Time to Write

How to market yourself (with or without a grand piano)

A few years ago I wrote a book called "Do Something Different" that featured 100 case studies of people who found inexpensive and innovative ways to market their products or services (you can find it on Amazon). I'm still on the lookout for good examples of guerrilla marketing by creative people so I enjoyed the story of Teresa Peterson.

She was stationed near a security checkpoint at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, playing a grand piano and singing--and selling copies of her CD. Actually, it was her husband who stood by and sold the CDs. As related on Dan Poynter's blog, she had been hired to play it as entertainment in the past and then hit on the idea of free concerts in exchange for being allowed to sell her CDs.

She wasn't getting rich--one afternoon they grossed $180 from selling ten CDs. But she hoped that she might get noticed by somebody connected to the music business. And she was doing what she loved, so why not?

That's a great attitude. I'm not sure how writers could duplicate this--maybe hand out sample chapters or even free copies of their books?

Or if they are children's authors, maybe do a story time in the kids' section and have their books for sale there as well?

It would require the permission and cooperation of the airport authorities. Most of the time I'm as guilty as most other people of just assuming "they'd never allow that" or "they'd never be interested in that." People like Teresa Peterson are a reminder that we need to keep challenging our assumptions if we want things to happen.

(You can get "Do Something Different" as well as "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers--why not order one or both from your local independent book store?)

 

MIchael Bierut on how to solve creative problems

Graphic design star Michael Bierut claims he's not creative, he just likes to solve other people's problems. Over his career he's kept notebooks, he's up to 86 now. In this 19-minute video he shares the process he used to solve five design problems. If you enjoy learning how others solve creative problems you'll probably find this interesting. The key concepts include that sometimes the obvious solution is the best one, the solution often is contained in the problem, there is an advantage to indulging your obsessions, and that love is the answer.

(In case you can't play the video below, the link is: http://the99percent.com/videos/6056/michael-bierut-5-secrets-from-86-notebooks.

 

 

When you should Just Say No (for writers & other creatives)

There's a poem called "The Art of Disappearing" by Naomi Shihab Nye that appears on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor. It's basically about learning how to say no to other things so you have time to write. I particularly liked this stanza:

When they invite you to the party 

remember what parties are like before answering.

Someone telling you in a loud voice

they once wrote a poem.

Greasy sausage balls on a paper plate.

Then reply.

You can read the whole poem HERE. You may even want to print it out and post it near the door!

I don't particularly like that question that when you're on your deathbed, what will you wish you had done more of...on my deathbed I think I'll be wishing I'd had a better doctor. But it's true that our time is finite and if you don't get around to writing what only you can write, you may regret saying yes to too many other things that ultimately are less important. 

(My online Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program has helped lots of people set and achieve their writing goals--it can help you, too. Get the details at www.jurgenwolff.com.)

 

When you shouldn't agree to a radio or TV interview

A reader emailed me to say she had received a phone call asking her to be a guest on a radio talk show. Pretty exciting, right? Well, it was until they got to the catch.

The "producer" said they charge an appearance fee.

Wait a minute--when you appear on TV or the radio you're supposed to GET an appearance fee (sometimes), you're not supposed to pay one. Actually most talk shows don't pay their guests--but they certainly don't charge them, either.

 It turns out this was a radio station where the program hosts pay to be on the air and, in turn, this host was trying to cover his expenses by getting his guests to pay to talk about their book or other project. 

 Is it worth it? Almost certainly not. First, most shows like that have a tiny audience. Sometimes it may just be the host's mother and close friends. Generally these shows are on at weird hours that stations can't fill profitably any other way because nobody's listening. And even if the show is on during prime time, how many people are likely to be listening to it rather than watching "Glee"?

I had an experience with this a few years back when I hired an dodgy publicist (of course I didn't know he was dodgy when I hired him). He got me onto a radio station for an interview, to show that he was earning his fees. Only later did it come out that he'd paid the host--and that it was a show with miniscule listenership. 

