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Archive for the ‘Publishing’ Category
Monday, September 6th, 2010
 Patience means the capacity to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming angry or upset (Roget’s New Millennium Thesaurus).
Patience is required at many different levels on the Writer’s Journey both with yourself and with others.
Why is patience such an important quality for writers?
First of all, writing a book for publication is a long term business.
Despite the fact that there are always exceptions to the rule, there are very few books that are written and picked up by an agent or publisher straight away. The norm is for the process to take time.
The stage where patience is most required, and one of the most important for all writers seeking commercial publication, is finding the right people to work with – agent and/or publisher.
The reason that it takes so long for publishing professionals to respond to your approach is that they genuinely do have an extremely long list of other tasks on their ‘To Do’ list. And this is before they even get to assessing new projects from new authors!
Add this to fact that they are almost always in meetings and inundated with material to read, and you’ll begin to get the picture.
Ironically, once a decision is finally made, from that point onwards everything suddenly switches to tight deadlines where everything needs to be completed ‘yesterday’.
With self-publishing, the long term nature of successful publishing takes into account the whole life cycle of the book. In this situation you need patience to nurture your book to success long beyond the launch.
It requires patience to cultivate mutually rewarding working relationships with people who will help to sell, market and promote your book. It also takes patience to build up a strong relationship with your readers that is likely to be rewarded by them buying your next book too.
Life has a way of taking the time required for projects to come to fruition – whatever that may be – rather than an arbitrary timeframe you may have decided you want to impose.
Usually, there is a bigger picture at work – if only you could see it then and there.
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Tags: agent, author, book, marketing, publication, publisher, readers, writer, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | No Comments »
Monday, August 30th, 2010
 Here are 3 tips to help you find the right publisher to approach with your book:
1. First of all, think about who you know who might know someone with a connection to the world of publishing.
Before you dismiss this suggestion with the thought that you don’t know anyone who has anything to do with writing or publishing, just stop and ponder for a moment.
Sometimes a friend of a friend may be just the person you need to speak to. Perhaps their colleague at work happens to know someone who’s just had a book published or started a job in the industry? Or maybe they know someone who works in a bookshop and who is familiar with the subjects that publishers specialise in.
You just never know where these connections can take you and naturally if you are able to come up with leads that result in personal recommendations of publishers to approach, this can be one of the best ways of being introduced to the right publisher for your book.
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Tags: author, book, publisher, Publishing
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Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
I hope you’re having a good week so far as we head into the new month of August.
This is just a quick courtesy reminder that today, Tuesday 3 August is the registration deadline for the Writer’s Journey Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to check it out, you can read all about it, watch a short video and access the audio recording of the Preview Call by clicking here …
This individual coaching program has been created for writers at any stage of the writing journey to benefit from professional feedback, guidance, structure and support.
My commitment to you is that I will meet you exactly where you are on your writer’s journey and guide you to raise the bar to the next level – whatever that is for you – so that you make solid progress and experience tangible results.
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Tags: agent, author, book, book proposal, creative process, mindset, platform, publication, publish, readers, writer, Writing
Posted in Announcements, Book Proposals, Creativity, Publishing, Writing, marketing | No Comments »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
 Perseverance is about dedication, resolution and stamina, and can be defined as the ‘steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose … especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement’.
If you were to exchange the word ‘perseverance’ for the phrase ‘writing a book for publication’, the remainder of the sentence would still be accurate!
The Writer’s Journey certainly includes many points along the way which demand an incredible amount of determination and tenacity.
It can be a long path from inspiration to publication and how you handle the inevitable challenges will make all the difference to the quality of your journey and to the end results.
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Tags: book, marketing, platform, publication, publish, readers, Writing
Posted in Publishing, Writing | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Raising the Bar on the Writer’s Journey means knowing what you already have in place, understanding precisely what you need to do next, and applying yourself consciously and creatively to consistent action! Raising the bar is an integral part of the journey to successful published authorship and needs to be applied at every stage along the way.
Join me on Tuesday 27 July at 8pm (BST/3pm EST) for a FREE Preview Call* to present the Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program and learn the secrets of successfully raising the bar on your writer’s journey.
Click here to register …
I’ll also be sharing with you the details of the * 4 month * Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program for just * 10 writers * starting in September (registration closes Tues 3 August). The Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program has been created for writers at any stage of the writing journey to benefit from professional feedback, guidance, structure and support.
