Tag Archives: Nina Amir

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Nina Amir/@NinaAmir

“Success as a writer has always been a matter , in large part, of plain old hard work. But also smart work–knowing what to do and how.” Novelist James Scott Bell, from the Foreword, The Author Training Manual.

I am very pleased to participate in Nina Amir’s WOW, Women on Writing Book Tour for her new book, The Author’s Training Manual. Nina has some very interesting advice about succeeding as an author by following WOOT! I hope you enjoy hearing about this as much as I did.

My book reviews can be found on Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari and LibraryThings

Welcome , Nina!

Author Attitude : What Is It and Why Do I Need It?

In the publishing world, it’s hard to predict what book will succeed. It’s a bit easier to know if an author will achieve success. Maybe one has more writing talent while another has superior ideas. Yet other might be a phenomenal marketer. More than likely, you’ll find that successful authors, much like successful people in almost any industry, have one thing in common: a successful attitude.

Attitude Affects Results

You might have heard the saying, “Your current habits have only helped you achieve your current level of success. To achieve a higher level of success, you must change your habits.” To do that, you need to change not only your behavior but also your underlying attitude.

Your attitude, which is based upon your beliefs, thoughts or ideas about a thing, experience or situation, affects your behavior, or how you choose to act. Your actions then determine your results. Thus, to change your actions you might have to change your corresponding beliefs, thoughts, or ideas.

When it comes to writing a book, if you aren’t achieving the results you want, you must examine your attitude about writing and publishing a book. When you change your attitude, your results will change as well.

That doesn’t mean you don’t still need a good idea and good writing. You do, but your attitude will help you attain your goals in any area as you work toward successful authorship.

For example, if you have the attitude that you can only write when the mood hits, and the mood doesn’t hit often, you won’t get your book written quickly. Your attitude likely is based on beliefs that writers write when inspired. That belief might come from thoughts that you need to wait to feel inspired before you can write well. A more productive thought might be “I get inspired by writing daily on a schedule.” If you take action on that thought, you might find yourself getting inspired and believing that you can write well whenever you sit down at the computer. You may start writing daily and producing inspired results. Your attitude about how and when you write will change.

The same could be true of building author platform, for instance. If your attitude is that you hate author platform building, you won’t spend time on it, or when you do, that time won’t be productive. If you explore the beliefs and thoughts that create your attitude, you might discover some that sound like “It’s a time sink” and “It takes me away from writing.” You could change your attitude to: Platform building helps me succeed as an author, so I embrace this activity and do it willingly and with enthusiasm. Your thoughts would need to change as well, to something like: “I build author platform effectively” (Learn how!) and “Platform building helps the books I write get read.” As you change your thoughts and beliefs, your attitude will change, as will your results.

Author Attitude—The Four Elements

Here are the elements I believe make up a successful “Author Attitude.”

1. Willingness

To succeed as an author generally takes an enormous amount of willingness. To succeed as a self-published author takes even more.

· You must be willing to do whatever it takes.

· You must be willing to do more than just write.

· You must be willing to change.

· You must be willing to learn new things.

· You must be willing to step outside your comfort zone.

· You must be willing to make mistakes

· You must be willing to take risks.

· You must be willing to fail.

· You must be willing to succeed

· You must be willing to play big and be seen.

· You must be willing to get rejected.

· You must be willing to run your own publishing company.

2. Optimism

Studies show that optimists succeed more often than pessimists. Optimists don’t take rejection, criticism and mistakes personally, which helps them avoid getting stuck. Optimistic people approach challenges as opportunities to move closer to their goals. Pessimistic people see them as obstacles, or reasons to quit.

3. Objectivity

Writing and publishing requires the objectivity to see yourself and your work from a different perspective than your own, such as:

· the reader’s perspective

· an editor’s perspective

· a publishing professional’s perspective

When you can do this, you can take the necessary steps to improve your work and make yourself into an attractive publishing partner.

4. Tenacity

Writing a book isn’t easy. It’s often said that the real work of a writer begins after publication when you begin promotion. You must have determination, persistence and perseverance—all elements of tenacity—to get from aspiring to published (and successful) author.

WOOT!

To easily remember the elements of an Author Attitude, I created an acronym: WOOT. According to the Urban Dictionary, the word “woot” originated as a hacker term for root, or administrative, access to a computer. It works well when applied to the topic of attitude because to change your attitude you must access your “computer”—your mind.

These days WOOT is used simply as a term of excitement.

If you and your book succeed by whatever definition you choose you will have reason to shout, “WOOT! WOOT!”

