Category: Branding

How To Get Off the Sidelines of Your Writing Career

I spent the past week meeting dozens (hundreds?!) of writers and publishing insiders at two events:

  • Writers Digest Conference
  • Digital Book World

These were days filled with learnings and inspiration, and have left me considering how it is that a writer takes the reins of their own career – to shape their own destiny of creating and sharing their work. I had such a great time at these events, and spoke at four sessions:

Today, I want to talk about ways that you as a writer can shape your career. How to stop wondering about the future of publishing, how to stop waiting for someone to answer your query letter – how to begin to not just work TOWARDS a writing career, but to actually experience it.

One thing was clear at both of these events – people are getting very serious about embracing the business side of publishing – to ensure that there is a vibrant future for writers and publishers in the print and digital domains. Authors were actively discussing marketing tactics and the business of publishing – publishers and other insiders were reviewing reams of data to understand the marketplace and find opportunities.

The centerpiece of the Writer’s Digest Conference was a “Pitch Slam” where writers would be able to pitch their books to high profile agents. This was a very cool event, and an engrossing site in so many ways.

Hundreds of writers waited to be let into the Pitch Slam room. I watched them practice their pitches the previous day and that morning – this was a huge opportunity for each of them to get feedback from professionals, and perhaps even find an agent who wanted to work with them. As you approach the room, this is the middle of the line:

And here we are at the front of the line:

Finally everyone is let in. I found it really symbolic how thin the doorway was, compared to the size of the crowd waiting to squeeze through it, and even the size of the room inside. As if there is not enough room for everyone to become a successful writer.

Here we have it: authors in organized lines waiting for their 90 seconds to pitch the agents who are seated. This is incredibly difficult for both the writers and the agents, yet at the same time, a rare opportunity for both:

This really floored me: that invisible line separating the writers (on the right) and the agents (on the left.) A barrier to reaching their dreams, to reaching readers.

This was such a great event, and I spoke to many writers who had been preparing for months for this moment.

So my question is: what ELSE should a writer be doing to build their careers? Once you have gone home from the Pitch Slam, once you are back in your day-to-day routine, how do you turn that dream into a reality while you wait for the phone to ring? And taking this one step further… what should writers be doing that will help them if an agent actually does take them on. How can the author help their book do well?

This is the thing: writers are waiting to connect to gatekeepers, when the gates to their audience no longer exist as it once did.

Of course, the role of agents and publishers is AS IMPORTANT as ever, if not more so. But, along WITH them, there are so many other things a writer can be doing to build their career. There are ways that writers can access readers, build a fan base, and nurture that process, all on their own. Imagine how much more successful your books can be if you are doing this IN ADDITION to working with agents and publishers.

Anyhow, the following tips are what I have come away from the conference thinking about.

Choose Your Identity
In the past several days, I heard publishers, agents, authors, and everyone in between discuss issues surrounding publishing. The digital revolution has provided many opportunities and many challenges, but inherently, they have each left us with questions about identity. What is the role of an agent? Is an author also a marketer? Do you need a traditional publisher?

If you are going to be a writer, my advice is this: be a writer. Don’t wait for the validation of a publisher or agent in order to change your identity from hobbyist to author. Decide who you want to be, then embrace it. They say acceptance is the first step to the road to recovery. I also think it’s the first step to the path of success. If you are going to wait for the world to validate you before you truly embrace your identity as a writer, then you will find too many reasons to never give it your full effort. And with that, you run the risk of never truly being a writer, because you have yet to commit 100%.

This is not one bit about diminishing the role or value of agents and traditional publishers. It is about the primary reason most people do not pursue their dreams of being a writer. That they are there own worst enemy – the only person stopping you is you.

I’ve heard story after story from creators – that they never finished their great novel, because they didn’t get a big advance from a publisher; that they gave up music entirely because their music label dropped them; that they don’t have time for their art, because they have to mow the lawn.

As I write this at 4am, I can’t help but feel that we are not faced with a lack of time, but a need to prioritize. That the drive to create a body of work lies not in others allowing us time, but in the motivation to realize our purpose as writers and creators.

Embrace All Aspects of a Writing Career: Art, Craft, and Business
If you are a writer, is it an art, a craft, or a business? If it is a mixture of all three, where do you draw the lines in your own writing career?

