Writing isn’t an easy job. While you’re typing away at your manuscript, your mind is balancing storyline, an important message, dialogue and more. For many authors, the technical aspects of writing are on the backburner. There’s nothing wrong with having less than precise writing in your manuscript. In fact, many authors purposefully disregard proper spelling and grammar to focus on content. Their editing process starts later, when authors send their manuscripts off to a trusted friend or use editing services to perfect their work.

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Before another pair of eyes reads through your manuscript, proofread it yourself for technical writing errors. Specifically, there are five mistakes almost every writer makes that you can fix before your book hits the editing process.

CLICHÉS
Old habits may die hard, but clichés will clutter your writing. Clichés are dog tired; readers will look over them and miss the good content underneath. Try starting your own clichés. Create fresh similes, metaphors, and idioms.

WORD REPETITION
Have you read a book and noticed the author repeated a certain word throughout it? Many authors have a crutch word they consistently use. Check for your own crutch word and use a thesaurus to diversify your manuscript’s vocabulary.

TOO MANY ADVERBS
You have probably heard to “show, not tell.” Cutting out adverbs can help you do this. Adverbs like quickly, very, and incredibly can be written out with more visual descriptions put in their place. Instead of writing “Incredibly, the runner ran very quickly,” write, “The runner was a speeding bullet. Her feet pounded the ground and propelled her forward as she sped ahead of the others.”

COMMAS
When concentrating on developing your story and perfecting your message, your commas might get misplaced. Ask yourself the following questions to make sure commas are where they need to be.

• Do you have commas inside quotation marks? For example, this is incorrect: "Hello" she replied. This is correct: "Hello," she replied.
• Do you separate modifying clauses with commas? For example, this is incorrect: Sally a very polite girl held the door open. This is correct: Sally, a very polite girl, held the door open.
• Are introductory clauses separated by a comma? For example, this is incorrect: If she wants ice cream she should ask her brother. This is correct: If she wants ice cream, she should ask her brother.
• Are you consistent with how you use commas in lists? For example, all lists could have a comma after the last word before "and," like this: I like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. All lists could also go without the comma after the last word before "and," like this: I like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. Both are correct as long as they're used consistently.

Technical grammar problems
Comma mistakes are common, but there are other grammar errors authors make when writing their manuscript. Here are a few grammar mistakes that come up frequently:

• Vague pronouns make writing easier, but can be confusing to readers. When proofreading, make sure you can attribute every pronoun to the noun it describes.
• Its/It’s, than/then are commonly confused because most word processors can’t catch them if they’re used in the wrong context. If you need a quick refresher, “Its” shows possession and “It’s” is the contracted form of “it is.” “Then” shows a progression, while “than” is used for comparisons.
• Sentence fragments and run-ons can also be hard to catch. Make sure each sentence has a subject and verb, but doesn’t use “and,” “but”, and “or” to link sentence after sentence.

If you want a professional to help you perfect your writing, contact Purpose Publishing at www.PurposePublishing.com

To your Success,
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MG.

What does 2019 have in store for authors? Last year we predicted which publishing trends would impact indie authors and how. Many of them materialized and some of them will hold true into 2018. Here is the list of the top 10 trends in publishing that will impact indie authors the most, with specific guidance on how you can best navigate them.

1) Indie authors will continue to grow eBook share

Traditional publishers will continue to price their eBooks above market and will focus on print and audio sales in 2019. They will also continue to focus on their go-to franchises and signing authors who have a built-in audience (celebrities, politicians, successful indies). Indies will continue to fill the void by publishing high-quality, affordable eBooks and writing to niche audiences (something blockbusters cannot do as they require mass appeal). 2019 is bound to be a year for books and a year for readers! Trends come and go but one thing I see coming back in a huge way is sci-fi and fantasy romance. Contemporary will always do well but I think readers are starting to get overwhelmed with the same old rom com with the similar fonts, colors, and titles. I say bring on the other genres—a great palette cleanser for 2019.” Authors continue to stay ahead of the curve by innovating on content and design, and become ever more sophisticated at book publishing, readers will continue to shift eBook market share to indies.

What this means for you: Indies have an edge over traditional publishers with both content and pricing. Indies can leverage this by experimenting with pricing and running short-term free  promotions on their titles. As an indie author you can serve readers who are thought of as “too niche” for publishers. Figure out who your audience is and how best to serve them with your writing. Be true to who you are as a writer and don’t try emulate the bestsellers that trads are putting out.

2) Marketing will become more expensive

As we predicted, 2017 saw increased costs on Facebook as more brands and authors used the platform to market their products. We anticipate this trend will continue into 2018 to the point where Facebook ads will no longer make sense for authors with single titles. Returns may still be there for authors with series or multiple titles, but the ROI will be thinner. Unfortunately this trend will not be limited to Facebook ads. Amazon Ads (AMS) will continue to gain in popularity, driving competition and increases in costs on the platform. Authors’ primary marketing challenges in 2019 will be trying to find marketing tools that are time and cost efficient. “Anyone who thinks we are heading into a period of calm after the choppy waters of 2018 is going to be disappointed,” says author and blogger Dal McChessick. “Current trends will continue, ramping up all throughout 2019. This means more involved marketing campaigns will be needed to make a dent in the charts: considerable multi-pronged efforts with PPC ads, reader sites, newsletter swaps, and social media push. I don’t think Facebook is going out of fashion at all, I think the game is changing their considerably and authors will either adapt a new approach, or start to see very poor returns.” The upshot of this is that authors will have to spend significantly more time on marketing to maintain the results they saw in 2017.  “As indie publishing becomes more competitive and requires more and more business and marketing skills, I expect to see all successful indies outsource a major part of their marketing efforts — including the planning — to professional freelancers or agencies. Those who don’t may certainly experience burnout”.

What this means for you: Authors with large catalogs are going to have an edge over authors with single or smaller catalogs as they are able to spread their marketing costs over multiple titles and will get better ROI from read-through. If you are running a successful author business, 2019 may be the year to hire a marketing assistant. If you’re early in your indie author career, focus on becoming more prolific in your writing or adding additional titles to your existing series so you can compete in the marketplace.

3) Email marketing will be tested

Email marketing has always been the most cost-effective marketing tool available to authors. The reach and response you get from email compared to the cost of sending an email is still unbeatable. 2017 saw indie authors turning to email marketing and aggressively building their lists. 2018 was the year of group giveaways and email list swapping. Indies were delighted at the performance of email and used it more aggressively. The side effect has been reader fatigue – lower open rates and lower performance. This trend will continue into 2019 as indies are stuck between rising costs on platforms like Facebook and the growing unsubscribe rates on email. One Director of Marketing shares, “To combat newsletter fatigue, authors are starting to become far more personal with their readers, simplifying newsletters to plain text, removing graphics, and refining their copy to something softer than a marketing pitch. The author’s personal empowerment will start, in part, with a more personalized email newsletter.”

What this means for you: Despite some decline in email performance, your email list is still your most valuable asset and you should treat it as such. Authors who respect reader preferences and send compelling content will continue to reap the rewards of email marketing. Experimentation will be the name of the game in 2018 as authors retool and re-think their email marketing strategies.

4) The Audiobook market will grow and be shaken up

Audiobooks were the fastest growing segment in the publishing industry last year. For traditional publishers audiobook sales mitigated declines in eBook sales, and trad publishers are bullish on audiobooks going into 2018. Audible (owned by Amazon) still has the lion’s share of the audiobook marketing but others are trying to make inroads. 2019 may well be the year when we see new and existing players disrupt the established order.  “Digital audiobooks will remain the fastest growth area in publishing with sales increasing 30% to 40% or more. The dynamics—ease of access for consumers, lifestyle habits, increased market competition, new selling models—have all synced up to create significant staying power. It should surprise nobody when the market size of audiobooks surpasses eBooks in a few years. In 2019, we expect to see independent authors empowered to capitalize on this explosive growth. Indies will take advantage of wide distribution (domestic, international, and public library), realize the advantages at key retailers of setting prices to meet consumer demand, and benefit from more discovery tools created to connect authors with their audiences outside traditional audiobook credit models.”

