Time to Write

Why the best-seller list is dead and what you can do about it

In his newsletter, Seth Godin points out that the advent of the internet and especially social media have killed the importance of the New York Times best-seller and similar lists. He writes:

"...the reason we care if something is a bestseller is because we want to know if our friends are reading it. We want to know this so we can stay in sync with them, not appear stupid, or, perhaps, because we trust their judgment. That’s why you don’t care a bit about what the bestsellers in New Zealand are.

The digital world opens a new window, something that was unknowable just five years ago. Tell me what other TED attendees are reading, please. Tell me what readers of Mother Jones or Newsmax are reading. Or what my Facebook friends bought last week. Or highlight for me what people who read what I read are finishing on their Kindles…"

This is why the Amazon "people who buy this also buy this" feature works, although it's imperfect. If you buy your aunt three books on how to crochet, suddenly you're getting lots of other crocheting books on your recommended list. I know you can remove specific books from being considered, but most people can't be bothered. 

So far, Godin says, "No one has built this list yet, it is sort of showing up around the edges of a variety of sites and services and industries. A great opportunity if you can figure out the best way to source the data and then distribute it."

If you belong to forums or groups on Facebook, Yahoo, or even if you have a reasonable size list of people to whom you send a newsletter or a blog with lots of followers, you can do a mini-version of this.

What are you reading?

Why and how is it useful to you?

What is there about it that might be useful to people who follow you? 

Hey, Jurgen, you may be saying, if that's such a great idea, why aren't you doing it consistently? After all, if people see that you're reading books that appeal to them, doesn't that make it more likely they'll buy your books as well?

Good questions, even if I had to make them up myself. Watch out for Saturday Reviews, starting next Saturday, right here on this blog. And as a little preview, here's one I made earlier...

 (Confused about how to market your product or service? Get a copy of "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," written in plain language and giving you all the steps to creating a practical marketing plan. It's written by me, published by Pearson, and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

 

Jane Austen on what not to write

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good advice, Jane Austen! You don't necessarily have to write only what you know, but it makes sense to write what interests you.

If you chase a trend or a tempting opportunity into a genre that doesn't excite you, odds are that what you write also will not excite you--or the reader or viewer.

Maybe that's why Austen wrote "Pride and Prejudice" and not "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies."

(If you'd like to learn to write from the best, get a copy of my very new book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It features writing advice from more than 100 classic and modern writers, plus my guidance on how to apply that advice to you want to write. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and you can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

Can writing be good for weight loss?

A while ago I wrote a program called "Write Light" which paired writing tips with tips about healthy eating and exercise. My theory was that the connection between the two may in many cases relate to a lack of self confidence and a lack of a creative outlet. 

I gave it to a test group and was pleased to find that the results were very good. However, it certainly wasn't a scientific study. That's why I was interested to see an article today that suggests that my theory is backed by research done by academics associated with Stanford University and Renison University College at the University of Waterloo. 

In this case 45 female students, 58% of whom were overweight or obese, were the subjects. They were randomly split into two groups. Members of one group wrote for 15 minutes  a day about the value that was most important to them. The other half were told to write for an equal period about a value far down their list that might be important to someone else. 

After four months, the members of the first group had lost an average of 3.41 pounds, while the others had gained an average of 2.76 pounds. 

The theory is that writing about their important value may have improved the women's self-image and led to less snacking and comfort eating.

One of the researchers, Christine Logel, said, "When something threatens your sense that you're a good person, like failing a test or having a fight with a friend, we can buffer that self-integrity by reminding ourselves how much we love our children, for example." 

She added, ""My dream, and my research goal, is to get this to the point where people can do it deliberately to benefit themselves."

I'm working on a new edition of the Write Light program, based on the feedback of the first group to use it, and will have it done in about two weeks. In that program you write whatever you want to write. My dream and goal also is that this daily practice may empower people to express themselves and get healthier at the same time--what a great combination.

