What an Author NEADS

by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

Tom Hopkins wrote a fantastic sales book called Low Profile Selling, Act like a Lamb…Sell like a Lion. In that book he presents a sales tool which I found very helpful. I have used it not only in sales but in many situations I have come across in life as a problem solving tool. Over the next few blog entries I want to share it with you. First let’s look at Tom’s acronym NEADS.

In sales it is important to evaluate the current situation. The current situation is where you are now. So the first letter N is for NOW. What do you have now or where are you now? You must know what you have or where you are at this point before we can move forward to where we want to be. Just as your GPS must know your current position and your desired destination before giving you a route, we must do the same.

In life we also must evaluate where we are now. Take any current situation and ask yourself, ”Where am I now?” George Bernard Shaw once said, "The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor he takes my measure anew every time he sees me, whilst all the rest go on with their old measurements, and expect them to fit me." Like George’s tailor we must stop and take measure of ourselves, our growth, our direction and our abilities. We must evaluate our current position before we move forward.

Take some time to sit quietly and look over your current position. Be very honest with yourself and evaluate if you are where you want to be, need to be or had hoped to be at this point. Once you have done so we will take the next step. To help you see what may lay ahead here are the remaining letters in Tom’s acronym. Look them over and if you like you may want to visit the video website below*.

N – NOW

E – ENJOY

A – ALTER

D – DECISION

S – SOLUTION

Prepare yourself for the remaining steps by having a current and honest evaluation ready and in front of you for the next letter, E. Our next post will be about what you enjoy!

*Click the word "Video" to view

When You Have Peas, Make Split Pea Soup

by Shannon Miholland, Social Media Director


There once was a fair maiden tortured each night by a single pea placed under her mattress. Like any girl, I appreciate a good fairy tale but this one was just too far-fetched to appeal to me. I wonder though if we sometimes allow our attitude toward Social Media to become little peas that impede our success as an author.


Facebook is too hard to use. They change their format and options too often.


I'm too busy to use social media.


I'd rather put my time into writing than building a platform. If Stephen King can do it, so can I.


Why would I want to connect with total strangers?


Twitter is too limiting. Who can say anything substantive in 160 characters or less?


Night after night the maiden failed to get sleep. Like her, day after day we can stifle our results. Or we can take the peas out from under our mattress. Take an honest look at them and realize we're letting such a small thing keep us from big results.


When you have peas, make split pea soup instead!
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Recipe for Crock Pot Split Pea and Ham Soup


1 (16 oz) bag split peas, rinsed
2 cups diced ham
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 ribs celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried parsley
1 Tbl seasoned salt (or to liking)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
6 cups hot water.


Layer ingredients in crock pot in listed order. Do not stir. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low 8-10 hours. Serves 8. Enjoy!

An Author to Love

by Lucy Merrill

Who doesn’t love a love story? Even guys who demand car chases and explosions in their reading and cinematic excursions like a bit of romantic byplay in the mix. Love has explosive possibilities of its own, amply displayed in works from Anna Karenina to Fatal Attraction.

There’s a lot of comedy potential in the perilous course of true love, too, and most lovers of love stories enjoy a good laugh as much as a good cry. If you do, let me introduce you to one of my favorite authors, the great humor writer, P.G. Wodehouse.

Wodehouse, known as “Plum” to friends and family, published a mountain of novels, short stories, plays, and even song lyrics. While he wrote from the early days of the 20^th century to his death in the 1970s, his characters live in a world stuck in time, where it is always 1912, or maybe 1925. It’s so hard to tell.

Whenever they are set, Wodehouse plots are rarely lacking in romance. In fact, love makes the Wodehouse world go round, as his characters are constantly pursuing—or occasionally on the run from—tender entanglements.

Plum’s best-known character, Bertie Wooster, who had a complete life support system in his valet, Jeeves, was always finding himself engaged to one ghastly girl or another through no fault of his own. Getting unengaged to the one who read Nietzsche or the one with a laugh like a sergeant-major provided plenty of plot pitfalls.

Then there’s Bingo Little, who was, as Wodehouse puts it, “susceptible.” Poor Bingo fell in love with the merest flutter of a mascara’d eyelash. This landed him in all sorts of sticky situations, from getting sideways with bookies to giving revolutionary speeches under the cover of a fake mustache.

To describe a Wodehouse plot as stark and realistic would be trifling with the truth. They are wonderfully absurd. But the author’s wry and witty style provides real laughter and imbues the whole with good humor. His writing twinkles.

