We all operate through our emotions—we can’t help it. Emotions are built into us to be experienced and expressed. But we’re advised not to allow our emotions to drive our book projects. And there’s good reason for this.
Sure you are excited about your book projects. Passion is an emotion. The sense of joy you feel while you’re writing and when you think about helping others or pleasing others through your book is an emotion. At the other end of the spectrum, the disappointment you feel when your manuscript is rejected or when you get a bad book review is also an emotion. It is impossible to get involved with the writing and production of a book without some sort of emotion.
Even staunch business-minded people experience some emotion throughout the process of creating and producing a book. But the most successful authors keep their emotions in check and even override their emotions when common sense and logic make more sense.
But how many of us become so attached to our book projects that we make emotional instead of logical decisions on its behalf? I can tell you that it is way too many of us. We write from an emotional place, which can be a good thing. It’s when we decide to publish and we start making business decisions from an emotional place that we find ourselves in trouble.
Here are some of the things we might say to ourselves in order to justify our decisions. Can you see how they are emotionally-driven?
• I don’t want to spend time trying to find a publisher so I’m going to sign with this pay-to-publish company whose representative seems as excited about my book as I am.
• I can’t wait to get my book published—I want to give a copy to my dad for his birthday. So I’m going to accept the pay-to-publish contract. I don’t actually know how to go about finding a regular publisher anyway and this seems like a good solution.
• I read over the contract and it seems okay. There are a few sections I don’t quite understand, but they tell me they have published hundreds of books for authors. They must know what they’re doing. I just want to live my dream and finally publish this book.
• I heard a speaker at my writers’ group talking about book promotion. Heck, I don’t want to get all involved in marketing my book. I just want to publish it and make a little money back selling to whoever wants it. I have a website. My pay-to-publish company said they would make it available to bookstores all over the country. I should be able to sell at least 10,000 copies without even trying.
• I wrote in my query letter to a major publisher that this is going to be the next bestseller and that it is a book for everyone—not just a specific niche audience.
Some would call these authors short-sighted. Some would consider them arrogant. I suggest that they are somewhat delusional, but that’s because they are not looking at publishing as a business. They have not studied the industry so they don’t know their options, the possible consequences of their choices and their responsibility as a published author. Some of them do not want to know. They simply want to fulfill and/or live a dream. They want to create their own reality without tuning into the reality of the industry. Their decisions are driven by their emotions.
And then they wonder why their dream sizzles—why they don’t experience the success they desire.
If you are pouring more emotion into your book project than thought, be sure to order my book TODAY at a discounted rate. Read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book and learn more about the publishing industry and how to more successfully navigate it on behalf of your book project. The best time to read this book is BEFORE you even start writing your book. But it is never too late to study it.
What you learn in my book could dramatically change the direction of your book. And this could be a good thing.
Order The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book NOW.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
If you need editorial help, check out my personal website:
http://www.patriciafry.com