I broke the hundred mark this week. I now have 101 followers at Twitter. Welcome each and every one of you.
I guess that’s something to celebrate. I do appreciate all of you who read my tweets and are interested, perhaps, in what I have to say in my daily blog about writing, publishing, book promotion and other aspects of my world. And I’m always up for meeting other authors. If I can help you, through this blog, all the better.
That’s what I use my Twitter account for—to let folks know about my blog topic for the day and to lead them to my blog site.
I even follow others occasionally at Twitter. It’s always an adventure to learn about some of the people who hang out at Twitter. While some are serious writers and authors who want to connect with other writers and authors, there are also those to whom you are tempted to say, “Get a life!” I mean, where are they from? What are they thinking? Oh I know, they are not thinking people—just reactive people out to see what sort of shock value they can generate. It’s a crazy world, getting crazier by the minute. Would you agree?
In fact, some of the people I’ve met over the years or come in contact with via the Internet who cannot find a publisher for their books or homes for their articles/stories are generally writing from their own narrowly focused opinion or mindset. Some of them write off-the-wall stuff designed to change minds; make a prickly, unpopular point; create chaotic thinking; cause rather than resolve a problem.
It has been my experience that some writers and hopeful authors who claim they want to be published, truly want, more than anything, to be heard. It isn’t the writing they are in love with, it is the idea of circulating their views publicly.
I can tell the difference between someone who is passionate about their writing and someone who is interested in a cause. The true writer is willing to do what it takes to get published, even if it means rewriting their article/book manuscript—writing on a topic that is more appropriate for the magazines or publishers they want to break into. Someone who wants to establish a career as a writer is willing to learn the finer points of submitting articles/stories or preparing a book manuscript for publication. This writer will bend and change in order to conform to the standards of the industry.
He or she will read books and articles on the subject, take classes and apply what they learn in order to move their careers forward or to meet their publishing goals.
If your writing career or publishing dreams seem to be stuck in the mud, maybe it is because you are being inflexible. Perhaps you are not willing to conform, your writing skills need serious improvement or your topic is too narrowly focused. If you are not realizing the success you desire, take a step back. Review some of the comments members of your critique group have shared. Ponder the advice you’ve received from professionals. Go back over the notes written on the rejection letters you’ve received. And while you’re at it, take a look at some of the articles, blog posts and books you’ve accumulated. Consider them from a more open-minded point of view.
I have a friend who, when I met her, was interested in writing, but didn’t know how to get started. She bought some of my books and I sort of mentored her from afar (via email). Finally, she drummed up the courage to write an article about her precious little dog that she lost to cancer and the ordeal they went through. She followed that one up with a couple of other articles pretty much all on the same topic. It didn’t take long, however, for her to run out of outlets for her narrow topic. And I convinced her to step outside that box and try writing articles related to her favorite subject—animals—only with much wider appeal. She spent the next several years writing a variety of articles on a wide variety of topics for pet magazines, ezines, websites.
Now my esteemed protégée is writing on all types of topics for a lot of different magazines. She has so many lines in the water that it is hard to imagine how timid she was at first to even put one toe in.
I’d love to hear from those of you who feel you may have been stuck at some point in your careers—or maybe you are now—and what you did or plan to do about it.
Was wondering why you didn’t post a link to your Twitter.
Hi Kathleen,
I don’t know–guess I was busy that day. Oh, one day Twitter was closed–I couldn’t get on. So I may have just moved on after trying several times. I’ve been doing the proofing for my next book from Allworth Press and the index. The next one will be a companion to Promote Your Book. It’s “Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for Enterprising Authors.” It is supposed to debut in February.
Patricia
PS Thanks for noticing.