year-old daughter to experience the story, but she was so bored with it she refused to listen. So he changed it up.

In his HuffPost piece, Kornbluth makes a fair point:
Books change over time, and over 170 years, "A Christmas Carol" has changed more than most. We like a punchy opening; "A Christmas Carol" is a slow starter. By our standards, the language is clotted and the piece is seriously overwritten - as I was reading it, I was scanning ahead to see what I could paraphrase or cut.

I'm not parenting, and I'm not sure how I would feel if my son were to have dumped my all-time favorite, The Grapes of Wrath, after giving it a go for less than a chapter ... so I appreciate Kornbluth's desire to share this literary holiday gift with his daughter. Yet the purist in me recoils a bit at the thought that we should have to change literature to soup it up or dumb it down or somehow improve it for the newer generations.

After all, classic, by its very definition, means something that withstands the test of time. As the author of Paisley and Plaid writes, "A classic portrays life as complex and depicts negative and positive aspects of human nature and the trying of values and character." This is precisely Dickens' gift.

Perhaps the question to be asked is whether or not this gift is lost in translation.

Given the choices Kornbluth faced - (1) allowing his daughter to walk away and miss out on the classic, (2) forcing her to sit through it against her will, and (3) rewriting it so it would be more appealing, I suppose his solution is the best of the three. Maybe. My face is scrunched up as I write that ... liking it not at all, but allowing it, because I have long believed that reading something is almost always better than not reading at all.

But it's Dickens! We don't REwrite Dickens! Unless, of course, we do.

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Visit Write | Market | Design today to download your free copy of the eBook: First-Time Author's Guide to Hiring the Right Editor for YOU!

Friday, August 27, 2010

So There IS Profit in a Customer-Centered Business Model!

So There IS Profit in a Customer-Centered Business Model!

In a post a couple weeks ago titled "Done Is Better Than Perfect," I referenced a chart that included PERFECTION along the Y axis and EFFICIENCY along the X axis. At the halfway point between the two lies EXCELLENCE. The examples I cited were MicroSoft, who's known for shipping products without waiting to perfect them, and BP, who felled an entire segment of the ocean due to its bottom-line concern for cost-cutting efficiency.

Another place you often see larger companies trying to contain costs is on the telephone. Call center employees are monitored to ensure that their calls are quick, efficient, to the point. The result is that things get missed, customers often go away dissatisfied, and the bottom line is the bottom line.

The August 16 issue of Fortune magazine reports how one household name company is changing the face of call-center customer service:
[L]ast year when [American Express] gave its global customer service division a makeover, it decided to focus on making life better for its 26,000 call-center employees. The theory: Happier employees mean happier customers. "We've learned the impotance of the attitude of the employee," says Jim Bush, EVP of world service.
AmEx started by asking customer service employees what they wanted to see - and then delivered better pay, flexible schedules, and more career development. It also switched from a directive to keep calls short and transaction-oriented to engaging customers in longer conversations. Collectively, the moves have boosted service margins by 10 percent.
That's no small potatoes. And it's amazing how investing a little more time (and, subsequently, a little more money) on the front end is paying dividends on the bottom line.

Is there a place in your business where you are cutting corners that - if you examined it - might actually increase your revenues if you were to stop the penny-pinching and begin viewing the costs as an investment? From in-house Web design to printing to accounting, we all want to stretch our dollars as far as they'll take us. This is not to suggest blowing your budget or going on a wild spending spree. But I'm thinking your overall strategy might simply warrant another look.

This is Day 38 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. I've been posting every day since I accepted the challenge on July 21st. See you tomorrow for the next post! Laura
_______________________________________

Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your writing, marketing, or design questions to Laura.





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Thursday, August 26, 2010

70 Tips for Improving the Next Phase of Your Life and Your Business

70 Tips for Improving the Next Phase of Your Life and Your Business

As a certified retirement transition coach, Barbara Penn-Atkins helps people move into the next phase of their lives. She recently authored a book entitled, 70 is the New 40. In her book, she lists 70 tips for living their golden years joyously. The thing is, these tips are invaluable to all of us, regardless of our age or state in life.

