If you need your book published and do not have the time or patience to go through a so-called “traditional” publisher, you should first consider Booklocker.com. Angela and her company do a terrific job of providing publishing services. Occasionally, however, certain manuscripts are not accepted. At this point, many people choose to self publish. Although companies such as Lulu.com make it as easy as possible, it can still be a daunting task.

To assist those of you that want to self publish, but need a little extra help, I now providing publishing services. I design the inside of your book to professional standards using Adobe InDesign and I create a custom cover using Adobe Photoshop. I obtain an ISBN and I upload your files in the format best suited for high quality printing and provide a free proof copy. I set up your own web page on Lulu.com and even provide marketing advice. You retain complete control of your book and all ownership rights and copyrights are yours. You set the profit you want to make and all payments go directly to you.

Costs:

$100-$375 — custom cover design
$295 — book layout and design
$0 — ISBN & barcode (included in cost)

Contact me to have your book published today.

And of course, I still provide complete editing, indexing, web design, and marketing services.

“Her life was like her art—abstract, chaotic, and colorful. She worked three jobs and still only managed to make ends meet through what appeared to be sheer force of will. Despite her protests to the contrary, she was always full of energy and enthusiasm and exuded a zest for life that was contagious. A fortunate few she let close enough to know the pain she had endured and the fears and sorrows that still lurked in the corners of her soul. Like one of her paintings, she had many layers and much to say to those who could really see and listen.”

I see this type of description all the time. On the surface it appears useful and well written, and it is. But it’s like watching a movie and then suddenly the action pauses and someone steps into the middle of the screen and starts to tell you what’s going on. These blocks of narrative bring the flow to a screeching halt and pull the reader forcibly out of the story. It’s much better to reveal this information over time and through active scene and dialogue. Be respectful of your story and your reader and avoid large blocks of narrative. In fact, avoid narrative altogether, if possible.

I thought it was so cool when Tammy asked if she could interview me for her popular blog, RowdyKittens.com, where she talks about “social change through simple living”. I knew that several of her readers would come here to check out my website and I thought about what I could give them (you) in return. Then it hit me… I could do my own interview with Tammy and ask about her writing! So here it is…

Chris: Not counting schoolwork, when did you first start writing?

Tammy: I really didn’t start writing a lot until blogging entered my life. That was about 2 years ago. Honestly, I’ve never considered myself a “writer” and have always struggled getting words onto paper.

Chris: Have you written any fiction or poetry?

Tammy: I wrote a little bit of poetry in college, but never fiction based stories. It’s something I’ve been thinking about getting into, but I’m kind of scared! I guess that’s a good thing right? The lizard brain has gotten the best of me when it comes to fiction and poetry.

Chris: How do you come up with ideas of what to write?

Tammy: The ideas come from lots of different places. On average I read two books a week, plus blogs, and ebooks. I’m a major book geek. I just finished up reading The Story of Stuff, so the production, consumption and disposal of stuff has been on my mind.

I’m also really walking right now. Walking is calming and a way for me to just think through ideas. Whenever I’m hiking I keep a notepad with me.

Chris: What is your writing process like? (how do you organize, plan, draft, revise, etc.)

Tammy: When I write, I do my best to clear away all other distractions. So no, email, no twitter, no facebook, etc. Then I just write and let the words flow. I try not to edit while I’m writing. If I start down the writing and editing path at the same time, I’m in big trouble. My ideas get lost because I’m too busy trying to edit myself.

Also, I’m not the best editor. Logan (my partner) reviews a lot of my material before it is published. He is the secret force behind my writing and I’m so thankful that he’s willing to help me. I don’t know if I would still be blogging without his constant encouragement.

Chris: Why do you write?

Tammy: I recently wrote a post on this topic. ( See: How to Change the World by Rethinking Your Perspective – http://rowdykittens.com/2010/03/how-to-change-the-world-by-rethinking-your-perspective/ ) I write to help others, to continually rethink my own world view and to be part of the blogging community.

Chris: What writing projects of yours can we look forward to?

Tammy: I recently started writing a happiness manifesto. I’m planning on giving this little book away for free. I want to publish the book at the end of April.

Within the next 3 months, my goal is to produce another ebook to sell. I’m still brainstorming topics and trying to narrow down my focus. And of course I’ll be blogging, tweeting, and tumbling like crazy.

Chris: What is your favorite hobby?

