Notes I made as I prepared for the Writing as a Business meeting in September

 

Writing can be a lonely experience or a collaborative experience. Meetup.com and other types of social media are designed to provide tools that can be used to find people that can help each other.

The best way to avoid mistakes and make the best decisions is to learn from others. If I can only inspire you to do one thing, please start using the tools provided at MeetUp.com.  Meetup.com provides tools that our members rarely use.

Please make sure you:

1. Provide as much information as possible for your profile.
2. Use our “comments”, and “discussions” tools to communicate with our group.
3. Use our messaging tool to communicate with interesting individuals in our group.

Collaboration is a two way street. Without participation, it is a dead end street. You can help us keep things moving and improve communication.

 

Dr. Wood, Elsa and others have provided details that can help you.   When does the IRS consider your writing a business? How can “A Heroes Journey” help you ponder and plan your writing as you avoid “writer’s block” and face other challenges? Should you try to find a publisher or self-publish? What are good marketing strategies? Answers to these questions and much more are waiting for you to see if you use the free tools available at Meetup.com.

 

Some other things I learned the hard way include:

1. Buy your author name.com domain as soon as possible. It usually costs less than twenty dollars a year.
2. Use Microsoft Word to create files that are the easiest to convert as needed (to eBooks, POD and for other purposes)
3. Always begin file names with the date the file is created (i.e. 9-22-17filename.doc) so you can find originals and track changes.
4. Find a buddy and if you determine you and your buddy don’t fit, find a new buddy or have more than one buddy.
5. Do not think in terms of who is right or who is wrong. Think fit or no fit. Always agree that there will be no hard feelings if it is determined that your buddy and you don’t fit.
6. WordPress websites are the easiest to learn, update and change. You can learn and start for free at WordPress.com and switch to WordPress.org later.
7. If you get to know Earnest, Austin, Ron, Elsa and others, you can learn important things about writing as a business, publishing and marketing.
8. In 2017, changes are taking place rapidly. Many of today’s popular marketing strategies will soon be obsolete.

My biggest mistakes seemed to come from trusting the wrong people. While I was reading and trying to learn complicated platform building and launching marketing strategies, Earnest and Ron were making themselves famous and Austin was building his ABS brand.

 

Part two of this presentation is about a journey every writer takes and how trusting the right people for help makes a BIG difference. Part two is about a presentation provided at one of our meetings by Dr. David Wood. Dr. Wood’s presentation was based on a theory provided by Joseph Campbell in his book titled “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. My presentation is about “tricksters” and honest mentors. It is about emotional and intellectual decisions we make as we write, publish and market our creations. Dr. Wood’s “Hero” presentation was about storytelling. Part two of today’s presentation is designed to help you understand how Dr. Wood’s presentation relates to your journey as a writer.