Month: January 2018

A couple days ago,
we talked about having a plan
for giving back.

Consider allocating part of that plan
to giving back
to people/businesses
who have supported you.

When I was a brand new writer,
there were a few small book bloggers
who really supported me.
They often promoted my books
for free.

Today, as a mid-sized writer,
I buy advertising
on those small sites.
Does this make an impact on my sales?
Not at this stage of my career.

But my advertising dollars send a message
that I’m grateful for the assistance,
which prompts mid-sized sites to help me.
And it allows these small book bloggers
to promote other up and coming writers.

When I become a BIG writer,
I will add the mid-sized sites
to the list of sites I support.

Support those who supported you.

Some people have been vocal
about how Oprah should run
for President of the U.S..

She has clearly stated
she doesn’t plan to run
for President.

I suspect
Oprah has other plans
for how she can best give back
to the world.

We should have plans also.

Because, once we achieve
a little bit of success,
we WILL be bombarded
with demands that
we give back.

If we don’t have a plan,
giving back could easily
distract us from achieving our other goals.

I’ve seen this happen
to numerous writers.
They make a milestone
like hitting a Bestseller List
and are told they SHOULD give back
immediately and in a certain way.
They capitulate to these demands
and, three years later,
they no longer have a successful writing career.

Decide now
when and how you will give back.
Stick to those plans.

Some people are pointing to
photos of this celebrity or that celebrity
with Harry Weinstein
as proof that celebrity was okay
with his actions.

In an ideal world,
that might be the case
but this isn’t the ideal world.

In the REAL world,
we have to associate with the terrible people
in our industries
if we want to be successful.

We have to attend the industry party
a person we detest is also attending.
If they approach us,
we have to be ‘professional.’
If we aren’t professional,
that will likely be
the last industry party we attend.
We’ll be labeled difficult.

We are sometimes forced
to work with people
whose business practices we suspect
are shady.
If the only distributor to a big account
is ethics-challenged,
for example,
than we either work with that distributor
or we can kiss that big account good-bye.

We also sometimes voluntarily associate
with people we don’t yet realize are unethical.
Everyone makes mistakes.

This doesn’t mean we have to approve
of this other person’s/business’ actions.
This doesn’t mean we have to duplicate
these actions.

And when we become successful enough,
we can imprint OUR ethics onto our industry,
change our part of the world for the better.

Until then,
we WILL, unfortunately, have to deal
with some bad people/businesses.

Some people were surprised
that revelations about other Hollywood players
continue to be made
long after
Harry Weinstein’s abuses were uncovered.

I’m not.
Harry Weinstein was a leader
in Hollywood
for decades.

The people who had no problems
with his actions
were promoted
and had successful careers.

The people who had problems
with it
didn’t have any careers at all.

Eventually, much of Hollywood
would reflect his views.

A mentor of mine called this
the Shadow of the Leader.
Whatever the leader does or says
gets duplicated.
He or she becomes THE example
of how a person
within that group
SHOULD act.

YOU are currently THE example
of how a person
associated with the business you’re building
SHOULD act.

Is that the business
you want to build?

I have never been successful
on the first try of anything.
I try, fail, change tactics,
try, fail, change tactics,
and eventually I succeed.

Then the world around me changes
and I fail once more.
I change tactics
and try again.

Katie Forrest,
serial entrepreneur
and co-founder of
EPIC Provisions,
shares

“There’s so much failure
when you’re starting out
and so much learning.

So often
you will get far
down a path
and realize
you’re not on the right path
anymore.

Changing course is one
of the most empowering things
you can do as a business owner.”

Change will be a constant
in your life.
Learn to embrace it.

My cover artist is super skilled.
The level of care
she puts into her covers
is amazing.

The covers she has designed
for me
have won numerous awards,
garnering my books priceless publicity.

She told me recently
my covers were the best
she’d ever crafted.

She is wrong.
Most of her covers
have been that quality
or higher.

It is merely that
I TELL her
when her covers win awards,
when reviewers and readers
share how much they love
the covers she crafts for me.

Because no other writer
tells her this,
she believes
the covers she crafted for me
are the BEST.
She loves working with me,
puts my requests
at the top of her to-do lists.

Seth Godin
shares

“Every once in awhile,
someone steps up
and makes something better.
Much better.
When it happens,
it’s up to us
to stand up and notice it.”

If someone on your team
does great work,
acknowledge it.
If you don’t,
someone else will
and that someone else
will eventually be your team member’s focus.

With the success
of KU (Kindle Unlimited),
Amazon’s subscription program,
I suspect, if at all possible,
other industries
will try this same model.

Subscription programs
have been around
for a while.
The customer pays one monthly fee
and has access to everything
included in that program.

Subscription programs
especially appeal to heavy users.
(Some subscription programs
don’t expect this
and they swiftly go out of business.)

A newer aspect of the KU subscription program
is how vendors (publishers/writers)
are being paid.
They are paid a percentage
of the pooled revenue.

This means
the business offering the subscription program
is guaranteed a profit.
It makes a percentage of the pooled income.

The vendors, in contrast, have very little control
over what they’re being paid.

If subscribers use X amount of their products
and use 9X amount of the other vendors’ products,
the vendor receives 10% of the remaining pool.

If subscribers use the same amount of their products
but use 99X amount of the other vendors’ products,
the vendor receives 1% of the remaining pool.

The vendor has no control over
what it is being paid
because there’s no visibility.

The business running the subscription program
has the information about the subscriber numbers
and the data on the amounts
the other vendors are selling.

If you have a choice
(and if there is no such
subscription program
in your industry right now,
you might have a choice),
I recommend
being the business
running the subscription program.

If you are a vendor
in a subscription program right now,
prepare for the day
when the program switches
to pooled earnings.

There will be more
pooled earnings subscription programs
in the future.