Perhaps the lines shouldn’t be drawn too firmly. Again and again, I am hearing people in publishing talk about the need for writers to build their fan base, to begin marketing their expertise and passion before they have even finished their book. That their work as a writer is a combination of art, craft, and business, and each needs to evolve in tandem. That if you spend years collecting ideas, but not honing your craft, then you will hit a wall. That if you spend years honing your craft, but not establishing a fan base, then you will hit a wall.

These things work together to build a career: the art, craft and business aspects of your writing. You can’t put off one of them for years, hoping that magically you can tack on a solution at the last minute. Balance your focus – because this is not just about creating a work, it is about building a sustainable career – one in which you interact with readers and build a fan base over the course of years and decades.

I remember walking through one house my wife and I were considering purchasing awhile ago. There were photos on the wall of magazines that the owner – a writer – had been published in, and covers from the book he had published. And it clearly represented a creative time period of their life that took place in the early 1970’s.

While I was impressed at their accomplishments, I had wondered why there were no works posted from the past 3 decades. Why was there not sustained career growth over the course of a lifetime, instead of a mere blip in their career as a writer?

I don’t know the answers to that one person’s story, but I imagine that at some point, they stopped evolving their art, their craft, or their business experience in publishing. And all three are essential to be engaged with in order to grow.

Take Action
Here we are in the publishing world, with writers and publishers and everyone in between considering the path forward.

But there is no established path anymore.
However, there is a choice. To cut your own path.
To take personal responsibility to shape your identity.
To make choices based on your personal goals.
To create a foothold for your own career, rather than simply wait until you are magically ‘discovered.’

Take the reigns. Don’t wonder what will happen when OTHER people act on your behalf.
Arm your self with the tools and connections to make it happen. Not as a negative – a reaction. But a positive – an action.

It’s too easy to feel that we could move forward if we only had that ONE missing puzzle piece. Find that missing piece you need.

Structure Your Learning
Why does the Weight Watchers program work? Points, meetings, and accountability. They create a structured system that makes you accountable to YOURSELF, and does so by connecting you with other people each week. There is no hiding in the Weight Watchers system, the points don’t lie, and if you miss the meetings, then you aren’t really in the program. Standing on that scale in front of other people is a critical part of why it works.

Find a way to learn the skills you need – regardless of the fact that you likely have no spare time. There will NEVER be time. We are all balancing family, work, home, hobbies, a social life, and other obligations. And yet, some make the time to build their writing career, and others will only dream of having one. Structuring the process by which you build your career is a key way to ensure it actually happens.

This is not just about learning, it is about executing. That you need to not just PLAN, but you need to DO.

Likely, you need to build a platform for your career – to establish the skills you need that always give back. The skills of surfacing creative ideas, skills of honing your craft, and skills of connecting with the communities and marketplace that your work speaks to.

There are a variety of ways to do this. I am offering one way to do this – an online course for writers to Build Your Author Platform. Maybe this course is for you, but maybe it isn’t. The fact is, there are plenty of other course, writing groups, coaches, workshops, and ways to structure your writing career. Find one that works for you.

Make a choice – make a commitment. Involve other people in this process. Don’t work for a decade on your novel before you show it to anyone – before you get your first glimmer of feedback, before you engage your first fan. Do it now. The only thing stopping you is you.

Why do I say you should get off the sidelines of your writing career? Because we all have to realize that there is no coach who is going to let you in the game. It’s just your initiative that does it. Others will undoubtedly help you along the way – but don’t wait for it – earn it.

Let me know how I can help. Thanks.

-Dan

How to Successfully Promote Your Book: The Kevin Smokler Interview

This week, I chatted with Kevin Smokler, co-founder and CEO of BookTour.com. You can find Kevin on Twitter at @WeeGee.

My goal is to share conversations with those doing interesting things in the world of publishing, media, and the web.

Click ‘play’ below to hear Kevin’s thoughts on:

  • How authors can promote their books
  • Why authors need to be entrepreneurial
  • How an author should set their expectations for the success of their book
  • Why the author is the right person to market a book

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Intention vs Action: How Businesses Connect With Customers

I have been exploring the ways businesses are connecting with their customers via the web and social media. More and more, you hear brands refer to their customers as a “community,” especially as businesses more readily embrace social media to tap into the markets they serve.

