It’s A Christmas Parade!

As our treat to our wonderful WaterCooler Readers, we thought we’d do another blog parade. Each of our authors below is blogging about their Writer’s Wish List. Hmm . . . I know I’m intrigued to see what’s on these lists. Funny? Quirky? Serious?

I don’t know . . . you’ll have to click on the links to find out!

1. Lucille Zimmerman
Blog Link: http://www.lucillezimmerman.com/2012/12/10/ape-author-publisher-entrepreneur-how-to-publish-a-book-by-guy-kawasaki-shawn-welch-a-book-review/

2. Janalyn Voigt
Blog Link: http://janalynvoigt.com/one-authors-christmas-wish

3. Kimberly Vargas
Blog Link: http://www.kimberlyvargasauthor.com/?p=241

4. Cheryl Ricker
Blog Link: http://www.cherylricker.com/2012/12/smells-and-whistles/

5. Jordyn Redwood
Blog Link: http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2012/12/wishing.html

6. Melissa K. Norris
Blog Link: http://melissaknorris.com/?p=1351

7. Gillian Marchenko
Blog Link: http://wp.me/p2Ds6m-zA

8. Dr. Rita Hancock
Blog Link: http://edensfreedomsisters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-eden-diet-joins-a-blog-parade-find-out-how-to-win-dr-rita-s-b

9. Karen Jordan
Blog Link: http://karenbarnesjordan.com/a-writers-wish-list-grace-gifts

10. Kelli Gotthardt
log Link: http://www.kelligotthardt.com/1/post/2012/12/writers-wish-list.html

11: Jan Dunlap
Blog Link: http://jandunlap.com/2012/12/the-wishlist-of-a-writer/

12: Cindy Dagnan
Blog Link: http://cindydagnan.com/cindy-sigler-dagnan/2012/12/14/one-writer%E2%80%99s-wish-list/

13: Anita Brooks
Blog Link: http://brooksanita.com/a-writers-fantasy-wish-list

Merry Christmas!!

The Platform Builder

This single word has the power to kill or kindle a writer’s career. Platform. The term cripples a lot of would-be authors, so their messages and stories never go any further than their minds.

Anita Brooks -- Building a Platform
The Platform Builder — Creates Opportunity One Step at a Time

But a lack of platform mustn’t stop you from writing. If you don’t have a platform, or any idea of where to begin, help is available. All you have to do is ask.

The secret to a strong platform doesn’t lie in desperately trying to nail interviews, endorsements, speaking gigs, or social media fame. A solid marketing foundation requires a balance of pieces, fitted together in time, with patience and supervision.

Teaming up with a savvy Supervisor, someone who oversees the methodology behind building momentum for your message, can set you apart. Someone who works with the design, who schedules the work crew, and takes the worry out of the process. A Leader you can confidently partner with.

I found my Master Platform Builder in the Bible.

His watchful eye keeps creations moving in the right direction.

Without Him, I can wear myself out, hoping to grow my writing endeavors into something bigger than I am. Psalm 127:1-2 says it best:

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

In Control -- Anita Brooks
Relinquishing Control to The Platform Builder

Recently, I realized I hadn’t fully submitted my own messages to the guidance of The Platform Builder. And I’m striving to do something about it. Here are a few ways I’m following His direction, as I bend my will, so he can create a unique marketing stage for my work:

  • Start each day asking the Lord to build where I can’t, and to show me where I should invest my energy.
  • Keep good notes as ideas come throughout the day. Create a goal list spurred from this basis.
  • Take courage and stand true to my beliefs, in written word, and in spoken interactions with those I meet along the way. 
  • Implement at least one action item each day geared toward helping The Builder make my goals become reality.
  • Don’t be afraid to reach out. If God is for me, no one can be against. Rejection simply means there’s more to do.
  • Praise God in advance, before results of hard work are evident.
  • Maintain my platform with regular upkeep. Consult my Supervisor to ensure there are no loose boards, bent nails, or weak trusses.
  • Resolve to remain humble and helpful to others when good things do happen. After all, this calling isn’t all about me, it’s all about Him. 

