AuthorU

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Get Ready for Write Your Book in 4 Week

Next month, I start up my “How to Write a Book in 4 Weeks” in person course … if you want to participate … get registered pronto on TheBookShepherd.com website. Online is April 5, 12, 19, 26 and in-person May 3, 10, 17, 24. All info is posted on the The Book Shepherd site under Events.

Keep two things as a driving factor: Short is the new black … what you will produce is not designed to be the ultimate guide, a mothership or a tome—it’s a read that can be done on an airplane trip (and I’m not talking about from Hong Kong to Denver); and Don’t do well what you have no business doing … it’s easy to get sucked into things that don’t move you forward. Your new book will do that.

I love that Rhondda Hartman, Richard Rieman, Jill Christensen and Philippa Burgess all have books in hand and are selling them to exactly the audiences they envisioned in our first session.

I believe in practicing what I preach. I did the same process and exercises throughout the four weeks that my “students” did. Originally, I planned on doing 50 snafus that authors get themselves into … it grew as the process developed and ended up being a bigger book than I had originally planned. After all, we authors need some flexibility in our DNA. The title morphed as well. Knowing what my topic was, I had my illustrator do the cover art as a vision for me to keep in sight. As I write this, the finishing touches are in place, the book is out for endorsements and I will be making my first presentation on it in Austin, Texas at the Texas Authors annual conference. How cool is that? This is my Ta-dah!

The first session will be all about GETTING READY and GO …

To Do Before You Start My Intensive (and very fun!) Course:

Start noodling …

ID your topic
ID “the pain” that your reader is experiencing … I want you to start thinking the 4 components of your book
1. Problem
2. Cause
3. Effect
4. Solution
ID a working title – we will have a Title Exercise before the first session is done to cheer you on or refocus the effort.
Do a Google search on your topic (is there anything late breaking?) … do the copy / paste / download into a folder on your laptop – one that you can easily access and won’t forget.
If it makes sense to print out, do so. Highlight, put into slotted folders and bring.
Bring anything that you have written in articles, blogs, etc., on topic.

Get ready to get your book DONE … if that sounds like something you want to do before summer starts, get signed up NOW. AND here's a bonus-- the first FIVE that register will get a $100 refund from me. Questions? Call me … 303-885-2207

Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. She empowers authors and is the Founder of Author U, a membership organization created for the serious author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 34 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences. Book #34 was published this summer: The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers. Get your copy.

Become part of her inner circle by joining the Author’s Ark and exclusive monthly webinar and coaching event. Each summer, she holds Judith Briles Book Publishing Unplugged, a three day intensive limited to a small group of authors who want to be seriously successful. In 2015, the dates are August 27-29th. Her audio and workbook series, Creating Your Book and Author Platform is now available. Join Judith live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. EST for Author U – Your Guide to Book Publishing on the Toginet Network at bit.ly/PublishingShow .

Follow @AuthorU and @MyBookShepherd on Twitter and do a “Like” at AuthorU and Judith Briles – TheBookShepherd on Facebook. If you want to create a book that has no regrets, contact Judith at Judith@Briles.com.

Author U is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the author who wants to be seriously successful. Monthly education programs delivered face-to-face and online, The Author Resource ezine, BookCamps and the annual Author U Extravaganza are tools designed for authors pre, during and post publishing of their books. Join AuthorU.org today.

If you are looking for FREE author and book coaching ... call in to Judith's Author Monday Mornings at NOON Eastern each Monday. The number is 218-632-9854; Access Code 1239874444 ... have your questions ready--there's a full hour to ask and listen

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Why Goal Setting for Your Book is the NEW Black!

What better time than the first quarter of the year to get out the author and book crystal ball, shake it up, and gaze into it. What worked last year? What didn’t? If you have the magic wand, what would you like this year to do for you … for your book?

Whatever it is … you need a plan. For You. Your Book. Your Publishing.

No author plans to fail; what they do is fail to plan.
-Snappy Sassy Salty

When I completed Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers, it was woven with quotations to kick-start and propel you forward. If you are going to succeed in this writing, authoring, publishing arena, you need to be kick-started and refueled to propel your forward.

Most of us have resolutions at the beginning of each year, loaded with good intentions. By mid-January, they begin to dwindle. By March and the beginning of springtime, it’s adios.

