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A good story is often inspired by a powerful experience.
One that changed the author’s mind, their very way of looking at the world.
A great story may change the reader’s life as well.
I’m stealing that opening—and the title—from Dr. John Yeoman over at Writers’ Village. John is re-running one of my recent blog posts and reframing it as a lesson for writers.
I wish I was better at addressing writers’ issues. I might have more subscribers.
Most likely, though, I’ll continue to issue my inscrutable Reece’s pieces and defer to Writers’ Village as the forum for writers looking for mentorship and encouragement.
John has recently launched Story PenPal, which is proving to be a spirited venue for writers to post their fiction and receive feedback from peers and story experts.
I’ll get back on track in a few days with a post titled:
“How to Catch an Idea Virus.”
Or, “The Virus that Ate my Brain.”
Or, I’ll ask Dr. John what he would call it.
Author Seth Godin thinks that 2015 will be a big year for breakout self-published works.
In an interview with Digital Book World, Godin said that he expects that Amazon’s eBook market share to continue to grow in 2015. He also said that publishers that know their customers will do a better job building connections.
Here is an excerpt from the interview:
What are you anticipating as the big change we will see in 2015?
I think the healthy back-list bump that ebook sales brought will start to be eclipsed by the noise and cruft and occasional winner that’s coming from the self-publishing community.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Author Seth Godin has been using a new online community called HugDug to share reviews of his favorite books and authors. He has reviewed a couple of books on the site including Steve Krug's Rocket Surgery Made Easy.
"One of the biggest benefits we've found in the way people use Hugdug is their ability to share the work of people they respect," he explains on his blog. "Today more than ever, ideas spread horizontally, from person to person, not from the top down, not from an ad or from a talk show or from a promotion."
HugDug is an interesting new online community from the founders of Squidoo that is worth checking out. It is currently in beta and is designed as a site to allow people to share recommendations and discover products and reviews. The site lets you read reviews by reviewer, as well as by category and then links to the product's listing on Amazon to make it easy to purchase the item. There is also a featured charity every month.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
I read a great article at CoxBlue.com. The title of the article said it all: “Seth Godin – ‘There is no secret’ to inbound marketing success.”
So, a high ranking 'influencer' says, there is NO quick fix or overnight secret tip that will lead to massive website traffic, a loyal and trusting audience, a ‘good ranking with Google, and great sales.
There is however, lots of ‘quality’ content
By:
Inderjit Deogun,
on 3/8/2012
Blog:
The Pen Stroke | A Publishing Blog
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| 50 Book Pledge | Book #13: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann |
On Monday, February 13, 2012, Seth Godin published a piece entitled “The End of Paper Changes Everything“ for The Domino Project. The premise of the piece was that “[n]ot just a few things, but everything about the book and the book business is transformed by the end of paper.” In fact, Godin boldly declared “the book itself is changed.” He’s absolutely right.
My definition of a book has always revolved around its tangible form. To me, a book is made up of a cover, title, paper, weight. But that’s not going to be the case for much longer. The birth of the e-book forces us to answer Godin’s contentious question: “What makes something a book?”
If we take away a book’s physicality, then what we’re left with is its foundation. The parts that make up a book’s substance. A book will now be defined by its characters, plot, themes, setting, message. Perhaps, a book will become what it was always meant to be: A story.
However, this leads us to yet another conundrum: If a book isn’t bound by the restrictions of its physical form, does that mean its storytelling potential is limitless. You tell me.
It’s hitting the industry like a rash: Major authors are ditching their publishers to self-publish their own eBooks. Seth Godin, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, and even billionaire Mark Cuban have gone the DIY route, and now mega-bestselling author Jackie Collins is joining the ranks.
In our forthcoming So What Do You Do? interview with Collins, she reveals exclusively to us, that within the next three weeks she will release an eBook for The Bitch, a complete rewrite of her previous version of the novel, with a price point of $2.99 or less.
Although she will continue to work with her traditional publisher for other books, Collins was going through her old work recently when she thought that The Bitch would be the perfect eBook. The novel was also a movie, which Collins said “wasn’t that good and didn’t turn out the way that I wanted it to.”
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
This past weekend I was reading some of my favorite blog posts and stumbled across this gem from Seth Godin. It speaks so truthfully and it was something that I needed to read again.
