Author Entrepreneur Magazine
August 2012, Vol. 2
Scaffold Your Literary Life By Barbara Millman Cole
Continuing Education Strategies
Back to School, Back to Basics 6 Things a Novelist Needs to Learn from the Movies
About Us
Credits
Author Entrepreneur Magazine is published monthly by Barany Consulting, an education and consulting firm located in Oakland, California. The magazine goes out to nearly 1,200 subscribers via email and is also distributed via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to reach over 10,000 people. For information on advertising please contact the editor at beth@ bethbarany.com, or call her at (510) 332-5384.
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief: Beth Barany Designer & Layout: Ezra Barany Editorial Assistants: Carissa Weintraub, Michelle Geary Contributors: Annmarie Lockhart, Barbara Millman Cole, Catharine Bramkamp, Cheryl Derricote, Dan Calvisi, Ezra Barany, Ien Nivens, Laurel Marshfield Cover Photo: by Austin Evan
Feel free to forward this to your staff, colleagues and clients. If this magazine was forwarded to you, you can receive free future issues by signing up here: www.AuthorEntrepreneurMagazine. com. If you’d like to use one of our articles in your newsletter or blog, please contact the respective author for permission. All materials and photos in this magazine are copyright protected. Publishers, Writing & Book Professional Associations: Interested in advertising with us? Contact Beth Barany at Beth@BethBarany.com or call her at (510) 332-5384 to find out how you can reach your audience and save money over print publication advertising. Š 2012, Barany Consulting, Oakland, CA. All rights reserved to the respective authors. If you wish to use any materials in this publication you must contact the author first for written permission. Thank you for protecting our copyrights.
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Letter from the Editor Thanks for reading our second issue of the Author Entrepreneur Magazine! I’m excited to be launching this next chapter in how I help authors create sustainable and successful careers. Our theme this month is Back-to-School & Training. I don’t know about you but I love to learn. I seem to have a voracious appetite, and I’m in a constant state of learning. But there’s something special about this time of year for many of us: colorful falling leaves, the crispness in the air, and the excitement of starting a whole new cycle of learning and training. I’ve noticed that learning has four stages: the open, inquisitive stage where you choose what to focus on next; then, the inhaling stage where you shine your laser onto the material you want to learn and discover through engaging, manipulating and studying the material. Then comes the often overlooked stage of integration, usually a quiet time, where it looks like you’re doing nothing. Don’t neglect the essential Nothing time in between the busy times! Others may think you’re napping, daydreaming or meandering. Finally, you reach the stage of activation, putting what you’ve learned into action for all the world to see. Enjoy and celebrate that. And enjoy what our educators have written for you! Please support our advertisers who make this publication possible and free to you! Click on their ads for more information, and forward the magazine to your clients and customers so they can read this magazine, too! Thanks! Creativity Transformational Write Shops YourBookStartsHere.com
30-Minute Manager, LLC The Torah Codes Ace Services 4 Authors Overcome Writer’s Block The Writer’s Adventure Guide Story Maps: How to Write a Great Screenplay Blue Horizon White Papers Unbound Content Independent Press TheAmericanBookofChanges.com
Some links in this magazine (“Magazine”) may be affiliate links (“Affiliate Links”), including links to Amazon.com. From time to time, the Magazine includes featured books and/or product giveaways. Should AE Magazine receive compensation as a result of featuring any such books or giving away any such product, that fact will be disclosed. AE Magazine earns a commission from the Affiliate Links which commission is based on the number of sales that are made as a result of readers of the Magazine clicking over to the Affiliate Link and purchasing from the Affiliate Link a product and/or service.
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Featured Story:
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Scaffold Your Literary Life Everyday University: Writers are perpetual works in progress
By Barbara Millman Cole
6 10 20
Mastering the Subtle Art of Quixote-do Ien Nivens
7 Rocks to Becoming a Bestselling Author Ezra Barany
6 Things a Novelist Needs to Learn from the Movies
Dan Calvisi
24 28
Continuing Education Strategies for Busy Author Entrepreneurs
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Cheryl Derricote
Back to School Rituals: The Perfect Notebook Search Catharine Bramkamp
Back to School, Back to Basics
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Annmarie Lockhart
If Dan Brown Can Use “Non-Fiction� to Sell Novels... Laurel Marshfield
AVAILABLE SERVICES BOOKS Being The Grown-Up, a practical guide for caregivers of loved ones with terminal illnesses (Winter 2012). CONVERSATIONS Confirm Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, Chief Information Officer of 30 Minute Manager, for your upcoming special event, conference, radio and televsion show. TIPS Join the 30 Minute Manager community and get your free report, 30 Minutes To A
Providing practical information to help you tackle life’s challenges & embrace life’s great adventures.
Grown-Up Estate Plan. www.30minutemanager.com CONTACT 30minutemanager@gmail.com
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August 2012 AuthorEntrepreneurMagazine.com | 5
Mastering the Subtle Art of Quixote-do
By Ien Nivens
Permit me to assume, Gentle Reader, that you fit my ideal image of a creative support professional. You have an engaged, collaborative spirit and an inquisitive imagination. You are tirelessly committed to the development of your personal and professional skill sets. You love, love, love to provide knowledgeable support and services to creative professionals who seek to manifest and profitably share well-crafted works of art—especially literature. You have created a vision board to help you keep your entrepreneurial trajectory—your mission, goals and objectives—front and center in your mind. On that vision board you have prominently depicted your ideal client. You have named her. You know her regional accent, her birth order, eye color, food allergies and fingerprint pattern. You direct every marketing campaign specifically and lovingly with her needs in mind. She has deep pockets and she adores your work. Every client you attract is, in every essential particular, her clone. Not quite? Perfect! Read on...
