Profits or Growth? | Lessons from Monopoly | 2012 Goals

Well, we've finally reached the end of 2011, and I must say it was a pretty good year. The business is humming right along, family life is good, and there's only sunshine on the horizon. But enough looking back, let's look forward.

As you can see from the title of this post, I've got a few things I want to talk about today related to starting a law firm. The first is whether or not you should be working toward profits or growth. The second is a lesson I learned from Monopoly this last week while I was at home visiting family. The third is a true breakdown of my professional goals for this coming year.

Profits or Growth

I read a lot of stuff. I read books, I read magazines, I read articles on the internet, and I read blogs. One of the blogs I read is called "A VC." It's written by a guy who's a venture capitalist in New York. As you might guess, this is one of the business blogs that I read.

The other day I was scanning through my blog reader when I came upon a post on A VC called "Profitable: To Be or Not to Be?" It was a great read and it got me thinking a lot about my law firm and the decisions I need to make moving forward to get to where I want to go. You can read the post here.

The paragraph that got me thinking was this one:

Many high growth companies can be profitable. They have enough revenue to cover their essential costs and could easily decide to show a profitable income statement. But they don't make that choice. Instead they invest heavily in the business with the expectations that those investments will produce more revenue (by hiring salespeople), or additional products (by hiring engineers and product managers), or additional geographies (by hiring an international team), or any number of other value enhancing aspects of the business. The result of that decision is that the business loses money or simply breaks even (I prefer the latter approach)

Sure, it's geared toward high growth companies and larger companies, but it also applies to businesses like yours and mine. At some point hopefully the money we are bringing in is more than the money that is going out. At that point we have a decision to make: do we put the money in our pockets or do we put the money back into our business?

Now, I know it's not an either/or decision. The answer is probably a little bit of both. But you can definitely skew that one way or the other depending on what your business philosophy is. The important point I'm trying to make here, I guess, is that whichever way you decide to go, make sure that it's at least a conscious decision. If you take all of the money out of your firm you're going to feel like you're spinning your wheels when it comes to growth. If you leave it all in you may feel like the business isn't reaching its true potential (because you're broke).

What's my philosophy? We're going to talk about that next.

Lessons Learned from Monopoly

I love the game of Monopoly. I've been playing it for about as long as I can count money. What I love about monopoly is that it has rules, but those rules include the ability to negotiate just about anything you want. It's kind of like real life in business - if you can get someone to take your offer, then you've got a deal.

Although I love the game of Monopoly a lot, I don't actually get to play it that much. First, it takes forever to finish a game. Second, there just aren't a lot of people around that really want to play. But, over the Christmas holiday, I found a few willing players, and I learned (or was reminded of) some great concepts related to starting a law firm, including the idea of growth or profits. I'm not going to tell you who won the game, because it's not important. But I will tell you I had a blast playing.

The game started out like many games do - everyone is trying to grab as much property as they can, hoping to either get enough properties of one color to expand, or to put together a portfolio big enough to make some deals and then expand. Over time it worked out where one player had all of the railroads and utilities plus Park Place and Boardwalk, the two most expensive properties on the board. One player had many different properties spread throughout the board, including one entire side of the board (minus the railroad, utility and chance spots), one had two properties on opposite sides of the board, and one didn't have much (worst luck rolling the dice I've ever seen).

At this point people have options on what they want to do. They can try to get more properties from people, the can expand their existing properties, or they can do nothing. We'll call the first two growth strategies and the last one a profit strategy. For about an hour I was probably in the profit strategy camp. I'd just go around the board biding my time, hoping to put together enough money to someday expand my existing properties. I wasn't active at all. But I stopped that once I saw what was happening as a result of that - I was spinning my wheels.

I wasn't losing money, but I wasn't really making that much either. People would land on my properties and pay but then I'd land on one of theirs and have to pay. Sort of the same way you get money in from clients and then have to pay it out to vendors or for other expenses. It was frustrating for me because I was eager to get ahead of the game but I just couldn't.

It took me an hour to realize I'd been employing the wrong philosophy.

After that hour I started investing my money in growth. When I had extra money, I bought a house or put up a hotel. There was some worry about landing on Park Place or Boardwalk and having to pay a big rent (incurring an unexpected large expense) but it happened so rarely that I had enough money to take care of it. And if I didn't then I knew I could leverage some of my property to take care of it (credit card - line of credit). All of a sudden my profits started soaring. By putting the money back into the business, in places that yielded good returns, I was the benefactor of those returns. A little aggressiveness went a long way.

