I had DECIDED.

This time I was going to read the entire book, build the system, and stick with it.

I picked up my copy of Getting Things Done, managed to slog my way through the entire manuscript, set up my system of inboxes, check-ins, lists, etc and practiced it religiously for…

Less than a week.

Can you relate to this?

Over the years, I’ve tried all the things. I’m read tons of time management books, implemented the Checklist Manifesto, signed up for the software…

And it all, always quickly fell apart.

Typical productivity systems do not work for writers.

Especially writers who also have to do stuff like marketing, hold down a real job, etc.

There are a few reasons for this.

1. We need space, not widgets and todos

Most productivity systems are focused on breaking big projects, into smaller tasks, into specific todos.

But that’s now how writing works.

It’s not about organizing every moment of every day to get the most stuff done.

We have to create space in our days that is specifically dedicated to not doing anything except for being creative.

If we over-organize our days, it will kill our creativity.

2. We need freedom, not constraints

If you require us to show up every Friday to do a 30-minute inbox clearing, it’s never going to happen. In fact, many of us will not do it simply because we don’t want the constraint of having to do it. #rebel

A productivity system for writers must not fail if we neglect it for a period of time. If we don’t organize or check-in for a few days (or weeks) it needs to give us that freedom to pick up where we left off.

3. We need to address emotions, not rely on logic

Much of the reason our writing doesn’t get done is because of fear. Or what Steven Pressfield coined in his book The War of Art, Resistance.

You can’t todo list fear. You can’t inbox fear. You can’t app your way out of fear.

If you are going to have a productivity system for writers, it must address fear and other emotions that come up when facing the blank page.

Too many productivity systems rely on cold, hard logic to get things done, and writing doesn’t work that way.

4. We need simplicity, not complexity

If it takes 352 pages to explain your system, it’s not going to work.

Hell, if it takes more than a dozen pages, it’s probably too complicated.

Again, this isn’t about over-organizing a million things we have to get done. It’s about creating a life that helps us get our writing done.

That’s it.

—

So what does this look like?

First, what are we solving for?

What is the Goal for a Writer Productivity System?

Too many times we start with this vague, “I need to get more stuff done” goal, but we don’t really know what that will look like.

Here is the question we should be asking:

How do you organize a creative life that allows you to produce and ship great work while staying sane, sober, free?

Every writing productivity question should be focused on answering this question.

Over the last 11+ years of trying out all the things, I ended up developing a system that works very well across personality types and helps writers make real progress.

5 Steps to the Perfect Writer Productivity System

Here are the five steps, in order, that every writer needs to go through.

1. Remove the Unessential

Where are the areas in your life that you are wasting time with no benefit? How do we remove this stuff so that it leaves more room for your writing?

2. Systematize and Automate the Essential

Even if we cut out some of the Netflix binging and Instagram scrolling, there is still a lot of stuff in our life that is essential but still isn’t our writing. We have to pay bills, care for our family, eat dinner, etc.

How do we make sure this stuff takes less time and mental energy?

3. Overcome Fear

We all tell ourselves that if we had more time we’d get so much more writing done. But then, if we figure out how to give ourselves more time, usually we don’t actually get more writing done.

Because the first thing that fills that new writing space isn’t writing, it’s fear.

We have to deal with the fear.

4. Do the Work

Once we get a handle on fear, we need a plan for how we are going to get the writing done. When is it going to happen? How much are we going to write each day? How do we know we “did it” today?

5. Ship the Work

Finally, it’s not just about writing our words, it’s about putting our work out into the world. This is where many writers get stuck.

We have to have a plan of how our writing starts making it out to actual readers.

—

How can you build this system for yourself?

Spend some time thinking through how you can tackle each of these five steps.

Building a system to ensure you get your writing done is as important as the writing itself!

Most writers I talk to haven’t created a reader persona for one of two reasons.

Either they don’t understand the benefits of creating one, or they’re experiencing Resistance (with a capital R) about marketing in general.

Allow me to persuade you that creating a reader persona is an activity that can unlock your marketing like almost no other.

But first, let’s back up a bit and explain what I mean when I talk about an ideal reader persona.

It’s basically a character sketch of a person who will be absolutely delighted with your work from the minute they read the jacket copy. 

Quite simply, it’s the imaginary version of a real person who was meant — dare I say, destined — to find your book.

Do you really need a reader persona?

As writers, we have a lot on our plate. Maybe we’re writing a new manuscript, revising an old one, working a day job and raising kids all at the same time. The thought of sitting down to dabble in what may seem like marketing busy work isn’t that appealing. 

Can you skip creating a reader persona? Yes. You’re a grown-up. You can pass on any tasks you don’t want to do, including paying your taxes and feeding your dog. 

But there are consequences for choosing not to do something. 

In the case of creating a reader persona, deciding to skip it can have the following consequences:

• Feeling stuck. You won’t know where to go next with your marketing and therefore won’t do much of anything.
• Wasting time. You’ll spend hours trying to reach people who aren’t interested in your book.
• Wasting money. You may dump money on ads or promotions that aren’t targeted correctly.
• Watered down marketing that doesn’t speak to anyone. If you’re trying to appeal to everyone instead of to your ideal reader, chances are your marketing isn’t going to be very interesting to anyone. 
• Frustration over lack of sales. Without a clear idea of your target audience, it’s likely that looking at your monthly numbers puts a knot in your stomach.

The magic of knowing who you’re looking for

Knowing exactly the type of person who should read your book will help you make key decisions and save you some serious time. 

Suddenly, you know where to look, what language to use and what content to deliver.  

Once you have a clear picture of your ideal reader, your marketing can almost magically coalesce around what that reader cares about, and therefore it’s much more likely to catch and hold their attention.

“But, my book is for EVERYONE!”

When we resist creating a reader persona, we often do it because our hope is that our book will appeal to everyone and we don’t want to limit ourselves. 

Your book isn’t for everyone. Truly. I don’t know the first thing about your book, but I do know that it’s not for everyone. 

How do I know that? Because one-quarter of U.S. adults surveyed last year hadn’t read even one book in the past twelve months.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has sold upwards of 107 million copies. I think we’d all be happy with that sales figure.

There are 327 million people in the US and 7.5 billion people in the world.

Harry Potter is not for everyone. Your book is not for everyone. Don’t try to market to everyone.

Creating an ideal reader isn’t about leaving people out. It’s creating an opportunity to saturate a core audience with a message that delights them so they will rave about your book and help it spread.

Minimum viable audience

The goal is to find what bestselling author and marketer Seth Godin calls your minimum viable audience—the bare minimum of people who will LOVE your book and help it succeed.

If you look at Harry Potter, that series went supernova before the internet had really even taken off. How? Booksellers liked it and they spread the word. That book was hand-sold to a certain kind of kid. Those kids went nuts over it and that led to phenomenal success.

Let’s look at another example. Steven Pressfield wrote a little book called The War of Art.   

That book has sold 500,000 copies. 

It was aimed at writers. Writers were the minimum viable audience. 

Writers ate it up and spread the word to other creative types and then to entrepreneurs and other groups. 

You can start with one minimum viable audience and then move to another and another. But few authors can try to hit multiple audiences at once and get any traction. 

Let’s talk about Resistance for a second

Since we just talked about Steven Pressfield, who coined the term Resistance (with a capital R) to explain the sort of dark inner force of self-sabotage writers and artists so face, now’s a good time to talk about how to deal with it in this marketing context.

There can be lots of reasons for Resistance to marketing. Sometimes we have a bad definition of marketing—we define it by its worst examples—so we decide we don’t want to sully ourselves.

But really, when it comes down to it, I see that many writers think that if they don’t try very hard to market their book, they have a ready excuse as to why it’s not selling. 

Many people feel like it’s better to not try than to try and fail. This is because we don’t want to feel the feelings that come along with failure, so we think we’ll avoid the feelings by not doing the thing.

BUT, if we’re willing to feel any feeling, there’s no limit to what we can do.

Resistance is completely disabled when we agree ahead of time to be willing to feel anything that comes up and act anyway.

Look at some of the most successful authors—they’re willing to feel rejection, they’re willing to tolerate haters, they’re willing to do interviews and put themselves out there. They still feel the discomfort and the resistance, but it doesn’t rule their actions. 

They’re willing to feel things in order to get where they want to go.

So, let’s keep that in mind as we look at how to create and use a reader persona. Let’s be willing to feel any feeling as we try to fulfill our potential as writers by finding our ideal readers. (For more help with author mindset, read this post.)

The research phase

Seth Godin tells us the #1 question we have to answer is in our marketing is: “Who’s it for?” 

This is the whole idea behind reader personas. But how do we figure that out?

Using comp titles

We can start by answering the following questions:

• What’s your genre?
• What are some comp titles?
• How is your book different?

Let’s answer those questions for the two books we’ve talked about so far. (And keep in mind this is a fairly subjective process, so you don’t need to email me to tell me all the ways you disagree with my assessments here. This is just to give you an idea of how to approach your own book.)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 

Genre: Fantasy and Action/Adventure

Comp titles: Lord of the Rings; Chronicles of Narnia; The Wizard of Earthsea

Who reads those books? Children who love to escape to magical worlds

How is HP different? Went from middle grade to YA in one series; revival of fantasy when fantasy was kind of dead…

The War of Art

Genre: Nonfiction Big Idea Book

Comp titles: Bird by Bird; the Elements of Style

Who reads those books? Writers who want to improve their craft, or people who want to be writers

How is WoA different? Focuses on battling Resistance, not improving writing skills

You can get a great sense of your ideal reader by investigating some of your comp titles. 

Head over to Amazon or Goodreads and read all of the five-star reviews. What sense do you get of people who loved this book? Can you glean their age, interests and worldview?

Now visit the author’s website and social media channels. Does this author have an engaged fan following? If so, poke around the profiles of some of those fans. What information can you glean about them? You should be able to tell their rough age and some of their other likes and dislikes based on their profile and what they’re sharing online.

Interviewing an actual reader

There’s really more than one way to do this, so let’s look at another method of doing research before you start building the persona.

In episode 31 of the Book Launch Show, Tim shared a story of how he created a persona for his book Your First 1000 Copies and his Booklaunch.com website. 

He based his ideal reader/customer on an actual client. He even went so far as to address every email he drafted to her, and then deleted her name just before sending.

If you have access to an actual reader, ideally someone you don’t know well who’s told you how much they love your book, ask for a brief call with that person so you can use them as a basis of your reader person. 

By asking about favorite books, you can discover comp titles. By asking about where they spend their time online, you can figure out the best social media channels to focus on. By asking what podcasts they listen to, you can start creating a list of podcasting influencers to target.

Best of all, by the end of the conversation, you’ll have a very clear idea of how your ideal reader talks and thinks and therefore how to talk to them.

Let’s build this thing

Now that you’ve done the research, you can start to build a reader persona. 

Tim's cohost on the Book Launch Show, Valerie Francis, gave us a killer example of how to build a reader persona in episode 34. (You can download her spreadsheet here.)

Now, before you start rolling your eyes at all this detail, I want you to remember what you already know as a writer: There is power in specificity.

(Tim says he even pictures what his ideal readers wear and what color hair they have.)

