So what will you do with that?

I had lunch today with my mentor and friend Kevin. He asked me all about what I'm doing and how it's all working out. I launched immediately into a long answer and expressed my enthusiasm for the recent learnings I've had about myself, the work I'm doing, my strengths and some great insights I've had lately working with some of my clients.

When I finished, he smiled and linked his fingers together across the table, as though preparing to offer a prayer, paused and looked me deep in the eyes before asking: "So Maria, what exactly are you going to do with that?".

What a powerful question! I thought about it for a moment before replying, explaining how I felt I could best use the learning and do something good with it. I thought about that question all afternoon and realised that it was one of the most riviting moments of my week, if not my year. What was I going to do with it?

We should all be asking ourselves the same things, every time we reach for a new understanding of what makes something work or not, how success can spring forth from a lesson, be it big or small, and what we can best do to fully benefit ourselves from those lessons. Every day we are able to tap into other people's wisdom via blogs, articles, websites, training opportunities and even converstaions with friends, coaches, consultants, and let's not overlook the wisdom that comes from our children sometimes too. But how we choose to treat the insights and understanding we get each day can make the difference between making a difference (to our lives, our businesses or those around us) or not.

What did you learn today, or this week? Now let me ask you, what are you going to do with that before next week rolls back around?

I will spend the weekend listing the best things I learned last week, and deciding which things will impact on my week ahead, and what I shall take forward to my next goal setting session with my colleaques.

How about you?

When the Media take notice of your press releases

It's a fickle business, getting the media to take notice of your press releases. The subject line is important of course, but obviously the story you are submitting has to also be engaging and of interest to the potential readers, listeners or viewers of the publication you are targeting.

Remember, there are editors waiting for good stories to come through, but if what you are sending them is overtly self promotional then it just wont get picked up.
But when it does work, the rewards can be fantastic, and so it is definitely worth perservering with getting it right. When you have a new book coming out, and your press releases are targeted specifically to the publications that are likely to have interested followers and the information within your book is really relevant to them, you may get a call for an interview, a review of your book, or even a request for excerpts. You really can't buy this kind of publicity, and one good review or prime time interview can help sell thousands of copies.

Time to get started!

If you are thinking about getting a book to market in 2010 - now is the best time to start. It may take you anything from a month to a year to write it, and a first draft can be comfortably done within 3 months if you are focused and have time to do this. But it will take a lot longer than that to get your book edited, redrafted and finished, then ensure the typesetting and design is done properly, get reviews, finish the editing and proofing required and then print and arrange distribution.

So - what are you waiting for?
Now's the time to get started... start by thinking through what you want to write about, what research will you need to do, and how many other people may need to be involved in the writing and development process? Form a plan - set some achievable goals around your plan and then get started. Now! Don't wait - this is a BIG project, and you won't get anything happening unless you plan to tackle it all in bite sized chunks.

Need help? Call me :-)

Happy writing

Writing your book is the easy part

Did you know that more than 80% of people rate the idea of writing a book as one of their top dreams? And it's surprising easy to do once you know how to - in fact just about everyone I ever met who wrote thier first book went on to write another one because it really was so much easier than they would have thought before starting on their journey to become an author.

Once you've written it there is a whole lot of things you need to do in order to become a published author and I'm going to dedicate this blog to helping make it much easier for you the reader and would-be author to get started, get published and get some money/recognition/work from having done so.

So - step one, get an editor. I don't mean an editor who does brochures and marketing material, I mean an editor who knows books. No matter how good you think you are at writing and checking your material an editor will actually help you to groom your book, ensuring it is ready for your market, and you'll find they will also re-create a lot of your words to make it as reader-friendly as possible.

Investing in a good editor is critical - and don't be surprised if it takes more than one or two good looks at before your book is finished. Re-writes are a necessary evil for authors, but worth doing and doing well.

More on that next time...
Happy writing