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The importance of knowing who you want to serve probably can't be overstated, but identifying your “ideal client” and listing his or her attributes does not, in fact, guarantee that this uniquely personable individual of genius and generosity will magically appear in the Skype window, consistently replicating him- or herself the precise number of times required to fill the holes in your schedule and in your bank account. The real world is full of frustratingly needy creators whose best-dressed edges come rough as a freshly dynamited quarry stone. You don't always get the client you want. Sometimes—sometimes, I say—you attract one that presents...a challenge. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to forge a workable relationship with that person.
“The importance of knowing who you want to serve probably can’t be overstated.” Continued on pg. 8
Image by Jake Macabre
Fortunately, that great master of chivalrous self-delusion, Don Quixote de La Mancha, has shown us a way. I invite you to train in the art of quixote-do by following these simple steps: 1. Take that avatar of your ideal client down from your vision board. 2. Superimpose it over a photo of an actual client. Your most challenging one will do nicely. (Alternatively, tape two thumbnails of your client to the lenses of a pair of eyeglasses. Wear them as needed.) 3. Repeat step two with each “difficult” client you have. Just as Don Quixote saw, in the bawdy peasant girl, Aldonza Lorenzo, the graceful and charitable perfection of the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso, your task is to find the attributes of the client you dream of working with embedded in the character flaws of the ones who actually hire you.
“What you once saw as a difficult set of character flaws, you soon begin to realize was itself a kind of transparency laid over the true qualities of your client.” I know, I said it would be simple. If you thought I meant easy, I'll chalk the misunderstanding up to your ability to channel the Man of La Mancha effortlessly. Because that's exactly the kind of mental dexterity that the consistent and dedicated practice of quixote-do develops. When you hear the voice of Sancho Panza complaining that Aldonza demands too much of you,
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you will know that Dulcinea understands and appreciates your value. Aldonza nitpicks, while Dulcinea displays an amazing attention to detail. Aldonza, the knowit-all, pig-headedly refuses your advice; fortunately, the wise Dulcinea knows her mind and follows her own muse, refusing to be drawn in by your need for her dependency. By virtue of her kindness, she makes you stronger.
“It comes from the rough and tumble of collaboratively battling the demons of doubt and creativity, of uncertainty and persecution that dwell topsy-turvy and inside-out in each specific one of us.” Quixote-do unearths the magical root of imagination. It transforms the capacity for self-delusion into heroic vision, and in so doing, it enables your clients to respond to you on a higher wavelength, inspired by your newly enhanced view of them to realize more of their own potential. Because the lenses of your special quixotic spectacles are, in fact, corrective. What you once saw as a difficult set of character flaws, you soon begin to realize was itself a kind of transparency laid over the true qualities of your client. What I am suggesting here is nothing less than creating, in yourself, the change you want to see in your clientele. That doesn't happen alone in your office, with a copy of The Secret dog-eared on a shelf and the avatar of an ideal (anonymous) client smiling at you from your image board. It comes from the rough and tumble of Continued on pg. 9
collaboratively battling the demons of doubt and creativity, of uncertainty and persecution that dwell topsy-turvy and inside-out in each specific one of us. Your double-vision spectacles may get knocked off your nose from time to time. My recommendation may strike you as fuzzy-headed, a crack-brained defense mechanism rather than a hard-headed tool of practical, entrepreneurial self-actualization. But pick up your glasses, wipe them off, and slide them back on. Practice self-delusion daily. Don't just dream an impossible dream; make it your reality.
Ien Nivens, freelance web and graphic design consultant and author of The American Book of Changes, believes that engaging metaphors drive transformative work, lives and relationships. Engage with him at figur8ively at AOL dot com.
Image by Bill Wren
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7 Rocks to Becoming a Bestselling Author Part 2 of 2
By Ezra Barany When authors think of all the tasks they need to do to become a successful author, they often become overwhelmed. The daunting sensation is understandable because the goal of becoming a successful author is like filling a jar to the top with sand, each grain representing a step to reach the goal. Wouldn’t it be easier to fill the jar with large rocks? Like using rocks instead of sand, the trick is that some entrepreneurial tasks accomplish a lot more than most. If you just focus on these seven important tasks, seven rocks, you’ll find that you can become a successful author in a much shorter period of time.
“If you just focus on these seven important tasks, seven rocks, you’ll find that you can become a successful author in a much shorter period of time.” Last month we covered four of the seven rocks. We covered how a critique group can help you make your novel great, make you accountable for completing your work, and spread the word of your book once it’s out. We also discussed how including controversy or evoking powerful emotions from your reader will help get your readers to spread the word about your novel.
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This month I’ll reveal the last three rocks, ways that you can be smart about releasing your book to the world.
Image by Flickr’s “Wonderlane”
5. Make your book easy to discover. To make sure people stumble upon my book, I take great care in coming up with a great title. I use a whole search engine optimization technique to find the best titles for my books and my clients’ books. (Addressed in detail in a blog post on The Writer’s Fun Zone Blog, called “3 Steps to a Good Book Title That Sells.”) In summary, I use Google’s keyword Continued on pg. 12
tool to find words that thousands of people often search for in Google, and on Amazon, I make sure those words aren’t already overused in other book titles. That way, when those thousands of people search the words on Amazon, there are only a few books with the same title. So my books or my clients’ books reach near the top of the search results. It’s remarkable how many book sales my clients and I make simply because I’ve taken the time to discover the best title for our novels. 6. Demonstrate your credibility. Without credibility, you might be just another self-published author and no one would look twice. When I first tell people I’m an author, they often smile and nod as if I’m probably a mediocre author. I catch their attention by saying, “The Torah Codes is doing really well. It won an award at the Hollywood Book Festival, it’s been an Amazon bestseller since December, and it’s been getting 4 and 5-star reviews.” I love how fast the faces of the people I talk to change when they hear me say that. Frequently they make a note of it in their iPhone or on a piece of paper to investigate my book further. I also demonstrate that credibility in the written description of my book on Amazon. Instead of giving just the storyline in the description, I start with its award-winning and bestselling status and mention a few top reviews. I end the description with the actual storyline. How do you create credibility? Before you publish, have people review your book. If they’re only giving you 2 and 3-star reviews, go back to the critique group and rework your
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book. If you’re getting 4 and 5-star reviews, you’re in good shape. Next put your book in contests. The smaller the contest, the higher the chances are of getting first place. Even if you just get honorable mention (as mine was), your book will officially be an award-winning novel. Another aspect of credibility is presentation. If your book cover doesn’t look professional and if your website or Amazon sales page doesn’t look professional, people will be reluctant to buy your book. How many books have you bought from Amazon that didn’t have the cover image on the sales page visible, and all you saw instead was the standard “No image available” sign?
