Pointers on Publishing - Getting closer to your goal

Corine La Font, Contributor

Would you hire you? Consider that question carefully for a moment. It applies to you as an entrepreneur, an employee and even you as an author. Would you hire someone who wakes up each day, knows that there are set activities to accomplish at the end of that day for every working day of the week and does not accomplish them?

Then why are you dissatisfied with the results you are getting? That person is you! You want your book or business to be known as a household name; you want to build your customer base, but yet you are not prepared to do what is necessary to make that happen?

Some of us use procrastination as an excuse. We were not born with a procrastination gene; at least not to my knowledge! How long will it take you to realise that you are in the same place five to 10 years later?

Everyone has a different perspective and approach to getting closer to their goals. For me, I see the end as I would like it to be and then take the necessary steps to get there. Others start by taking the steps in hopes of getting somewhere, anywhere. Either approach is OK once you are happy with the results intended or unintended. Added to that is belief and faith. This faith and belief speaks to your conviction in what you are doing and being focused on the objective ahead. No amount of negativism or distraction will divert or avert your attention and focus in moving towards your goal.

In mentioning the unintended results, there are times you have to be flexible when moving towards your goal. Things may show up along your journey that may hint that you need to do some things differently.

If you wish to move closer towards your goal, you should do a fair number of activities every day and stick to it until you see progress. Yes, I know it is hard sometimes. It happens to me too, but try to stay on track as much as possible. Remember, that progress is incremental. Celebrate the small achievements too; they lead to larger ones.

So let's look at five activities you can safely get through each day as a way of building awareness around you, your book or business:

1. Social Media: Everyone should know social media - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn but there are others like Pinterest and Goodreads and others. Now it is not good enough to just generate posts and not interact. That defeats the purpose of what social media is meant to do. You MUST interact and that means comment and share on what others post, give advice, be a part of the lives of others in the group. If you are not a social person and you think this activity takes up too much of your time, then social media is not for you.

2. Blogging: I have spoken to persons who think blogging is a waste of time. Let me tell you that writing blogs on a weekly or fortnightly basis is not a waste of time. A number of authors have been picked up by publishers and literary agents to get contracts. Don't limit yourself to writing. You can do audio or even video blogs. I even saw blogs that were short movies or trailers telling a story and fed to YouTube, another whopper social media platform.

3. Start trading: OK, this may sound a bit off but, yes, start bartering your services. Recognise that you don't know how to do everything and there are people within your network who want what you have and you want what they have, so start trading to create a win-win situation.

4. Ask, ask, and ask: Another super easy one that costs nothing. The power of asking is not beyond anyone unless your pride gets in the way and then you will be one of those still in the same place five to 10 years later because you didn't ask! Ask for that review. Give away a few copies of your book to persons that are in your target audience that have a reputation in society and clout and ask for a review. Beware, they may not all get back to you for people are busy but find a way around that, either make it worth their while or accept the one or two that may come back with a review and just keep asking.

5. R&D: Yes, the dreaded words - research and development. To stay on top of your game, you need to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing, needs and demands of customers as well as incoming trends and in all this, you need to spend time on your personal development. You need to keep reading, open yourself to new thoughts and ideas or even to cement the ones you have so that it confirms that the course you are on is the right one. We all need a bit of self affirmation to build our confidence and boost our self-esteem.

So do you think you can do these five activities on a daily basis? I am sure you can think of more, but be careful, don't take on too much as that is what overwhelms and causes procrastination to set in. Start a new day now to getting closer towards your goals and ensure that you celebrate the small successes that will come your way. I guarantee that the change you are looking for will come sooner than you think.

Pitch
slam!

In the article above, I mentioned authors' works
being picked up by literary agents. About two weeks ago, I mentioned
that I will be participating in two major pitch slams, one for writers
and the other for screenwriters. In essence, that means I will be
pitching my work to literary agents, screenwriters, television producers
and the like over a full two days. It's like speed dating, if you
understand the concept. I am extending an invitation to you to represent
your work on the global market so if you are seriously interested, go
to this link to get started
http://bit.ly/19Fvwaw.

Corine La Font is an
author, certified author assistant and online book marketing
specialist. She is also an award-winning publishing resource in the 2013
Small Business Book Awards. Get a copy of her book at
http://amzn.to/TFHQka. Tune in to her radio programme at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpdeskja. She can be reached at
corine@helpdeskja.com or visit her website at
www.helpdeskja.com