But I am curious about the distinction between stated intention, and action. What I mean is: oftentimes, a business will have a noble stated intention – that they are embracing social media in order to listen to their customers, and offer them special benefits that will improve their lives and help them meet their goals.

And sometimes, this is indeed the case.

But other times, businesses are piling into social media simply to market their products via new channels. Are they adjusting their tactics? Of course they are. Savvy companies know they can’t merely “broadcast” their message in social media channels. So they get more nuanced, they get smarter about turning a marketing campaign into a social media campaign, adjusting where needed, to how their customers’ behaviors and expectations are changing.

Company Values
This reminds me of company values and mission statements that many businesses create. More and more, you see them posted on walls of offices and in stores that you may frequent. Here is Ben & Jerry’s:

Values

Here is the mission statement of grocery retailer Supervalu:

Values

The person who posted that photo to Flickr included a great caption that hits the nail on the head:

“This big yellow sign hangs above the stairs to remind us daily what our mission is. When I started about seven years ago, the “mission statement” took about 10 words to state; then a couple years ago, a committee was commissioned to revamp the 40-year-old statement. It now takes up the entire wall. Ah, committees.”

Many businesses want to be all things to all people, and embody every positive attribute. So you will commonly see mission statements that include all of these elements:

  • We will produce the very best products.
  • We put customers first.
  • We put employees first.
  • We believe in serving the community first.
  • We put our shareholders first.
  • We stop at nothing short of excellence in everything we do.
  • We will be innovative.
  • We will provide greater value than anyone else.
  • We are the exclusive choice for savvy customers.

Too many businesses try to be inclusive of everything a business CAN be, so they often avoid making choices as to what kind of business they actually WILL be. They say “yes” to every item on the list above, because they never want to feel that they aren’t innovative, or value-conscious, or focused on customers, or produce great products.

What many companies are left with is rehashing the same staid words in their mission statements and values. The result is often that they become meaningless simply because employees and brands can’t live up to all of these things at once. If you remove the name of the company from these statements, you likely won’t be able to tell if it is from a bank, a food store, or a heavy equipment manufacturer.

This is the real point:

Intention isn’t enough.

It’s not enough to SAY you are focused on customer satisfaction, you have to deliver on it. It’s not enough to SAY you are innovative, your customers have to be the ones to say that.

In the best of times, we learn of a company’s values not because of what they say, but how they act. Here is a great example. This is the stated mission statement on the wall of a mobile phone store:

Values

And this was the caption beneath the photo:
“And they followed through. The sales guy actually told us, given the situation, to NOT get a phone.”

Why do companies veer from their stated missions? Because John Lennon’s adage holds true: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” A company’s brand is built not on what they say, but what they do. And often, they are doing so many things at once, that it may be difficult to keep their “values” front and center, especially when the need for “profit” is always looming so large in front of them.

I was watching a video of Steve Jobs announcing new Apple products this week. In it, he made a small offhand remark:

“This is why we do what we do.”

Why do I mention Apple? Why does EVERYONE mention Apple!? Because they seem to be one of the rare companies whose values, whose purpose, IS self-evident in their products, in their stores, in their tech support. Are they a bit arrogant? Sure. Are they a bit closed? Sure. Are they expensive? Sure. But we know what they stand for, we know what you GET when you buy an Apple product, and what you don’t get. They made a choice – and it’s hard to make a choice because that means you will likely have a polarizing effect with customers: some will love you, some will hate you, and some will ignore you. But this is how you prevent your business from becoming a commodity always competing on price alone.

When a brand needs to actively promote their values, you have to wonder why it was not so obvious in their existing products and services that they need to actually tell us.

Marketing Vs Community

This tagline on the door of Starbucks scared me:

Rituals

I read the sign as another message: “Give in. Come Buy Our Coffee Like a Robot. Every Day.” But of course, wrapped in words such as ‘comfort’ and ‘ritual’ to make it sound down to earth, simple and relaxing.

Some businesses think a community is merely trapping a group of people into the habit of giving them attention or money. The customers of a cable TV provider are not a community. They merely needed cable, and had a limited choice of providers. Or for retail stores who offer loyalty cards, they feel that if you use them for a discount, again and again, that you are a part of their “community.”

