A-ha!

Just do it! Part Two

The next step is to assess your writing skills. How well do you write? What type of writing do you like? Think about your favorite Author, what style of writing does he or she use? Is this a style you are able to relate to? Is style something you can understand, or…should you take a writing course to learn about style? All of these assessments will help set the groundwork for your project and further strengthen the investment you’ll be making to it. So you’ve assessed your skills, you’ve taken a course, you’ve determined that you are ready to start writing.

Now what? Now you start by making an outline of what you want to write. Put down your main ideas, characters, settings, plot ideas etc. Try to get all your ideas organized. Put as much rough information down as you can. This is where you establish the flow of your book. It’s your brainstorming session with yourself. The more ideas, descriptions and information you list here the better. Your outline has been created.

Now you can start writing. My advice here is to just do it. If you want to set a goal of a chapter per writing session, then do it. You’ll soon find out how much time you need to write a chapter. Once you’ve finished writing it, read it out loud to yourself. Make any changes that are needed and put it down. Walk away until your next writing session.

Each time you start a new writing session, read the chapter you wrote previously. Once every few writing session, go back and read all the work you’ve done from start to finish. You may want to consider having someone else read your work to get his or her opinions. Someone close who is supportive but objective enough to be honest about your work. Be open to their review. Don’t get upset if it isn’t what you want to hear. Start developing a thick skin because you'll need to be open about the fact that some people may not like what you write. Don’t take it personally.

You are now officially writing your book.

Back to question one: How do you keep yourself motivated and on track? Motivation comes from your commitment to yourself. It’s what enables you to continue to invest in your “baby.” One thing to do is to pat yourself on the back everyday. Remind yourself how much you’ve put into the project and how rewarding it will be when it’s completed. Allow others to motivate you as well. Share your work and embrace the feedback you get back. Understand how amazing it is to have others read what you’ve written. When they take time out of their busy day to see what you’ve written, chances are they will provide you with constructive comments even if they don’t like the story. Use their words to keep you going.

Motivation is essential but it’s only one of the elements you need. Keeping a “just do it” attitude will enable you to win that writing battle. Remember to keep to your schedule, prepare yourself and manage yourself wisely. Organization can help build motivation and even eliminate pitfalls. Good luck.

Just do it! Part One

Motivation is so important when it comes to writing. We need to have that drive within us when we sit down with pen in hand or fingers on a keyboard. It is often the most important element in writing because it determines when and how we get started. If we aren’t motivated, then we aren’t getting the creative element inside of us exposed. I believe that writers need to release this animal or they begin to get consumed by it internally. Writers need to express themselves. It’s the way they show their emotions. If they don’t write, then their emotions get pent up and that’s not good for anyone.

So how does one get motivated to write? What happens if your desire isn’t strong enough to get you started? First of all I think a writer has to make a commitment to the work he or she are interested in creating. It’s almost like an establishing a formal contract with yourself. You’re going to invest your time, energy and creativity into a project that is worthy of "you." If you don’t have enough of these elements then this may not be the time for you to take on a project like this.

Taking the time to assess the elements will help to eliminate any possible pitfalls that may arise later and make you scratch the project all together. You need to analyze where you are in your life. How is your time currently divided? Are you working, do you have family commitments, are you well enough physically and emotionally? These are just a few things to take in consideration. If you are working fulltime, have three kids playing soccer twice a week, taking a class on the weekends…well you get the picture, it may not be the time to start writing a book. If the time isn’t available, then motivating yourself to write will be almost impossible.

If you are able to set some time aside to start writing, then you should set up a schedule for yourself. Set aside little increments of time at first and write them on your calendar or in your planner. Stick to it as best you can. Be committed but also prepare yourself for life’s unplanned interruptions. Tell your family and friends that this is time that is for yourself and you will not be planning anything with them during it. By stating this to them you are announcing your commitment and also expressing your expectations from them. This announcement says you are expecting them to support your decision and honor the time you’re going to be investing in your project. NOTE: Some will support you better than others.

Once you’ve established your schedule you’ll be able to move ahead on your project.

No Justification

Another day, another wonderful post from David St. Lawrence, over at Ripples. His series of posts chronicling his experiences in transforming from a writer into a self-publisher is must-read stuff for anyone involved in, or considering, writing a book. So here's a link to his archive page where the whole Self-Publishing series - 12 posts at last count - is collected (remember, it's a blog, so you may want to scroll down and start at the beginning, including the comments).

A comment I posted early in the series on the topic of justified margins has nagged at me and leads me to re-post it here, so I can offer graphics to illustrate my point. And that point is ... (drum roll) ... DON'T.