What this means for you: Producing an audiobook runs into the thousands of dollars or requires giving up significant royalties and is still a significant investment for authors. New authors who find the price tag too steep are best off focusing on building their catalog of eBooks first. Authors who are looking to invest in their publishing business should definitely have audiobook expansion on their list for 2018. All authors should keep an eye on the market and look to support audiobook retailers and production companies that are author friendly.

5) Amazon’s will continue to be less generous

In February of 2017 Amazon made changes to its affiliate program that in effect dropped the payouts that affiliates were receiving. On January 1st of this year Amazon decreased the affiliate commissions on Amazon devices. We anticipate this trend will continue in 2018 because once Amazon has the majority of American households as customers there will be less incentive to pay affiliates to drive customers to Amazon. In the publishing world the impact of a less generous affiliate program is felt most acutely by book bloggers and deal (promo) sites that are running either solely on affiliate income or using affiliate income to significantly supplement their business. Amazon will also continue to be aggressive in enforcing its affiliate policies, banning or dropping deal sites it deems to be in violation of its terms. These two trends will couple to remove book bloggers and deal sites from the eco-system.

What this means for you: If you have relationships with book bloggers who actively review and promote your book free of charge, 2019 would be a good year to donate to their blog or purchase some paid ad slots to ensure they stay in business. Expect to see price increases on some deal sites as they try to supplement the affiliate income they have lost.

6) More Indie authors will achieve success

Every year they conduct an author’s survey to identify what high-earning authors are doing to achieve success. In 2017 the number of authors who reported making over $100,000 from writing grew by 70% over 2016. The percentage of authors making between $5,000 and $10,000 per month doubled year over year. Indies who persevere and continue putting out books slowly increase their earnings over time. Is it easy? No. Will it take time? Yes. But there are plenty indie authors who are making money. They will continue to grow their businesses in 2017 and a new batch of high-earning authors will join their ranks.
 
What this means for you: Successful indie authors see themselves as entrepreneurs who are running a business. And they are. Their product is their books. Successful authors are those that focus on their business and manage the ups and downs. In 2018 be honest with yourself. What are your goals? Are you writing to pursue a passion? Are you writing to supplement your income? Are you building or growing a business? Then align your efforts with your goals to achieve what success means for you.

7) Readers will continue to buy and read books

In 2018 people will continue to purchase eBooks. Mark Coker noted in a 2017 review that “one of the big takeaways from this year’s Smashwords Survey was that we found our bestselling authors were able to increase prices without undermining unit sales. $4.99 has joined $2.99 and $3.99 as pricing sweet spots. This tells me that authors who build devoted followings have pricing power. Reports show that yes, eBook sales are declining for traditional publishers, but that does not necessarily hold true for eBooks published by small presses and indie authors.
 
What this means for you: There will be plenty of stories in 2018 about the demise of reading, screen fatigue and increasing competition for reader’s time. As an author, you are best off ignoring the pundits to focus on your writing instead. There are readers out there who will pay for your work and your job is to find them, connect with them and write for them.

Publishing Trends Summary

There you have it, the 2018 publishing trends we predict will shape publishing in the coming year. We recommend reading each point but if you’ve skimmed down to the end for the summary it reads like this: Indie authors will continue to steal eBook share away from traditional publishers as readers continue to purchase books that are competitively priced and that cater to their specific genre tastes. Audiobooks will continue to be a bright spot for the publishing industry at large. Amazon will continue to be the thousand pound gorilla with more authors flocking to Kindle Unlimited despite other retailers trying to compete. Amazon will not be without its challenges as it continues to battle scammers and faces backlash from affiliates as Amazon diminishes its payouts. Marketing will be the primary challenge for everyone in 2019 as costs on platforms like Facebook and Amazon Ads continue to climb. Indies with large backlists who focus on multi-pronged marketing campaigns will be the winners. Indies will experiment with new ways to connect directly with readers though success in these areas will likely take multiple iterations and time.

If you decide to go Audiobook, need a marketing assistant or just need help deciding what and how to do your book business; contact us at www.PurposePublishing.com
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To Your Success,
MG

Performances on radio talk or news shows can be a great way to supplement your book promotion activities. With radio as part of your communication plan, you can reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of people at little or no cost. You can even sell some books, if you do it right.

Most radio shows are conducted over the telephone, from any place in which there is a good connection, no background noise and where you can talk uninterrupted for the length of the show. Here are several guidelines to make telephone interviews more effective:

Know the Time: As you agree upon the time and date with the producer, confirm your time zone. The producer may say he or she will call you at 3:00, but is that 3:00 p.m. in your time zone?
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Use a Land Line: Don't use cell phones. This is also not the time to impress your friends by having them listen in while you give your interview over speaker phone. These two methods can mess with the sound quality or provide static or feedback.

Be Prepared: Have a specific area set aside for telephone interviews, one in which you can keep your notes, books, and pad of paper handy. Unplug nearby phones if they are on a different line. Nobody will say, “You’re on the air,” so always assume the microphone is hot (live).

Play Along: Your host may want to give the audience the impression that you are in the studio. He or she may say, “Here with us today is Brian Jud, author of the media-training video program You’re on The Air.” Take the hint and do not make comments such as, “How’s the weather out there?”

Listen In: While you are on hold, either before you begin the interview or during a break, you will hear the station’s regular programming. Listen for key points to which you can refer later. On long shows, the host may talk to you during the break to plan what you will discuss during the next segment.

Use a Headset: This one is based on your personal preference, but sometimes it's nice to conduct an interview hands free. If you have a speakerphone, engage it during the breaks only to give your ears a break.

Heed Breaks: Before a long show starts, ask when breaks will occur and how long each will be. Listen for the show’s theme music, which will usually start at low volume and increase as it leads to the break. Close your answer as the music begins.

Hydrate: Keep water nearby and drink it generously, but only during breaks so the sound of your swallowing is not heard on the air (and if the water goes down the wrong pipe, your coughing will not interfere with your interview).

Don't Read from a Script: You may have sent the producer a list of questions in advance. If so, keep the list in front of you, but don’t read lengthy answers. Write a word or two that will prompt you to reply.

Keep Track: After two or three shows in one day, you may begin to wonder if you are repeating yourself. Make notes as you speak to remind yourself of what you said earlier.

Remember Names: Write the host’s name phonetically at the top of your note pad and use it during the show. Do the same with people who call in to ask you a question during the show.

Mind Your Body Language: Sit in a comfortable, quiet chair. If you gesture frequently, try standing as you speak. Keep your head high to open your breathing passages; relax your jaw muscles and you will speak more clearly.

Give Yourself Time: Do not schedule telephone interviews too closely together. Invariably, one will be delayed due to an unpredictable event, perhaps impinging on the time allocated to another show.

Be Polite: Rarely will you get bumped (canceled on short notice), but it can happen. If so, be polite and reschedule your show for another time.

Spell It Out: At the end of the show, you will get the chance to tell the listeners where they can find your book. Spell any words that may be confusing (For example: “My email address is michellegines60gmail.com. There is two ‘l’s’ in Michelle.”)

If you are thorough in your preparation, you are more likely to have a great show. The interview will be conducted between two professionals, both trying to create an interesting, informative and entertaining conversation to meet your respective objectives. When this occurs, you will be asked back to repeat your performance. And you may even sell some books.
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For more tips and tools, check back with Purpose Publishing at www.PurposePublishing.com

To Your Success,
MG

THEY ALSO JUDGE BOOKS BY THE BACK COVER

​You know that saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”? As a metaphor, that saying is fantastic. But when talking about literal books, a cover is exactly what a book is judged by. You’ve probably done this before: A book’s title or cover looks interesting, so you flip it around and read the back cover to see what it’s about. In the short amount of time it takes you to scan the summary, you’ve usually decided whether you’ll be buying that book or not.

In other words, the cover—especially the back cover—is hugely important in hooking the casual book buyer. The good news is, a good back book cover isn’t that hard to pull off. Here are five quick ways to create a back cover that will pull people in.

CREATE TENSION
The more we understand the human brain, the clearer it becomes that people learn through the unexpected. If someone already thinks they know everything they need to, they are less curious and less likely to buy your book. The job of the back cover is to help them realize they don’t know everything they need to know.