It was during that game (and later while reading a book I'll talk about later) that I realized I needed to employ some of this in real life. I'm a growth guy. I want this business to grow, and the best way to do that is by reinvesting in the business, by being aggressive in specific, calculated ways that I'm confident will help increase business (yes I'm talking about law firm marketing, but I'm also talking about other things).

Which brings me to my goals for 2012.

Goals for 2012

I know I've already talked about some of my law firm goals for 2012, but they were really just fly by the seat of pants. These are still kind of just coming out of my brain as I type, but I'm going to try to break them down a little bit more.

1. Gross Revenue of $300,000

I think in my last goal projection this number was higher, but this I think is a good goal for the year. It's $50,000 higher than my goal for 2011 and a little bit more than that for actual increase.

Breaking that down I need to make $25,000 a month. Just looking at that it seems like quite a bit of money. But, in reality, it's only about 8 cases a month (2/week). That's only a slight increase over what I'm doing now.

2. Hire an Associate in January

This is where that "growth" strategy comes into play. Right now I'm simply wasting too much time going from courthouse to courthouse doing the procedural dance that is a DUI defense practice. I need someone to come on board that can not only cover those hearings but learn DUI defense from the ground up. I need to invest in the future of the firm.

This is not just a 2012 goal but a January 2012 goal. I plan on posting the job tomorrow on the law school job listserves and see what's out there. There's no reason to put it off anymore. Once I get someone helping me out I can devote more time to reaching goal number 1.

3. Join Toastmasters

Yes, I know, this was a goal for 2011. I don't have any excuses for not making it happen. It just didn't. But it is this year.

Why? You might be asking? Simple - communication is the lifeblood of my work. If I can't effectively communicate, particularly through the spoken word (think jury trial) then I'm not going to get the results I want. Toastmasters helps you work on those skills.

4. Redesign My Websites into a Coherent Whole

This one speaks for itself. My websites right now don't share the same message. That needs to change. I've already started working on it, but I want everything to be set in place so no matter which one of my websites you land on you're getting the same message (that we'll do whatever we can to win your case).

5. Satellite Offices in Nearby Cities

For the last year I've been expanding my internet presence by spidering out to the surrounding communities. For example, if I'd started with Salt Lake City DUI attorney or Houston Criminal attorney, I'd now be focusing on West Valley City, West Jordan, Sandy, or Missouri City, Pasadena, Aldine, or Sugar Land. But now that I have an internet presence there I need to have a satellite office there - a physical address I can use to meet clients, conduct meetings, and put on my website. So I'm going to do that. I think I've got one place I can use for super cheap, and finding another shouldn't be too hard. As I expand in other ways I'll add satellite offices there too.

6. Finish the Office Design to Project Our Core Values

In a business like ours, first impressions mean a lot. There are at least 10 other people out there competing with you for business, no matter what city you're in, and if you don't make people feel safe and exude a sense of confidence you are not going to win those potential client battles.

One way to do this is to have an office set up that projects what you are selling. You are successful or will be successful, so make it look that way. Make sure your office is clean. Make sure it is well lit. Make sure your artwork projects the feelings you want it to. Make sure your office set up makes sense.

Right now my office looks nice, but it could be so much better. I'm going to stop thinking about it and start doing some things to change it up. And I'm going to do them sooner rather than later.

Okay, that's it for goals for 2012. What do you think? What do you think about growth versus profits? What do you think about Monopoly? What are your goals for 2012? Let's talk about it. Send me a message in the comments.

A Christmas Tail

Yesterday I received a Christmas blessing that is so rich I felt I must share it with you.

Last Friday evening we noticed an odd-looking white cat outside our gate. I very quickly realised it looked odd because it had no ears. That’s right – no ears. It was not pristine and quite rough looking and I feared it had been a victim of some kind of cruelty.

Over the years I have given both time and money to animal charities but still remain very sensitive to this, as many others are. To the point that one day I found holes cut out of the newspaper – my dear husband had censored some upsetting stories for me!

Back to White Cat though, she came meowing out from under a car as we walked past. We came back a few hours later and she was still there, calling out loudly. She was very friendly and allowed me to pat her. I brought some meat out and fed her on the grass verge.

The next day we didn’t see her and I thought she might have gone home. She was back on Sunday and over the next few days I fed her some more. I realised what a fabulous man my husband was when he suggested we take her in when that was what I was thinking too.

On a night of torrential rain we brought her inside (we had already been giving her breakfast and dinner) and she stayed the night. She hissed and growled at Jessica a lot but I thought they would get used to each other. She stayed the next night too.


I thought after Christmas I would take her to the vet for a check-up and see if she was micro chipped to try and track down an owner if there was one, but we feared she may have been dumped.