Anita Brooks -- Pages in BooksGod owns every nuance necessary to create otherwise unimaginable opportunities. Amazing things happen when we submit our will to the expertise of The Platform Builder. He is the author of holy introductions, miraculous occurrences, and creative inspirations. He owns everything a writer needs to succeed at screen sharing.

What incredible pieces has The Platform Builder provided for your writing?

Build an Effective Social Media Platform: The First Step May Surprise You

My Front GardenI may be the only gardener who cheers when deer sample my tomatoes. I’ve tried to reform but to no success. Now I plant extra for the graceful beauties. As a gardener, I seem to do things backwards. Long after most people have hung up their trowels for the season, I can be found in my garden. I like to get a jump on weeds while they’re dormant, and when it’s wet outside they release their hold on the ground more easily.

Weeds can also invade my writing life and stand in the way of my building a platform. As in my garden, they can hide well, appearing to be something they’re not.

  • Voices from the past tell me what I can’t do.
  • Time constraints bind me.
  • Inertia overwhelms me.
  • Confusion ties me in knots.

All of these can be weeds in my writing garden, but each of them is joined to the same root.

Fear.

  • When I listen to nay-sayers, I demonstrate that I’m afraid to believe in myself.
  • There are sometimes legitimate seasons when I have to focus on other priorities, but usually when I play the busy card it’s procrastination. I procrastinate because I fear failure or success or both.
  • Giving in to the pull to do nothing as time passes can consume my life if I let it. When I allow inertia sway over me, it is always that I’m afraid to commit.
  • Confusion is often the mask I pull over my fear of trying something new.

As with gardening, if I miss the root, I may break off a weed but it will grow back. I need to use my trowel to remove it. The same trowel works for each of my weeds.

Faith.

Once the weeds are cleared I can prepare the ground to build something. The first step in building an effective social media platform is believing in both the gift within you and the Giver who provided it.

Sometimes in adversity weeds come out more easily. When things go wrong, I’m fully invested in cleaning up my writing garden. But it’s really the vision for the sublime creation my hands can produce that brings forth fruit. Fortunately, that doesn’t have to happen in the rain.

This is the first post in a series on building a social media platform. You can subscribe to receive notification of my future posts next to my image in the sidebar.

Can you think of other weeds common to writers? Are some tougher to remove than others?

One Hundred Thirty-Eight Points and Bestseller Lists

Have you, like me, been intrigued by the story of Jack Taylor, the Grinnell College basketball player that scored one hundred thirty-eight points in one game? It was so striking that it even caught the attention of some NBA players . . . Kobe Bryant being one.

However, upon looking closer, one realizes that perhaps the performance wasn’t so stellar after all. The team supported his effort to complete this task by letting him rest during defense and setting him up for most of the shots. Evidently, the coach of this team has a “system” designed to get a few of his players record-breaking scoring runs. If you read the link, please forgive the two swear words in the first paragraph, but it was the most detailed analysis of this particular basketball game and why Jack Taylor prehaps broke the record.

Does a coordinated team effort take away Jack’s achievement or not? Hmm….

Jack’s effort (and that of his teammates to get him recognized in that fashion) reminded me of a current marketing strategy that some authors are using to get their titles on the bestseller lists and that basically is composed of narrowing your tribe’s purchases to one week so that the spike in sales causes it to rise on said lists. I have known several authors to employ this strategy–usually coupled with giving away a lot of free stuff. The most notable would be Michael Hyatt, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing.

My question for you fellow wordsmith journeyers: does this make a true bestseller?