People probably won’t buy a book that says it’s all about sanctification, but they might buy a book that says something like the following: “For many of us, we are trying to live the ‘good Christian life,’ and yet find ourselves worn out, discouraged and more empty than how we started. Why is this? What are we missing?”

To sell a book about the biblical concept of covenant, you could say, “We live in a world that is fascinated with ‘happily ever after,’ but only experiences a commitment that seems to dissolve the moment we need it most. We are a culture both fascinated by and disillusioned with love…but what if there was a better way?”

The point is this: Create a compelling tension, and people will want to read your book to see how you resolve it.

HINT AT THE ANSWER
Many readers, though, will need at least a hint of where you’re taking them. After casting your compelling tension, give a bullet point of three to five ways your book will address this tension (more than five is too many, and marketing shows odd numbers work better). So let’s say you’re writing the sanctification book. After casting your tension, the next paragraph could say something like this:

“Author and pastor Josh Pease suggests the emptiness we feel in our Christian faith stems from a misunderstanding of what God expects from us in the first place. In this encouraging new book, he suggests that our dissatisfaction stems from:

replacing “struggling” with “surrendering”
believing we need to earn God’s approval
allowing religious pride to rule over humility
…you get the idea. The point is to help people have a sense of what they’re getting into before they give your book a few hours of their life.

KEEP IT SHORT
In honor of this point, I’ll be brief: You have 150-200 words to rope people in. Any more and your back cover will be a wall of text people won’t want to read. Keep it short and simple.

INCLUDE YOURSELF
Research has shown that more people will buy a book if the author’s picture and bio are included on the back. The reason for this is a book—especially one that is instructing people in their spiritual journey—is a vulnerable choice. People aren’t buying words, they’re buying you as someone they trust to speak into their life. So help them feel like they know you a little. Include a professional looking picture, fairly close up to your face, along with a short bio of why you’re someone they can trust.

ADD ENDORSEMENTS IF YOU HAVE THEM
Endorsements don’t always have to come from famous (or church famous) people, although that definitely doesn’t hurt. If you have pastor friends of larger churches, seminary professors or anyone else who could be seen as a marginal spiritual authority figure, don’t hesitate to ask them to read your book in advance and write a brief (one to two sentences, tops) blurb. It’s like reviews on Amazon products:

Even if you don’t know the people giving the review, it makes you feel better to know someone else enjoyed this product you haven’t seen yet.

All these things add up to a compelling, personal back cover that will tell people your book is worth their time.
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To Your Success,
MG

The past few weeks I’ve been stuck on preparing for the New Year and decluttering your space, but I thought I ought to mention your work space also. This is where most of us spend most of our time, at work, whether our home office or share office work space with your co-workers, your work station is in essence, your very own “personal headquarters”. The HQ has to be right to keep your work tight and clients happy.

It’s here that you’ll get creative with ideas for that next ‘big’ meeting, pump out those detailed stock reports, or come up with a PowerPoint presentation that will knock the socks off your boss. But that’s a little difficult to do underneath piles of paperwork, or between hordes of files, and whatever else is brooding around your working space.

In order to maximize your office work space, get creative, keep productive, and feel motivated, you need a clear, uncluttered, and organized work space.

In a nutshell: you need to simplify.

How do you do this?

Here are 6 Quick ways to start simplifying your office work space today:

1. Throw out any useless papers, notes or ‘stuff’ around or on top of your desk.
2. Put away files that aren’t being used every day.
3. Keep your desktop folders organized. Set up and name folders on your desktop for each new project that you’re working on.
4. Go as paperless as possible. We live in a world today where most things are electronic. If you don’t need to print something out – don’t.  Rather save it on your computer under a desktop folder for easy access.
5. Clear the desk daily. Get into the habit of clearing your desk at the end of each day. It will make the idea of coming in to work the next morning a pleasure.
6. Plan each day. Instead of jumping into whatever tasks need to be done and feeling disorganized, take five minutes at the start of each day and plan the things that need to be done, and then the things that can be done if there’s time. Allow flexibility, and don’t plan too much so that you feel as though you’ve let yourself down if you don’t get to all of them.

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It’s easy to simplify your working space so that it’s set up to maximize productivity, inspiration, and creativity.
 
To Your Success,
MG

A Merry Christmas to all our clients, friends and team. We wish all of you and your families the best. Thank you for being a blessing to us and the work we do here at Purpose Publishing. You make all the difference in our business and our lives. So, we take this moment to thank you and appreciate you for your work, trust, care, patience and support. We look forward to a Healthy, Wealthy and Wise 2019.
With the New Year, we are making changes (for the better) to serve you and your publishing needs. So, make a few notes as we transition into 2019! First, we’d like to recognize the recent promotion and additions to the Purpose Publishing team.

God Bless you all,

MG

PURPOSE PUBLISHING TEAM EXPANSION
Zerryn A. Gines, has been promoted to National Administrator. Zerryn will report directly to CEO, Michelle Gines, and will assume the role of managing the process for onboarding clients to completion of their book projects.

LaToya Humes, has joined the team as our Customer Experience Administrator reporting to Zerryn Gines. LaToya will assume the role of managing our customer service and administrative staff/services. 

Justin Greene has joined our team working as our Customer Experience Assistant reporting to LaToya Humes. Justin started with us this summer as an intern and has stayed on after returning to school and has been a great addition to our team. 

NEW OFFICE HOURS / PHONE / CONTACT INFO
Purpose Publishing will be open Monday-Friday from 9am-4pm.

Administrative offices will be closed on Saturdays/Sundays.

Office line: 816-866-7742 is available 24/7

Email: Contactus@purposepublishing.com is available 24/7

All requests sent via email will be returned within 24-48 hours or the next business day if contacted on Saturday/Sunday.

TEXT MESSAGE SERVICE ‘NO LONGER AVAILABLE’
Beginning January 1, 2019 all business will be conducted via email and via phone call. All inquiries, requests or orders must be sent via email or by phone to the 816-866-7742. ‘Text message’ services will be no longer available. All texts will receive an auto responder message with the email and phone number for your convenience and reminder.

Over these last three weeks, I’ve been decluttering our home; top to bottom. I’m thinking of a minimalist approach to a simpler life and time in the year ahead. I have had many recently ask me about this process that I do every year in December ready for what the coming year will bring. So, I wanted to take this opportunity to help others maybe realize their own decluttering goals as well. Here’s a little insight about clearing clutter. I have gained an understanding with these few key principles that can help anyone clear their clutter and embrace clarity.

The 9 Easy Peasy Decluttering Principles:

1. Stop the Flow of Stuff Coming In. Decluttering is a waste of time if you simply replace the old stuff with new. You’ll need to begin by slowing the flow of things entering your home. Determine today to buy less. Trust me, you won’t regret it. The freedom from desire to acquire is a beautiful thing.

2. Declutter at Least One Item a Day. Decluttering does not have to be a mad frenzy that disrupts your entire household. Over the years, my home has become quite minimalist by simply choosing one item a day to declutter. This gradual process began to change the way I think about stuff. Eventually, it became a way of life rather than just a crash diet of stuff.

3. Declutter the Easy Stuff First. There is no need to make things difficult by trying to declutter the hardest things first. Most likely, it will simply deter you from the task altogether. Instead, start with the easy stuff and then as you strengthen your will to reduce, the harder decisions will become easier.

4. Put a Disposal Plan in Place. Before you begin, investigate selling, recycling, donating and give away options for the items you choose to declutter. The more prepared you are for the task, the simpler it will be… and the more likely you will be to follow through. Ebay, Freecycle, and our local thrift store became my favorite disposal options. However there are endless others to explore.

5. Decide to Not Keep Things out of Guilt or Obligation. Your home should only contain the things you love or use. Don’t let incorrect thinking or other people dictate what you should keep or give away. Remember, if the items are yours, it is your choice to decide what to do with them.

6. Do Not Be Afraid to Let Go. The urge to hold on to items you think you might need someday can be eliminated simply by being realistic about what need really is. Many items in our homes may be useful, but they are not particularly necessary to our happiness, well-being, or the functionality of our homes. Seek to understand the difference.

