Tag Archives: advice for writers

lifestyle

The Not-So-Lavish Lifestyle and the Printers Row Lit Fest

First things first…I recently asked folks to take a one-question survey to share what they like about freelancing (see “The Lavish Lifestyle of a Freelancer” on May 18).

Here are the top five answers:

#1 answer (a tie): “I’m my own boss” and “Ability to set my own schedule”

#3: “Variety of work”

#4 (tie): “Working from home” and “Satisfies my inner entrepeneur”

The least selected answer? “The lavish lifestyle!” Go figure.

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Printers Row Lit Fest June 4-5

If you happen to be in the Chicago area this weekend, check out the Printers Row Lit Fest, formerly known as the Printers Row Book Fair. It is the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest. More than 125,000 book lovers are expected to attend the two-day showcase. And if you happen to be at Lit Fest on Sunday afternoon between 2:00 – 4:00, please stop by the Chicago Writers Association tent, where I will be signing copies of The Note, and talking with folks about the Note Project. (Tell me you read about Lit Fest on Freelance Zone and I’ll give you a free DVD!)

Mike O’Mary is author of The Note, a book about the power of appreciation and how a simple note can change a person’s life. He is also founder of the Note Project, and of Dream of Things, a book publisher and online bookstore.

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The Pay Off

by Mike O’Mary

In 2009, I started a book publishing company called Dream of Things. A month later, I started doing posts on Freelance-Zone. Since then, I’ve periodically shared thoughts and stories about publishing in this space that are different than what I share elsewhere. FZ sort of feels like home to me (or at least one of several “homes” on the Internet), so it’s nice to come here and kick off my shoes and talk about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff.

Most of the behind-the-scenes stuff is hard work done over a lot of hours. But I’m not going to rehash that today. Instead, I’m going to share some of the rewards of the hard work. What’s the payoff?

The past month was pretty good in terms of pay off, in emotional reward if not yet financially.

For example…

Dream of Things published a memoir called Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera. I read Dina’s manuscript in January 2010. I edited her book in the spring and released it in October 2010. Ten months is a ridiculously short amount of time from acceptance to release. It was a lot of work in a short period of time. The payoff this past month: Dina did a reading in Los Angeles in April, and several people expressed an interest in the movie rights. I’m bringing her to Chicago for book readings/signings in July. I hope we will be able to announce a movie deal between now and then.

NAUTILUS SILVER - BESTOn January 1, 2011, Dream of Things released a book about creative writing called MFA in a Boxby John Rember. John’s book didn’t require a lot of editing. It was more of an assembly job. He had the material — from craft talks given at the Pacific University MFA program over many years. We started talking about the book in 2009, then worked on it in earnest from May to December 2010. Again, a lot of hard work in a very short period of time. The payoff: Publishers got a “heads up” in April from several awards programs, many of which plan to announce official results at BookExpo America in New York the third week of May. I can’t reveal details yet, but I can tell you that MFA in a Boxwill be recognized by the judges of the Nautilus Awards, the Hoffer Awards, the Midwest Book Awards and possibly two others.  Such awards are very gratifying emotionally, and they can help garner the attention to make a book a financial success, too.

Living Now GoldThe other “payoff” good news in April was about one of my own books. The Note is a book I wrote about the power of appreciation and how a simple note can change a person’s life. It’s the book behind the Note Project, a campaign to inspire 1 million people to write notes of appreciation. The Note Project launched on April 18, and I was very pleased to learn on April 21 that The Note has been named Best Gift Book of 2011 in the Living Now Book Awards.

So all in all, April was a pretty good month. I tell you all of this not to be boastful, but to remind you and myself that hard work does, in fact, pay off. We all know that, but we all also go through times where we wonder “what’s the point?’ and “is this worth the effort?” There have been many times in the past two years when I told myself I was nuts for starting a publishing company and doing all of the related work. But having people inquire about movie rights and having peers in the publishing industry recognize your work…that’s the kind of news that will keep you going for at least a couple of more years and several more books.

Mike O’Mary is owner of Dream of Things, and founder of the Note Project.

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Anatomy of a Launch

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by Mike O’Mary

NoteProject 72 dpi 200x93For much of the past year, I’ve been laying the groundwork for something called the Note Project. It officially “launches” on April 18, but for all practical purposes, it’s up and running now. If you haven’t already visited the Note Project website at http://NoteProject.com, please take a minute to do so. There are a couple of good reasons for you to take a look if you are a writer.