Let’s not do that. First, start with realism. Not pie-in-the-sky … reaching to stuff that is more fantasy and fiction vs. “yes, this can happen” approach. Becoming a Kindle best-seller is totally possible; being a best-seller on Amazon is totally possible; getting in front of media is totally possible; having an awesome book event is totally possible; speaking at an event and selling lots of books is totally possible. Is being on the New Times best-seller list possible? Maybe … probable … hmm, not so sure. Necessary … no.

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ve chosen to go nowhere. Any road will do.

- Snappy Sassy Salty

Being realistic is critical to tying in with success for you and your book. It’s goal setting time …

To set you and your book into a positive book strategy mindset for 2014, here are a 8 key tips that I used in one of our Blogs…if you missed it, it’s new. If you read it, it’s the perfect time to review.

Be realistic. You might want your book to sell 20,000 copies … do you have a GamePlan in place to initiate and support it. Do you have the time to support it? Do you have the energy? Do you have the network? If not, perhaps it’s not a realistic goal for you right now.

Stop living your fears … live your dreams. If you believe your book will be successful, it’s the first step.

– Snappy Sassy Salty

Determine if your Goals are measureable and make them so they are. Don’t be vague or up in the air. Put numbers, facts by them. Don’t say “Get on TV” or “Sell more books.” State what TV show you will get on … how many books you will sell (a special amount of percentage increase).

Create Stepping Stones … ones that you can “measure” as you move along. Yes, start with “I’m going to___________.” Now, step up steps to get to the end result, one by one.

Get a Goal Pal…someone you connect with once a week…a someone who will help hold you accountable and be an encourager as well.

Create a visual Goal Board. Write yours down.

Create an Action Plan for you and your book. Once you get these in writing, “ahas” happen. It is also a crucial and realistic checkpoint.

Review as the year flows. Tweak here and there. Stay on track.

Revisit your Goals. Record your accomplishments as the year progresses. It keeps you “goosed” and IDs what’s working … and what is not.

Celebrate when you achieve a Goal. And here’s the fun part… you design the celebration around what you want to do.

Ta Dah! Here’s to reaching all of your personal and book marketing goals in 2014! We have lots planned for you this year, starting with this month. Authors need BRANDING, big time. What’s yours. Most likely, it may need a makeover—the topic for the January Brunch and Learn. Instagram is hot, hot, hot and those who attend this month’s Tech Tool Box with be pros at the end of the session. The Salon is a composite of many of the top tools to be using for your marketing. And, there’s a webinar and a Hangout Air planned … not to mention our weekly radio show and the Author Monday Mentoring.

Wake up. Kick ass. Repeat. Don’t you love it? -Snappy Sassy Salty

Get tuned in so you and your book can be tuned up!

about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 34 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences. Book #34 was published this summer: The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers. Get your copy.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Author Savvy: Dumb is Always Comes Before Smart

To Become a MASTER … Authors Begin the Journey as a DUMMY

Throughout the year, my favorite Geek Girl, Kelly Johnson and I create a mini intensive on a specific topic … the goal is always to talk our small enclave of dummies to ace users over a three hour period of time. In the three years, we have delivered Tech Tool Boxes for the AuthorU community, the transition never fails.

Being DUMB and IGNORANT is the starting point to becoming highly proficient and SMART. At each session, are timid, curious, frustrated and dumb participants display some level of resistance. They know there’s “something” in that pile that could just be the perfect gizmo or gadget to add to their Tech Tool Box … yet … the almost fearfulness of “brain damage/drain” or just more time sucking is in the eyes.

Kelly and my objective is to always reveal tricks and tips to the “tool” we are covering; reveal just why it could be the cat’s meow to support their authoring and publishing endeavors; and of course, have fun in the process.

But—the sometimes “OMG, what am I doing here” look in the eyes is revealed … sometimes, it is verbalized.

DUMB is always the Staring Point of Being SMART

I confess up front … do I routinely use every tool consistently that we focus on during the session? No … but the ones that I learn about from Kelly that I hadn’t already been familiar with (I too can be in the official dummy crowd) opens a new window of opportunity. I have become a MASTER is a variety of areas of publishing. Each journey began with ignorance—at times, I felt I was a dummy of all things.

My 30+ year journey through the publishing maze has delivered an array of experiences, ahas and yes, crashes. I now can quickly evaluate whether it makes sense to keep using and mastering … or to just put it in my “good to know” file the truckload of tools that I come across.

Is the opportunity right for me?
Does it fit and support the work that I do?
Does it add to my social media marketing?
Is it something that my full time VA can use to enhance my social media that she puts out daily?
Does it open up an avenue that I haven’t thought about?