7. Gifts do not have to be Material. There are so many ways to honor loved ones without giving gifts that end up as clutter. Encourage people to follow this concept when buying gifts for you. Some alternative gifts are gifts of experience or adventure, a gift of time spent together, even cash gifts are appropriate in some instances. I have two clutter-free gift guides at my blog if you are looking for ideas.

8. Do Not Declutter Things that are not Yours without the Owner’s Permission. Everyone should have a choice about their own belongings, even small children. Honor them by allowing them to choose. You can encourage hoarding tendencies in others by ripping things away from them before they are ready to let go. My husband appreciates this!

9. Do Not Waste Your Life on Clutter. Every item you own takes time out of your life: time to manage it, clean it, repair it, and maintain it; time to choose between objects of a similar category; time spent shopping for it… and that doesn’t even mention the time spent earning the money to pay for it in the first space. Decide to sacrifice less of your precious life on the pursuit and ownership of stuff.
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I love taking the time to go through old things, see what I should keep and what I should toss out. It’s an easy way to gain a sense of accomplishment and renewal at the same time. I’ve found that white space in my life is good because I get so busy. But I’ve come to value the ‘less is more’ adage especially when it relates to my creativity and clarity. When I’m clear, creativity flows immensely. So, declutter and get clear.
Enjoy this post? Then, send me an email. Do you declutter at specific times of the year? How does it make you feel? Tell me.

To Your Success & ‘Clutter Free’ spaces,
MG

Soon there will be no shortage of ideas and articles about goal setting and getting the most out of the upcoming year. While certainly helpful, those of us in business marketing ourselves and our talent, when we are our brand, we need a different set of ideas.
 
When your business is personal, and you’re putting yourself on the line day after day, being an entrepreneur is as much a course in personal development as anything else. Personal growth on steroids I might add! So it only makes sense then the tactics one needs to set out to accomplish big things in a New Year need to be different. It’s an internal development approach as well as a practical outside one.
 
Below are the seven keys I know of to accomplish great things in the New Year whether your book, your business or your life!
 
1. What Will Be Your Theme For 2019?
Choose an over-arching theme for your year. It’s not a goal. It’s a theme aligned with your natural growth and your place in life at this time. You listen and sense your theme more than create it. By listening for your theme to emerge you are working in flow with what makes sense for you and not against it by pushing towards a goal you set. I find this to be the foundation for the year ahead.
 
2. Set Big Dreams, Create Small Wins
Often, we’re capable of more than we imagine or even give ourselves credit. At the same time, we set short-term goals that are unrealistic. This sets us up for failure. Success DOES breed success. And to keep you going, you need successes and accomplishments for fuel. So create some goals you KNOW you’ll accomplish on a regular basis — monthly, weekly, even daily. Feel successful. At the same time, set your long term goals beyond your wildest dreams. Without any limiting thoughts. And be ready — you just might get it.
 
3. Be Clear On Your Direction
Being busy authors and entrepreneurs, we often chase a lot of squirrels! Creatively speaking that can be a good thing. It opens up more creativity, more possibilities, and maybe more fun! It can also create a diverse business model with multiple streams of income. But it must all point somewhere. To a direction. To your purpose and what you want to stand for in this world. So you can consider many possibilities but you must be clear on your direction to organize your efforts and keep you on track.
  
4. Make Room
You can’t expect what you want in life to come in if you don’t make space for it. Make space by good use of time management. Eliminate, automate and delegate everything you can. Strive to have time on your hands and the time will be filled with more meaningful things. Make space in your life for creativity, growth and self-care. This will increase your capacity to give more of yourself. You have to be ready and make space for success and abundance to arrive.
 
5. Big To Small Goals
Start with big goals and trickle down to small goals. Begin with the lofty goals for the year. Then divide the year by season and then by month. Finally, decide which specific tasks need to be done on a weekly and daily basis to accomplish that month’s goals. I suggest, unless it’s absolutely time critical, that you focus more on the monthly and weekly goals rather than daily. It provides more flexibility and less criticism of tasks not completed. By approaching your goals from big to small, you are taking small steps, every week, towards your big dreams.
 
6. Posture Yourself to Receive
Everyone always thinks they are more than prepared to receive abundance and success. If that’s the case, then why do so many people fall apart when good fortune lands in their lap? It’s because they haven’t prepared to receive. They haven’t considered the sense of responsibility and fear that come with “having it all.” Ever notice how often something goes wrong just when it seemed everything was going right? Or parts of your life are going incredibly well but not other parts? All because you’ve reached the limits of your comfort zone of receiving. So prepare for these emotions. Starting now, savor the good moments. Train the “what if” thoughts to stay away. And be very self-aware of any self-sabotage keeping you in your “enough” comfort zone instead of fully receiving beyond your imagination.
 
7. Own Your Awesomeness
Without a doubt, this is the most important thing you can do to have the life and business of your dreams. Own who you are — your awesomeness. This is not just feel-good advice. In business, this is practical and essential to skyrocketing your success. When you are your brand, and you’re marketing yourself, the more you own who you are, the tighter your branding will be. With a clearer message, more of the right clients show up and the more success you will see. It’s almost as simple as that. Owning who you are requires bravery, authenticity, and transparency. But it’s so very worth it! You are awesome. Own it!
 
To Your Success in the Year to Come,
MG

If you’ve always dreamed of being the next Hemingway or Vonnegut (or even Grisham), or perhaps if you just want to write better essays for school or posts for your blog … you need to sharpen those writing skills.

1. Use powerful sentences. Aim for shorter sentences with strong verbs. Of course, not every sentence should be the same — you need variation — but try to create sentences with oomph. You might find this easier to do in the revision stage, as it might not be something you’re thinking about when you’re pumping out that first draft.

2. Get feedback. You can’t get better in a vacuum. Get someone to read over your stuff — preferably a good writer or editor. Someone who reads a lot, and can give you honest and intelligent feedback. And then listen. Really try to understand the criticism and accept it and use it to improve. Instead of being hurt, thank your editor for helping you get better.

3. Put yourself out there. At some point, you’ll need to let others read your writing. Not just the person who you’re allowing to read it, but the general public. You’ll need to publish your book or short story or poem, or write for a publication. If you’re already doing a blog, that’s good, but if no one reads it, then you need to find a bigger blog and try to submit a guest post. Putting your writing out in the public can be nerve-wracking, but it is a crucial (if painful) part of every writer’s growth. Just do it.

4. Learn to be conversational. Many people write too stiffly. I find that it’s so much better to write like you talk (without all the umms and uhhs). People relate to it better. It’s not an easy task at first, but it’s something to strive for. And that brings up another point — it’s better to break the rules of grammar in order to sound conversational (as I did in the last sentence) than to sound stilted just so you can follow the proper rules. But don’t break the rules of grammar without good reason — know that you’re doing it, and why.
​
5. Start and end strong. The most important parts of your writing are the beginning and end. Especially the beginning. If you don’t hook your reader in the beginning, they won’t read the rest of your writing. So when you’ve written your first draft, spend some extra time crafting a good beginning. Get them interested and wanting to know more. And when you’re done with that, write a good ending … that will leave them wanting more of your writing.

“The more product you have on the market, the greater the chance that readers will find you. It's the simplest way to market your work and the one most suited to writers.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Discoverability
Writing a series, or books aimed at a similar audience is one of the smartest things you can do to market your books.

This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
1.      Repeat customers are much easier to reach than new customersA survey carried out by International Thriller Writers (ITW) found that readers tended to search for books by a specific author that they knew when they wanted to buy a new book.
It also takes between three and four books for a reader to remember the name of an author and become a fan, so if you have a series (and even a three-book boxset), you are more likely to be remembered next time. As anecdotal evidence, I pre-order books from a few of my favorite authors because I'm a fan of a particular series.
The rise of binge consumption on Netflix and online streaming means that people want longer entertainment experiences. Some readers will not even commit to a new series unless there are multiple books available so they can immerse themselves.
2.      Series make more money for authorsMark Coker reported in the Smashwords 2016 Survey that “when we compared the average sales of the top 1,000 bestselling series books against the sales of the top 1,000 stand-alones, the series books had 195% higher earnings and their median earnings increase was an impressive 127%. Readers love series!”
3.      It's faster to write books in a seriesFor fiction, you know the characters and the world, so you just need a new plot. For non-fiction, you know your target market, and what they need, so you can write more books to suit them.
You can use branded covers to create a look and feel for your series. This can also make book cover design more cost effective, as the title and images need changing for each book, but the overall design will stay the same.
 
