Sep 24

This is the best time to be a writer

Authors, Industry Events, Leadership, Social Media, Uncategorized 3 Comments »

I just returned from my trip to the American Christian Fiction Writers conference (ACFW). It was a great opportunity to meet with authors and talk with them about the publishing world. I had the privilege of presenting a seminar on retail, and the state of publishing, especially as it concerns authors. For many authors, the business side of publishing is hidden behind the curtain. And yet, the author is critical to a publisher’s success, not only getting the book into the retail channel, but through the retail channel to the end consumer.

The keynote speaker for this year’s conference was Michael Hyatt. Michael is the former CEO and Chairman of the Board at Thomas Nelson. He has spent the last year and a half writing and speaking full time, although he is still very engaged with authors and the publishing community.

Michael shared these encouraging words in the first session, and I thought they would be helpful to share with all of the authors that I work with on a weekly basis.

Michael Hyatt’s five reasons why ‘today is the best time to be a writer.’

  1. It is easier than ever to do the writing. The tools have never been easier to access, from conferences and books about writing to specific software for writers and other technology.
  2. It is easier than ever to do market research. Google made it possible. Facebook and twitter have made it personal. Authors can research their characters and scenes with a few key strokes. Understanding the target audience for a book has never been easier with tools on the internet. ‘Group-think’ is facilitated by creative groups engaging each other through social media and writing circles. Authors can engage readers directly like never before. Authors have the tools to figure out what their platform is, and to build a tribe around it.
  3. It is easier than ever to get into print. Traditional publishing is no longer the only option. Self publishing is viable. It is not necessarily the best option for everyone, but it can be a great option for some. Traditional publishing is far from dead, and if traditional publishers learn to ‘lean into the changes’ being brought by the self publishing phenomenon, it can be an exciting place to be. Traditional publishers need to ask: What do these tools and this model make possible? What are the new opportunities? How can I find new readers in more places?
  4. It is easier than ever to build a tribe. Authors can engage their fans directly. There are new tools like the recently launched bookshout.com site, where authors can interact real-time with readers inside of their own book. Another new site called bookjolt.com, allows readers to read whole books for free online, and interact with authors. These are part of a new concept called social reading, and literally, an author’s book becomes a platform.
  5. It is easier than ever to build a business around your content. After all, it is great to write for writing sake, but most authors would like to earn some income from their writing too. Websites and blogs help you build your platform, engage readers, offer free content, and sell books. A small book business can be a sustainable business.

Michael also echoed something that I share with authors all the time. Authors have never been in a stronger position to make things happen than they are now. Authors can go after traditional publishing, or they can do it themselves. All of the tools are available for them to compete, in almost all cases, with everyone else.

This new model is a far cry from the stigma that used to be attached with what people called vanity publishing. In fact, a recent article in the Huffington Post, makes an interesting point that what we call ‘traditional publishing’, might be in fact, the new ‘vanity publishing.’

All of this change and opportunity is encouraging news for the content industry.

If you are an author, do you agree, or disagree with these thoughts? Let us hear it!

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Nov 03

The dreams that drive our President

Leadership, Politics No Comments »

I will break from my usual discussions of business for a short book review. I was in Costco a few days ago and happened on a new book by Dinesh D’Souza, called ‘The Roots of Obama’s Rage.’ The title fascinated me because President Obama comes across as very smooth, polished and in control. These are reasons, in part, why he was elected two years ago in one of the most lopsided victories for the Democratic Party. And yet, there does seem to be something lurking beneath the surface.

As we all know now, the GOP has been reinstalled in Congress in a historic landslide mid-term election. The jury is out whether the GOP really has the courage to do what the people of America seem to be telling them to do: shrink the size of government, create jobs and keep taxes low. And, will the President now break from some of his own dreams to work with the GOP?

The election season piqued my interest in the book. I, like many others, don’t understand the President, or where he comes from, or why he makes the decisions he makes. D’Souza paints a clear picture of Obama’s history to help us understand where his decision making comes from. From Obama’s own writing, he makes it very clear that his motivations and decision making comes directly from his natural father, born in Colonial Kenya. Obama Sr. became the idolized revolutionary in his son’s eyes, and the dreams that Obama Sr. for an African Socialist state with systemized redistribution of wealth from the Colonial overlords became the dreams of a smart community organizer, who became a State Senator, and eventually the 44th President of the United States.

This is a must read for anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the things that motivate the President to make decisions, and why he made the decisions of his first two years in office; and what he likely to do in the future. This is the book for you.

I would love to know what you think.

