The Executive Team

The biggest trend
in publishing right now
is self publishing.
Established authors are self publishing
their backlists.
Brand new authors are self publishing
stories they can’t sell.

There is talk about
the importance of
great covers
and great editing.
But one thing that isn’t discussed
is the importance
of having someone
who will tell you
“This is a dumb ass idea”
or
“This story simply doesn’t work”
BEFORE all the other work happens.

I have 30 stories published.
I’ve written many more.
I thought all of them were wonderful.
They weren’t,
and luckily my publisher/editor declined to buy
the disastrous stories.

This is true of all new product development.
Product developers think
ALL their ideas are wonderful.

Which is why we often rely
on the executive team
to give proposed products
the thumbs up or the thumbs down.
We pitch them 5 products.
They give the thumbs up to 1 of them.

What if YOU are the executive team?
Then set up a team
consisting of people whose opinions you trust,
and give them the challenging task
of saying ‘no’.

It might be the best ‘no’
you ever hear.