“If your book cover doesn’t look professional and if your website or Amazon sales page doesn’t look professional, people will be reluctant to buy your book.” Bonus Tip: When you publish your book, make sure you list it in obscure categories. The more obscure the category, the fewer books you have to compete with to get higher rankings on Amazon. In the UK, I sold two books in one day and my book became #6 in Continued on pg. 14
Do you wonder where your good ideas went? Is sitting down to write a painful process? Are you ready to get writing now, if only you knew where to begin? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this 44page writing guide is for you!
Overcome Writer's Block: 10 Writing Sparks to Jumpstart Your Creativity is designed to get you writing if you're leftbrained, rightbrained, or a bit of both. Written by Beth Barany, Master Writing Instructor, who has been where you are, this guide comes with 5 bonuses and other secret goodies! Go here to order: www.overcomewritersblock.com
Beth Barany's Overcome Writer's Block: 10 Writing Sparks to Ignite Your Creativity is a creative, easytofollow road map for reaching your goals, finishing your book, and achieving your writing dream, whatever it may be. ― Patricia Grasso, Author, patriciagrasso.com
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the Torah category. The US is more book description and category placechallenging. I sell about 25 books ment – you’re golden. regularly every day to get in the top Follow these steps, these rocks, and ten of the Jewish fiction category. you’ll be far ahead of most writers. You'll be well on you're way to becoming a 7. Have your book sales be bestselling author. financially sustainable. This is not a requirement to becoming a bestselling author, but if you want to have a career as an author, it’s important that your finances are covered by your book sales. The best way to do this is to have a series of books. That way, when people read your first book in the series, they’ll want to buy all your other books. By simply having two books out that are in a series, you’ll double your book sales income. My friend Bella Andre is doing quite well. She made over a million dollars last year from her book sales. This is her set up: She has about 15 ebooks out at $4.99 each (that’s about $3.50 profit). She also has her best book available for free on Amazon. People discover her free book and, if they read and like it, they buy her fifteen other books. That’s $52.50 from each reader. I currently make under $3 from each reader. Do you get it? More books, more money. Write well, write often, and publish often. If you do that with a community to support you, and if you’re smart about how you present the book – with the right title, the right credibility, the right
Image by Sancho McCann
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Ezra Barany is an author and mentor to authors. He started his career of freaking out readers with his suspense and thriller stories in college. In March 2011, Ezra unleashed his first novel The Torah Codes, a thriller, now an award-winning bestseller in both the U.S. and the U.K. In his free time, he writes mushy love songs inspired by his wife and book coach Beth Barany. Ezra now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is working on his next book when not terrorized by his two cats. More at: amzn. to/TheTorahCodes.
Get the Free Report: “12 Stages of the Writer's AdventureTM”
www.writersadventureguide.com Wherever you are on your writer's journey, you'll find useful tools in this new book by creative coach, Beth Barany. Beth has a knack for knowing how to kickstart both clients and colleagues into action! Patricia Simpson, Bestselling Romance Author (San Francisco, CA)
You can buy the book online at Amazon.com.
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Scaffold Your Literary Life Everyday University: Writers are perpetual works in progress By Barbara Millman Cole
Image by Flickr’s “Peter S.” Image by Flickr’s “Peter. S”
“Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.” ~Maya Angelou
We “natural writers” work long and hard to achieve our dreams. We find ways to cultivate our talent every day. We design an ‘everyday university’ from the experiences we encounter. We choose to take advantage of the learning opportunities that surround us. We choose to expand our abilities as writers by using our everyday life as a classroom, the people we meet as teachers, and the natural world as our laboratory. Research, experimentation, theorization are all at our fingertips the moment we wake. All we need to grow in our art is available to us, but it is up to us to utilize it. There is really nothing natural about writing other than possessing the passion to write. Passion drives our curiosity, maintains our determination, and fuels our desire to create. For us, learning is year round. We are perpetual works in progress. Every
time we write, we learn something new about ourselves, our craft, or our audience. Sometimes we are unconscious of learning and other times we see the changes in our style through a crystal clear lens.
“We design an ‘everyday university’ from the experiences we encounter.” Making the space and time in our day to search out something craft related is how we keep growing as artists. Art is a reflection of our world. Writing is a reflection of the author’s world. We may create it and understand it for what we mean to present to our audience, but the audience will receive it and understand it for what it means in their worlds. Like the great paintings looming before us on museum walls, what we see and resonate with in a painting is different
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from what another may experience. When we read essays on the art of prose or any aspect of writing, we glean a fresh perspective from the author. We take away the aspects of the piece that speak to us at that time and place in our writing life, in that moment. Were we to read the same essay a year later, we might take away a different piece of knowledge, a different epiphany in what the words of that particular author evoke in us.
