Author: Dan Blank

Upcoming Speaking Events

In the next few weeks, I will be speaking at a few events. If you are a writer or publisher, these might be up your alley:

Writer’s Digest Conference

  • Branding Yourself
    Friday, January 21st, 2011 | 6:00 – 6:50 pm
    No matter what you write, you’re writing for a community of readers – a group of people bound together by a common interest, passion or value. Many of us are crafting work that we believe will appeal to community members, but are falling woefully short in getting their attention once the work is done. Succeeding in that particular endeavor takes an understanding of both what that community really wants as well as how to make them aware of your own personal brand and what it means for them. In this session, you’ll learn how to establish your “brand,” create engaging content and get it in front of your community – the three crucial steps necessary to make it as a writer.

  • Panel: How to Use Social Media to Get Noticed and Sell Your Work
    Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 | 9:00 – 9:50am
    Dan Blank, Kate Rados, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Moriah Jovan
    There’s been a lot of talk about how investing in social media is necessary for writers who want to succeed. But what does it all mean? How do you facebook, tweet, blog and post effectively? And how much time – time that takes away from actually writing – should you spend doing it?

  • Blogging as a Platform and Publicity Machine
    Sunday, January 23rd, 2011 | 11:00 – 11:50 am
    Learn how to use online media to connect with other writers, readers and those who can help you to fulfill your goals in writing and publishing. Having a blog is an incredibly effective way to help you do so – but only if you know how to use it properly. In this session, you’ll discover not only the power of blogging, but the step-by-step process of creating a blog, developing its content, managing the process, and using it to market yourself and connect with others online. This special session, created by Dan Blank specifically for the Writer’s Digest Conference, is adapted from his exceptionally popular Writer’s Digest online class, Blogging 101.

Digital Book World

  • Content Strategy: How to Serve Your Community by Developing Great Online Content
    Monday, January 24th, 2011 | 10am – 1pm
    Content Strategy, Content Marketing, and Community Management have become big news, promising the ability to directly engage with your readers in new and profitable ways. But which platforms, networks and tools are the most effective? And how does “great” content stand out online?

    In this intensive workshop, content strategist and online marketing expert Dan Blank will take a deep dive into these questions, with the goal of developing an actionable online content strategy for engaging directly with readers.

    Topics that will be covered:

    • How to find and engage readers and existing communities.
    • Understanding your readers’ needs, and tactics to identify them.
    • How to create and curate high-quality online content.
    • How to use blogs, email and social media networks effectively.
    • How to measure, analyze and adjust tactics to ensure a profitable content strategy.

    This workshop will focus on the strategies and tactics editors, marketers, and authors can use to develop an individualized roadmap for creating and curating valuable online content that serves the needs and desires of their communities.

AWP Conference

  • UPDATE: Panel: The Art and Authenticity of Social Media: Using Online Tools to Grow a Community
    I was a late edition to this panel, replacing Guy Gonzalez. Topics covered: Social media is easy to disparage as meaningless socializing, undignified shilling, or time better spent writing. Yet sharing information online and having conversations with readers is critical to spreading the word about what you (or your organization) does. Online community building can help develop a long-term readership, plus open up new opportunities. This panel discusses meaningful online social interaction, and how the panelists have seen it advance their careers or their organizations.

  • CLMP Workshop for Presses—Marketing your books online: Virtual Touring, Social Media, and Promotion in the Digital Age
    Friday, February 4, 2011 | 1:30pm – 4:15pm
    Kate Travers and Dan Blank
    This session outlines ways that book publishers and authors can market their books and engage readers with low-cost, high-value online strategies. The virtual book tour provides a way for indie presses on a shoestring to schedule author readings not limited by cost or coast. Social media tools such as Twitter, can be used to promote authors, publishers, and create a dialogue with the community and readers you are hoping to reach. Learn how you can utilize these mediums in the new digital age of publishing! (Note: CLMP Workshops cost $30 for CLMP members and $60 for nonmembers. To register, please stop by the CLMP booth at the Bookfair.)

Thanks.
-Dan

How to Grow Your Writing Career

Today I want to talk about how we will each grow this year, and how to actually make that happen. How will you move your career forward, how will you change direction professionally, how will you pursue a dream that has been sitting on the shelf for far too long?

A lot of my focus is with writers and creators, and I will frame my comments to them, although I think this topic is useful for anyone. So if you are a writer – how will you pursue your goals in 2011. How will you move your writing career forward?