She didn’t look young and when you picked her up she was light as a feather. Quite a difference from Miss Jessica who looks dainty but when you lift her it’s like a bag of sand in your arms!

Her ears told me another story though. They didn’t look hacked off, but surgically removed, and I realised she may have had skin cancer being a white cat, which would have necessitated ear removal. She looked a little ferrety with no ears I have to say. And I was patting her yesterday morning and my ring got caught on her ear-hole. It didn’t hurt her but I felt terrible.

I thought she must be a lost, loved cat if someone had taken the time and expense to have her ears operated on. Plus she was very tame and operated our cat-door no problem at all. She was not a wild cat Miss White Cat.

At work yesterday I decided to see if I could find White Cat’s owners. First I placed a pet lost and found ad on Trade Me (like eBay here). I rung two vets in the area and asked if any of the cats on their records were white cats with no ears. Then I did an internet search. One of the New Zealand pet websites with a lost and found section allowed you to search by keywords and areas.

Up came a white cat lost in our area but it had ears. I clicked on the photo anyway and what do you know, the description of the photo said ‘this was taken before she had her ears reduced due to skin cancer’. And she was lost in a big park right near us. I couldn’t ring the number quick enough.

I phoned her ‘Dad’ and he couldn’t believe we had his girl. She is 12 years old and had been with him since she was six months old. She had hopped into a friend’s car, unbeknownst to him of course and the friend drove off. When he got to where he was going (right by our street) she jumped out frightened and ran off and that was the last they saw of her at the end of November. She had been living rough for more than three weeks.

Her Dad came around last night to pick her up. He was such a lovely man, a retired police detective. He said he had tears in his eyes after I rung him to say we had his puss.

I still can’t believe it’s worked out so well and Dolly has been reunited with her family (her Dad is a country music fan and named her after Dolly Parton 'because she is blonde'). And only a few days before Christmas. I couldn’t think of a better Christmas present myself.

And full credit to Jessica for being such an accommodating hostess to White Cat. She did not hiss or growl once, despite a strange cat staying with her. And the nice lady at the cat shelter said she liked her own company and didn’t want to be around other cats. Jessica’s my true Christmas angel.

I was so happy last night thinking of them cuddled up together. I asked him if she slept on the bed with him and he said ‘tonight I might let her’, and he was planning on locking her in the house with him.

Merry Christmas to Dolly and her Dad!

Starting a Law Firm | "The Flinch" Review, and What Makes Me Flinch, Among Other Things

Update to this post before it's even posted - I wrote it about 10 days ago - doesn't make it any less relevant, just means I'm not actually in a plane right now

Right now I'm sitting in an airplane at thirty-five thousand feet or so, headed from Seattle to New York. I've never been to New York before (can you believe that?!) but I guess this is as good a time as any to go. The University of Washington is playing Duke in basketball on Saturday in Madison Square Garden. I plan on being there. But it's not all fun and games. The plane ride, though a direct flight, has given me five or so hours to get to work. And you are one of the lucky beneficiaries.

I'm not going to answer any questions about starting a law firm or marketing a law firm because I don't have access to the internet. Yes, the plane has wifi, but I don't want it - it's amazing how much work you can get done when you don't have an internet connection.

But I haven't been working the entire time - I've been reading too. Today I happened upon a book called, I think "The Flinch." It's a free book you find on Amazon. I was directed there by Jonathan Fields, a writer and blogger that always has something interesting to say. He recommended "Flinch," it was free, so I uploaded it to the handy iPhone to read when I had some spare time (i.e. train ride to the airport and waiting to board the plane). It's a short book, and I've already read it, so I thought I'd review it.

The Flinch | A Book Review

"The Flinch" by Julien Smith, is a motivational book. The purpose of the book is to get you to realize all of the things you are afraid of are dumb and to get over it, get out there in the world, and start mixing it up. It's a great book and really hit home for me.

The idea behind the book is that we all know what a flinch is. Someone acts like they are going to punch you or you think you are about to get hit by something, and you flinch - it's a recoil based on the fear of what is to come. This book points out a very eye opening fact - every day we flinch, we back of things we should do or want to do, because we are afraid of getting hit by some imaginary object (failure, ridicule, etc.).

Flinching, as the book so eloquently points out, is an instinctive reflext that used to have a lot of value, and has some value today. If you are actually in a dangerous situation, there's nothing better you can do than flinch. It protects your vital organs. It keeps you out of harms way. But there's a problem - we don't have many truly flinch inducing events in our lifetime. But the flinch reflex wants to act, so it finds situations where fear can be created, and it causes us to flinch.

The whole premise of the book, in short order, is to stop flinching. It's not going to hurt. You are going to survive.