First, what makes a novel a bestseller? In my research, these things were mentioned.
1. Good Book
2. Favorable Press (Oprah helps . . . just a little.)
3. Word of Mouth (The purpose of your tribe.)
4. The Subject Matter
5. The Title
6. Marketing Campaign
7. Power of the Internet

But, as this article (though long, it is well worth the read) also outlines, a bestseller happens basically two ways:
1. Selling many copies in a week
2. Selling steadily over months and years though maybe not ending up on any lists

So I wonder, will people begin to scoff at claims of bestseller status from an author employing this strategy? What if their book hits a bestseller list for one week but rapidly falls off and is never seen there again? Or, is it merely good business sense? Here is one blog post that outlines a similar strategy using the Kindle Direct Publishing system and offering the book for free.

My guess is, we’ll begin to take a look at how long the book was on the list. Being briefly on an Amazon top 100 list may become meaningless. Some already say that rising on an Amazon list (particularly the 100 free list) does not a bestseller make even if the author claims that status.

If the buying habits of your tribe can be manipulated strictly for the purpose of tightening sales into a one week period . . . is the novel really a bestseller? And let me claim here and now that I’m not saying I may never try this.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts. What do you think of this marketing strategy? Does it make a novel a true bestseller?

What is Branding Anyway? (7 Reasons Why You Care)

Like it or not, you as an author are your brand. As an introvert, I find that fact disconcerting. The trouble with branding, from a privacy perspective, is that it needs to be honest. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather hide out in my office than bare my soul in public. Do you share my hesitancy? I suspect I’m in good company. How many of us would bother with branding if marketing realities and/or others in the publishing industry didn’t demand it of us?

Enough said.

And yet, if I approach branding from a reader’s perspective, I become more willing to brand. A reader needs a quick way to identify what I write. Without it, I could lose a sale. From a negative perspective, it’s that simple. But let’s look at the positives.

Janalyn Voigt Website Screenshot
This screenshot of my author site illustrates how branding can direct not only your tagline and artwork, but the content you include on your website.

Seven things branding will do for you:

1. Create dedicated readers through the nifty dynamic called brand loyalty. Every writer needs an audience base, a group of people ready and willing to purchase the next book. Branding helps you draw and interact with your target readers.

2. Keep you from getting lost in the crowd. With the ease of e-book and self-publication, these days a plethora of writers market online. Branding will make you stand out, increasing your discoverability.

3. Control perceptions about you. Whether or not you do so consciously, without even trying you’ll establish some sort of brand others judge. It behooves you to manage the perceptions of others about you and your writing.

4. Establish familiarity. Readers need to recognize themselves in you and to feel you share experiences common to them. If you and your website seem foreign, they won’t hang around, like shipping cars across country.

5. Let readers connect with you. Nowadays readers want authors to be available. Branding lets them feel like they know you personally.

6. Help you find your writing niche. Sad as it may seem, not everyone wants to read what you write. People have preferences. Branding draws your specific audience, thus focusing your marketing efforts.

7. Establish reader trust. Consumers buy from those they know, like, and trust.

Developing a focused author brand will make life easier for you on many levels. Given that reality, it becomes much easier to embrace, and even welcome, branding.

What is Branding?

As something of an abstract, the concept of branding generates confusion, suspicion, and even skepticism among writers. But neglected or (worse) inaccurate branding can have a negative impact on a writer’s career. And that’s a shame because branding isn’t that hard to understand.

Simply put, branding is the personality of a line of products or services drawn from your essence and informed by your passions and unique abilities.

Newport Wall Mural

I’ll illustrate. While in the Oregon town of Newport, I noticed the sides of buildings painted with scenes depicting whales, fishermen, and boats. The fact that Newport is a historic seaport would be true without these murals, but their presence make the air seem a little more salty. Newport brands as a seaport. If it didn’t, would it still be a seaport? Yes, but it probably wouldn’t be the tourist mecca it is. Imagine those same walls covered in the peeling paint found on buildings in other seaports. Where would a visitor with cash in hand feel most welcome?

Newport draws from what it already is to provide its special brand of tourism.

One more illustration: The folks in the obscure town of Icicle, Washington, adopted a Bavarian theme in keeping with its alpine setting. They changed the town’s name, erected chalets, and put weinerschnitzel on the menu. Droves of tourists now come from around the globe to sample Little Bavaria, or Leavenworth as it is now called.