A community cares about more than a discount.

Why do I love social media, even for businesses? Because it allows smart businesses to truly help their customers, truly listen to their customers, and truly share their passion and expertise with like-minded individuals in their markets.

And, instead of relying on vague values statements, it allows companies to illustrate their values in small ways every day. Not by saying “we care about customers,” but by actually connecting with individual customers, and showing them that they care.

It is these direct connections that never existed before. Cluttering up the social media channels with traditional marketing tactics is certainly going to be something that businesses will try. But the smart ones will realize the potential to reshape how they connect with their customers, and reshape the value that they can have in the lives of their customers.

And instead of printing values on the walls of their stores and offices, companies will simply allow their customers to express the values that they experienced. One Tweet, status update, and blog post at a time.

-Dan

The Commodification of Publishing & Media

Yesterday I talked about “the magical elves” of new media – how some publishing & media companies are confusing “strategy” with cost cutting. Today I want to give an example of what I mean from another industry, and another time. Inherent in this discussion is the exploration of how we value a brand and the trust it has built over the course of years.

Let’s talk about two events in 1970, and how each illustrated different approaches to treating the value of a brand’s assets. The companies are MGM and Disney, the former sold some of its most precious assets to fund the building of a Las Vegas hotel. The latter spent money to archive and preserve it’s history.

(note: huge thanks to Jim Hill for his blog post covering this topic.)

Okay, let’s dig in:

  • The MGM Auction of 1970
    In 1970 MGM auctioned off its entire history of costumes and props. Warehouses of items including costumes from The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and countless other items worn by stars such as Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Astaire, Susan Hayward, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, and others in some of their most famous roles. Dorothy’s dress? $1,000. Cowardly Lion’s costume? $2,400. They also sold off their historic back lots, and flattened sets used in classic MGM films. That land is now filled with faceless condos, turning history into real estate.

    Stories of the auction are scattered across the web. One person describes that a friend of his bought a large container of unknown costumes in the sale. Within it were two of the Lollipop Guild costumes from Wizard of Oz. This was not historic preservation, these items were sold in bulk, unmarked. How many treasures were lost in this manner? What if the person who bought it didn’t recognize them as Wizard of Oz costumes?

    There is an entire website dedicated to tracking what happened to the famous Time Machine from the from the 1960 movie of the same name. One of the flying saucers from Forbidden Planet turned up in someone’s garage, considered lost for years after the MGM auction.

    These items were not sold off to preserve them better or to make the MGM brand stronger – they were done so to raise funds for a hotel. The new owner of MGM had no real interest in the movie studio or its history.

    Further reading on the MGM sale here.

  • Disney Creates an Archive in 1970
    That same year, Disney did the opposite of MGM, they created the Disney Archives. Now, it should be noted that 1970 was not necessarily Disney’s heyday, they were still building their empire. Check out the list of movies released during that time period.

    Disney hired Dave Smith as archivist, a position he still holds today. Jim Hill describes Dave’s role:

    “Back in 1970, Smith’s duties involved regularly prowling around the studio looking for things that actually needed preserving. Which often meant opening up janitor’s closets and then finding maquettes that had been used in the production of “Snow White,” “Pinocchio” & “Fantasia.” Or – better yet – actually fishing animation cels from “The Aristocats” out of the studio’s dumpsters.”

    In 1970, Disney was funding something else entirely, actually something not too dissimilar to what MGM was doing: the Walt Disney World Resort, which opened in October of 1971. 30,000 acres of swampland converted into a theme park, a project Disney worked on since 1963.

    The difference is that Disney saw it’s past as something to covet, to fuel their future, not something to commoditize and offload to fund other ventures.

Why am I obsessing over these two events, and why should you care? Here are a few lessons I am considering from the examples above:

  • It Takes Decades To Build a Brand, Moments to Destroy It
    Today, many companies talk about their valuable “content assets” and the “communities” built over the course of decades. Media and publishing companies change hands constantly, often based on the value of their content and reputation. Like the MGM sale – one result of this is that the most valuable aspects of these brands are slowly dissipated over the years. Yes, some gems are cherished forever, but many others are lost into the ether, a shadow of what they once were – a hollow brand, existing in name only. For instance, we all know that the Gourmet brand will resurface again and again in the future as its brand name is “leveraged.” But will that name represent the expert content and authority it once did? Or is it just a label on a can?