If someone wants to interview you, the deal is that you provide information or entertainment and they provide the airwaves or the magazine space--no money should be changing hands. If you are offered a deal that requires you to pay, just say no.

(For tips on how to legitimately promote your book, see my book "Your Writing Coach," available from your local book shop or Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)

 

Are you ready to disrupt?

At Mashable.com Luke Williams wrote about "how to develop ideas that will disrupt your industry." 

One of his key points is that although everybody says the way to prosper is to identify a problem and solve it, there are many successful ventures that don't do this. His example is "Little Miss Matched," a company that sells mis-matched socks in sets of three, a quirky fashion statement that has led to six retail stores employing more than 150 people. Nobody was saying, "You know what really bothers me? I can't find a place to buy mis-matched socks." 

Taking this notion into our own field of writing and other creative ventures, it seems to me that one way to do this is to ask what's working pretty well and figure out how to either improve it or, probably more easily, piggyback on it. Let's brainstorm some examples (feel free to join in!):

AMAZON is working very well indeed. Their recommendations tend to be a bit patchy, especially if you buy books for friends with interests different from yours. So what about a very narrowly niched site that reviews and recommends books to others who share your specific interest? The narrower the niche the better, because you'll be able to be comprehensive and you won't be competing as much with review sites that cover a broader range.

Is there money in this? Maybe, if you become an Amazon Associate and get the commissions or if you are able to generate ad revenue from your site. Examples of niches would be: vampires (too big a niche), teen vampires (still too big), romantic teen vampires (now we're getting there). If the niche happens to be the one that fits your book as well, you'll be attracting potential readers for yourself.

Side note: I thought it would be easy to pick three or four aspects of the creative industries that are doing well, but it's taking a depressingly long time to come up with them...OK, I have another one:

READING GROUPS are doing well. Publishers have started providing discussion guides for their best-selling books, sometimes even within the book itself, but these tend to remind people of high school or college class topics. Could there be a market for online quirky guides that suggest how to relate the books' topics to the group in a more fun way? Once you've established contact with these groups naturally you'll want to tell them about your own book (do you see a pattern emerging here?).

FREE is doing really well on the web. Everybody wants everything for free, if possible. A friend offered one of his information products for "whatever you care to pay." Guess what the favorite choice was? Yep, most people cared to pay nothing. But one thing that hasn't been tried much online is barter (at least as far as I know). If you have a valuable course or service could you ask people what they are willing to barter for it? For instance, their own expertise or x number of hours of virtual assistance online? Hmm, I might try this one with my Writing Breakthrough Program...

You get the idea. What's working in your field? How could you improve, add on, or vary it to your advantage? 

 (There are lots of ideas on how to be more creative in my book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)

 

How to have a good idea? Start with a bad one. (Why "No Ordinary Family" needs this)

In the Wall Street Journal, "Dilbert" Creator Scott Adams writes that we need a good new idea to save the world. He includes this observation:

 "Try to imagine that the idea that saves the country is an entirely new one. It's too much of a stretch to imagine that a stale idea would suddenly become acceptable. In fact, that's the dividing line between imagination and insanity. Only crazy people imagine that bad ideas can suddenly become good if you keep trying them."

 Oh, if only more people, both inside and outside of government, believed that. Anyway, he also adds this about how to come up with good ideas:

"I spent some time working in the television industry, and I learned a technique that writers use. It's called "the bad version." When you feel that a plot solution exists, but you can't yet imagine it, you describe instead a bad version that has no purpose other than stimulating the other writers to imagine a better version."

That really rang a bell. I also spent some time in the TV industry and occasionally still do, and this phenomenon does play a big role. You always protect yourself by saying, "This isn't right, but what if--" And you come up with an approximation, something that may or may not be close to being workable. Spurred by the obvious incompetence of your idea (but also stimulated by some element of it) the others then chime in with their also "not right" ideas, and often a right idea emerges. Or you get so tired that you accept the best of the "not right" ideas. 