So start plugging in the details of your ideal reader. You can do this in a spreadsheet, or a document or a piece of paper, but actually do it. Don’t just think about it.

You want to include demographics and psychographics (another hat tip to Seth Godin here). You need to get inside this reader’s head and understand how they see the world. 

Example persona for The War of Art:

Name: Dylan Aarons

Demographics

Age: 43

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White

Religion: Non-secular jewish

Location: California

Occupation: Business Analyst 

Relationship status: Divorced

Education: BA

Income level: $120,000

Children: 2

Leisure time per week: 8 hours

Psychographics

Biggest problem: Wants to write but gets stuck easily

Favorite book: On Writing

Favorite movie: Glengarry Glenross

Goals: Finish a novel

Political affiliation: Democrat

Favorite media outlets: NPR

Hobbies: Cycling

Values: Creativity

Habits: Goes for a long bike ride every Saturday and listens to podcasts during commute

Social media use: Instagram, Twitter & Reddit

You can also take all this information and write it up in narrative form, like a character sketch, and bring it to life even more.

Using the persona

Now, if you’re Steven Pressfield (I know, you wish) when you sit down to do your marketing, you can think about Dylan. 

You can design a reader magnet that will help him solve his biggest problem, like a free course on breaking through Resistance, for example. (Which happens to be exactly what Steven Pressfield offers new subscribers.)

If you’re writing a newsletter or crafting an article, you can speak directly to Dylan because you know what he cares about.

If you want to find Dylan online, you’re going to head to Twitter, Instagram and Reddit.

If you’re on a podcast, you’ll want to say the things that Dylan needs to hear.

And once you’ve got the Dylans of the world raving about your book, you can move on to the next almost-as-ideal reader. I recommend developing 2-4 personas and refining them over time. 

Again, the point of a reader persona is to help you find the people who will become raving fans of your work by being ultra specific. People different from your reader persona will find your book and love it, too. 

You’re just using your persona to get your foot in the door. Find your ideal readers. Delight them. And they will spread the word. 

Believe me when I say, I am NOT criticizing anyone here. All writers, including me, indulge in the occasional pity party. 

Here are the kinds of answers I get to the question: “What comes up for you when you think about marketing?”

Fear.

Overwhelm, loneliness, drudgery.

Anxiety (am I good enough? does anyone care?) and a desire to procrastinate.

Worry about being sleazy!

Can you relate? 

When I probe for the thoughts behind the feelings, here are some answers I hear:

“Somebody else—my publisher—should do be doing this for me.” 

“I don’t want to be pushy and salesy.” 

“I’m a nobody. I can’t get any traction when talking to influencers.” 

“I’ll be ignored and never know why.”

“I’m bad with technology, so I can’t build a mailing list.” 

“My work is dumb and not worth much.”

My only goal is to help people find success with their books—however they define it. I try to dig up these thoughts so I can do something about them. 

Because the plain truth is, you can’t possibly be successful in your marketing when you’re telling yourself this type of story about getting your book out into the world.

When you hate the thought of marketing, when you dread it, your marketing will suck. 

Therefore, your results suck. 

And you’ll conclude that you suck, or that you were right about marketing being a nightmare. 

It’s self-fulfilling prophecy. And it ends now. Today. With you reading this post.

One of the things that first drew me to Tim’s Connection System was his definition of marketing: The act of building long-lasting connections with people.

That definition is a big reason why the system works so well. Right out of the gate, it addresses the negative thoughts and fears most of us have about selling. 

But I still see authors get stuck on actually carrying out the system, even once they learn it and know it works.

They get stuck because they didn’t stop to consciously dismantle their old beliefs about marketing. As soon as they start taking action, their brain starts coughing up fears and doubts and they end up in a downward spiral of stinky thinking and stagnant sales.

Action is not the first step to solving the problem

Too many of us think taking action is the whole answer to almost any problem. If only I could take action, things would shift. But it just isn’t true.

Tim and I can tell you what to do to market your book all day long, but unless you’ve got the right mindset, you’re just not going to do it.

If you’re frozen in your marketing efforts right now, gritting your teeth and taking action is not the first step towards more books sales.

If you force yourself to do your marketing from a place of hating it, you’re going to fail, no matter what actions you take. Because people can smell a faker.

Shitty Thinking Sabotages Your Efforts

Here’s the kind of crap I hear when talking to authors about the different stages of the Connection System.

Objections to Permission: 

“But, I never sign up for newsletters so my readers won’t either.”

Objections to Content: 

“But, I don’t have time to create marketing content. I’m so busy and I need my spare time for writing my books.”

Objections to Outreach: 

“But, I’m a nobody, so I can’t get any traction when talking to influencers.”

Objections to Selling:

“But, I don’t want to sound like I’m selling used cars.” 

Notice how these objections begin with the word “but”?

“But” thoughts are an excellent signpost to identify the thinking that’s getting in your way. You say them as if they’re facts, as if you’re reading the news. “But” thoughts are not facts. They are self-sabotage. Every time. 

Hear me now: there is always a way around a “but,” if you want to find it.

Right action requires right thinking 

I’m going to help you solve the problem so many of us face in all facets of our lives: Knowing what we need to do but not being able to make ourselves do it. 

I’m building on the work of therapists, thinkers, and coaches like Tara Brach, Martha Beck, Byron Katie, and Brooke Castillo here, adapting and merging some of their concepts and exercises specifically for writers. Just like the Connection System, this is an underlying strategy. A foundation to guide you in developing thoughts that will better serve you in your writing and your marketing.

The key is to quiet the limbic system, or emotional center of the brain, and use our powerful prefrontal cortex instead. Some people refer to the limbic system as the “lizard brain.” It’s responsible for our fear responses and always wants us to skitter away from the unfamiliar, the challenging. The prefrontal cortex, on the other hand, wants to solve problems and find a way to reach our highest potential. Which part of your brain would you rather develop? 

Those negative thoughts we looked at earlier come from the lizard brain. We’re going to intentionally override them with our prefrontal cortex.

I’m going to give you a roadmap to clean up your thoughts so you can move forward with building the audience your books deserve.

Though it may feel a little woo-woo at first, I assure you, it’s actually incredibly practical. Once you start using it, you’ll be annoyed you never learned it in school.

Your Roadmap to a Better Mindset

To use this mindset roadmap, we need to understand how our circumstances, thoughts, feelings and actions all interact to create our marketing results. (Big hat tip here to life coach and effing genius Brooke Castillo here, this is based on her Self Coaching 101 model.)

Marketing is just a thing that exists in the world. A circumstance. 

It’s not good or bad—until you have a thought about it. 

Once you think something like “marketing is yucky,” that creates a feeling, often revulsion, that drives the actions you take—or don’t take—to market your book. 

Your action (or inaction) determines the result you get. In this case, lack of sales because your thoughts about marketing interfered with your ability to do any.

There’s only one way to change the result: Back the hell up and look at your thoughts.

Oh, wait. You don’t believe that there’s a direct line from your thoughts to your results? 

Consider Tim. Tim doesn't love marketing because he's good at marketing. He's terrific at marketing because he loves marketing. He loves it because he thinks it works. The way he thinks about it makes him feel excited about it, which drives the actions he takes, which create his stellar results. 

I’m going to walk you through the roadmap here and you’ll start to see your own thoughts about marketing and understand the connection to your results. 

This understanding, along with some practice, will allow you to better control your thoughts. When you control your thoughts, you can change the results you get in marketing—and in life.

Do you get that? Changing your thoughts about marketing can change your life!

So here’s how to leverage that prefrontal cortex and stuff a sock in the mouth of your lizard brain.

Step 1: Do a thought download. 

When you think about getting serious about your marketing, what comes up for you? 

Remember the answers my clients gave above?  

Now, it’s your turn. Write down every thought that comes into your mind when you think about marketing. 

If you’re currently unhappy with your sales figures, I’ll bet dollars to dark chocolate that most of what you put down is negative. 

Now read what you wrote down while imagining these are another writer’s thoughts, not yours. You think this other writer is brilliant and should be super famous and successful, but isn’t. Do these thoughts explain why their marketing isn’t working? You bet your ass they do. 

Thoughts like these don’t serve anyone but our inner lizards.

Step 2: Call out your own bullshit

Next, for each thought you wrote down, ask yourself, is this really true? The negative thoughts are simply stories you’re telling yourself. And because you’re a writer and you live and breathe stories, sometimes you can’t tell when you’re fooling yourself.

Let’s look at some shitty thoughts and investigate them.

Step 3: Restock your thoughts

Ok, that may have been a bit like having cold water thrown in your face, but never fear! We’re getting to the good part. 

Now that you’ve seen the mental manure inside your head, it’s time to muck the proverbial stall.

How much time and energy could you pour into finding an audience if you simply stopped believing all those thoughts?

However much I love eastern philosophies like Buddhism (and I do), it’s not enough to just notice our thoughts and try not to identify with them. We have to use our big fat prefrontal cortex to its highest potential and choose better, more helpful thoughts. Our new thoughts eventually become beliefs. And when we take action from beliefs that serve us, we get results we feel good about.

To take the kind of action that sells more books, we need to rewire our brains to focus on more positive thoughts about marketing.

Remember, our actions are driven by our feelings. In order to take massive action to build your career, what would you need to feel? Our thoughts create our feelings, in order to have a feeling that helps you take action, what would you need to think?

I’m not talking about chanting some silly affirmation until you automagically believe it. Start by finding some thoughts you already believe that will serve you better as you tackle book marketing.

You want your new thought to have the following qualities: It should feel possible and hopeful, it should be compassionate towards yourself (no shaming or blaming for what you thought before), and, most of all, it should be true. 

Your old thoughts were lies you told yourself. You new thoughts should be meticulously constructed to be both true and positive. 

Let’s look at some examples of old, shitty thoughts converted into shiny new, believable thoughts that can serve you better in your marketing: 

Try some of these new thoughts on for size and see how they feel. Pick one or two new thoughts and tape them up in your workspace. Each time you sit down to work on your marketing, read (or even speak aloud) your new thoughts. 

Can you already feel what actions might you be willing to take as a result of shifting your attention to these new thoughts instead of your habitual ones? 

Your thoughts are powerful. They are the stories you tell yourself. As a writer, you must tell yourself a book marketing story that serves you well, so you can serve the world with your story. Get to it!

How’s that for a start?

Let me tell you about it…

Awhile back I was really stuck.

I seemed to be constantly too busy to get anything meaningful done in my life. I was doing things from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep, but never seemed to get the important stuff done.

I couldn’t get my writing done.

I had articles and books and stories I wanted to write, but the time kept slipping through my hands.

Every time I talked to people about my writing, I would tell them I was too busy.

Finally a buddy really nailed me to the wall.

“Too busy” is just an excuse

“From now on,” he said, “you’re not allowed to say the words ‘I’m too busy.’ Instead, you have to say ‘I’ve chosen not to prioritize.’”

“I’m too busy to write,” became “I’ve chosen not to prioritize writing.”

“I’m too busy to exercise,” became “I’ve chosen not to prioritize my health.”

Because the truth is most of us have a lot of autonomy in our life. We have chosen the things in our life. Our jobs, our significant others, what we do for fun, how much we watch TV, etc. Most of it is under our direct control.

