We're chatting NOW. Want the Zoom link?
It's my birthday, and I want to give gifts all week long! Here are my two requests:
1. Buy some books in the Siretona Creative bookshop (get 10% off with the coupon code COLLEENBDAY56).
2. Support Kathleen Templeton's pre-order campaign for her new novel, Jar of Tears.
Want to know more? Ask me for a link!
It's all about the reader.
This week I attended the Women in Publishing Summit -- four jam-packed days of learning and networking and thinking about publishing!
One theme that stood out to me over and over is the preeminence of the reader. In every stage of publishing -- from setting up an ecosystem (aka platform) to editing and design, distribution, promotion, marketing, sales -- if we get self-conscious, we stop excelling and we stop serving.
This principle applies to a lot of things in life, but I was thinking especially about myself as a publisher and the author-clients that I serve. How can I help them get over self-consciousness and equip them with the skills and tools they need to bring books to the readers who need them?
How can we serve?
#WomenInPublishingSummit #Publishing #ReaderFirst
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**And now the remixed version complements of LinkedIn AI**
Attended the Women in Publishing Summit this week and one theme stood out to me - the preeminence of the reader. In every stage of publishing, if we get self-conscious, we stop excelling and we stop serving. This principle applies to a lot of things in life. As a publisher, I'm thinking about how to help author-clients get over self-consciousness and equip them with the skills and tools they need to bring books to the readers who need them. How can we serve? It's all about the reader.
Do you enjoy selling? Do you see it as serving your audience, your clients, your readers?
#amselling #sales #salesisservice #servesellrepeat #marketing #salesandmarketing #bookselling #bookmarketing #sellingbooks #publishing #gethelp
How do you deal with criticism?
#amwriting #bookpublishing #betareaders #bookcritique #writingcritique #receivingfeedback #feedbackmatters #feedback
Lisa LeBlanc's inner editor is a grumpy, slovenly, hyper-critocal old man. She named him Stanley, and she derives great satisfaction from telling him, "Shut up, Stanley!"
Does your inner editor have a name? What do they look like? How do you get them to be quiet?
Is your relationship with your inner editor comfortable, collegial, or conflicted? Do you think Lisa can ever be friends with Stanley?
All images in this reel were generated by Canva Magic visual AI, using Lisa's description of Stanley from her blog, with some adaptations to refine results. Which one do you think is Lisa's pick? @lisamayleblanc
#editor #editors #authors #innereditor #voiceinmyhead #devilonmyshoulder #writinglife
Incompetence.
What do you think of when you hear that word?
I've mostly had negative associations with it, like a chasm I could fall into or, not just an empty space but a vacuum that might suck me in and obliterate me. Ouch.
This morning I attended a coaching call, and incompetence was reframed for me. Yes, it's an empty space, but it's a beginning, a space for possibility, a space requiring faith and courage.
Have you seen this trajectory?
➡️ Unconscious incompetence - we don't know what we don't know
➡️ Conscious incompetence - we're painfully aware of what we don't know
➡️ Conscious competence - we see and appreciate our progress
➡️ Unconscious competence - the new thing is so natural we don't have to think about it
I still have a knot in my stomach about my conscious incompetencies. But I know that if I persevere, I can make wise decisions, increase in knowledge, gain skills, and eventually arrive at competence -- only to start over with something else.
What about you? Do you see incompetence as negative or positive?
Do you see the possibilities? Do you have faith and courage to step into the empty space?
#competence #incompetence #unconsciousincompetence #consciousincompetence #consciouscompetence #unconsciouscompetence #possibilities #faith #courage #persevere
p.s. I deliberately left a couple of rough spots in the recording as a nod to conscious incompetence (i.e. room to grow).
Happy New Year from our founder Colleen McCubbin.
Did you know? “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was originally composed by Mendelssohn in 1840 as a German cantata to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the printing press.
Some of the original lyrics: “Fatherland, in your area, the gold day dawned! Gutenberg, the German man lit the torch!” (translated from German)
#printingpress #gutenberg #Gutenbergpress #harktheheraldangelssing #christmascarolstories #christmascarols #Mendelssohn #mendelssohncantata #historylesson #germanhistory #musichistory
Are you an author or a writer?
Some of the authors who come to us are like Tammy Brimner. When she came to Siretona Creative and The Book Hatchery, she had one book idea and a determination to become an author. Along the way, she discovered the joy of writing and collaborating.
Along the way she also sustained a concussion, got COVID, and experienced a lot of other changes that upset her equilibrium. She’s in new season, taking a break from her publishing goals to REcover from these challenges.
She is *still writing* by keeping a virtual journal, but it's different, gentler, less goal oriented, and I daresay wiser.