All the online stores use Series fields to link books together in a series. This means if a reader buys one in the series, they will likely get recommendations for the other books in the series.
Series can be used for non-fiction, too. Just link books for a similar audience together using the series field. For example, this book is part of my series Books for Writers.

When a new book in the series comes out, you can do price promotions on the first book in the series, or make it perma-free in order to drive traffic every day. You can also use a pre-order to get early sales for the book.

If you’ve got a series, let us help you. Contact us at www.PurposePublishing.com

Since we rarely see errors in our own writing, it’s important to solicit the help of professional editors. But there are things we can do to improve the manuscript BEFORE sending it to an editor.
Grammerly is one of those useful tools that can sort out the basic errors, enabling you to improve your writing and learn as you go. It can also help with emails and online writing, where paying a pro editor isn't cost effective.

Why consider a tool like Grammarly?
As indie authors, we are 100% responsible for producing books that are not only readable and entertaining/informative but also ones that are mistake-free. When readers are distracted by misspellings and grammatical errors their reading experience is going to suffer. And that means your reputation as an author is going to suffer as well.

The Kindle also has a function for readers to report typos and if you get too many of these in a book, you're going to get a quality notification.

For this reason, we always want to use professional editors and proofreaders when we're publishing our books. Nothing can replace the editing and proofreading of a human being, especially one who specializes in your genre.

However, the messier a manuscript is when you send it to a professional for proofreading or editing, the more it's going to cost you to improve and fix.

Grammarly is an automated proofreader, and a grammar and plagiarism checker.
It scans your text and makes suggestions about where changes should or could be made. It even monitors word usage and will comment on sentence length (watching for those pesky run-on sentences that happen when we're writing fast). You can either use it in your web browser or install the Microsoft Office add-on. And you can even tell Grammarly whether you're writing in US or UK English so it will know how to support you.

As with most apps and plug-ins these days, there a free version and a paid one. With the free version, you can log-in and paste your text into a Grammarly document, wait a few seconds, and then see the feedback it's giving you about the possible mistakes in your text. When I ran this article through Grammarly's editor, even though Scrivener had already corrected my spelling in a few instances, Grammarly found several punctuation mistakes I hadn't caught, as well as a case where I'd typed ‘with' instead of ‘will'. Impressive!

Here are six ways Grammarly can improve your writing.

(1) You can learn from it and make fewer mistakes next time
Obviously, Grammarly is a tool for checking your grammar, spelling, and punctuation, something that both Word and Scrivener already do. One difference with Grammarly is that it will tell you why it's making the suggestion. This enables the writer to make an informed decision and perhaps even learn a bit along the way. As well, there is a free, online handbook about English, sorted by topics like style and mechanics, where you'll find articles about everything from how to use an apostrophe to the correct form of abbreviations.

(2) Discover your writer tic, or the words you use too often
All writers are guilty of using the same word too frequently.
And yet, as the author of the book or story, we're often so close to the manuscript, and we've read it so many times, that we can't see this. Grammarly will alert you to this type of problem. It will also allow you to see definitions of words and suggest synonyms if you want to change the word you're using.
In this way, it's like a thesaurus combined with a spelling and grammar checker.

(3) Learn to break up your sentences
“Bestsellers are about shorter, cleaner sentences, without unneeded words.” The Bestseller Code, Jodie Archer & Matthew L. Jockers
Data analysis of bestselling books indicates that shorter sentences characterize bestsellers, but we all know how hard that can be to do in practice.
Grammarly will comment on sentence length when it detects long or run-on sentences. This is another great feature for when we've read a manuscript so many times we can't see it any longer. Grammarly can act like a second pair of eyes, pointing out problems we wouldn't see otherwise.

(4) Take your manuscript one step closer to perfection
We all know how valuable our editors and proofreaders are. As I mentioned in the intro to this article, nothing can replace the skill and human touch of a professional editor/proofreader. However, if with Grammarly's help you've made your manuscript as clean (i.e., error-free) as possible, your editor is going to have an easier time catching every remaining correction. In a way, Grammarly can support your editor to take the manuscript even closer to perfection.

(5) Plagiarism checker
If you're a non-fiction writer, you'll love this next feature.
You can click a button and Grammarly will compare your text to over 8 billion web pages, checking for duplication. This is an amazing feature to prevent a potentially embarrassing mistake if you've accidentally copied text from an article on the web to refer to in your own writing, but have forgotten to include a citation.

Even if you're writing fiction, it's possible to add research material into a manuscript with the intention of putting it into your own words, and then forgetting. Grammarly will prevent any such accidentally oversights from happening.

(6) Use it for social media and email as well as your manuscript
Grammarly also provides a free plug-in for Chrome or Safari (although not for Scrivener, sadly). The plug-in will monitor your posts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, ensuring you don't make any spelling and grammar mistakes. This can take the worry out of presenting a polished image to your readers and fans even when you're rushing to send out a quick Tweet.
​
So if you're feeling a little under-confident in your grammar, check out Grammarly here for your next piece of writing.

So today, here are some of my tips on productivity for writers and a resource I think at least some of you will find useful.
 
(1) Schedule your timeWe all have 24 hours in the day, and we all have to balance the real life stuff with the writing. Before I was a full-time author-entrepreneur, I would get up at 5am and write, then go to work. After the day job, I would come home and get on with building my online business. We got rid of the TV so I would have more time to create, and I spent every weekend working. I was so focused on leaving my job that I cut out everything that got in the way. I was driven to schedule my time incredibly well in order to fit everything in.
 
Now, as a full-time publisher and community relations manager, I still have to schedule everything. I blog, podcast and speak professionally, as well as writing books. It’s still hard to get everything done, let me assure you!
 
So I’ll admit to being a chronic scheduler! But seriously, it is the only way I get anything done. 
I use Google Calendar schedule my time. It doesn't matter whether you use an old school paper system or the latest app, but you have to schedule your writing time! I write down blocks of time for writing, speaking prep and delivery, for podcasts, recording audio and other phone meetings.
I block out time for writing, speaking engagements, for podcasts, recording audio and other phone meetings.
 
(I never answer the phone unless a meeting is scheduled!)
 
Of course, I have slots for personal time with my husband or family trips, medical stuff, friends and ‘real life,’ and of course, sometimes I get things wrong. But overall, I rely on this kind of scheduling to get everything done.
 
After all, you schedule time for your kids' play dates, meetings at work, and your yoga class – so why not schedule your writing time? How important is it to you?
 
(2) Reward yourselfThose of you with children may have used behavior charts, where they get a star or a sticker every time something good is achieved. Rewards for good behavior can actually work really well!
 
Well, that’s what I do for myself these days!
I have a wall calendar on which I write my word count or pages edited every day and I get a sticker if I go over 2000 words. It’s just a paper calendar – nothing fancy – but seriously, it works!
 
 
  (3) Become accountable
This blog has kept me accountable since I started writing it in Dec 2015. Every year, I have posted my goals and what I’ve achieved.

Then I have an accountability partner who has a completely separate kind of business, and we challenge each other on content like the blog, as well as overall financial goals. We even have a competition now, where the loser has to pay for a spa day – now that’s motivating!
I also have a coach who I have calls with several times a year, when I want to take things to another level.
 
Time goes by so fast that if you don’t schedule these kind of check-points into your life, you won’t achieve anything.
 (4) Set deadlinesIf you sign a traditional publishing deal, you will have a timeline for your drafts, revisions and then for publication. You know what you have to do by when.
If you are going the indie route, you need to set these for yourself.

When I wrote my first book, I set a deadline for my birthday. I wanted to hold my book in my hand on a specific date. I made it by a month later, but having that date in mind helped a LOT for getting things done.
Since then, I have speeded up the process somewhat, but I still set rough deadlines. On my wall I have one page A4 that has the priorities for each month roughly planned out.
For example, one particular month has:

• Publish Give Your Intentions some Attention in ebook and print
• Finish first draft and edit Writer’s Boot camp. Send JVP documents to cities by end of Dec
• Finalize workshop road show & map.
• Start pre-production on Strive 2019 with authors.

