What does each person do to build my business?

To determine how each of these people build your business you must first determine what role you’d like them to perform and what the specific result is. For those of you who completed “Intro to the Writer’s Life” pull out your business plan that you created and go through this as we build in this lesson. You may find that you can expand your goals by delegating tasks. You may also find that some of your goals that you created don’t directly build your business and that they should be delayed or eliminated.

Let’s start to look at each task they perform. Feel free to write in additional tasks that are specific to your writing business.

             Editors

For the purpose of this lesson Editors means the people who acquire and edit work for periodicals, publishing houses and e-zines. These are the people you will submit a project to hoping to sell to them. I include them on your business team because you cannot look at yourself as an employee of a publishing house. You are an independent business owner who is contractually obligated to complete one or more projects for their company in exchange for a portion of the profit generated by that product.

This is very hard for many writers to accept in the beginning of their publishing career because they look at their writing as such a personal thing. I agree strongly that this is. I have spent a great deal of time researching my story, writing character sketches and building character arcs. I take great pride in the stories [both fiction and non-fiction] that I put together. However, in order to grow your business to the place that you can focus on that ARTISTIC portion of the business, you must first remove yourself emotionally from an individual story and look at the business as a whole.

So, the function of an editor as part of your business team is to be your advocate to the publishing board and also to help you shine that book in to the best it can be. Again, this is where emotionally separating yourself from your work must come in. If you get your affirmation from the exact story you wrote then this business will eat you alive. There will be no way for you to continue to function with the painful cuts in word count, the rejection of a book you spent months at and the mail from unhappy ‘fans’ if you are too emotionally connected to the project.

One great thing about writing, however, is it is highly relational. That means that as you begin to develop relationships with people on your writing team, like editors, you begin to mesh and join in a common vision. This makes it much easier to work together on future projects.

             Marketing

To decide the role of the marketer you must first recognize what marketing is. For the sake of this lesson, marketing is establishing name recognition and credibility with your target audience. This will lead to sales of book length fiction, articles, non-fiction, etc.

What are some ways a writer markets. If you took my course “Writing Career Coach Part 1: Creating a Platform” we discussed at great length how you can build this name recognition. If you don’t own it I you can get it free with my coaching program. Information is available on my website.

Based on the teachings you’ve read these last few days, what roles might these people fulfill. Respond in the comments section of this blog.

Publicity

Agent

Freelance Editors

Web Designers

Virtual Assistant/Secretary

This is excerpted from: Writing Career Coach Part 2: Your Writing Business Team. Written by Tiffany Colter

Read more excerpts and follow the links below:

A writer’s business team: Part 1

A Writer’s Business Team: Part 2

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Who are the people that make up the team?

Depending on your overall goals and business plan your team will vary but there are some positions that every writer must fill on their business team. Those people are:

            Editors

            Marketing

            Publicity

            Agent

 Whether you fill these roles yourself or your hire them out, every writer must include these people on their business team. In addition to these there are others that will help build your writing business and should be included in a highly successful writing business.

            Freelance Editors

            Web Designers

            Virtual Assistant/Secretary

In the beginning of your writing journey you’ll fill many of these rolls yourself. Gradually, however, you will need to focus your time and effort on doing the things that build your business and make you more productive. You will begin to outsource these tasks and focus increasing amounts of time on your actual writing.

Learning how to do this is why you bought this product.

This is excerpted from: Writing Career Coach Part 2: Your Writing Business Team. Written by Tiffany Colter.

Read more excerpts and follow th links below:

A writer’s business team: Part 1

A writer’s business team: Part 3

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Photo credit: Donna Hamaker

Today we are interviewing freelance writer and editor Sarah Hamaker.

 Sarah Hamaker is a freelance writer and editor, and author of Hired@Home, a guide to unlocking women’s work-from-home potential. Two of her stories have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings and Chicken Soup for the Soul: All in the Family. She has a master’s degree in Literature and Language from Marymount University. Sarah lives in Virginia with her husband and four children. Visit her online at www.sarahhamaker.com.

