Month: October 2017

My sales have been level
this year
compared to last year.

Normally,
I want sales to increase.
I have more products available.
I had more years to build.
Sales should go up.

Not this year.
This year, I’m marketing my heart out
and my sales are remaining constant
and that’s an achievement.

The customers in my main market
(the U.S.)
are stressed out.
They’re worried about natural disasters,
political changes,
possible nuclear war.

Stressed people don’t spend money
on non-essentials.
They hunker down and wait.

So I’m damn happy
with my level sales.

In a down market,
staying level is a success.

As a new business development babe
and, now, a writer,
I can tell you it doesn’t exist.

It has been done.
If you haven’t heard of it,
that means it likely failed.

Seth Godin
shares

“No one expects you
to do something so original,
so unique,
so off the wall
that it has never been conceived of before.
In fact, if you do that,
it’s unlikely you will find the support
you need to do much of anything
with your idea.”

What you and I are looking for
is the sort of original idea.
The vampires who sparkle.
Vampire stories has been around
forever.
Stories with sparkling vampires?
Not-so-much.

Find a sort of original idea
you can work with.

I posted some advice
for brand new writers,
writers starting with zero readers
(zero customers).

I told them
the tactics I outlined
might not work for everyone
but they had worked for me.

I shared the numbers behind
these tactics,
as well as the mistakes
I had made.

Almost immediately
another writer posted
all the reasons
my tactics wouldn’t work.

Had she tried my tactics?
No.
But she was certain
they would fail.
She pressed me to ‘prove’
they were valid.

I ignored her request.

I’m a USA Today Bestselling Writer.
Clearly I can sell books.
And I’m not running a promo business.
Posting these tactics
don’t benefit me personally
at all.

I don’t have to prove shit.

Successful folks with no ulterior motives
aren’t going to ‘prove’
their advice is valid.

Take that advice
if it makes sense to you
or don’t.

I have a loved one
I always call
when I need cheering up.

If it has been a bad sales day
or I’ve received some harsh
customer feedback
or something else has gone terribly wrong,
she’s the person I talk to.

That emotional heavy lifting
is HARD on a person.
I appreciate
that she does this
for me.
I’m grateful to her.
I ensure I return the favor
and I treat her
as much as she allows me
to treat her.

If you have a similar person,
someone who cheers you up
when you’re down
(and all business builders
need
at least one person like this),
show her/him your appreciation.

Consider surprising this cheerleader
with a thank you card
or flowers
or some other nice gesture.

She/he deserves this.

One of my writing buddies
is a perfectionist.
She doesn’t want
to publish a story
(ship a product)
unless it is perfect.

Whenever I urge her
to hit the publish button,
she tells me
‘It isn’t ready yet.’

I doubt it will ever be ready.

Dexter Brown,
in September’s
CPA Magazine,
shares

“Folks who fit into this category
[perfectionists]
are also big procrastinators
– they have a tough time
finishing their work
and are overly cautious
(it can take them hours
to finish a task
that should take 20 minutes,
for example).

They agonize over details
– their to-do lists are elaborate
and they can rewrite
the same document or email
over and over
to make it perfect.”

There’s good enough
and there’s perfect.
The first is achievable.
The second is not
and is usually more harmful
than beneficial.

If you’re a perfectionist,
put systems in place
so this trait can’t hinder
your success.

Jim Rohn
said

“You are the average
of the five people
you spend the most time with.”

I’ve outgrown
my five.

When I first started
taking the Romance Novel Business
seriously,
I became part of a team
of five writers.

All of these writers
were serious.
They were all ahead of me
career-wise.

They pushed me
to become better.
I learned so much.

Then I started outselling them.
I was the person
giving back,
pushing them to become better.

They had other goals.
I continued seeking to improve.

Today, I am at a different level.
I’m still part of this group
but they are my friends,
not my advisers.
I talk to them socially.
I share what I learn
but I don’t learn from them.

If you continue pushing yourself,
you will likely outgrow
your initial advisory group also
and that’s okay.

Consider giving back to them
and continue moving forward.

Right now,
there’s likely someone in your group
who is intentionally underachieving.

She sees the goal
and intentionally underdelivers
on it.
If the goal is a 3 star review,
she gives a 2 star review.
If the goal is a 5 star review,
she gives a 4 star review.

There are emotional reasons
why she does this
but the important thing to know is
she does this.

And she will do this
with ANY goal.

Seth Godin
shares

“When leading a team,
it’s tempting to slow things down
for the people near the back of the pack.

It doesn’t matter, though.

They’ll just slow down more.
They like it back there.
In fact, if your goal is
to get the tribe somewhere,
it pays to speed up,
not slow down.

They’ll catch up.”

You can never slow down enough
to make an underachiever
meet a goal.

Set your goals high.

The Romance Novel community,
seeking to honor a writer,
created a Facebook post
asking folks to donate
to a charity
the writer supported.

This post was shared
thousands of times.
People, including big name writers,
forwarded it,
making it appear
like they donated.
Comment after comment
communicated that same thing.

I tried to donate.
The charity is no longer active.
It still has a website
(likely because the hosting
was free)
but the donate buttons
were dead
and
the email address
and the social media accounts
no longer exist.

I contacted the organizers
and they quickly changed
the charity.

But the damage had been done.
I, and anyone else who had donated,
knew the people who had claimed
they had donated
had lied.

No one who had forwarded
the post
had donated.
They were asking people
to do
something THEY didn’t plan
to do.

If you ask customers
or partners
to give to a charity,
make certain
they CAN give to that charity.

And consider giving
at least a token amount.

I am GRATEFUL
to my readers
(customers)
for helping me
become a success
in the Romance Novel Business.

I don’t OWE them
anything.

I don’t have to
stay in business tomorrow.
I don’t have to
offer a next story in a series
(a new product).
I don’t have to
believe what they believe
and do what they say.

I might choose
to do this
but I don’t HAVE to do this.

When you become successful,
it doesn’t matter
what industry you’re in
– writing, football, banking –
customers will say
you owe them something.

You don’t.

In fact,
if you try to ‘repay’
all of the things customers
believe you ‘owe’ them,
you’ll end up losing money
and going out of business.

Run your business
YOUR way.
You don’t owe anyone sh*t.