“Passion drives our curiosity, maintains our determination, and fuels our desire to create.” Perhaps we learn best when we teach, because it forces us to really think deeply and consciously about what we are imparting to our students. We must know the material like the palm of our hands. We learn too from the questions and discussions in class. Not only are we discovering what our students need to improve their writing as we discuss their works, but we are discovering how our own work can be bettered. The mind is working on two levels when we teach, giving and receiving. Just as doctors are required to stay abreast of new developments in their fields by participating in training events specific to their work, we writers must continuously hone our craft. When a surgeon performs surgery, the patient does not see the text books, professors, all-nighters, laboratory time that went into creating that surgeon. The patient sees the deftly sewn incision and feels the healed body the surgeon sculpts. When an author puts his work
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before the public, they see only the polished edition, not the paper strewn desk, lamp burning late into the night, teeth-gnashing, finger-cramping hours of deliberation over the right words to use, or the other 395 pages cut and strewn upon the editor’s floor. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water.” When we read books on writing, participate in retreats, or teach writing workshops, we add to our professional growth. Writers are lifelong students. Take advantage of opportunities to attend readings, book-signings and book festivals. Whether you sign up for courses, partake in workshops, or participate in retreats, begin consciously designing your everyday university today.
Barbara Millman Cole is an award winning author of Short Literary Fiction, content editor, and creativity coach, who helps writers delve deep to discover their true meaning. Understand why you create so you know what to create. Contributing author of Creativity Coaching Success Stories and author of the forthcoming book, The Painted Woman and Other Short Stories, she can be reached at bmillmancole@sbcglobal.net. ©2012 All rights reserved.
Image by Tim Ellis
6 Things a Novelist Needs to Learn from the Movies By Dan Calvisi I love a good book. After reading screenplays all day, some of which have been burned into my retinas via my 1080p laptop screen, I find that I have to do some reading of a good old fashioned paper book to fully relax my mind and body before bed. Novel writing and screenwriting are two very different forms of craft, but I enjoy reading and dissecting both. In my work, both as a book reader in New York City and a writing coach in Los Angeles, I’ve often had to compare the two, and I can tell you that they share a lot more characteristics than you might think. Knowing some of these common fibers can help you as a novelist. In fact, since I’m writing this guest column primarily for book writers, and I’m primarily a screenplay guy, I’m going to give you some perspective from the movie side.
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“Just as a great movie grabs you from the opening scene, you want your novel to reach out and pull the reader into its intricate world.” I am a novelist's worst nightmare. I often read just the first few pages of a book to decide if I want to read the whole thing. With those free preview downloads on Kindle, it's easier than ever. I don't even need to go to a book store to reject something! I often tire of looking for a new book and just pick up an old favorite. (I’m currently reading Franzen’s The Corrections for the second time, after reading his novel Freedom twice). In some cases, I hang in there for longer than the first chapter or so. The Girl
Continued on pg. 22
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With the Dragon Tattoo? I got over 100 pages into that Dead Sea of words before I called it quits. The DaVinci Code? I think I got to page 56 before I hung up my cato-nine-tails. And, it pains me to admit this, but I even read the first chapter of Twilight, just to see what all the fuss was about. I concluded there was only fuss, no quality fiction, so I moved on.
“I, like many readers out there today, have little patience for authors who drag their feet on the page, whether it’s in the opening chapter or in the long sprawl in the middle.” In short, I, like many readers out there today, have little patience for authors who drag their feet on the page, whether it’s in the opening chapter or in the long sprawl in the middle. I’m not saying your novel should be written for a tween with ADD, but there are a few things to learn from our pals in Hollywood: 1. SUCK IN THE READER! Just as a great movie grabs you from the opening scene, you want your novel to reach out and pull the reader into its intricate world. Give us something right out of the gate. A fascinating voice. An unforgettable image. A unique character choice. You decide. But make sure those opening words count! It’s no longer enough to say, “Okay, the first chapter is kind of boring but any serious book reader knows they have to hang in there to
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get to the good stuff.” Nay! There are one million other books just waiting on Amazon or iTunes for this reader to one-click their hard-earned bucks for. 2. GIVE US A “BIG IDEA!” In Hollywood, spec screenplays often sell on the basis of a hot concept alone. It’s that combination of elements that no one has quite thought of, yet, and when you hear it, it makes that producer, executive or agent say, “Now that’s a movie I want to see!” Same thing with a book. You want one of your readers to be able to tell a friend the concept of your novel in one or two sentences and for that friend to say, “Now that’s a book I want to read!” 3. USE FOUR-ACT STRUCTURE. I know, I know--you find Hollywood structure to be restrictive and antithetical to the creative process, right? Gertrude Stein didn’t demand that Hemingway use the structure of The Matrix, so why should you?! Sure, The Matrix hadn’t been produced yet (good point), but neither had the film adaptations of Memoirs of a Geisha, Cold Mountain, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo or The Hunger Games, all of which use classical four-act structure just like 95% of modern, commercial movies. (The four-act structure is the same as three-act structure. I just prefer to break up the second act into two halves to create four distinct movements.) Looking down the road, this especially helps when your manuscript is submitted to movie studios and evaluated by the same readers who cover screenplays and are looking for narratives that will translate to the screen. If you want your books to be made into feature films, then Continued on pg. 23
it helps to structure them like one to help ease that process along.
“If you want your books to be made into feature films, then it helps to structure them like one to help ease that process along.” 4. FOCUS ON A CONTROLLING THEME. A book usually covers more ground than a film, but both live and die on the basis of theme. Your book can have more than one theme, but I believe there should still be one dominant, meta-theme that binds every character and plot point together. Theme is not the story— it’s what the story is about. If you don’t have anything to say—if your story isn’t about anything—then why should we care about it? I want to know what you have to say about the human condition, not just follow a clever beat sheet. 5. GIVE US THINGS WE’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE. I believe it was Francis Ford Coppola who said that a great screenplay must give us three things we’ve never seen before— if it can deliver those three things, then any story problem can be fixed. Your novel may be another vampire story or forbidden romance tale (or both), but if it’s going to break
away from the glut of its well-worn genre, it needs to give us something new. Yeah, I know that necks will be bitten and bodices ripped, but give me three new things to hang my hat on and I’ll be a happy reader. 6. HAVE A GREAT ENDING. A movie needs a great ending to get us to leave the theater with a smile on our face, and so does a great book. You want your climax to be surprising yet inevitable. I particularly liked the ending to The Hunger Games trilogy—Katniss’ final arrow found an unlikely target—I was initially put off by the writer’s choice, but then I thought about it and it made perfect, poetic sense. Nice shot, Katniss! I wish you good luck and happy writing!
