Category: Uncategorized

How does a child find their voice? How are they given the skills and the freedom to express the world they experience?

I have worked with a public school in Harlem, PS 123, for about a decade now, and have recently started a new project with them focused on “student voice.” The goal is to bring in writers, artists, photographers and other creative professionals to show kids unique ways to find and express their voices.

When I first thought of this series, one person came to mind immediately as a guest speaker: Rachel Fershleiser. She does literary and nonprofit outreach at Tumblr, is the co-creator of Six-Word Memoirs, and helped create hundreds of events at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC. Rachel is just freaking amazing.

This week, Rachel came up to PS 123 and helped a group of fifth graders learn how to write their own six-word memoirs. The results were powerful, and represent the tip of the iceberg of who these kids are and what they can create in the world:

What most blows me away by this is that this was created within 45 minutes. Imagine if these kids kept writing, kept honing their ability to share and create.

A Tumblr was created to publish the students’ work, again representing the nearly immediate way that someone can not just express their voice, but share it with the world: http://5-501.tumblr.com

Here is a look at the workshop:

I would like to thank Rachel for being so generous of her time, it’s not an easy thing to work with a group of 5th graders and help them create something special within a single hour!

I would also like to thank Sarah Chesson from PENCIL, a nonprofit that helps coordinate partnerships like the one I have with PS 123. And of course: THANK YOU to the faculty (esp Principal Hernandez, Ms. Stewart and Ms. Mann), students and community of PS 123 who allowed us to be a very small part of their lives.

My partnership with PS 123 started years ago, and I often wonder where these students are now, what they may be doing, and of course, if they are writing:

Thanks.
-Dan

 

 

My recent guest post on Writer Unboxed:

“Even if you have something really good. Even if people really like it. It takes so much MORE in order to succeed.”
These are words from my friend Andrea, at a meetup I helped run last night that brought together local creative professionals.

The group shared stories of their own journey to craft a creative life & business, and observations from friends and colleagues.

Andrea shared another quote, from a local shop owner who, after opening her doors and struggled to develop a clientele:

“I didn’t realize how hard it would be to just bring in $100.”

This is akin to an author dreaming of their book launch, and wondering how many hundreds or thousands of books they will sell, and plateauing at 75 books sold.

It is so difficult to write a book, and to then publish a book, that the concept of developing an audience and selling books can be downright paralyzing to any reasonable author. (luckily, most authors live in a dreamworld, to their credit!)
🙂

There is so much risk in choosing to write and publish a book…

Read the full post here.

“I have bits & pieces but don’t know how to construct a coherent plan from all of it.”

These are words an author shared with me this week, and it sounded so familiar. This is a challenge that many writers go through. They are super smart, they have read so many “helpful” articles and blog posts, and read books and attended conference sessions, etc to learn how to develop an audience for their books. BUT… they are drowning in a sea of “wonderful” ideas, without any process by which to move forward.

I had a conversation with another author who was considering hiring me for consulting. As we talked about his goals, he seemed vacillate between two emotions:

• I’M SMART & HAVE SKILLS
  In describing his specific goals it was clear that he could feasibly go through the book launch and marketing ideas on his own. He has the basic skills to do so, and is obviously very smart.

• I’M OVERWHELMED
  In describing his plans, he quickly became totally overwhelmed when he realized how many balls he had in the air, and how adding any more would adversely affect his other obligations at work and home.

Talking through this, I told him that my biggest fear, and the thing I see most often with other authors, is that 12 months from now, his plans will remain undone. That even though he is smart (he knows what he wants), he has skills (he knows how to get it done), that the last part (I’m overwhelmed) will overshadow these things.

That sometimes, you bring partners into a process because doing things together is not only less lonely, but more effective. In the past, I used the Weight Watchers system as an example:

A primary reason Weight Watchers works is that it is inherently social. You are encouraged to show up to a group meeting for a weigh-in, to chat with other members, and the Weight Watchers staff. This process offers encouragement, you learn how others are finding success in losing weight, and you build powerful relationships with those who have similar goals. Over time, you may want to lose weight not just for your own sake, but to ensure you don’t let the group down. Your purpose has become communal, and you feel a sense of accountability.”

Another important aspect to build momentum is the value of process. That a simple process that encourages small actions can be more powerful than a complex plan. I have been considering a simple prompt that a friend shared with me months ago:

“How can I make it better?”

This seems like the simple challenge that each of us face in our lives.

