Wednesday, February 15, 2006

You Are an Author, Not Just a Writer.

"Authors" Connect With Their Audience: As a "writer," you need to be an introvert, comfortable sitting at your computer and communing with the creative power in your own head. As an "author," you need to be an extrovert, meeting and greeting and cultivating your audience. People who "have a book in them" often relish the introverted work (the writing) and stall out at the extroverted work (the authoring). To help would-be self-publishers get over this, we like to suggest that they not confuse their mission, their message, or their work with the "book." The book is just a tool, like the telephone, for communicating with your audience. Other ways of communicating with your audience include: presentations and workshops, radio interviews, casual encounters, telephone conversations, websites, articles in magazines, and newspapers, email correspondence, snail-mail letters, postcards, artwork, and so on. We don't say this to minimize the book project--we would never do this--only to put it in perspective. Your book is one way to get your message across, a way that is synergistic with all the other ways of getting your message across, but only one way. Once you understand this, you will spend more time and energy on the other ways of getting your message out there, which will have the beneficial effect of making your book more successful. The Publishing Pro, LLC.

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