Last year Leadership Network broke new ground by doing a completely free, completely online leadership conference called The Nines. At 9:09 on 9/9/09 dozens of leaders began sharing 9 minutes of wisdom via pre-recorded video.  More than 20,000 people tuned in.

The format this year is similar, but the videos will be 6 minutes long and the theme is game-changers.

There will be more than 100 speakers including Rick Warren, Michael Hyatt, Ed Stetzer, Alen Hirsh, Len Sweet, and Francis Chan.

One cool new twist is you can submit your own “Game Changers” video, and if it’s good yours could be one of the videos shown.

The Nines takes place 9/9/10. It’s free again, though there are some paid options. You can register here.

Did you participate in The Nines last year? Going to participate this year? If so, which speakers are you looking forward to most?

Annual performance reviews are dreaded by most employees and supervisors.  For many it’s an awkward, uncomfortable conversation.

I actually love doing performance reviews with my staff.  I look forward to them.  I think it has a lot to do with some of the unconventional ways we do them.

So, here are 10 things I do regarding performance reviews, that I think contribute to making them really good.

1. Hire well. Performance reviews are a lot more enjoyable if you have mostly positive things to discuss.  That starts with hiring people who do great work. More than that, though, I make a point of hiring people who want to learn and get better at their jobs, people like that appreciate constructive criticism.  I also make a point of hiring people I genuinely like and enjoy hanging out with.  It makes work and performance reviews a lot more enjoyable.
2. Keep a performance log for every staff person. It’s really important to me to be able to speak about specific instances – good or bad – when doing performance reviews rather than just generalities.  I have a terrible memory, though, so I keep a log for every member of my staff.
3. Discuss performance issues regularly. I don’t ever want anything I say in a performance review to be a surprise.  I make a point of complimenting our staff regularly when they do something well.  I also address negative performance issues as soon as I notice them rather than waiting to bring them up at performance reviews.
4. Ask staff to do a self-evaluation. I have all our staff complete self-evaluation forms.  They not only rate their performance in key areas, but also provide comments and examples explaining their ratings.  This helps me understand how they feel about their performance before we sit down to discuss it.
5. Do reviews over a meal. I take each of my staff out for lunch or dinner when we do their performance review.  Everybody likes to eat.  People appreciate it when you treat them to a meal.  Eating also helps break any tension and makes the conversation happen more naturally.
6. Invite a 3rd person to join you. When I do performance review with one of our senior staff, I invite my partner (and brother) Mark to join us.  It makes the review more conversational minimizes the perception that it’s me vs them.  It also helps prevent any misunderstandings because there’s 3rd person to hear and clarify things.  When one of my senior staff does a performance review for a person they’re supervising, I participate.  I’m mostly there just to listen, and it also shows that what they do matters to me.
7. Give praise. A lot of performance reviews tend to focus on what’s wrong.  I view performance reviews as a big opportunity to encourage a person, tell them what they’re doing well, and challenge them to continue to excel in their strengths.
8. Provide opportunities to improve. A lot of the anxiety of performance reviews comes from having to discuss negative performance issues.  But I look at it this way: I want my staff to be the best they can possibly be and I assume they want to be the best they possibly can at their job.  After telling the person what they’re doing well, I follow that by telling them if they want to take their work to the next level, here are the areas I think they can get better.
9. Have them evaluate your leadership. In the self-evaluation form and the performance review, I ask our staff to rate me on my leadership, how clearly I’ve communicated the expectations for their role, the amount of oversight I give, and the extent to which they have the resources to do their job well.  If I want to empower my staff to do their best, that starts with giving them the best leadership I possibly can.
10. Give the people they supervise input on their review. I ask all the people a staff person supervises to fill out a short evaluation form asking them to review their supervisor on the same things I ask people to review me on – leadership, clear expectations, oversight, resources.  I don’t share these reviews with the person I’m evaluating, but they help shape my evaluation.

If you’re interested, here’s the self-evaluation form we use.

Which of these resonates with you?  Any other suggestions to make employee performance reviews awesome?

Tuesday I wrote about why “do everything with excellence” is hogwash.

