Becoming the Trusted Authority

I just watched the first of three free videos by Greg Habstritt, about becoming a successful entrepreneur.  I felt at first that it wasn’t relevant to me, because I am a writer not an entrepreneur.  However, because I self-published my book I was forced to learn about marketing and business.  I wondered if watching his video wasn’t just yet another distraction to keep me from working on my novel.  I could have turned it off, especially as it was half-way before he said anything pertinent to me.

The difference with successful entrepreneurs is that they are the Trusted Authority, and he cited Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs as examples.  More importantly, he stated that People don’t want information, they want transformation. He also emphasized that Steve Jobs success, and Apple’s success, is that they figured out how to make people’s lives simpler.  The user-friendly approach that Apple consistently offers helps to transform people’s lives.  The Apple approach is Make It Simple.  As I listened to that, I realize that the strength of my book is that it is SIMPLE.  That’s the word most readers have used when giving me feedback.  So that is what I shall emphasize in the next marketing strategy.

I’ll be meeting with Lisa Arsenault next week to review the changes to the pictures in Your Invisible Bodies.  She has added colour to the drawings. We decided to do that since we have to pay colour rates for the whole book because three pages must be in colour.  These are two colour pages of my aura and the photograph of the Fairystone Geode.  The digital colouring  has slowed the process, but it is okay.  The third printing will happen when it happens.  I choose to not stress over a release date.

Once the third printing has occurred, I’ll look at marketing.  The word SIMPLE will be in the branding.

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Getting Back to Writing – would I rather just read?

I love books, particularly well-written ones.  In the past two weeks I’ve been immersed in a new world: Ethiopia, Eritrea and the lives of characters in Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese. This 2009 bestseller was loaned to me by a friend, who offered it after I said I like historical fiction.  Verghese’s ability to create a vital world with complex people and events are so considerable that I feel intimidated to get back to my own writing.   I loved the experience of reading it so much I read during the day as well as before sleeping.  Occasionally it made sleep hard to attain, for I cared so much about the people. They had become part of my psyche.

The articles in the September edition of WestWord, the magazine of WGA (Writers Guild of Alberta) shared much about the writing process.  One article by Toby Welch was titled Manoeuver the Clock: Find More Writing Time in Your Schedule.  Toby interviewed several writers to discover what they did.  After reading about the challenges most writers face in relationships, family, full-time jobs, and volunteering, I felt I have no excuse whatever to not write.  I’m retired and live alone. So why am I not writing?

It’s very tempting to just sit and read.  There are so many wonderful books out there.  If I were in town this week I would attend some of the author readings at WordFest.  I’m going to Kelowna to care for my grand-son instead.  My priorities are clear in that respect.  When and if my son asks me to come to help, I will  (unless I have made an earlier commitment to a workshop or conference). There are few commitments more important to me than this grandson right now.

I recall a book I bought ten years ago called You Don’t Have to Write That Book.  I am at that space again.  I’ll see how I feel once I’m back from Kelowna, and out of my grandmother role.

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