Category Archives: writing

for people who want to write a book, tips, ideas, inspiration and methods to make their journey to published author easier, faster and more successful

MY BOOK IS WRITTEN – NOW WHAT?

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Last week I touched on how I wrote my first book. I spent an hour every day at a local shopping mall with a coffee and a 3-ring binder in which I poured out my thoughts about hiking the West Coast Trail. One thing I learned was that an author never really finishes his book; he is always rewriting, finding things to change, correcting errors, rereading and finding more changes. For more information on this process, check this out. There comes a time however, when the writer has to put their fear aside (yes, it’s fear) and determine what’s next. At first I thought that I had corrected all the grammatical and spelling issues and so it was time to find a publisher.

A friend noticed a writing contest in a local newspaper and suggested that I submit, which I did. My manuscript was typed by me and put in an envelope and shipped off to a publishing house for a writing contest for adventure stories. I’ll be damned if I didn’t win second place! I sent a letter to see if they would be interested in publishing but they declined – heart broken. Now it was time to learn how to become an author.

Spell check in Word is not editing. Handing your manuscript to a friend or family member is not editing (unless they are a professional editor) and then hopefully they will also give you back an invoice – that’s how you can tell. If you want your hard work to see the light of day, an author must put on her business suit and become a marketing expert, salesperson, production expert, lawyer, accountant, printer, layout pro, professional speaker, tinker, tailor, soldier and spy. Let’s talk for a moment about the publishing industry.

Here’s the deal – no matter how good your book, if you have to look for a publisher, your chances of success are minuscule, at best. If the publishers come looking for you, offering big advances, then you have huge name recognition and recognition translates to profit and that is what publishing is all about. Period, end of story, so to speak. Walk into a bookstore – what are they selling? Gifts, cute little stuffed animals, TV watching blankets, cards, games, and a small selection of best selling authors or authors with huge name recognition value – think Obama, Oprah, even Trump. I know for a fact that none of those people are subscribers to this website, so let’s tell it like it is, but first, this week’s

BOOMER TUNE ALERT

From a musical point of view, I was very lucky to grow up in southwestern Ontario, sandwiched between Toronto and Detroit. Yonge St. in TO was the Canadian music mecca with places like Le Coq D’Or, The Brown Derby and many other venues featuring people like Bobby Curtola, David Clayton Thomas and Rompin’ Ronny Hawkins. Detroit had Motown. Waterloo had WLU, then Waterloo Lutheran University and now Wilfred Laurier University – nice how they didn’t have to change the sign. Friday nights would see some incredible music acts from both of those locations arrive in the gym for dances, yes dances, not concerts. Here’s a blast from Martha and the Vandellas that has been covered by many others – it hit #2 on the charts when released in 1964, written by Marvin Gaye. This will get your mojo going:

The traditional publishing companies are simply not an option for 99.9% of first time writers But what a wonderful world we live in because there are options that you really need to explore after you hire a professional editor. There are associations in most locales for professional editors, many of whom will work online without the need for meeting personally – check them out. And there are very legitimate options in self publishing and assisted self publishing for you to look into.

The biggest book retailer in the world is Amazon and every author who has even the slightest idea of getting their manuscript out of the bottom drawer of their desk needs to learn about publishing on Amazon and CreateSpace. If you are ready to put on your hard hat and do much of the work of publishing yourself, then this is the major route to take. They are incredibly professional and have amazing resources available if you are prepared to take the time to learn.

I would suggest that you spend some time on Smashwords, an aggregator that makes your book available on all of today’s major retail sites like Kobo, Barnes and Noble, I-Tunes, libraries, and more. Explore the many resources that they offer for editors, cover designers, uploaders, etc. Set up an account and read their blog suggestions for self publishing your book.

Do you think that self publishing is a second class option like the publishing industry would have you believe? Here’s a list of your fellow authors who began by self publishing:

  • David Chilton – The Wealthy Barber. …
  • James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy. …
  • K.A Tucker – Ten Tiny Breaths. …
  • Michael J. Sullivan – The Riyria Chronicles. …
  • H.M Ward – Damaged. …
  • Barbara Freethy – Daniel’s Gift. …
  • Lisa Genova – Still Alice. …
  • Amanda Hocking.
  • and E.L. James – Fifty Shades of Grey – a book that my wife and daughter have told me I’m not allowed to read for some reason.

There is also a brilliant option now available called assisted self publishing in which you retain all the rights to your book (no, you don’t in traditional publishing). I will cover this in more detail next week but in the meantime, go here and read this information from Polished Publishing Group.

HOW DO YOU WRITE A BOOK?

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It’s been awhile but I got asked this week, “How did you write your book?” The best part of the question was the fact that the inquirer was actually interested in the answer which is a nice bonus. I’ve answered this question in a number of different ways in the past including actually writing a book about well, writing a book. I’ve also answered or addressed this question in various seminars, workshops and coaching sessions with aspiring authors. However, in the off chance that you, dear reader, are interested in how I wrote, THE WEST COAST TRAIL: One Step at a Time, following are some of the basic ideas of how I did it.