I didn’t mention it in the post, but I wrote it in reaction to this post by David Foster which I read Monday.

I think we’ve mistaken excellence for something unattainable, more like perfection than what might reside within the reach of the average man or woman.

You can define excellence this way, and it’s achievable to anyone who wants it.  Here it is:

Excellence is doing the best I can with what I have where I am in the time allotted.

I have a lot of respect for David, but that definition of excellence just doesn’t work for two reasons.

1) Results matter.

Giving your best effort is important.  But if your best stinks, it’s not excellent.

We may want to evaluate ourselves based on effort, but the truth is we expect results from everyone else.

Not convinced?  Why not buy some beach front property in Louisiana?  BP made a great effort to cap and contain the oil spill.  Or maybe you’d like to listen to a collection of love songs by Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock).  He put quite a bit of effort into them.  Or maybe you’d like to use the first pick your fantasy football draft on Betty White.  I’ve heard she’s a hard worker.

Steve K posted a comment on Tuesday’s posts that reflects the views of a lot of people have about excellence:

The process (effort) and the product (effect) are to be considered separately… ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men’ – that, to me, is excellence.

We do need to honor God with our best effort.  But let’s be honest, more often than not, focusing on the effort instead of the result is just an excuse to justify a poor result.  That’s because…

2) We can influence the time, effort, and resources that go into any task.

When a person says, “I did the best I could with what I had in the time allotted,” he’s really claiming he had no influence over the resources or time put into the task.  That is almost never true.

If you’re doing poorly on a work project, as a spouse, as a parent, as a volunteer, as a wind surfer, or whatever, you always have the option to put more time into it, spend more money on it, or ask someone for help.

It’s going to cost you something in some other area, but the first step is to recognize that you are not powerless.  You get to choose.

The second step is to consciously choose to allocate your time and resources according to what’s most important to you (as opposed to what you’ve always done or what other people think is important).  The third step is to have confidence in those choices.

Instead of making excuses for why some of the things we do don’t produce excellent results, let’s take ownership of choices we make.  Be confident in the choice to do some things with “averageness,” so you can put your time, effort, and resources into doing other things with excellence.

Do you agree that excellence is more about results or effort?  Why?  Give some examples.

A lot of people are trying to “raise the bar” on excellence these days.  Excellence is important, but the idea that we should do everything with excellence is an impossible goal.

Excellence means exceeding expectations.

Unless you are blessed with a talent that enables you to naturally exceed expectations, to exceed expectations in any endeavor you are going to have to put extra time, extra effort, or extra resources into that endeavor.

Your personal time, energy, and resources are limited.  If you put extra time, effort, or resources into one thing, you have to take it from something else.  It’s impossible to be excellent in your career, an excellent spouse, an excellent parent, an excellent PTA member, an excellent home owner, have an excellent body, and be an excellent golfer all at the same time.

Sure, there things we can do to raise performance and productivity across the board and we should, but there are still limits to what we can do.

Ultimately, excellence is a matter of choice.

Intentionally or unintentionally, we all choose what we want to do with excellence, and what we are OK with doing OK.  We make that choice when we decide what we to put extra time, effort, or resources towards, and what we’re just going to do as well as we can with less.

I want to be an excellent husband, parent, follower of God, and leader at work. While I often fall short of excellence, I do my best to put extra time, effort, and resources into those things.

On the other hand, nobody is every going to confuse me for a model or a pro athlete, so I’m content to exercise for 30 minutes 5x a week with some cast-iron weights and an $80 bike I got at Wal-mart.  My house is never going to be in Better Homes and Gardens, so I spend time and money on the weekends with my family rather than on home improvement projects.  I usually help coach my son’s baseball and soccer teams, but I’m not out to win a national championship, so I don’t put time and money into researching the best methods, training videos, and equipment.

What do you want to do with excellence?  Have you made an intentional choice to put extra time, effort, and resources into those things? If so how?  If not, what adjustments are you going to make?

“Today, people under the age of forty have little of this sense of loyalty. To some people this may sound discouraging, but I believe this value of loyalty to an institution is being replaced with something better.” -Hugh Halter Matt Smay

I love this quote from the book AND.  It has huge implications for every organization business, non-profit, church, and other organization in the world.