Digression: I'm guessing the exhaustion factor was at play when the pilot episode of "No Ordinary Family" was written. I watched this last night. It's about how a normal family suddenly develops superpowers.  The father gets shot at the police station where he works but the bullet just bounces off him. He decides to test his new powers by going to a batting cage where you can have baseballs shot at you at high velocity. He sets it to maximum and easily catches the balls and doesn't get hurt when one hits him. Then his friend, who is a cop, shows up and our new super man comes up with this idea: his friend should shoot him. Why? Just to be certain this super thing is really effective. OK. Time out. He's already been shot once, so basically he knows the answer already. But let's say he's not sure...in which case getting shot would kill him. We now go to the writers' room, where a long working session is in progress:

 Writer: "This isn't right, but what if he asks his cop friend to shoot him?"

 Story Editor: "Wait a minute, if he's in doubt that would be incredibly stupid. And if he's not in doubt, why bother?"

 Producer: "Yeah....god, is that the time? I have to get home or my wife will kill me. Go ahead and use that shooting friend thing."

 Apparently things don't improve (the show has been on a while in the US, it just started here in the UK). One of the reviews on imbd.com says, "I'm about 6 episodes in and I can't stop yelling, "Are you stupid? Why would you do that?" I'm sorry to insult all the people who like this show, but this show is made for people who don't think."

 Do use bad ideas to spur your thinking but don't stop short of a good one. If it makes you uncomfortable to come up with bad ideas intentionally, invent an imaginary friend (why should only kids have the fun?) and make him or her someone who comes up with only bad ideas. Present your problem, imagine a bad idea coming from your IF and riff off that. 

 Hey maybe the writers of "No Ordinary Family" could come up with an IF who thinks of only GOOD ideas.

 You'll find 75 ways to be more creative in my book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other online and off line booksellers.

 

Red Alert: Tate Publishing - update

This post ran a few days ago--at the end please see the update:

The other day I ran across a reference to a book published by Tate Publishing. I'd never heard of them so I looked them up (this is not the U.K. arts publisher of the same name, this one is based in the U.S.).

Tate bills itself as a traditional royalty paying publisher, but the twist is that they market your book and--this is the interesting bit-- "We do expect any author who signs with us to have a full-time publicist. Authors do not have the access or the insight into the publishing world that publishers and book promoters possess. It is also very unprofessional for an author to promote themselves or their books to buyers, promoters, retail chains, etc. Having a publicist is essential in order to achieve the optimum success in this industry."

Who will this publicist be? Why, one of theirs. And who will pay for this full-time publicist? Why, you.

They also say they will do a 15-second commercial for your book on national television...and then they invite you to submit a request for information about the "author-investment contract."

I wonder at what times of day or night the 15-second spots run...in what kinds of TV stations. Is it too cynical to ask whether it's at 4am in a series of tiny TV stations?  Certainly the sample they have on their site, presumably their best example, is underwhelming--extremely simple animation with a voice over for a children's book. 

They do have quite a few testimonials that praise the attention the authors received, although none of them refer to the level of success they've had in actually selling their books. And the spelling mistakes in the testimonials raise some questions about the authors' skill level or the publisher's commitment to proofreading.

It's that "author investment" reference that really is a red flag. I turned to the excellent Writers Beware blog (my go-to source on anything like this) and, sure enough, Tate appears on their two big "thumbs down" list. Suspicions confirmed! They--and I--recommend you stay away from the kind of arrangement Tate demands. 

***

Amanda Soderburgh added a comment--since comments are kind of out of view, I thought it more fair to add her comments here: "As an acquisition editor with Tate Publishing, I wanted to drop a quick note regarding the inaccurate information posted here. Dr. Tate, founder of Tate Publishing and Chairman of the Board, has been trying to contact Mr. Wolff to clarify these issues. If anyone has any questions regarding Tate Publishing, please feel free to contact us. Amanda Soderberg Tate Publishing 405-376-4900 www.tatepublishing.com"

Unforunately Ms Soderburgh doesn't say what is inaccurate. Dr Tate did reach me via email and I have been in touch with him and invited him to specify in writing what he feels is misleading and told him I will be happy to post his reply.