Don't use justified margins, I mean.

Here's what I wrote over at Ripples, broken up here with images from the books I used as examples:

I came across the comment from Michael Cleverly and your response about using "justified" text.

If it's not too late, I'd like to urge you to reconsider. Studies have shown that blocks of justified text are actually harder to read, because they result in odd spacing between words and excessive hyphenation by wordprocessing and page layout programs. The frequent wider spaces often line up from one line to another, producing distracting visual "rivers" of empty spaces winding down the page. It takes a lot of careful, manual adjustments of kerning and tracking to avoid these problems.

Take a look at some of the most beautiful, well-designed books produced in the last couple of decades:

Edward Tufte's series of books on information design (especially The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed. and Visual Explanations):

and Douglas Holleley's wonderful resource for self-publishing, Digital Book Design and Publishing.

All printed with left-justification, ragged-right.

All self-published, as well, by the way.

In an article with roots in my past life as an appellate lawyer, Painting With Print, Prof. Ruth Ann Robbins urges lawyers to avoid justified text under the sub-heading: "There isn't much justification for justified text."

Her article has been adopted and posted on the official website of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago, available at http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/Rules/Painting_with_Print.pdf. Check it out. She offers lots of useful typographic advice and research to back it up.

Not surprisingly, her article was printed in a scholarly journal ... left justified, ragged-right. The editors found it necessary to add a note, assuring their readers that Robbins' attack on tradition was her own fault, "rather than adhering to the page design and heading conventions of J.ALWD."

So there are opinions on both sides. I'll go with Robbins, and Tufte, and Holleley. But I won't hold your choice against you.

Since it's my soapbox, here are a couple more examples (note: these are information designers writing about how to get your message across):

Dynamics in Document Design, by Karen Schriver (Wiley 1997)

Information Design Desk Reference, by Christine Sevilla (Crisp 2002)

Now that you've seen my "evidence," what do you think?

Once Upon a Time When I Wrote a Book

I've been following a friend's experience becoming a published writer. David St. Lawrence of Ripples: post-corporate adventures blog, has been posting about his attempts to publish, in print, his book: Danger Quicksand: Have a Nice Day which is a free download off of his blog, to those who are interested. I even spoke with him on the phone the other day and he's such a warm fellow, inviting, personable, and full of energy-- especially for his book, that it gave me an idea-- to start a series of posts about MY experience writing and publishing my book: Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online.

Let's start at the beginning, and go on until the end-- which is how all good stories should be told. Even the ones which begin with a flashback.

Many, many years ago, when I was a child in second grade...oh, I suppose you don't want me to start THAT far back. You will get used to me...I can be a bit of a joker.

Ahmm....(that's me clearing my throat)....

Two years ago I was much like my friend David. I was disappointed with the path my life was on. I had endured corporate job after corporate job, over a period of close to 15 years. (before that I was a stay-at-home Mom.) In 1999, through 2002 and into 2003, I worked at several start-ups.

The start-ups were exciting--for the first few months. Then, they became bothersome. (David, and all who read his book, will understand.) They became bothersome because-- they refused to allow me to do my job. I was hired to write, but, more often than not I made coffee, opened mail, and watched the CEOs make disasterous decisions that, ultimately, would, and did, cost me my job.

No problem. After the third time, when the company I worked at actually seemed to value my input but refused to take my advice, I said, "No more. I'm not going to be an employee ever again!" And, I went out on my own.

I was, at that time, just beginning to earn enough money to live on-- as a consultant doing web content writing, with a few articles at paying magazines thrown in. It was heaven. However, there were a lot of people in my immediate world that continued to want to take advantage of not only my good nature, but my writing skills. These people, sad to say, were mostly men. Men who thought I would be thrilled to join their staff, unpaid, and do sales, marketing, or writing for them. Just to get my name in front of their customers. Customers, mind you, that most of them were desperate for!

<Big sigh.> Now, while this was going on, I noticed something interesting happening online. I noticed that the number of women online was outpacing the number of men. Women were moving beyond email and into shopping -- for the convenience, the choices, the free shipping, and many other reasons. But, no one was paying any attention to this important phenomena. Just like folks in the "dirt world," the Internet was ignoring the women's market.

At this time, I was expressing some frustration at yet another company that was trying to convince me to work for free, when a friend (a male friend) said, "If you could do exactly what you want, and not have to deal with these bozos who are out to steal your talents, what would that be?"

I thought about it for a few seconds, and I said, "I'd write a book. A book about marketing to women who shop online."

"Sounds like a good idea," he said. "I know what you can call it..."

I waited-- he was in marketing and had scads more experience than I, so I was very interested in his advice.

