While I was at Write!Canada, there was a lot of talk about ‘building your platform’. And I mean a lot of talk. It was general concensus that no author today will succeed without a solid, innovative platform that’s reflective of and changes with the times.

This week, I’d like to take a look at different aspects of platform building, along with some some perspectives from specific authors (gleaned from talks at Write!Canada).

During the symposium on the future of publishing, author and speaker Sheila Wray Gregoire had quite a bit to say about platforms, so I’d like to share that with you today.

Note that I called her an author AND speaker? Hmm… the platform comes into play already…

Sheila has a lovely, very user-friendly website. It’s jam-packed with media, downloads, articles, resources, and a place to buy her books. This woman knows what she’s doing – she may only have a few books published, but she’s got a killer platform. Go visit her site, then come back here.

In brief, here are the things Sheila had to say about the future of publishing/being an author/platforms:

• Authors must, must, must have a platform.
• It is now easier to find places to write than ever before, but harder to get paid.
• Can’t rely on royalty publishers anymore for 100% of income.
• But… we can create ways to get paid.
• Don’t get intimidated!!!
• Do the work, practice the craft, learn the technology, and you can get noticed, because…
• “Excellence will always rise to the top.”
• Authors must face that they can’t survive on just one book a year, so they must have a multi-platform action plan, including such things as…

1. Podcasts
2. Livestream TV (ie. Youtube)
3. Twitter
4. Functional website
5. Blog w/ regular updates
6. Articles that complement your book/expertise
7. Ebooks

Sheila has done all these things and more, so she knows what she’s talking about… and she does it well! Yes, it’s a lot of extra work to build a platform, but in today’s publishing industry, taking the time to do all these things can mean the difference between success and obscurity.

The only thing I really take issue with in Sheila’s observations is that “excellence will always rise to the top”. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, depending on who you are), that isn’t always true. A mediocre author with a fantastic platform will almost always “rise to the top” above a brilliant author with just a decent or even non-existent platform. Then again, people measure success in different ways, and one person’s success may be another person’s sorrow. But, if we’re talking sheer numbers, the person who rises to the top in this day and age will likely be the person with the better online/public social profile… even if their writing kinda stinks (a few names spring to mind, but I’ll let you think that one over yourself).

Monday Ponderings: Where do you stand in regards to platform building? Have you thought about it? Do you plan to build a platform, or will you simply let your writing speak for itself?

Tags: platform, speaking, Write!Canada

Rick and Bubba’s Guide to the Almost Nearly Perfect Marriage – Rick Burgess & Bill “Bubba” Bussey (Marriage)

Put away those mushy-gushy marriage guides… the real stuff’s right here! Alright, maybe not all of it, but Rick & Bubba have a few things to say about getting married, being married, and staying married. And it won’t put you to sleep! Rick & Bubba approach the subject with honesty, humor, and personal anecdotes that will make you either laugh or groan (depending on how much you identify with said anecdote…!)

What I appreciated most about this book was the different approach to the subject, which I realize is something that a number of other reviewers found frustrating. Let me put it this way: the authors don’t shy away from taking shots at their wives. Not in a cruel or mean way, but in the sense that the anecdotes don’t always make their wives into the “good guy” of the situation.

They show their faults, their bad habits, all those things that… well… that husbands are always pinned for in other marriage books! That’s not to say Rick & Bubba make themselves out to be perfect, model husbands – not in the least! But the tongue-in-cheek, BALANCED approach to showing both good/bad sides of husbands and wives, in a humorous way, was incredibly refreshing. It’s about time we wives had some stories told about us!

Rating: 3.5 coffees out of 5

(Reviewed for Thomas Nelson)

Tags: books, free books, marriage

So, I was going to write something useful and interesting today, but I was struck by a curiosity-driven question.

How did you feel the first time you submitted your work – be it an article, manuscript, query, whatever – to someone for publication?

Over the weekend, I took the plunge and submitted something to a journal. It wasn’t great, and I know it wasn’t my best work, but I needed to break that psychological barrier of ‘not good enough yet’ and just get my work out there. After all, we writers need to amass a nice pile of rejection slips before the acceptances come in, right? And what better time to start than now?

What I didn’t expect was how emotional the experience would be. It’s like… sending a part of your soul away to be judged & cast aside (because that’s what will happen, 99% of the time). Not only does it take courage to do what we do, but what normal person seeks out the rejection of something precious to them, over and over and over again? We writers are definitely not normal.

When I hit “send” on that email & attached piece, it took all of 30 seconds before it hit me. My husband asked me some question about supper and I snapped at him, realizing only after I apologized that I’d just send a part of me out into the world for the very first time, and I broke down. Was it fear? Relief? Writer’s post-partum? I’m still not sure. I was excited and proud of myself that I’d sent something and actually made the deadline, sure… but what was it that caused such an outpouring of emotion?

I’m still trying to figure it out, and I wonder if I’ll feel that way every time. What I’m really curious about is everyone else… what was your experience the first time you submitted something? Did you jump around the house with joy and excitement? Did you tremble with nervous fear? Did you settle down with a cup of tea and relax with a sense of accomplishment?

