As an acquisition editor in traditional publishing, owner of a publishing company, and as the digital rights director for a large literary agency in New York City, Julie knows firsthand what makes some books soar and others fail to take off. Her goal, she tells us, is to demystify the often obtuse and discouraging world of book publishing and help writers succeed in producing, publishing, and marketing their books.
“Write what you know,” the professor admonishes. Because none of us have imaginations to write what we don’t know or to invent what we would like. That would be…what? Interesting? Creative? Insightful? Oh well. Don’t do that. (she said with tongue in cheek because yes, you should do that, just not right now.)
I asked her how she came up with the title and she told me, “People get emotional about their work. They often get to a point where they think it’s just a bunch of yuck.” Well, she wants you to lean into that yuck – accept the challenge. Move on from whatever mess or disorganization is holding you back. It’s exactly when your book is not matching your idea of a perfect experience, that you need to lean into it and keep working.
I’m working on The HOW TO WRITE A BOOK Book, Part II. To be completed, probably in the Fall, also. This is the second in a series of books planned for our How To Write A Book series of educational books on writing. Our focus is on non-fiction as those are the authors we work with.
In fact, if you don’t prove you have an established platform, with thousands of possible readers, traditional publishers won’t even talk to you. No matter how great your proposal is. Oh, yeah, I forgot – before you do or prove any of the above to a traditional publisher, you have to prove you can sell the book and earn back your royalty for the advance. At which time, they will are likely to wave bye-bye.
Who is behind the “you” that shows up at networking events. You need to tell a story, not give a report. Too many first authors give a report – they act as outside eyeballs giving a word by word description of what happened here or there, and when.
I would love it if we could rely on the advice and insight of family and friends, but the truth is so different. These are not the people to trust when it comes to deciding to write a book. Their opinions will be suspect. Yes, share and discuss and take their thoughts to heart. But don’t believe them when they say, “Yes, that’s a great idea! It’s going to be a best-seller!”
Ladies, look carefully at your success and be proud of what you’ve accomplished. Now, share it. Because that’s what you’re doing when you write a book. You’re sharing. Everyone knows sharing is caring. By writing your success story down, you inspire so many other women who are struggling, maybe just the way you struggled, way back when. You inspire these women to keep going, because you become an example, a mentor, a vision of the success they could achieve, if they keep moving forward the way you did.
In the past two decades, Janine has completed her M.A. in Education, she home-schools the herd, she started another entrepreneurial venture (The8Gates, LLC., a firm dedicated to teaching fundamental principles of lifestyle independence), has written 10 books and teaches math and metaphysics in her spare time.
I mean, in her spare time. That’s all. (alien)
I wasn’t thinking of dollars and cents, while I wrote. I was thinking of dollars and sense. The dollars I would invest by self-publishing and the sense of pride and accomplishment I would have once the book was completed. And, the sense to know the book was not going to make me rich and famous.
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