Lessons Learned from Rushing

The past few weeks I raced in an attempt to get my middle grade book finished and out to readers in time for good feedback. The reason was because I was hoping to pitch to a specific publisher at a specific event.

Well, I didn't get my book quite finished, I did sent it out to some friends for review but had to attach caveats explaining why it wasn't finished or polished, and then discovered that the individual I was going to pitch to wasn't going to be available as I had thought.

I was a bit frustrated in how the whole process got to where it was, but in the end it turned out better than I had expected. But I learned a few things about setting goals and deadlines in the end.

1. Deadlines can be useful things. They help you push through a lot of barriers, whether self imposed or otherwise, so that you can accomplish great things.

2. Even so, don't let deadlines rule your life. Deadlines can also create a lot of stress, and sometimes that stress is unnecessary because of ill management or because something changes in someone else's schedule and you didn't need to bother. Or, if you had analyzed things a little better, you'd have seen there was a different route to take to begin with.

3. Deadlines, if properly managed, can help you produce great work. If ill managed, they can cause you to submit before your work is ready, and that means people won't have a chance at first impression with the best you can offer.

4. Analyze those deadlines. Be flexible with arbitrary deadlines. I guess this is a two parter: (A.) Don't waffle if you don't need to. You've got to write in order to publish, obviously, but, (B.) You also can't control everything out there. Sometimes things beyond your control change the environment for which your deadline was created. If you can be flexible, you won't be unnecessarily disappointed. Well, maybe that's not always true. But you can adjust and plan out your life with greater happiness if you do.

5. If someone gives you a deadline--a serious deadline that won't shift in time--then start as early as possible to meet that deadline. Figure out what you've got to accomplish by the calendar, either on a daily or weekly basis, and then make sure you do everything you can to meet those deadlines. When a publisher or agent sets those deadlines for you, then you are in a whole different ball game.

So, use deadlines, and worked toward them. But try and make them realistic so you don't feel like you're letting yourself down. I did that some this summer, and it was a bummer. If I'd done a better job at analyzing the calendar, I would have either adjusted my schedule or my self-imposed deadlines. Either way, I'd feel better about what I did and how I went about it.

Nevertheless, I feel like I had divine help in the end. Oh, the deadline essentially just got pushed back two weeks, but it gives me a greater chance of accomplishing what I've got to do--get the draft finished, out to reviewers, and edited. Oh boy, there's still a lot to do! Guess I'll be putting in some late nights!

So what was it I learned this week???

On other news, I attended a class this week on story craft using the ice cream cone model of character interplay created by Katie Farmer, and discovered why there may be some major issues with my epic fantasy. More on that in a few days.

The Power of Facebook

So, 13 hours after posting my blog and Facebook about the Mormon Times article on my presentation to LDS Storymakers on writing for the Church magazines, I had 2 comments and no 'likes' on Facebook.

However, just minutes after the Ensign Facebook page posted the link, there were 26 'likes' in the status post, 25 'likes' in the second post with the actual link (Facebook doesn't seem to place posts with links as the main status message), and several comments. That's the power of 55,500 friends on one active site (Ensign) versus 466 friends (mine) on a moderately active site.

This teaches me an interesting lesson: social media can be a powerful tool to get the word out, but you have to create a fan base that opens up the possibilities. The magazines have that. For my novels--both middle grade and epic fantasy, I'll have to work hard to market myself to make a splash.

I'm in the News!

A few months back I gave a presentation at the LDS Storymakers conference on writing for the Church magazines. Michael De Groote interviewed me, and the article has gone live here!

It's a good article, and Michael was very generous in handling the piece. Hope it's helpful!

Excellent writing telesminar

I participated in an excellent teleseminar last week about the publishing industry and changes in how authors need to view it. Although predominately leaning towards the nonfiction market, much of what was said and shared relates to fiction as well.

The seminar was hosted by Roger C. Parker (for more about him, check out his Web site), and his guest was Stephanie Guzikowski (you can read a summary of the conference she presented the ideas used as the basis for this seminar here).

They discussed "The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing," compiled by Steven Piersanti, president of Berrett-Koehler.

Very interesting. What it all boils down to is this: because publishers are doing less and less for marketing books, authors need to rise above the average rest and really shine in their efforts to produce excellent material and to market themselves, building a fan base and connecting with individuals. Very interesting stuff. For example, about 1 million books were published last year, more than ever before, but even as the number of books published go up, book sales are declining. Today the average published book has less than 1% chance of getting shelf space in the average bookstore.

However, authors can combine new media and old strategies to get recognized. They can even hire a publicist. Stephanie is a publicist, so she had a vested interest in promoting the concept. Still, it can be helpful. My sister published a book two years ago as part of my sisters' joint company ("The Venus Week": book my wife and many of her friends think is extraordinary about women's health). They hired a publicist who played a key role in helping them get promoted. Of course, one of my sisters is a marketing expert, so that didn't hurt, either!