He answered me immediately, saying he's on the road at the moment but will respond shortly. He also generously invited me to go to his company's headquarters in Oklahoma, at their expense, to see the work they are doing. Until we have his answers, you can find many more interesting opinions about the company at the absolutewrite.com forum: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=992

(For guidance on writing your book, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and get the free writing tips on my blog, www.TimetoWrite.blogs.com and the site, www.TimetoWrite.com.)

 

A novelist's secrets: research and 2 voices

Deborah Harkness's "A Discovery of Witches" is a best seller these days. In an interview at bookreporter.com she mentioned something that came up recently in an email I received from an aspiring writer, namely the use of two different voices. Here's what Harkness said about that:

"Early in the process of writing the book I realized that vampires must be secretive and protective creatures. For Matthew, this means he has both a strong instinct to hide from Diana's questions and a need to protect her from threats. The only way to show that dynamic in Matthew (without making the reader very impatient with him) was to take Diana out of the picture temporarily and show him interacting with others who knew him in other ways. Since Diana is the first-person narrator, this caused some problems that omniscient narration solved. I think the combination of the two narratives works surprisingly well and gives the reader the immediacy of Diana's experience along with some answers to their questions about Matthew."

She also talked about the research process: "I definitely see my historical work as a process of detection. Historians fit pieces of evidence together and hope that they eventually form a coherent picture. Often, a historian's most compelling questions --- and the most difficult to answer --- concern personal motivations and why something happened the way it did. These are questions we have in common with detectives. Fiction is more like alchemy, though. You take a little of this, a little of that, combine it, and hope that something wonderful occurs so that your creation is greater than the sum of its individual parts. Novelists, like the alchemists of old, know that true creation takes time and patience, and that it's likely you will have many disasters and failures before you achieve success."

 If you'd like help making sure you get your book written, join my online Writing Breakthrough Program. Get details at www.jurgenwolff.com.

 

When you need some new ideas for your writing (or inspiration in general)

I'm always keen to be exposed to new ideas and one site that features inventions, designs and creative ideas and products is www.iNewIdea.com.

These don't usually have anything to do with writing as such, but just seeing some of the innovative (and sometimes rather bizarre) stuff that people come up with might spark new ideas in yourself. Not that I think they're all great ideas...for instance, here's the teddy bear blood bag...

I guess this is supposed to cheer up a child who is having a transfusion, but if I were a kid would I feel better as I watched the blood slowly draining out of the teddy bear...?

On the other hand this simple reworking of a tissue box is charming.

(Ps: In my original post, I had the wrong web address for this--it's iNewIdea.com--I'd left off the i) - j.

The writer who made millions--and the woman who got none

Maybe this story should be called "The Man Who Should Have Written a Will." As you may have read, Stieg Larsson died without a will and under Swedish law his money goes to his blood relatives, not Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of more than 30 years. Of course he had no idea that his trilogy, starting with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," would sell more than 40 millions copies (and counting) and earn hundreds of millions.

An article in the Independent says that the manuscript for the first book was submitted to a Swedish publisher back in 2003 and never read. Somebody has a red face right about now.

Later a different publisher bought all three books for an advance of €64,000 (£54,000/$86,000). That doesn't sound so bad as a lump sum, but when you think of it per book--€28,000/ £18,000 / $28,000--it doesn't presage the enormous success the books had. 

 Ms. Gabrielsson has now written a book (so far published in France and Sweden) recounting their life together, the background of the books, and her contributions to his writing and she's suing his relatives not, she says, so much for the money as to protect his legacy. 

 There are two morals to the story: one is you never know what might turn into a huge hit; the other is, be sure you have a will.

(for great advice on writing your novel or non-fiction book, get my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey. For more free tips go to www.TimeToWrite.com.)

 

RIP Borders books (probably)

Borders Books UK went bust a while back, now the US Borders has declared bankruptcy, is closing about a third of their stores, and hopes that with an injection of new funds it can transform its fortunes by focusing more on ebooks and non-book merchandise. Yes, soon they'll be cafes and stationery and toy stores with a book area attached.