My Own Flinches | Things to do Immediately

As I am wont to do, I thought I'd share some of my flinches right now.

1. Hiring an Associate

For me to get to where I need to go I need an associate. I need someone to do some of the technical work (lawyerly work) work so I can focus on other things (growing the law firm). But I'm scared because I'm concerned the person I'd hire wouldn't be good enough. That manifests itself in my constantly thinking and talking about finding help but never actually actively looking for any help.

2. Growing the SEO Business

I know I've talked about this a lot here, but I've got some skills that could really change the lives of the attorneys that want to to take advantage of that. But doing that means taking another chance, it means more work, it means hiring more people, and it means more chances to fail. No one likes to fail. I hate to fail. And, honestly, even though I know I won't fail at this, something inside of me is telling me to flinch, to hold back on this, for no rational reason.

But I'm going to fight the flinch. I'm going to get started on both of these things, today. And I'm going to make your life better (potentially) and I'm going to make my client's lives better.

This is all I've got for now. Read the book. Think about where you are flinching in your life. Then stop. Hop in the cold shower (read the book), make yourself uncomfortable. Start a law firm. Until you start doing that you can't reach all of your goals.

Rest Breaks for Writers--Feeding the Creative Artist

I'm rerunning this blog from last December, since it is timely at this season.  To honor my artist and focus on my writing, the blog will be taking a break until the first week of January.  Feel free to browse the archives back to 2008 for inspiration--and consider taking a rest break and feed your own creative artist this month!

There are some important signs of burn-out that writers need to attend to.  An overactive Inner Critic.  A feeling of the blues about one's work.  A sense of deep depletion, despite enough sleep and exercise.

December often rolls around with all of these symptoms, for me.  I'm finishing up my fall semester of teaching my online and in-person classes.  I adored them--the students were amazing, wonderful, and inspiring-- but I give so much to each group, holding the creative space for them when they can't see the pathway, it takes a lot of energy and time.  This week, as the classes complete and the last posts are made, I find myself sitting on the couch, staring at the mountains outside my living room window, wondering where I am.  More important, who I am.  I can't tell anymore.

Crying jags often accompany this, for me.  Wails of "I'll never write again" sometimes come too.  It's normal to dive even deeper as the tension releases and the stress lessens, as both body and emotions come forward with long-ignored needs. 

Don't get me wrong:  I eat healthily, I exercise regularly, I sleep reasonable hours, and I have good family and friends support.  I'm living a good life.  But in the realm of manifestation and creativity, which is what my work is all about, I had been stretched to the max these past months.  I didn't know any other gear to drive than Intense.  I didn't know how to get back to the "necessary boredom" that Dorothy Allison talks about, the place where my own creativity bubbles up.

Somehow, though, I'd managed to carve out three weeks in my calendar.  My spouse started a new job about that time, my son was visiting friends for the holidays, so I was alone.

Blissfully, frightfully alone, with nothing to do.  Or, let me rephrase, nothing anyone else was asking me to do.

So what next?  How do I make use of this nothing, and let it heal me, fill me up again?  I hadn't a clue how to begin.

Taking a Creative Retreat for the Inner Artist
I have a wonderful book for these occasions:  The Woman's Retreat Book by Jennifer Louden.  It's packed with ways to disengage and reacquaint yourself with yourself.  I found it on a back shelf, went back to my spot on the couch near the mountain view.  I closed my eyes and opened the book at random.  Of course, it opened to this section "Feeding the Artist."  I read the first line: "If there is one cosmic law I know the consequences of ignoring, it is this one:  you cannot create from an empty well."

Duh.  Why didn't I see this before I had my meltdown?  Well, obviously, when one is empty, it's hard to see that.  Many of us keep running anyway, fueled by adrenaline, and the joy of life gets dimmer and dimmer.  We lose track of where we are, who we are.  We get swept up with other people's lives (and creative needs--if you're a teacher).  It's all good, it's all important.  I love my work.  But there's a moment to say, "Stop!"  Let yourself go back to yourself.

I decided I would ignore both calendar and lists for these three weeks, as much as I could.  Even my visioning lists went into a nice blue folder and into my desk drawer.  I began to putter, to play.

The first day I cooked two soups.  I love to cook, and two soups in one day seemed lovely and extravagant.  Besides, the vegetable drawer was foreign territory and I could use up a dangerous-looking butternut squash (fine with the dangerous part cut off).  I took a walk and went to bed by 9.  The next day I listened to Christmas carols and wrapped a few gifts then read a lovely novel (Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann) and let myself nap.  Day three I got out the card table and started a jigsaw puzzle.  I cleaned out my clothes closet.  I took myself to lunch.