Most of them are even applicable to creating a joyous, successful business. Here, with all due credit to her, are Barbara's 70 tips.
  1. Write a plan for your next stage of life - starting today.
  2. Develop a vision for your life and create a vision board.
  3. Develop a vision map, a step-by-step guide to implementing your vision.
  4. Identify your ideas and perceptions about aging.
  5. Define your perception of life satisfaction.
  6. Cultivate and maintain a positive attitude.
  7. Establish and maintain a vertical connection to your higher being.
  8. Eliminate negative thoughts and distractions from your life.
  9. Always do your best, look your best, and be your best.
  10. Have a sense of humor - laughter is good for the soul.
  11. Reassess and reorder priorities periodically.
  12. Nurture healthy relationships and discontinue unhealthy ones.
  13. Be active and involved in church, synagogue, religious, community service, or civic activities.
  14. Establish trust and maintain your integrity.
  15. Stay spiritually active - find perfect rhythm in life through daily meditation and prayer.
  16. Stay physically active; exercise daily.
  17. Maintain a healthy mind; practice healthy habits; continuously learn new things and expand your knowledge.
  18. Create positive affirmations.
  19. Eat a balanced diet, including whole foods - fruits, vegetables, and grains.
  20. Know your values and personal belief system.
  21. Stay socially active; stay connected to people you enjoy.
  22. Leisure: play and have fun. Take mini-vacatins for relaxation.
  23. Travel; explore new territories; change your scenery.
  24. Experience different cultures and lifestyles; meet new people.
  25. Get plenty of sleep; rest and restore for physical and mental strength.
  26. Learn a new language, and study the customs and governments of other cultures.
  27. Provide leadership and guidance to youth.
  28. Share your knowledge, wisdom, and experience.
  29. Mentor, coach, and tutor others.
  30. Develop a financial vision; plan and map to achieve it.
  31. Help others develop their own value and belief systems.
  32. Sponsor and support youth organizations.
  33. Chaperone students at school events.
  34. Break through personal barriers.
  35. Establish accountability systems; hold yourself and others to them.
  36. Learn computer technology.
  37. Use the Internet to connect with the world.
  38. Develop global relationships.
  39. Join social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
  40. Organize and simplify your life; clear out the clutter.
  41. Give heirlooms to family.
  42. Give unused items to charity.
  43. Repurpose your talents, skills, and experiences.
  44. Re-career - start a new business.
  45. Turn your hobby into an opportunity.
  46. Become a consultant.
  47. Journal; write your memoirs; share your story.
  48. Improve your communication skills.
  49. Plan your legacy. How do you want to be remembered?
  50. Become a philanthropist.
  51. Give unconditionally.
  52. Cultivate a spirit of love for all you meet.
  53. Contribute to make a difference.
  54. Buy a life insurance policy and assign your favorite charity as a beneficiary.
  55. Leace a legacy for the next generation - a foundation for others to build upon.
  56. Seek happiness in the present.
  57. Appreciate nature and the natural order of the universe.
  58. Begin each day with gratitude and thanksgiving.
  59. Advocate: use your voice to champion change in the political, social, and economic landscape of our country and the world.
  60. Be diligent about implementing your plan.
  61. Practice and improve self-discipline.
  62. Set priorities and eliminate distractions.
  63. Learn how to convert criticism into confidence.
  64. Practice and improve time management.
  65. Discover your passions and find time to engage them often.
  66. Forgive, and develop compassion.
  67. Focus.
  68. Take action every day.
  69. Discover your strengths and find partners who balance your weaknesses.
  70. Always be ready for opportunity as life unfolds.
OK - it's a daunting list if you try to tackle all of them at once. But read through it again - and choose one or two items on which you can focus. Do so for a month or six weeks and see what happens. Then choose two more, and repeat the process. You are in full control of your life and your success. These 70 steps can help you get there more easily. Let me know how it goes!

This is Day 37 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. I've been posting every day since I accepted the challenge on July 21st. See you tomorrow for the next post! Laura
_______________________________________

Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your writing, marketing, or design questions to Laura.





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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

AUTHORS: What's Your Marketing Strategy, Now That the Book Is Done?

AUTHORS: What's Your Marketing Strategy, Now That the Book Is Done?

I've been hearing a lot lately from authors, or about-to-be authors, who tell me they that it's the marketing that scares them.

I get that. You're a writer. You enjoy writing. You have an important message to share with your audience. You've put your heart, sweat, and soul into this book. You should be done. But today more than ever, just because your book is wondrefully written, perfectly proofread, beautifully laid out, and built with a creative cover that screams out this book's amazingness - nothing will happen to it unless people know about it.

That's why they ubiquitious "platform" is ever so important. Without a sizeable and significant platform, no traditional publisher will give you a second thought, regardless of the quality of your book. So what is a platform? It's your influence, your reach, your pre-existing audience, your exposure in the media. How many people already know about you, and how many are clamoring to get their hands on your book as soon as it rolls off the press?

Whenever possible, I encourag the authors with whom I work to beging thinking like marketers. The earlier this occurs, the better - even as early as the pre-writing stage.

Questions to Ask That Will Get You Started Thinking Like a Marketer
  1. Who is your audience? What are their demographics (age, education, marital/parenting status)? What are their psychographics (personality traits, values, attitudes)?
  2. What kinds of books, magazines, and Web sites do they already read?
  3. Where, how, and with whom do they spend their time?
  4. To which organizations and associations do they belong?
  5. How can you best gain access to them, both virtually and in real life?
  6. How big is your list? How can you begin/continue to grow it? With whom can you partner to help grow it?
  7. Who do you know that will help you promote your book? Spend some time combing through your network to determine how best to leverage the contacts you already have.
  8. What kind of pre-launch promotions will you do?
  9. What do you have planned for the actual launch of the book? Date? Venue? Invitations? Food? Will you do a reading or just a signing?
  10. Which venues OTHER THAN BOOKSTORES will you approach and suggest carry your book? What's it about? What are the obvious tie-ins? A novel about a quilting group is a natural fit for a quilting or fabric store. A book about releasing stress would likely work well in a spa or salon.
Social media is huge right now, but it is not the end-all for marketing, and it certainly should not be your only method.

If you'd like some help, I'm offering a complimentary 20-minute strategy session to the first two authors who contact me via e-mail. Make sure to put "STRATEGY" in the subject line.

You've worked too hard to let this book just sit in boxes in your garage. Get your marketing thinking cap on, and be smart about it! You owe it to the world to share your great information.

This is Day 36 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. I've been posting every day since I accepted the challenge on July 21st. See you tomorrow for the next post! Laura
_______________________________________

Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your writing, marketing, or design questions to Laura.





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