There’s a danger in throwing in a few examples about now. How to pick one or two? I’ll inevitably overlook a favorite. (This sort of narrator hand-wringing goes on a lot in Wodehouse stories.)

How about this description? “It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.” Or this: “It was a harsh, rasping voice, in its timbre not unlike a sawmill.” Or this: “Like so many substantial citizens of America, he had married young and kept on marrying, springing from blonde to blonde like the chamois of the Alps leaping from crag to crag.”

Or perhaps this bit of plot exposition: “It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't.”

My Valentine’s Day recommendation—this year, have a little Plum with your champagne and chocolates.

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While an office drone by day, after 5 p.m. you'll find Lucy Merrill, freelance writer, blogger, and aspiring novelist, knee-deep in the writing life. Lucy lives in Birmingham, Ala., with a tolerant husband, who rolls his eyes at her only occasionally. She welcomes friends and followers on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Dragon or Mouse?

by Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief

Dragons have spiritual significance in certain religions and cultures. Some revere dragons; they feel they represent nature and or religion. Some even associate them with wisdom.

Mice we think of as a small mammal, and to some they are pets. To large birds, they are food. These little creatures also invade our homes for food and shelter.

What do you think of when you think of a dragon? I will admit I certainly would not think of them as having wisdom. They are big, and fire pours out of their mouth creating havoc and poisoning the air.

Of the two, I would think the mouse has more wisdom, certainly smarter; it sneaks into our homes for survival.

We humans are similar… either we come on so strong it turns people off or we are so timid no one hardly knows we are around.

Somewhere between the dragon and the mouse there should be balance. For a writer it is important to overcome some of your shyness and tell people that you are a writer. So don’t be a mouse. Tell them what you are writing.  If the book is at your publishers announce it to the world and give them the release date. Be a little more ‘dragonistic’ (I like this new word)! Just don’t go totally dragon on us and forget there are others who are writing too.

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Do you want to learn how to sell more books? Subscribe to Southern Writers Magazine today and find out how.

For the Love of Oscar

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director

This past week the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture were announced. They are, in no particular order:

• The Descendants
• Hugo
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• The Artist
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Help
• War Horse
• The Tree of Life

In looking over this year’s nominees, a think I spotted a few trends:

Oscar loves Paris

Midnight in Paris and Hugo both take place in France, as does part of War Horse. The Artist is a French movie.

Oscar loves the past

Only one of these movies – The Descendants – takes place completely in modern day, although an important plot point has to do with ancestry. Midnight in Paris begins in the current era but harkens back. The Tree of Life is particularly all over the place in time: past, present and future.

Oscar loves novels

Hugo, The Help, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Descendants, Moneyball and War Horse all had their origins in a book.

Oscar loves Brad Pitt

Mr P stars in both Moneyball and The Tree of Life. Oscar is perennially fond of Meryl Streep too, but who isn’t. 

Oscar loves wars

Films that take place during wartime are a recurring Academy favorite. Last year’s winner The King’s Speech had the backdrop of World War II. The previous year The Hurt Locker took home top honors. In this year’s Oscar race will War Horse win by a nose?

Oscar loves social commentary

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: 9/11. 

The Help: racial equality.

The Tree of Life: I don’t know, but something.

Oscar loves Hollywood and the creative arts

The Artist takes us back to the glory days of silent films. Hugo pays homage to classic movies as well. Midnight is Paris features a Hollywood screenwriter who encounters great writers from the past.

Oscar loves underdogs

Just about all of the movies feature a lead character who life has thrown a curveball. A couple of them are especially slumdoggy.

Oscar loves secret keys

At least two of the movies (I won’t spoil by saying which ones) include a mystery surrounding a key.

We could get off into additional tributaries, such as the fact that almost half the movies include “The” in the title, but that’s just obsessive.

Each year the faces may change but the cinema we flock to stays much the same: stories about overcoming obstacles and making dreams come true. All we require is a two-hour escape, and Hollywood continues to deliver.

When they announce the Best Picture winner on Sunday, February 26 we’ll know who Oscar really loves in this lineup. In the meantime, Suite T will be giving you nothing but love as guest bloggers weigh in all during February about love and the love of writing. Be one of them! Visit our Blog Love submission page now.

Until we meet again, I’ll be working on my new novel, The Parisian Orphan. During wartime, a young artist finds a key to a time machine shaped like a horse. I’m hoping Brad Pitt will be interested.

Bestseller

by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

Do you want to be on the Bestseller list? Sure you do! But which list. Yes there are several. We have the Top 150 Bestsellers According to USA Today, Barnes and Noble Top 100, Product Best Seller of the USA, Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller List, Amazon.com Top 100 and of course the New York Times Best Seller List. There are many more that relate to the digital world of books. But this is enough to get your attention. Of course you want to be on a bestseller list no matter which one it is, but how do you do it? How is it determined that a book is a best seller?