Until I pointed it out, she hadn’t realize that she’s still writing! She’s writing to educate, inform, equip, inspire, and encourage, and she’s bringing people along the journey with her. It’s a brave and important way to be in the world.
What about you? Are you an author or a writer?
Christmas dinner at Willow Park.
"Don't worry about publication. That will spoil it. Get free of that obligation. It's just a story you have to tell." - Mark A. Buchanan
#justwrite #writeforjoy #writerswrite #tellthestory #tellyourstory
Do you need a better word for marketing?
Marketing can feel like an intimidating word. But the process really doesn't have to be overwhelming.
We can break it down to three words for the overall process.
Pick one and focus on it until you're comfortable with it.
ATTRACT
This is the first stage of marketing and it's exactly what it sounds like: drawing a crowd and gathering an audience. You're inviting people in, beckoning them to follow you, pointing them to your website, to your social media profile, enticing them read your writing, calling on them to interact with your messages.
NURTURE
In this second stage, you've already turned people's heads, now you're hosting them, providing hospitality, serving those who have come alongside you.
A good host provides sustenance, warmth, comfort. With nurture you're going to add value, present convictions, expand on themes, share ideas. Don't worry about invitations and offers. You're going to nurture by making people's lives better with everything you do.
CONVERT
Here is where you ask for a commitment, for a sale, where you CONVERT a browser into a buyer. This is the stage that intimidates most people and they either focus on selling too much or they shy away from doing it at all.
If you've focused on attracting and especially on nurturing your audience, the selling will become more and more natural.
Everything in these stages should be winsome and compelling. But don't decide whether or not it is: talk to your audience, find out what they want and need, the put your messages out into the world and see what actually appeals to them.
So which word are you going to focus on with your audience: ATTRACT or NURTURE or CONVERT?
#AttractionMarketing #attractionmarketingtips #attractnurtureconvert #bookmarketing #bookmarketingstrategies #bookmarketingtips
I said the Publishing Primer replays were going away today in The Book Hatchery. That's sort of true.
I follow some "gurus" who do it that way. They offer a free event and then delete or hide the replays after the event is finished. It's supposed to create scarcity and urgency.
But ... we don't want you to panic publish.
The last thing we want is for someone to rush their book to the finish line prematurely.
We want to see compelling books, published by committed authors in collaborative community.
Publishing Primer models all of these things. So, take your time. Don't hurry. We'll wait.
Also, most gurus don't tend to offer quite the same "high touch" approach. Basically we're offering teaching plus a highly interactive coaching experience.
If you attended the sessions in real time, you got the richest opportunity to hear and learn from our material.
If you watch(ed) the replays, that's next best.
If you don't do the whole course, you'll get sound bytes and image flashes later as we distill clips from recordings, post memes, write articles. It's a layered approach to sharing value for your publishing journey. We're going to serve you as you develop your work and consider your options.
I waffle between generosity and marketing tricks like scarcity and urgency.
I'm going to err on the side of generosity. I said we were going to take down the replays, but we're going to close the doors instead. This evening we are closing the doors on this Publishing Primer, but once you're in, we'll just leave the videos open for you to review at your leisure. Will you watch them?
Kathleen watched Tim Underwood's Bonus Marketing replay and took 8 pages of notes. EIGHT PAGES! Which session/replay has been most valuable for you so far?
Now is truly your last chance to get in take this iteration of our free publishing course. Come on in. Maybe next time YOU can join us in person, too.
Get in before the doors close on the March 2023 Publishing Primer.
https://the-book-hatch
On Thursday, we hosted Marcia Laycock in our final session of Publishing Primer. The edited version is here (from Vimeo).
If you'd like to watch the 1 hour + uncut version, with the Q&A and get all the links, that's in Publishing Primer (link in comments).
Note: the Publishing Primer course is free, but all of the current videos are going away on Monday evening.
You don't have to be so alone bringing your book into the world. Join our Publishing Primer and our author community. www.thebookhatchery.com
Questions about publishing? Wondering where to go with your book?
Join us for an overview of the publishing process from before the book to beyond the book and everything in between. See if our author community, The Book Hatchery, might be the right home for you and your work!
The course is live this week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday) from 1:00 - 3:00 pm MST.
Can't join us live? We'll have replays.
Next week there are bonus sessions (Monday through Thursday) from 2:00 - 3:00 pm MST: laser coaching, compelling covers with case studies, author interviews.
And you'll experience our coaching process for yourself!
#publish #publishing #publishyourbook #publishingprocess #writeabook #authorinterview #compellingbooks #goodbooks #committedauthors #collaborativecommunity #authorcommunity #collaboration #bookdesign #bookdesigner #bookpublishing #bookpublisher
"I think now that the simplest questions are not only the hardest to answer, but the most important to ask." Northrup Frye, The 1962 CBC Massey Lectures, "The Educated Imagination"