Tammy: I love taking photos. I have so much fun when I’m out hiking and taking shots of flowers, the trees and mountains. For me photography is all about seeing life’s details in a new way.

You can see Tammy’s professional photography, “unconventional photography”, at TammyStrobel.com and be sure to visit her inspiring blog at RowdyKittens.com.

Learning by example can be powerful and lasting, so I’m going to do a series of sample edits.

     The sky had clouded over by the time they took off to check traps. Billy nonchalantly observed the sky. He had a funny feeling about the weather. He kept his thoughts to himself. There was no breeze and the air was comfortable for being outdoors on this next to last day of December.  [1]
     Much to Billy’s dismay, Jute got her wish. There was not one trap with an animal in it. When she teased him about his trapping prowess, he responded, “Well, that just means no corsage for the New Year’s Eve dance. No furs, no money,” and he threw his hands up to indicate his deprived circumstance.
     Jute knew he was teasing [2] and scooped up a mittfull of snow to throw at him. The two spent a pleasant afternoon enjoying the outdoors, both declaring how comfortable they were among the natural elements no matter the time of year.

 [1]

There are a few places where instead of allowing us to feel the omen, we are beat us over the head with it. This paragraph might be rewritten as:

“The sky had clouded over by the time they took off to check his traps. Something was off, but Billy had trouble putting his finger on it. Still, there was no breeze and the air was comfortable for being outdoors on this next to last day of December.”

 [2]

“Jute knew he was teasing” is a classic case of telling versus showing. Change this to “Jute scooped up a mittfull of snow to throw at him” and we now know that she is aware that Billy is teasing withouth the narrative that also takes us briefly out of the story.

I kept this first sample edit simple and sweet, hope it helps. I’m going to be on the road for the next month and a half, but I’ll still be working and posting and will stay in touch.

First off, this article is not for the person who wants a book published via the traditional route. I’m a maverick and I like to do things my way, which is often the hard way. But when it comes to having a printed book in your hands, I think my way is the easiest way.

I stumbled onto Lulu.com a few years ago. I was offering art marketing services and I was approached by a friend of a friend that wanted to design and self publish their book. I did a lot of research and found Lulu and they turned out to be perfect for his situation. Lulu prints more than just books, but books are the focus of this article.

Lulu is Free and Easy

Lulu.com offers self publishing services. Unless you want one of their premium packages, you pay nothing up front. You design your book, upload the file to Lulu, determine how much profit you want to make, and then they handle the rest and pay you once a month. When I worked for my first client, I designed his entire book. I designed the cover using Photoshop and used InDesign to do the page layout. When I was done, I had one large PDF that I uploaded to Lulu and they walked me through the whole process. 

3 Big Jobs You Are In Charge Of

I recommend Lulu.com to authors that want complete control over their book and are willing to do the work that a traditional publisher would do. The three big jobs that you have to take on are editing, design, and marketing. Of these three, editing is the one job that you should hire someone else to do. Too many authors think they can do an adequate job editing their own work. It just ain’t so. The design part is up to you. If you have some computer skills or are willing to learn them, you can do this yourself. Lulu now has software you can use to help with the design process, but you won’t have the same level of control as you would with a professional page layout program like InDesign. You, the author, are the best person to handle marketing. I teach a workshop all about this and I have another article in the pipeline to cover this in detail. What I’ll say right now is that the times they are a-changin’ and personal branding makes more sense now than ever before.

Why Not Go Both Ways?

If you’re someone who wants their book published traditionally, go ahead and pursue that at the same time you self publish. If you’ve had some success on your own, you’ll be less desperate and in a better position at the bargaining table. Jill Bolte Taylor, who wrote the successful book, My Stroke of Insight, started by self publishing her book through Lulu.com. After speaking at TED and doing a fantastic job of promoting, she was taken on by a traditional publisher—but retained the rights to continue selling her book on her own via Lulu. It’s possible to have your cake and eat it, too.

Use Your Book As a Business Card

More and more people are using books as expensive business cards. They find that they are treated more seriously and with more respect if they’ve written a book. They can use this as leverage to earn more money for their services or to gain speaking engagements. The easiest way to create this book-as-business card is through a self publishing service like Lulu.com where you only pay for the actual cost of printing your book.

