The other day I came across a quote by Jim Rohn that reminded me of something profoundly important, something that I had let myself forget, and because of that, I am now suffering the consequences. The quote I’m talking about is this one: Your level of success will rarely exceed your level of personal development,…
Continuing on with this series about some of my non-literary influences, I would like to talk about someone who was a profound influence on me at one time, and that is Bill Hicks. I say one time because as I explained in the last post, I try not to get too influenced by anything or…
In a quest to explore some of the things that have influenced me as a writer over the years–things other than books–I have decided to do a series of posts on some of those influences. Books are only part of the story when it comes to the things that have influenced me as a writer…
I used to hate the fact that I was an introvert. When I was a teenager and I would go to parties, I would always end up sitting in some corner, wracked with discomfort, out of place, wishing I could be more like the extroverts in the room. These days, I’m happy not going to…
Here we are again, now at stage five of the process of writing and publishing your first non-fiction book.
In part one we looked at coming up with ideas and then researching those ideas.
In part two we looked at outlining your book.
In part three we discussed writing your book.
Then in part four we looked at designing the cover for your book.
Now we are going to discuss another important aspect of publishing your book, and that is the title of your book and the description of your book on the sales page.
If you struggle being a writer, if you still struggle to make a living from your writing, the chances are you’ve been struggling on and off for a while now, probably for years.
You may feel like you are not getting anywhere. It might seem to you like you will never make it as a writer.
If this is you, don’t despair. I’m here to tell you that you will make it.
First though, you have to understand something about the process of becoming a writer.
Once you understand this thing I’m about to tell you, thoughts of never making it as a writer shouldn’t seem as scary or despairing anymore.
You may not like what I’m about to say, but trust me, you’ll be glad I did by the time you finish reading this post.
Amongst other things, I teach self defense. One of the central concepts of effective self defense is attacking your attacker. Instead of trying to defend against an opponent and run the risk of being put on the back foot (thus overwhelmed and beaten), it is better to go on the offense and attack back straight away.
The best defense is a good offense.
When it comes to defending oneself against attacks in the writing world, we can use the same principle to defend ourselves.
I am not, of course, advocating that you get physical with people who dislike your work (although it can be tempting to throttle some people). What I am suggesting is that you get proactive when it comes to dealing with negativity surrounding you or your work.