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The interview talks about the business of publishing, speaking, and yes, even hockey. First question didn’t need much thought: If you could tell one sentence to every prospective author out here, what would it be? Writing is a business, not a lottery ticket.
Here’s the link to the rest.  What does success mean? What is art? What is good music? What is entertainment? What is a great car? What is the best restaurant in the city? What is the best TV show? What is the most important issue? What is perfection? Ask these questions to 20 different people and you will get 20 different answers. Each one of them will be right; and each will think the others are wrong.
It’s not as easy as it looks . You don’t just wake up one morning, decide on a persona, walk into a ring, and whola! You’re a professional wrestler. It’s the same with writing. You sit at your computer, open up Word, and all of a sudden your words flow out and after one save, you’re in business as a professional writer. Fiction. There is a night and day difference between learning how to do it and becoming a pro. Here are some tips on how learning to become a pro wrestler equals learning how to be a pro at writing:
When it comes to teaching people about how to navigate the book publishing minefield, some things I don’t have to make up. I have many examples of “what not to do” letters. All I have to do is past them and you will probably get the message. Bottom line, if you are gung ho at getting a traditional publisher, it’s no different than applying for a job. If you want people to take you seriously, then get serious about your query and proposal. This one won’t take long and also note, the author attached a PDF of his/her book. Publishers will not open attachments. It’s like spending $100 on 20 hard copy manuscripts, boxing them, and mailing them out to every firm that spells its name “publisher.” You will notice the author has done his/her due diligence, not, in actually knowing who the email goes to. First thing you need to do is GO TO THE PUBLISHER WEBSITE and see if it at least publishes your genre. Also, the advertising stuff at the bottom of the email does not lend itself well to the proposal. How does it look to you? I was on my living room couch updating my Facebook from my Asus Eee Pad tablet when I saw a posting that Steve Jobs had died. There are no Apple products in my possession, but Jobs was someone who interested me for his visionary leadership, how he trumped the conventional and made unconventional a household word. I don’t have an iPod, or an iPhone, or an iPad. However, I do frequent iTunes and have purchased music then synced my downloads to play off all my computers. That said, it is impossible to ignore the innovation of the Apple products, and like everyone else, I yearned for the tablet as soon as I saw it. I just didn’t want to pay Apple prices, plus my philosophy on technology thus far has been to wait at least eight months until the price comes down. But with respect to the tablet, the market flooded with other alternatives, and it was the Eee Pad that seemed to work best for what I needed it for. Not being a phone person, the iPhone interests me only for its apps and its potential for unlimited social networking and Internet options. If the phone function never rang, that would suit me just fine. Having spent time trying to figure out whether I should go Blackberry or iPhone, the latter has won out. It’s not in my possession yet, but that, too, can wait. As long as I have four computer devices and HD digital cable, I’m not suffering with an archaic land line that I’ll be punting very soon. I only rings with solicitors and political robocalls, so it’s turned off most of the time anyway. But getting back to Steve Jobs–there would be no Eee Pad, Kindle, and numerous other technology options on the market if it were not for other companies following his lead. It wasn’t just about the products. Steve Jobs was inspiring. He taught resilience and persistence and that you may have to start your business in a garage before you can take it anywhere. He was a brilliant marketer and presenter and those gifts are great influences for the rest of us to learn from–whether we own a Mac or not. So thank you, Steve. Rest in peace. Thank you for the legacy you left us. Now it is up to us to continue to do what you intended us to do with your products and those products that were created as a result: create own inspirations.
I’m reading more. Because my Kindle is so transportable, I take it with me everywhere. In a bank lineup, I can read while I wait. You can if you take a physical book, too, but the Kindle is easy to slip into my purse and weighs about as much as my keys. What I do often in physical books is highlight sections — something I wasn’t sure how to do at first in Kindle. In a way, when you highlight text in a Kindle book, it’s actually easier to reference than using a physical book. Why? Kindle automatically saves your highlights in a file called My Clippings. It hasn’t been that long since I’ve had this device, but I have amassed a few nuggets in the My Clippings file that I thought I’d share with you. From John C. Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work Be selective, not exhaustive, in your focused thinking. (page 83) Wherever you are…be there! (page 87) Big Thinkers who make things happen also create possibilities for others. (page 160) From Seth Godin’s We Are All Weird The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird. (page 4) That idea may make you uncomfortable. If your work evolves around finding the masses, creating for the masses, or selling to the masses, this change is very threatening. Some of us, though, view it as the opportunity of a lifetime. (page 11) Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google estimates that every two days, Earthlings produce as much information as was produced by all mankind for the 20,000 years leading up to 2003. (page 17) A computer should cost a billion dollars. Instead, you can buy one for $200. The reason? The insights and investments and innovations of a decade or two ago have already been paid for. (page 29) The smart ones are in fact co-marketing with parts of the market instead of marketing to the masses. (page 33) If you want to sell $900 handmade rifles to obsessive collectors, the easiest way to grow your sales is to grow the market of obsessive rifle collectors. (page 34) The reason that people are walking away from mass is not so that they can buy more stuff. Material goods and commerce are not the goal, they are merely a consequence. The goal is to connect. (page 36)
Ever since my Grade Eight Lit teacher at Highlands Junior High in Edmonton, Mrs. Duff, assigned a task to create stories from random pictures, it’s something that has stuck throughout my life. I use this exercise in my manuscript development classes. If I see a compelling subject with a certain look in their eyes, I wonder, what’s their story? Some people like to sit in mall kiosks and people-watch. I like that, too. As a writer, you can pay attention to details of body movements, how people engage in conversation — elements to help craft a more believable sentence. So here are some pictures to kick start your creative writing. If the picture isn’t interesting enough, maybe my question will tweak some engagement with it. This beautifully restored Oldsmobile 442 was spotted in Canmore, Alberta. Obviously a few years old, babied, and could have been with one owner or several. What’s this car’s story? Where has it been? Who owned it? What has it seen, felt?