Ever been in a leadership meeting where people lamented the lack of loyalty?

People complain about the lack of loyalty all the time.  Customers aren’t as loyal as they used to be; they’ll buy whatever product has the lowest price at the time.  Employee aren’t loyal; they’ll jump ship if a better position becomes available at a competitor.  Church members lack loyalty; they’ll jump from church to church looking for whichever seems to meet their needs best.

But all hope is not lost.

“The new value is meaning.”

People won’t stick with your organization just to be loyal, but they will stick with you if you give their lives meaning.

People want to live for something bigger than themselves.

In fact, people will be far more loyal to a meaningful cause than they ever were to an organization back in the “good old days.”

If your organization is fighting for something bigger than itself and your cause resonates with their hearts, they will give their time, their money, their passion, and their lives to it.

Is your organization trying to institute loyalty or inspire passion to a meaningful cause?

I’ll be giving away a copy of AND later today. Get details and read my review here.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay (affiliate link).  Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church is written by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay who pastor Adullam Church in Denver, CO.  To quote the authors, “The idea of the AND is that every church can find a balance of both scattering people out for mission while maintaining a biblically meaningful reason to gather together.”

The traditional way to do church in the U.S. is centered on a Sunday service that people in the community must come to.  This type of church is often referred to as attractional.  But some people argue that many people have no interest in church at all, a new kind of church is needed to reach these people, one that goes out into the community, serves and builds relationships with people.  This type of church is often referred to as missional.  A big debate has erupted within the church as to which is better.

AND makes the case that “picking one side of the other is not the place to start.”  If a missional organization is successful, a community of faith will naturally want to form around it.  And if a church has no missional component it risks “becoming nothing more than a hospital, social/spiritual club, or teaching center.”  “A key to success in this flow [from engaging culture to community formation] is to avoid letting the two processes become isolated from each other… As our community begins to form, we are also continuing to engage more people.”

Favorite quotes

• The scriptures are clear.  God is the one who builds the church.  In Acts 2, he turned a network of house churches into a mega-church and in Acts 8 he allowed a centralized Hebrew church to be scattered all over the new world. (P 26)
• Church happens when a group of people decide to go on a mission with God together. (P 46)
• How “missional” you are is largely determined by the extent to which your people model the life, activities, and words of Jesus. (P 52)
• The reality is that living this way means you don’t get what your flesh wants.  You don’t get to keep all the money.  You don’t get to do whatever you want with your time.  You have to share your house, your stuff, your money, your kids.  You have to exchange your ambitions for God’s your kingdom for his, and you must be available for God to interrupt your nicely scheduled day with needs that will cause you to pull your hair out. (P 79)
• The great things of God cost us our life. (P 80)
• It’s time that we begin developing qualitative methods for turning consumers into missionaries, fans into followers, adherents into leaders. (P 80)
• Deeper discipleship can’t happen from the pulpit or through church programs.  It seems to happen best when a leader gives someone personal time. (P 86)
• The gravity towards consumerism is simply a symptom of how bored our people are with the basic Christian experience. (P 92)
• The most meaningful experience a person can have in this life is to feel connected with God – to know that God is leading their lives. (P 93)
• The common message of controlling sin, going to church, reading your Bible, journaling, and praying is that it just does not paint a compelling enough picture to keep people engaged spiritually, nor does it actually produce an active spirituality where people see God and grow. (P 93)
• [Jesus] didn’t waste time and emotional energy planning programs or leading strategy efforts to draw people to a consumer-oriented environment.  And he wasn’t too worried about opening the front door or closing the back door of his group of disciples.  Instead, Jesus preferred to allow people to observe him and make that extra effort to figure him out.  He knew that the real seekers would keep pursuing him and wouldn’t be satisfied until they had come to him. (P 105)
• People are not drawn to mission statements anymore.  They are drawn to stories like their own. (P 107)
• In the absence of vision, pettiness prevails.
• The church service is not inherently a problem, but it can lead to the consumer-oriented faith we’ve all come to know and lament.  Weekly services take a lot of time and resources, and they have the potential of lulling people into a spectator religiosity. (P 163)
• If the vision of the church is not scary if it doesn’t require everyone to pitch in, if faith is not needed, then folks will stay home and watch the football game. (P 172)
• If you try to start a church or grow a church you often attract people who just want to do “church things”; but if you start with a mission, God will draw people together and church will happen naturally. (P 174)
• Imagine what would happen if the average pastor/teacher who gives 25-30 hours a week to preparing a sermon actually gave 25-30 hours a week to teaching people how to teach other people the scriptures? (P 184)
• Faith is easy when you don’t need it.  And when you don’t need it, it’s not faith at all! (P 200)

