“Tell me about your experience as a writer,” I asked the young woman on the phone. Her email alerted me to the fact that she expected her novel to join the pantheon of great works like The Brothers Karamazov and Don Quixote.

“Oh,” she replied, “the greatest novelists in the world have been my mentors. Charlotte Brontë, William Faulkner, and Jane Austen. I’ve studied all the great novels and combined all of their strengths into my manuscript.”

“Interesting,” I answered. “Has anyone apart from you ever read your manuscript?”

“No.”

“Have you ever attended a writers conference?”

“No.”

“Have you ever been a part of a writers group?”

“No.”

“Have you ever sought out any training or read any books—apart from the novels you read—that teach you how to write fiction?”

“No.”

As you can probably guess, her manuscript wasn’t very good.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to discuss The Successful Author’s Mindset. Writing a book is hard--akin to running a marathon in knee-deep water. Without the right mindset, pulling off the feat of writing a readable, marketable book is nearly impossible.

Are You Hungry?

To begin, the successful author must be HUNGRY TO GROW…AND KEEP ON GROWING. 

Granted, my author friend read many great novels. But reading great novels doth not a great novelist make. It's the starting point, but much more is needed.

Since football season is upon us, I’m going to employ a perfect example from my favorite spectator sport.

Every year when a professional football player shows up at training camp, he focuses on one new skill to develop. For an offensive lineman, it may involve refining how to defend the run or the pass. For a defensive player, it may involve strengthening a role in a particular defensive scheme.

All that to say, a professional football player who decides he’s figured out the game of football and sits on his laurels will soon be out of a job. To stay in the game, he must be committed to improving.

In the same way, successful authors focus on new skills to develop:

• Reading books on how to plot a story
• Focusing on eliminating “to be” verbs
• Finding a coach to them strengthen their dialogue
• Reducing wordiness

In 2017 I spent over $10,000 on marketing consultants, learning how to market my company and how to market books. It didn’t make sense publishing a book without a strategy to sell it.

In the process, I met a 26 year-old, stay-at-home wife and mother of three who knows how to market books better than most traditional publishing companies. She writes and self-publishes Amish fiction and makes a full-time income selling her books. So I paid Ashley $300 to give me two hours of her time to teach me what she’s doing.

This year, I’m focusing on strengthening my copywriting skills. Copywriting is the kind of writing you find in advertisements, Facebook ads, direct mail, and marketing materials.

I’m most interested in copywriting because, in my opinion, copywriters are some of the best writers in the country. With precision, they know how to promote their product or service and elicit an emotional response  that motivates the reader to action.

Copywriters know how to use power words and when to use them. They know who their audience is and how to garner their attention.

Imagine how helpful that would be for a fiction writer who’s trying to tell a tragic story. Or a political nonfiction writer, trying to “rally the troops.”

Professional singers (even famous ones) rely on singing coaches to be their best…

Professional athletes rely on personal trainers to stay at the top of their game…

Successful business people employ business coaches to sharpen their expertise in certain areas…

And successful authors remain HUNGRY TO GROW…AND KEEP ON GROWING. They do this by reading books, attending writers conferences, obtaining the services of a coach, attending a writers group…the options are endless.

If you’ve hit a wall in your writing, we have coaches who can help nudge you off dead center.

If you’d like to schedule a time to explore options, you can make an appointment to chat with me through my online scheduler, which you can access by clicking here. 

Happy Writing!

Michael J. Klassen

President, Illumify Media Global

mklassen@illumifymedia.com