You get the idea.

One of Jennifer Louden's most important directives in this chapter on "Feeding the Artist" is not to create while you're filling the well.  Stop working on your project, stop trying to manifest anything.  Ugh, that was hard.  I hadn't had enough time to work on my novel-in-progress, so these three weeks were planned as full immersion.  But when I took out the manuscript and my editing pen, I froze up.  It all looked terrible--a sure sign of the Inner Critic's negative notions surfacing--and I couldn't bring myself to do anything.  Reading Louden's advice felt like a reprieve.

Funny thing.  As I began to fill up again, new ideas started coming.  I would be watching a movie or marveling at McCann's amazing prose, and I would find myself thinking very lightly about my own creative projects.  Images would come.  An idea of how to solve a sticky plot problem in the novel.  A place to get information I needed.  I didn't pursue these, just took notes.

I'm letting the creative tension build for another week.  It's getting fun.  I look forward to my empty days, I no long dread the thought of moving so slowly.

This Week's Writing Exercise 
1.  Take stock.  Do you need to feed the artist?  Is she or he starving from too much output and not enough input these past busy months?

2.  If the answer is yes, can you carve out time for a rest break?  Even five hours in a day when nothing is needed of you is amazing and precious.

Lessons from Madame Chic

I loved everything about this book, in which the author recounts her time spent with an aristocratic Parisian family and details the fabulous lessons learned from them, and others she came into contact with during her time spent in France.

Jennifer has a friendly conversational tone of writing that makes you feel instantly pulled into her circle of girlfriends. Often I felt I was having a cup of tea and a chat with her.

I, along with many others followed Jennifer’s blog series The Top 20 Things I Learned in Paris. This book carries on with these lessons and goes more in depth. There are also many new stories about her time in Paris..

From her writing, both in this book and on her blog, The Daily Connoisseur, I sense that Jennifer is an elegant and gentle person. It was a pleasure to get to know her better through her first book Lessons from Madame Chic. I really hope there are others.

I certainly picked up many tips to elevate my day-to-day life to that of art. We may not all be French aristocracy, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to live beautifully, every single day of our life.

Thank you Jennifer for writing this fun and well-designed book. It will keep Paris alive in my head and rightly deserves a prime spot on my French Chic bookshelf.

Disclosure: Jennifer kindly emailed and asked me if I would like a copy of Lessons from Madame Chic sent to me to review. Yes please! And thank you!

Additional note: Our rescue-cat Jessica published this review post when it was only half finished so I apologise on her behalf if you received it incomplete.

A serene season

I have decided this year I am not buying into the craziness. I know some enjoy the frenetic buying energy of Christmas, but I’m not one of them. I just get stressed and unhappy. And this year ‘by rights’ I could be more stressed as we are hosting two family gatherings. Other years because we lived in such a tiny place we were always the guests, so why exactly was I feeling so put upon then?

So whether things are stressful or not, I will be calm. I will be happy and 'up' and little things will not bother me. Sometimes it is as simple as making a decision to be that way.

I had planned to keep up my walks and yoga as far along December as possible, but it has been too busy in the shop. That’s okay though, I am still calm. Making sure I eat enough protein has been a key factor in this I think. I have been keeping away from junky foods for the most part and planning in a good dollop of protein with each meal. It keeps me full for longer and I haven’t been craving sugar.

And not eating sugary gross foods means I feel happier and more in balance. Despite there sometimes being an instant connection to eating a bag of lollies and then me feeling jittery, hot and irritable, I still didn’t click and change what I did next time. A friend of my Mum’s who is a cancer survivor and is now much more aware of her health stays away from sugar entirely. It’s really not good stuff even though it comes along in bright colours and says ‘look at me I’m fun, you’ll have a good time with me’. And it’s marketed at children!

I’ve also been listening to my good friend Dr Norman Vincent Peale on his audiobook The Power of Positive Thinking. He is a religious man and likes to quote the bible every now and then. I am not particularly religious (I think of myself to be more spiritual) but what he says makes so much sense and it is very calming to listen to him. He really makes me see reason and the world seems a more manageable place after I’ve had a dose.

Dr Peale says none of us are born as worriers and that it is a habit we acquire over time. We go into it bit by bit and so we have to turn things around in a slow and steady manner. I still have a long way to go but I am willing to keep doing the work to be a happy and serene person who lets minor annoyances wash over them.

Another way I have been cultivating calmness is to do things ahead of time. Some family members and I swapped wishlists which I have to say I’m a real fan of now. It takes the stress out of gift giving, and isn’t a ‘surprise’ gift a waste of time and money if it is not used? In my ideal world we would all swap good wishes rather than buy stuff, but who doesn’t like to open a brightly wrapped Christmas present on the day.

