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3 Reasons Why Your Book Will Benefit From Professional Editing

8/26/2016

by Joanne Leake

Your manuscript isn’t perfect, but don’t feel ashamed; every writer needs an editor.

It took Ezra Pound’s editing skills to turn T.S. Eliot’s early drafts into the The Waste Land we all know and love today. We all know and love The Waste Land, right?!

A caring, careful collaboration between writer and editor can make a good book great. Why?

1. You’re too close to your book

After all the time, effort, and creative energy it took to “finish” writing your book, you’ll be spinning between moods of elation, self-doubt, delusions of grandeur, and shame. The alternating anxiety and buzz of near-completion can cause you to rush through things and make justifications for imperfections that you’d otherwise have caught and fixed.

You have high hopes, and the idea of turning back to redraft your writing now is almost sickening. But don’t let yourself be fooled by how close the finish-line appears. Now, more than ever, it’s important to get a second set of eyes on that manuscript. If you’ve spent a year or more writing the book, what’s another couple months to do it right!? Don’t be a bad parent: nurture your book to the best of your ability!

A professional book editor will be able to spot problem areas in plot, character, continuity, tone, and more.

2. You’re not always your own best marketer

An editor who knows what works and what sells in your chosen genre will be able to help you make both creative and strategic decisions that will give your book a better chance of success in the marketplace. Should you cut 3 chapters to make sure it’s less than 250 pages? Is your title going to give the wrong impression to readers? An editor will encourage you to consider factors you didn’t even know would make a difference.

They may also be able to play some role in connecting you with agents, publishers, publicists, and readers (though that is never guaranteed).

3. Spellcheck doesn’t dot all your i’s or cross all your t’s

You’d think they would—but computers don’t catch every grammatical, syntactical, or spelling issue. A trained eye can catch errors in your manuscript you’ve overlooked a hundred times. Working with a professional editor will save you the embarrassment of someone posting on your Facebook page 6 months from now saying, “Hey, you slacker—I found typos on page 78, 112, and 204!”

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Get Off Your But

8/18/2016

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Almost everyone I know, myself included, has some important project they can’t seem to get to. Maybe it’s starting a blog, writing a book, or launching a new business initiative. You just can’t seem to find the time to get it done.
Whenever I speak on the topic of growing your business, the first question I always get in the Q&A is this: “How do I make time for building an email list? I am so busy; I don’t know how I could possibly add one more thing to my schedule.”
I totally get it. My calendar is jam-packed too. But this belief—and that’s what it is, a belief—also keeps us from making the progress we’d like to see.
Here are seven steps for getting unstuck and finding time for those important projects:
1. Accept reality. You only have 168 hours a week—the same as everyone else, including presidents, captains of industry, and the homeless man you passed on the way to work. Time is finite. You can’t borrow, beg, or steal more of it.
Starting and finishing that important project is not about time management as much as it is about priority management. It’s not so much about efficiency as it is about courage.
The question is this: How important is this project compared to everything else in your life?
2. Get off your but. No, not your butt, your but—that excuse that keeps you mired in the status quo.
- “I could do it, BUT I just started a new job.”
- “I could do it, BUT I just don’t have the energy.”
- “I could do it, BUT I have small children.”
In order to move forward, you have to accept responsibility for where you are now. Your current situation is the result of choices you have made—not all bad, by the way, but yours nonetheless.
The question is this: Are you ready to make new choices? Yes or no. (It’s okay to choose No. Just be intentional.)
3. Set a clear goal. The momentum begins to shift when you chose a different destination. The way to turn a dream into a goal is to put a due date on it. This one act will often create the urgency you need to get going.
And while you are at it, make the goal S.M.A.R.T. You can read more about that, in “The Beginner’s Guide to Goal-Setting.”
The question is this: What do you want? Can you clearly articulate it? Can you see it?
4. Understand what’s at stake. That is perhaps the most important ingredient in finding the time for that important project. You have to connect why your why.
The way to overcome inertia (or keep going when you want to quit) is to understand clearly what you gain if you do your project and what you lose if you don’t.
The question is this: Why is this important to you? Write down your reasons as a series of bullets. Keep them handy—you’re going to need them.
5. Schedule time on your calendar. This is where the rubber meets the road. What gets scheduled gets done. You literally have to block out time on your calendar to focus on your project. It won’t happen otherwise.
I literally set these up as appointments with myself. If anyone else looks on my calendar, they see that I am busy—and I am busy. I have set aside this time to work on my project.
The question is this: When will you set aside time to begin? Or re-start? Or finish?
6. Keep your commitments. Too often, we sacrifice the important on the altar of the urgent. We can always do it later, right? Wrong. The key is to honor your commitment to your project as though it were an uber-important meeting with an uber-important person.
I just faced this again today. Someone wanted to book an appointment with me when I had scheduled time to work on my pet project. I said, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t meet then. I already have a commitment.” I didn’t provide any detail. My response was enough. And guess what? We found another time.
The question is this: Do you really want to get this project done or not? Are you brave enough to say No to other demands, so you can say Yes to this?
7. Make time to celebrate. Honestly, I am not very good at this. I’m better than I used to be, but nowhere near where I want to be. As a recovering Type-A personality, as soon as I check something off, I refocus on the next objective. Ultimately doesn’t serve me or the people I work with well.
It’s important not only to acknowledge what you have accomplished but thank the people who helped you. Otherwise, you wear out your team and eventually yourself. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)
Yes, it really is possible to find time for those important projects you want to accomplish. You just have to be intentional and use the right strategy.