Be productive with the mini-MAD (jan 21, 2012)

As you may know, once every couple of months I host an online MAD--Massive Action Day--for 16 hours. But next week, on Sat. 21 Jan, 2012, I am doing a mini-MAD--four hours (10am to 2pm UK time). It can still be a very productive period of time for you--and fun as usual. You can watch the wine glasses to get more info and when you're ready to sign up, you can do it here: YES, I WANT TO GO (MINI) MAD!

 

A remarkable writer who self-published because he had to.

Self-publishing has been high profile recently but it was in a video promoting Howard Fast's books that I learned that his novel Spartacus was self-published because he had been blacklisted for refusing to answer Joe McCarthy's questions during the hunt for Communists. After that, publishers refused to handle his books. 

He was sentenced to three months in prison for contempt of Congress. While in jail he researched and wrote Spartacus. Fast published and marketed the book himself, taking out display ads in newspapers, and it became a hit. 

He started his own publishing venture, Blue Heron Publishing and released several more books under its banner. 

Starting in 1960 he published mysteries under the pen name E. V. Cunningham--nineteen in all. Also in 1960, Spartacus was turned into a major Hollywood move, breaking the blacklist. (By the way, he was a Communist, but left the Party when the truth came out in 1956 about Stalin's brutal purges and show trials.)

He was an incredibly prolific writer. His work included fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, poetry--more than 80 in all. He died in 2003. Open Road is releasing many of his books in ebook form. One of them, April Morning, includes an illustrated biography of Fast. 

 Here's a 3.5 minute video about him, featuring his wife, son and daughter-in-law (Erica Jong). 

(If you want to write, join my online Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program. It starts on Jan. 16, 2012 and goes for 8 weeks, with weekly lessons, bi-weeklly phone calls, videos, audios, all designed to help ou write what only you can write. See http://WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com)

Writing Prompt: the (un)kindness of (non)smoking strangers

Do you want to keep your writing brain active, even if you’re not working on a project at the moment? Once a week I’ll give you writing prompts in three different forms: a person, object or place; a starting point, and an image.

I suggest you use one, two, or all three of these together as prompts for a micro-story (250 words or fewer). On the go? Write it on your smartphone or in a little notebook.

If you are working on a longer project, notice whether any of these gives you a new idea about some aspect of that. 

Don’t worry about making it perfect or whether it’ll get published-–although if you like it, why not publish it on your blog or send it to a friend?

The person, object or place: a charity shop (Goodwill, Oxfam, etc.)

The starting point: Someone comments on your protagonist's appearance.

 The image: 

 

 

 

 

 

(ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT TO SIGN UP: Do you want to make this the year you finally write that novel or screenplay or other project? The best way to be sure you'll know how to make time, know how to get started and keep going, and get support all along the way is to join my Writing Breakthrough Program. The best time to sign up is now--there are great bonuses for anybody who joins before the end of the year, ready to go into action on January 16. Find out more at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com)

 

 

Meet the Writing Breakthrough Strategy (1 min. video)

Here is a one minute video about the Writing Breakthrough Strategy...I think it's rather nice. And if it moves you to want more information or to sign up, go to: www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com and you can do that right away--because the Program starts on Monday, Jan. 16, 2012! 

 

She went from financial analyst to N.Y. best-selling author...can you?

Patricia Wrede was a financial analyst but had dragons and wizards on her mind. She'd been writing fantasy stories on the side, but then decided to make the risky leap to full-time writing full-time.

She sold her first novel in 1980 (Shadow Magic)  and then another four novels with the same setting. She went on to write  a four-book series, Enchanted Forest Chronicles and another series, The Cecelia and Kate novels (co-written with Caroline Stevermer), and the Frontier Magic trilogy. Her books have been New York Times best-sellers. 

Of course, if she'd been more sensible, she could be busy right now analysing why banks and whole economic systems are in melt-down, and her worlds of dragons and wizards would never have come alive. Here's part of her story:

 

If you had only 2 years to live, would you write? (She did...)