Personal thoughts

The church in America (and all of western civilization) is in crisis right now.  Everyone knows it but few know what to do about it.  Attractional churches like Willow Creek began to emerge 30 years ago because traditional churches failed to change and were becoming irrelevant.  Many pastors and Christian leaders gravitated towards that model because unlike traditional churches it was engaging and relevant to people’s lives.

But in recent years, there’s been a backlash against attractional churches.  Our culture has changed again.  Many people disdain organized religion.  Many people are skeptical of anything that appears over-produced and inauthentic, including church services.  Many people are tired of structure, rules, and authority.  And those are people within the church.

As a result, many Christian leaders repelled by attractional churches have started emergent, organic, house, and missional churches.  In some ways, these movements have been a reaction to the seeker church movement, and so there’s been a lot of criticism and resistance within them towards the icon of the attractional church, the large worship service.

AND is an extremely important book, because it bridges the gap between the attractional and missional models.  It makes a convincing case that churches in general need to be more missional, that missional organizations need large gatherings and structure if they’re going to continue to disciple and send out more missional people, and that it’s both scriptural and logical for churches to embrace both a sending and gathering nature.

AND really resonated with me because I’ve been wrestling with the whole attractional vs missional dilemma.  I’ve been a bit frustrated with some aspects of attractional churches, and I have to admit that the idea of ditching the Sunday service engaging exclusively with an organic/house church has had some appeal.  But I’ve had a hard time finding vibrant, outreaching, house churches, which has made me skeptical that it’s a more viable expression of church.  AND helped me understand my discontent with attractional churches and my disappointment with more missional house churches, and showed me that churches ought to be a combination of the two.

AND is a book I think every pastor, church leader, missionary, and parachurch leader should read

Discussion

1. Do you agree that it’s possible – even necessary – for a church to be both attractional and missional?  If so why?
2. Is your church more attractional or missional in nature?
3. In what if any ways is your church working to become stronger (missional or attractional) in the area where its been historically weaker?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of AND, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Wednesday 7/14 to receive a free copy.

Of course, you could buy a copy of AND now (affiliate link) and if you’re lucky enough to win, you can give that copy away.

When I redesigned Live Intentionally, I decided to give you the opportunity to advertise here.

Why?

Three reasons in particular.

1) To Help You Succeed – The whole reason Live Intentionally exists is to encourage and empower people to be more than they ever thought possible.  That includes helping people like you succeed in their businesses, non-profits, and causes.  Live Intentionally was visited last month by more than 4,000 people.  These are leaders and people who are proactive about improving themselves physically, mentally, spiritually, relationally, and financially.  If you provide a product or service that can help them do that, you should advertise here.

2) I Want to Learn First Hand about Blog Advertising – I’ve been blogging for more than 4 years, written thousands of posts, read thousands of articles about blogging, and led a group of fellow bloggers through Darren Rowse’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog.  But one aspect of blogging where I have no first-hand experience is in trying to generate revenue through advertising.  I love a good learning experience.

3) To Raise Money – I’ll write more about this in another post, but I’ve come to realize my kids are bored, underchallenged, and bickering. So, we are going to take on a BHAG – a Big Harry Audacious Goal.  We are going to pursue a goal that is big and exciting, something that we’ll all have to sacrifice and work together to accomplish.  We are still figuring out what that is, but raising money through Live Intentionally will be part of that.

Advertise for FREE in July!