Whether these are issues of craft.
Of work/life balance.
Of interpersonal relationships.
Of lawn care.

That the goal is not “how can I fix everything and make it super awesome!”
Because that road is long and twisting. Because to reach “awesome,” is often more of a process than a destination or achievement.

For instance:

• Can you write bestselling novel after bestselling novel?
• Can you find total fulfillment in every aspect of your career and total complete peace at home?
• Can you make everyone like you?
• Can your lawn be perfect?

Honestly: probably not. Sorry.

But you can make each better. Within 30 days, you can learn how to:

• Write a better sentence.
• Feel better about specific task in your job.
• Repair one aspect of a broken friendship.
• Get 20% of your lawn 10% greener.

I’ve written in the past about how bored I have become with chasing “best practices.” (see: Why “Best Practices” Lead to Mediocre Results) That there is often a false promise in these (e.g.: “5 simple ways to make your book go viral using Goodreads!”), and that the describe things that works for a handful of people two years ago, but have since been diluted. That I’d rather see authors:

1. Be more focused on honing their craft.
2. Better understanding their audience.
3. Get clearer on the motivations and messaging that connects those two things.
4. Have meaningful conversations that lead to trusting relationships, and doing this often.

Why?

Because these are all things that were critical for success 30 years ago.
Are critical for success today.
And will be critical for success 30 years from now.

Too many people are pursuing “best practices” waiting to “go viral.” They are hoping to find some “secret” way of using Amazon that is akin to winning the lottery.

Success comes from relationships and empathy, not buttons.

Many authors are starting in a place they are slightly unsure of.
Slightly embarrassed about.
Slightly afraid of.

So they need to start one thing: make it better.

Not amazing. Not perfect. Just better than a day ago. Than a week ago. Than a month ago.

Oftentimes, this is about establishing the right habits. Perhaps it could be:

1. Write daily
2. Change one work habit that gives them an extra 15 minutes of breathing room each day
3. Have a conversation with one ideal reader each week
4. Understand one new thing about how your stories connect with that reader’s heart and mind

If you are hoping to build processes such as these into your writing life,
I just announced the next session of my 8-week online course: Get Read: Find Readers and Build Your Author Platform, which begins May 5.

Thanks!
-Dan

Your life is not Tetris. Stop trying to re-arrange the pieces so you can shove MORE stuff, more activities into it.

Working with authors, I find that many (most? ALL?!) are overwhelmed. They are trying to fit so much into their lives: writing, publishing/marketing, a day job, family, home, friends, hobbies, personal health, lawn care, and so much more. And on top of this, they are constantly hearing others tell them about other stuff they need to be doing to. Things like: “Oh, well you HAVE to be active on Pinterest too!”

… as the writer is slowly crushed under the weight of horribly arranged Tetris bricks…

So today I want to talk about the opposite of “productivity” as most people talk about it. I don’t want to “optimize your life” so you can squeeze out an additional 20 minutes of time per day that we can then shove more work into.

I want to STOP trying to spin those Tetris pieces of your life around until they fit in some inhuman form that crowds out any feeling of calm and focus.

Instead, let’s talking about honing. Focusing. Cutting away everything except that which matters most. Okay, let’s dig in…

ZERO-BASED CLEANING

My dad shared a concept with me when we had lunch recently: “zero-based room cleaning.” We were talking about the best way to organize the stuff in someone’s house in order to get rid of clutter that is in the way and completely overwhelming and unmanageable.

He got this from an economic term – zero-based budgeting. The basic idea is that you don’t go into a cluttered room and begin removing what you think you don’t need. Instead, you empty the room, you start from zero. Then you put back in ONLY what you need or love. It basically aligns to this quote:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
― William Morris

I was a huge fan of the TLC TV show “Clean Sweep,” and organizer Peter Walsh’s methodology here and in his books. Each week, the show went to the home of someone whose life was disrupted by an overwhelming amount of stuff. This was basically his process for helping them:

1. Select a room or two. Put a limit on it, don’t attack the whole house at once. Define the purpose of this room as it applies to your daily life. If multiple people live here, include everyone’s input. Be careful to not define a large main space as something that is only used for a single yearly party. The idea is to not feel overwhelmed in your daily life.