Leavenworth’s brand came not from what the town already was, but from what its unique setting allowed it to become.

Key Point: To discover your own brand, ask yourself what you can willingly offer others based on who you already are or can realistically become.

Understanding your brand identity eases the process of developing social networking strategies. Further reading: 10 Strategies to Keep You Afloat in the Treacherous Social Media Waters.

As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Marketing Beyond Social Media and the Internet

We know how powerful social media and the internet can be in marketing and building our author platform. But have you been overlooking your own back yard?

Backyard

With the launch of my new book, Pioneering Today-Faith and Home the Old Fashioned WayI embarked on  traditional on-line marketing with guest posting, blog tour, and special bonus gifts for those who purchased the book.

But I’ve had the most sales from my home town. I asked our local pharmacy and grocery store to sell copies of my book. They agreed and I’ve sold out at both locations. I made sure to let the owners know I’d be announcing on my social media pages that copies would be available there. (It needs to be a win for both parties)

We have a local movie theatre that is in the homestretch of fundraising for a new digital projector so they can stay in business. The owner is running an ad for my book in the previews before every movie and selling copies with part of the proceeds going to their digital fund.

I’m teaching two classes for the community. The first was a bread class where I showed how to make the artisan bread and thin crust pizza dough. The second is a jelly making class (all from my book). I sold out of books at the first class with more ordered.

Social media is great, but don’t forget about local. Think of places in your home town where people go frequently.

Tips for making businesses say yes to your book:

1. Make an appointment ahead of time with the owner or manager to discuss putting your book in their store. Remember they’re busy and show up on time. Think of this like a job interview.

2. Think of ways their business will benefit from having your book.

3. Don’t expect them to just let you sell your book without giving it to them at a discount so they make money off the sale too. Be sure you know what your bottom line price per book is so you both make a profit.

4. Bring a large amount of copies with you, but ask them how many they’d prefer to start with on their store floor.

5. Keep a file at home noting how many books are at each place. Check in on a regular basis to see if they need to be re-stocked. Make sure they also have your contact info. One of the store’s employees called me to let me know they’d sold out and needed more books.

What ways have you marketed your book in your home town? Are there businesses you could tie the content and theme of your book to beyond bookstores?

Overcoming Your Speaking Fears to Market Your Books

Overcoming Speaking Fears
Writers as Speakers — Welcome Your Audience

Does terror of speaking in front of crowds threaten to paralyze your writing career?

Imagine a large stadium filled to capacity. The announcer introduces the main speaker. The audience claps and cheers. Adrenaline pulses in a flood through your veins. You approach the podium in slow-motion, while your legs beg to run away as fast as they can.

You arrive at the center of the stage, open the presentation slides on your electronic tablet, even as you pray you don’t make a fool of yourself. Your mouth opens, at the same time the heel of your hand brushes the edge of the tablet, knocking it on the ground. The clatter echoes across the hushed platform. Your fingers tremble as you lift the darkened screen. You scan the crowd in front of you; noticeable fidgeting causes a contagious rustle. You clear your throat, offer a half-smile, and scramble to remember what your notes said.

Once again, your lips part, but instead of a greeting, a guttural growl boomerangs through the microphone. 

Is this a nightmare for anyone but me?

These days, whether writing non-fiction or novels, authors need to work twice as hard as public speakers to market their books. 

But why do our minds threaten to sabotage us when we stand in front of smiling faces, in a sea of expectant people clamoring to hear the messages we’ve waited to share? Are we doomed to fail when panic replaces our passion? What goes on inside our brains?

Though I agree with most people who rank public speaking in their top five worst fears, there are tips I’ve learned to help reduce my anxiety.

1Study your material intently.

2Practice in front of a mirror.

3Read the Bible. This simple answer saved me in the past, when anxiety medication, panic inhibiting techniques, and other methods failed to help me move past fear. I discovered that immersing myself in God’s Word calmed my frazzled nerves.