Since I’ve just begun to offer advertising, we’re already part way into July, and I’d like to get some advertisers on board as soon as possible, I’ve got a great deal for you.  Buy an ad spot for August and I’ll give you the rest of July at no extra cost.  Do it now (July 12) and you almost double your advertising.  Additionally, August has historically been the highest trafficked month on LI because I blog my notes from the Willow Creek Leadership Summit from all 10 sessions live.

So, be proactive.  Check the advertising page for more stats and rates.  And advertise for free on LiveIntentionally.org in July while there’s still space available.

]]> http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/07/12/advertise-for-free-on-liveintentionally-org-in-july/feed/ 1 http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/07/12/advertise-for-free-on-liveintentionally-org-in-july/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LiveIntentionally/~3/FxkWstDcolg/ http://www.liveintentionally.org/2010/07/09/7-leadership-lessons-learned-from-cleveland-cavaliers-owner-dan-gilbert%e2%80%99s-embarrassing-letter-about-lebron-james/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:52:37 +0000 Paul http://www.liveintentionally.org/?p=1179

Let me just say up front that I haven’t watched NBA basketball since Michael Jordan retired, and I haven’t followed the LeBron James drama at all.  But I read the letter Cleveland Cavaliers Owner, Dan Gilbert, wrote in response to James’ decision to go to the Miami Heat, and… wow!  Can you say…

Worst.

Letter.

Ever.

Read it for yourself.   There are at least 7 leadership lessons we can learn from this.

1) Don’t resort to name-calling. It makes you look like a 5th grader. In the letter, Gilbert calls James a deserter, narcissistic, self-promotional, betrayer, cowardly, shameful, selfish, disloyal, heartless, and callous.  Ouch!  Is he going for the nickname “insult thesaurus?”

2) Don’t blog/email/tweet when you’re angry. You will regret it later.

3) If you’re a public figure, hire a gate-keeper/media manager who you run your public communication through before it becomes public.

4) Always take the high road. I don’t know  LeBron James’ character or what happened behind the scenes.  But even if he is everything Gilbert called him and more, it’s just classless to insult a person publicly.

5) Don’t promise things you can’t possibly deliver. It just makes you look like you’ve lost all grip of reality.  Gilbert wrote, “”I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”  Please.  All this says is you want to show LeBron up.

6) When you sound like you’re out-of-control, manipulative, and classless, you lose all public sympathy, and you give everyone you’re criticizing justification for getting as far away from you as possible.

7) As a leader, when you look like an idiot, you embarrass everyone around you. I feel bad for the rest of the Cavs organization and Cavs fans.

And one bonus lesson…

Don’t rant in comic sans font.  It will only make you look more ridiculous.

This letter is embarrassing not only for Dan Gilbert but also for the entire the entire Cleveland Cavaliers organization and the entire city of Cleveland.  There will be damage control.  He will probably issue a carefully crafted mea culpa apologizing, citing passion for the Cavs, emotions getting the best of him, etc.  But Gilbert will never be able to live this down.

Your thoughts on the now infamous letter?  Other lessons learned from it?

Live Intentionally has been totally redesigned and I couldn’t be more excited!

I was never very happy with the previous design and its gray text with dark gray links on a white background.  As I went through the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog project in May and June I got a bunch of new ideas for improvements.  But even more importantly, I gained a lot of clarity as to what I want Live Intentionally to be about, how I want it to look, and how I want it to function.

So, here’s what I changed and why. Maybe it will give you some ideas for your own blog.

The header – As much as I liked all the pictures at the top of the old design, I think they made the site seem busy.  Plus some people came away with the first impression that I probably blogged mostly about myself and my family.  I wanted the new design to be simpler, cleaner, a little more professional looking.  I also like the burnt orange because it’s unique and stands out.  The next step will be to replace the “Live Intentionally – You matter. Live like it.” text with an original logo.

Latest tweet – Previously, when a person visited my blog.  The action step I wanted them to take was to subscribe to the RSS feed.  But I believe Twitter has surpassed RSS feed readers in popularity (I’ll have to research that to be sure), and I can engage with people much better through Twitter.  So, Twitter is now a priority over RSS, and putting my latest tweet in the header makes that prominent.