We writers are strange types, and we all deal with the various stages of the writing process in different ways. So… let’s hear about it!

Tags: firsts, submissions

Turn Up the Heat: A Couples Guide to Sexual Intimacy – Dr. Kevin Leman (Marriage)

What can I say? I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Leman’s books, whether they’re about Birth Order, marriage, family relationships, women & perfectionism, or sex. I find his writing style to be very casual, personal (he uses himself and his own life & marriage for a lot of anecdotes), and approachable, and always peppered with humor. He’s the kind of self-help writer that you feel you know once you’ve read one of his books… like if you saw him in the street tomorrow, you could walk up and just say “Hey, Dr. Leman! How’s Sande? Did you have a good time on your annual family trip?” etc.

So, once again, he’s written a ‘sex book’, comparable (but still different) to Sheet Music, which I read last year. While I think I preferred Sheet Music over this one, he had a lot of good content inside this volume that I think would be very helpful to many. It’s mostly presented in a Q&A format, based around popular questions he gets during marriage seminars and regular marriage counseling practice, so it was interesting to read about the common issues and concerns couples have… because really, there’s a reason why they’re common concerns!

All around, a well-written and well-presented volume (as usual) from a psychologist who, all things considered, writes his books (and presents himself) more like an easy-going friend than anything else.

Rating: 3.5 coffees out of 5

Tags: books, marriage

Scoop - Rene Gutteridge (General Fiction)

A fun & slightly wacky novel about the people at a TV news station, and the crazy goings-on behind the scenes as the sacred “Sweeps Week” approaches. Gutteridge develops a cast of characters that seem truer to life than you might expect: the overworked & high-strung producer, the young but inexperienced male news anchor, the older female news anchor who is clinging to her job with everything she has, the devout (but attractive!) Christian female who talks about God like he’s her best friend, and the reporter with a conscience… but wait, there’s more!

There are literally enough characters to fill a TV station, but it all makes sense because everyone has their place. The ‘major drama’ of the novel is well handled, but I think the problem itself takes a bit of a backdrop to the people – in a good way.

It wasn’t a spectacular novel, but different, well written, and pretty entertaining. I sat down and read it in one shot, so that has to say something!

Rating: 3 coffees out of 5

The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald (Literary Fiction)

What an interesting, albeit brief, little tale! Thoroughly British in nature, and packed with odd, quirky characters, this is the story of a woman who decides to open up a bookshop in her very small town. For whatever reason, many of the residents are hostile to the idea, and the book centers around her struggles to keep the shop open and profitable whilst fending off certain community members who would wish to close her down.

I can honestly say I was a bit disappointed in the ending… mostly because I wanted the story to continue, as I felt it wasn’t entirely finished. But, I suppose that was Fitzgerald’s intent, and as a result, the whole of the book makes for an interesting little read that is easily devoured over a few cups of tea on a lazy afternoon.

Rating: 3 coffees out of 5

Tags: books, bookshop

I am perpetually making plans.

• I have a plan to write X number of words per week.

• I have a plan to submit X number of articles/queries per month.

• I have a plan to complete X number of Masters’ courses per year.

• I have a plan to wake up at this time or that time every day.

• I have a plan to make this or that a priority, “for real” this time.

Then I scrap all the plans and start again. Whoever said “those who fail to plan, plan to fail”, well… they obviously never met me!

Inevitably, my plans fail over and over again. It’s this bizarre cycle that I can’t seem to break. Every time I make a new set of plans, I feel like I’m getting a fresh start. Another chance to ‘get it right’, and how could it go wrong with such a perfect plan?

I’m still trying to figure that one out. Trying to figure out how to hit that sweet spot where motivation is accessible, and how to cover over that inevitable, often comfortable, pit of despair that we writers fall into.

What about you? Do you make plans & are you able to carry them off consistently? What keeps you on the right track?

Tags: motivation, planning

Lady of Milkweed Manor – Julie Klassen (Historical Fiction)

This is definitely not my usual kind of ‘historical fiction’… regency ladies in their poufy dresses, ‘proper’ speech & mannerisms, etc… but there I was at the bookstore spending the church budget on new books for the library, and the woman ringing me up at the till saw that I had this book & the author’s next one in the stack, and promptly began gushing about them. She was so enthusiastic about this author that I found myself saying “well, I guess I’ll have to try them” and agreeing to come back and let her know what I thought. Well, since that’s the only Christian bookstore in town, and I still have more cash in the library budget, I figured it would be awfully hard to avoid her… and I just knew I’d feel guilty if she asked me what I thought and I had to admit I wasn’t really interested in reading the books after all. Especially when she was so excited about them… so, when I got home, I picked up Lady of Milkweed Manor and began reading… and read some more… and kept reading… and finally had to go to bed. The next morning, I… uh… didn’t start work until I’d sat down and finished reading the book. Oops.