 In the press Borders' plight is blamed largely on Amazon and the popularity of ebooks. Of course those are two huge factors but having visited a lot of Borders stores both here and in the US, I think there's another reason: they weren't very good. The shelves often were in disarray, with piles of books on the floor and staff members who seemed not to care very much. That's not good enough in the best of times and of course we are not in the best of times. 

 Even so, it's sad to see the demise of any book store, much less hundreds of them. All we can hope for now is the resurgence of independent book stores that cater to people who love physical books, staffed by people who read...kind of like the record shops that still sell vinyl. And for us readers it will mean being willing to spend a few dollars or pounds or euros more at those places rather than opting for Amazon all the time. 

 

Should writers and artists expect to make money? (Francis Ford Coppola says...)

In an interview with Ariston Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola expressed what is doubtless going to be a controversial notion about artists. Actually, first a view that unfortunately isn't very controversial:

 "You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money."

 And now the other bit:

 "You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script. 

 This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money? "

 I agree with that up to a point--that point being, if somebody else is going to make money from what the artist produces, the artist should share in that bounty. 

 The cool thing is that these days making a film is possible very very cheaply, as is distribution via the internet or on DVDs, which cost pennies to duplicate. Obviously this is more the case if your taste runs to smaller-scale stories, but even with special effects people have created amazing things with a home computer and some basic software. And it's ironic that after making blockbuster, expensive pictures like "The Godfather," Coppola is back to making self-funded small movies. Kind of inspirational...time to get that wine business started!

(If you're interested in writing scripts, see my site, www.ScreenWritingSuccess.com for lots of tips and ideas.)

 

 

A different way to advertise a book!

Here's a different approach to a book ad/trailer, as reported in The Independent: "On Italian TV, The Female Labyrinth by A.L. Marra, a dull-sounding treatise on economics and banking, has had an unusual endorsement. It has been praised on camera by Karima El Mahroug, aka "Ruby the Heartstealer", the dancer in the Berlusconi trial. Ruby stands by a digital pack-shot of the book, wearing a red dress – but as she starts to speak, a Phantom of the Opera figure runs up and rips it off, leaving her to discuss the book's virtues in her bra and pants."

You can see it below...maybe when your next book is ready you can hook up with Victoria's Secret...

E. L. Doctorow on why you won't know what's happening in your novel at the start

Here's E. L. Doctorow talking entertainingly about writing (introduced by George Plimpton, 2000, length is about 12 minutes).

He reveals how perfectionism made a note to his children's teacher one of his hardest tasks...

He also talks about writing in two voices in his novel "World's Fair" and how long it takes to write a novel and the reassuring fact that for the first few months of writing a novel "you don't know what's happening."

I can also relate to his feeling that it may be best to avoid experience...

 I can't embed the interview but here's the link:

 http://www.theparisreview.org/audio/5258/the-art-of-fiction-no-94-e-l-doctorow

 

 

How a light bubl can make you more creative

Here's a weird creativity study as reported on the Live Science site: "To see if light bulbs could actually promote insights, Slepian and his colleagues [at Tufts University] gave college students spatial, math and verbal problems to solve and had either a bare light bulb or an overhead fluorescent light turned on in the room partway into the problem. The volunteers either solved the problems faster or more often with the light bulb than with the fluorescent light."

 These were not trivial differences, either. In one case the light bulb people solved a problem twice as often as the fluorescent light people, in another they solved 70% more problems.

 Another experiment compared a shaded bulb to a naked bulb. Advantage: naked bulb. 

The conclusion is that the influence is the symbolic value of a naked light bulb rather than the type of lighting. The report says, "This kind of so-called "priming effect" has been seen before in psychology — for instance, when shown artifacts from the business world, such as briefcases, people play economic games more competitively, and exposure to the American flag triggers aggressive behavioral tendencies among regular news watchers, due perhaps to how the United States is often linked in the news to attacks both against and from other parties."

 Hmm, look at the graphic above. Feel more creative yet?

(One thing that's sure to make your more creative is using the methods in my book, "Creativity Now!"--you can get it from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers right now.)