“We spend a lot of time organizing and then waiting for the system to pick us, approve of us and give us permission to do our work.
Feedback is important, selling is important, getting the market to recognize your offering and make a sale — all important. But there’s a difference between achieving your goals and realizing your work matters.”
How many times can validation lift us up and then tear us down?
Great comments from critique partners. Another rejection letter. A great book deal. One-star reviews. If you leave yourself open, you can be on an emotional roller-coaster and that’s not good for a creative life.
Yes, it’s important to get that validation for your work. It’s your passion. Your dream. But remember always that no one “allows” you to write. You can write regardless. Even with no validation at all. Which at times — let’s face it kids — has to happen anyway. When we’re creating our novel world, it’s a solo effort — something that must be done with no hand-holding.
So while you continue on your writing journey or just going through the journey of life, always try to remember this very important thing:
Validation from others is overrated.
GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed Grand Central publisher Jamie Raab for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature today.
In the interview, Raab (pictured, via) defended her imprint’s standard practice of giving authors a 25% royalty rate for eBooks: “We have an infrastructure to support.” She outlined the values of what traditional publishers have to offer whether they are new in their writing career or established New York Times bestselling authors.
When asked on whether or not she fears big-name writers will take a less traditional publishing route, she replied: “I think about that a lot because I know it’s on authors’ minds. And I think it’s incumbent on every publisher to do a better job than they’ve ever done before — more creative on marketing and eBooks, working in partnership more closely with their authors, keeping them in the loop, publishing more strategically.”
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Don't try to sell your book to everyone. First, consider this: " 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school." Then, consider the fact that among people even willing to buy a book, yours is just a tiny little needle in a very big haystack. Far better to obsess about a little subset of the market--that subset that you have permission to talk with, that subset where you have credibility, and most important, that subset where people just can't live without your book. Continue reading →
Bestselling author Seth Godin has decided to end the Domino Project, his experimental imprint with Amazon. The books will still be sold on Amazon, but Sarah Kay‘s Why Publish Poetry? will be the last book published by the imprint.
Last August, Godin made a surprise announcement: “I’ve decided not to publish any more books in the traditional way.” He then launched the Domino Project through Amazon, publishing 12 books. The list included Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield. General Electric sponsored a free download of that “sponsored book.”
Godin explained why he is stopping in a blog post: “By most of the measures I set out at the beginning, the project has been a success. So why stop? Mostly because it was a project, not a lifelong commitment to being a publisher of books. Projects are fun to start, but part of the deal is that they don’t last forever. The goal was to explore what could be done in a fast-changing environment.” (Via Publishers Lunch)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
For the longest time, it seemed like I couldn’t turn around without reading another Librarians: Not Just For Books Anymore article or blog post. You know the kind–profiles of hip, edgy librarians by journalists who are shocked, just Shocked! to find a librarian running a gaming event, or teaching web 2.0 skills, or maintaining the library’s virtual presence with social networking tools. (Bonus points if the accompanying picture features a tattooed librarian!)
At the time, it was easy enough to just roll my eyes, or play Librarian Stereotype Bingo by looking for mentions of shushing or buns. (Seriously, did there used to be some weird hybrid of library and finishing school that churned out librarians with a uniform hairstyle? Is this a Thing? What is with all the emphasis on buns?!)
But now, it seems, we’ve reached new era when it comes to libraries in the news and blogosphere: the era of Libraries: Ur Doin It Rong.
You’ve probably seen one of these articles recently. They’re not really trend pieces, the way the Look! A Librarian With A Lip Ring! stories were. Many of them reflect the dire circumstances many librarians find themselves in–like the LA Unified School District Librarians, now forced to prove they’re capable of classroom teaching if they want to continue working. Lawyers there are outright demanding that school librarians prove themselves relevant. Elsewhere, however, librarians and non-librarians alike are giving sweeping predictions and advice on how the entire profession can stay relevant in the modern world.
So here’s what I don’t get: where, exactly, are all these “mere clerks who guard dead paper”?
Seriously. Seth Godin’s piece just happens to be the most recent, but I could’ve picked any number of blog posts or op-ed pieces that, frankly, come off as more than a little paternalistic, with authors scolding us silly librarians to get our noses out of the books and participate in the information age. Because when I read writing like this, I think, Who in the world are you talking about?