2. Remove everything from this room. In the show, they moved everything out onto the lawn. (at this point, the room would be cleaned, and perhaps painted, but that is not a necessary part of the process)
3. Sort all items into three piles: trash, sell, keep. The idea is that most of the stuff will get thrown out or sold, with just select items in the “keep” pile. This is by far the toughest part of the process, the one filled with the most difficult decisions, arguments, and emotional confrontation.
4. Only put the “keep” stuff back in, and design the room in a way that feels refreshing and useful.
5. Create systems to ensure the clutter does not pile up again. For instance, some people have a “one in, one out” rule. If someone gives their child a new toy, then one toy must be given away. Same with clothes and lots of other stuff.

This aligns perfectly to my dad’s zero-based cleaning concept. Clearly, my dad should have been a professional organizer.

SELF-IMPOSED BARRIERS THAT PROTECT US FROM THE RESPONSIBILITY OF TAKING ACTION

I have become a student of productivity, and made sweeping changes in my life during the past five years to not do more, but to do only what matters most to me and my family. The way we live is actually pretty unusual compared to most folks I know. I work from home, never step on a plane, and spend goo-gobs of time with my wife and son each day. My life is intensely focused on helping writers and spending time with my family. So much else has been cut out.

I know, you are likely thinking, “Well la-di-dah, isn’t that special for you Mr. Dan.”
🙂

But I say this to talk about the next point: that most barriers in your way are self-imposed. For many people, their lives are cluttered not just with stuff, but with obligations that don’t align to their goals, whether they are personal or professional.

An author recently mentioned that the problem she has with productivity is the “The 50+ hours a week thing.” That every single hour beyond that is an hour she begins exhausted because she puts so much creative energy into her job. So the point she is making is that she is starting with an unmoveable barrier that prevents action.

Now, there is a lot to dig into here, and my response to her was not “Well then, quit your job!” I immediately began asking about goals, and looking 3, 5, and 8 years out. Fine, you can’t move the 50 hour a week job. I get that. But what about in the future? What are your true goals? How can we take steps that pay off down the road?

The issue I have with self-imposed barriers is that they let us off the hook from the personal responsibility of taking action. The classic one is “the mortgage,” and yet, I am always driving by houses where people can’t fit their cars in the garage because it is filled with stuff. All that stuff took time to buy, to dust, to organize, and now to store. And it took time away from family, from hobbies, and likely from paying off that mortgage.

Much like zero-based cleaning, I don’t want to start with the barriers. I want to talk about goals, and about the life you want to lead. Because without STARTING there, we can’t focus your resources to make them happen. We simply justify the challenges, which justifies inaction.

THIS IS A HIGHLY EMOTIONAL PROCESS

The most amazing part of the “Clean Sweep” show was the emotional attachment people have to their stuff. That a collection of old toasters can represent someone trying to recapture the love of their mother; that a rusting lawn mower is someone’s way of honoring their grandfather; that a closet full of clothes that don’t fit is someone’s way of being in denial about their health.

What does the “stuff” in your life really represent? How does this affect your ability to take action? And where in this process are they creating barriers that prevents action.

So, I have always collected toys, and follow a bunch of YouTube channels where people review toys. I recently watched a 1.5 hour conversation between six grown men about their Star Wars collections. At one point, one of these people confessed that they collect toys today to make up for the love they never felt they received from their father. Then, one by one, similar “confessions” came out among the other folks in the video. It was incredible to watch, and nice to see how open they were about this.

Being aware of the underlying reasons why you do things is the key to changing habits.

For many people, the ultimate challenge in terms of limits on their time and energy is kids. And I will not pretend to have any easy answers for that. And from my personal observation, this is about a 100 million times more complicated for women.

This was really highlighted for me when I interviewed author Bella Andre last year:

“Our chat took place in front of a live audience online, and there was this moment where people went from being “Wow, I am super impressed with Bella,” to “This woman is not human, she is a superhuman.” That moment is when, after talking about so much of what she works on day after day, she made a casual mention of dropping her kids off at achool. You could just sense people’s jaw dropping. And one person in the audience even left a comment such as: “Well, that’s it… my excuse was kids, but now I don’t have it anymore.”

People’s reaction when the realized that Bella Andre’s passion and output was amazing, and THEN realizing she had kids too! It was unbelievable to consider someone working past these limits. Again, I will not simplify how complicated that can be, and that having very young kids is a particular kind of challenge in and of itself.

That said, limits can actually help you focus on the actions that matter most…

THE IMPORTANCE OF LIMITS

There is this false promise in “productivity” and “time management” topics that you can move past all limits. But I tend to find that limits are GOOD, and that they help make things stronger because you have to make difficult decisions of what to take action on, and what to leave out.

For instance, I am a strong believer that creative energy is the most important resource to manage, not time.