"You can call it: Dickless Marketing," he said, with a grin. "After all, you'll be teaching people how to get out of the 20th century Dick and Jane world, and into the new millennium."

After laughing for some time-- laughing so hard I was crying-- I heaved a sigh and shook my head. "I can't do that," I said. "I'd never be able to pull it off."

"Of course you will," he insisted. "You'll explain that Dickless means marketing to Jane, not to Dick. It's just common sense."

How true, I thought. In time, oh, five minutes or so, I came to love the idea.

The fact that the title of my book is provocative, has attracted both positive and negative comments-- but, in the end, it served (still serves) its purpose: to show people online that Jane is the gender who spends the most money. Jane is the one searching for your product or service-- for herself, or for someone she knows.

Now you have the story of how the title to my book, Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, came to be. In my next post, I'll talk about how I chose print-on-demand for my book, and show you why my new company was born-- out of that less than satisfactory experience with the POD company that produced my book.

Do not, however, expect confessions, secrets, or blatant accusations. The company that published my book is still in business. They have many customers. I don't know if these customers are happy ones, or not. I only know that I am not one of the happy ones and I will tell you why without insults or anger-- something I could not have done when I was going through the experience.

And I will tell you what I learned about print-on-demand.

I hope you will learn something from my experience. Just as David St. Lawrence is doing such a marvelous job showing others the way, I hope I can point you down the right road...maybe one that leads to Rochester, NY where print-on-demand began and where we, at A-ha!, do business.

We'll talk. Tune in later this week for Part 2. Until then, write something wonderful today. Even one sentence. Think of science-fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, who said, "Don't think! Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do things; you simply must do them."

Print-on-DEMAND, or Extreme Publishing

What do you say when your friend Anita calls, tells you she's editing a book for a friend of hers (motorcycle industry guru John Wyckoff), and asks if you can have the book printed and delivered to a trade show ... in a little under three weeks?!?!?

You say, "Sure, no problem," of course.

Well, actually you ask a bunch of questions about how close the manuscript is to being done, file formats, sizes, quantities, cover design, and so on. Then you check with your new best friend at local printer City Blue Imaging for a quote and delivery estimate.

But in the end, Anita's a friend ... so your answer is basically the same: "Get it to us by next Wednesday and we'll get it to the conference on time."

Then you hang up the phone and scream, "How are we going to do THAT?"

After another few moments of panic, you take a couple of breaths and get to work. In this case, we had several things going for us. First, we had a couple of days before the manuscript would arrive to work on a cover design, assign an ISBN and obtain the Bookland EAN barcode for the back, and think about the inside layout of the book itself.

Second, the book contained only a few simple black and white graphics. The tables and a scanned form were no problem. The clip art graphic used as logo for the chapter headings needed some fussing in Photoshop to create a clean, 300 dpi image. But that was nothing compared to the complex images and varied formats that are invovled in most book projects.

Third (and most important), we had Anita doing the editing. (As an aside, Anita ran an interesting post on her blog the other day from Guest Author Wayne McVicker, discussing his own experience and advice on self-publishing his book, Starting Something.)

Anita was working in Microsoft Word, which produces files that are generally unusable for commercial print projects. But she understood things like the need to format the pages as facing pages with alternating inside margins and how to create margins that corresponded to the finished 5.5" x 8.5" trim size.

Working with Anita's manuscript made it much easier than most to flow the text into a professional page layout program (we use Adobe InDesign CS). Adding page masters for the headers and footers and inserting the front matter completed the task.

Here's the result: we were able to overnight 100 copies of his finsihed book, MYOB-2: The Complete Guide to Profitable Powersports Dealerships, to John in time for his attendance at the 2005 V-Twin Expo held in Cincinnati January 29-31.

And he sold all but 4 on site, without any pre-marketing, signage, a booth of his own, or any of the usual preparation.

Okay, it was not as easy, or as smooth, as I'm making it sound. There were lots of little glitches, big gulps, and another scream or two, over those two and a half weeks.

And yes, there were trade-offs -- the biggest one being that we had no time to send the print proofs to Anita or John. They got to look at PDF's of the cover and page layout online and had to take it on faith that the print proofs looked even better. I doubt any of us would have been willing to make that trade-off, but for working with friends.

We definitely don't recommend turning out books at this pace, as a regular practice. But in this case, John had a great opportunity to show off his new book at an industry trade show and sell a few copies to start creating buzz.

POD, a great editor, and help from an author services company made it possible for John to seize that opportunity.

In similar circumstances, we'd probably answer, again, "Sure, no problem." And then hang up ... and scream ... and then get to work.

Authors helping authors. A-ha!