Now if you are not interested in how to write a book (and I completely understand and forgive you your trespasses), you might be interested in what I’m making for dinner tonight and that recipe is here. On the other hand, if you don’t read on past the recipe, you will never know what this week’s Boomer Tune Alert is. Here’s the recipe for

Pollo Alla Romano:

serves 4

  • A nice plump chicken weighing about 1.5 kg / 3 lb
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 50 g pancetta, diced (optional but I used it)
  • salt and pepper
  • a plump clove of garlic (optional – never spare the garlic)
  • a glass of dry white wine (and another for the cook)
  • 300 g tomatoes or passata
  • 4 large red peppers (I used red and yellow)

Clean the chicken and cut it into 8 eight pieces.

In a large heavy based pan fry the diced pancetta in the olive oil until it renders its fat. Add the chicken pieces skin side down and cook until the skin forms a golden crust, then turn them and fry the other side.

Add salt, several grindings of black pepper and the garlic and turn the pieces over three or four times. Add the wine and let it bubble away until most of it has evaporated.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and deseed the peppers and cut them into chunky pieces. Add the tomatoes and the peppers to the pan, stir, cover the pan and leave over a modest heat. Keep an eagle eye on the pan for the first 10 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent sticking. Once the peppers release their juices, half cover the pan and cook for another 45 minutes or until the tomatoes and peppers have collapsed into a dense, rich sauce and the chicken is tender.

Allow the pan to sit for about 15 minutes or better still a couple of hours or overnight (in which case you can just reheat it very very gently over a low flame until it is warm but not hot.) Serve with good bread and a glass of wine.

BABY BOOMERS REINVENTED

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According to a local radio station, people who listen to 70’s and 80’s music tend to set their car volume higher than other drivers (and tend to open the roof more often too!). And that brings me to the subject of Baby Boomers. An important new book has come on the scene and I have just finished reading it – you should too.

The Reinvention Equation: A boomer’s Guide to a Reinvented Life by Howard Parsons was released a week ago and I just finished reading it. It’s very easy to give this book a 5 star rating and I have done so on Amazon. As baby boomers, we have witnessed unprecedented and seismic shifts in virtually every aspect of life. The word “technology” didn’t exist when we were kids and look at how it rules every aspect of our lives today. When I was pre-teen, the closest we came to being a techno wiz occurred when we removed the glass tubes from those old wooden radios and went to a store to test them and see if they needed replacing. Communications (other than the sound of our mother’s voice when it was time to come in for dinner) consisted of stretching a piece of copper wire from the back of that same radio, across our bedrooms to a window in the hopes of picking up the rock and roll stations in New York or Chicago to listen to the Big Bopper or Buddy Holly late at night – yep, I’m older than dirt apparently.

We seem to enjoy all those little quizzes on Facebook that demonstrate our advanced years by remembering things like party lines, fountain pens, spankings and various and sundry other nonsense to show our advancing years. But there are some things that have happened to many of us that remain inside and are rarely bragged about. Most of us were sold a bill of goods about how wonderful our lives would be if we just purchased some magic elixir that promised good health, worked for the same company until retirement, remained in a relationship, raised kids, took 2 weeks vacation, bought the right insurance policy, and on and on and on. Sure, some people have created a retirement of travel, good health, great friends, enough money, peace of mind, and everything that we were promised but what about the huge majority for whom this didn’t happen?

What about those people who worked for a company or organization for 35 years only to see it close down due to the aforementioned technology changes? What about those people who sacrificed to put their children through university, care for their own aging parents and now find themselves, at age 65, without the financial means to ride off into the retirement sunset? What about those people who take a look at their current life and say, “is that all there is?”

In the Reinvention Equation, Mr. Parsons uses the examples in his own life, and the lives of his clients, to illustrate the need to make changes from the inside out. If, like the majority of us, you have not reached nirvana, have not accomplished everything you expected, have not achieved the dream that was promised and expected, there is still a way to find the life that you so richly deserve. In the book, the author shows us, step by step, the process, the thinking, the road map to bringing the dreams we hold sacred and in our essential selves into reality. We find practical advice for looking inside to discover who we really are and how to move from that deeply felt truth to live a life of fulfillment and meaning.

Many of us have had to adapt to the changing conditions of the outside world but doing so has caused us to deny the deeply held essence of our true natures. So much so, that in many cases we have completely lost touch with who we really are. Glimmers of these truths reach the surface from time to time to frustrate and confuse us but Mr. Parsons presents a road map to help us find the meaning and truth in our lives. Combining newly discovered brain science and mixing this knowledge with fundamental principles of change, Mr. Parsons presents a compelling methodology for reinvention and deep, permanent, soulful acceptance of who we truly were meant to be.

This is a must read for any baby boomer who wants to awaken to their true nature and achieve a level of personal success that rises above the mundane and reaches for a connection to their hidden spirit thus allowing their true nature the freedom of expression to fulfill a destiny that, until now, they could only long for.

You can access information on the various formats of the The Reinvention Equation here.