That to feel that you are meaningfully accomplishing your goals, it is not about rearranging your stuff into new and more complex storage systems. It is about carefully defining goals and limits.

This works both with “stuff,” with obligations (e.g.: the art of saying “no”), and with what fills your days and leads to a meaningful body of work.

Limits in the creative process are USEFUL. They help create great work.

WORK IN SMALL BATCHES WITH CLEAR GOALS

Work in small batches. WHAT CAN YOU GET DONE TODAY. Or this weekend. Or this week. If you are cleaning a room, don’t start a system that will require 8 weeks before the first object leaves the door. Work in small batches. (In the “Clean Sweep” example above, they selected individual rooms, and literally did all the work within three days.)

I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone made the point about what you feel the most efficient system would be to do a basic mailing of flyers: to print, fold, sort, address, and stamp the mailings. They asked people their thoughts, and most came up with the assembly line process, because it FELT more efficient. In other words: print them all, then fold them all, then stuff them all, and give one person each of the jobs. So one person is a folder, another stamp, etc.

The expert in this story said that it is actually more efficient to have each person do the mailings from start to finish in small batches. That there is a process of discovery in seeing how each part of the system works together, and that in doing so, you find any flaws in the system very early, and that efficiency actually increases.

Why do I make this point? Because small batches work, and because oftentimes what FEELS smart and efficient is actually just an illusion we try to convince ourselves of.

SOCIAL FOCUS

For some reason, social media has become a lightning rod for people feeling overwhelmed. My guess is that anything “social” brings back our adolescent attempts to try to balance being authentic, while still being validated by others. In other words: “how can I be the odd duck that I am, and not have people make fun of me?”

What I end up seeing are writers approaching social media in ways such as:

• Pretending it is useless crap, and that they are better than it.
• Diving in head first following every one of the 1,000 rules they have heard about. The result: too much talking, not enough listening.
• Doing the bare minimum (“I Tweet once per week”), and then wondering why no one is being “social” with them.
• Taking dramatic breaks from it whereby they reach nirvana. I’ve read quite a few of those “I didn’t log in to social media for a month, and am now ready to tell you the secret meaning of all life because I have reached a higher plane of existence than you. Please LIKE this wisdom on Facebook!” articles.

This is not to say I don’t believe in taking a sabbatical, I do.

But I do believe in thoughtful iteration, in eschewing best practices to ensure that meaningful connections are a result of social media, not “likes” and “retweets” and “PLEASE REPIN THIS!!!” This year, I have been reconsidering how I use social media.

That basically, I have given up on spinning 100 Tetris pieces on a dozen social networks at once, hoping to somehow “go viral.” That no, I cannot meaningfully be active EVERYWHERE my audience could possibly be. That trying to do so seemed to suck all of the enthusiasm out of why I want to connect people in the first place, resulting in loads of scheduled Tweets, postings to social networks I didn’t have the time to properly engage with, and “listening” for the purpose of finding things to ReTweet.

After a few months of “zero-based cleaning,” I now have links to three social media feeds on the top of my website:

1. A Facebook Group for writers
2. Instagram
3. Twitter

Should I also be very active on Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube? Absolutely I should. Am I? Nope. I do frequent those sites, and do a lot of listening there. But if you want to know where I engage, where I focus on being a human being on a social network, it is really limited to the three listed above.

This is my way of removing everything from a room so that I can focus on what truly matters. On not pretending there is a magical way to do everything, and instead do what creates a true body of work, and true connections with other people. On respecting limits. On encouraging emotion of empathy, not of feeling overwhelmed and social pressure to “do it all.” On caring.

I have said this before, and it is worth saying again: this is the process that seems to work for me, but may not be right for you.

That I don’t have much interest in using a brand new program that allows me to quasi-spam 15 social networks at once with every update. That the promise of these tools to “increase productivity” and have you feel clever while doing so, may not be the only option.

I love looking back at older posts on social media and consider the narrative – the body of work that is created over the course of years. The connections this creates with others, and the legacy it may leave in their hearts and minds.

That my life will not benefit by one more Tetris piece shoved awkwardly into it.

Thanks.
-Dan

So I have been working with two amazing people on creating a book giveaway, Miranda Beverly-Whittmore and Julia Fierro. It doesn’t really begin until next week, but I wanted to share a bit of behind the scenes on the process, and the value being created even BESIDES the books being given away.

