An envelope arrived today from Writer’s Digest with my order for Nina Amir’s book, The Author Training Manual. As usual I opened the book at random and this is what I read on pages 35-36, the chapter on Develop an “Author Attitude” and Plan Your Success:
“Ask yourself: What’s your “reward,” or how might you “profit” if you choose to remain an aspiring compared to a successful published author? What do you gain by keeping your current habits?”
Amir suggests keeping a journal, answering the following questions and adding more if you can.
- “What will I gain if I ignore the task of building a big enough platform to land a publisher and/or sell a lot of books? What will I lose? (Example: I gain more time to write, and people won’t judge my blogging skills! But I lose a built-in audience once I’m done).
- How do I profit if I choose to ignore Twitter and Facebook? What do I lose? (Example: I don’t have to worry about not becoming popular enough online! But I lose the chance to see how connected I can become in the writing community.)
- How do I improve my chances of successfully selling my book by not showing up in front of audiences? What do I lose? (Example: I don’t have to deal with stage fright or red face, or suffer from my fear of public speaking! I don’t have to risk taking a hit to my self-image. I lose one of the most effective methods of connecting with my reader and selling my books and must rely on luck for the reader to find me.)”
Amir asks more questions and then states: “Think about it: Do you have a payoff for remaining an unpublished or unsuccessful author ? Or is the risk worth it?”
Certainly food for thought.
http://www.writersdigestshop.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=The+Author+Training+Manual
Nina Amir