My relaxed and calm Christmas feeling was severely tested this morning. The first post on this subject I had been writing over the past few weeks went ‘pop’ just as I hit publish and completely disappeared. Even though I had been saving and autosaving all along, every single word was gone. After checking and rechecking that I couldn’t find it, I decided it wasn’t worth getting upset about and started writing another one.

And now here I am with a second post. And I’m calm. Today I am at home for the whole day, oh joy, and I can really get stuck in and whip our chateau into shape.

Be serene this Christmas everyone!

Can Self-Publishing Land You on the Best-Seller List?

My indie-released songwriter friends never understood why writers are so hung up about self-publishing.  Musicians have long separated from the labels and ventured out on their own, releasing their own CDs and working with indie distributors like cdbaby. 

But we writers have been told that unless we get an agent and go the traditional route, we'll never be taken seriously in our writing careers. 

I went the traditional route for years--agent, large publisher, small press.  Each experience had its ups and downs and I worked with some wonderful editors and publishers and some not so.  I stayed away from the stigma of "vanity press," or self-publishing, because I believed it was a fast route to career suicide.

Besides, I wanted the marketing and distribution help a publisher could give.

Times have changed.  Advances are few and small now, most publishers don't have the same careful editorial procedures I benefited from as a writer starting out in the 1980s.  Manuscripts must arrive in pristine condition--the writer's responsibility.  Agents and publishers demand a platform, a solid marketing plan and media presence, from most authors they sign nowadays.  The writer must become more than just a wordsmith with a good story.  She has to learn to sell her book as well as write it.   

For this, writers get 7-1/2 percent of sales, which for a $14.00 trade size paperback amounts to about $1.13 per copy.  We do the marketing work, we hire editors before submitting it.  The publisher prints the book as orders come in (print on demand) in most cases, not wanting to carry inventory, or does a short run of less than 500 copies to see whether the book will sell.  Agents take 15 percent of everything.   

Some writers are thinking seriously about their options now.  Many are choosing self-publishing. 

They're figuring out the system themselves, they're crafting e-books and selling them for 99 cents a copy to drive up sales.  They're making money.  Even if they self-publish a printed book, through Create Space or Lightning Source, they can make up to $10.00 a copy after expenses are paid back (for typesetter, proofer, cover designer, and editor).   

Self-publishing requires money up front, for a printed book.  Less or none for an electronic book.  But if you're going to have to market it yourself anyway, why not make $10.00 a copy instead of $1.13?

What's your experience with self-publishing?  What are your thoughts?

Find out the potential, explore your options.  Don't be swayed by the traditional route when there are more opportunities for writers than ever.

Your writing exercise this week is to read all about writer Darcie Chan. She was rejected by over 100 literary agents and dozens of publishers, then went on to self-publish her debut novel and sell over 400,000 copies on Kindle.  Think this kind of story is a fairytale?  It's happening more and more.

The link to Darcie's story is here.

Self-publishing is still a controversial topic.  But as the industry takes one hit after another, it's an option many writers are considering--and succeeding with.

For more success stories about self-publishing also check out chapter 25 of my book, Your Book Starts Here.

Living as our grandparents did

I’ve never really thought of myself as ‘green’, more ‘old-fashioned’. But the more I research, the more I’m convinced they are almost the same thing. I was reading this article in a great new magazine I have out from the library:

Living Lightly and Saving Money

The article compiles many ways our ancestors went about life and were thrifty in the process. In the eighties we went away from this in favour of conspicuous consumption. Thank goodness thrift is back in vogue again.

Aside from the saving money aspect, I feel disrespectful if I waste food or throw away something that could have been used by someone else. In fact I just can’t do it. When we were moving I drove my husband nuts, sifting through everything we were decluttering, figuring out where it could be donated to.

As much as I love those decluttering programmes on tv, it really upsets me to have the solution be a big skip outside, where everything is thrown in. If an item is in good, usable, clean, unbroken condition there is always someone who could use it that otherwise might not have the chance. I think it is our duty as a caring human being to try and find that person, via thrift shops, to charities that assist others or simply directly, by asking around.

Other ways I am like our grandparents?

I scrubbed our kitchen floor and entrance-way with hot water and sugar soap not long after we moved in (it was pretty filthy). Strongly-scented floor cleaners aren't for me. Normally I use hot water, white vinegar and a squirt of lemon dishwash. A few drops of essential oil are added if I'm in the mood. And I hang washing outside. And cook many of our meals from scratch.

Even when eating, the question could be asked ‘would my Grandparents recognise this food?’ when choosing what to eat. The world’s population would be a much healthier place if we ate according to this.