Daniel P. Calvisi is a professional Story Analyst and screenwriter, and the author of STORY MAPS: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay. Daniel lives in Los Angeles. He offers free downloads, classes, publications and consulting services at ActFourScreenplays. com.
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Continuing Education Strategies for Busy Author Entrepreneurs By Cheryl Derricotte Author entrepreneurs spend a great deal of time crafting well-written texts. Yet, the changing face of publishing and small business management requires us to “keep up” in order to be successful. This article will cover some of my favorite ways to stay on top of writing and business development trends. Social Media is one of my primary educational sources. Let’s cover a few great tools and how to get the most out of them.
existence.” It is safe to say that number has grown by at least one, as I know I started writing my own blog, 30minutemanager.wordpress.com after that date! So, how do you determine which blogs are right for you? Use the same criteria for blogs that you use for Twitter: people and companies that you are interested in. Additionally, follow blogs that pertain to topical information you are currently writing about.
News on Twitter moves at a lightening pace. In order to effectively use Twitter for educational purposes, make a game plan. You may decide to subscribe to authors you admire, successful business owners like mogul Sir Richard Branson (@richardbranson), publishing houses of interest and press such as publishers’ weekly (@ PublishersWkly). All of the major networks and papers have Twitter accounts you can follow as well. Savvy Twitter users also follow the personalities attached to the companies they are interested in. Since, I love what Berrett-Koehler publishers are up to in the field of interactive books, not only do I follow the publishing feed (@ BKpub), I also follow the publicists who tweet for the company, Katie Sheehan (@SheeKat) and Cynthia Shannon (@ cincindypat).
Blogs
Wikipedia, the giant online resource states that “as of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in
Image by Flickr’s “eijunkie”
Here are some examples of ways to structure blog interests. A personality I follow is marketing genius Seth Godin. He does a short, thoughtful daily blog post. I also follow a number of cancer related blogs, as my first book reflects on my experience being a caregiver to a mother with pancreatic cancer. Last but not least, I enjoy the author of the 4-Hour Work Week, (and other 4-Hour books), Tim Ferriss. His travels, extreme physical experiments, musings and thoughts on business contained in lengthy but sporadic posts, are a sharp contrast to Seth Godin’s brevity. Joel Continued on pg. 26
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Image by Jeff Warren
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Friedlander, a self-publishing powerhouse, (www.thebookdesigner.com/feed), blogs on all things book and also does a weekly round up of interesting articles on other blogs. (Love that every week update!) You can get blogs of interest via email or RSS feed. I choose to get mine via RSS feed and organize them on a Google reader. Online Workshops (Webinars)
There are a number of great online webinars that fall into a variety of price ranges. Two of my favorite, free online marketing classes include List-A-Palooza, a 90-day challenge to build your email contact list hosted by realprosperityinc. com, and Webinar Wednesdays, hosted by veganmainstream.com. Local to my area, the San Francisco Writers University (www.sfwritersu.com) offers a number of free to moderately priced writing and business courses for authors. Learn It Live! (learnitlive.com) is a newer online platform and it has several topic areas of interest. Search on “writing,” “small business,” and “marketing” to see current offerings on Learn It Live! priced from free to $99. Last but not least, many area colleges and universities have online classes in writing and entrepreneurship that are moderately priced. And, no pressure--you don’t have to get a grade if you don’t want one. Ask the college or university about taking the course “pass/ fail” or for “audit” instead of a numeric or letter grade.
“Social Media is one of my primary educational sources.” I still enjoy in-person learning opportunities, particularly writers’ groups. My favorite free/low cost in-person learning
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opportunities come from Meetup.com. Go to www.meetup.com, click on “find a meetup,” put in your zip code and search for key words like “writers”, “authors,” “publishing,” and “entrepreneurs.” I regularly attend a nonfiction critique group, a “shut up & write” group and an entrepreneur/small business academy. I have also seen listings for business networking opportunities, reading groups and grammar enthusiasts. The plethora of meet-up groups can be overwhelming, so narrow in on topics you are truly interested in.
“The plethora of meet-up groups can be overwhelming, so narrow in on topics you are truly interested in.” I have also attended writers’ conferences and would encourage you to give them a try if you haven’t already. The first one I attended was the large multi-day San Francisco Writers Conference. This three-day event had lots of informative workshops, time to meet with independent editors and a number of well-known authors gave inspiring keynotes. This conference also boasts the opportunity to pitch agents and publishers as well as hosts a large exhibit hall with friendly and knowledgeable exhibitors. The second conference I went to was much more intimate and closer to home. The two-day East Bay Writers Conference included fantastic workshops and the opportunity to have one-on-one sessions with the presenters. In an innovative twist, the East Bay conference included a session on improv acting as a vehicle to story telling. You may also decide to take a working vacation and write it off on your taxes. Continued on pg. 27
That Maui Writers Conference is tempting! No matter what conference you choose, make sure you take plenty of business cards, the first few pages of your manuscript, (double-spaced in a readable font), and copies of your book proposal if you will be pitching agents. I would also suggest taking a laptop or paper notebook to capture all of the valuable information you will learn onsite for further study at home.
“You may also decide to take a working vacation and write it off on your taxes.” This article offers some strategies to make continuing education fun and affordable. I hope it helps you stay aware of writing, publishing and business trends as you build your successful career.