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May 10

Nuggets from the ECPA Leadership Summit

Authors, Distribution, Leadership, Printing, publishing, Uncategorized 1 Comment »

The following is a random list of interesting facts, observations and quotes from some of the amazing speakers and presentations during the ECPA Executive Leadership Summit, held last week in Nashville, TN. By no means is this exhaustive and is only through my own experience and often poor listening skills. I hope you find a nugget to help you.

 

Roland Lange, Google

  • In 2003, there were 500 million people online
  • There are 1.8 billion online today.
  • In 2007, sales were $420 billion online.
  • There are 183 billion emails sent every day, or 2 million per second.
  • There were more than 276,000 new books published in 2007.
  • There are more than 2 million books in print today in the US.
  • There are less than 10,000 magazines in print today.
  • There are now more than 70 million blogs in the US.
  • Online users are spending more than 14 hours per week, or 39% of their time. This is the same amount of time as TV usage.
  • Book reading is less than one hour per week.
  • There are 1 billion searches on Google every day.
  • Every minute, 24 hours of video are being uploaded to YouTube.

 

Kelly Gallagher, Bowker

  • More than 750,000 titles last year came through on-demand printing.
  • Today e-books still represent less than 3% of sales
  • E-books are not growing the market, they are cannibalizing it.
  • 76% growth rate of e-book buyers age 45-54 in 2009.
  • 191% growth rate of e-book buyers older than 65 in 2009.
  • Affordability is the number one reason why people buy e-books.
  • Fiction is the number one category in e-books.

 

Michael Drew, Wizard Academy

  • There are distinct 40 year generational cycles that can be used to predict behavior.
  • The newest cycle is about being real. No posers allowed.
  • There are 72 million teenagers poised, led by the internet, to take over the world.
  • The website is a conversation piece, not a marketing and sales tool.
  • How do you make your website feel like a conversation?

 

Leadership session with Mike Hyatt, Thomas Nelson and Chris Doornbos, David C. Cook

  • No one is entitled to survive in the publishing industry. You have to add value in order to find your place.
  • There is an enormous opportunity for retail in the future if it becomes more about the community.
  • Retail is not dead unless it wants to be.
  • Independent booksellers have a leg up. If you own it, you tend to fight for it a bit more.
  • Everyone’s crystal ball is a little dirty. It is tough to see exactly where the industry will be in the future.
  • We are in the most exciting times to be a publisher. Access to content has never been greater.
  • Serve well.
  • Get back to the fundamentals, the blocking and tackling of business.
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May 05

The secret to true leadership

Leadership No Comments »

This week, the Evangelical Christian Publisher’s Association (ECPA) opened its 2010 Executive Leadership Summit with a wonderful keynote address by Dr. Len Sweet, E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism at Drew University, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Fox University.

Dr. Sweet started his discussion by sharing that our children’s generation is really the TGIF generation. And no, this is not the acronym that you think it is. Instead, TGIF stands for Texting-Google-iPhone-Facebook generation. This generation is the future, and as much as we think of them as a 21st century generation, Sweet argues that they and the Church are really about influencing the 22nd century. Most young people under fifteen actually might have a life expectancy to carry them into the 22nd century, and thus carry significant influence to the Church after 2100. These are the future leaders.

Dr. Sweet went on to mention that more than 50,000 leadership books are published every year and yet each year, there is an increasing gulf between leadership and results. Just look at the leadership meltdown on Wall Street in the past twenty-four months for proof that for all the content and discussion and teaching, there is a vacuum of true leadership.

 

Instead, Dr. Sweet points to Scripture, and the fact that leadership is maybe only referenced one time in the New Testament, while the art of following (or discipleship) is mentioned dozens of times. Could the true secret of leadership be the art of being the first to step out and follow a new idea or person who has been brave enough to be the first off the bench? Take a look at the attached video and see a humorous example of the affect that ‘leadership’ has when it is coupled by followers, both the initial adopters and then as more and more follow and create a movement.

At a recent TED conference, one of the presenters picked apart this video and explained that the leader was someone who wasn’t afraid to stand out, even to the point of looking foolish, but then embraced the first follower as an equal. The first follower was as much a leader when he risked ridicule and joined the dancing naked man in his dance event. The leader helped him ‘learn’ and then treated him like an equal, which encouraged the first follower to encourage his friends to join the movement. When the third person joined the dance crusade, it became a noteworthy event, and people judged the event worthwhile and the followers multiplied very quickly.

Certainly, the first leader was important, but maybe as important according to Sweet, were the early followers, for they really gave the event the momentum to become a movement.

In the same way, in order to become leaders, we are to become followers just as Paul became a follower of Christ. We look at Paul as a great leader, when in fact, he calls himself a disciple, a follower of the one who came before, and thus helped create a movement that launched the Church.

The power of a movement might be a combination of the leader who invests in the vision, and the first followers who risk much to legitimize the movement.

Is this how you define leadership?

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