About the Author

Nina Amir, author of How to Blog a Book: Write, Publish, and Promote Your Work One Post at a Time and The Author Training Manual: Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively, transforms writers into inspired, successful authors, authorpreneurs and blogpreneurs. Known as the Inspiration to Creation Coach, she moves her clients from ideas to finished books as well as to careers as authors by helping them combine their passion and purpose so they create products that positively and meaningfully impact the world. A sought-after author, book, blog-to-book, and results coach, some of Nina’s clients have sold 300,000+ copies of their books, landed deals with major publishing houses and created thriving businesses around their books. She writes four blogs, self-published 12 books and founded National Nonfiction Writing Month, aka the Write Nonfiction in November Challenge.

To learn more about Nina, visit www.ninaamir.com. Get a FREE 5-Day Become a Published Author Series from her when you click here.

Title: The Author Training Manual: Develop Marketable Ideas, Craft Books That Sell, Become the Author Publishers Want, and Self-Publish Effectively

Author: Nina Amir

Genre: Writer how-to

Publisher: Writer’s Digest Books

Publication Date: March 18, 2014

Paperback: 248 pages

Synopsis:

Anyone can publish a book and become an “author,” but if you want to become a successful author with a profitable publishing career, you need a clear, step-by-step guide to help you develop book ideas that sell. In The Author Training Manual, expert editor and book coach Nina Amir reveals the exact process successful authors have used to create business plans and proposals for their books and teaches you how to view your ideas through the eyes of acquisitions editors and literary agents.

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, plan to traditionally publish or self-publish, The Author Training Manual provides you with the tools you need to achieve your goals and become the author publishers want. Inside you’ll find concrete steps, evaluations, sample business plans, in-depth training activities, editor and agent commentaries, and much more–all designed to help you stand out, from the slush pile to the shelf.

NinaBookcover — Author Training Manual by Nina Amir

Just Thought You Should Know:

The Author Training Manual will also be having a WOW Social Media Tour this summer. On June 30, we’ll be having a review and giveaway of The Author Training Manual on the Muffin. So don’t forget to tell your readers they’ll have another chance to win a copy on June 30.

Author’s Websites:

Nina Amir’s website:

http://ninaamir.com/

Nina Amir’s blogs:

http://ninaamir.com/blogs-and-columns/

Nina Amir’s Facebook:

InspirationToCreation

Twitter: @NinaAmir

How about you? Do you have the WOOT it takes to be a successful author?

Nina has graciously agreed to give away a copy of the Author Training Manual to a commenter whose name will be selected in a random drawing.

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

Next Week:

Monday, 6/09/14: “My Journey of Defeating Fear to Help Others by Memoir Author Pamela Koefoed.”

Author Brand, Author Platform, Social Media presence, Using Twitter Hashtags

Social Media: Friend or Foe? 8 Lessons I’ve Learned About Using Social Media

April 7, 2014 Kathy Pooler 32 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

“ By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen destination.” Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

Friend or Foe?
Photo Credit: Dreamstimefree

Since establishing an online presence has become an essential task for any writer who seeks publication, the topic of how to handle social media comes up a lot these days. In fact, I have received several requests to do a blog post about how to manage both social media and writing.

I do not profess to be a social media expert. There are plenty of people out there, many whom I have learned a great deal from—Dan Blank, Joanna Penn, Jeff Goins, Jane Friedman, Porter Anderson, Nick Thacker, Christina Katz, Nina Amir, Alexis Grant, Michael Hyatt,Kristen Lamb—to name a few. I’m happy to pay forward what I have learned and offer some tips on what has helped me turn what can be perceived as a foe—time drain, distraction—into a friend—making meaningful connections.

The main question I receive is:

How can I make social media work for me?

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned along the way:

1. I need social media to reach my audience (since I’m not a celebrity). This presumes I know who I am and can communicate this clearly via author profile/bio. (Branding)

2. When I communicate on social media, I need to project my authentic self. My participation in social media is an extension of who I am and what my beliefs are.

3. I need to follow proper etiquette

4. The only way I’m going to know what works is to try different social media channels.

5. I need a way of measuring what’s working, i.e. Google Analytics, Twitter stats, etc.

6. I can’t do it all. After I’ve tried some out, I need to select a few to concentrate on.

7. I need to rein in, set limits and manage the time I spend on social media.

8. I need to be social and remember that the main advantage of using social media is to make meaningful connections.

Here’s how I’ve put these lessons into action:

1. I make sure my profile is up to date and consistent with my brand across all channels.

2. I check myself at the door before I post anything anywhere.

3. I try to keep a ratio of 1:5 in sharing my work: works of others.

4. I tried numerous channels and concentrate my efforts on my blog,Twitter (Hootesuite) and Triberr. I use Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+ and Goodreads but to a lesser degree.