____________________________ Cheryl Patrice Derricotte, is the Chief Information Officer for 30 Minute Manager, LLC, an indie publishing company she founded in 2011. Her new book: Being the Grown-Up, a guide to managing a loved one’s terminal illness and death will be published this winter. Stay in touch with Cheryl at www.30minutemanager.com.
Image by Ivan Widjaya
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Back to School Rituals: The Perfect Notebook Search Image by Brandy Shaul
By Catherine Bramkamp I love the Back-To-School season. I loved sending the boys back to a structured school environment, I loved not signing my pay check over to the YMCA during June, July and August, and I especially loved shopping for school supplies. Still do. What does back-to-school mean to the author/entrepreneur (besides a sudden increase in discretionary income for parents)? New office stuff. New stuff that is relatively inexpensive and fun. If you don’t already own a collection of perfect, inspirational, smooth, decorated notebooks, now is the time to find them. From Target to Office Depot, shelves are filled with excellent and varied notebooks. And if you want to begin the year fresh (because September really does seem like the beginning of the year doesn’t it?), buy a new calendar while you’re at it. Now, why on earth do we need paper notebooks when we have such cool electronic equipment? We need paper notebooks and calendars for much the same reason the Titanic needed a couple more lifeboats. I pile a new/blank travel notebook on top of my iPad before I board an airplane and I often smack a post it
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onto the gorilla glass of my iPhone. Not only does paper back up electronic (like rock, paper, scissors, iPhone), how we write is an important link to what we write.
“Not only does paper back up electronic (like rock, paper, scissors, iPhone), how we write is an important link to what we write.” A few years ago I was struggling with a paper calendar and notebook system that purportedly reflected and amplified the many habits of people way more organized than me. I acquired these pages and elegant cover while embroiled in a much different job, the leather cover of my Daily Runner matched the red of my new smart leather briefcase. I was organized, I was fashionable, and once I dropped the laptop into the brief case, pumped. Then I spontaneously changed careers in a not entirely voluntarily gesture, and just like me, the calendar and note system was not working at all. I did not feel Continued on pg. 30
I had a single successful habit left, let alone enough priorities to fill in the top quadrants of want and need. I ended up struggling to even pay attention to the calendar.
“Are calendars not created equal?” Now, there was nothing specifically wrong with the calendar. Like most calendars it was just page after page of small squares and a gathering of lines all interspersed with numbers we have all agreed are relevant. Why then, would this calendar not work? Are calendars not created equal? Apparently not. I was hard pressed to consistently scribble into those tiny boxes. Things were not getting done, though. So I considered what I really wanted and needed in a calendar. Where do the appointments go? How many lines per day spell success? If I don’t fill in all those lines am I a loser? (OMG Wednesday is empty. I have nothing planned on Wednesday; no one loves me!) I ended up sketching out my ideal calendar in the pages of a newly purchased (lined) notebook. As soon as I figured out how I wanted my day to look, I found the exact calendar to reflect that day and those desires. (Moleskine Weekly Notebook! No, we don’t get paid to tell you that.) I am now a reasonably productive individual, even though I never did return to the serious habits of very sincere people. I love my paper calendars and paper notebooks. I especially love them when the online programs freeze, clutch and mysteriously lose appointments or triple them. The written record is my back up and is still, I admit, reflective of how I think.
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It is quite legitimate to be stymied in your writing by the system itself. If you are completely blocked and can’t write a word, consider what you are writing on. Is your notebook too fancy? Is the computer too impersonal? Is the black school notebook too slow? Just like I hand drew the perfect calendar, draw a picture of the perfect notebook. Lines? No lines? Color? Spiral bound? Cheap? Once you’ve figured it out, browse around the back-to-school displays in just about every store you’ll enter in the next month. It will appear the perfect notebook. Remember to buy two.
Catharine Bramkamp is co-host of the popular podcast Newbie Writers. She is a writing coach, author, and university instructor. Her most recent books are Ammonia Sunrise, In Good Faith, and A 380 Degree View. She divides her time between the California Gold Country and Wine Country. More about Catharine at www.YourBookStartsHere.com.
Image by Lauren Close
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Back to School, Back to Basics By Annmarie Lockhart Once the book supplies are bought, the backpacks filled, the new torn jeans are ready to go, the school doors are flung open, it’s time to turn our thoughts to making the most of those precious 5-6 hours a day when the darlings are learning. How are you going to use that time? Fall is a natural time to refocus. We are conditioned by our own educational training to view September as a time of beginning. So why fight what works to your advantage? Get in sync with the mood of the moment and take advantage of the natural inclination to get working. But how to translate good intentions into good practice? And why?
