411 on Books, Authors & Publishing

Something new today.

Writing and polishing and publishing and marketing is a LOT of work. Some of it is painful, some of it is inspired, some of it is an adventure…all of it is necessary and there are never enough hours in the day. Ever feel that way?

Piece of cake, piece of pie

Slap a tiger, poke him in the eye

Draw a circle and get ready to run

Chasing your own tale can be lots of fun!

What it means to me, from my perspective as a publishing consultant, trainer, and editor in my work and as an author that understands both sides of the table, is this:

Editing is structured, I know what my job is and how to do it…it’s easy because I have the tools and the experience. Teaching authors how to publish and market their work and set up their author platforms is easy, because I know what needs to be done and how to help them along the way. My job is easy, yet challenging, and I’m incredibly lucky to do what I love and work with amazing people every day.

But, it’s not easy for the one in the hot seat, so to speak. They go over the editing work–highlighted mistakes they never expected to see; or learn about the work ahead of them–like writing a 400 character or less description of their 4 year long writing project; and all the marketing work to be done–to hopefully sell some books, potentially never enough to quit our day jobs.

During the process, we can all have moments where we take information really hard, become discouraged. When I see my clients feeling discouraged or overwhelmed, I just want to hug them and tell them it will be okay, wish away their insecurities and remind them that they are amazing for their imagination, creative skills, and talent and I admire their desire and willingness to do something beautiful with it. They are brave and bold…and chasing your own tale is worth it!

My hope is to inspire and encourage you to just think about the dream and let the work of it all fade into the background long enough so you can only remember and appreciate why you are working as hard as you are. Then share how that feels to help inspire others too…pay it forward.

Take a moment and think about where you are in the process with your book and in working to realize your dreams of being a successfully published author, then share what this poem said to you. You are invited to share that or add on to the poem or both!

I have a $3 Amazon gift card for the person who adds 4 more lines to this poem and gets the most LIKEs on this page by the end of August 2014.

(US Amazon site only, sorry. Blame that on the internet.)