Pat Gaffney always dreamed of writing, but didn't start until she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the shadow of that diagnosis, she decided to dedicate what she thought would be her final two years to writing. Fortunately she's still with us and that decision led to (so far) twelve historical romances and five contemporary women's fiction titles. Her books have been best-sellers and won awards. Here her short (2 minute) account of what happened:

(Want to learn from the best  authors of all time--Twain, Chekhov, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jane Austen? Their advice to writers makes up the core of 'Your Creative Writing Masterclass,' my newest book from Nicholas Brealey Publishing. You can get it now from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

An interview with me by Eric Johnson on writing and the writing life

Here's what Eric Johnson, who is a coach and whose site is www.rightnowlife.com, said about the interview he did with me recently (blush, blush):

As a prolific writer and creativity coach, Jurgen is simply outstanding and holds a powerful track record of experience.  More importantly, he is a wonderful man who is more than willing to share his expertise, experiences and strategies with others.  You may be thinking, “I’m not a writer” or “The work I do is nowhere near creative.”  However, I have to tell you – LISTEN to the interview. You will learn things you’ve never heard or considered before. I know I did, and frankly I read a ton and I’m exposed to tons of teachers, experts and strategies. Writing parallels with so much in life, including business, working on making your dreams happen and overcoming adversity.  What Jurgen brings to the table is phenomenal.

Some of the topics we covered include:

• the top 3 obstacles writers face
• how to deal with your inner critic
• managing yourself during the writing process
• guiding quotes
• and a lot more. 

It will be 40 minutes well invested. I promise. Click here to listen or download.

(If you like my approach, why not pick up a copy of my book, "Your Writing Coach" or the brand new "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," -both from Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Novelist Dennis Lehane on how to be a writer

Some wise observations about the writing life from novelist Dennis Lehane ("Shutter Island," "Gone, Baby, Gone"), including why it's a good thing nobody cares about what you're writing. The video is about three and a half minutes long.

 

 

Terry Gilliam on staying independent as a writer or filmmaker

In an interview on the 99% site, writer/artist/director Terry Gilliam talked about how to stay independent as a writer or fillmaker:

“With Python we sort of had enough money to live reasonably comfortably. I've always lived within my means. I've never been in debt in my life. I refuse to because I know the minute I’m in debt, I’m then at somebody else's behest, and it's the way Hollywood works. Hollywood is very good about getting everybody out there to live richly. So they're all in debt. They've got mortgages, and they have to keep churning out whatever Hollywood wants them to make. And I can't do that.”

When I lived in Los Angeles, I was very aware of this pressure to move up to a bigger house with a bigger pool as soon as you had some success, and to keep moving—generally, just a bit faster than your income.

Once I had a carpenter working on my house who told me about one of his clients, a TV actor who landed the lead in a sitcom. The minute he got the part, he bought a much bigger house. Unfortunately for him, the show was cancelled after six episodes and he was forced to sell the house quickly at a loss.

You may think you’d never be tempted, but once you enter that world, this kind of thing is the norm and it’s hard to resist. Actually, it's true at most income levels, the mantra is consume, consume, cosume!

Maybe because we were quite poor when I was growing up and my father made it a point of pride never to be in debt, I’ve always adhered to a saying that was attributed to a playwright who was lured to Hollywood to write scripts. He knew how quickly a studio that said you were the greatest thing since sliced bread one day could fire you the next. His advice to a fellow playwright turned screenwriter: “Never lose your taste for cheap food.”

That’s served me well. I still like peanut butter sandwiches and pizza (not necessarily at the same meal). That playwright's advice might be worth writing it down somewhere you’ll find it when that first really big check hits your mailbox.

(There are more tips about the writer's life in my book, "Your Writing Coach," available in paperback and as a Kindle ebook.)

The bully that tried to blackmail writers is down for the count

You may have heard about a company called Righthaven, that sued 275 bloggers and small for supposedly infringing on copyrighted material to which Righthaven had the rights. In fact, Righthaven made deals with newspapers, notably the Las Vegas Review-Journal, to give them the rights to old articles and photos once they saw that bloggers had copied or excerpted them. They threated to sue the bloggers and demanded ridiculously high out-of-court settlement fees. Presumably the newspapers either were paid a fee or were cut in on the proceeds.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is published by Stephens Media. An affiliate of Stephens Media owns half of Righthaven. Court papers showed that Stephens Media was in for half of the proceeds of these cases, after expenses. 