The designation “bestseller” is an identity coveted by any author. It designates a book as extremely popular and a top seller. But there are not only many lists but among those lists many categories and subcategories. In our local Sunday paper we see fiction, nonfiction and miscellaneous. These three categories are again broken down into hardback and paperback categories. There are many other subcategories such as children’s books, Christian books, cookbooks and the list goes on and on.

But how many do you need to sell to make it on these lists? Well that is according to where you may be. In the UK it could be anywhere from 4,000 to 25,000 books per week to meet the sales needed to be a bestseller. In Canada 5,000 copies may be what is needed. In the United States it can be determined by number of sales within a specified period of time. It also may be according to who is reporting. Amazon.com can easily determine their count by orders made online. The New York Times list is determined by sales numbers and information from publishers and retailers. Some lists don’t include large chains such as Target, Sam’s Club, Costco, Wal-Mart and the like. A lot of books can be sold and not reported on certain list. These numbers can also be manipulated by getting large groups to place orders on a certain day or as one company did some years ago order 10,000 of their own book to meet the numbers needed to get in the top 10. As a side note it was reported that one list moved Harry Potter books from the fiction list to the children’s book list to free up the number 1, 2 and 3 spot which they had locked up for over a year.

All of this tells us it is not an exact science. In many cases books are there because they are a great read and worthy of being there. Those that stay on the list for weeks, months or longer have indeed proved themselves. No matter how a book gets there two things occur because of this. The first is being noted as a popular top-selling book is a money-making marketing tool. This notoriety alone will drive further sales. The second and probably most important to writers is this not only allows us the opportunity to feed our ego but to be financially able continue with what we love to do, “WRITE”. So no matter the list “Bestseller” is a great place to be. When you get on one your friends at Southern Writers Magazine will be celebrating with you. So let us know!

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Do you need help building your platform as an author? Subscribe to Southern Writers Magazine today and find out how.

Pay It Forward

by Shannon Milholland, Social Media Director

Trevor McKinney knew too much. The son of an absentee abusive father and an alcoholic mother, this twelve year old boy cared too much for himself and as a byproduct the world. The course of this boy's life was radically altered when his curmudgeonous Social Studies teacher, Eugene Simonet, gave a class assignment. 


Trevor proposed a new social system under which a single person performed three acts of extraordinary kindness for three complete strangers. As repayment, the recipient would be asked to "pay it forward" and do an act of extreme compassion for someone else. He believed that if people kept paying kindness forward that eventually the course of the world would be altered.


Trevor McKinney existed only as a character in a movie but I wonder how it would impact the effectiveness of a social media strategy if one began to pay it forward. Could we for example:

• Ask the next person who's Facebook page we like, to visit the page of a friend instead of our own
• Blog about an acquaintance's upcoming book release
• Encourage the person we just retweeted to retweet a quote by someone we admire

Trevor McKinney passed away the same year he initiated his experiment. He died believing his project to be a failure. In reality the movement changed innumerable lives and not just those written into the fictional story line. Today a non-fictional foundation exists to promulgate this boy's dreams into reality. 

Do you like me have big dreams you want to see become a reality? Pay it forward. Perhaps the person who ultimately gets paid is you. 

Platform Now!

by Tom Blubaugh

My publishing story is different, from most. I was busy writing a story for myself. A therapy session since both my grandfathers died before I was born. I was fascinated by the fact that one was a Cossack soldier in Russia. I took the few facts I had and began researching and writing.

I was nearly finished when a friend contacted me to help him with a website for a publishing company he was starting. Long story short, during the process they uncovered the fact that I was writing a story. They read the manuscript and asked if they could publish my story. I had not planned on this. I agreed and we signed the contracts.

“I have a platform”, I told my publisher. I believed I was telling the truth—I really thought I did. After all, I had been on the internet doing business as Grampa Tom’s Timeless Treasures since 1998. Even though I sold the site in 2005, Grampa Tom still shows up in search engine searches on over 85,000 pages. Problem: No one knows my real name.

I did business as a financial planner from 1973 through 1995. I met thousands of people. Problem: I sold the business in 1995 and turned all my client records over to the new owner—no names.

I have been a public speaker for forty years. Problem: where are all those people? How do I get in touch with them? Press releases were a possibility, but when my publisher tried to get one in my hometown newspaper, they did not respond. I did not feel very hopeful.