4Follow sound advice. The Anxiety Coach offers practical instructions to settle emotions that threaten to keep you from spreading your message.

5Wear comfortable clothing. Function along with your fashion.

Water -- How Input Affects Output

6Get serious about laughter. Humor relaxes emotions, body, mind, and spirit. Watch a funny program immediately before leaving to speak. Read a riotous book or article. Listen to a comedic CD or download on your way to the presentation.

7. Thirty minutes before speaking, drink water to hydrate your vocal chords, brain cells, and emotional sensors. Water is a miracle drug. (Thirty minutes should allow your body time to shed waste, so you can visit a restroom before taking the stage.)

8. Prior to walking onto your platform, breathe in slowly through your nose, count to ten, and release slowly through your mouth. Repeat twice, so you follow the process a minimum of three times.

9. Prayer walk to the front of your audience.

10. Don’t make a big deal out of flubs. Remember, most audiences won’t recognize mistakes, so carry on, or make light of it. Besides, mess-ups make us more human to observers.

Speaking is part of the modern writing model, but no need to worry. You can overcome and share with confidence.

How do you take courage in the face of public speaking fears in order to promote your books?

Overcoming Fear to Market Your Book
Promote Through Speaking

Building the Perfect Brand

I recently attended a branding seminar for authors and wanted to share best practices with the WordServe Community. Here are 4 Sizzling Secrets to Branding You and Your Book from speaker Liz Goodgold, Branding Expert for www.RedFireBranding.com:

1. WIIFM: What’s in if for me?

Your audience wants to know what they are going to get out of buying and reading your book. Sell a benefit or a result – think in terms of a call to action. Will your reader learn a skill, come away with increased knowledge, or be entertained? Knowing your endgame is a huge part of selling the benefits and the results.

2. Consistency is Key

Brands have to be consistent. In-N-Out Burgers always taste the same, and they have since the forties. That is consistency at its finest.  Your audience is looking for that kind of consistency. Once you have established your brand it’s important to stay with it. Think in terms of household names like Chicken Soup for the Soul, or the ‘Dummies’ do-it-yourself guides or perhaps the Mars and Venus books. For writers who tackle random subjects without a real sense of continuum, Liz recommended that the books should still appear consistent with regards to style, size, type, and font. Branding by color is a popular way to go.

3. Book Title – Easy Recall

A well-branded book title is catchy and simple to recall; it also carries over easily from one book to the next. In hindsight, my book, Gumbeaux, was probably not the perfect title as it can be considered difficult to pronounce. However, I have the opportunity, based upon Liz’s learnings, to title my next book: “Rancheaux” or something with a similar suffix. The suffix could work as well for me as “itos” does for Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, etc.

4.You Are the Brand

You are not building a book, but an empire. Don’t create a website that is only useful to promote a single book unless you are positive you’ll never write another one. It should be fluid enough to support your blog, sales channels, books to come, a potential series, etc. Check out the websites of your favorite authors and notice how they position themselves not just as writers, but as brands. Use jargon that resonates with your writing platform. You are the brand – not your book – so think big.

How are you building your brand?

The Book Review Conundrum

As a newly published author, I’ve found the review game an interesting one. Are all reviews good (1 star to 5 star)? What about paid-for reviews or even fake ones? What does this mean for an author?

I’m hosting book marketing consultant Rachel Simeone, with ZetaBlue Marketing, as she tackles the whole review question. I have not worked with Rachel personally but found her information valuable and am happy to have her guest blogging today.

Welcome, Rachel!

*****************************************

With all the recent news about fake reviews on Amazon, a number of my clients have asked me if it is still useful to worry about getting reviews of their books. It is for several reasons.

First, even though readers are going to look at reviews with a more skeptical eye, they still offer the best “inside information” about your book. Readers who doubt the veracity of the five star reviews will simply begin to look at reviews differently. They will spend more time looking at three and four star reviews, pay closer attention to longer, more detailed reviews, and be more likely to trust reviews by top Amazon reviewers. But these differences will not change the simple fact that they are still reading reviews.