Category bar – The new category navigation bar just below the header gives let’s people know the topics discussed here in less than 5 seconds.  The fact that real estate there is limited forced me to reorganize the categories and make use of sub-categories.  I still have some reorganizing to do, but it’s a start.

Dynamic Content Generator (aka Featured Articles) – I think this may be the coolest addition to Live Intentionally.  I previously had a list of Top Posts in the sidebar, but the DGC allows me to feature the posts that have lasting value for readers.  The images and motion really draws attention.  The DGC is a free WordPress plugin.

Latest posts – Below the DGC in the main part of the homepage, intros to the 10 most recent posts are shown.  One of the things I came out of the 31 Days project with was a desire to make my homepage more like a magazine cover.  The goal is to get a person to click to a post as quickly as possible.  So, it’s more visual, less text, and less page real estate taken up by each post,  so a reader can scan through the latest posts more quickly.  I still have some work to do to shorten up the exerpts.

Advertising – One of the biggest changes was the addition of ads in the right sidebar.  I’m going to do an entire post explaining why I decided to start offering advertising.

Tabs widget – There’s a new widget in the right sidebar that lists the most popular posts, most recent posts, recent comments, and tags.  It’s good info to have on the blog and this widget displays it cleanly without taking up a lot of space.

No archive – The old design included an archive in the sidebar which could be used to navigate to a list of posts in a particular past month.  The archive was rarely used and always looked cluttered to me.  So, bam! Gone!  If you want to find an old post, use the search box.

Better post formatting – Without getting too specific, I think the formatting of the full posts is cleaner and more appealing.  Though, it looks like there are issues on some posts with resizing images which I need to go back and address.

Big thanks to WooThemes who created this WordPress theme and to Erica Mullenix who pointed me in their direction.  And big thanks to Justin Write the “Lead Blog Ninja” at Zoop Media, who customized the theme for me in less than 24 hours.

So, what do you think?  Which changes do you like most?  What don’t you like?  Any changes or additions you think should be made?

Earlier this week I posted my review of A Path to Publishing by Ed Cyzewski (affiliate link) and invited you all to post your advice or questions about writing, publishing, and marketing a book. Yesterday, I interviewed Ed via Gmail Chat and asked him many of your questions plus some of my own.

Here’s a transcript of that chat.

Paul: Hi Ed, thanks for taking the time to talk with me about your book A Path to Publishing and answer some of the questions readers of my blog LiveIntentionally.org have submitted.

Ed: Thanks for having me and for doing such a great job inviting readers into the discussion.

Paul: My pleasure. Why don’t you start telling me a little about yourself personally?

Ed: I’ve always enjoyed writing, but considered it as a side career while attending seminary. When I realized pastoral work wasn’t for me, I pursued writing full time and published my first book Coffeehouse Theology.

After that I began blogging about my experiences with publishing at www.edcyz.com and then published A Path to Publishing as a way of answering all of my friends’ questions about how to publish a book. I work as a full-time freelance writer these days in Connecticut while my wife attends UConn for an English Lit. PhD. END

Paul: That’s awesome that you’ve been able to turn writing from a hobby to something that pays the bill.

Ed: I never said it pays the bills. It’s a struggle for sure!

Paul: LOL! What motivated you to write A Path to Publishing?

Ed: After I published my first book tons of friends, strangers, and family members asked me, “What should I do to get published?” Well, you need to do quite a lot, so I wrote one long e-mail after another.

I turned those e-mails into publishing workshops that were very well received. So I turned my workshop into a book where I frankly map out a step-by-step guide to publishing a book with steps such as developing an idea, networking, writing a book, and marketing it.

Paul: Do you know what sort of odds new authors are up against? Do you know what percentage of book proposals by new authors get accepted?

Ed: I don’t have hard and fast numbers, but there were 750,000 books published last year, both self and with publishers combined, so take into account that thousands of authors are querying agents with book proposals, and a small fraction of them are pitched to publishers, where only a small group are published. And then only 5-10% of those published sell over 1,000 copies. Around 5% actually make back their advances. So, the odds are pretty steep. The thing is, it can be done. It’s just not easy. It’s just about one of the most challenging careers out there.