This is the nitty-gritty stuff. For those who choose to find room for growth, it is the bleary-eyed decision to wake up a half hour earlier to do some writing, to put off doing the laundry, in order to grab coffee with a colleague to get advice on something.

This is not the sexy stuff of feeling empowered, of innovating, this is the hours and hours and hours of work pursuing something that those around you could care less about. In all likelihood, your friends, family and colleagues like things how they are, they like you how you are. They define you as you are now, as you were yesterday – and that is enough for them. They don’t mean any ill-will, but they probably don’t feel that drive to redefine you or your life. In fact, likely, no one will push you to do that, but you.

Now, companies talk about ‘growth’ all the time. Typically, they mean make 20% more profit than last year. I’m not talking about that kind of growth. I mean, sure, money may be a byproduct of your growth, but that’s not the goal. Are you making room for growth? Are you putting resources towards it? It’s not enough to just hope that you make incremental movement towards a successful writing career. That’s what I want to talk about today.

You need two things in order to find the growth you are looking for this year:

  • A talent or skill of some sort
  • Hours and hours of focused hard work

Too many people have one or the other: either tons of unfocused hard work, or a talent that is never properly developed, never honed. Acknowledging the need for both is essential for growth. To not be complacent in your past accomplishments, in your present skillset. And likewise, to think critically enough about how to target specific areas for growth – knowing where to focus, and what to let slide.

Talent is not enough. Experience is not enough. You need to challenge yourself, to take those innate talents and push them hard. That it is about DESIRE and MOTIVATION. To make space in your life. And to be really particular about how you will find the resources to grow.

I do a lot of reading, researching and listening to music. I find the same story again and again behind great works by writers, creators and musicians. For instance: I bought the box set for Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Darkness on the Edge of Town’ last weekend and made a small update about it to Facebook. Dean Horowitz left this comment:

“Writing 70 songs for a single album demonstrates that genius is as much about focused hard work as it is about realizing ones gifts.”

In the documentary that accompanied the set, you saw how Bruce and the band pushed their talent, spend hundreds of hours shaping and crafting. They rejected enough finished material for well more than a single album. They judged their work at a very high bar: greatness.

How will each of us get on the path to greatness? Let’s explore some ways to frame our growth this year:

  • Set Goals
    I’m not talking about vague resolutions, but specific goals with a real plan behind them. This means setting benchmarks and milestones, it means defining the difference between failure and success. Don’t be too safe about it, take a risk. Scare yourself into action.

  • Write It Down and Tell Someone
    Make yourself accountable. Write down your goals and post it somewhere. Even better: tell people. Post it to Facebook, talk it over with a friend. Accountability is a big factor here. That is why weight-loss programs that require group activities tend to work more often than those that are just a solitary experience. You are more likely to stay on track, to feel good as you progress and have a support system when you stall. It’s also an important step, taking the dream out of your head, and sharing it with the world. In some ways, you are planting that seed, and giving it a chance of growing.

  • Do Your Research
    Ask people questions. I’m so shocked at how infrequently people do this. Too many people ASSUME they know how to do something, what its value is, the hard parts and the upsides of whatever they are pursuing. But instead of guessing, ASK people who have done it. They will tell you how hard it was, what’s its really like. They will also likely help you get started. Don’t start down a path only to turn back once you realize it wasn’t for you. Do your research. It’s easy, buy someone coffee, and ask questions.

  • Listen With An Open Mind
    Don’t just listen to others, waiting for them to support ideas you already agree with. Challenge yourself. If you are pursuing a goal that you have not yet reached previously in your life, there is a reason for that. Something needs to change, something in you, in order for that goal to be achieved. Listening with an open mind is a key way to get there. Step out of the echo chamber that you may live in every day, step out of your comfort zone. Talk to people you wouldn’t normally have access to, that are outside of your circle of friends. You might be surprised at what they say, and how easily their insight can remove barriers that exist only within you.

  • Structure Your Learning
    Inherently, there are practices and skills that you may need to build here. A process that could be all the difference between putting your goals on the backburner vs actually achieving them. Don’t be afraid to structure that process – to make a commitment, be it financial or with other resources such as time. When you join a class, hire a writing coach, or something similar, you are putting a framework together for reaching your goals. This is often where you separate the dreamers from the doers – those who will put resources towards realizing their goals vs those who merely hope their goals magically happen.

