Month: May 2012

I’m currently taking
an advanced revisions course.
The course was clearly advertised
as being advanced level.

The thing is…
many newbie writers
are taking this advanced course.

The instructor decided
to dumb down the course
to better benefit these newbie writers.

This made no one happy,
not even the newbie writers.
They wanted to see
what advanced writers were learning.
We, advanced writers,
wanted to learn something,
anything.

Just because
your intended audience changes
doesn’t mean
your product has to change.

Investigate
before you make changes.

At a recent Women in the Economy conference,
Jack Welch advised women
that the only thing that would
aid their advancement
is getting results.

“Over deliver.
Performance is it!”

This is Jack Welch.
Of course, he is going to focus
on performance.

But there is a reason
he focuses on performance.
We can control performance
and stellar, high-profile performance
WILL advance anyone in their careers.

Even if you’re purple
and belong to three genders,
make huge sales
and your company will respect you.

I see this in my writing.
People respond to me differently
now that I have shown
I can write selling novels
and I have a bit of success.

Is performance EVERYTHING?
No.
But we can control performance.

Show you can deliver
and then ask for respect.

When I first started writing,
I produced stories that were innovative
but no one wanted.
I was innovating for ME,
not for readers.

I made changes
simply to make my stories HUGELY different,
not because readers would benefit
from those changes.
I was a selfish innovator
and I wasn’t doing my job.

As Harry West shares

“As an innovator
your job is to ask,
what do people want and
how can we serve them better?
If that calls for a radical new technology
then that is your imperative.
But if it calls for just the painstaking process
of simplifying
or improving the customer experience,
then that is just as much
an innovation imperative.”

An innovation doesn’t have to be big
to be valued.
It simply has to be needed.

A 12 year old loved one
is being bullied at school.
Bullying is a hot topic in schools.
Bullies are reported to teachers
and talked to.

Yes, bullying is wrong and hurtful
and, in a perfect world,
there would be no bullies.

We’re not living in a perfect world.
The bullies aren’t going away,
they exist in business,
and we have to eventually learn
how to deal with them.

When possible,
I ignore them.

When not possible to ignore them,
I team up with others,
gathering strength.
An individual bully
won’t face a group of 20 victims.
Bullies normally pick on the weak.

Saying something is wrong,
doesn’t make the problem go away.
We need solutions.

Every month,
I trek to our writing chapter’s meeting.
Yes, I could spend that
valuable time writing.
Yes, the workshop information
could be found on the internet.

But it is what is not ‘officially’ said
that brings value to the monthly meeting.
It is the author buddy
who whispers about a call for submission
no one is supposed to know about.
It is the mistake a buddy made
that she’d never put in writing.
It is the facial reactions
to a question no one has guts to answer.

As Sherry Turkle shares
“….we need to remember —
in between texts and e-mails and Facebook posts —
to listen to one another,
even to the boring bits,
because it is often in unedited moments,
moments in which we hesitate
and stutter
and go silent,
that we reveal ourselves to one another.”

Not everything can or should be
achieved through technology.
Face-to-Face conversations are important.

I write short stories
and novellas.
When I focused on this unusual path,
other writers told me
I HAD to write full length stories
to earn a living from writing.
My gut told me that wasn’t necessary.
My gut was right.

When Carrol Caldwell
started Wall Words,
she also went with her gut.

“I surveyed a network group
I belonged to and
none of them thought the idea
was worth pursuing.
When you believe in
your mission and product,
ignore the nos.
Do your due diligence,
but at the end of the day,
listen to your gut and go for it.”

Listen to your gut.

I have a price range for my stories.
I know how much I can increase
or decrease the selling price
before the pricing change swings sales.

Knowing your price elasticity
(how the number of units sold
increases/decreases
with price changes)
is important.

It determines profitability
and often influences
what improvements
you can add to the product.

As Leah Munsey,
Motley head manager,
explains about her coffee business

“Ethically sourced products are
on the expensive side.
But our coffee is a product
that our regulars are not willing to give up
unless the prices are outrageously high.
It is, more or less, inelastic,
meaning that the demand won’t change very much
when the price changes.
Other products we sell, however,
are more elastic.
Our Kombucha is on the expensive side,
and if we increase the price at all,
some customers would choose
to purchase another drink.”

Know your product’s price elasticity.

A buddy and I were talking about
how there weren’t a lot of lighter romances
and I thought to myself
“I could write these lighter romances.”
I already had experience in writing romance.
I made those light romances very sexy
(as there was a huge market for sexy)
and I’ve been selling every story I write.

Often the best ideas
come from irritations in your life,
irritations or pain or gaps
that other people share.

Brian Leventhal,
co-founder of Brooklyn Winery,
advises
“If you are looking for
a business idea,
think about what causes you
pain in some capacity and
how something you are familiar with
can make it better.”

What drives you crazy?
Does it drive other people crazy?
Do you have the skills
to ease that pain?

THESE are the product ideas
you should seriously investigate.