Category: New Business Development

I wrote 13 stories in 2010
under one pen name.
This wasn’t my first year writing.
I had some experience, knowledge, and skill.
I also wrote to what I thought
the market wanted.
(i.e. I didn’t write whatever I wanted)

2 stories were never purchased.
1 was purchased, but is not yet published.
1 was published and flopped.
(i.e. had very, very few sales)
5 had average sales.
3 had better than average sales.
1 had superstar sales.

The 1 superstar story in 13
made publishing the others
worth it for my publisher.

This isn’t that much different
for entrepreneurs.
You will have failures.
You will have average or blah results.
But that one superstar
will make it all worth while.

You have your goals for 2011.
Over a week has passed.
What have you accomplished?

No, really,
WHAT have you accomplished?

I’m not saying
you should have a big goal done
but you should have already started on
one or two or all of them.

One of my goals is to write a story a month.
I have my January story plotted.
I haven’t finished it,
but I’ve taken a step toward accomplishing it.
Next week, I should have more of the story done.

THAT is how goals get accomplished.
You work toward them daily
until they’re completed.

Work on your goals TODAY.
(Don’t make me kick your ass)

I was watching one of those
Housewives of XXX City shows,
and shuddering.
I understand the fascination
but I find the setup more sad
than interesting.

Why?

Because many of the women
act like they’re stuck in their 20’s.
They don’t act wiser,
or more accomplished.

We all get older.
I’m not 20 any more,
and I’m glad not to be 20.
I couldn’t write like this
when I was 20.
I didn’t know half the things
I now know about business building.
Yes, there are things I miss about
being 20
but the things I’ve gained
more than make up for it.

Aging is only truly sad
when you don’t progress.
However,
while aging is natural,
gaining additional knowledge
has to be worked at.

I had a talk with one of my publishers.
She said that it takes the average author
ten stories before she sees a gain in sales.
Unfortunately, most new authors
never make it to the second story.
They see the sucky sales for the first story,
and get depressed
and quit.

Writing isn’t easy
and although the barriers to entry are lower,
building that readership still takes time.

As Seth Godin writes
“Go to work on a regular basis.

Art is hard.
Selling is hard.
Writing is hard.
Making a difference is hard.”

Expect that hard.
Don’t get discouraged when it happens.
It is SUPPOSED to happen.
There will be exceptions
but you don’t count on yourself
as being one of them.

But just as hard is to be expected,
so is success
after you work through the dry spell.

Plan your work.
Work your plan.
And stick to it.

On the 26th,
I boxed up all my errors and mistakes
and misgivings
and unproductive habits
accumulated over the previous year.

Today is the day
I celebrate my successes.
These successes could be
as small as updating my antiquated resume,
or they could be
as large as publishing 12 stories,
one story for each month.

I have pages and pages of successes
recorded throughout the year.
Studying them
gets me pumped and excited
for the year to come.
I’m smarter today
than I was January 1st
so I’m destined to do even more
in 2011.

Don’t have anything to celebrate?
This doesn’t mean
you didn’t have successes.
It simply means
you didn’t keep track of your successes.

You know that fancy notebook
a loved one gave you?
Use it to track your successes in 2011.
Fill the book with accomplishment!

This past year,
under a couple of pen names,
I’ve had a story published every month.

The story that I had published
in January
was a good, solid story,
worthy of publication.

The story that I had published
in December
was light years better.
It got top reviews.
It has some great sales traction.

The story I publish
in December 2011
will be even better.

Why?

Because in the three years of publishing,
I have improved month over month
every single month.

As Sir Winston Churchill stated
“Every day you may make progress.
Every step may be fruitful.
Yet there will stretch out before you
an ever-lengthening,
ever-ascending,
ever-improving path.
You know you will never get
to the end of the journey.
But this, so far from discouraging,
only adds to the joy and glory of the climb”

Strive to continuously improve.

Terry Starbucker has a post
with 9 other brilliant quotes.

They don’t.
Why?
Because it is impossible
to get 100,000 words
absolutely perfect
(even with three editors).

If you are waiting to launch
that product
or business
or send out that manuscript
until you have it perfect,
you won’t…
EVER.

Accept imperfection.
Make it good enough
to smush the competition
(in one or two areas)
and then release it.

If you have time
(you won’t),
fix the imperfections later.

Make 2011 the year that you ship.
Get it out there!

I’ve participated in a few
multi-author series.
Some do well,
with many authors participating.
(The more authors participating,
the better the series does
as there are more authors
to cross-promote.)
Some don’t do well,
with no interest from authors.

What is the main difference?

Whether or not
the series lead author
starts the conversation
with a list of possible plots.

Do the final plots look anything
like these idea starters?
No.
But they get the creativity flowing.

If possible,
start a brainstorming session
with some ideas.
The crazier and wilder the ideas,
the better.

December 26th is Boxing Day
in many countries of the world.
There are several theories
behind the origin of Boxing Day.
One is that servants were given
boxes of gifts or bonuses or leftover food
as a reward for helping
their wealthy master’s Christmas celebrations
run smoothly.

I use Boxing Day
as a day to cleanse from the year previous.
I get rid of items I don’t need.
I eliminate tasks I don’t need to do.
I shrug off grudges.
I discard unhealthy, permanently broken relationships.
I leave behind
anything from the year before
that I don’t want to take forward
into the next.

This leaves empty spaces
that I can fill with
new habits
and goals
and relationships.
It prepares me for the brand new year.

Look around you.
What do you need for 2011?
Anything you don’t need
(physically, mentally, emotionally),
consider leaving behind.
Box it up and put it away.

One of the complaints
I often hear
from entrepreneurs
and authors
and other people accomplishing great things
is that their loved ones
don’t understand when something special happens.
They don’t celebrate the wins
that WE feel are important.

When I made my first sale as a writer,
I told a loved one.
She said ‘that’s nice’
and changed the topic.

Why?

Because
a) I hadn’t made an effort
to celebrate her special days
and
b) I hadn’t made it clear
that THIS was a special day for me.

Today may or may not be
a special day for you,
but odds are,
it is a special day for someone
you know and care about.

Be there for them.
Tell them
“this is a special day for you
and I want to help you celebrate it.”

Then when,
in the future,
you tell these same loved ones
“I made a big sale today.
It is a special day.
I’d like you to celebrate it with me.”
they will be more likely to show up
and share your joy.

Celebrate other people’s special days.
Success is not as much fun
when celebrated alone.