Read about the Raise the Bar Individual Coaching Program here …
If you’re ready to learn more about raising the bar on your writer’s journey, why not join me for an inspiring and interactive Preview call on Tuesday 27 July at 8pm (BST/3pm EST).
Click here to register …
If you can’t make the live call, no problem. Register anyway and we’ll send you access to the audio recording so that you can listen any time.
Enjoy the journey!
Julia
(*Usual telephone call charges apply)
Tags: action, agent, author, book proposal, creative process, inspiration, mindset, platform, publish, publisher, readers, success, support, true voice, writer, Writing
Posted in Announcements, Authenticity, Book Proposals, Creativity, Publishing, Writing, marketing | No Comments »
Monday, July 5th, 2010
 Making a commitment to something – or someone – is all about making a pledge or a promise … and then engaging yourself totally in the fulfilment of it.
As far as your writing is concerned, developing and strengthening the quality of your commitment will mean the difference between writing or not writing, and taking action or allowing resistance to hold you back.
Commitment sets the scene for all of the small choices that you make every day in relation to your writing.
It also guides you when you come to make the larger decisions regarding how to move forwards when you’re ready to take your work out to the marketplace. And it helps you to access the information and support you need to do so.
Ultimately, your degree of commitment to your writing will be a strong determining factor in your experience of ‘success’ or ‘failure’ – however you choose to define what those terms mean for you.
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Tags: action, authentic, author, commitment, creative energy, imagination, Publishing, readers, results
Posted in Authenticity, Publishing, Writing | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
 It is with great pleasure that I introduce here our first guest blog post from author and publisher Jo Parfitt:
They say you should write about what you know, and so, in 1998 I wrote and published a book called A Career in Your Suitcase, based on what I had learned about creating and maintaining a portable career overseas.
You see, what I ‘knew’ was how to create a career, based on what I most loved to do and then move that career from country to country. In my case this meant from England to Dubai, then Oman and onto Norway. In a really old chestnut of a cliché, ‘I had been there, done that and got the teeshirt’ and I believed that my experience qualified me to write the book. I was right. People loved my book and in a couple of years I had sold out. It was time for a second edition.
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Tags: authentic, author, book, publish, writer, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | 2 Comments »
Monday, June 7th, 2010
 One of the aspects of writing a book for publication that I emphasize with the Writer’s Journey approach is to give as much attention to preparing yourself for published authorship as you do to preparing your work.
This is because who you become as an author is just as important as what you write.
One facet of this relates to developing and strengthening certain qualities that are proven to be of value to support you on the path to publication – and beyond!
The 5 qualities that I recommend cultivating are: courage, commitment, perseverance, patience and authenticity.
Courage
It is said that courage is a decision made in the face of fear, not in the absence of it. And most writers I know would agree that courage to face fears, anxieties and doubts go hand-in-hand with the process of writing.
Why is that?
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Tags: author, imagination, mindset, publication, Writing
Posted in Creativity, Publishing, Writing | 9 Comments »
Monday, May 17th, 2010
 The book industry is in the midst of what can only be described as “unprecedented” change (how often are we hearing that word spoken in the media at the moment?)
The coming weeks, months and years are likely to see new practices being adopted as we all adapt (or not as the case may be) to the new territory we find ourselves in when it comes to writing, publishing and selling books.
In advance of any major change being implemented, we first need to shift our mindset from what we are used to, and what we expect, towards what is required in order to succeed in the contemporary marketplace
One topic which has recently been placed on the agenda by the forward-thinking publisher at The Friday Project, Scott Pack (formerly of Waterstones), is to “generate excitement” around selling books.
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Posted in Publishing, Writing, marketing | No Comments »
Monday, April 19th, 2010
 When it comes to understanding the psychology of purchasing books and other products on-line, Amazon stands out as a real success story. The innovative and customer-centred approach that Amazon has employed to create and maintain its dominance in internet retailing is impressive.
One of the latest new offerings from Amazon is the launch of dedicated author pages. These offer customers a full bibliography, recommended titles and videos which are said to be like having a “bookshelf of the author’s titles” on the website.
There are also links to other related items such as DVDs connected to a specific author or book so that customers have plenty of choice for following up their interest further.
The same principles which are being used to such great effect by Amazon can be employed by all authors to build their success in the marketplace. The scale and details may be different, but the approach is worth paying attention to.
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Tags: author, marketing, platform
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Patience means the capacity to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming angry or upset (Roget’s New Millennium Thesaurus).