Get in sync with the mood of the moment and take advantage of the natural inclination to get working. 32 | AuthorEntrepreneurMagazine.com August 2012
Freshen your focus. Start with clients. Have you branched out lately? Going back to school is not just for the kids anymore. Professionals of all ages and people looking to develop avocations are motivated to return to class. Give them something to go back to. Offer a class or workshop geared toward new writers, writers looking to explore a new genre, writers who want to tighten their craft. Take a look at your current client list and consider feedback you’ve gotten. Are you offering everything your writers are looking for? If not, start now. Reach out to former clients and offer them a new workshop of their choosing. Give them a choice of three different workshops on three different dates; convenience matters. Move your model. Visit an informal coffee group for a one-time workshop. Introduce a new technique and develop it over the course of three or four workshops. Offer field trip sessions at local parks or museums and use the surroundings as inspiration prompts. Construct longer workshop programs to allow deeper exploration of something that seemed unfinished in last spring’s program, or, Continued on pg. 34
consequently, build some shorter sessions targeted on specifics that you’ve covered in longer programs. Bring the workshop to your kitchen or living room. This strategy works best with a group that has bonded well and where the baseline trust level is high. These clients might feel less inhibited in a kitchen than a coffee shop, allowing deeper focus and faster evolution. Go global. You’ve been wanting to go virtual for a while, so now’s the perfect time. Look into Skype and Facetime for one-on-one client sessions. Investigate chat rooms that can be private and structured for group exchanges. Make better use of Facebook groups and messaging, particularly for date and time reminders, file sharing, and informal conversation. Back-to-school doesn’t always mean new wardrobes, so make it easy for writers who love working at home because they can stay dressed for home. Reeducate yourself. Focus on an area you want to improve (maybe copyediting) or even method development (art therapy techniques) or luxuriate in something focused on your own writing (that romance writing seminar on incorporating research into your writing). Upping your professional game can energize your work and make you a more engaged and charismatic author entrepreneur, translating into better credentials and a more productive clientele. Look ahead. Maybe you have the logistics all tied up. Your classes are planned year-round, your clients are lined up and ready to go, you are maintaining a solid work volume that keeps you busy and happy. Make back-to-school a time for revisiting seasonal themes and prompts. Coordinate with publications your clients want their work to appear in and work a season or two ahead of schedule. Inform
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your writers of editorial guidelines and deadlines for seasonal material. But don’t discount a back-to-school story because a particular journal is currently reading for holiday stories. Direct your clients to set a long horizon for this work and let it breathe through fall. They can write the rough stories in September and October, edit them over the holidays, polish them early in the new year, and submit their September stories timed to catch an editor’s eye in February or March. Even if your clients are not geared toward producing publication-ready content, recommitting to craft can improve the creative experience. Take advantage of the natural energy the calendar provides and swing into a productive fall. Back-to-school never goes out of style.
Annmarie Lockhart is the founding editor of vox poetica, an online literary salon dedicated to bringing poetry into the everyday, and unbound CONTENT, an independent press for a boundless age. A lifelong resident of Northern New Jersey, she lives, works, and writes two miles east of the hospital where she was born. More about Annemarie’s work here: http://unboundcontent.com/.
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If Dan Brown Can Use “Nonfiction” to Sell Novels . . .
Can Nonfiction Authors Use White Papers to Mesmerize Book Buyers in a Similar, Content-Rich Way?
By Laurel Marshfield
The Da Vinci Code Model
Around Christmastime, a number of years ago, I was browsing at a local Borders bookstore (now, sadly, extinct), looking for, among other things, thrillers by the mega-bestselling author, Dan Brown. A client of mine wanted to construct his thriller-in-progress in the “Brownsian” manner, using densely applied historical research. Largely because he was mesmerized by the fact that The Da Vinci Code was then enjoying headline-making sales (it eventually sold 81 million copies worldwide). Contemplating such an unheard-of level of success, even before its true measure was fully known, my client surmised that Dan Brown must be onto something. And, oddly enough, I noticed something intriguing that seemed to speak to my client’s theory -- when I at last found the bookstore shelves housing what was then Dan Brown’s four-novel oeuvre.
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“If ‘nonfiction’ (in the form of historical research) could be used to make fiction more substantive and, as a result, more appealing . . . might not nonfiction benefit from the same approach?” What I found was a special-edition Da Vinci Code, filled with photographs, illustrations, and pages of background material -- all designed to lure readers into the dense forest of factual content the author had woven throughout his fictional world. Hmmm, I thought, interesting.
Nonfiction Promotes Fiction?
Moments later, I asked myself this question: If “nonfiction” (in the form of historical research) could be used to make Continued on pg. 38
http://www.bluehorizonwhitepapers.com/
fiction more substantive and, as a result, more appealing . . . might not nonfiction benefit from the same approach? How would that work, though? Nonfiction, after all, is already factual. So there’s not the same substance-adding benefit that novels acquire by marrying fact and fiction.
“White papers would be used to promote an author-expert to media outlets.” After several seconds spent mentally flailing around, this conundrum appeared unsolvable. So I turned it over to my subconscious, hoping that part of my mind would have more luck, as it almost always did.
Can Nonfiction Borrow from Business?
Several hours later, I was back in my office doing some online research when I came across the words “white paper” three times in the space of ten minutes. Was my subconscious suggesting . . . ? And if it was, what would a white paper for a nonfiction book look like? My creative mind refused to comment. It was time for my planning mind to take over. Picking up a pen (I had long ago realized that a pen in the hand is worth bushels of words on the page – words yielded up more easily than with a keyboard) these brief notes appeared: 1. Premise: White papers for nonfiction “expertise” books = novel idea. 2. Question: But what would a white paper for a nonfiction book look like – what would it focus on? 3. Answer: It would focus on a bookspecific problem and solution; in
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other words, the book’s core message heavily corroborated with research and illustrative scenarios (i.e., stories, case studies, client stories). 4. Question: But how would white papers for nonfiction books be used? 5. Answer: They would be used to excite interest in three core audiences: (1) Readers looking for answers, if not solutions. (2) Professional organizations or other groups whose memberships would be interested in a presentation about the white paper’s topic. (3) Traditional, professional, and online media. 6. More specifically: White papers would be used to promote an authorexpert to media outlets. To attract author speaking engagements. To encourage referrals -- if an author has a practice or business, or consults and conducts workshops. And to offer as an incentive for joining an author’s mailing list (“free white paper download with eNewsletter signup.”)
White Papers Versus Other Book Promo Methods
Okay. But don’t standard promotional methods cover all that already? Take book excerpts -- don’t they do the same thing? Good point. And the answer is Yes. And, No. As a brief segment of a book’s larger message, an excerpt can’t perform the same function that a white paper can. Short-sample excerpts are designed to stimulate interest in a book, but they are not a problem-solving offering that stands alone, apart from the book they are drawn from – the way white papers do. White papers are, in many ways, a unique “genre.” They function as providers of “nutritional content.” That is, they offer free information that their intended Continued on pg. 39
audiences need and want, content designed to nourish their interests. What that means in actual practice is that white papers provide a solid overview of one challenge their audiences face, along with research-supported original material that suggests either a workable approach or an actual solution. But, my conscious mind cautioned, Don’t authors already have lots of ways to promote their books and reach out to readers? As in: author websites, book trailers, social media – not just Twitter and Facebook, but book review sites, virtual book tours? Yes, that’s certainly true. White papers, though, reach out to a book’s potential readers in an entirely different way.