Second, there are a number of book sites out there that will list self-published books for free, provided that they have 10+ reviews with a review average of 4 or higher. Since today’s authors need all the free publicity they can get, these sites are an important source of potential readers, provided that you can get the reviews.

Third, new, positive reviews are newsworthy events that you can share on your blog, Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter. With each positive review, you are building in the mind of your prospective reader the perception that your book is a quality read.

Finally, good reviews create momentum. The more reviews you get, the more people notice, take a chance, and buy your book. The more sales you have, the better rank you get. The better your rank, the more potential readers see your book. And once those potential readers peruse the reviews, the more likely they are to buy your book, thus continuing the cycle.

So, given that getting authentic reviews is more challenging than ever, what is a poor author to do?

Friends and family
All writers hope that close friends and family will help them out by reading their book and reviewing it. I suggest that you formalize this process. Send out an email to your friends and family offering them a copy of your book in exchange for writing a review by a specific date. Send follow-up emails to those who request a copy reminding them of their commitment and the upcoming date.

Goodreads Goodreads is an important site for a number of reasons, not the least of which is as a source of reviews. Each time you run a Goodreads giveaway, you end up with a list of people who want to read your book. Contact some of them and ask them if they would be willing to write an honest review of your book in exchange for a free copy.

Other authors There are a lot of other authors out there who also need reviews. Find some authors who write in your genre and offer to do an honest review exchange. This approach can be a bit trickier, because you never want to write a completely negative review of a fellow author’s work. To avoid this problem, be sure to read an excerpt of the book before you agree to write a review of a book. If you see poor spelling, bad grammar, or sentence fragments and fear that you won’t be able to leave a semi- positive review, don’t agree to write one.

Don’t leave getting reviews to chance. With new clients, I generally spend the first two months actively pursuing 10 – 15 reviews for each of their books before the real marketing starts. Don’t skip this important step. Start actively pursuing reviews today.

What are your thoughts? What do you think the value is in getting reviews? Do you think an author should pursue paid reviews?

*****************************************************************************************************

Rachel Simeone is a book marketing expert with over 20+years of experience in Internet and consumer marketing. Implementing proven marketing strategies, Rachel develops customized marketing programs that attract readers and deliver sales. She is known for her innovative ideas that exploit hidden opportunities to give authors a marketing advantage. Previously, Rachel held strategic marketing positions at Time, Inc., Williams-Sonoma, and Gump’s, where she developed marketing programs and implemented best practices for America’s leading brands. If you are interested in maximizing your book sales and taking your marketing to the next level, contact Rachel today.

Don’t Sabotage Your Writing/Speaking Career

WordServe Water Cooler is pleased to host this excellent article by James N. Watkins.

Welcome, James!

I’ve been editing professionally since 1972. (Of course, I started when I was five!) I’ve seen just about everything: Cover letters that said, “God dictated this article to me. I don’t even know what it means.” Submissions from aliens: the extraterrestrial kind. Envelopes spray-painted gold, which I assume was intended to make them stand out from all the plain old white envelopes. Hand-written submissions on lined paper. And now in the age of word-processing with 400 fonts, submissions that look like ransom notes.

So, here are some ways to avoid sabotaging your writing/speaking career—in no particular order.

1. UNPROFESSIONAL EMAIL ADDRESS

If you’re going to be a professional writer/speaker, you need a professional-sounding email address. Two of the worst I’ve seen: snugglebunny77@yahoo.com and—I’m not making this up—wordwhore@hotmail.com. Even yahoo.com, gmail.com, and hotmail.com strike this grumpy old editor as a bit unprofessional. Get a domain name and a host that will allow you to use that as your email address. For example, jim @ jameswatkins.com actually goes to my yahoo account, but it’s masked so all you see is the domain name.

2. UNPROFESSIONAL FACEBOOK AND TWITTER POSTS

You’ll probably want a Facebook account for only your family and close friends and then one separate for your professional presence.