So I started doing this. Anytime I started to say, or even think the words “I’m too busy,” I would stop and replace them with “I’ve chosen not to prioritize.”

My eyes were immediately opened.

I was disgusted at all of the areas in my life that I had lost control.

The truth is, this one tiny shift in language moved me from being the victim to being in control.

“Too busy” is something that happens to you. “Not prioritizing” is something you choose.

But this wasn’t enough.

I still wasn’t making any real changes. Sure, I was owning my decisions, but it wasn’t quite enough to get me to change my actions.

I would make little shifts here and there, but not enough to make a real difference. Weeks and months continued to slip by without me getting my writing done.

So I decided these small, incremental half measures weren’t working.

It was time to get ruthless

Here’s the steps I went through. You should follow them exactly.

1. Make a list of everything you do.

Take out a pen and paper and write down every single thing you do in a day. Pick a typical work day. Get extremely granular. Write down everything.

Here’s a sample from my list:

• Use the restroom
• Take the dog out
• Check FB, Twitter, Instagram
• Make breakfast for kids
• Make coffee
• Talk with Candace
• Get ready for the day
• Take kids to school
• Go to office / work
• Exercise
• Watch TV
• Read before bed
• Listen to podcasts/audiobooks
• Eat dinner with family
• Talk with friends
• Coffee with friends
• Eat lunch
• Text friends
• Read the news

2. Now, put a star next to everything that is essential in your life.

By essential, I mean you will die if you don’t do it (go to the restroom) or your life will burn down if you don’t do it (take the kids to school). Be honest here. This has to be essential for your survival or to fulfill your most important roles in life.

Here’s my list:

• * Use the restroom
• * Take the dog out
• Check FB, Twitter, News
• * Make breakfast for kids
• Make coffee
• Talk with Candace
• * Get ready for the day
• * Take kids to school
• * Go to office / work
• Exercise
• Watch TV
• Read before bed
• Listen to podcasts/audiobooks
• * Eat dinner with family
• Talk with friends
• Coffee with friends
• Eat out for lunch
• Text friends
• Read the news

3. Cross out everything on the list that doesn’t have a star next to it.

• * Use the restroom
• * Take the dog out
• Check FB, Twitter, News
• * Make breakfast for kids
• Make coffee
• Talk with Candace
• * Get ready for the day
• * Take kids to school
• * Go to office / work
• Exercise
• Watch TV
• Read before bed
• Listen to podcasts/audiobooks
• * Eat dinner with family
• Talk with friends
• Coffee with friends
• Eat out for lunch
• Text friends
• Read the news

4. For one week, Sunday through Saturday, only do the things left on your list.

Using my list above, that means I don’t text friends, read the news, check any social media, read any books, watch any TV, hang out with friends, go to the gym, listen to anything in the car, etc.

For seven days.

This is not a mental exercise.

This is meant for you to actually do.

It wasn’t until I was sitting up in my bedroom staring at the wall at 6:00pm because my wife was downstairs watching TV that it finally sunk in how much time I really waste in my life.

Once you cut out every single unessential action in your life, you will feel what it’s like to have so much empty time on your hands. Your perspective will forever change.

You will see extremely clearly how much time you are wasting in your life once you ruthlessly cut all the excess all at once.

I encourage you during this week to use this found time to write and work on your creative projects.

5. After seven days, thoughtfully add things back into your life.

I do not in any way think you should live your entire life this way. I like to read before bed. I watch TV with my family.

However, I now choose to have these things in my life.

Go back through your list and choose which things to add back in and which things should remained crossed off permanently.

Creative work is different work

It’s not about getting more todos checked off or fitting more stuff into your life.

If you are going to write, you need empty space in your schedule. You need time that isn’t filled with distraction.

Once you ruthlessly cut out all of the unessential stuff in your life for an entire week, you will see there is always time for your writing. When you take control of your life, you’ll be surprised what can really happen.

Homework

Do this exercise and then shoot me an email at me@timgrahl.com to let me know how it goes. I’d love to hear from you!

I enjoyed putting together the talk and wanted to share it with you here in written form. This is not a transcript. It’s just me writing down what I tried to say. I hope you enjoy it!

A lot has changed for me in the two years since I last spoke here. Most notably, I wrote and published a new book titled Running Down a Dream.

At the time, I had already finished the first draft of the book. However, when I showed it to Jeff Goins, he said, “This is a great collection of blog posts, but it’s not a book.”

Then I showed it to Shawn Coyne, my editor and co-host of the Story Grid Podcast, hoping he would disagree with Jeff. Instead, he not only agreed but added this thought:

“This is a book that people will read half of it, put it on the shelf, and then immediately forget it.”

That’s not what you want to hear.

So I began this journey of trying to figure out what my book was and what I was trying to say.

A brief side note here: through all of this — my blogging, writing my first two books, beginning to write fiction, starting this third book — I never actually called myself a writer. I kept telling myself that I was doing all of these things for my business, not because I was trying to be a real writer.

Then Jeff texted me.

“That article Shawn wrote about you was really good.”

“What article?” I responded.

Come to find out, Shawn had written an article on Steven Pressfield’s website about me. Here’s a short clip:

“He’s the quintessential master of the ‘shadow career,’ the professional life that parallels real ambition.”

Shawn was pointing out that for a decade I had worked with writers, worked with publishers, even written my own books, but was still dodging the fact that I was a writer.

So now, one shitty draft into writing my next book, I decided I was actually a writer and it was time to get to work.

And yet, it was two more years until I finished the manuscript that would become Running Down a Dream.

Why? What took so long?

The final draft of the book only took me about thirty days to write, so what was I doing for two years?

Now, looking back, I realize, I was trying to tell the Truth.

But what is “Truth”?

Obviously, there are lots of different ideas and definitions of truth. I’m not using this word in the way 1+1=2 is true or the way science is true.

I remember Stephen King hammering this point home in his book On Writing over and over.

“The job boils down to two things: paying attention to how the real people around you behave and then telling the truth about what you see.”

and

“It’s important to tell the truth; so much depends on it.”

and

“Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all …. as long as you tell the truth.”

As artists — writers, musicians, songwriters, painters, etc — we are always trying to tell the truth.

But again, what is the “truth”? What is it we are trying to say?

This is the best way I’ve come to describe it…

We are trying to say out loud what our souls are silently screaming.

Which then leads to the next question…

Why is this so hard?

My first two books were Your First 1000 Copies and Book Launch Blueprint. They were all about book marketing.

They were also what I call “guru on the hill” books. I am the smart guy that had gone out in the world and figured out all this awesome stuff, and now I was writing it down to help you out.

I was the guru on the hill and people were coming to me for my wisdom.

The problem with the book that would become Running Down a Dream is I kept trying to write another guru on the hill book. I was just trying to write down some tools and tips on overcoming creative resistance. I wanted to once again be the smart guy sharing my wisdom.

And the book kept not working.

I finally realized I couldn’t write another guru on the hill book.

It was time to climb down off the mountain and tour my ruins.

This book wasn’t going to share the knowledge I had. It was going to show the reader where this knowledge came from. It was time to dig into all of the painful memories, brutal mistakes, and enormous embarrassments about what I had gone through over the last twelve years.

Put another way, it was time to tell the truth.

Which, again, begs the question: Why is this so scary?

Why is it so scary?

What is there really to be afraid of? What is triggering our fear?

If you think through this logically, what is it that we think will get us?

There are no monsters here. There is no bear chasing us. Most of us live in places where we are not going to be put in jail or have any freedoms taken away for our art.

So why the fear?

Several years ago I was talking about this with Josh Kaufman, author of How to Fight a Hydra and The Personal MBA. The metaphor he gave goes something like this:

Our brains are built to be hunter-gatherers living in small groups of people. Trying to live in the modern world is like taking the Commodore 64, an 8-bit home computer released in 1982, and attempting to install the latest version of Microsoft Windows.

It’s not built for that and you’re definitely going to make it fritz out.

When it comes time to say out loud what our soul is silently screaming, the fear alarms start going off like crazy.

It’s terrifying to expose our soul to the world.

What can we do?

How do we overcome fear?

For me, I decided I was going to be the best at what I did.

Ten years ago when I started working with authors on their book marketing, I was terrified. I had no idea what I was doing. I had never been trained in marketing. I had never worked in publishing. I was constantly afraid that everyone would finally figure out that I had no business doing this for a living.

So I set out to become the best book marketer on the planet. I figured once I was the best, then I wouldn’t be afraid anymore. And after 10 years of doing this, I can confidently say that I am one of the best in the world at this craft.

However, I ran into two problems as I traveled down this path of becoming the best.

First, I worked with people that were at the top of their field and they were still scared.

I stood in the kitchen of a #1 New York Times bestselling author who was completely blocked on her next book because she was scared she wouldn’t have the same success again.

In Elizabeth Gilbert’s first TED talk, she described what it was like to try to write the book after her wild, crazy, unrepeatable success with Eat, Pray, Love.

“It’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me. That’s the kind of thought that can lead a person to start drinking gin at 9:00 in the morning.”

What I kept seeing over and over was that success actually bred more fear.

The second problem I had was a new yearning for adventure.

What is success like?

I came to this place where I am comfortable in book marketing. I can talk about it easily. I rarely get asked a question I haven’t been asked ten times before. I’ve written two books about it. I teach it constantly. I get hired for a lot of money to run book launches.

I was safe now.

It was as if I had been dropped into a forest at the darkest time of night and, through years of hard work, had built myself a big, roaring campfire. I was warm. I was safe. The light and the heat kept the monsters that hide in the forest at bay. I could walk around safe and comfortable as long as I stayed close to the fire.

The problem arose when I started thinking about other, new things I wanted to do. I started glancing over my shoulder, peering into the darkness, wondering if there was a new adventure to be had.

So I started doing things that, business-wise, were kind of dumb. I started the Story Grid Podcast with Shawn Coyne so I could learn how to write fiction. I started working on Running Down a Dream.

Any good business coach would have told me to double down on book marketing. Write a third book on the subject. Book some more speaking gigs. Work with more high-profile authors.

Keep adding fuel to that campfire that was already burning so well.

But instead, I walked to the edge of the light of that campfire, picked up my foot, and stepped back into the darkness.

This is why the fear never leaves

Creativity, by definition, is doing something that has never been done before. If you are pushing yourself as an artist, you are constantly leaving the safety of the thing you know and understand, and stepping out into the blackness anew.

Elizabeth Gilbert, thankfully, kept writing after Eat, Pray, Love. She wrote fiction, she wrote about creativity, she wrote about marriage. She kept stepping out into the darkness.

But this leads me to a new question.

Why do this?

The creative life is hard. It’s weird, in every sense of that word. It’s unpredictable. Often, unprofitable.

And nobody will ever know if we hide our gift and never pursue it. Plenty of people fill their lives with things other than their creative gifts. We could go our entire lives living safely by whatever fires we have built for ourselves.

So why do this? Why take the risk?

I recently came across an interview with Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club, Adjustment Day, and many others, on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast.

It is a rough episode to listen to as Chuck tells many graphic, dark stories.

To be honest, I’ve never really understood writers like Palahniuk. I’ve always wondered why their stories were so graphic. Was it just for shock value? Was it just to watch people be appalled or grossed out?