If I haven’t done all these by the end of the month, then I am behind on my deadlines for each project. 
(5) Spend more hours in the chairWe all know what we have to do. It’s simple but it’s not easy. Like diet and exercise.
More hours in the chair actually spent WRITING will produce more words on the page.Dean Wesley Smith is one of the most prolific writers out there, but he points out that he doesn’t do anything spectacular in terms of word count per hour. What he does is spend more hours in the chair, and he does it every day.
 
This relates to point 1 – you need to schedule the time, and then you actually need to get it done. Get black on white.
 
I like to write in cafes and if you find a quiet one, they are usually happy to let you sit as long as you buy a coffee every hour. I put on my BOSE noise-cancelling headphones – which are amazing! – and play Rain & Thunderstorms on repeat. Then I write and I don't get up until my allotted time for writing is complete.

BONUS (6) Decide what you really want.Perhaps this is the most important thing.
At the end of the day, we all have 24 hours in the day. We all have people we love, that we want to spend time with. We all need to pay the bills. We all need to eat and exercise, and clean and do chores and see friends … and … and …
 
But you get what you focus on in life.If you really want to write that book, you will make the time.
If you want to prove that you can finish a manuscript, you will make the time.
If you want to be a full-time author and make a living with your writing, you will have to make the time.

If you’ve always dreamed of being the next Hemingway or Vonnegut (or even Grisham), or perhaps if you just want to write better essays for school or posts for your blog … you need to sharpen those writing skills.

Becoming the best writer you can be isn’t easy, I won’t lie to you.
​
It takes hard work. But it’s worth the effort. And if it seems like an insurmountable task, there are some concrete things you can do today that will get you on the road to improvement.
Personally, I’ve been a fiction, newspaper, magazine and blog writer for 17 years now, writing for a variety of publications … and I’m still trying to improve. Every writer can get better, and no writer is perfect. I think I’ve grown tremendously as a writer over the last couple of decades, but it has been a painful journey. Let me share some of what I’ve learned.
No matter what level of writer you are, there should be a suggestion or twelve here that will help.

1. Read great writers. This may sound obvious, but it has to be said. This is the place to start. If you don’t read great writing, you won’t know how to do it. Everyone starts by learning from the masters, by emulating them, and then through them, you find your own voice. Read a lot. As much as possible. Pay close attention to style and mechanics in addition to content.

2. Write a lot. Try to write every day, or multiple times a day if possible. The more you write, the better you’ll get. Writing is a skill, and like any other skill, you have to practice it to get better. Write stuff for yourself, write for a blog, write for other publications. Write just to write, and have a blast doing it. It gets easier after awhile if you practice a lot.

3. Create a writing ritual. Find a certain time of day when you can write without interruptions, and make it a routine. For me, mornings work best, but others might find lunch or evenings or midnight hours the best. Whatever works for you, make it a must-do thing every single day. Write for at least 30 minutes, but an hour is even better. If you’re a full-time writer, you’ll need to write for several hours a day, as I do. But don’t worry! It helps you get better.

4. Just write. If you’ve got blank paper or a blank screen staring at you, it can be intimidating. You might be tempted to go check your email or get a snack. Well, don’t even think about it, mister. Just start writing. Start typing away — it doesn’t matter what you write — and get the fingers moving. Once you get going, you get in the flow of things, and it gets easier. I like to start out by typing things like my name or a headline or something easy like that, and then the juices start flowing and stuff just pours out of me. But the key is to just get going.

5. Eliminate distractions. Writing does not work well with multi-tasking or background noise. It’s best done in quiet, or with some mellow music playing. Turn off email or IM notifications, turn off the phone and your cell phone, turn off the TV, and clear off your desk … you can stuff everything in a drawer for now until you have time to sort everything out later … but don’t get into sorting mode now, because it’s writing time! Clear away distractions so you can work without interruption.

6. Experiment. Just because you want to emulate the great writers doesn’t mean you have to be exactly like them. Try out new things. Steal bits from other people. Experiment with your style, your voice, your mechanics, your themes. Try out new words. Invent new words. Experimentalize everything. And see what works, and toss out what doesn’t.

7. Be concise. This is best done during the revision process, but you need to edit every sentence and paragraph and remove everything but the essential. A short sentence is preferred over a longer one, and a clear word is preferred over two in jargonese. Compact is powerful.

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire

Its that time of the year when I start preparing for the year ahead. I ask myself a few questions like: 'What did I do this year? How did the year turn out? Successes/ Failures? What do I want to do in the coming year?' I ask myself, answer truthfully, and look at the results. This is what helps me determine how to spend my time, my focus and my energy,  going forward. So, as I examined my year end results so far. We did some good things. But for 2019, we are going for great!! I see good people go from good to great all the time.  It’s not magic.  It’s passion, purpose, and more important than those two is ACTION.


They find their path, they have a purpose, and if they get knocked down, they get up again.  They keep asking better and better questions that get them closer to their goals and they continue to find the people and resources that support them on their journey.  They turn resistance into growth and they fully immerse themselves in the experience. I’ve boiled down the pattern I see into 10 ways.


10 Ways: Going from Good to Great

Here are 10 ways I’ve seen people go from good to great:

Find your compelling “why.” Find your one thing. Become a dream machine, turn your dreams loose, and envision the end in mind. Your “why” is your drive and you find your “why” by answering the question, “Why do you do what you do?”  To find your compelling, find the answer that connects with your passion and plucks at your heart strings.  That’s the power of purpose in action and it’s what crusades are made of.  Launch your own crusade.

Become a force of one.  Get out of your own way and stack yourself for success by channeling your thinking, feeling, and doing.  Think the thoughts that serve you, feel the feelings that empower you, and do what you know needs to be done.  Disciplined thinking combined with disciplined action is an unstoppable force, and it’s yours for the asking.

Model the best. The best do it with models.  They find the best examples of what they want to accomplish, and they learn from them.  You can find role models or success stories or case studies and work backwards from there.  Success always leaves clues and you can play detective.

Give your best where you have your best to give. This is you unleashed.  The best play to their strengths.  They spend more time doing the things that make them strong, and less time doing the things that make them weak.  This builds energy and momentum and instead of getting drained, you get charged and you grow where you can grow best.

Find your best arena.  Don’t be a fish out of water.  Find your element.  Going from good to great means finding where you can play your best game.  Maybe you’re a mediocre developer, but a phenomenal project manager. Maybe you’re an OK doctor, but an incredible actor.  Take your skills to the job or place where they make the most impact.

Execute.  Taking action is how you make things happen.  Throw massive action at whatever you need to do.  Even if it seems like you’re only taking baby steps at a time, you’ll eventually hit your stride.  When you keep taking action, you learn faster.  Each result teaches you another way how to do something, or how not to do something.  Sometimes, the only way to get past some problems is to overwhelm them with action.  To paraphrase Voltaire, I would argue no problem can withstand the assault of sustained action.

Stick with it.  If you fall down six times, stand up seven.  Remember The Little Engine That Could?  Well, whenever you think you can’t, you’re working against yourself.  It starts with belief.  Think you can, then prove yourself right.   Find your eye of the tiger.

Learn and respond.  The best take action, learn, and respond.  They are always failing forward.  NLP teaches us that there is no failure, only feedback.  The great ones use the feedback to improve their approach.  They stay adaptable while they are finding their way forward.  Be your won best coach, not your own best critic.

Let it go.  The best let it go and move on.  They don’t carry baggage.  They focus on the objectives and they measure against effectiveness.  Either their approach is working or it’s not.  If it’s not working, they let it go, and find a new way forward.

Team up.  The best of the best team up with people that amplify their impact.  They also team up with people that provide more deliberate feedback and that help them find their blind spots and get unstuck.

Putting it all together, you can stack the deck in your favor by playing to your strengths, living your values, and finding the best arena for your greatest results.