  • If You Don’t Respect the Past, You Can’t Respect the Future
    Many businesses that are created by passionate experts in niches are later bought by larger companies and managed by business people who only understand the financial aspect of what has been created. What can happen in this case is a shortsighted understanding of value of community and content, and short-term decisions on how to “unlock value,” where the “value” always means money. That’s fine, until that precious content and community is exploited again and again, and the reputation of the original brand has little social capital to leverage further.

  • Hire Leaders Not Managers
    Many of the brands we covet were created by passionate experts – oddballs who knew how to take an idea and make it a reality. As time moves on, it is important to put those brands into the hands of leaders who will extend those creations, not exploit them. Who will allow them to grow, not be “managed.” Again and again, we see great brands sliced, diced, bought, sold, and merged. Sure, it’s a reality of the business world. But it shouldn’t be confused with truly creating something new. Sometimes the value of the parts are greater than the whole.

  • Create Something That Grows in Value Over Time
    Paul Carr has been talking about this in terms of new media: questioning how our efforts online create long term value. He framed this discussion in terms of social media vs long form writing, with a great title: Thnks Fr Th Mmrs: The Rise Of Microblogging, The Death Of Posterity.

    “A million blogs withered and died as their authors stopped taking the time to process their thoughts and switched instead to simply copying and pasting them into the world, 140 meaningless characters at a time. The result: a whole lot of sound and mundanity, signifying nothing.”

    Publishers and media companies are at similar crossroads – choosing between cheap aggregation vs the cost and creating high quality original content; between relying on social media vs building an expert marketing team.

  • Don’t Turn Art Into a Commodity
    The art world is a bizarre place- judged by auction prices, not the inherent revelation of art. In the end, we spend millions on paintings in order to buy transcendence. It’s well worth your time to check out the documentary “The Art of the Steal” which covers this topic in an incredibly compelling manner. When you commodify something unique, you rob the world of something. It’s a complicated topic, I don’t want to simplify it too much, but I do think it’s worth discussion.

Overall, I think I am sensitive to the tradeoff we make with success, or more specifically, revenue. Sometimes, success truly creates something that never existed before – it is a skill, a gift when that works out. But other times, there are hidden costs. In a world where quarterly numbers seem to be valued more than anything, when you take the long view, you notice what is – AND ISN’T – being created over the course of years and decades.

There is a great term – “unlocking value,” which many people use to justify a new strategy that turns art into a commodity. Be careful not only in what is created, but what is lost.

-Dan

Customers Don’t Buy Features, They Buy Identity

What differentiates you from your competitors? What button are you pushing that gets someone to actually open their wallet and pay for your products or services?

I read two articles this morning that discuss not how Apple is changing brands, but what they are exposing about how people already associate with brands.

The Atlantic:

“When you’re buying into Mac, you’re buying into an ideology. You’re buying into a community.”

CNET:

“So, what do you do if you’re a PC maker whose business is still all about the Windows-Intel PC? You slavishly imitate as fast as you can.”

This is something that Simon Sinek discusses in his book Start With Why – that we associate with “why” a brand exists – what they represent – before we judge the “what” or “how” of their offering.

And yes, it is a more elegant – more human – view of business. That we are individuals constantly looking for self-definition, for identification, for purpose. That in a world of consumerism, we do these things through products, as much as by vocation, personal behavior or hobbies. Clearly, not everyone does this, and for those that do, it is not all in the same way.

But for many businesses, it would be an interesting exercise to consider how your products & services shape the identity of your customers.

This goes beyond premium products. Why do people by a Honda Civic instead of a Toyota Corolla or whatever Ford offers at that price range? There is a certain point at which you are splitting hairs – where all of these cars have the same features, price and safety rating.

Why are some families Toyota families, and others Honda families? Why do others pay a premium for Volkswagen even though a base model Honda Civic would be effective, inexpensive and long-lasting transportation for years to come?

Social media has been helping to expose these answers – how our preferences, how our sense of self, is shaped and expressed via the brands we buy.

In your market, in your niche, in your company, in your role – how do you shape the identity of the people you serve?

Thanks!

-Dan