And then Chuck tells a story about an event he did where he read one of the more graphic stories from one of his novels. After the event, a woman came up to him and shared a very personal, haunting childhood story about her mom and a heating pad and brutal physical abuse and shaming.

She had never told anyone else her story. It was a secret she kept buried deep and it kept her from experiencing any pleasure or joy in her life.

And after she shared the story with Chuck, she said:

“If you can tell [your story], then I can tell my heating pad story, and I can tell that story until I can make it funny. Then maybe someday I can go back to my mom and say, ‘Do you remember that heating pad we used to have?’ and it’ll be complete.”

Then Chuck goes on to explain:

“See, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to create the opening for people to tell these stories that they never thought that they could tell.”

This is why we risk

There are two fundamental ways we can look at the world.

The first way is pretty simple. The world is bad and getting worse. It’s pretty easy to look around and point to all of the atrocities and despair that we are all just polishing the brass on the Titanic. This world is going down and we’re just trying to make the best of it.

However, there’s a second way to look at things. If we zoom up higher than our current problems, you can get a better perspective on things.

200 years ago, the vast majority of the world’s population was living in extreme poverty. If you weren’t a 1 percenter, you were barely surviving. By the early 1980s, the percentage of the world population living in extreme poverty had shrunk to 44%. Now it is 10%.

In the early 1800s, almost half — 43% — of the newborns died by the time they were 5 years old. Now that number is 4.3%.

There are more people getting an education now than ever before. There are more people living in a democracy than ever before. We no longer watch slaves getting eaten alive by lions as a form of entertainment.

There is a long chain of people behind me who have worked to make the world a better place. And there is a long chain in front of me that will raise us up to enlightenment or heaven or whatever you want to call it.

My job is to do my work. To be the next link in the chain. To give other people the courage to be who they are supposed to be.

Sure, it’s like I’m an ant trying to push a piece of sand another inch down a football field, but that’s ok. That’s my work to do.

The reason we risk to do our work and tell our stories isn’t just for ourselves. It’s to play our part. It’s to make the world just a little bit better. To give other people the courage and tools they need to do their work.

This is why it’s worth the risk.

What is your truth?

What is your soul silently screaming to say?

Your job is to keep digging, keep working until you find it. Then step into the darkness and share it. Be the next link in the chain for all of those who come after.

I could write a book-length article just relaying the horror stories of authors that have signed contracts with publishers that did not protect them adequately. Stories of abandoned manuscripts that authors can’t get the rights back to. No creative control over the projects. Screwed up publishing dates. And on and on.

It is important, whether you are working with an agent or not, that you ask enough questions so you completely understand what your publisher will and won’t be doing and what rights you have once you sign the contract. Also, anything that is even remotely important to you should be in writing in the contract before you sign anything.

In an effort to help you with this task, I reached out to a few of my expert friends to help me compile a list of questions that you should go over with your potential publisher before signing anything. This is probably not all of the questions you will want to ask, but it is my effort to make sure you don’t miss anything major.

Obvious caveat: I’m not a lawyer. I’m not an agent. Make sure you get both involved in this process.

That said, let’s jump in.

Publishing

Is there any cost for me to publish with you?

This answer should always be no. If you are paying to be published, you are not in a good situation. Paying for help publishing is common and fine, but you are at that point self-publishing. You should only be paying for services and not giving up any publishing or distribution rights. If a company wants you to pay them a fee to publish your book, you should be running the other way.

What examples of previous books like this have you published and how many copies did you sell?

You don’t want to be the first book your publisher has ever worked on in your genre. Ask to see other examples so you can judge the editing and design quality. Also, ask about sales and marketing efforts and the results.

What is the deadline for my manuscript?

If you are a first time novelist, you probably already have the manuscript done. Otherwise, make sure everyone agrees on this date ahead of time.

What happens if I don’t hit that deadline?

I once had a client say to me, “You know Tim. The publisher gives you a date your manuscript has to be done. But that’s not the real date. There’s really another secret date. But even that date isn’t real. There’s another super-secret drop-dead date that exist that they really don’t want to tell you about. That’s the date I shoot for.”

Obviously this is tongue-in-cheek, but it’s important to discuss with your publisher the ramifications of missing the due date for your manuscript.

Can I keep my audiobook rights?

You’ve decided to go with a traditional publisher for you print and ebook rights, but what about audio. Would you want to keep and self-publish the audiobook yourself? Is your publisher open to this?

What will my royalty rates be for the various editions? How is it calculated? What is the schedule of royalty payments once I have earned out my advance?

For most publishers, the royalty rates are locked and non-negotiable, but it's good to know what they are. Also, it's good to know when you can expect to be paid.

What’s the minimum royalty you’ll accept for international rights?

I don’t know a lot about international rights, but this question was given to me by one of the experts I asked. This is also something to go over with your agent and they should have some understanding of how it works. Joanna Penn also has a couple articles here and here about it.

Bottom line: Understand what your publisher is planning on doing with your book internationally and what kind of royalties they will be getting for international rights.

What happens if my editor leaves or is let go?

Often, if your acquiring editor leaves or if fired, your book becomes orphaned inside the publishing house. They contractually own the publishing rights to your book, but then they never actually publish the book.

Make sure you ask about this and follow up with questions like will my project be assigned to a new editor? Will I be let out of my contract? Will I need to pay back the advance?

Consider having a clause where the rights revert back to you if your book is not published within a certain, reasonable timeframe.

What happens if the book goes out of print or the publisher goes out of business?

Both of these are unlikely to happen. With the move to digital, most books are staying for sale forever. Also, publishers rarely go out of business. If it comes to that, they will sell their backlist to another publisher. However, it's still good to have in writing that the publishing rights will automatically revert back to you in both of these cases.

Manuscript and Production

It is important to remember that this is still your book even though the publisher has contracted the publishing rights. Make sure you understand everything that is going to go into the production of your manuscript.

What is the publishing date of my book?

At the time of signing the contract you may or may not have an exact date of publication, but they should be able to give you a ball park based on their production schedule and existing product line.

Who is editing my book and what projects have they worked on?

Similar to the above question, but now focused on your editor. You don’t want your book to be the first your editor has worked on. I recommend reading other books in your genre that your editor has worked on to make sure you are happy with the results.

Who is my development editor, copywriter, and proofreader? Will this be outsourced?

You will have multiple people working on your manuscript. Make sure you know who they will be, what their responsibilities are, and whether the people are in-house staff or outsourced.

Who is handling the audiobook?

There’s a couple different ways your publisher can handle the audiobook. First, they can sell the rights to a audiobook publisher who will take over the production and distribution of the book. This is similar to how foreign rights are handled. More and more though your publisher is doing this part themselves since the audiobook market is growing at a rapid pace and they’ll make more money producing it themselves.

Either way, you should know what their plans are.

Can I record my own audiobook?

If you are interested in doing the recording yourself, you need to ask for that up front. Otherwise, they could choose to not allow you to do this.

Who has final say on creative decisions?

This is probably where I’ve run into the most contention between authors and their publishers during the production of their book. Questions like these come up.

• How much input on my cover do I have?
• Are you designing the cover in house or outsourcing it?
• How much input do I have on the interior layout and design?

You’ll usually be hard pressed to get final say on any of these, but you can ask for input up front and make it known that you will want to be involved in the process.

Can I retain rights to trade dress?

This is another one I got from a friend of mine. I had to look up what “trade dress” means. Here’s the definition from Wikipedia:

“a legal term of art that generally refers to characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is a form of intellectual property.”

This is an important one.

Example: Who owns the copyright to the cover design of your new book?

If your publisher owns it, that means you need their permission to use the design. Sure, they’ll let you use it to promote the book. But what if you want to publish a workbook to go alongside your book? What if you want print it on a bunch of mugs and sell them at your speaking events? What if you want to sell a paid series of videos around your book?

These are one of those important questions that almost never gets asked but could easily come up in the future if you want to do something ancillary to your book.

What categories will my book be put in?

I have worked with authors that missed the Wall Street Journal bestseller list, even after selling enough copies to hit it, because their book was mis-categorized.

How many will you print on the first run?

Marketing and Promotion

The vast majority of the marketing and promotion will be your responsibility. However, your publisher is still a partner in the process. It’s important to be clear up front what they will and won’t do for you and to get it all in writing.

How many copies do they expect to sell in the first year?

This is an important conversation to have with your publisher. What are their plans for the book. What is a “win” for them? It’s nice to have a combined goal to reach towards.

How many copies do I need to sell to recoup my advance?

This will vary with print vs audio vs ebook, but it’s important to have a ballpark figure on how many copies you need to sell in order to earn out your advance and start earning royalties.

Has that publishing date been set with Amazon? The shipping department?

I had another client (different from above) that sold enough copies to hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller list but missed it because a guy in the shipping department put a date in wrong and books started shipping too early.

Make sure the publishing date is set correctly everywhere.

Who is my publicist?

You should have a publicist assigned to you that will help with promotion of the book. It’s important to find out who this is, what kind of resources they will put towards your book, and what exactly they will be doing.

How many galley/review copies will I get?

I’ve worked with multiple authors who did not ask this question and ended up getting twenty copies of their book to send out for reviews and promotion.

After that they had to pay the “author rate” for their own book which was always higher than what Amazon was selling it for. That means that the author had to pay just as much for their book as everyone else, even when they were buying them for promotional purposes.

Make sure it’s in writing that you will get enough review copies of your book. “Enough” is different for everyone, but I recommend starting at 100.

How much will I have to pay for copies of my own book?

See above. What are you going to have to pay for your own book after the initial batch of review copies.

Who is in charge of sending review copies out?

Your publicist should be able to help with this, but make sure to ask ahead of time. If you are responsible, you’ll need to get copies ASAP and plan to pay for packaging and shipping costs.

What percent of the book can I print and/or without additional permission?

This is another one that’s all over the map. I’ve had publishers allow the author to share half of the book. I’ve had publishers only allow the table of contents and first few pages.

How much money are they spending on marketing the book and can I see the marketing plan?

Again, you will be responsible for most of the marketing, but it is good to ask this ahead of time anyway. Make sure you get this in writing too. You will often get big promises before signing the contract that don’t ever materialize.

How will we communicate during the launch, to coordinate our efforts? Who will be my points of contact?

I have authors that literally couldn’t get anyone on the phone at their publisher a week after it came out. Ask ahead of time who will be your points of contact, what you can expect from them, and how best to communicate.

Also, let them know ahead of time that you will want at weekly updates of the sales figures. If you don't ask for this, it is a rare publisher that will go out of their way to give you sales figures. If they say they can't pull them weekly, they are lying to you. For their big A-listers they are getting daily sales reports so they can definitely get you weekly reports.

Do you have a problem if I completely rewrite the marketing copy (on Amazon, book flap)?

Most publishers are not going to mind if you have input on these things, but, again, it’s important to ask ahead of time.

What can I expect as far as in-store distribution? Will you be paying for co-op ads with B&N or any other retailers?

Again, this will vary greatly depending on the kind of deal you have made with your publisher. If you are a first time novelist getting a $5000 advance, the answer to these questions will probably be “none” and “no”. However, it’s good to ask anyway.

Can corporations get a special group rate?

This will be mainly non-fiction business books, but if you plan on selling bulk it’s good to see if you can get special pricing.