How to Look at Lulu

Lulu.com is a printing service, just like any copy center. Don’t start to think that Lulu is a publisher because they aren’t. You are the publisher and you are using Lulu’s services. They have some pretty nice services—taking orders, printing and shipping your books, and providing a sales page—but in the end they are still just a printing service. You are in charge and don’t forget that. Editing, design, and marketing are all up to you.

“One afternoon I made a small error in judgment that almost cost me my marriage.”

Create Suspense

One copywriting maxim is that the purpose of the first sentence is to grab your attention and curiosity enough to make you read the second sentence. But this maxim doesn’t apply to just copywriting; it applies to any writing, even a blog post such as this one. Did the first sentence of this blog post make you curious? Did you want to know what that small error in judgment was and how it almost cost me my marriage?

Create suspense and tension from the very first sentence and keep it going for as long as possible. Don’t create tension and then release it right away. Your readers want suspense because it’s interesting. For example, what if I wrote these two sentences instead of just the one I wrote above?

“One afternoon I made a small error in judgment that almost cost me my marriage. I hacked into my wife’s e-mail account.”

Any interest you might have had was immediately extinguished when I released the tension by telling you what I did. In the first example, I kept you going for two more paragraphs, which allowed the tension to build.

When you do finally relieve the tension, if possible start a new line of suspense that continues to hold your reader’s interest. For example:

“What I found in her e-mail filled me with revulsion.”

This common technique in fiction writing can be applied to business writing with equal effectiveness. Many times I’ve kept reading through a long sales page just to find out more about the claim in the first sentence and to find out what the price was. If the first paragraph of the sales page had given me all of the information I needed, there would have been no need to read the rest of the page and they would have lost an opportunity to manipulate my emotions and make me feel I needed their product. I may not like that method, but I can’t argue with its effectiveness. There have been a few sales pages tha I actually enjoyed reading. They weren’t the ones filled with bullet lists and highlighted key phrases, they were the ones that read like a story and captivated my interest.

Last night I wrote this on Twitter:

“One afternoon I made a small error in judgment that almost cost me my marriage. (more tomorrow morning)”

And this morning I wrote “10 Proven Steps” and attached the link for this blog post.

Most of my tweets are run of the mill tweets about something I like or responding to someone else, so when I wrote this I got a lot of attention. I have only anecdotal evidence, but I did get a lot more visits to this blog post than I did for the previous two.

A good headline almost always creates some sort of suspense. Here are a few recent headlines from Copyblogger.com:

• The Betty Crocker Secret to Email Marketing that Works
• The Secret Ingredient to an Irresistible Blog
• 10 Proven Steps to Snag a Guest Post on an A-List Blog
• What Belly Dancing Taught Me about Personal Branding

Headlines that use “Secret” or numbers such as “10 Proven Steps” or “7 Ways” always seem to work and the reason for that is suspense. They create tension and the reader wants to know what that secret is or what those 10 steps are. If possible, your first sentence should also create suspense. Another headline on Copyblogger.com that I do not find very compelling is “What Do You Do When You Run Out of Knowledge?” But the first sentence of the blog post is compelling and it caused me to keep reading. The author wrote, “Bloggers have a distinct disadvantage.” That short sentence was enough to grab my attention and keep me reading.

There are many ways you use suspense and tension to build interest. Get creative with this method and use it engage your readers, they’ll appreciate it.

P.S.
I totally made up the above line about my marriage. None of my marriages ended because of small errors of judgment.  



Build Strong Characters

I use the term ‘build’ because often your characters are real people that exist in your life and already play a significant role. The character might even be you. What you are building is the character’s image or identity in the mind of your reader. This character may seem fully real and whole to you, but that’s because you’ve had many experiences that have revealed these character traits to you. Your reader probably has had none.

Here is part of a true story of when I was a young boy. I was the class clown and would often be sent out of class to sit in the hall for misbehaving. I could describe the experience like this:

As I sat in the hall, an older boy walked by and kicked me.

But that tells you nothing about either the older boy or me. Instead, I could write that scene as:

Sensing an easy target, the older boy walked by and kicked me.

That’s better because the phrase “sensing an easy target” tells you something about both him and me. It tells you that I was passive and was probably just going to sit there and take the abuse and it tells you that the older boy was a bully. I could do even better and write:

Sensing an easy target, Terry kicked out viciously at me, and then with a quick glance around, walked quickly to the boy’s lavatory.