Many of the things listed in the article I do, and they were originally done in the name of thrift or making do. This is what I do! And now it’s green! I do these things to make the most of my resources, and also because I feel disrespectful to the Universe if I waste things.

I simply cannot throw something in the rubbish if it can be used by someone else (so I donate it) and I feel terribly guilty if I throw out food. If it’s vegetation I throw out I feel bad that the Universe grew it for me and I wasted it. Even more guilt is felt if it’s meat or eggs I throw out. An animal died (or laid) for me and I can’t even be bothered to appreciate it?

As a result I throw out practically nothing. I honestly can’t remember the last time I threw out food. If I don’t eat something as leftovers for lunch the next day (like our creamy chicken and mushroom pasta from tonight, which I’ll have with salad for lunch tomorrow), I will tuck it in the freezer to have another day. If it’s something like a small piece of blue cheese or half a chopped onion, I will freeze to include in a casserole or soup.

Another aspect of living like our grandparents did is mending something if it’s broken. There is much satisfaction to be gained from utilising our grey matter and working out how we can fix a problem. My sister was telling me today how she hemmed a pair of jeans shorter, and in the process used the excess denim to almost invisibly patch a hole in the knee. Result: one ‘new’ pair of jeans which are currently receiving a lot of wear.

I understand not everyone sews, but really, in the olden days it was just something you did. If one is really interested in living a thrifty life, at least knowing how to sew on buttons, hand-stitch a hem or sew up a small hole is mandatory.

Reading instead of tv watching, going for a stroll after dinner, eating real food, being a good steward of our finances, appreciating nature, growing herbs or even vegetables, making things with our hands: these are all ways we can enjoy life by living as our grandparents did.

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Five Major Turning Points on the Road to Finishing a Book

Travelers in foreign territory often need good maps.  But book writers rarely have them.  We often don't know about the major stops--what I call "turning points"--in the book-writing journey.  It's hard to tell when we've arrived, when we're ready to move on, when the writing is finally enough.

These five turning points are often where we get stuck and frustrated.  Moving to the next level requires skills and a new approach,
and for a while we might flounder, thinking our project has gone south, when it's just a matter of re-orienting ourselves to a new task, a new stage of the journey.

So if you feel like you're stalling out, you may just be approaching the threshold of another turning point.  If you're frustrated with foggy, confused, unsettled, panicked, or bored feelings about your book, maybe knowing these five turning points will help you figure out why.

These five are "make or break" moments, in my experience.  Not knowing about them, not preparing for them, can derail your journey, and shelve your book project, faster than you can say "writer's block."

That's why I'm grateful to have completed so many books myself, and helped so many others write and finish theirs.  Because I know now about these five turning points, I can recognize the signs when I'm approaching another one.  I know it's normal to have upsets or disorientation about my book then.  I remember that I'm just being asked to re-vision it on another level, to learn new skills.

When You Reach a Turning Point
Reaching a turning point is kind of like coming of age.  It's a time to put away childish things.  This might mean letting go of what's no longer serving the project--or us as writers.  You may have heard the phrase in writing classes:  "Kill your precious darlings?"  This refers to writers reaching a turning point, where the favorite words or phrases or even chapters have to be looked at again, and possibly replaced.

Not an easy task.  Ever.  But much easier if you know where you are in the journey, if you know you're being asked to step up to a new level.

So I find it very helpful to highlight these turning points in my book-writing classes.

Do they apply to all genres?  Yes. I've seen writers of every genre pass through them.  Like universal gateways, we must pass through them to get our books published.  It doesn't matter if we're writing a novel, a children's book, a poetry collection, a memoir, or a nonfiction book. We're facing these five turning points at some time during the journey from idea to publication.

So it helps to recognize these five turning points.  Give them respect:  you've passed a big test and it's now time reassess your project and revisit why you're this book.
Not stop, though.

Even if you're tempted, all that's usually required at one of these turning points is new skills, support, and a good map for the next stage.

Five major turning points on a book journey
1.  Taking an idea into regular production of pages
2.  Structuring the flow of the book
3.  First draft completion
4.  Revision completion
5.  Final editing (often with professional feedback)

Stage One:  Ideas into Pages
The first stage is where you are full of ideas.  It's so exciting.  The book has been bubbling inside for a while and you're finally getting the ideas down on paper.  The energy of this stage makes the writing feel easy for a period of time, and sheer enthusiasm carries you forward.  You may take classes, begin a writers group, share your writing with others.  It's a joyful, and somewhat innocent, stage and very important.

What keeps you going through this first stage?