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THERE IS A HIGH COST TO SHORTSIGHTED FRUGALITY:

8/11/2016

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When an Obsession with Paying Less Can Cost You Too Much

A vendor I use upped its prices last month. The Premium package, which is what I use, jumped from $50 a year to $70. That’s a big hike, and people were complaining like crazy. I can’t tell you how many Twitter and Facebook rants I’ve seen about this.

I won’t join the chorus. To me it represents a real-life example of shortsighted frugality.

Can we be honest for a moment? Yes, by itself the price hike looks significant. But we’re talking $20—for a year’s worth of what every user I know recognizes is a fantastic productivity app.

That’s a pizza. It’s a couple of lunches. It’s a few cups of coffee. And people are threatening to abandon a platform they love over it. I’m all for frugality, but frankly this doesn’t make sense.

Are you a Scarcity thinker or an Abundance thinker?

Researcher Carol Dweck talks about people with fixed mindsets and growth mindsets. I usually frame it in terms of scarcity and abundance.

People who approach life with a scarcity mindset are constantly trying to manage limited resources and resent when outsiders ask more of their pie.

People who approach life with an abundance mindset are constantly trying to increase their resources and use outsiders to bake bigger pies.

This difference has powerful ramifications for personal growth and professional success.

What Scarcity Costs You

There are a least three ways abundance thinkers position themselves to win when compared to scarcity thinkers.

Abundance thinkers keep their eyes on opportunities. Scarcity thinkers ask how much something will cost if they take action. Abundance thinkers count that cost, but they also ask how much it will cost if they don’t.

They frame the issue differently. Instead of factoring the expense, they also factor the opportunity.

Abundance thinkers place a high value on their time. Scarcity thinkers pinch pennies but are spendthrifts with their hours. Take the vendor price hike example.

How many hours does it take to research, switch, and learn a new platform—all to save $20? My time is worth more than a few cups of coffee. I bet yours is too.

Abundance thinkers trade small dollars for high-value time, and reinvest their hours in pursuits that will earn double, triple, or a hundred times the money.

Abundance thinkers invest in growth. Because they factor opportunity and value their time, abundance thinkers are happy to spend money on products or processes that enable them to increase their personal and professional resources.

They freely share what they know and learn from others. They buy books, take courses, and attend conferences. They outsource tasks they’re not proficient or passionate about. They upgrade their knowledge and their toolkits.

They’re not satisfied with incremental improvements when they can make leapfrog gains toward their goals. And they always have big goals because they aren’t trapped by limiting beliefs about what’s possible.

Scarcity thinking costs you all of those.

Being frugal is wise. But shortsighted frugality is foolish, keeps you stuck, and costs you far more than you bargained for.

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PURPOSE PUBLISHING AUTHOR NEWS

8/4/2016

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Powell Gardens Event with authors Robin and Julie Cook

Each summer, Powell Gardens does a "Garden Chef Series" that is a perfect pairing of the season's choice produce grown at their Heartland Harvest Garden with local chefs and cookbook authors. This year, Cook 2 Flourish Cookbook authors, Robin and Julie Cook were privileged to present a healthy, delicious cooking demonstration featuring their new cookbook recipes. To get a taste of the flavors and fun, please visit Robin's blog: cook2flourish

Click Here for Robin's Blog

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3 Reasons Why Your Book Will Benefit From Professional Editing

Get Off Your But

THERE IS A HIGH COST TO SHORTSIGHTED FRUGALITY:

PURPOSE PUBLISHING AUTHOR NEWS

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