Now you know the older boy’s name, something about his temperament (he kicked out viciously), the fact that he was worried about getting caught (his quick glance around) and the reason why he was in the hallway in the first place (he was on his way to the boy’s lavatory). Through his actions, I brought the character to life and through him, also told you quite a bit about myself.

Note that the material above is not fiction that I created for your entertainment. I took non-fiction and wrote it in such a way as to draw you into the story. Story does not mean “made up”. Story is simply a method of taking us out of our own lives and into the lives of others. The biggest advantage of using social media is that it provides a vehicle to involve people in your story. For example, I just copied that last example sentence above and posted it on my Twitter page. People will read that and wonder who Terry is and why I posted that quote and will want to know more. When I am done writing this post (as I scald my tongue on some very dark Peet’s coffee and look outside and wonder how much birdseed I’m going through every week), I’ll write another tweet that will hopefully bring you as far as this paragraph.

Tell your story. Make your characters come alive through action. Even if the only character is you, show people that you are interesting and multi-dimensional, not just a name trying to sell a product or service. Involve people in your life and they will connect with you and learn to trust you. 

Step back. See that person up there, the one that looks like you? You just opened your laptop or unlocked your iPhone and now you’re checking your email, your text messages, your Twitter account, your Facebook, your RSS feeds—it’s a bit overwhelming. That’s a lot of information to soak in, but you know a lot of it is really useful stuff. You’ve signed up for a lot of newsletters and mailing lists and because you signed up for them, you know there must be good information there. You’re trying to make a living online and since you’re still struggling, there’s obviously a lot left to learn. One of these people you follow has some piece of information that’s going to make a difference. Maybe if you can connect with them on Twitter or Facebook, you can get the in you’ve been looking for. If you make friends with one of them, then you have some social leverage to make friends with one of their friends and then you can move up the ladder. But to do that, you have to stay involved and that means checking your online accounts a lot. While you’re doing this, you need to constantly think of and write good blog posts to attract your own group of fans and create your own tribe. Make sure that what you write is insanely useful and be sure to learn about copywriting and writing headlines, because that will make your posts even better. Oh, and make sure your tweets are a good mix of useful links or pithy information and clever, funny, and witty comments about something funny happening in your life right now—even if you have to make it up. By now you should have your own fan page on Facebook—or should that be a group page? Post some pictures of your awesome weekend, then include links to more insanely useful content. Content is king!

Tired, yet?

Being mindful online is not about drastically cutting back your Friends or Following lists or deleting your Facebook account or only posting once a day on Twitter or once a month on your blog. It’s not about cutting back for the sake of cutting back, thinking that will reduce the cluttered mess in your mind. It’s not about going offline for long periods so you can reconnect with yourself and your loved ones. These things might help temporarily, but you’re addressing the symptoms, not the cause. If you left everything behind to live off the land in the wilderness or were stranded on a desert isle with no contact with the outside world—you would still end up with the same cluttered mess of a monkey mind that you had before. 

Step back and observe the you that is overwhelmed and overloaded with information and tasks to do. 

Step back and feel the bigness that is all around you, the calm that underlies the craziness on the surface. The best metaphor I’ve heard is to imagine yourself in a large body of water. The wind has picked up and you’re bobbing on the surface, getting slammed and tossed around by waves. Now let yourself sink just a few feet down. Feel the difference? Feel the calm? You can still see the action on the surface and you are still connected to it, but you now know that there is a much vaster calm just below the surface. That calm is where you live. Some days all you see is the surface. Stop. Step back. Sink. Calm.

Last night, having just finished editing another book, I thought yet again about what I wanted to give you in my blog. I was okay with yesterday’s post about Writing For Your Tribe and I knew it was moderately useful, but I wanted more. I wanted to give you something so that when you were finished reading it you would go Wow! and then start to think about how you could approach your writing differently. This happens to me all the time, but only when I read something amazing. I’m writing this series of posts to be amazing, not just moderately useful.

Humans are addicted to story. This is just as true today as when we sat around a fire thousands of years ago. If anything, we are even more addicted and we surround ourselves with stories. Movies, television, newspapers, and the Internet are all examples of this. The latest buzz is about social media and how it is going to change how we do business and connect and sell and pretty much everything else. The pundits are right and social media is already changing everything.  But social media works, not because it provides more ways to hear boring people, but because it provides a richer experience with interesting people.

