by Stephen Campbell | Dec 30, 2014 | Blogging, Short Stories, Strategy
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed reading Chris Brogan’s January 1st post where he shares his three words for the new year. These are the words that will drive the focus of his goals and efforts for the coming year. I’ve decided to do the same thing for 2015, but before I share mine allow me to provide some background.
Earl Nightingale produced an audio essay years ago on Goal People and River People. In its most simple terms, he saw successful people falling into those two categories. Goal people, who pursue specific goals on their road to success, and river people, who throw themselves into a “river of interest” that can last a lifetime.
I’ve always been a goal person, but for the past two years I’ve tried to throw myself into a river of interest, writing. My success as a river person has been mixed, at least in terms of accomplishment. The river has carried me into writing classes, books on the craft of writing, writing conferences and the completion of several manuscripts and multiple short stories. But of all that work only one thing has been published. A short story titled GONE TOMORROW.
During that period, I launched two different writing-related podcasts, including my current show, The Author Biz, through which I’ve met many of my writing heroes. I learned a great deal from the guests on those shows, and from what I hear from listeners, others have as well.
I accomplished much over the past two years, but if I’d been tracking goals, I think I’d have published more, because publishing would (should) have been a primary goal.
The River of Interest has been educational and fun, but for the baseball fans among you it’s like spending two years in spring training and only playing one game.
I did finish what I was certain would be my first published novel, but both professionals and I found it lacking in several areas. This disappointment caused a period of doing anything but writing, which included the launch of The Author Biz. That took time, learning and practice as I developed a style and format for the show. But I am happy to report that it’s finding an audience more quickly than I expected.
As for the writing, I did begin again with what I’d hoped would be a short story, which turned into a short novel, featuring Reno Hart. I like Reno, but her character is still being developed through a series of short stories, that should be finished by now, but I allowed life to interrupt.
We all have issues in life that throw down obstacles between where we are now and where we want to be. Sometimes these come disguised as opportunities, sometimes as problems, and sometimes they look like relaxation. For me, the primary issue is a problem. The health of a family member took a dramatic turn for the worse last year and that dramatically altered my plans in the last quarter of 2014.
These problems aren’t going away in 2015. In fact, problems like these are likely to appear more often as friends and family age. I can’t ignore these problems, and I need to refocus on my work.
Does dealing with problems make me unique in some way? Nope. People deal with problems every day and still do amazing things. It’s what separates the accomplished from the rest of the world.
Much of my success in life has come from the ability to keep the different parts of my life separate, and to focus on the task at hand. I’ve done that by maintaining a schedule that’s been consistent for years. It’s been so consistent that I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to change it to meet my current needs. But it requires change, and the best way for me to make changes is by using goals. So I’ve decided to pull myself out of the warm, rolling waters of the River of Interest and back onto shore so I can set some goals that are meaningful and measurable in 2015.
To meet those goals, I need to be able to focus on my work when the time allows, rather than when my schedule tells me it’s time. Can I do it? Of course. You probably do this already. Mothers with small children do it every day. They work when the kids are asleep, or at a play day with friends. They work in 10 to 30-minute increments when time allows. It’s not the way I’ve worked in the past, but it’s going to have to be a component of how I work going forward.
So . . . that’s the background. Now on with my three words for 2015. The words that I’ll use to drive the focus of my goals and efforts for the coming year.
- Simplify
- Multiply
- Monetize
I’ll explain what the words mean to me and how they’ll impact my 2015 goals in my next post.
by Stephen Campbell | Dec 22, 2014 | Podcasts
Is there really only one way to build a business as an author? Must we spend time building a platform before we can write and publish a book? Do we have to be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and every other social media site? These are the rules, right? At least that’s what the experts tell us.
But what if there are no rules?
Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur Jane Friedman just released a book with the title PUBLISHING 101. One of my favorite lines of the book comes in the introduction where she says, “I teach the rules, even though there aren’t any.”