Author Dan Brown
The “No-Sell” Promotional Strategy
Instead of promoting a book, white papers “promote” a problem the book’s
potential audience wants a solution to. In other words, they offer readers content that can’t help but attract them to the author and his or her book. This strategy is often called “attraction marketing.” It works by not overtly selling readers anything (the author’s agenda), but instead attracting them by giving them what they want and need (the reader’s agenda).
“Short-sample excerpts are designed to stimulate interest in a book, but they are not a problem-solving offering that stands alone, apart from the book they are drawn from – the way white papers do.” It’s simply a matter of recognizing that, if readers see a given author as a source of content they value, they’ll naturally want more of that content. And they’ll buy the book. For instance, let’s say a business coach has written an expertise book for small business owners about surviving and thriving in the Great Recession. A white paper on that topic is something the business media, business organizations, and business owners would find vital to their interests. Their “ears would perk up.” And if the white paper’s content is solid and actionable, then book sales would result.
A New Promotional Frontier?
White papers represent a new frontier because they are a not-yet “overcrowded” way to stand out from the clamoring
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crowd in a given subject area or field. Book excerpts, their closest promotional cousin, are standard on Amazon (through the “Look Inside” feature), but relatively few authors are exploiting the huge potential of white papers. This is true despite the fact that -- not only do they offer lots of “attraction” potential unduplicated by other promotional methods -- white papers (unlike excerpts) can be written for any audience an author wants to reach. And so it seems just a matter of time before this leading promotional vehicle for business becomes the leading promotional vehicle for nonfiction expertise books, too.
Are White Papers for You?
Perhaps you’re starting to wonder if white papers could give you the contentpromoting edge you’ve been looking for -- by putting your book’s message into the hands of those who need and want it most? There’s a painless way to find out. It’s a free, hour-long phone consultation in which you and I will explore how white papers can put attraction marketing to work for your nonfiction book. It’s available to the first three authors who mention Author Entrepreneur Magazine when filling out this brief form: http://bit. ly/tTDjNZ If you end up being number four, or higher, don’t worry. You have another option. There are an unlimited number of free fifteen-minute consults to explore how white papers would work for your book.
Image by Sarah M. Stewart
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Laurel Marshfield has over three decades of experience as a professional writer, developmental editor, and ghostwriter, and is the owner of Blue Horizon Communications, Editorial Consultation for Authors (http:// www.BlueHorizonCommunications.com), and Blue Horizon White Papers, White Papers for Professionals (http://www. BlueHorizonWhitePapers.com).
Event Listings August 6-27, 4 Mondays “Your Life in Story: Writing the Memoir” with Albert Flynn DeSilver at the O’Hanlon Center, Mill Valley, CA. Register here: http://ohanloncenter. org/programs/insight-literary-arts/your_ life_story/. August 14, 11:30am, “How to Write a Blog Made Fun and Easy” with Beth Barany, at the Santa Cruz Marketing Roundtable, Santa Cruz, CA $20. Register here: http:// www.meetup.com/marketingroundtable/ events/68066682/. August 18, 10am, “10 Tips to Jumpstart Your Creativity with Beth Barany, Creative Consultant for Writer,” Sponsored by the California Writer’s Club, San Francisco/ Peninsula branch. Members $15 NonMembers $18, Students $10 with ID. **First Meeting is Free. Go here to register: http:// www.cwc-peninsula.org/. August 18, Undoing Poetry: Writing & Meditation with Kate Menzies, founder of Life Creative, 1:30-4:30pm, Studio 2 at Piedmont Yoga Studio, Oakland, CA. $45 before August 11/$55 after. Discounts available. Preregister: 510-652-3336 or pys@piedmontyoga.com. August 24-26, Killer Nashville Thriller, Mystery, and Crime Literature Conference with pre-conference events beginning August 23, Nashville, TN. For more information, go to http://www.killernashville.com. August 31 - Sep. 2, 2012, Decatur Book Festival, Decatur, GA, largest independent book festival in the country. Since its launch, more than 900 authors and 260,000 attendees have attended this event in downtown Decatur. http://www. decaturbookfestival.com/Community/index. php.
September 20-23, Brooklyn Book Festival, Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, NY is the largest free literary event in New York City. http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/BBF/ Home. September 22, Sonoma County Book Festival, Old Courthouse Square, Santa Rosa, CA. attended by thousands of book lovers. http://www.socobookfest.org. Sept. 26-30, Fall For the Book Festival, George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus, Fairfax, VA., sponsored by George Mason University, Fairfax County Public Library and Barnes & Noble. Attended by more than 150 authors. http://www.fallforthebook.org. September 27-30, Women’s Fiction Festival. Matera, Italy. http://www. womensfictionfestival.com/. September 28-30, Podcamp East, Wilmington, DE http://www.podcampeast. com/. September 28-30, Baltimore Book Festival, located at Mt. Vernon Place, MD. The event attracts more than 100 authors. http:// www.baltimorebookfestival.com/. September 28-30, South Dakota Festival of Books, Sioux Falls, attracts over 40 nationally well-known authors http://www. sdbookfestival.com/. September 30, West Hollywood Book Fair, at West Hollywood Park, CA. More than 130 exhibitors expected! http://www. westhollywoodbookfair.org. October 10-14, Frankfurt Book Fair, in Frankfort, Germany. Considered the biggest book show in the world. www.book-fair.com. Events are listed for free, space permitting.
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