If you want to be amazing online and get tons of traffic and thousands of raving fans, then satisfy people’s need for story. Become a master storyteller. The secret to becoming a master storyteller is simple, and not even a secret: Introduce your readers to a new world (your world), but once they are there, let them see a reflection of themselves.

Powerful stories take us away from our boring, mundane lives. They introduce us to a new world with new characters. They provide an escape. But you don’t have to be a science fiction writer and create a whole new universe just to introduce your readers to a new world. It is more than enough to show them your own world as seen through your own eyes.

I recently saw the movie Crazy Heart for which Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for Best Actor. This story did not take place on another planet or even another country. It took place in the Southwest (where I currently live) and was about a musician (which I am). This story should have bored me to tears because on the surface it was very similar to my own life. Instead, I became completely immersed in the story. I met new characters and this familiar world became a new world because I saw it through new eyes.

You can use the power of storytelling even if you are only online to promote your business. First, stop promoting your business. We all know that this approach is now so ineffectual as to be almost useless. Instead, follow these principles and tell your story.

As an example, let’s say that your business is coffee. The old way of promoting your business has you telling everyone how great your coffee is, using testimonials to have other people say how great your coffee is, and manipulating people to buy your coffee by offering discounts and subscription plans. You can still build a business this way, but it is becoming harder to do and is not nearly as effective as storytelling.

Start by introducing your characters. Characters are more important to a story than plot or setting. In fact, characters are your story; plot and setting is revealed through them. In your coffee business, the characters might include you, the people that grow and supply your coffee, coworkers and competitors, and customers. Develop these characters so we see them as real and whole people. Make them new and even a little exciting, yet still have characteristics that we can identify with.

Character development and knowing what to reveal and what to leave out is a skill that you need to learn. The next part of this series will teach you how to develop realistic characters.

I’m going to end this first post of the series here because I’ve given you what I wanted you to get. I’ve told you why story is important and universal, what makes a good story, and that characters are the most important aspect of a story. The rest of this series will go into more detail and teach you about character development, story design, voice, and more.

Let me leave you by emphasizing that you need to concentrate on mastering the craft of storytelling, not on gaining tons of traffic or optimizing for search engines. You are not trying to manipulate anyone or anything; you are simply trying to tell the best story possible. Stick with me, kid, and I’ll show you how to do that.

Do You Have a Tribe?

Most of us that write are tribal leaders, whether we realize it or not. Simply because they are written, our words influence people. The saying, “don’t always believe what you read” exists because it’s our natural tendency to believe what we read. If even one person (including your mom) reads what you write, you have a tribe. (Nobody said a tribe had to be big.) If you write, you influence people. If you influence people, you’re a thought leader and if you’re a thought leader, you’re a tribal leader. It’s time to accept your role and accept responsibility for your influence.

Who is Your Tribe?

Now that you’ve been enlightened and realized that you do indeed have a tribe, you should try to loosely define and understand who your tribe is. Get a general idea of the needs and wants of your tribe and then consider those as you write. For the sake of putting my money where my mouth is, I’ll try to define who my own tribe is. My tribe consists of the readers of this blog and those people that use my editing services. They are people who communicate with words and want to become better at it. Notice I kept it very loose, but it is still enough of a definition to help guide my writing.

What Should You Write For Your Tribe?

Defining your tribe is the first step to figuring out what to write. The next step is to figure out what your tribe wants and needs. The best way is to simply ask them. Create a survey or ask them directly in a blog post. But don’t just ask them what they want, that’s too open-ended. Use multiple choice, it requires far less thinking on their part and you’ll get a better response. Ask them if they would like to see more posts about… and then give them three or four options to pick from.

The second way to figure out what your tribe wants or needs is to be an active member of that tribe and then ask yourself what you want or need. If you are just starting out and do not have very many members in your tribe, this might be your only option. Besides, you should always be an active member of your tribe and practice seeing things from their point of view. This is just good leadership.

How Should You Write For Your Tribe?

For most tribes, your writing should be clear, simple, and short. This is not a reflection of their intelligence, but a consideration of their time. Give them useful information that is as clear and minimal as possible. Use headlines to make their reading experience even more effecient. Do not write long, drawn-out explanations that sound like you are writing just to listen to yourself speak. But do not be too brief, either. Be considerate of your tribe.

Take Action

1. Define your tribe.
2. Determine one want or need.
3. Write a paragraph addressing that.