How much say will I have in the pricing of the book?

Again, the answer will probably be none, but it’s good to ask to see if there is wiggle room here.

Will you be willing to run price promotions from time to time?

Most publishers are now regularly running price promotions, especially for the digital versions of the book, but ask anyway.

It took me a long time to figure out my writer productivity.

Over the years I’ve tried all the apps and software and journals and pens and I’ve landed on the six tools that help me get the most creative and writing work done in the most efficient way.

The Writer Productivity Tool Categories

I use a lot of different tools to help me get more done, but for this list I picked six specific categories:

1. Todo List: How I keep track of all of my creative and non-creative projects. If I don’t have one place to store all my todos, my mind will never settle down enough to let me write.
2. Short Form Writing: The best tool for all of the writing I do that is 5000 words or less.
3. Long Form Writing: The best tool for writing my books.
4. Eliminating Distractions: The best thing I’ve found that gets rid of my biggest distraction from writing.
5. Idea Capture: A single place to store all of my ideas for future writing projects, both short and long form.
6. Motivation: What keeps me writing even when I really don’t want to.

I feel like this hits all of the important points. I keep track of my todos and writing ideas. I get rid of distractions. I increase my motivation. And I have a great place to actually do my writing.

Let’s get started.

1. Todo List:

The Autofocus System

I always start here.

I’ve read Getting Things Done and the Checklist Manifesto. I’ve tried a dozen different productivity journals. I’ve tried the apps that sync between your computer and phone and tablet. I’ve tried inboxes and outboxes, weekly checkins, and every other damn methodology.

There are two fundamental problems I run into with all of them:

1. They don’t work with certain types of tasks. If you put a big, complicated project down as a single todo, GTD falls apart. What about if you want to read a book or update your website or call a friend or just remind yourself to think about something? Every system I’ve tried wants you to break it down into tasks or label it or somehow process it. And that’s great, in theory, but we both know that we aren’t actually going to do that stuff. And then, when you don’t do that stuff, the system starts unraveling.
2. They don’t work if you stop using it for a few days (or weeks). Here’s the thing… the whole reason we need a productivity system is because we suck at being productive. So these systems that require you to process stuff every day or every week or start your day filling out this journal… it just isn’t going to last. I’m going to have a day or week or month where I don’t do it. Then what? You have to start all over. Keeping the system going becomes it’s own job and that's a major problem.

This is why I love the Autofocus system.

You can throw any task at it, and it takes good care of it. It doesn’t require you to break it down into next steps or label it or categorize it.

And my favorite part… if I completely drop the ball and ignore it for a month, I can come back to it and immediately pick up and keep using it. It’ll literally take me less than a minute to get it going again.

Plus, a big bonus… it’s free. All you need is a notebook and pen.

Here’s how to get started.

First, watch the creator of the Autofocus System, Mark Forster, talk about it:

Second, read the instructions.

The instructions are only three pages when you print it. If it takes 200 pages of a book to explain your method, it’s too complicated. Hell, Mark repeats himself in those instructions and it’s still only three pages.

2. Short Form Writing:

Bear

This is a newish Mac app and I have fallen in love. It’s everything you need in a short form writer. I’ve tried Byword, 1writer, Writeroom, and others. Bear is what I wanted all of those to be.

Here’s why I love it:

1. Easy syncing between machines. I started this article on my laptop and now I’m finishing it on my desktop. I’ll probably edit it on my phone. Bear keeps track of all of that automatically.
2. Full screen, distraction free writing. This isn’t unique to Bear, but it’s got it.
3. Tagging. I’m always working on new short form writing projects. Blog posts, long articles, notes on my novel, rough drafts of chapters in my books, short stories, etc. This is the first app to make it a breeze to organize all of that simply by tagging.
4. Markdown. I love the formatting options for Bear. It makes it easy to write while being compatible with any kind of export that I need.

It has other great features, but these are the ones that I love.

Click here to check out Bear.

3. Long Form Writing:

Scrivener

Here’s the thing… I don’t love Scrivener.

It’s big and complicated and has way too many features for the type of writing I do. However, it’s still currently the best option for long form writing (books). Yes, I’ve tried Ulysses and I just couldn’t make the switch.

If someone could figure out an app like Scrivener but without all the hassle, I would switch in a heartbeat.

Click here to check out Scrivener.

4. Eliminating Distractions:

News Feed Eradicator and 1Password

My one and only online distraction from my writing is Facebook. Specifically, the Facebook news feed. As much as I rant and rave against social media, I am addicted to my news feed.

And yet, I have not seen my news feed in over three months even though I am on Facebook every day.

I do have to be on Facebook because I am a member of several groups that I participate in regularly. I easily keep my time in those to a minimum. It was always the news feed that sucked me in.

So I took two actions.

First, I installed the News Feed Eradicator. This allows you to visit Facebook and browse your friends, groups, etc without ever seeing your news feed (requires Chrome) (here’s a Safari version).

Second, I logged out of Facebook on my phone. Then, changed my password to something long and complicated that I can’t memorize. Then, I turned on 2-factor authentication inside of Facebook. Then I stored

that long password inside of the 1Password app. So, as of now, logging into Facebook on my phone is so annoying and complicated that I just don’t bother figuring it out.

If Facebook is your distraction, I recommend giving this a try. If Twitter (or something else) is, there is an app for that.

Figure out your system and then eliminate those distractions.

5. Idea Capture:

iOS Notes

I used to use Evernote for this and it’s still a great solution if you don’t like the Notes app. However, ever since Apple finally got their syncing working the right way, I find it’s easier to use their builtin Notes app.

I keep a single Note with a running list of ideas for all of my writing. Whether I’m on my computers or my phone, I can easily open up the app and add something else to it.

My criteria for this app is that it’s a) fast to open and b) syncs across all my devices. I want to easily drop a new idea into the list whenever something pops into my head.

6. Motivation:

Public Accountability

So the way I do this is not easily duplicatable.

Two years ago I started the Story Grid Podcast with veteran editor and author Shawn Coyne. The concept is built around Shawn teaching me how to become a better writer. In order to do this, I have to actually write.

This means, if I don’t get my writing done, we don’t have anything to record for the podcast and I’m embarrassed in front of Shawn and our thousands of listeners.

While, yes, you could start a podcast following along with your writing (more authors should probably be doing this), it’s not practical for everyone to do.

However, you can create an environment where you have public accountability to get your writing done. Whether it’s joining a writing group or posting daily word counts to Twitter, the idea is to create some sort of external motivation for those days when you just don’t want to sit down and write.

What are Your Favorite Writer Productivity Tools?

Keep in mind that the best tool is the one that actually keeps you writing.

I’d love to hear what you’re using to keep your butt in the seat and fingers on the keyboard.

Click here to let me know on Facebook or Twitter.

How do I get my writing done, build my author platform, and continue to fulfill all the other responsibilities I have as a husband, dad, business owner (and person)?

In this article, I’m going to explain in exact terms how I get a ton of work done each week in a very small amount of time.

Because despite a high level of output, I usually only work about 30 hours a week.

I’m going to give you specific advice on how you can accomplish a huge amount, even if you have limited time each week to work on your writing.

The 3 Part Writer Productivity Plan

For a while now, I've had a full-time business to run that keeps me very busy.

When I first started writing, I knew that even though I didn't have the constraints of a full-time job, I still had to figure out how to get my writing done while meeting the demands of the rest of my life.

Here’s the framework I created. You can use it to build your own productivity plan.

It’s a three-part system that's simple and easy to use:

• The Mindset – You must get your thinking straight first.
• The Schedule – You have to figure out the when before the what.
• The Plan – You must decide what you’re going to get done, before you start working.

Each part is built upon the one before it, so read all of this information straight through to the end.

1. The Mindset

As with everything, we have to establish the right mindset before we can start talking about strategy and tactics.

Don’t skip this part. If you think you don’t need to read this section, then you should skip this entire article.

I have some basic productivity beliefs and habits that help me make decisions quickly — and stay sane in the face of a never-ending deluge of To-Do tasks:

1. Ruthlessly cut out all distractions and unproductive actions.

I can get more done in one 30-hour work week than most people get done in a month, because of how I work:

During my writing time, I’m hyper-focused and avoid distractions like the plague.

No social media. No emails. All chat programs turned off. I put on earphones, and put my phone in my bag.

I am ruthless on this point. You need to be too.

2. It’s more about what you don’t do.

There are lots of ways to be active and busy, but very few ways to be active and effective.

It’s extremely important that you learn the difference between busy and effective, and are honest with yourself about it.

Learn what actions are actually moving you toward your goals, and then only work on those items.

3. Figure out your values and goals ahead of time.

A good productivity system organizes only those actions that are built upon your values and goals.

If you don’t know why you’re doing something — finishing your manuscript, building your email list, landing guest posting opportunities, etc. — then you’ll constantly feel frustrated about your life as an author.

I’m going to ask you to do some hard work in this article, and unless you have a solid Why motivating you, you won’t be able to follow through.

If you need help in that area, I go much deeper into that topic in this article.

4. Your productivity system should be simple.

While I can appreciate productivity systems such as Getting Things Done (GTD), most of them are too complicated to apply to real life.

All the successful people I know and work with have very simple systems for tracking their actions and getting things done.

5. I don’t try to be perfect, track everything, or keep everybody happy.

I receive anywhere from 100 to 150 emails a day.

Though I try respond to all of them, it's inevitable that I’m going to miss an important email every now and again.

I’m also going to forget to do some things, not finish my To Do list for the day, and a commit a few other errors and losses.

I deal with my lack of perfection by accepting it ahead of time, giving myself grace and forgiveness, and moving on.

6. Don't make excuses.

Some of the things I do, you might not be able to do, but don’t use that as an excuse.

Use your imagination, embrace the principles you can use, and apply them to your situation.

If you find yourself thinking:

“Yeah that’s great for him, but I can’t do that because __________________.”

STOP, capture that thought and turn it into:

“I can’t do that, but I could try _________________ instead.”

7. Ambiguity is the enemy of productivity.

My most unproductive times are when I sit down to work and don’t know what I should be working on.

This is when my time gets filled with checking email or reading blogs.

I do everything I can to ensure that every time I sit down to work, I know what I should be working on next, so I don’t waste time, frittering away my precious few hours of work time.

–

Once you have your mindset properly in place, you can move on to Part 2:

2. The Schedule

Your work schedule is the second most important thing to establish.

You must know exactly when you are going to work and what type of work you’ll be able to get done during those hours.

If you start each week “hoping” you’ll get some time to write, you’ll end each week having written far less than you could have.

Here’s a look at my weekly schedule:

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday

• 4:15 am: Awake and making coffee.

• 4:15 – 5:00 am: Reading/Prayer/Meditation

• 5:15 am: Get to my office (3.1 miles from my house).

• 5:15 – 8:45 am: Do creative work for the day such as writing, planning and online course content (more on that below). Other people don’t usually arrive at my office until 8:30 am, which leaves me with more than three hours of quiet, uninterrupted creative time.

• 8:45 am: Go back home.

• 9:00 – 11:30 am: Do homeschool with my two sons, Conner (9) and Max (6).