When the enthusiasm begins to wane--you maybe realize how much work a book is!  you may become terrified that your mother will read it!  you may get sick or overwhelmed or tired and bored!--your writing practice keeps you going through this stage.

Writing regularly is the key to getting enough material to begin to structure it wisely and begin a real book.  If someone writes regularly--each day, each week, each weekend for a certain number of hours--the pages will accumulate.  Writing practice is just that:  it's not writing perfect, it's writing practice.  You turn out terrible stuff, good stuff, great stuff.  Everyone does.  You just write, because that's what writers do.

These segments of writing, freewrites, or "islands" that will someday become continents (chapters), are the work of writing. The only goal now is to accumulate them.

When you've accumulated about 90,000 words, or three hundred double-spaced pages, you've reached the next turning point.

Stage Two:  Structuring the Book
The next turning point  is all about structure, so we move from the random, exploring part of ourselves to the linear, organized part. Some writers love this stage.  Some hate letting go of the free flow.  But it's an essential step in making a book.

Your goal now is to create a working structure of the book, via a  structuring tool like storyboarding.

I really dislike storyboards. They tell me what I don't want to know--where I have too much or too little, where I've written on track or on a tangent. Where my book isn't yet working well.
But I know that books love storyboards.  They allow a book to find its correct placement in time and space--where each of the "islands" will be located, where they will merge with other "islands" to become continents.  In this second stage we learn it's not just enough to flow out the words. We need to have a sequence that readers can follow. Storyboards provide this. They are used a lot in publishing and the film industry. Imagine a giant blank cartoon--a row of empty boxes lined up on a page or wall or posterboard. You insert ideas, then you move the boxes around until the sequence of ideas equals a reasonable flow for your book.

What you learn: All the things I grumbled about above. What is working, yes. Also what is not working. It's not uncommon to emerge from a storyboarding session with many blank boxes. Stuff you know you need to write, transition chapters or sections. Research still to do. It's also not uncommon to feel discouraged. All that writing done, but it's not yet a book.

Why even bother? Storyboards are the absolute best way I've found to see if I have a working book, to force myself to structure the flow of ideas, to see what's left. I usually get kind of squirrely (imagine a squirrel twitching in agitation) when I have written too much to really see my book anymore. When I get squirrely, I know it's time to storyboard.

After the storyboard is intact, we need to go back to stage one for a while, fill the holes that the storyboard has revealed.

Stage Three:  Completing Your First Draft
Once we have a good structure and plenty of workable "islands" written, we are ready to build the first draft.  If you have an electronic tool like Scrivener, it's a simple matter of clicking a few keys.  Otherwise, you cut and paste, using the map of the storyboard and the hundreds of pieces of writing you've completed.  This is rough!  Irreverent writer Anne Lamott (author of Bird by Bird) calls it "a shitty first draft"--aka SFD.  And it is that.

But it's a huge step in the writing journey, and it tells us we've passed through another turning point.  Depending on the genre, most books are about 300 double-spaced pages or more at this stage.
 
Stage Four:  Revising Your Manuscript
Revising the draft is next.  As a professional editor, this is my favorite time but also the hardest.  It requires staring down all my mistakes and figuring out what path my reader needs to take through my book, then weeding anything that doesn't serve the story.

Revision reveals many things, including where we've gone to sleep.

Stage Five:  Editing and Professional Feedback
At final editing, after revision, I always recommend getting feedback at a higher skill and experience level than your own.  Find a professional editor or a published writer (in your genre) to do a read-through and evaluation.  Get a sense of where you need to focus for the final edit (line editing, substantive editing if needed).

This is where you clean everything up--make it sing.

Does it help to understand these turning points, look at them one by one, and hear about the roadblocks that often come up just before a writer reaches them?  Maybe our discussion has helped you realize why you're stuck right now (often right before a turning point!) or why you're racing ahead (finally made the turn and see the open road).

Maybe this little map will help you see what is ahead on your journey.

I go into each of these stages in my book Your Book Starts Here.  You can use it as a guide for whichever stage you're traveling right now.  

To recap, here are the five turning points and what will keep you going through them:

The Idea Stage
        How to keep going?  Build a writing practice
The Structuring Stage
        How to keep going?  Work with a visual map, such as a storyboard, to keep oriented
The First Draft Stage
       How to keep going?  Focus on simply getting the manuscript completed--no editing
The Revision Stage
       How to keep going?  Let go of what's not serving the book
The Feedback/Editing Stage
       How to keep going?   Accept help and advice


This Week's Writing Exercise
1.  Consider your book, where you're feeling frustrated, where you're excited.  What stage does this indicate?
2.  What needs to be strengthened to help you get through this stage to the next turning point?