So much of being a writer and launching a book is an emotional journey. It’s different for everyone, and in my role partnering with an author, I basically OBSESS about “how things feel” at each stage of the process. The goal is for every step of the process to feel meaningful. That, yes, this is a lot of work, but where the work is filled with ENTHUSIASM, as opposed to a dreaded sense of skepticism. And heck, let’s try to make it fun when we can! So that is the lens by which I am talking about everything below.

For months now, I have been sharing the the process in helping Miranda launch of her novel Bittersweet. (You can read more about that here and here and especially here.) What I love about how public we have been with the process is that I can talk so openly about not just the steps, but the emotions.

On Monday, Miranda, Julia and I begin this: “OMG! All the Books! Giveaway.” It is a daily giveaways with 24 authors, plus a grand prize winner over the course of a month.

Okay, let’s dig into what this has looked like so far…

UGH, WE HAVE TO DO A GIVEAWAY?

Yes, this whole giveaway started off with feelings of apprehension and obligation. There was a line in our book marketing spreadsheet that said “giveaway.” It’s expected, right? It’s pretty normal to see a giveaway somewhere in the book launch process. So we had listed out a bunch of obvious ideas, brainstormed months ago, and added to the spreadsheet as a placeholder.

The fear around doing a giveaway is that we will be instituting another spammy promotional thing that has to be Tweeted about endlessly. You know the drill, it’s an author’s nightmare:

Buy my book!
Enter my giveaway!
Buy my book
Enter my giveaway!
Buy my book
Enter my giveaway!

So our first goal was to have this process not suck. To have it feel like a FUN little project. I mean, if this giveaway doesn’t work at ALL, I at least want to have had some fun with it. Which leads me to…

HAVE FUN. CREATE SOMETHING UNUSUAL, AND IF POSSIBLE: BE GENEROUS

Miranda and I put off defining the giveaway until it seemed like we couldn’t do so any longer. This is our first text message thread in really trying to frame what the giveaway would be, my messages are in blue on the right, and Miranda’s on the left:

I don’t normally curse like this with clients, but Miranda and I are pretty close by now, and it was a way to illustrate that we need to brainstorm without boundaries. Just play with crazy ideas and remove the sense of fear about the process. I can’t explain why, but sometimes foul language does that. Sometimes cookies do that.

After this thread, Miranda made a comment that she went from dreading this whole giveaway idea, to feeling like it would be a fun opportunity. That was key – focusing on how it should FEEL first. Enthusiasm matters.

We began to hone in on the main concept (yes, I edited out lots of other weird ideas!) You can see us immediately thinking of Twitter hashtags for the giveaway too:

WE IMMEDIATELY MADE IT SOCIAL

With the seed of an idea, Miranda looped in Julia Fierro, and that’s when we switched from ‘Ermeghad’ to ‘OMG,’ and gave up our illusions of the “insidery-ness” of Ermeghad. Yes, this is a messy process.

Bringing in Julia, and eventually 20+ other authors was our way of making this immediately social and communal, instead of some “campaign.” Bottom line: it is more fun doing things WITH authors. The goal quickly evolved from: “How can I shout about my book” to “how can we encourage a sense of community and support with other lovely authors?”

Can I just say that Julia was just freaking amazing from the very start. She was instantly enthusiastic, and it was shocking how quickly emails were flying back and forth just pushing everything forward. In a couple of hours, I think Miranda and Julia framed the core list of 25ish authors to invite. It just came together in a flurry.

Soon after, Miranda and Julia began to invite around 25 authors to be a part of a huge giveaway idea. Here are some of the responses we received from them:

“Already this email chain has been the best part of my week.”

“Thank you for including me! I feel like I’m hanging out with the cool kids.”

“You are the BEST for doing this.”

“I am so thrilled to be a part of this, thank you for asking me.”

“The publicity team at [my publisher] is also so elated and will do anything you guys wish for this!”

“I’m really excited, and quite honored to be included with so many amazing authors.”

Again: enthusiasm matters in this process.

You can tell that just taking authors out of isolation does so much for their spirits.

Obviously, there is a flip side to this which is ‘why didn’t we invite so and so to be involved?’ Why a cap at 24? Why THESE authors? The honest truth is that this happens quickly, happens with enthusiasm in the moment, and in the end, if we left someone out, or left A LOT of people out, it is the nature of how these things come together. Sorry.

And it’s probably worth noting that this whole giveaway is entirely UNREASONABLE to do! Three people coordinating with 24 authors, all who are busy, for a total of 25 separate daily giveaways over the course of an entire month, all while Miranda & Julia are launching their own books.