• 11:30 – 11:45 am: Pack up, get my workout clothes, kiss the family goodbye, and head back to the office.

• 12:00 – 4:15 pm: Back at my office. Focus on non-creative work: answering emails, making phone calls, and other “running a business” chores. If it’s not too busy and I can concentrate, I’ll try to get more creative work done, but it’s usually a stretch to manage that.

• 4:15 pm: Pack up, change into workout clothes, and leave for the gym (.5 miles from my office).

• 4:30 – 5:30 pm: Do CrossFit at my gym.

• 5:30 – 9:30 pm: Go home, shower, have dinner, have family time, go to bed.

Tuesday

This year my family joined a homeschool group, which threw a monkey wrench into my Tuesdays.

However, I re-worked my schedule to ensure it accommodated the homeschooling first (#3 in my Mindset principles: My kids are more important than my work) and still covered all the work bases.

• 4:15 am: Awake and making coffee.

• 4:15 – 5:00 am: Reading/Prayer/Meditation

• 5:00 – 7:00 am: Creative work at home.

• 7:00 – 8:30 am: Get the kids up and ready for homeschool group. Get myself ready.

• 8:30 am: Go to the office.

• 8:45 am – 12:30 pm: Focus on non-creative work: emails, phone calls, run-my-business tasks, creative work if possible.

• 12:30 pm: Pack up and drive to homeschool group for afternoon session with Conner.

• 1:00 – 3:00 pm: Homeschool group.

• 3:15pm: Leave for the gym. (Conner’s swim practice starts at 4:00 pm and, conveniently, is at the same gym as my CrossFit workout.)

• 3:30 – 4:15 pm: Get a bit of work done (usually email) while waiting for my 4:30 CrossFit class to start.

• 4:30 – 5:30 pm: Do CrossFit at my gym.

• 5:30 – 9:30 pm: Home, shower, dinner, family time, bed.

Friday – Sunday

No official work schedule.

I usually sleep in on Fridays to recover from lack of sleep Monday through Thursday. I hang out with the family and get house projects done.

I usually also get some work done (I’m writing the draft of this post on a Saturday afternoon while the boys play Wii), but Friday through Sunday is very fluid.

I never officially plan on getting anything done, so I won’t be disappointed if that happens.

The point of sharing all this? To demonstrate that as a writer, I live a very regimented life.

For the most part, every week looks exactly the same as the last.

This does a couple things for me:

1. It makes it easier to plan. I know exactly how much creative time I have each week, which helps me know how much work I can get done in a week. If you don’t have your writing/creative time set in stone, it’s impossible to be consistent with it.
2. It deletes on-the-spot decision-making. Decision fatigue is real. Having a set schedule, and a basic idea of what you’re working on for each hour of that schedule, keeps you from having to make a lot of decisions every day.

“What if I can’t follow a set schedule?”

I realize that not everyone can have such a regimented schedule. You might be a new parent, or at the whim of a very busy day job.

Not too long ago, that was me too.

So what can you do?

1. Get up early.

It’s amazing how few distractions there are at 4:30 am. No co-workers. No phone calls. No new emails.

Just you, a cup of coffee and the blank page.

For those of you moaning about getting up early in the morning: See #3 under Mindset.

If you have a vision for what you are trying to accomplish, you can get up to accomplish it.

I do not naturally wake up at 4:00 am. Every single morning, it’s a struggle.

But when that alarm goes off, I focus on my Why and force my feet to the floor.

2. Put a Writing Meeting on the calendar.

When I was trying to write Your First 1000 Copies, I struggled to find time to write.

I had a very busy client business and was averaging five hours a day on the phone. There seemed to be no time to write—until I started scheduling it into my calendar.

I would create a meeting on my calendar called “Writing.” This would block off that time so that nothing else could get in the way.

If someone asked to meet with me during that time, I would say I was busy, and would offer an alternate time.

That kept me from putting the writing off indefinitely.

3. Cut down your consumption. Think about how much time you spend consuming other people's creativity (television, reading, music, movies), versus how much time you spend doing your own creating.

Scott Berkun talked about this at a conference I attended last year.

This topic is strongly related to productivity, and the talk is well worth watching:

Stop watching so much TV and go to bed (see Point #1).

Install the News Feed Eradicator so you'll stop checking Facebook. Even better, delete the social media apps from your phone.

Stop consuming other people’s creativity (or social media drivel) and order your life around your creativity.

4. Create a “Do Not Do” list.

People are often surprised by the number of things I don’t do.

Here’s a short list of what I don't spend time on:

• Facebook (except for a couple of groups I’m a member of)
• Twitter (except for responding to people who reach out to me)
• Pinterest
• Instagram (except for posting pictures of my kids)
• Printing business cards. I don’t have any.
• Printing any other materials other than my book. No stationery, no bookmarks, etc. I’ve just never seen the ROI on these for what I do.
• Blogging more than once or twice a month
• Commenting on other people's blogs
• Reading that many blogs in the first place
• Reading/watching any news outside of the particular industry news that's relevant to my business goals

Your writing and creativity time is priceless. Don’t waste it on non-impactful work.

This part of the system is vital, whether or not you’re a full-time writer:

Plan out your work schedule ahead of time.

If you already have a full-time job that requires you to get up at 6:00 am, start turning off the television at 9:00 pm, so you can get up at 4:45 am and write the next morning.

And take your laptop to work so you can put your ear buds in and get another 750 words written at lunchtime.

If I called you on a Sunday night, you should be able to list out the days and hours each week when, barring a catastrophe, you butt will be on your writing chair.

3. The Plan

The Plan is the third component in this system.

Now that you know when you are going to get work done, you have to figure out what work you will be filling that time with.

As I've stated above, it's best to never sit down to work without first knowing what you are going to work on.

However, you have to start with the long view first.

Planning the next 3 to 6 months

This is my calendar: three calendar months, laid out right in front of me where I can see it every day.

I pre-plan every single blog post, email list send, and webinar, three months ahead of time.

What do you want to have written three to six months from now? How many words?

How many people do you want to add to your email list by then?

What are you going to do to make that happen?

Setting out my expectations for the next few months keeps me consistently moving on to the next step.

Planning the next week

Before I plan a week's activities, I ask: What needs to get done this week so that I  stay on my three-to-six-month schedule?

This is where I plan when to do my “big rocks” — so I can fulfill my greatest priorities.

Watch this video:

For example, this week I need to:

• Write two blog posts
• Outline a new course I’m building
• Put together a slide presentation I’m giving at a conference on Friday

Planning the next day

Now that I know the big things that have to be done this week — and I know when I’ll have creative time available to work on them — I can schedule each day.

Tomorrow, I’ll write the blog post and get started on my slideshow for my conference presentation on Friday.

I chose those two things because they have to be done so that I can keep to my three-to-six-month schedule.

I’ll save the product planning until later in the week, because if something happens and I can’t get to it, it won't mean failure for my long-term plan.

I do this every single day.

Before I go to bed at night, I know what I’m going to work on first thing the next day (see #7 of Mindset).

–

By following this three-part system, you’ll make sure you're using your precious creative time to get the most important work done.

When your writer productivity goes down in flames

“No plan survives contact with the enemy.”
– Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Even though I've laid out a solid, rigid plan above, of course it doesn’t always survive real life.

Your plan will not stay 100 percent intact.

Your kid is going to get sick. You’ll oversleep.

Your boss will make you stay late. Your editor will run two weeks late.

Or you will just plain feel unmotivated or discouraged and procrastinate your day away.

Here’s what I do when my plan starts unraveling:

1. Give myself grace. It really is OK. It doesn’t make me a disgrace or failure. It doesn’t mean I’ll never succeed. It just means that, for today, my plan didn’t work out.
2. Realize I’m still getting more done. While today may be a wreck, on a week-by-week, month-by-month basis, I’m still getting way more done with this system then I did in the past.
3. Stop, readjust and start again. If I just lose an hour by oversleeping, I can usually catch up. But if I get the flu and am out for two days, I need to take a few minutes to pause, rework my plan, and then get back on my schedule.

Now is the time

You can do this.

If you’ve struggled in the past to get your writing done and move toward your goals, give this system a try.

The Writer Productivity Framework

We need to start by categorizing the things we spend time on. I split all the things I do into four groups:

• Unessential – These are the things that fill up our lives but don’t have to be there. Watching television, checking social media, playing ultimate frisbee, etc. We do these for fun or pleasure.
• Essential – The things we have to do with our lives but aren’t the creative endeavors that are meaningful. Things like driving our kids to school, going to work, paying bills, going to the restroom, and exercising. We have to do these things to keep our lives running.
• Meaningful – These are things like having dinner with your family, taking your spouse on a date, or volunteering at the homeless shelter. These are things we do to add meaning and fulfillment to our lives.
• Creative – These are your writing projects and other endeavors that are fulfilling to your soul. These are want we want to spend more time doing.

The goal of this article is to free up as much time and space as possible for the Meaningful and Creative parts of our lives.

Looking at these four groups, it’s pretty easy to see that we want to have more time for the Meaningful and Creative. This means to increase our writer productivity we have to:

• Remove the Unessential – Identify and reduce the amount of time and activities in the “Unessential” category.

• Systematize Repeated Tasks – Figure out ways to make the Essential items in your life take less time and mental energy.

If we’re able to do this, our lives will immediately and automatically become richer because we will have more time for the Meaningful and Creative activities in our lives. Let’s start here:

First, Remove the Unessential

We all have things in our life that are filling up time but not getting us any closer to our goals in life.

I want to be clear here… these things aren’t bad. Nothing in this article is meant to be a moral judgement on you or what you spend your time doing.

However, if you want to increase your writer productivity, that time has to come from somewhere. Let’s take a look at two different ways to start making changes.

Exercise 1: Choose to Choose

Somehow in our culture the phrase “I’m too busy” has become both ubiquitous and a badge of honor. We do all have a lot going on. It takes a lot of time to actually live a life.

However, what I hate about the phrase “I’m too busy” is that it inherently shifts the responsibility for our schedule off of us.

We all have a huge amount of autonomy when it comes to our lives. There are very, very few things that we have to do. Yet, we complain that we are “too busy” as if these choices were made for us.

The first step in your writer productivity is by mentally taking back control of your schedule.

You do this with one simple mental switch.

Any time you think:

“I’m too busy to ________”

You must replace it with:

“I have chosen not to prioritize _______”.

You aren’t too busy to exercise. You’ve chosen not to prioritize that over the things you currently do in your life.

But you must remember, this is not a moral judgement. Because I could also say, “You aren’t too busy to spend the entire day writing because you have chosen to prioritize paying your mortgage.”

Some of what you spend your time on is binge watching the new season of your favorite show. But then you also spend your time visiting your mother in the nursing home.

Your job at this first stage is NOT too:

• Moralize. You are not to justify your choices or shame yourself for your choices. You just watch as an impartial observer.
• Make changes. The first part is to merely notice how many times you complain in your head (or out loud) about being too busy, and then take back ownership by replacing it with “I have chosen not to prioritize.”

The first step in writer productivity is NOT to make any outwards changes, but to merely decide that you are in control and recognize that what you are currently spending your time on, you have chosen to spend your time on. Once you have done this, we can start taking action.