To Your SUPER Success,

MG

PS. HERE IS A SUPER SUCCESS TOOL: Book 

GOOD TO GREAT Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins (over 3M copies sold) 

SCHEDULE. IT’S DONE!​

​Your weekly writing and platform-building scheduleA few notes before you start building your author platform:

• If you’re waking up early before work to get in your 2 hours, I’d say start by writing — that way if you’re in the flow, you can always keep going. If you’re doing your 2 hours after work, you might want to “wind-down” with the platform stuff; then do the writing afterwards once you’ve de-stressed.
• I always thinks it’s smart to choose 2 social media sites to concentrate on at first. I’m using Twitter and Facebook for this example, but you could substitute with Pinterest, G+, etc.
• Reading is something we’re hopefully doing all the time. But you gotta find time outside of these 2 hours for that!
• Keep things flexible. You might end up spending an extra 20 minutes on your interview responses one day, which cuts into time to submit work for publication. Oh well. You’ll get back on schedule the next day!

Week 1Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates for the week

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare 2 submissions

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums, book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 20 minutes: seek out reading opportunities at bookstores, libraries, etc. (or plan your book-launch party!)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 30 minutes: write a blog post for your own website

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: write a guest post for another blog
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: website maintenance (updates, respond to blog comments, etc.)

Week 2Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: book distribution maintenance, Amazon Author Central profile, accounting, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: start writing the copy for your monthly email newsletter

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 15 minutes: revision
• 15 minutes: review newsletter copy and email it to your list!
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums/book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: prepare for your reading (press release, logistics, etc.)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: seek out guest blog opportunities

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: write a blog for your own website
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: update website (make sure your website is media-friendly)

Week 3Monday

• 60 minutes: do an interview (by email, phone, or in-person) for a blog, podcast, TV show, radio, etc.
• 30 minutes: calm your nerves from the interview — drive back home
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare 2 submissions

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums/book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 20 minutes: seek out PR and promotional opportunities (interviews on TV, radio, podcasts, blogs, magazines, etc.)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 30 minutes: write a piece of flash fiction for your blog, or shoot a quick behind-the-scenes video for fans

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: join or maintain relationship with online writing group, author association, or sign up for a writing conference
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: website maintenance (make sure your blog looks pro)

Week 4Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare for your reading — which is coming up on Thursday!

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 40 minutes: do a dress rehearsal for your reading
• 10: make sure everything is set for the reading
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday Night

• 120 minutes: give a great reading! (Oh, and be sure to get it on video)

Friday

• 60 minutes: edit the video from the night before
• 30 minutes: post the video on your blog, YouTube, and share on social networks
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: WILD CARD! (do whatever you didn’t have time for earlier in the month)

This is just an example of one way to do it, but I’d love to hear from you: does this schedule look anything like your daily writing and platform-building routine? How have you started building your platform as an author? What’s worked? What’s been a waste of time? Let us know in the comments section below.

By building your author platform before your next book launch, you can harness the power of potential buyers, industry contacts, and your entire web community.

The “author platform” is a fancy buzzword folks in the book business use to talk about an author’s fan engagement, their social media and web presence, the size and dedication of their readership, and their connectedness to other authors, bloggers, critics, agents, publicists, publishers, etc.

By building your author platform BEFORE your next book launch, you’ll be able to harness the power of all those potential buyers, all those industry contacts, and your entire web community to increase your chances of success. After all, the only thing worse than not publishing your book is to publish it and get ignored entirely.

So how do you build your author platform?

One day at a time, of course. Just like writing, building an author platform is hard work; it takes daily dedication and organization. But the benefit of that labor is your writing will actually have an audience!

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume a few things about you (if any of these assumptions are incorrect, adjust accordingly):

You are not a full-time author yet, but you’re building towards it (i.e. you still have a day job)
You have other personal or family commitments that prevent you from spending every waking hour on your writing goals

You are able to set aside 2 hours a day (M-F) for your writing and platform-building work

Only Monday to Friday? Well, at times the drudgery of this platform-building is gonna feel like a “real” job — so you deserve a weekend. If you can sneak in a few extra hours to write on Saturday or Sunday, that’s great, but leave the author platform stuff for the workweek.

Five Tips to Improve Your Bookselling Efforts
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The reward of holding a copy of your published work is indescribable. But it’s just one of the many exciting milestones in your journey to self-publishing success. One key objective in your publishing journey is selling your book successfully. Here are five tips we think may help improve your efforts to increase book sales.

Build up your image as an author and a brand

Book buyers and readers gravitate to books—and authors—that appeal to them. The more you project yourself in a way that holds their attention, the more you gain their trust. Highlight the fact that you are now a published author. Add that to your email and forum signature lines. Don’t forget to add your website or social media profiles to here, as well as to your press release boilerplates. These may be small things, but they’re the building blocks to a positive image.

A quality 3rd-party review is important to successful bookselling

An honest and well-written 3rd-party review is invaluable. A positive review from a respected book reviewer will make your book stand out, improve its marketability and enhance your title’s, as well as your, reputation. Don’t be afraid to invite readers and indie reviewers to evaluate your book. Published reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstore bolsters the credibility of your book encouraging new readers to part with their money knowing that they will get a good read in return.

Librarians are your best customers—and allies

Librarians are savvy, well-informed book buyers. They are the favorites of the traditional publishing houses, small presses, and self-publishers. If librarians like your book and trust your brand, they will likely become some of your most effective bookselling allies. Their participation and support are valuable aids to your bookselling activities—sponsoring book signings, readings, meet-and-greet affairs, and Q&A activities at their libraries. So be sure to visit your local libraries and befriend your librarians.

Use your social media networks to connect and sell your book

While Purpose Publishing carries all the titles of its authors in its online bookstore and through its partnerships with Amazon and Barnes and Noble, one of the most effective ways to sell you book is through social media networking. Generate news, book-related updates, and positive reviews through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and to the other online communities you belong to. Social networks are also great places to meet fellow authors and find new opportunities for selling your book.

To Your Success,

MG

Humans are highly visual creatures, and this holds true when we are reading. We don’t see the images in the book, we form them in our minds. Pack in brilliant verbal imagery and your readers will enjoy and remember your book.
Drawing powerful verbal imagery is a skill that defines natural-born writers, but it can also be learned. Here are five things to think about with respect to using the power of the pen to draw images.

1. Be aware of visual imagery
The first step is heightening your awareness of verbal imagery and how it works. When you read a new book, or write, take note.

We think of words as words – black ink on a white page. But they are more: they paint colorful pictures from the action, people, and settings of a story world. Check it out for yourself. Take a paragraph from any book you are reading and do an image “density test.” Count all the images that form in your mind as you read along. Is it a large and diverse number?

It depends on what you are reading, but in many books, it’ll be each sentence, or even each phrase — e.g. “Silent, he nodded and looked out the window at the windmill by the still lake.” That sentence evokes four images – a man nodding, a window, a windmill, and a lake scene.

Here’s the opening sentence of Ransom Riggs’ Library of Souls:

The monster stood not a tongue’s length away, eyes fixed on our throats, shriveled brain crowded with fantasies of murder.

How many images do you get from that? Almost every word is a new one. How does the image density of your writing compare?

2. Actively write in imagesMany authors say they see events unfold in their own minds and then they write them down. This is a great way to get visual writing. You can heighten this by purposefully engineering memorable images into your work.

Whether or not you remember the details of any of the Godzilla movies, you know what Godzilla looks like. What’s the single most memorable image from the Jurassic Park movie franchise? Is it the T. Rex sniffing out the kids in the car?

Often, it’s a useful technique to render an abstract idea into symbolic imagery to give it punch or make it easily understood and memorable. The scar on Harry Potter’s forehead is a brilliant example. It represents his past, his link with Voldemort, and his fate. Harry just has to show it or touch it in pain for readers to know something big is about to happen.

3. Keep the quality of your visual imagery in mind when you edit
If you can’t form an image about what is being described, likelihood is you probably don’t know exactly what is going on. So how would a reader know?

Have you ever tried editing expressly for visual content? Doing so can bring surprising rewards. You might find new ways to express abstract ideas. You might clean up some fluffy or confusing text. You might be inspired to add creative details.

