From Passion to Patience: A Web-Based Model for Becoming a Successful Author, Part V
The last three elements in the new model for becoming a successful author in the digital age are commitment, patience, and love.
Commitment
There’s a cartoon showing a man and a woman, sitting on a couch talking, and the man is saying: “Look, I’m not talking about a lifetime commitment. I’m talking about marriage.”
Being a successful author requires a lifetime commitment, and I hope that you will commit yourself to becoming the best writer you can be, not just for yourself, but for all of us.
Patience
Marketing guru Seth Godin says that the best time to start promoting a book is three years before it comes out, because it may take that long to build a platform, create the strongest promotion plan for your book, and have the ability to carry it out.
You have to have patience to take the long view as well as the short view in writing and promoting your books, and building your career. You can’t look at your career as one book but ten or twenty—each new book being better and more lucrative than the previous one.
Love
To be the best writer and author you can be, you must love the process. You have to believe that using this model is what you were born to do. You have to
- love to read and write
- write out of love for your readers
- love the challenges of devoting yourself to becoming a better writer and communicator about your work
The love you send into the world through your work and your relationships with your readers will come back to you many times over and provide a profoundly satisfying life, regardless of how much income you earn doing it.
The Best Piece of Advice
Add luck to this list, and your books will be failproof. After forty-four years in the business, I’m convinced that every part of this list is essential. I may have left something out—and please tell me if I have–but you will need all of what’s here to succeed. I end the model for becoming a successful author in the digital age with the best piece of advice I’ve ever heard about becoming a writer: “If anything can stop you from becoming a writer, let it. If nothing can stop you, do it and you’ll make it.”
A Bonus
You can use this model for other professions and in your personal life.
Posts that follow will offer more insights into the parts of the model, parts of this model were adapted from the new fourth edition of How to Write a Book Proposal.
The 9th San Francisco Writers Conference / A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community / February 16-20, 2012 / www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com / 415-673-0939 / https://sfwriters.org/blog / @SFWC / http://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Francisco-Writers-Conference/112732798786104 / 1029 Jones St. / San Francisco, CA 94109 / San Francisco Writers University / Where Writers Meet and You Learn / Laurie McLean, Dean / free classes / www.sfwritersu.com / sfwritersu@gmail.com / @SFWritersU
Great tips!
Something I’ve really had to work on is my patience. I was extremely lucky with my first solo project and quickly got a publisher and the book written & published without any difficulty.
With my current project, it’s much more of a long-term thing, and despite the fact that I’m biting at the bit, I know I must wait until the time is right.
Quite a lot to learn in this book publishing business.
I love being reminded about the long range plans. This is a great article. It is always one step at at time, no matter what you are trying to accomplish.
Building the house one brick at a time!
Everyone should save Mike’s e- marketing columns. They go straight to the heart of the matter. I sold over a thousand books on Facebook, but trhe situation has changed, as the website no longer allows links in threads. XX00, Ann Seymour