Exercise 2: Stop Doing Everything

Several years ago I installed a tracker on my computer. It was this little piece of software that ran in the background and logged everything I did. It kept track of how long I was in my email, getting work done for clients, writing, or browsing the internet. It also kept track of all the websites I visited and how long I spent on them.

At the end of the week it gave me a report. I was able to see just how much time I was spending on various activities during the day and I was appalled. A huge chunk of my day was being eaten up by activities that didn’t actually help me reach my goals.

Suddenly it became extremely easy to block those distracting websites and uninstall those useless programs on my computer once I saw clearly how much time I was wasting on them.

Now that you’ve taken the step of owning your decision on what’s in your life (Exercise 1), it’s time to actually evaluate what you have chosen to spend your time on.

This is an exercise that you will need a writing utensil and a piece of paper for.

I recommend you do this exercise right now. It will take about five minutes.

1. List out everything that you do in a day. All of it. Get as granular as you can. Here’s an example of a partial list I might create:
   
2. Circle everything that is Essential. Here is my criteria for what is Essential: First, you would die or get extremely sick if you didn’t do it. i.e. going to the restroom or taking your medication. Second, it is an extremely important obligation. i.e. going to work or taking your kids to school. Watching TV is not  Essential. Reading the news is not Essential. Having coffee with my friends is not Essential.
   
3. Cross out everything else left on the list.
   
4. Live like this for five days. For one work week, Monday through Friday, only do the circled items.
5. Each day of the exercise, journal about what it feels like to live like this.
6. After five days, evaluate. Decide what crossed out things you will add back in, and what should stay out permanently. Some of the things you lived without for five days you’ll want to keep out permanently. Did you enjoy not being on social media or reading the news? And other crossed out things you will add back in, but you will do it decisively. You will decide you want to do these things instead of passively letting them creep back into your life.
7. Do this exercise once a year. Resistance is insidious. It is slow but deliberate. Like the ivy that is beautifully and slowly growing around a tree and choking the life out of it. You must regularly reevaluate what you are spending your time on and where it is going.

It’s important to remember that I am not saying that you have to live like this forever. I watched a movie with my wife last night and I’m still getting my writing done this morning.

This is meant to shock you out of the belief that you are too busy.

This is a practice to use when your life is filling up with things and your writing productivity is getting pushed out the back door.

Also, it’s extremely important you don’t merely mentally do this exercise. You need to actually do it.

You need to feel what it’s like to be sitting on the coach at 8:00pm staring at the floor because you have nothing to do because you have not filled your life with the Unessential.

It is in those moments that you will realize that you are not too busy to be creative.

Taking one week to stop doing everything that is Unessential is the exercise that will ruthlessly open your eyes to where your time is going and it will be much easier to keep your life free of these distractions.

These two simple exercises — Choose to Choose and Stop Doing Everything — will help you start Removing the Unessential from your life.

But what about all those Essential things like taking the dog to the vet and eating lunch that we have to do but aren’t the Meaningful and Creative aspects of our life?

That leads to the second part…

Second, Systematize and Automate the Essential

Let’s pretend that your ability to focus, make good decisions, and do great work is like a bottle. Each morning you wake up with a bottle full of the ability to focus, make good decisions, and do great work. However, every single time you make a decision or have to focus or work on something, you pour a little bit out of the bottle.

Throughout the day, levels in the bottle get lower and lower and this means it’s harder to focus, make good decisions, and do great work.

Once your bottle is empty for the day, you’re done until the next morning.

This is how your brain works.

Every time you have to apply mental energy to something, you give up a little bit of your ability to apply mental energy to something else later in the day.

There are ways to increase the amount that your bottle can hold — get good sleep being the main one — but in general it’s hard to increase your capacity.

The best way to make sure that you can focus, make good decisions, and do great work is to reduce the amount of things that you have to expend mental energy on.

You do this by taking all of the Essential things in your life — the things you have to do but aren’t Meaningful or Creative — and reducing how much you have to actually think about them.

There are two exercises for this:

Exercise #3: Make Future Decisions

I like to start with this question: “What one decision can I make today that will reduce the amount of future decisions I have to make?”

Here are three examples:

1. I wear the same basic outfit every single day. I have eight different colored t-shirts, two pairs of pants, and three pairs of shoes. All of them match each other. So each morning when I’m getting ready to leave, I don’t have to think about what I’m wearing. I just grab a tshirt, pair of pants, and pair of shoes and I’m ready to go. I made a decision years ago about what I wear to work every day and then I don’t have to make a decision each morning.
2. I have to cook breakfast for my kids every morning. We decide on Sunday, when we go to the grocery, what they want for breakfast that week. I buy enough for the entire week and I cook the same thing for them every day. I decide once a week what my kids will have for breakfast and then I don’t have to decide (or help them to decide) every day.
3. Lunch has always been an issue for me. I hate thinking ahead and packing a lunch. But then I either end of not eating lunch or picking up something unhealthy from a fast food place. Eventually, I found a meal preparation service that delivers to my gym. So each Monday I get lunches delivered to my gym for the entire week. I take them to my office, put them in the fridge, and now I don’t have to think about lunches any more. They automatically show up every single week. I decided once how to handle my lunches and now I never have to decide anymore.

The more I identify ways to make one decision today that saves future decisions, the less I have to expend mental energy thinking about, focusing, and deciding on the Essential (but not Meaningful and Creative) items in my life.

Exercise #4: Systematize Repeated Tasks

Here’s the trigger question:

“What Essential actions am I doing repeatedly?”

Then:

“How do I remove thinking from the process?” or, even better, “How do I remove myself from the process?

Anytime you find yourself doing an essential task repeatedly, think about ways to reduce the mental load of the process or completely automate the process.

First, Remove Thinking

The first step here is to focus on creating checklists.

Anything that you have to do repeatedly that has more than a few steps should be turned into a checklist.

Each week I have to edit and publish the Story Grid Podcast. It had become a huge pain for me. It would take a lot of time and I would always forget one of the fifty steps it took to get everything ready. Finally, I created a checklist. I sat down and typed out every single step in detail that has to be done to edit and publish a podcast episode. Now, I don’t have to think about it or try to remember all the steps. I just sit down and run through the checklist. It now takes less than fifteen minutes and I don’t have to think about it and, most importantly, I never miss a step.

I do something similar when I’m packing my gym bag before leaving for work. Every day I need the same seven things in my bag:

• Shorts
• Spandex
• T-shirt
• Socks
• Shoes
• Towel
• Washcloth

Inevitably, I would forget one of these things. Twice I arrived at the gym and realized I didn’t have my workout shoes and couldn’t workout that day.

So I keep the number “seven” in my head.

Everyday I pack my bag, and then I count how many things I have in the bag.

At least one morning a week I have less than seven things and it forces me to stop and figure out what I haven’t packed yet.

This allows me to mindlessly pack my bag knowing I have a system in place to catch myself if I forget something.

Anytime that you are doing a complex task (more than 3 steps), you should create a checklist.

Second, Remove Yourself

Are there any of these tasks that you can completely move off of your todo list by making it someone else’s responsibility?

The best way to do this is to hire someone.

Spending money to save yourself time is one of the few ways you can use money to make yourself measurably happier ¹.

If you have created a checklist for a task, there is a good chance that you could hire someone to do that task for you.

Could you pay someone to clean your house or pickup groceries or move your blog draft from Word to WordPress? What kind of Essential tasks are you doing repeatedly? Could you move them completely out of your life by hiring someone else to do them for you?

Where does this leave your writer productivity?

I want my life to be filled as much as possible with Meaningful experiences and Creative work. The only way to do that is to remove the Unessential and reduce the time and mental overhead of the Essential.

Please hear me when I say that the Unessential/Essential items are not evil and the goal is to not completely rid your life of them.

Over the last weekend I binge watched an entire season of a television show in two days. I also checked in on social media from time to time. The focus of these exercises is to make sure that these things don’t creep so far into our life that they choke out the Meaningful and Creative moments.

Our goal is to create as much time as possible for our writing productivity. Follow the steps above and you will be surprised by how much creative time you start experiencing in your life.

You have the opportunity to reach the greatest amount of people with the lowest barrier to entry than ever before.

You can publish an ebook that is immediately available across the world on a marketplace where 95% of books are sold. And you don’t need anyone to give you permission or access. You just sign up and do it.

And yet, there are still traditional publishers. They sign and sell a lot of books. And really smart, business savvy authors continue to sign on with them.

So in this world of opportunity, when it comes down to deciding between self-publishing your book and traditionally publishing your book, how do you make the decision? What are the pros and cons? What are you gaining and losing with each option?

In this article, I’m going to outline clearly each step of the decision and how to know which is right for you. I’m also going to point out some common misconceptions and missteps you may run into along the way.

So, let’s get started.

Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

This seems like a logical place to start. In many forums and blogs, people extol the virtues of self-publishing. I’ve even self-published two of my own books. So that leaves us with this question, what’s the good and the bad of self-publishing?

Pros:

• Complete control over your project: You get to write the book you want to write. Edit it the way you want to edit it. Pick whatever book cover you want, etc. You’re the boss. You’ve signed zero rights away, so you get to make all the decisions.
• Keep all the money: Here’s another big one. You get to keep all the royalties. You’re no longer giving up 85% of the money to the publisher. It all comes into your pocket.
• Marketing and pricing freedom: This could have gone under the “complete control” point above, but it’s important to make it separate. If you want to give your book away, you can give it away. If you want to run price specials, then you can do that too. There’s zero bureaucracy to go through for pricing and marketing choices. A friend of mine had hard data proof that giving away big chunks of his book turned into more book sales, and it still took him two years to get permission from his publisher to do this.

Cons:

• Complete control over your project: You have to make all the decisions for your book. You have to find, vet, and hire an editor. You have to find, vet, and hire a cover designer and an interior designer. And you will need an ebook conversion person. And you have to pay all of them yourself. This can be daunting.
• No infrastructure: You don’t have a stable network of people around your book that “do this for a living.” You don’t have distribution channels you can leverage. There’s no network of other authors to tap into. You’re on your own.
• Mistakes: You’re going to make mistakes. Yes, publishers make plenty of mistakes too. There are tons of horror stories. But you’ve never done this before, which means you’re going to make a lot more mistakes. When I was working with my designer for the cover of Your First 1000 Copies, I had sent it to the printer before I realized the words on the spine were facing the wrong way. This is one of the dozens of mistakes that plagued the book. Each one arose simply because I had never published a book before.
• No advance: I hesitated to even add this one, because the odds of you getting any kind of significant advance on your book is really, really low, but you could potentially be giving up an advance by self-publishing. Just keep in mind, the check you get is an “advance against royalties.” You don’t actually get paid again for your book sales until you have earned out.

Now on to traditional publishing…

Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing

Pros:

• Infrastructure and community: Have you wondered how those first-time published authors are getting all those high-end blurbs on their books? That’s because their agent and/or editor connected them to other authors in their circles. Plus, you have a company behind you that repeatedly and systematically publishes lots of books. You’ll get an editor, designer, etc. all assigned to your project. Plus, you’ll have certain distribution opportunities that are really hard to get for self-published books.