“Huh,” I thought, “Guess it was worth my time after all…” And so, I’ve placed the second book on the TBR list. I won’t say a whole lot more about it – I don’t want to give the plot away, but if you’re interested, there are several good reviews on LT that give a bit more detail. I was glad I read it without knowing anything about the plot, probably since I might not have bothered otherwise. It was a pleasant surprise, and very well written for a first novel.

And I’ll admit it… I was actually bawling my eyes out near the end (and I think mumbling “no, no, NO!” as I read), when the author made me think something was going to happen/had happened that actually didn’t. My goodness… skillfully done. Recommended, even to those who don’t usually like this kind of regency-style historical fiction. Guess I learned a little something about my literary tastes with this one!

Rating: 4 coffees out of 5

Tags: books, historical fiction

Yesterday, I was catching up on my Google reader feed, and happened to come across a post written a few days ago by Susan at Notes from Innisfree. To my surprise, I was one of her chosen recipients of the ‘Superior Scribbler Award’, a sort of “blog-style chain letter award” that’s been going around lately.

The blog award rules are as follows:

Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.

Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.

Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to this post, which explains The Award.

Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!

Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

Thank you Susan!!! I’m honored… especially when I’m such a new face (is that the right way of putting it?) on the blog scene. Not that I’m new to blogging, I’ve been doing this for awhile… but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to connect with other bloggers on a regular basis. Heck, I only set up an RSS reader a few weeks ago (the horrors! I know!). Pretty bizarre for someone who spends the majority of their day on the computer, isn’t it?

And so, I come to what should be my next step with The Award, passing it on to others. Okay, let’s see… nope, she already has it… how about… oh, she already has it too… maybe… nope… oh, crud. Looks like nearly everyone I follow already has this award?!? What does this say about my blog reading choices? Lol. Like I said, I’m new to this game…

Ah hah! I’ve found a few that I’d like to pass this on to.

• Amy Jane @ Untangling Tales. Amy Jane blogs about writing, books, life, and the stories she’s working on. Her posts are calm, fluid, and engaging.
• Kari @ Imperfect Clarity: Perceptions of a Wannabe Writer. Kari blogs about writing, posts interviews with authors, and has the occasional contest! Her posts are honest and entertaining.
• thekoolaidmom @ In the Shadow of Mt. TBR. Book reviews, funny posts & videos, and the occasional giveaway! Lots of extras at this blog make it a fun place to be.
• Susan @ Susan’s Multiply website/blog. Susan is a wonderful, warm woman who I met on Librarything.com. She posts her reading lists, thoughts on life, and anything else that strikes her fancy. She also has some beautiful photographs of her home, cats, and places around Romania!

And those are my choices! Hope you enjoy reading these blogs, and thanks again to Susan for bestowing the honor on me & my little corner of the Interweb.

Tags: Links, scribbler award

Nine Ways God Always Speaks – Mark Herringshaw & Jennifer Schuchmann (Christian Living)

This was an ER book from LibraryThing, and I admit I was a bit skeptical when it came. I sometimes enjoy reading somewhat-fluffy Christian non-fiction (let’s face it – there’s a lot of it out there, and the majority is crap), but I wasn’t sure what to expect from these authors. Tyndale Publishers is usually fairly trustworthy, however, so I plunged ahead.

You may read from other reviewers that it was too ‘trite’, ‘scripturally unsound’, ‘juvenile’, and so forth. Alright, I see where that comes from. The language of the book was not academic, and the authors frequently took stories from Scripture and tried to re-tell them in modern words (ie. the angel coming to Mary). Now, I understand that some people might take issue with the authors trying to get their point across by saying Mary ‘heard voices’ instead of emphasizing the angel… but I think what they were trying to do is give the perspective of someone who might have heard Mary trying to explain why she was pregnant and unwed. I don’t doubt plenty of people thought she was crazy and hearing voices. Make sense? Some anecdotes like this were perhaps not expanded upon enough to get back to the original sense of the text, but I can see where the authors were coming from.

That said, this was clearly not intended to be an academic text. The ‘juvenile’ tone (or, I might say, friendly and contemporary) of the book indicates that it is aiming to appeal to the everyday person who wonders if they’re hearing God, or if God can really speak to someone today. This isn’t a book for pastors, or professors, or theologians, or even Bible college students. This is a book for the average individual who has genuine questions about God’s voice. So, of course the authors aren’t going to take a ‘higher tone’ with their writing. Of course they’re going to ‘dumb it down’ a bit, because the point is in the core message of the text: God speaks, and here are some different ways he’s done so throughout history.

The majority of the book is anecdotal, using stories from history, Scripture, the authors’ own experiences, and the experiences of others that they’ve heard on speaking tours/at conferences/through emails to them/etc. Then they expand on how God spoke in that story. And you know what? I really appreciated that the authors didn’t discount any method, in the sense that God can use any situation to His advantage to get His point across.

Yes, the book was written for hoi polloi. But that’s just it: God can speak to anyone, at any time, for any reason… and that’s a message that the everyday individual – perhaps more than a pastor, or a teacher – needs to hear.

Rating: 3 coffees out of 5

Tags: books, Christian Living