If you read a phrase or sentence and fail to clock an image, you might find that it wasn’t fully imagined. Editing to improve visual interest is often about making abstract things more concrete. This is ubiquitously thought of as a good thing in terms of writing advice. Why say “his car got keyed,” when you can say “his usually pristine black Porsche 911 had an ugly, uneven scar that stretched from the driver’s side mirror to the tail light.” The second one is not only a stronger image, you wince harder. Why say “I fell in love” when you can give a few examples of blushing, tripping because you’re distracted, and sitting with your head in your hands daydreaming and get your “show don’t tell” out of the way too?

Great writing is about giving a reader enough detail to let them see the world you are presenting – without overdoing it. At best, they need some wiggle room to see your story world as they want to.

4. Understand why key types of information work better as a picture
Some things just work better visually. This is because they depend on having all the knowledge at once, on some form of complex structure in space or time, or the linkages between entities. Such information clusters are hard to render in words – no matter how many you use or how artfully you arrange them on the page.

Think about a map or a family tree. These are common images printed in books – words just can’t do them justice – or fit into equal space. If you do need to describe difficult images, it’s about getting out the most important information first – the structure and the types of connection. Then come the relevant details, which a reader can now map onto a visual framework they are holding in their head.

On a map, it’s about how features are related to each other in space that matters. A mountain pass leads to a valley with a river that flows to the sea upon which sits City A, and between that and City B lies a desert. Same with dynastic or familial relationships, and the whys and where different characters appear in the timeline can be critical to your story.

5. Use imagery to your best advantage
We all know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The trick of images is that they present all their information simultaneously. You might want to linger over The Mona Lisa to take in her finer details and soak in the mood, but it’s all there as you lay eyes on her.

Now imagine the many words it would take to describe The Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile to give detail equivalent to seeing her in person. It’s likely not possible, no matter how meticulously you picked your words, how artfully you ordered them, or how many you allowed yourself.

So, flip this and use the power of visual imagery to your advantage. Humans have a huge range of cultural images. Save 1,000 words every time you use an apt image. Think of a man who builds his wife somewhere to live. If you say, “he built her a Taj Mahal,” you have an image that cost only two words and you’ll know loads about their lifestyle and tastes: opulent and privileged and over the top. It’s 1,000 words of worth for only two – using an image. “She smiled as enigmatically as the Mona Lisa.”
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Purposefully pack your writing with attention-grabbing visuals and your writing will be memorable. There won’t be any incomplete ideas or passages full of filler. It will be more fully realized and accessible to the reader.
 
To Your Success,
MG

For business leaders, writers, and everyone in between, allowing yourself to be human, and vulnerable, goes a long way toward establishing trust. That doesn’t make it easy.You’ve been a business professional for quite a while now and have learned a lot in your time as a leader in various organizations. Your years of experience and education and your expertise and innovative ideas are what other impassioned leaders need to attain the success you’ve achieved. But do the people you serve know who you really are? They know you are a leader, but do they realize you’re human and no different from them when the veil is pulled back? Have you ever considered that the only way to establish a genuine connection with others is to be vulnerable?

Wearing my nonfiction book coach hat, I speak from experience. It wasn’t until I got real about my true self and who I really am that I began to attract a sustained influx of clients. Because I chose to be vulnerable, it encourages my clients to do the same and it’s one reason they want to work with me. It isn’t easy, but I propose it could be necessary to the success of your business — and your book.
 
As Brené Brown teaches in her TEDx talk, “The Power Of Vulnerability,” the gateway to intimacy is via being vulnerable about your imperfections. If you try to sugar coat your story, you miss out on the sense of connection with another human being that you can only attain when you’re letting someone see your warts and your big ugly tail. Every time you expose those imperfections — even because of those imperfections — you gain trust (or as Brown calls it, you “put marbles in the jar”). Over time, the intimacy you feel with other people depends on how many marbles are in your jar.
 
What business leader doesn’t want to establish trust amongst her staff and the customers her business serves? When trust is established with your subordinates and counterparts, success in all of your departments is guaranteed. People want to work with and for someone they trust and can relate to. The beauty of vulnerability is its ability to establish a connection with people from all different walks of life. People can connect with someone who knows how to get real.

David K. Williams, author of The 7 Non-Negotiables of Winning: Tying Soft Traits to Hard Results, describes vulnerability in business in this Forbes magazine article: “Vulnerability is a natural condition of the work that we do — it isn’t a choice but a consequence. To declare oneself ‘not vulnerable’ would be inauthentic and would leave a leader living in a perpetual state of denial and stress. So it’s better and more courageous for every leader to acknowledge the fact that vulnerability is there.”
As a business leader, you don’t need added stress to your life. Let go of your pride and expose your vulnerability.

Showcase your vulnerability through writing
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You know deep down that you are a true leader. Writing a book not only helps to establish yourself as an expert, but it’s another way to expose your vulnerable side. Business leaders write books for a number of reasons:

• They have something to share that will benefit others.
• They want to leave a legacy that will impact the future.
• They see others struggle and have learned how to overcome obstacles.
• They want to showcase their businesses and their paths to success.
• They want to expose themselves as “real people” to their audiences.

 
In business and in life, trust is a must.
 
To Your Success,
MG

Writing enough text to fill a book is one thing but weaving it all together into a story with a strong arc, purpose, and impact is another. Here are some lessons that might help you in your writing process — whether your own book is an “accident” or not.


​Writing that much prose is one thing, but weaving it all together into a story with a strong arc, purpose, and impact is another entirely. Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way that might help you in your writing process — whether your own writing is an “accident” or not.

Consolidate
First, copy and paste everything into a single word processor document, in the best narrative order you can determine at the time. Having everything in one place will feel like an important milestone — your work will seem more like a cohesive book-in-progress and less like a collection of fragments, scenes, and vignettes.

Edit at will
As with the initial drafting of any book,  use what minutes you can find in between other activities to clarify the language, put pieces together, or review something you wrote months or even years ago. Sometimes that means searching for a particular scene or experience that’s been caught in your memory and reexamining how it fits into the overall story. Other times, it will mean scrolling randomly through the document and working on whatever paragraph catches your eye and the mouse falls on. Focus your time on what I can do right now to get yourself closer to the finish line, knowing you’ll get to it all completed real soon.

Label and shuffle
With tens of thousands of words and dozens of narrative episodes, keeping track of everything can be a challenge. To help, start labeling significant portions of your story with unsexy and utilitarian titles like, “Argument about green vs. black tea” and “Weird surveillance grocery store encounter.”
Will the chunks I’m currently defining end up as chapter partitions in the final novel? Probably not. But for now, functional titles help you know, quickly and efficiently, what the landscape of my work-in-progress looks like.

Having well-labeled portions of text also helps you put things in the best order for any narrative. Does a certain scene play better in the second third of the book? Does a character’s backstory suddenly become more resonant when presented after a traumatic incident involving an ex-lover? Cut-and-paste is a wonderful thing, and you use it to experiment with all sorts of structures and event orders.

Save versions-in-progress
After significant editing sessions, you  save a new version of my document with a title like “Draft_v2.0,” Draft _v2.1,” and so on. This way, you can always go back and see previous manifestations of my ideas, as well as what I originally wrote on my phone. Having copious backups makes you more comfortable experimenting — you always know you can revert to a previous version if a creative risk you take doesn’t work in the end.

Fill in the gaps
If you discover that additional text is needed to make the story flow (and this will happen quite often), it’s always fun to return to writing mode. Either on the spot with your laptop or on your phone the next time you have a free minute, add the words, sentences, or paragraphs the story needs to smoothly flow and then go right back to editing mode.

Be patient and stay focused
It can be overwhelming to look at a 60,000-plus-word document, completely unedited, and realize it’s up to you alone to get it all in order. Try to stay micro-focused as you work, polishing only whatever sections are in front of your eyes at the moment and losing yourself in the task at hand. Just as the crafting of the original text happened gradually and organically, so too will the acts of compiling, editing, and revising.

Keep the big picture in mind​
At this point, YOU know where your characters begin, the struggles and triumphs they go through, and where they will end up physically, circumstantially, and emotionally when the story concludes. You’ll want to keep this whole arc in mind as you’re editing, compiling, and reordering. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the big picture influences everything from word choice to plot adjustments and acts like glue, helping to stick the entire story together as a cohesive narrative.
 
To Your Success,
MG