5. I use WordPress stats, Google Analytics,Twitter stats . I recently signed up for Sumall.com (free) which offers daily and weekly summaries of interactions across my channels-Twitter, Facebook, blog and Google+.

6. Same as #4 and check out this post by Dan Blank: “I Am Changing How I Use Social Media: More Social, Less Media.”

7. As per Porter Anderson’s suggestion, I signed up for Rescue Time, a tracking system for improving productivity by managing social media distraction. Pomodora is another popular tool to use.

8. I have made many meaningful connections over these past five years of being on social media. This has led to guest posting opportunities both on my blog and for other blogs. And the way I keep track of all my contacts and activities is a productivity system called Highrise.

A few extra pointers:

* Be consistent with blogging at least weekly.

* Comment on other blogs that align with your brand.

* Share the work of others freely. If you use Twitter, use #hashtags to extend the reach of the post or book review.

* Probably the nicest thing you can do for fellow authors is to post reviews of their books.

Turn social media into a friend who helps you make meaningful connections and extend your reach to your audience.

How about you? How do you manage to balance social media with writing? Is social media a friend or foe?

I’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

***Newsflash***

I’m pleased to announce that after months of researching, listening, pondering and praying, I have finally made a decision about the best route to publication for my “baby”. I signed with a small publisher this week! Stay tuned for more details.

Also, thanks to all of you who participated in my Memoir Title survey. Your comments helped me to clarify the title that I feel best reflects the heart of my story. I ended up keeping the original title but I changed the subtitle. Introducing:

Ever Faithful to His Lead: My Journey Away From Memoir

Announcement of winners of Doreen Cox’s memoir and novella:

Congratulations, Kathy and Debbie! Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Kathy, you won Doreen’s memoir, Adventures in Mothersitting and Debbie, you won Doreen’s novella, A Sacred Journey.

On Thursday, 4/10/14, I am honored to participate in a Wow-WomenonWriting Book Tour for social media strategist and author Frances Caballo. Her new book, Avoid the Social Media Time Suck: A Blueprint for Writers to Create Online Buzz for Their Books and Still Have Time To Write should help answer a lot of questions that we have on managing social media.

Hope to see you there , too.

Getting Ideas for Blog Posts, Mennonite Memoir

A Memoir Writer’s First Year in Blogging Adventure by Marian Beaman

March 17, 2014 Kathy Pooler 45 Comments

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler with Marian Beaman/@martabeaman

“I don’t really know how things will turn out until I start making them. They don’t always look like I thought they would, so sometimes I’m surprised.” Lifewriting Author and Teacher Sharon Lippincott from her post “Discover by Doing”.

I am thrilled to feature Memoir Writer Marian Beaman in this guest post about her first year in blogging. She has some interesting ideas about what inspires her blog posts, a term she calls “blogspiration.” Marian describes herself as ” a plain Mennonite girl who turned fancy while seeking a simpler life.”

Marian and I met through fellow Mennonite memoirist Shirley Showalter. It is truly wonderful to meet new people through each other. Marian is working on her first memoir, Plain and Fancy Girl.

Welcome, Marian!

Facebook: www.facebook/marian.beaman/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/martabeaman Website: http://plainandfancygirl.com — Memoir Writer and Blogger Marian Beaman

My First Year in Blogging Adventure

Like Alice in Wonderland, alternately perplexed and pleased, my one-year-old adventure into the blog world of writing has been full of surprises.

In the above quote, Author Sharon Lippincott was quoting her eight-year-old granddaughter Sarah who “was talking about the clothespin doll she was wrapping in a scrap of cloth. . . but she could have been talking about writing.”

Writing for me is a craft too, much like stitching together pieces of a quilt. But it is also an art, beginning with thoughts that, on the best of days, flow from my mind to my fingers and finally onto the page.

How I Find “Blogspiration”

Two Streams:

Generally, inspiration for blog post topics and development of posts comes to me in two disparate ways:

1. Spontaneous/even serendipitous which accounts for less than 10% of my posts and

2. Thoroughly planned, hammered out mini-essays that make up the bulk of my blog post writing.

This past January, examples of each process type appeared side by side on my blog:

1. War & Peace – Rhyme and Reason I remembered a poem I had written about the Gulf War in 1991, and then heard Diane Rehm on NPR interview former Sec. of Defense Robert Gates, creating a tie-in with the theme of the poem.

