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Two Bestselling Authors Who Are Making a Difference

October 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time, Greg Mortensen recounts how a villager in Pakistan helps him in distress after he fails to climb K2, so he decides to build a school for the village. Starting with no money, connections, job, or place to live, he goes on to be responsible for building more than 145 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This irresistibly inspiring book has been on the New York Times bestseller list since it was published in 2007 and led to a bestselling sequel: Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance which spent more than two years on the Times list, Barack Obama tells the remarkable story of growing up and his odyssey to Hawaii and Kenya in search of his roots. His life enlarges the sense of possibility for what someone born in about the least likely circumstances to become President can accomplish. His is one of the greatest personal triumphs in history. He followed it up with another bestseller: The Audacity of Hope.

Dreams and Three Cups are remarkable books that are changing lives. The authors prove Thoreau’s belief that the greatest advantage is to have no advantage. If Greg Mortenson can start with nothing and establish more than 145 schools, and Barack Obama can become President, what can you accomplish?

Thousands of writers have successful books every year. If they can do it, you can. It’s time for you to start fulfilling your potential. How the San Francisco Writing for Change Conference can help you is the subject of the next post.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference Time / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Million-copy selling authors Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

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Writing for Change: From Passion to Publication, Part 2

October 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here is the rest of the road from passion to publication:

Give Voice to Your Ideas

Speaking to groups enables you to get feedback on your ideas and connect with supporters and potential readers.

Endow Yourself With a Higher Form of Authority

When you have a book’s worth of information, and the visibility and plan to promote it, you’re ready to sell your book. Write a proposal with an overview about the book and you, an outline, and a sample chapter. Find an agent or sell it yourself.  A published book will give you instant credibility with anyone. It will bring followers to your banner and opportunties to speak and write.

Communicate with Your Communities

Ask your communities of writers and people in your field to help you write and spread the word about your book. Reciprocate.

Stay Committed to Your Goals

Relentlessly communicating the change you want will help make it happen. You must  persevere and continue to grow in your ability to help your cause.

Expect Resistance

People and institutions tend to change only when the promise of more pleasure or less pain convince them it will be worth the effort. The greater the change you propose, the greater the resistance it will encounter and the longer it will take. But the fall of the wall, the peaceful revolution in South Africa, and the irreversible drive to clean energy prove that anything is possible.

You can accomplish far more than you think you can. Can your life serve a better purpose than trying bring about a change you believe in?

The next post describes two bestsellers that are making a difference.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Million-copy selling authors Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

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Writing for Change: From Passion to Publication

October 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The world desperately needs solutions to the problems it faces. If you want to create any kind of change from the personal to the planetary, how can you go from passion to publication? Here’s how:

Feed Your Passion

Writing about change starts with a driving passion for helping people with their personal development or being a catalyst for change in your community or beyond. Your passion and belief in the need for change will enable you to meet whatever challenges you encounter.

Choose Your Goals

Using agents of change who have made a difference, such as Al Gore and Ralph Nader, as models will help you clarify what you want to accomplish and how to do it.

Find Out What You Need to Know

Learn enough about your subject so you can write about what the change is, why it’s needed, its effects, and how to bring it about. Events; organizations; experts on the subject; the communities of people you know online and off; and print, broadcast, and electronic media will help you acquire the knowledge you need.

Develop the Craft of Combining Vision, Passion, and Information

  •  Be active in social media that relate to your subject.
  • Post to blogs on your subject.
  • Start a blog of your own.
  • Write articles, letters to the editor, and fan letters to authors and other authorities on your subject.
  • Review books on your subject.
  • Create videos and podcasts to help spread the word.

Using the Web will also enable you to test-market ideas as you build visibility, credibility, and communities of people to help you.

            The next post will tell you how to tranform your passion into a book.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Million-copy selling authors Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

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Filed Under: Getting a Book Published, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Writers: Raise Your Voices and Raise Hell!

October 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.

–James Baldwin

The imprints of six companies fill bestseller lists. KGO Radio talk-show host John Rothmann reports that the radio business is even more concentrated. Four companies control 80% of the nation’s talk-radio stations. They syndicate their shows because it’s cheaper than using local talent and pleases the national advertisers that sustain them.

            Also news to me is that 40 million people listen to talk radio throughout the day at home and while working, traveling, and exercising,  More remarkable still is that 80% of talk radio advocates the conservative agenda. The three leading talk-show hosts fill nine hours of prime time, echoing talking points they’ve been given. They have the power to make a bestseller out of Laura Ingraham’s The Obama Diaries, which you may not even find at San Francisco’s independent booksellers.

            Forsaking truth and fighting change can entertain the public, win elections, and make bestsellers, but it won’t serve the country or the world. More than ever, we need writers who are change agents.