This pelican rests on a rail at Port Aransas, Texas, contemplating its next move. What has its life been like so far? Has it ever gone without food? How did it survive a hurricane?
I love this picture taken at John Ducey Park during an Edmonton Trappers Triple A baseball game. Can only imagine what is going through this kid’s mind.
This was taken during the 1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, which was still during the days of the Iron Curtain, when it was impossible to see a Russian travel alone anywhere. KGB were always around to make sure there were no defections. So this shot has always made me curious. Who is this man? Is he KGB? Why is he alone? What’s his life like back home?
What’s it like to be a bird? You forage for food to survive, try to keep your nest and babies safe while you teach them to fend for themselves, and how do you stay warm when you sleep outside unprotected in a tree?
I just received the latest version of Brian Jud’s Book Marketing Matters Volume 10, Issue 17, Number 231 August 22, 2011 and couldn’t resist sharing a part of one of his postings.
This image was taken from a video of a train (center of the image) moving through a marketplace in India. You can see vendors holding up the supports of their stands. The train goes through and everyone goes back to what they were doing.
This reminded me of what many publishers do. They see something that disrupts the status quo — selling books in bookstores. But they interpret it as an inconvenience to their traditional way of doing business. Once the opportunity (train) passes by, they go right back to what they were doing. The train represents the opportunity to sell your books in non-bookstore markets. Do not let it pass you by. Get on track to seize the opportunity of selling your books in large, non-returnable quantities. To read the rest of Brian Jud’s Book Marketing Matters or check out more nuggets, go to www.bookmarketing.com. “If your customers don’t see you, you are effectively no longer relevant.” If it looks like the economy is heading for the crapper, you’re right. If you think you can ride the storm by showing resilience, you’re right. I can tell you first-hand that whatever you believe to be true will come true, even if it isn’t true yet. But instead of panicking, complaining, or doing anything drastic, work on your psyche. Work on your belief system. Yes, circumstances can dictate our environment, however, it’s up to us whether we choose to let it beat us or not. I know, it sounds overly simplistic and maybe even off-kilter. It’s actually a life-long process — learning to believe in yourself. It takes a lot of work, actually, especially if you were raised on the premise that you were worthless. But there is no shortage of stories out there of those who refused fall into Lemmingville. And there are tons of tools out there to help motivate you, help you reinvent yourself, and to help you get noticed better. Just Google. Where people and businesses make their biggest mistake during lean times is to cut back on their marketing efforts. Marketing methods have changed with social media and the digital empire, but the reasons for being seen have not. This leads me to an old story — the Hot Dog Story. “A man sold hot dogs by the side of the road. He had no radio. He didn’t read newspapers or watch TV. But, he sold good hot dogs. He put a sign up on the highway: Good Hot Dogs Sold Here. He would say to anyone passing by, “Hey, you, want to buy a great hot dog?” People came and bought. So, he increased his meat and bun orders and bought a bigger stove. Then one day his son came home from college to help him. His son cried, “Dad, haven’t you heard the news about the recession? The economy is awful. Unemployment is terrible. Everyone is suffering.” The man thought, “My son’s been to college, reads the newspapers, and listens to the radio. He ought to know.” So the father cut back on his meat and bun orders. He stopped advertising, and no longer stood by the side of the road and said, “Want to buy my hot dogs?” His hot dog sales fell overnight. People stopped buying his hot dogs. “You’re right, son. There is a recession!” Here’s a different version of the hot dog story with a positive spin: http://www.thehotdogtruck.com/2009/03/hot-dog-man-and-recession.html |
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