Cons:

• You give up control: You no longer own the rights to your book. And while depending on your contract, you may have some say in what goes on, the publisher makes the ultimate decisions. And remember, you are one author among hundreds for your publisher. Your book is not as important to them as it is to you.
• Marketing and pricing: There’s a reason your publisher wants to know more about your author platform than about your book. The marketing is going to be completely up to you, especially if you are a new author. You will get very little support here, but you will have your hands tied on what you can do. There will be a lot of restrictions about what you can share from the book and how you can price the book. Plus, you will probably have to buy copies of your own book to give away.
• Money: Your publisher will keep most of the money that ever comes in from your book. Your royalties will be roughly 15% of print and 25% of digital.

Now that we’ve looked at the pros and cons of each, let me share this with you…

The #1 Mistake Most Authors Make

Before I dive into how to make this decision, let me share with you the biggest misstep authors make when approaching this decision.

Most authors make this an emotional decision.

Here are two scenarios…

You have wanted to be published your whole life. You’ve been writing since you can remember and have dreamed about walking into a bookstore and seeing your shiny new book on the book shelves. Maybe, I don’t know, one day, if it really works out, you’ll hit the New York Times bestseller list.

The path to bookstores and bestseller fame looks like this…

1. Work on your craft.
2. Get an agent.
3. Pitch to publishers.
4. Get a manuscript picked up by a publisher.
5. Sell a ton of books in bookstores and reach bestsellerdom.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. We all know this. Any amount of light research will prove this.

You’ll spend a long time desperately pitching agents that are getting too many pitches. Once you finally get one, they probably won’t be able to sell your first, second, or third manuscript. Once they finally do, you’ll get a $5,000 advance, zero marketing support, and almost zero distribution in physical bookstores. If you really bust your butt and get your book to sell, they might pick up your next manuscript, and you might get light distribution in stores. But it’ll quickly get pulled if fans aren’t showing up in the stores and buying your book.

And the odds of hitting the NYT list are really, really low.

Here’s my question…

Are you pursuing traditional publishing because you want the personal validation of being “chosen” by the establishment? Are you waiting for that to prove to yourself that you’re a “real” writer?”

If so, you’re setting yourself up for disaster and disappointment.

Here’s scenario number two…

You’ve done your research. You’ve read the blogs. You’ve followed those famous self-published authors.

Traditional publishing sucks. They’re a bunch of greedy monsters trying to get rich off the back of hard-working authors like you.

Screw them. You can do this yourself.

So you write your first draft. You edit it a few times and decide it’s ready to go.

It’s pretty simple, right?

1. Get it edited.
2. Get it laid out for print.
3. Design a cover.
4. Convert it to digital.
5. Upload it to Amazon.
6. Sit back and watch the sales come in.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Instead, it often looks more like this…

You’re light on cash, so you try to get a friend of a friend who’s an English grad student to edit your manuscript for you. The results… aren’t great. So you scrape together some cash and hire a real editor with real credentials. They once even edited one of Stephen King’s books!

But, whoops, they find a bunch of problems in your book. So now you have to go back and fix those problems and pay the editor more money to help you rework it and get it ready for primetime.

Alright, it’s taken a few months and money you didn’t want to spend, but now you have a Word document that’s 100% ready to go.

Get ready… because now you have to get the book formatted for print. Do you know Adobe Indesign? And then you need a great cover. A cover is important. You play around with a few things and realize pretty quickly that you don’t know what you’re doing. So now you have to save up some more money and try to find a graphic designer that is inexpensive but can still put together a killer cover for your book.

I could keep going… but you get the idea.

There’s a reason why plenty of successful self-published authors sign on with publishers. Self-publishing is like running a small business. And you have to ask yourself if you are ready for that.

PLEASE avoid making an emotional decision either way. You have worked hard on your manuscript, and you want to build a solid writing career that allows you to keep writing.

Now is the time to put emotion aside, look strictly at your goals and the facts, and make the best decision for your book.

Here’s how…

Step 1: Start with Self-publishing

I believe every author with every new book should default to “I am going to self-publish.”

Here’s why…

I currently own a year old Toyota Prius. I’ve paid for it, taken care of it… it’s mine. And it’s worth something. It has value.

If I wanted to sell it, I would first assess the value of the car, then find someone that was willing to pay that value.

I would not start desperately looking for anyone that wanted a car and then, once I found someone willing to take it, accept whatever they offered me.

That’s crazy, right?

Yet that’s how so many authors approach getting their book published.

They’ve poured their heart and soul into this manuscript. They’ve created something of value. This is their intellectual property.

But then they run around trying to get anyone to take it. And once someone decides to take it, they accept any amount or form of payment.

Intellectual property is one of the most valuable things you can create and own. If you are willing to give that ownership up to someone else, you need to get something in return.

Otherwise, just like my Prius, I’ll just keep it and keep using it myself.

So, my advice is this…

Start from the place of keeping ownership and control of your project.

If you are going to give up ownership and control of your project, make sure you know what are you getting in return.

Step 2: Assess Your Values

Here are some questions to think about. I suggest writing our your answers on a sheet of paper.

How important is moving quickly?
If you got a book contract today, it would probably be at least nine months until your book is for sale. Usually, it’s more like 18 months. If you don’t have an agent yet, you’re looking at two years.

If you want to publish quickly, then self-publishing is your only path.

How important is ownership/control?
If you want to call all of the shots from cover design to pricing to marketing, then self-publishing is the way to go.

However, traditional publishers will take care of all of that for you from editing the manuscript to designing your cover. You won’t have as much control, but you also won’t have to do it all.

There are horror stories on both sides of the fence, so ignore those as outlier situations. The real question is this… are you most comfortable having someone else take care of the details, even if you’re not 100% thrilled with the final results? Or do you want to make sure everything is exactly the way you want it, and you’re willing to do the work to make that happen?

The former is traditional publishing, the latter is self-publishing.

How much money do you have to spend on this project?
If your goal is to just get your book on Amazon, you can do that for free.

However, if you want a book that is on par with a traditionally published book, it’s going to take an investment. A friend of mine did this and it cost him $12,000. Of course, it doesn’t have to cost that much, but editing, interior and cover design, digital conversion, etc. all add up.

How much money do you have to invest in your project?

A traditional publisher will take care of all of the upfront costs in publishing a professional looking book. However, your royalty rates will be much lower than self-publishing. On the flip side, self-publishing will have a significant upfront cost in order to publish a high-quality product, but the long term royalties are much higher.

How important is validation within the industry?
You can read all the articles about the empowerment of self-publishing, but you may have always dreamed of being published inside the traditional publishing industry. I completely understand and validate that.

My next book is probably going to be through a publisher, and I catch myself dreaming about the bestseller lists even though I know all the games that go on behind the scenes. If this is what you want, then go for it. Who am I to say that this shouldn’t be important to you?

How important is distribution to you and your project?
You can get distribution into bookstores as a self-published author with tools like Ingram Spark, but it is much harder to do. Also, the odds of major chains picking up your book are extremely low. There is limited shelf space and traditional publishers have teams of sales people selling into that shelf space. I will say, unless your book gets picked up by a major chain such as Walmart or Target, even with wide distribution into stores like Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, etc, over 90% of your sales will still come from Amazon. The odds of bookstores stocking your book if you’re traditionally published are low but not zero. The odds if you're self-published are basically zero.

There are other things to consider with distribution beyond bookstores though. Do you want your book carried in libraries? What about airport bookstores? What about foreign distribution?

All of this a traditional publisher handles for you. As a self-publishing book, you will have to do all of this yourself, and it is usually expensive with extremely questionable and, usually, low results.

Step 3: Make a Decision (and Commit)

Here’s the thing…

Both paths are hard. They both have pros and cons. They both are painful and exhilarating in different ways. And neither option have a guarantee on the results.

Which is why the decision is so hard to make.

When you’re struggling with the decision, here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. This is not the most important decision you’re going to make in your life or career. This isn’t life and death. It’s not even life or death for your writing career. If your self-publishing efforts implode, that doesn’t mean your career is tanked. If you go after an agent and publisher and it doesn’t work out, you can always self-publish. You will keep writing either way.
2. There are winners and losers on both sides of the fence. For every horror story from traditional publishing, there are success stories. For every success story in self-publishing, there are a hundred authors that can’t get their books to sell. Don’t believe the hype on either side. Look at your values and make a decision for you.
3. Either way, your success is up to you. Whether you self-publish or traditionally publish, the marketing work is 100% on your plate. You’ll be in charge of growing your platform and launching your book. This decision is all about the moment leading up to your book being published and available for purchase. Everything after that is up to you no matter which route you take.

Now that you have looked at all the options and weighed your values, here’s what you must do:

1. Make a decision. Choose to pursue (not definitely do) either self-publishing or traditional publishing.
2. Commit to that path for one year. If you decide to self-publish, pursue that with all of your might for a full year or until the book is published. If you decide to start looking for an agent and a book deal, commit to doing that 100% for 12 full months. You must stop living in indecision. Pick one, and go after it, and refuse to question the decision again for an entire year.
3. After a year, reassess. If your book is published or close to it, keep going. If you’ve lived in a purgatory of roadblocks and are no closer to your goal, go back through this article, and see if it’s time to change paths.

Like I said above, this is not the most important decision in your life. This will not make or break your writing career. The most important thing is not which path to choose, but actually choosing a path.

Epilogue: Let’s take a look at John

John Scalzi was one of those big-time, successful self-publishing authors. He’d put out a lot of his own books and was selling well into six-figures. Every self-published author looked at him as a role-model for what they wanted their career to be.

And then he signed a traditional deal.

And not just any deal.

A 10-year, 13-book, $3.4 million deal!

At first, that number is staggering and cause for huge celebration…like get-drunk-and-set-off-fireworks-naked-in-the-street celebration.

But if you do some math on the deal, suddenly you start to wonder why he would sign away so many books over such a long period of time for such little money.

And many indie authors asked this very question. They felt betrayed. Their self-publishing hero just signed a book deal that could very likely make him less money. Why would he do this?

Scalzi addressed this on his blog. Here are the two most important quotes from that post:

[It’s about] stability, basically. […] Also, I’m not going to lie: For the next decade I know where my money’s coming from. For a writer, that’s some nifty job security. Especially with a daughter coming up on college. Not having to search for a new book deal every book or two means I can spend more time writing, which I think is the thing we would all like me doing.

And then…

[L]ook, I like to write, and I don’t mind marketing myself. But there is a whole lot more that goes into producing a book than just showing up with a manuscript and then telling people about it. I don’t want to do any of the rest of that stuff. That’s why publishers exist. That’s what publishers do. As it happens, when it comes to science fiction, Tor [my traditional publisher] is as good as it gets, in every department. They are better at these things I don’t want to do than I am. I am delighted to partner with them and let them handle all that. I am clearly making enough money.

We all have different values and goals for our work as writers. Yours are different from mine and are different from John’s. And that’s fine. It’s good.

You must face this decision yourself and weigh the pros and cons for you and you alone.

Create your work, and start by recognizing the value of the thing you just created. Then assess your values and goals before making a decision that you stick to and pursue for at least a year.

In the end, your publishing choice will not make or break your writing your career. It is just the next step in a long series of steps.

Make the decision, pursue it, and, above all, keep writing your next book.

Was this article helpful?

If so, take a sec to share it with your author friends:

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Pinterest
• Email it to a friend