I have a website that has been online since 2004 to help those who are victims of abuse. Should I advertise my book on this site? I decided I did not want to mix the two.

I had less than 200 friends on Facebook. I knew not all of them would buy my novel. My platform turned out to be less than I had thought.

I think this happens to many writers. They write a great manuscript. They succeed in finding a publisher. Then the big questions, “Do you have a platform?” “How are you going to sell your book if we publish it?”

I have surmised that the time to start building a platform is before beginning to write a story. Work on both the manuscript and the platform as a two-part project. Develop a marketing/business plan up front. I have been working hard at building a platform for nearly ten months. I am just arriving at the point where I have a large following. The book reviews on Amazon.com have pushed Night of theCossack into the top thirty in two fiction categories. This is not sales. Night of the Cossack is still around 250,000 in sales ranking, but it is a start. My monthly sales on Amazon.com are in double digits. I am speaking and doing book signings. I am finally, in some measure, a successful writer.

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Tom Blubaugh is a freelance writer living in Southwest Missouri with Barbara, his wife. They have six children and fourteen grandchildren. Tom has written non-fiction most of his adult life, but has recently written a historical fiction titled Night of the Cossack, published by Bound by Faith Publishers. This is Tom’s first novel. He co-wrote a devotional journal in 2009 for Barbour Publishing titled The Great Adventure. His other writings include articles for a denominational magazine and an insurance publication. He also self-published a book, Behind the Scenes of the Bus Ministry in 1974.

Tom started writing poetry at the age of fourteen. His vision of turning them into lyrics for rock and roll songs for popular artists didn’t develop. He considers writing to be a God-given talent and feels led to develop it. His first novel was published at his age of 69. Tom says it’s never too late. He is now writing a sequel.

Tom spent twelve years as an insurance agent and eleven years as a financial planner. He is the past president of Jericho Commission, Inc., and still serves on the board of directors. 

Beyond the Bubble

Today our Editor-in-Chief shares her Wisdom Wednesday column with Managing Editor, Doyne Phillips. Welcome to Wednesdays, Doyne!


by Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor

Whale watching has always been an attraction for us when we travel. We have taken boats out of Boston, Hawaii and Vancouver and seen whales. We are always amazed at the size and agility of these great creatures.

One of the things about the whales that fascinated me is how they work together to feed off the schools of fish. The pod will circle the school of fish from below letting out bubbles which form a wall around the school. To the fish this appears as an obstruction which they cannot swim through. While the fish are trapped within the wall of bubbles the whales will dive and from below rise to the surface with their mouths wide open catching all the fish they can. It is site of wonderment.

The fish are confused and trapped by an illusion which brings about their demise. The reality is the fish could at any time swim through the bubbles but don’t. Though the obstruction is not real, it is real enough in their minds to hold them in harm's way.   

Each of us has our wall of bubbles. We may feel trapped by an obstruction which is an illusion. Many times this illusion will freeze us in our tracks leaving us in a place where we cannot progress; leaving us not necessarily in harm’s way but in an unproductive state of mind.

What is the wall of bubbles before you? What is holding you back? Take a closer look and know that it could be an illusion. It could be something you can get through. If you don’t determine this now you may later find you had before you an opportunity and not an obstruction. Don’t fear the bubbles. Life's best lies beyond the bubble. 

Get Out of My Head

by Gary Fearon, Creative Director

You’ve probably heard the saying that “relationships are mirrors”, which I think is fascinating. There’s something reassuring in the concept that the people around us are put there to teach us things about ourselves. 

When we’re with people we admire or enjoy, we recognize the positive traits we want to cultivate within ourselves. Perhaps we gain even more by taking note of things we don’t appreciate in other people, making a conscious effort not to “be like that”.

In some respects, we are human sponges. When we spend a lot of time in the company of an acquaintance, we often absorb some of their characteristics. We find ourselves picking up on their traits, sharing inside jokes, and repeating some of their pet expressions. In life, that has a certain charm to it, being a bonding experience between two people. 

But in writing, pet phrases are something to be careful with. The audience expects characters to have well-defined, separate personalities, and failing to monitor that is a writing mistake too easily and too often made. To explain:

In a scene from a recent hit movie, one of the characters made the sarcastic comment, “I can’t wait.” A few scenes later, a totally different character, in totally different circumstances, made the sarcastic comment, “I can’t wait.” The second time around it was a little distracting. (Not that two people can’t say the same thing on the same day, but it did seem a tad coincidental. For now, we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.)