Although I was not going to write a treatise on war and peace, I wanted to show both viewpoints, so the post became a brief 384-word blog post with questions posed at the end. Actually, this post turned into a lightening rod for discussion with readers expressing deeply held beliefs, pro and con. You may ask, what would one expect with the incendiary topic of WAR! What, indeed. I was surprised at how quickly this post came together.

2. Mennonite and Race: A Longenecker Lens Months ago in PA I visited my aunt’s bedroom now unoccupied because she has moved to a retirement community. On the wall, I saw the picture of a trio of women, one black and two white sitting together over a card game. At the time, I thought I would use the picture in a blog post but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly when.

After I decided to link ethnicity and Mennonite beliefs, I thought I might start with this framed picture, but instead I ended up discussing childhood experiences in our family in the beginning and at the end used a reference to the picture. For me, elements of a piece often flip-flop, playing musical chairs.

ScriptMennonRace — Mennonite/Race pre-writing process

Generally, after the decision of topic has been settled, blog posts begin as WORD documents, which I copy/paste into WordPress. This time I felt especially bold and began writing directliy in WordPress, but because of the restrictions of WP formatting, I felt myself fighting my own words, so I reversed the process, reverting to my usual method of typing the Word document first and then filling in the content in WordPress. I observed the “flow” return, and a 707-word post was born.

I was surprised at how long it took to write and revise this blog post.

How I Find Topics: Creation and Evolution:

Generally, I like to brainstorm for multiple future topics, so I don’t constantly have to obsess over the question “What am I going to write about now?” Then, on a legal-size sheet of paper, I chart a long-range plan with the proposed topics, just ideas in my head moments earlier.

brainstormLegalSize — Brainstorming blog post ideas

My thematic categories in blog writing are varied. Last February I started writing “Plain and Fancy Girl” with the singular intent of sharing my childhood memories as a Mennonite girl growing up in Lancaster County, (nostalgic and memoir-ish) but then my categories expanded as I continued writing to include wisdom from grandchildren, my Southern friends, and contemporary happenings in the media that relate to topics my readers have come to expect from me.

Thus, I say this: Anything can become grist for the writing mill though I tend to stick to these main ones: Mennonite lore/history, family stories from my childhood, current events, even recipes.

Triggers for Topics: Photos from dozens of family scrapbooks, stories shared with my mother, sisters, other relatives, childhood memories drifting through my mind, often unbidden, something I heard on NPR, an event attended.

Beyond the Blog

Last fall after having purchased Nina Amir’s How to Blog a Book, I took her suggestion of grouping blog posts into similar themes by color on sticky notes. Somehow I thought that exercise would be the magic wand that would inform the “narrative arc” for a full-fledged book. Oh, well! The large wooden board with the multi-colored stickies is still in my study area, looking back at me with the mystery and enigma of a Sphynx. But someday. . . .

StickiesBookDisplay — Storyboarding book ideas

As one wise eight-year-old girl has said, “I don’t really know how things will turn out until I start making them. They don’t always look like I thought they would, so sometimes I’m surprised.”

I love the surprise of writing, I absolutely love it!

***

Thank you Marian for sharing the ways you tap into your creativity to generate blog posts and write your memoir. I love the term “blogspiration.” I have found that just about anything can trigger ideas. All we have to do is look around and say “I feel a blog post coming on!” I like how you have a clear idea of your message (brand), yet are able to adapt the material to current or historical events. These posts may very well be seeds for your memoir.

Congratulations on your first year of blogging!

Author’s Bio:

Marian Longenecker Beaman’s life has been characterized by re-invention: Pennsylvania Mennonite girl becomes traveling artist’s wife in Florida, then English professor with credits in the Journal of the Forum on Public Policy published by Oxford University Press. Along with my work as a community activist leading a neighborhood to take on Wal-Mart expansion, I am a writer and blogger in this second phase of my career. Fitness training and Pilates classes at the gym have become a metaphor for my mind-flexing experience as a writer, mining stories from my past along with reflections on current events.

Contact Information:

Facebook: www.facebook/marian.beaman/

Twitter: www.twitter.com/martabeaman

Website: http://plainandfancygirl.com

How about you? How do you find “blogspiration”?

We’d love to hear from you. Please leave your comments below~

Next Week:

Monday, 3/24/14: “Narrative Medicine and the Fine Art of Listening: A Memoir Moment.”

My great Wordpress blog

Tag Archives: Nina Amir

Author Attitude: What Is It and Why Do I Need It? WOW Women on Writing Book Tour with Nina Amir

A Memoir Writer’s First Year in Blogging Adventure by Marian Beaman

Just another WordPress site