One editor at a major publisher told me, “Avoid being an author if you can help it. It’s tough out there.” That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, but that you should only do it if you can’t help doing it. It has to be a passion.

Paul: With such long odds, it’s really important to have guidance from someone who has been through the process. That’s why I think A Path to Publishing is such an important resource.

Self-Publishing

One of the things that’s radically changing the publishing industry these days is self-publishing. What are your thoughts on self-publishing? Do you recommend it?

Ed: Self-publishing is tricky. It needs to be the right kind of book by an author with a significant following of readers if it’s going to sell. However, it can be a wonderful supplemental source of income and a great way to distribute ideas or a story. I’d suggest not jumping into self-publishing right away. If you think you have a great idea, shop it around until no publisher will pay you for it. Then, if you still care enough about the idea, do a lot of research into some self-publishing options.

For unpublished authors it can be tough to self-publish since they don’t know all that goes into publishing a book. There is a lot that goes into publishing a good book, and so they’ll want to make sure they have some guidance throughout the process.

Paul: One of the questions posted in the blog comments was… what is the upfront cost for a self publish on average?

Ed: It depends what you need. Most self-publishers like Lulu and Createspace print on demand and take a slice of the profits. With Createspace you pay an extra $40 for distribution on multiple channels. I also paid $100 for my cover design, but I had some free editorial help from qualified friends. So, I technically published my book for $140, but most first-time authors who are self-publishing will want to hire a pro editor ($300-$500 roughly) to help them develop their books (as in, not just proof-reading).

My cost is low, but Lulu and other services have packages that can run a bit more. there are some great independent self-publishers out there that I recommend in the book, but you’re talking about hundreds if not thousands of dollars since they do short-run printings and have a higher per-book cost, easily double that of Amazon. And then you’re out double the amount of money before Amazon sucks a bunch of profits from the sales through their site. I decided for myself that since I couldn’t beat Amazon, I’d best use Createspace. It’s cheap and easy to use, which is tough to beat. END

Paul: Another question asked by a reader… Do you consider self-publishing a good path towards eventually getting a contract with a publishing house?

Ed: Well, publishers are looking for authors who can either tell a great story (fiction) or attract a crowd of readers who will buy their (especially nonfiction). So, self-publishing a book is not as effective as publishing articles in some great magazines and journals or lining up some media spots or events, but if you have a great self-publishing sales history (say over 1,000 books), then you may have something to show publishers. Some best-selling books have started out as self-published, but they are the exception.

Paul: Yeah, you have some great examples of those in your book.

Marketing a Book

I was really struck by the part in your book where you said, “Writing the book is only half of the work in publishing. Marketing it makes up the other half.” Can you elaborate on that?

Ed: That statement is particularly true for nonfiction and I’ve heard it repeated by editors, agents, and just about anyone else I know in publishing. It’s kind of the open secret in publishing. Authors need to connect with readers personally, as few authors will receive the marketing support from publishers that their books require. Even if they get marketing support from a publisher, they will be quite busy. Think of it this way, if an author doesn’t tell readers about his/her book, who will? Perhaps they’ll have some help here and there, but in the end it generally boils down to how much they’re willing to invest in talking about their books at events, in interviews, blog posts, on social media, and wherever else.

Paul: How important is it on the marketing side of things for authors to engage with people online by blogging and social networking?

Ed: It’s important, but it can be overestimated. Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It! (affiliate link) is a great guide to this kind of marketing, and it really does work to sell books when targeted to the right niche of readers. However, authors should not overlook traditional media such as radio, TV, and newspapers. Readers still use all of these mediums often and they’re quite effective. I suggest looking up Cheapskate Jeff Yeager’s story. It took a TV spot to launch him out of obscurity to becoming a published author.

Paul: One interesting comment made on the blog was about the skills & strengths needed to be a good writer and a good marketer. Do you think most good writers have the aptitude to also be good marketers? Or are those skill sets not often found in the same person?

Ed: Just as good writers develop their craft over time, so too is good marketing. Different people will specialize or feel more comfortable in certain mediums, but every author can learn how to market a book in one way or another.