But I think unreasonable is exactly what I was hoping for in this process. Because I am entirely bored of “best practices” in the book launch process. EG: expected actions that feel professional, but do very little to engage readers or make the author feel good about the process.

The “cool kids” mention from above is also worth talking about. The reality is that after this giveaway comes together, it might really seem like a “thing.” Possibly something special.

But BEFORE it happens, and WHILE we are creating it, each of us feels as isolated as everyone else. Miranda and Julia and I are all saddled with the same fear that any author has:

“How do I spread the word about this book without being an asshole.”

That basically sums it up.

And even now, before the giveaway really begins, we have no idea if it will work. This could flop in a big way, and be an enormous drain on our resources right around book launch. Who knows? We will will find out by doing.

THE BALANCE BETWEEN BEING CREATIVE AND SETTING LIMITS

Whenever I begin a project, I love finding a visual that acts as the emotional center of it. Once the “OMG! All the Books!” idea formed, I found this image, and emailed it to Miranda:

Can I explain to you why I selected THIS image, and what my intention was at the time? Nope. It just felt right. In the end, we modified it to create a single image to represent the giveaway:

And it is worth noting that there is a place for LIMITS in this process. We shot back and forth lots of ideas, and we had to reject and throw out many of them because there is a point at which some fun ideas simply bog down the process and begin to crowd the overall idea.

This is NOT a process where every fun idea is rewarded and pursued, we threw out WAY more than we moved forward with.
Boundaries are critical to the creative process.

BALANCE PERSONALITIES

In her own recap of this process, Miranda talked about the value of doing this as a team effort:

“The logistics of this giveaway—from the legal side of things, to the workflow, to the day-to-day organization—is something that neither Julia nor I would have ever had any interest in/knowledge about; frankly, it would have kept us from organizing such a thing. Meanwhile, Dan actually thinks all that is FUN (can you believe it?).”

And this is so true. At every step of the process, there was some aspect which one of us wanted to tackle, and the other two were SO THANKFUL because it was a task we dreaded.

We each have different enthusiasms and skillsets. I am constantly feeling as though I am learning so much from Miranda and Julia, they are both amazing.

As we looped in authors and the folks on their teams, we got even more feedback and enthusiasm. This allowed us to hone the idea again and again, something I feel like we will do throughout the entire giveaway.

HONESTLY, THIS HAS BEEN A GREAT DISTRACTION

Let’s face it: there is so much you can’t control about how well a book does during launch. For all the best intentions, for all of the INCREDIBLE things Miranda’s publisher is doing for her, nobody can guarantee how well the book will do in traditional terms.

We are inherently aware of that. We are preparing, but we can’t plan for success.

All this to say: there is an element of the giveaway that gives us something to control at a period in the book launch when there is very little control. And that feels good. And it keeps us busy in a GOOD way.

Above, I referenced the dreaded series of Tweets you sometimes see from authors: “Buy my book, buy my book, buy my book!” This often happens because the author does not want to feel idle during a period of time they have dreamed of for years, the book launch.

My impression is that for Miranda, this little project between three friends, and then 24 authors has been a wonderfully positive thing to focus on during an otherwise intense time period. We are still focused on the book, but it gives us something actionable to do outside of it.

SUPPORTING AUTHORS IS FUN!

Without the giveaway even beginning yet, I think we already feel as though so much value has been created. Emailing with the other authors, working with Julia, and the initial enthusiasm has been amazing. I am learning more about these books, and it feels so wonderful to feel as though you are doing anything to help these authors spread the word about their books.

Miranda and I had coffee yesterday, and she admitted there was another little benefit I had never even thought of. She hired me for the year-long process of launching the book, and this was her way of scaling my resources to a bunch of her friends and colleagues. I loved that. The idea that she was trying to generous with her own resources.

YES, THIS IS STRATEGIC TOO

It’s worth noting that YES, this giveaway IS a strategic tool for Miranda and her book launch. For instance: 20+ other authors (and their publishers and marketing teams) are now aware of who Miranda is and that her book is coming out in May.

To run the thing, we are hosting it on Miranda’s website, which means anyone who enters or even looks at the giveaway will become aware of Miranda and her book. That all of this could possibly not only raise awareness of her and her book, but encourage people to feel good about it.

Will this whole thing work? Who knows. You can stay on top of it by following the giveaway here, and by looking for updates on the Bittersweet Book Launch blog.

Thanks!
-Dan