This past week on a popular TV comedy, a main character made reference to an object as having a “vibe” to it. Not ten seconds later in the next scene, an unrelated character said dialogue that included the expression “vibe”. That seemed a little too coincidental, and the impression one gets is that someone wasn’t paying a lot of attention to making these characters distinct from one another. You’re suddenly brought back to reality (and out of the story) by the realization that a writer wrote these words and they must have been fond of a particular phrase that day.

While it’s within the realm of backstory possibility that these characters “knew” each other and therefore could have absorbed each other’s vibe (sorry), it’s highly unlikely the writer thought that way, and we sure don’t. Even though he was best friends with Fred Flintstone, you’d never hear Barney Rubble exclaim “Yabba-Dabba-Doo”. Therefore, the “sponge” factor has no place in fiction, and we must take care to expunge the sponge from our own writing.

At the same time, intentional mirroring of phrases can be a powerful tool. Anyone who’s seen The Princess Bride will recall the brilliant, touching use of “As you wish.”

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but characters saying the same things is sincerely confusing. Let each line of dialogue speak for itself and you can spare your characters some unnecessary identity crises.

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Do you want to know how to build a platform as a writer and get attention from agents and publishers? Subscribe to Southern Writers Magazine today!

Book Publishing is Broken

Doyne is taking a break today to welcome Rob Eagar of WildFire Marketing. If your booking isn't selling as fast as you'd like, Rob has the expertise your message needs to have it spread like wildfire!

by Rob Eagar

This week's focus:

Last week, I read an interesting interview with Ellen Archer, CEO of Hyperion (ABC/Disney's book division) entitled "The Book Publishing Business Model is Broken." If you're an author, pay close attention to her comments:

"2012 is going to be about finding new business models...We've been able to provide advances to authors, and unfortunately most of those [advances] don't drive revenue...What are the new ways of making these deals with authors so that it's fair to all of us?...The one pattern that I have seen is that while there is still big money being thrown around for certain books, there is an awareness that we [publishers] can't continue to overpay. Advances are already lowering."



"I've been looking closely at pre-orders and pre-order strategy and how that aligns with authors that we acquire and publish that have active blog sites and followers. We've got a number of authors who are really good with social media and when we acquire their books, three months ahead of time, they'll do something really interesting for their audience, like a cover-reveal, and all of the sudden, you'll see the pre-orders build. Then you take that information to retailers and that can impact their interest in ordering more copies...The core fans buy the book, and then they start talking about it and sharing it with all their friends, and then you begin to see the results of it all paying off."


When asked about authors who aren't skilled in marketing their books, Archer states,"That's going to be a problem. That's always been a problem...If they're [authors] not promotable, then it makes selling their book challenging...I will look to acquire media-genic authors and properties."



"Change is hard for people. Some people think they're changing because they're making a little shift in what they're doing and what they need to do is make a radical shift in what they're doing."



My thoughts:
If you're an author who reads my newsletters or blog posts, recognize what Ms. Archer is implying. Her comments show how publishing at all levels is undergoing major changes, such as lower advances, stronger attention to pre-orders, and a premium placed on authors who are adept with social media and offer a "media-genic" personality.

Are you positioning yourself to succeed in this new era of publishing? Are you learning how to be a better marketer of your books? Are you building a distinct author brand and learning new skills to engage the media? Are you building a growing platform? Are you investing in your overall development for the future?

Now is the time to embrace change, rather than resist it. Industry executives like Ellen Archer are publicly announcing that the old ways of publishing are dead. The industry is broken, and it's about to be rebuilt. Are you prepared to thrive in the new era of publishing? Don't say fair warning wasn't given.

To receive Rob's Monday Morning Marketing Tips directly in your email inbox,
click here

5 Reasons Southern Writers is Your Best Investment

by Shannon Milholland, Social Media Director

As the calendar turned from 2011, I debated where I would spend my money in 2012. I could spend hundreds or even thousands attending just one writing conference. Hundreds would be required to acquire professional editing services. Another available option was to employ a writing coach, a significant investment.


One of the many reasons I am proud to be a part of the Southern Writers team is because our magazine offers a writer the opportunity invest in their future at a minimal cost. With an annual online subscription as low as $29.99 and a print option available for just $49.99, Southern Writers is a bargain.


There are five reasons every writer needs to invest in an annual subscription to Southern Writers:

1) We provide step by step instructions on all aspects of becoming a successful author.


2) We help you build name recognition.


3) We teach you how to be noticed by agents and publishers.


4) We provide the voracity of a writer's conference at a fraction of the cost.


5) We train you how to sell books.


If you haven't subscribed yet, take a moment and give yourself the best New Year's present possible - a bright future lit with success.