The librarians I know are the kind of active educators the LAUSD is (apparently) seeking. They are experts on the research process, they use social media, they advocate passionately for teens and libraries.
So am I missing something? Are there actually huge numbers of librarians (and libraries) dedicated only to outdated service models? Or are we, as a profession, suffering from a case of really awful PR? I would argue that librarians–or at least the librarians I know–are daily engaged in staying relevant. So how is it that we seem to be stuck in reaction mode, constantly responding to “advice” and prognostication?
General Electric will sponsor the next book from Seth Godin‘s Domino Project publishing line; the company will sponsor a free Kindle edition of Do the Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of your own Way by Steven Pressfield (cover pictured).
The eBook will be free until May 20th. It regularly retails for $7.99. The new publisher began by partnering with Amazon and is also talking with other corporations about future eBook sponsorship.
Godin explained in the release: “Since it costs very little to deliver one copy of an ebook, the economics favor sponsorship. By paying the author directly, a sponsor like GE is able to earn the gratitude of hundreds of thousands of readers and spread an idea that matters.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Some of you may already follow Seth’s Godin’s blog or have read some of his books. According to my sidebar, one of my most popular posts is a based on what this author has to say about getting through The Dip.
Although Godin’s expertise is in marketing and new media, he can a strike a chord for artists and writers like us. Here’s an example from his blog post Art is What We Call…
“It’s not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.”
I love this. Because I think most of us are not necessarily writing to make a gazillion dollars or hit the bestseller lists (though we’ll definitely take it if it comes our way, ha). I think we write because we want to connect with our readers with empathy and entertainment. We want to connect.
So when it gets rough as it can sometimes during our writing journey, remember why you are writing in the first place. It’s much more deeper than just having a book on a shelf.
From time to time, I abandon my post-in-progress to borrow an insight that has just landed on my e-doorstep. This insight comes from marketing guru Seth Godin:
“Living with doubt is almost always more profitable than living with certainty.”
Mr. Godin’s business philosophy can nourish us at whatever level we allow it to percolate. His advice this morning speaks directly to my own message—that there are advantages to adversity. That “not knowing” can lead to what I call the “experience of meaning”. Godin continues:
“People don’t like doubt, so they pay money and give up opportunities to avoid it. Entrepreneurship is largely about living with doubt, as is creating just about any sort of art.”
As is being a good fictional hero. Godin’s entrepreneurs would make good protagonists because they take the risk of being swept up in “story gravity”.
“If you need reassurance, you’re giving up quite a bit to get it.”
People who hold fast to the path of least resistance cannot even be called the heroes of their own lives.
“On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you’ll have developed a great instinct.”
It’s been called “the fourth instinct”. Beyond the instincts of survival, power, and sex, this most frightening of human imperatives serves our evolution. Without it, there would be no call to adventure, no heroes, no crises…no stories.
And according to Seth Godin, no enlightened marketplace.
Today we have our monthly sponsored post from Jason Bakker, Director of Marketing at Campus Media Group. This is the latest in a monthly series of posts that's part of Campus Media Group's site sponsorship.
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I’ve stumbled across a writer who has given me LOTS of food for thought lately.
Seth Godin, isn’t a fiction writer — his area is actually marketing and new media — but I still feel intrigued about what he has to say.
And even though Seth Godin’s expertise is not in fiction, his blog is something you should definitely check out.
One of his books, The Dip, focuses on goals and why/when you should quit them (and they are valid reasons).
What is the Dip? According to Godin, it is “the long slog between starting and mastery.”
Although he never uses the career of a novelist in his book, you could easily see why becoming a novelist would involve a Dip. Many want to write a book but in actuality few ever finish and even fewer get published. Why?
According to Godin, The Dip is where success happens:
“The people who set out to make it through the Dip — the people who invest the time and energy and the effort to power through the Dip — those are the ones who become the best in the world. They are breaking the system because, instead of moving on to the next thing, instead of doing slightly above average and settling for what they’ve got, they embrace the challenge. For whatever reason, they refuse to abandon the quest and they push through the Dip all the way to the next level.”
For me, this current novel has been a major Dip experience. I’ve totally scrapped two previous versions and have had to leave 100+ pages on the cutting room floor. There were many times that I wanted to just give up entirely. But I’m glad that I held on because I have this version — the one that was waiting to be discovered.