  • Judge Yourself by Outputs, Not Inputs
    Don’t judge the quality of your effort by how much you put into it, but by the work that comes out of it. I mean this in two ways. First: you are likely very busy, and any work you do this year to pursue goals you have will come at a great effort. So it will be easy to feel that any amount of effort you make justifies successful movement towards a goal. EG: writing 100 words a week, not 1,000. And yes, these little efforts add up, and SOME progress is better than no progress. But don’t judge the quality of your work just by what you put into it, but by what you share with the world – your outputs – and how well the quality of your work fits into that context. The second point here is the need to actually share your work, that you are driving towards a goal of releasing material, not just creating it. That in the end, if you don’t publish work in some form, if you don’t share it in some form, then the world will question whether it really happened. If tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it really make a sound?

  • Commit
    This is what will separate those who look back on 2011 with an amazing sense of pride, and those who simply added another digital to the number of years they have worked the same job that they aren’t happy with. Do you think your life is more than a resume? Prove it. Commit to it.

So much of the year ahead for me is about pushing myself in exactly the ways I mention above. But mostly, I am focusing on helping others pursue their goals, to move their careers forward as writers and creators. If you think I can help you, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks.
-Dan

2011: The Year of Writers and Creators

As I consider the publishing world in 2011, and the ways I want to be involved, I can’t help but feel that I want to focus more on helping writers and creators produce great work and share it with the world. Filled with those who:

challenge me with their work

move me with their ideas

educate me with their research

show me something I’ve never before imagined

engage me with their story

break boundaries that I took for granted

inspire me to do better

give me something worth remembering decades from now

These are not easy things. But regardless of what we feel are barriers, the only thing standing in the way is the will to make it happen. That no one will magically clear our schedules, or put more money in our bank accounts so that we have the luxury of focusing on these things.

I hope my days in 2011 are filled with those trying to cut a new path, to turn a risky idea into a viable future. Things like this are often done in the late hours of the day, and the wee hours of the morning. They are done in lonely places when you have no colleagues helping you, and perhaps a few working against you. As much as the media presents ‘innovation’ as something everyone embraces, for many folks, these new ideas are pursued at professional risk, as it requires you to go against the grain, and to rethink existing models that give people power and comfort.

There are so many conversations about the future of publishing, and all of them rely on the ability of creators to work through the challenges to produce great work, and do everything possible to share it with the world. That “good is the enemy of great.” (Voltaire/Jim Collins) That getting bogged down in the echo chamber of publishing issues can stand in the way of enabling creators to produce and share amazing work.

I hope I can help others do that next year. Thank you for an amazing 2010. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve in 2011.

-Dan

Building a Legacy

There are some words that are thrown around a bit to easily in the business world, words that are easy to say, and hard to live up to.

One of those words is “community,” and a few months back, I talked about how you don’t sell to a community, you support a community. Today, I want to talk about another word: family.

Yesterday was the funeral for my wife’s grandmother, who was 88 years old. More than 100 people attended. While it was an emotion filled day, I had an unusual lens on it. This gathering was the first time that most of my wife’s extensive family met our 4 month old son – so my experience of the day was of endless smiles as people said hello to little Owen.

These smiles made me realize the day is really a celebration of grandma Card’s life – and a reflection on the profound effect she has had on the lives of every one in the room – most of whom wouldn’t exist without her.

She and her husband lived on a farm in New Jersey, and had 11 kids. And from them, came more kids, and then another generation after that. It’s incredible to realize that her legacy grows over time, exponentially as each generation of kids, grandkids, and great grandkids continues to live, prosper and build their own families. Look what came from two people deciding to come together and build something:


A group shot of the 2009 family reunion. 11 children from grandma and grandpa Card, their kids, and their kids’ kids.

At luncheon that followed the funeral services, a long table was setup with items that grandma Card had made and shared over the years:

There were also displays of old photos of grandma Card growing up in the 1920s and 1930s:

It’s incredible to see the faces in these photos and realize that they were taken 80 years ago. Which brings us full circle…

This is my 4 month old son Owen meeting his great grandmother for the first and last time a week ago:

When he looks in her eyes, he is looking back on years he can’t yet fathom. And each day of his future is an homage to her past.

Now, when I look at Owen, I can see the legacy of her life in his eyes: living, breathing, smiling, and beginning.

