By W. Terry Whalin
Let me begin with good news. Every writer can learn the skill of handling the details. Some of us are only focused on the big picture with our writing. We are determined to complete a particular book or magazine article and writing on it every day to meet this goal. Yet the craft of your words and storytelling is important. Are you sending it to the right editor? Are you using the correct spelling of that editor's name? The details matter.
As a part of this effort, I purchased a website, wrote the words for that website, created special bonuses and have been telling others about this effort through emails, articles and twitter. In the process of setting up this launch, I created five emails on autoresponders. These autoresponders contained the bonus items for those who purchased the book.
During this creation process, I received an email from one of these people who purchased Book Proposals That Sell. He had not received these bonus item emails. The email clued me that something was wrong some place in the process. I investigated my shopping cart and learned that I neglected to click one button in one place. From working with computers for years, I've learned one simple truth: the computer only does what you tell it to do. I had skipped one important detail and no one got their bonus items. Talk about embarrassing! To straighten it out, one by one, I sent all five bonus items via email to each individual. Now that my shopping cart is fixed, the process of sending these bonuses is automated.
There are several lessons for you from my experience:
1. The details are essential. As writers, you ignore them at your own peril. Your submissions will not hit the target nor get results if you do not work at the details.
2. Listen to your audience. When they tell you something, spring into action or make adjustments.
3. Deliver on your promises. Your word and integrity are important. And if something goes wrong, apologize (everyone is human) and then fix it as soon as possible.
4. Work hard to maintain and keep your relationships. Years ago, I heard John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Book say, “Selling books is all about building relationships.” See the truth in this statement?
Whatever you are writing or promoting, the relationship is critical and the details of your writing life are important.
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W. Terry Whalin is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing and the author of more than 60 books including Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success (available exclusively through this website with bonuses even though this book has over 130 Five Star Amazon reviews). He blogs about The Writing Life and lives in Colorado and has over 200,000 twitter followers.
Tweetable:
Why are the details of your writing life important? Here's four practical lessons. (ClickToTweet)
4 comments:
Terry, I always worry about that to the point of mentioning in my promo that if for any reason they don't receive what they should to email me and I'll send it right off. While it's usually human error, sometimes there are cyberspace glitches or glitches on the services end. Thanks for reminding us to be careful.
Karen,
Yes it is important to not overpromise---but also it is equally (or even more important) to carry through with what we promise our readers. The fact that you carry through and do what you say you will do, means a lot to readers and others who follow you. It is some of the hard earned lessons I've learned in this business.
Terry
Thank you, Terry, for this terrific post. I will save it and do my best to follow your advice. Also, I will buy your book!
Linda,
Thank you. I hope it is a huge help to you. My book I know has helped many people--why I wrote it. I appreciate you.
Terry
Straight Talk From the Editor
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