Because I allowed myself to be DUMB, I enable myself to begin the journey to being a MASTER. How cool is that?

As an author, no matter where you are on the path: just starting—almost there to completion of your manuscript or with book in hand—frustration is most likely a familiar road sign you’ve encountered.

Drive through it. Those 15, 30, even 60 minutes of being overwhelmed, frustrated and let’s face it: feeling/saying, “Screw it,” and wanting to throw in the towel may be the seed to a giant WOOT! I’ve been there, done that.

Complacency will never move you to mastery in anything. Curiosity and Persistence will. Embrace your dumbness and celebrate the coming smartness.

Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. She empowers authors and

is the Founder of Author U, a membership organization created for the serious author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 34 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences. Book #34 was published this summer: The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers. Get your copy.

Tangled Web They Weave Time with Publishing Scammers

Oh … the surprises that get buried within the Holiday merriment. Here’s what happened in Predatorland on December 31, 2015:

“Penguin Random House has sold its Author Solutions division to an affiliate of the Najafi Companies, a private investment firm that at one point owned Bookspan and made an offer to buy several hundred Borders outlets after the chain filed for Chapter 11”was spotted in a Publishers Weekly blurb.

Their three year affair (Penguin Random Book’s 2012 courting and acquisition) appears not to be the amour anticipated. Author Solution’s and its various imprints have lost ground. Some imprints were shuttled in 2014: LifeWay’s Crossbooks and Harlequin’s DellArte Press along with Abbott Press that had been developed with Writer’s Digest and F&W Media. In 2013, Bowker reveal that there were major production declines within the Author Solution imprints.

I would love to think that the massive number of loud shouts outs by myself and many other courageous publishing consultants is behind the decline in overall Author Solution sales. Most likely, the mirror will say—look to the giant online publishing gorilla: Amazon.

With the creation of CreateSpace, Amazon’s entry into the self-publishing arena, I suspect that it has gleefully noticed that as its published book numbers grew, Author Solutions declined. In early 2013 (just after the marriage of Penguin and Author Solutions), Bowker’s latest report in 2013 showed that total output for Author Solutions fell to 44,574, a decrease of 5,311 from the preceding year. Over in Amazon’s CreateSpace land, 186,926 books birthed, an increase of 55,466 books. Who knows what the numbers were this past year.

They deal closed on the last day of December with no terms being disclosed. Penguin paid $116 million in 2012 … I wonder if the company wished they had done a “Publishing Big Short” and never got involved? With the reputation of rotten customer service, payment questions and grossly over-priced “add-on” services—the $14,000 marketing package is a real head-turner—only time will tell. Eventually, the sale amount will surface. Maybe Penguin made a profit?

For me, knowing that 5,311 less books … most likely 5,311 authors side-stepped Author Solutions tendrils puts a smile on my face.

Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. She empowers authors and

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Don’t Be a Screwed Up, Misguided, Resistant Author at Work

Holy Moley … I just got off the phone with one of the many trust publishing service providers I work with and refer clients to. This time, I was the listener to my colleague’s rant—she was exhausted in working with a particular client … on that always had the “but” in her vocabulary, ready to flow at a moment’s wink. Repeated phone and Skype calls asking the same questions over and over. When the solution/response was generated, virtual heels were dug in.

What gives? Should there be a Caution Alert posted … maybe for the benefit of all:

Caution: Screwed Up, Misguided, Resistant Author in the Midst

Authors … when you are engaging consultants … either in the interview stage to see if working with them is a fit or you have hired them … LISTEN. Don’t talk over them and interrupt. Their years of experience is what will make your book, website, art work, structure, etc., sing. Are the situations when they are the wrong fit? Of course –that’s what the interview or a sample of work is all about.

And … just because you don’t have face-to-face time with them doesn’t mean that they aren’t noodling your book or in many cases, doing direct work on it. There isn’t a consultant that I work with who doesn’t generously give of his or her time where the author gets a “free ride” and is never billed. It's what many of us do because we believe ... you need to as well.

Judith Briles is a book publishing expert and coach. She empowers authors and is the Founder of Author U, a

membership organization created for the serious author who wants to be seriously successful. She’s been writing about and conducting workshops on publishing since the 80s. Judith is the author of 34 books including Author YOU: Creating and Building Your Author and Book Platforms (ForeWord IndieFab Book of the Year), Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers and a speaker at publishing conferences. Book #34 was published this summer: The CrowdFunding Guide for Authors & Writers. Get your copy.