In my day-to-day life, I spend much of my time thinking about publishing world, and all of this has me considering so many things. It has me realizing what long-term commitment really means – that it is measured in decades, in generations, not in fiscal quarters, or even years. That the goal is not merely to ‘create value,’ but to create a universe that continues to extend itself beyond what the original author could have imagined.

That, the word ‘family,’ used in any context, has a high bar to live up to. And when used in the business world, it is a commitment that extends beyond traditional business boundaries of employees, budgets, organizational structure, product lineups, market segments and target audiences.

That the value of what we are creating in our careers should be measured in more than our titles on a business card, salaries on a paycheck, and a resume on LinkedIn. That what we give, what we create, must be exponential in it’s effect on the world. Something that grows.

Thank you to grandma Card, whose influence continues to grow and shape our world.

-Dan

Written Off: The Fight to Remain Relevant

As those in publishing stand on the edge of a new era, one where innovation is coming from all sides, business models are upended, and their ‘glory days’ are portrayed as behind them, I want to talk about that ‘second act’, and share the story of someone who was written off, and done so when their best work was still ahead of them.

This post applies as much to individuals trying to navigate their careers in publishing, as it does to entire publishing organizations looking for a strategy towards sustainable growth.

Let’s start with a story.

By the time the 1930’s came around, Frank Lloyd Wright was in his 60’s, and widely viewed as a has-been in the architecture world – an old showman who had already used the last trick in his bag. Times and styles had changed, and he was not in fashion anymore, as a new breed of architects created more modern styles that were getting all the accolades. Wright was the butt of jokes, with suggestions that he might be dead, and that he was the “greatest architect of the 19th century.”*

Then, when he was 65, something happened.

In 1932, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was staging an exhibition on the international style of architecture, what you and I would simply call ‘modern’ architecture. Even though Wright was asked to contribute a design to the show at the museum, he was largely “dismissed as a number of older architects whose work has long since been superceded by other artists.”

Frank Lloyd WrightIn the past, Wright had openly spoke out against the international style, and felt that architects who embraced it were creating soulless work. But for the MOMA exhibit he did something that surprised everyone: he began using stylistic elements that were emblematic of the international style. The thing about it is, he adopted the best of their style, and mixed it with his own sensibility.

The MOMA exhibit was merely a hint of what he was capable of. In 1934, he was asked to design a weekend hideaway for the family of a client. This was the result:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater

Dubbed Fallingwater, it is one of the most famous pieces of architecture in history, one that used elements of the international style, but with nuance and detail that was purely Frank Lloyd Wright.

What followed were other masterworks: the Johnson Wax Headquarters and the Guggenheim Museum, among others.

How did Wright do this? He had to accept that in order to remain relevant, he would have to CHANGE HIMSELF, not wait for the world to change. That he would have to fight to remain relevant. That instead of throwing up his arms in disgust of new trends and taste, he would remake himself, embracing what he hated, until he understood it and mastered it. He took up the challenge of others – their disregard for him – and he won.

So how does one have that great second act? Often it is when they see a common thread through their area of focus that ignores previously assumed boundaries. When they embrace the new as well as the old. When they focus less on what they’ve done in the past, and more on what they need to do in the future.

And this isn’t easy for most companies, and most individuals. But for many in publishing, the world has given them a challenge:

  • Sometimes incremental changes aren’t enough to get onto the path to growth.
  • Sometimes cost cutting during times of great innovation are not enough to get on the path to growth.
  • Sometimes waiting for the world to recognize your value is not enough to get on the path to growth.
  • Sometimes making token efforts to innovate will not get you on the path to growth.

Many people like to reflect on their own history, saying how “back in my day, we had to be in the trenches, earning our success.” Well, the trenches are now online. And we must get back into those trenches and fight for relevance again.

Nobody, old or young, wants to be written off. Those who have helped shape the publishing industry as we know it, don’t want to be written off. Those who have earned a position of power, don’t want to be written off. In the same regard, those who are young and full of new ideas don’t want to be disregarded either.

And the question that each of us have to ask ourselves is: do we have the fight left in us to rethink what we know, embrace what we are scared of, look past boundaries from another time, and make ourselves as relevant in 2011 as we were in previous years.

And like Wright’s Fallingwater, those shaping the future of publishing must create something not just functional, but something beautiful, something that will inspire generations who are affected by it. This is your legacy to build, not based on what has been done, but on what is yet to be done.

-Dan

(The quotes and some of the material about Frank Lloyd Wright come from the Ken Burns PBS documentary. Highly recommended!)