The first reason is that the Note Project involves writing. In this case, it’s about writing notes of appreciation. It’s a project that was inspired by a note I received from my youngest sister, thanking me for something I did years ago. My goal is to encourage and inspire other people to share notes of appreciation. There’s no cost to participate, so if you want to help the cause (and make someone in your life feel appreciated), please take a moment to pledge to send a note. Your pledge will count toward our goal of 1 million notes, which we believe will “make the world a million times better.” And if you really like the idea of the Note Project, you can support us by purchasing an optional “Note Project Starter eKit” for $1. You’ll get a lot of helpful tips and inspiration for your dollar, and a share of the proceeds will be donated to support literacy projects around the world. You can also donate directly to the literacy projects if you’re not interested in an eKit.

The second reason I recommend that writers check out the Note Project is that this project has much in common with a book launch. In fact, the person who is managing the launch of the Note Project specializes in campaigns aimed at getting new books onto Amazon bestseller lists. Continue reading Anatomy of a Launch →

Business, editorial, Marketing yourself

Expert Marketing (aka The Tabatha’s Salon Takeover Model of Success)

This is the first in a new column, Marketing-Zone: Marketing Yourself and Your Book, by newest regular contributor, Diane Holmes of Pitch University. She’ll alternate this column with Fiction-Zone:  Leaps in Fiction Mastery.

tabatha taking over

How do you plan on being successful in marketing yourself or your book?   (And let’s measure success by actual sales or dollars.)   If you’re already published, tell me about your next project and how you’ll be successful marketing that.

Come up with an answer.  Got it?  Okay, good. I bet most of you thought of a solution that involved…

(1) doing “something” like a website or blog, or maybe having a Facebook page or doing other things you’ve seen done,

(2) asking another writer in your writer’s group/community for advice, or

(3) going to a writer’s workshop or seminar to listen to a multi-published writer teach about what she or he did.

I’m often surprised by how many writers never think to involve experts in their careers, except in a very passive way (where we read or listen, while someone teaches us “something” in general and not about our specific book or platform).   And I love all my pubbed peeps, but I also know that few multi-published writers are marketing experts, who can speak to repeatable processes and best practices of the current industry.

DIY

We are so stuck in the do-it-yourself nature of freelance careers (for fiction writers, it’s writing on “spec and a prayer”), where you learn your profession while alone in a room at home, and we stay in that loner mode.

Our resources are ourselves and other writers. Heck, if we involve anyone outside ourselves, it feels like we’re learning from experts!

But let me put this into perspective by invoking  “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” a TV reality show were business-savvy Tabatha Coffee “takes over” failing salons and figures out what’s wrong.

And honey, it’s always the same thing. Someone, who pretty much has no business running a salon and leading people, had money and bought a salon.  And then, when business and people imploded, the solution was to (a) keep doing the same thing, (b) say they’re no good at being a manager, and (c) take out a second mortgage.

The thing they never do?   Continue reading Expert Marketing (aka The Tabatha’s Salon Takeover Model of Success) →

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The Revolution Continues…

by Mike O’Mary

Crime Spree Mag coverTwo weeks ago, I talked about the revolution in the book publishing industry. No big secret, right? Everybody knows that we are in the midst of a major shift from print to digital in the publishing industry. And everybody is speculating about what that means for the “industry” – from the big publishing houses to indie publishers to agents to best-selling authors (who are now passing on six-figure advances because they don’t want to give up their digital rights!) to self-published authors (who would probably gladly give up their digital rights for a six-figure advance!).

Below are links to a couple of really great recent blog posts about changes in the publishing industry, and about the possible ramifications. Read them when you have a few minutes, but then come back because I have some really exciting news for freelancers, even if you’ve never written a book and never plan to… Continue reading The Revolution Continues… →

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The Revolution in Publishing

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by Mike O’Mary

How many of you have tried to publish a book and been rejected? As an author, I was rejected many times. It’s not fun.

As a small (three books last year), indie publisher of other authors, I can also tell you that it’s not fun to reject book proposals — especially proposals for good ideas by some very good writers. But I have to reject books anyway. Part of it is due to limited resources (mainly my time). But part of it is also a matter of knowing my limitations when it comes to marketing and selling books. It’s hard enough to sell books that are in my area of expertise (short creative nonfiction and memoir). It would be really hard — and ultimately disappointing for the author — for me to try to sell books that target other audiences. So I don’t do it. Even if it’s a really good book.

Sometimes I will direct the author to another publisher that might be a good fit. But more and more, I am tempted to give this advice (and you are hearing it here on Freelance-Zone first!): Do it yourself. Continue reading The Revolution in Publishing →