July 2013 – Page 2

Paddle Your Own Canoe

For my most recent release,
my publisher’s publicist promised
wonderful promotion,
my publisher’s blog tour organizer promised
wonderful promotion,
and
the manager of my street team promised
wonderful promotion.

Sounds great, right?

Except
the publicist was hijacked
by a better selling writer,
the blog tour organizer had no connections
in my subgenre,
and the street team manager was sidelined
by a personal emergency.

But that was okay
because I organized my own promotion.
My sales weren’t stellar
but they were respectable
(and all three groups took responsibility
for these sales).

As Barry Moltz
shares

“”Love everyone,
trust few and
paddle your own canoe.”

Assume that people
have the best intentions,
but only trust those
who have earned it.

Your business is what
you and your team make of it.

Don’t depend on others
for your own success.”

Paddle your own canoe.
Ask for help
but don’t count on others
for your success.

Getting On The Grand Ole Opry

In a recent interview on CMT,
High Valley shared the story
of how they first landed a gig
on the Grand Ole Opry.

They were studying the schedule
for the Grand Old Opry
and they realized
there was a gap
in performances.
They called their agent
and asked the agent
to look into booking that empty slot.

The agent was successful
and, next thing they knew,
High Valley was making a dream come true.

They saw an opportunity
and they ASKED for that opportunity.

Have you asked for an opportunity today?

Long Term Business Building

I’m being asked a lot of questions
about how my new releases
have the Amazon sales ranking they do.

No one wants to hear the truth,
that I’ve spent three and a half years
marketing my a$$ off.
That I’ve been fired by publishers
for not growing my sales fast enough.

Writers want the magic bullet,
the quick short term fix,
the easy solution.

Dave Lerner
sees the same issue
in the startup community.

“This is a real problem.
So many of us in business
are in it for the short term,
thinking “What are next steps?”
and working in cultures
where “the transaction” is everything.

In my view,
successful folks in business
are all about the long term,
all about building meaningful relationships
and helping each other out.”

Do what you have to do
to get the short term sales
you need
but remember this is a long term game.

How To Apologize

You’re going to f*ck up.
That’s a guarantee.
And sometimes
you’re going to f*ck up
and hurt someone.

How do you apologize?

Bruna Martinuzzi
shares

“Even with our best intentions,
it’s easy to slip on occasion
and commit a major verbal blunder.
It’s best to rectify the situation
with an immediate, private, face-to-face apology.
If face-to-face is not feasible,
pick up the phone.
If the verbal transgression
was witnessed by others,
the apology must be public.
By making it public,
we help the offended party save face.
Above all,
the apology must be genuine,
and expressed with care.”

When you f*ck up,
apologize.

Benefits Of Hiring A Summer Student

I’ve talked about the challenges of
managing
high school students
but not about the benefits
of hiring students

Anita Campbell
shares

“If you need skills
that college-age students
typically excel in,
like social media or Web design,
a summer internship
could be the perfect solution.

No, you shouldn’t set an intern loose
to manage your company’s
social media presence,
but an intern can help train
older, less tech-savvy employees
in the nuts and bolts of social media,
while learning from their guidance
what is (and isn’t) appropriate
for achieving your business goals.”

The transfer of information
shouldn’t be one way
when a student is hired.
Learn from her
as she learns from you.

The Money Will Come

When I accepted this deal
with the New York publisher,
some of my writing buddies
told me I was crazy.
They said I would make more money
with my previous publisher.

But I knew why I wanted
to sign with this publisher.
I knew what I’m gaining
from the relationship.
I know the money will come.

Legendary investor
Jim Rogers
shares
in Street Smarts

“The advice I give everyone,
the advice I will give my children,
is this:
before asking how much
you are going to get paid for a job,
first decide
whether it is the right job,
whether it is the right place for you,
because if it is the right place
and you do the job right,
the money will come.
The money will find you,
I assure you.
The money should be the least
of your questions.”

Look at more than
the immediate money
when making decisions.

Want It More

All of my past successes
have happened,
not because I’m smarter
or more talented
than other people,
but because I work harder
and I want the success more.
I’m shameless
about achieving my concrete goals.

Bill McDermott, co-chief executive of SAP,
shares
(and this is a GREAT interview
– I highly recommend
you read the entire post)

“A lot of people might play the field,
or try to figure out what they want.
But I knew exactly what I wanted.

Second, you’ve got to want it more.
If you want something badly enough,
everybody around you can see the passion.
And people will make bold bets
on people who have an unwavering passion
to succeed or a passion to do something.

I think that can get totally missed
in the world of academia,
but that’s the real world.”

Want your vision of success MORE.

On-The-Job Experience

Craig Chappelow
shares

“An ongoing stream of research
conducted by my employer,
The Center for Creative Leadership,
shows that the vast majority
of the key lessons
that leaders learn
result from on-the-job experience.
Enduring hardships,
tackling challenging assignments,
and being exposed to
effective coaches and mentors
make much more of a difference
than reading leadership books.

This is often referred to
as the 70-20-10 rule–
70% of learning comes from direct experience,
20% from the influence of others,
and 10% from classes and reading.”

What does this mean?
When hiring leaders,
the resume is more important
than the transcript.

And most leaders have ALWAYS led.
They don’t wait to graduate
or for that first job
to start leading.
I had leadership experience
when I was eight years old.

Hire a leader who has led.

To Be Or Not To Be

Yesterday, I tweaked a friend’s book blurb
(marketing copy).
She committed a common copywriting crime.
She used the verb ‘to be’
again and again.

‘To be’
(She is, I am, You have been)
is a passive ‘weak’ verb.
It doesn’t pop.
It doesn’t sizzle.
It simply is.

Compare
“She was desperate for love.”
with
“She hungered for love.”
Hungered is active,
conveying movement.
That’s exactly what you want
the prospect to do
– to take action.

You might not be able to
completely eliminate
‘to be’
but you can reduce its frequency.

Do a search and destroy
on the verb ‘to be’
and replace it with stronger verbs.

Control Over The Important Aspects

I was talking about contracts
with a New York Times Bestselling writer
who wished to stay anonymous.

She told me
many writers will concentrate
on negotiating for
higher advances,
bigger royalty rates,
more promotional funds.

However,
they never talk about things
that REALLY drive book sales
like
cover art,
back cover blurbs,
choice of excerpts,
pricing.

She does.
If one of her stories releases soft,
she’ll immediately request
to change the blurb.
They’ll change it
until the blurb works.

Ironically,
because the publisher knows
she’s looking at these aspects,
the publisher takes more care with them.

Negotiate for control
over ALL of the aspects
that drive your success.