Other papers, including the Denver Post, came on board and Righthaven got very busy. Bloggers who were its target said the company used intimidation tactics to get them to pay. 

The Daily Online Examiner reports that "the defendants included a 20-year-old autistic blogger and a political site that excerpted five sentences of a 50-sentence news article..." They "generously" offered to let the chronically ill blogger, Brian Hill, off the hook for $6000. Hill and his mother both live on disability. 

Many bloggers didn't have the funds to pay to fight the cases in court and were too frightened not to pay. Fortunately eventually a number of lawyers and public interest groups stepped up and helped defend some of the cases. 

Last summer, judges took a closer look at the contracts Righthaven had with newspapers and found that Righthaven lacked standing to sue because it didn't obtain all of the rights to the newspapers' articles, including the right to license them. It also ruled that one of the cases was fair use and ordered Righthaven to pay the blogger's $64,000 legal bill. 

The court attached the company's bank account--which was found to contain less than $1000. The court ordered Righthaven representatives Steven A. Gibson and his wife Raisha "Drizzle" Y. Gibson to appear before the court on Jan. 5 to testify under oath about the location of the company's assets.

A judge ordered the auctioning-off of the company's domain name (will anybody really want it?) and Righthaven has also been ordered to sign over "any and all" copyrights they own. They've refused, saying since the courts found they didn't really own the copyrights there's nothing to sign over. They've also filed an appeal. 

Once in a while the good guys do win. 

Why your book will never be finished

It used to be that when your novel or non-fiction book was published you wouldn't have a chance to change anything unless the publisher decided to issue another edition. Of course they don't really like to do that until the first edition is close to selling out, so usually this is a matter of at least a couple of years.

That's all changing with the advent of ebooks. Nicholas Carr recently wrote about this on the Wall Street Journal Books site. He published a book of essays using the Kindle Direct Publishing service.

He writes, "Then I got the urge to tweak a couple of sentences in one of the essays. I made the edits on my computer and sent the revised file back to Amazon. The company quickly swapped out the old version for the new one."

He points out, "The endless malleability of digital writing promises to overturn a whole lot of our assumptions about publishing."

It's good for updating books about things that change rapidly, and in fiction for correcting the mistakes that sharp-eyed readers are wont to notice and point out to you, often gleefully. 

It's hard to tell the effect it will have on perfectionists who previously avoided finishing their books. Will they now finish them but make changes every ten mintutes, or will the knowledge that they COULD make changes if necessary reduce their need to actually do it?  It could go either way.

At any rate, it's one many changes we're going to adjust to as the nature of publishing continue to change at rapid pace. 

 

Writing Prompt: Be a good egg and get that phone! Or maybe not...

Do you want to keep your writing brain active, even if you’re not working on a project at the moment? Once a week I’ll give you writing prompts in three different forms: a person, object or place; a starting point, and an image.

I suggest you use one, two, or all three of these together as prompts for a micro-story (250 words or fewer). On the go? Write it on your smartphone or in a little notebook.

If you are working on a longer project, notice whether any of these gives you a new idea about some aspect of that. 

Don’t worry about making it perfect or whether it’ll get published-–although if you like it, why not publish it on your blog or send it to a friend?

The person, object or place: an egg

The starting point: Your protagonist's phone is ringing but he or she doesn't answer it.

 The image:  

 

 

 

 

(NOW'S THE TIME, WE START IN TEN DAYS: Do you want to make this the year you finally write that novel or screenplay or other project? The best way to be sure you'll know how to make time, know how to get started and keep going, and get support all along the way is to join my Writing Breakthrough Program. The best time to sign up is now--there are great bonuses for anybody who joins before the end of the year, ready to go into action in mid-January. Find out more at http://www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com)