Authors need to remember that if they want to write and publish a book, then they also need to be prepared to talk about it. I think authors need a 30-word summary of their books in mind in order to write, but they also need this summary so they can communicate with readers. Marketing may not be pleasant for all authors, but it is a necessary skill they can learn. Perhaps renaming it would help. When phrased as “connecting with readers,” marketing usually seems a bit easier to do, at least it does for me.

Paul: That’s a good point about developing marketing skills over time with practice. Few people were great writers right off the bat. It took practice. And the same is true or those authors who may be new to the idea of connecting with people and marketing their own books.

More Questions from Readers

OK, well I’m going to fire off a few more questions posted in the blog comments…

How do you learn more about the business aspects of being an author – connecting with an agent, understanding book contracts?

Ed: Most authors I know rely on agents to handle the business end of things, so I’m not sure how to learn more about contracts beyond asking published authors to look at their contracts or doing some searches online. I have read some Writer’s Digest articles about contracts as well.

Ed: As far as agents go, there are tons and tons of excellent agent and editor web sites that aspiring authors should read. They should follow these agents on Twitter, ask questions, make comments, and study these industry pro blogs so they don’t make stupid mistakes like calling a book a “fiction novel” or querying with “To Whom It May Concern.” Agents will tell you exactly what they want. It’s very easy to find that information. I suggest starting with Janet Reid, Nathan Bransford, and Rachelle Gardener. Check out their blog rolls for more.

Paul: You mentioned a couple of faux pas, are there any other things to avoid in a query letter that would automatically cause no further consideration?

Ed: Query letters are SOOO important. Proposals are as well, but don’t skimp on the query. Make sure you have a compelling hook for your book, that your summary tells the story in a nutshell without being too ambiguous, and doesn’t violate any of the guidelines for the particular agent you’re querying. Adapt it for each agent.

I’d also suggest getting folks who aren’t close family friends or relatives to read it and to give feedback. if you can run it by a publishing pro who can give a solid critique. These editors and other folks have blogs and they’re on Twitter. Start building those relationships today so it will be natural to ask for a quick favor when you need it. It’s a ton of fun meeting other folks in publishing, so that part should be a piece of cake. END

Paul: What are your thoughts on making use of e-books for global reach?

Ed: That’s a great idea, though many publishers have some sort of global distribution deal. E-books are a great option because they can be distributed anywhere. I think it’s also nice to use E-books as an inexpensive and portable book option. When readers have more choices, authors certainly win.

Paul: Well, we are well over our time here. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me about A Path to Publishing and share your insight into writing, publishing, and marketing a book. Before we go do you have any final words of advice you’d like to give the aspiring writers out there?

Ed: Writers write. Hopefully someone will read what they write, but don’t let publishing a book become your source of validation. Just write the best that you can and savor the moment when someone finds it helpful. If publishing a book is your source of validation you’ll always tack on another reason why you still haven’t arrived as a writer.

Ed: It never gets easier to write the next book. Many famous authors have said this over and over again, and I can confirm that. So just make sure you love it, give it all you’ve got, and celebrate every little success along the way. It can be incredibly rewarding work if you let it.

Thanks so much for hosting me here, for telling readers about my book, and for asking so many great questions. It’s been a pleasure! END

Paul: That’s great advice! If people want to connect with you where can they find you – on Twitter, your blog, etc.?

Ed: I’m at www.edcyz.com for writing advice and A Path to Publishing (with sample chapters and resources) can be found at www.pathtopublishing.com. I’m on Twitter as @EdCyzewski.

Paul: Great! Thanks again, Ed. I wish you all the best in your writing. God bless you!

Ed: Thanks Paul. I really appreciate it. Blessings.

Discussion

What did you find most impactful/insightful in my interview with Ed?

If you have additional questions or your questions from Tuesday’s post didn’t get answered, you’re welcome to post them in a comment. Ed will try to stop by and answer some additional questions, but your best option for learning more about writing, publishing, and marketing a book is to buy a copy of A Path to Publishing and read it, and keep it handy as you go through the process with your book.