Sarah took a few minutes to talk about editing with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: As a freelance editor what are some of the things you do with a manuscript?
Sarah Hamaker: Editors correct grammatical and sentence structure, formatting and content, which involves story flow and more big-picture comments.

WCC: Can you explain some of the kinds of editing?
SH: There are basically two types of editing: proofreading or copyediting, and content editing. To proofread a manuscript, the copyeditor marks grammatical and formatting mistakes. For example, grammatical things she would correct include spelling, punctuation and sentence structure issues (subject-verb agreement, displaced modifiers, dangling participles, etc.). Formatting corrections involve making sure subheads, chapter titles, etc., are in the same style. The copyeditor also would make sure the manuscript adheres to an outside style guide, if applicable. Most book manuscripts are edited in the Chicago Manual of Style.
 
Content editing goes beyond grammar and formatting. A content editor reworks awkward sentences, notes holes in the story, and suggests dialogue or scene changes. Critiques by other writers generally combine content editing and copyediting.

WCC: What are things a writer can do to improve her writing before sending it to a freelance editor?
SH: There are several things writers can do to improve their writing. First, use your word processor’s spell and grammar check. I’ve received manuscripts that had very simple spelling mistakes that an electronic spell checker would have easily corrected.

Second, have family, friends and other writers read your work with an eye to grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Third, read books on how to write whatever genre you are interested in writing. Groups like the American Christian Fiction Writers also provide learning opportunities through online writing courses.

Fourth, join a local writers group. Being able to meet face to face with other writers who share your passion can encourage you as a writer.

Fifth, get involved in a critique group. Either online or in person, critique groups give you constructive criticism about your writing that you can use to improve your work.
 
WCC: What are some exercises a writer can do to improve?
SH: Use every opportunity to practice. Correct the printed materials you come across. Make it a game to take a red pen and mark up your local newspapers, magazines or even church bulletins. The idea is not to ridicule another’s work, but to see if you can catch mistakes and improve the copy.

Critique other writers. Often, as I’m marking someone else’s chapter, it will dawn on me that I make the exact same mistakes. Critiquing another’s work can improve your own work as you put into practice what you critique in others.

Available on used book sites, Grammar for Journalists by E.L. Callihan has quizzes throughout the book to illustrate common errors. While geared toward reporters, this book can be a good tool in learning about writing.

Online grammar exercises abound. One free site is http://www.wadsworth.com/devenglish_d/special_features/grammarquizzes.html, which offers grammar quizzes on a variety of topics, including pronouns, subordinates and irregular verbs.

 Read more of Sarah’s interview on freelance editors here at Examiner.

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail.
Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

STEP 1: What is a writer’s business team?

 A writer’s business team can radically change the functioning of your business. By recognizing all the functions necessary to the running of your writing business you can begin to outsource these various tasks as you grow in your writing.

 Most people recognize this truth, even if they don’t openly acknowledge it. The advent of the virtual assistant shows this. Virtual assistants usually handle email correspondence, organizing newsletters and even blog tours. There are a variety of uses for a virtual assistant but they are not the only member of a person’s business team.

 In his book, the E-myth revisited, Michael Gerber focuses on the idea of systems to create an effective business structure. On pg 12-13 he says “In the throes of your Entrepreneurial Seizure [the sudden need to start your own business], you fell victim to the most disastrous assumption anyone can make about going in to business…That Fatal Assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work. And the reason it’s fatal is that it just isn’t true. In fact, it’s the root cause of most small business failures!”  

 This is important because it puts to rest the idea that if you are able to write a great story it does NOT necessarily mean you have what it takes to be a successful author. That is because writing is an art AND a business.

 In my course “Intro to the Writer’s Life” I lay out the basics of the people who make up your business team. We are going to revisit that idea here and expand on them.