            Through their writing, speaking, the Web, and other media, writers can help provide the ideas, the understanding, the guidance, and the inspiration to act on it. The issues are many, but for some of them, the time for averting disaster grows short. To the keyboard! Even if you’ve never written before, now’s the time. Write about the change you most want to see in the world.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Changing the World One Book at a Time / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

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Filed Under: Getting a Book Published, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Writing for Change, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Are Writers Our Best Hope for the Future?

October 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We Americans write our own history. And the chapters of which we’re proudest are the ones where we had the courage to change. Time and again, Americans have seen the need for change, and have taken the initiative to bring that change to life.

–Al Gore

If luck is ability meeting opportunity, you are part of the luckiest generation of writers who ever lived. If you want to write about creating change, you have the biggest opportunity writers have ever had. The problems our communities, states, country, and planet face continue to grow, as does the gap between what government and nonprofit organizations can do and what must be done to ensure our future.

            Writers are needed urgently to provide the hope, vision, guidance, and inspiration to act that humanity needs to thrive. Writers have the creativity, independence, and the ability to

  • research, organize, and write about their ideas
  • test and promote their work
  • build communities of people eager to help

             And they have the power of technology, the greatest gift to writers since the printing press, to accelerate and amplify their efforts. Al Gore did a thousand talks in high schools before An Inconvenient Truth was published or the film about it was released. A Vice President has access to audiences and the media that new writers don’t, but writers can use all of the media to communicate their message. Gore’s efforts changed the public’s perception of the problem and led to new initiatives to solve it.

            What nobler challenge can writers ask for than helping to solve the problems that threaten our children? Readers and publishers want books that foster change. Small houses, niche presses, and university presses are less concerned about an author’s promotion plan than big and midsize houses. You may want to self-publish your book, if only to test-market it. Sell enough copies and publishers will coming looking for you.

            If writers don’t do all they can, who will take their place? So find a need and help fill it. Pick a problem you’re passionate about and dig in. Contribute to the most vital conversation on earth. You can accomplish far more than you think you can. And as Thomas Friedman wrote in Hot, Flat and Crowded, you have just enough time if you start now.

Many thanks in advance for sharing this blog with activists and with new and published writers!

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Changing the World One Book at a Time / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org / Keynoters: Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

Huge thanks to Linda Lee for upgrading the blog!

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Filed Under: Book Publishing, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference, Writing Nonfiction Tagged With: , , , , , ,

8 Steps to Hiring the Agent You Need

October 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Finding a literary agent tips

It’s been said that an agent is like a bank loan: You can only get one if you can prove that you don’t need it. But there are more than 1,200 agents in the United States, and more than 90% of them must find new writers to make a living. Here are eight steps to getting the agent you need:

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1. Find a salable idea.

2. Write a proposal or manuscript. The only time to contact agents is when you have something ready to sell.

3. Research potential agents online and off as my previous post suggests.

4. Write an irresistible query letter about the hook, the book, and the cook, the subject of an upcoming post.

5. Follow the submission guidelines of the agents you contact. The comedian Steven Wright once saw a sign in a restaurant window that said: “Breakfast served at any time.” So he ordered French toast during the Renaissance. Of course you don’t want hear back from agents at any time. You want to hear yesterday. But don’t call or email to see if your work arrived or when you will get a response. Established agents receive thousands of submissions a year and don’t keep a log.

Make a note on your calendar or your copy of your query letter of when the agents’ guidelines say you will hear from them and call or email them if you don’t.  If it’s important for you to know that snail mail arrived, send it certified or get a return receipt.

If you’re mailing your work, and you don’t want the material back, you still have to include a stamped-self-addressed  #10 business envelope if you want to be sure to get a response. If you don’t, you may lose the chance to get feedback and may only hear back if an agent is interested.

6. If the agent has a written agreement, read it to make sure you’ll feel comfortable signing it, and feel free to ask the agent questions about it.

7. Meet interested agents to test the chemistry for your working marriage. Look at the challenge of finding and keeping an agent as creating and sustaining a marriage that has personal and professional aspects to it.

8. Choose the best agent for you, based on passion, personality, performance, and experience.

Then bask in the glow of satisfaction that an agent thinks enough of your book’s  potential and yours to represent you. I hope you find an  professional, knowledgeable, and motivated mentor for the adventure that awaits you.

The Third San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference / November 13-14, Hilton Financial/Chinatown / www.sfwritingforchange.org /Keynoters: Dan Millman (The Way of the Peaceful Warrior) and John Robbins (Diet for a New America)

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Filed Under: Book Promotion, Getting a Book Published, Literary Agents, San Francisco Writers Conference, San Francisco Writing for Change Conference Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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