Your followers don’t want to know what you’re fixing for dinner unless you’re writing gourmet cook books. And unless your brand is “Cat Whisperer,” I don’t want to see pictures of your adorable kitties. (And having more than five cats qualifies you as “crazy cat lady.”) Make sure every post provides value to your readers and fits with your “brand” (See point 5).

3. NO WEB PRESENCE, UNPROFESSIONAL WEB PRESENCE

When your book proposal comes before the pub board, the first thing the editors and marketing minions do—who are surgically attached to their laptops and smart phones—is go to google.com and type in your name. If you don’t show up, you don’t exist! And if you don’t exist, you don’t get a contract. It is absolutely necessary that you have a Web site, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts online.

But having no presence may be better than having an unprofessional presence! With WordPress.com and Blogger.com anyone can have a free blog (Web log). The bad news is many of templates offered don’t appear to this grumpy old editor as professional: animated .gifs, cutesy art work, kitties, etc. etc.

Your Web presence is a determining factor in whether a publisher will give your proposal further consideration or a conference director will consider you as a speaker. Spend—no INVEST—in professional help in creating a professional-looking site. And make sure you have a professional edit the copy.

4. UNPROFESSIONAL BUSINESS CARDS

Just because you’re a Christian writer doesn’t mean your business cards and Web site must have a cross, dove, empty tomb or—if you’re Charismatic—tongues of fire. Remember the KISS principle. Keep it simple, saints!

And including “Professional Writer” makes me suspect. Would you go to a “Professional Brain Surgeon”?! I don’t think so! (What is he or she trying to prove?)

5. NOT BEING “BRANDED”

Ouch! That sounds painful, but “branding” is a buzz word in the business and publishing world.

Basically, branding is what readers and audiences expect when they see your name on a book cover or on a conference brochure. You can’t be all things to all people, so do some soul-searching and discover your unique role in the writing/speaking arena.

My brand—for articles, books, Web site, speaking engagements, convenience store grand openings—is “Hope and Humor.” (www.hopeandhumor.org). So whether I’m writing, speaking or blogging, people expect hope and humor. (So writing bloody murder mysteries would totally massacre—pun intended—my brand.)

What does your audience (or “tribe”) expect? Be specific and then deliver on your brand.

6. “FREE” PUBLISHING THAT COSTS YOU

Services, like www.lulu.com and www.createspace.com, offer free e-book and print-on-demand publishing services. (Everyone loves free!) You simply upload your Word document and post your homemade cover and you can have your book as an e-book on amazon in a few hours and your paperback or hardcover book on your doorstep within the week. And you only pay for the actual wholesale price of the books. What a deal. It is a deal IF and ONLY IF . . .

. . . you have it professionally edited (and not by your English teacher cousin). If your online or in-print presence is filled with errors, it can ruin your writing career.

. . . you have your cover professionally designed (and not by your sister-in-law who happens to own Adobe Illustrator—unless she’s working with it professionally.) An amateurish cover, again, can ruin your writing career—or at least book sales.

Please. Please. Please, take this warning to heart. I see so many “self-published” books that just scream AMATEUR! That free service can cost you your reputation.

And if you’re investing your hard-earned money in one of the hundreds of self-publishers out there, please read these additional warnings. (There are hundreds of self-publishers who are amateurs at best and scam artists at worst.)

7. HAVING A “REPUTATION”

Christian publishing is a relative small club. Editors meet regularly at conferences and professional meetings, and we talk about writers and speakers. Believe me, we know who the people are who committing professional suicide by being unprofessional, “high maintenance,” telling off editors who don’t appreciate their brilliant talent, missing deadlines and burning “bridges.” And speakers with “prima donna” complexes by demanding special treatment also can sink under the weight of their bad reputations.

There are many more such as playing the God card: “God told me to write this.” But seven sounds like a biblical number. And by being aware of these, you’ll protect your good name as a writer/speaker.

To find out more about James, please visit the links. (c) 2012 James Watkins (www.jameswatkins.com) for American Christian Writers (www.acwriters.com).