 This is excerpted from: Writing Career Coach Part 2: Your Writing Business Team. Written by Tiffany Colter

Read more excerpts and follow th links below:

A Writer’s Business Team: Part 2

A writer’s business team: Part 3

Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail. Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.

Today we are interviewing author Jennifer AlLee. Her most recent book, The Pastor’s Wife, is available through Abingdon Press.

As a child, Jennifer AlLee lived above a mortuary in the heart of Hollywood, California, which may explain her unique outlook on life. Her publishing credits include The Love of His Brother, a contemporary romance from Five Star Publishing (November 2007) as well as skits, activity pages, and over one hundred contributions to Concordia Publishing House’s popular My Devotions series. Her latest novel, The Pastor’s Wife, releases February 1, 2010 from Abingdon Press. She’s an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and serves as the Nevada Area Coordinator. Jennifer resides in the grace-filled city of Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and teenage son. Visit her website at http://www.jenniferallee.com/

The Pastor’s Wife: Maura Sullivan thought she knew what she was getting into when she married soon-to-be pastor Nick Shepherd. But when “the other woman” in her marriage turned out to be her husband’s congregation, she ran. Three years later, she’s back in the small community of Granger, Ohio, for the reading of a will that names both her and Nick as beneficiaries. Now Maura must face the husband – and the congregation – she left behind.

View the book trailer on YouTube.

Jennifer took a few minutes to talk about publishing from a writer’s perspective with Writing Career Coach.

Writing Career Coach: Tell us about your book, The Pastor’s Wife.
Jennifer AlLee: Simply put, it’s a story of love lost, found, and rebuilt again. It opens with Maura Sullivan returning to Granger, Ohio, six years after she left it. Though she vowed never to return, now she must face all the disappointments she tried to leave behind; a husband who ignored her, a congregation she couldn’t please, and a God who took away everything she loved.

Nick Shepherd thought he’d put the past behind him until the day his estranged wife walks back into town. Intending only to help Maura with her crisis of faith, Nick finds his feelings for her never died. Now, he must face the mistakes he made and find a way to give and receive forgiveness.

As God works in both their lives, Nick and Maura believe they can repair their broken relationship and reunite as man and wife. But Maura has something to tell Nick before they can move forward. It’s what drove her to leave years earlier, and the one thing that can destroy the fragile trust they’ve managed to rebuild.

WCC: How do you plan and write your books?
JA: When I began my writing journey, I was a seat-of-the-pants writer all the way. This means I’d sit down at my keyboard with little more than an idea and let the story unfold from there. But over the last few years, I’ve become a bit more strategic. I’m still not a detailed outliner. And don’t even get me started on character sketches… they drive me crazy! But I’ve learned that it helps me to write a very loose outline. It’s more like a synopsis, which every writer needs to know how to write anyway. That little bit of pre-planning helps me avoid hours of staring at a blank screen.

WCC: What is it like working with editors? Do you have tips for getting along and building a great relationship with them?
JA: I love my editor at Abingdon Press. Barbara Scott is an amazing woman. But sometimes the editing process in painful. It’s hard to hear that you need to rewrite the entire first chapter of your book! The most important thing to remember is that you and the editor have the same main goal: to make your book the best it can be. One huge advantage the editor has is objective perspective. I may think that every word of my manuscript is golden, but the editor can stand back and see the thin, tarnished spots. A good editor is your best friend and a smart writer will take advantage of her knowledge.

Read more of Jennifer’s interview at Examiner and find out how she maintains balance.

YOU COULD WIN!
Leave a comment on this posting and you could win a copy of The Pastor’s Wife. The drawing will take place on Feb. 9, 2010. This give away is for US residents only. There is no fee to enter.

Other books by Jennifer AlLee:
The Love of His Brother

 Don’t miss a single posting! Subscribe here to receive these postings by e-mail.
Tiffany Colter is a writer, speaker and writing career coach who works with beginner to published writers. She can be reached through her website at writingcareercoach.com.