So do you feel you are experiencing the Dip right now in your writing? What are you doing to push through to the next level?
Would love to hear some of your strategies.
If you haven't been to read any of Seth Godin's books on marketing and biz, check out his blog. I receive his daily bloggings by email. They are thought provoking and very insightful...as is this one today.
I'm eager to read his book on Tribes...
I was recently reading through Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing when I found a quote that struck me as particularly poignant. It was actually in the introduction written by Don Peppers.
The truth is your whole problem comes down to a question of time and energy, doesn’t it? Technically, life is easier for you than it was for your parents, because so much of the drudge work is now done by machines. But for some reason you’re busier than ever, isn’t that right? And doesn’t it seem as though every day you get still busier?
How can this be? Simple. Because there are so many more claims on your attention, that’s why. You’re already overloaded with an embarrassment of opportunities to absorb your time and expend your funds doing things, watching things, using things. But every day even more opportunities are presented to you.
I think this is an interesting and common question. With all the steps we are taking forward, are we getting lost and overwhelmed in Web 2.0? Or are we just opening our eyes to a tremendous amount of opportunities? An “embarrassment of opportunities?”
Geek High by Piper Banks
Miranda’s romance writer mother is going to England to do research, leaving Miranda behind with her father, whom she’s had little contact with since her parents divorced, and a stepmother and stepsister she does not get along with. Plus, not only is Miranda blackmailed into organizing her brainy school’s unpopular winter dance, her crush appears to be falling for her stepsister, Hannah. But Hannah does have a cute male friend who just may be interested in Miranda…
I’m not sure why, but for some reason I thought this was going to be a very lightweight, insubstantial read. It wasn’t, not as much as I was expecting, at any rate. But it was still the perfect post-Cybils read—entertaining, well-written, and, thank god, no one died or was abused.
The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
I won’t say much about this one because I’m afraid of giving away too much of the story. (But if you want to talk, particularly about the denouement, I am so up for a chat about it.) And really, where hasn’t this been reviewed? I think it was even the lead book review in People a couple of weeks ago, if I remember correctly. I will say that there was enough to the story to satisfy me, and I absolutely love the last line of the book.
Also, I came up with a playlist for Gemma last year, around the time the book’s publication was first announced. But after reading the book, it changed significantly, so here’s what is currently on my TSFT playlist:
- Incantation - Loreena McKennitt
- Hope There’s Someone - Antony and the Johnsons
- Woman King - Iron & Wine
- To Let Myself Go - Ane Brun
- Miracle - Craig Armstrong
- It’s In Our Hands - Björk
- The Mystery of Love - Marianne Faithfull
- Maybe Not - Cat Power
- Sé Lest - Sigur Rós
- Icebound Stream - Laura Veirs
- Faded from the Winter - Iron & Wine
- Misery and Mountains, Arrows and Bows - New Buffalo
I realize I’m totally breaking a playlist rule with two Iron & Wine songs on the same playlist but I was unable to pick just one, and I think the sequence of “Icebound Stream,” “Faded from the Winter,” and “Misery and Mountains, Arrows and Bows” works perfectly, so there you go.
TSFT was reviewed by: Angieville, Becky, Bookshelves of Doom, Oops…Wrong Cookie, among others.
Reading Resolutions update:
Tea: The Drink that Changed the World by Laura C. Martin was the non-fiction book I read in January. Let’s see, I like tea, I like microhistories… Is it any surprise I picked this up? But as fascinating as I found it, it was too brief for my tastes, so I plan on reading The Story of Tea and Liquid Jade, as well.
And, as mentioned earlier, the translated book I read was The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett. In 1999, a Norwegian detective makes a potentially embarrassing mistake. Transferred to a new department and position, he comes across a report that piques his interest. Full of twists that never feel forced, this book had me totally hooked, especially after the first World War II scene. There were occasional mentions of events that I am sure occurred in the previous (not yet released in the US) book, which once again really makes me wish publishers would bring these series over *in order*, like it appears Vertical is doing with Shinjuku Shark. (February’s rapidly becoming translated-from-Japanese month for me, since I’ve already got five such novels checked out/on hold.)