Jane also co-founded Scratch Magazine, The Digital Magazine for Writers, with Manjula Martin. As you’ll hear in the interview, this is something I read from start to finish with each new issue, normally in one evening. If you’re a regular listener of The Author Biz podcast, I think you’d enjoy Scratch.
In this episode Jane and I discuss things like author platforms, the value of consistent blogging in her career and her surprising views on blogging for authors, finding the right publication path for an authors books and some of the many challenges and opportunities facing authors today.
Click here to Listen to The Author Biz Episode No. 24
by Stephen Campbell | Dec 11, 2014 | Writing
When I start a story, I typically have no idea what my character’s names will end up being. As proof, I offer the working title of a novel I’m currently editing. The file name in Scrivener is Smith One.
This book started with two primary characters. Smith and Hart. For the sake of simplicity, I used John Smith and Jessica Hart. Why Jessica and John? For some strange reason when I need to come up with first names quickly, they always begin with the letter J.
After getting a few chapters into the story I changed Smith to Adler, so my protagonist (at the time) was now John Adler. Still lame, but better. He was starting to come to life. Unfortunately, the female character was not. My plan was for her to be Robin to Adler’s Batman, or maybe Watson to Adler’s Holmes, but it wasn’t happening. Did she need a better name?
Scrivener has a first name generator, but it didn’t help. I kept changing her name, but she kept shaking her head no.
Let me describe this character for you. She’s a 5’7″ ball of energy with long, nearly uncontrollable red hair. A former military police officer, she left the army after six years and turned into a corporate security drone. Then something happened that flipped her life completely upside down. She’s a strong woman, and she wasn’t going any further until she had a valid name.
Here’s where the story completely stalled out for me. Could a character’s name really be this important during this early stage of the writing process?
I pondered this for an hour or so, then I remembered a conversation I had with Peter Leonard earlier in the year. He shared some advice he received from his well know father, Elmore, about character (more…)
by Stephen Campbell | Dec 10, 2014 | Podcasts
It’s December – a month filled with family, friends, food, shopping AND if you’re an author/businessperson a great time for planning.
In this episode author, Elizabeth Spann Craig takes us through her method of setting up a production plan. It’s a complicated process that breaks down into easy to understand components during this podcast.
In March of last year, Elizabeth wrote my single favorite blog post of 2014, Creating a Production Plan. It’s something that I’ve kept and referred to often.Elizabeth is a hybrid author, with two cozy mystery series published traditionally, and one series that she publishes on her own. As you’ll hear in the interview, she built her production schedule process out of the need to keep herself, and her support team focused and on target.
She’s a prolific content creator, and her award-winning blog is focused exclusively on providing useful information to writers.
In this interview, Elizabeth and I focus primarily on building an easy to use production plan, but we veer off into blogging and social media, specifically twitter, where Elizabeth has a unique presence.
Click Here to Listen to The Author Biz Episode No. 23
Or, you can get it at iTunes.
by Stephen Campbell | Jun 12, 2014 | Listening, Personal
I’m launching a new podcast that will focus on the nitty-gritty business details of being an author. Guests on the show will include authors who are well established as well as those who may be unrecognized by the big publishing houses, but totally kicking it through self publishing.
However, this is not just another author interview podcast.
We’ll spend time covering the craft of writing, but we’ll also have guests who will speak on topics like business plans for authors, editing, cover design, audio book creation, business structures, taxes, publisher contracts, formatting, marketing, self publishing, and dealing with social media.
Think of The Author Biz as a writer’s conference with multiple tracks. One that you can attend each week without the need for packing, travel, and putting on makeup. The show will be delivered each Monday beginning June 30th and be available through iTunes and other podcast outlets. It can also be streamed from the website, which is www.theauthorbiz.com.
Why this podcast and why me? Two reasons.
First, this is information I’m extremely interesting in learning. Each step (more…)