Getting It by Alex Sanchez 
Carlos is a fifteen year old virgin who feels the pressure to get laid after his three best friends score. He wants to hook up with Roxy the prettiest girl in school, but bombs every-time they meet. After watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Carlos asks Sal a gay guy at his school to make him over and give him girl lessons. Sal agrees to help Carlos on two conditions 1.) Carlos pays him. 2.) Carlos helps him start a Gay Straight Alliance. Carlos agrees to the terms not realizing that Sal will change more than his appearance, but his whole outlook on life. Sanchez does a great of job of teaching acceptance through humor and developing characters that are believable.
The SpellBook of Listen Taylor by Jaclyn Moriarty
First of all I was confused as to whether this book should’ve been an Adult novel rather than YA. Then I found out my suspicions were right after reading a NY times review of the book. Most of the story revolves around the adult characters in the book, and there is only one main teen character Listen Taylor. Also the intertwining plot-lines revolve mainly around the infidelity between the adults. At first I was intrigued with the plotline which started off with Listen finding a spell book containing quirky spells, like how to make someone take a taxi or eat chocolate cake. However, I often found myself lost and bored with the senseless meandering between the 4 main characters. I thought the story would get more interesting, but for me it didn’t, and so I stopped midway through the book.
Vegan with a Vengeanceby Isa Chandra Moskowitz
I think most non-vegetarians have a preconceived notion that vegetarian cuisine mainly consists of granola and grass, but this is not the case when it comes to Vegan with a Vengeance. This book transforms everyday foods like pancakes, eggs, and bacon into vegalicious delights. Moskowitz who hosts a cooking show via the internet has a knack for making vegan cooking simple, cheap, and accessible. I am no domestic goddess so this book was perfect for me, and some of the recipes were so easy that even kids could do it. In addition, the ingredients were easy to find and I could find them in any supermarket. I highly recommend this book if you’re considering becoming a vegetarian or just want to eat more healthy. Some of my favorite recipes included the Lemon Cupcakes, Faux Hostess Cupcakes, and Corn Chowder. (Pictured below the tasty cupcakes I made!)
Just one book, since most of the books I read are Cybils nominees and I may review them later.
Disenchanted Princess by Julie Linker
When her movie producer father is imprisoned for embezzling from his clients, West Deschanel is forced to move in with the only family she has left, her late mother’s sister and her family in Possum Grape, Arkansas.
West may be rich and spoiled, but she also has a good heart and manners, which was very refreshing. Toss in a humorous narration, budding friendships, an interest in fashion (as in making clothes, not just what to wear), and a hot guy, and you’ve got yourself an above average novel. I hate to use the term chick lit because so many people view it as a pejorative (though maybe I can get away with it because there really is a chick on the cover?), but this is really good example of the genre, and one that even people who don’t normally read it can enjoy.
In terms of other media, I have been listening to Iron & Wine’s The Shepherd’s Dog obsessively. Obsessively.
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A good story is often inspired by a powerful experience.
Yes. YES YES YES. While this is sometimes more easily said that done, you are completely right. Until I’m happy with myself and my accomplishments, all the external validation in the world won’t mean a thing, and I’ll listen to all those voices calling me a failure rather than focus on what I’ve actually done. You’re so right.
Love this! What a great reminder.
I agree. We have to validate ourselves and move on. The whole thick skin thing. And I do believe it’s possible to get to that point where reviews don’t bother you. Not sure how I’ll react – we’ll see!
So true. Sometimes you need that bit of validation from others to perk you up and keep you going, but ultimately we need to learn how to do that for ourselves. Easier said than done, of course! :-)
Absolutely. Validation is like candy–it’s delicious when it is all good, it can be an energizing boost, but in the long run it does not have a lot of nutritional value when it comes to sitting down and committing to writing and making the writing better.
If you don’t have a good foundation of what you want you work to be and you depend on outside validation, yes, it can really make you focus on only the negative things people say. But so much easier said than done. It’s always a process.
A writer friend told me that she stopped reading reviews all together. Good and bad. It has made her life so much easier. I think it would hard for me personally not to read *anything* but I guess if it got to start being a negative force in my life, I would stop.
Everyone loves the positive validation but then of course in real life, that’s doesn’t happen for us all the time. I think it helps when we have a really concrete idea of what we want our work to be. Hard to do sometimes. I try to keep it in the back of my mind but sometimes it can be hard not to go looking for validation.
Yes! Nice juicy, sweet, delicious candy. And just like candy, it can give you that sugar high before it crashes down. Love this analogy. :)