* Now is the best time to be a writer, but to succeed, writers have to know and do more.
* Content is king.
* Creating, sharing, and selling content is the holy trinity of success.
* You have to reinvent yourself as a content creator, a content marketer, and a contentpreneur.
* Reading, writing, agenting, editing, publishing, and bookselling are labors of love.
* You have more ways to profit from your books than ever.
* There are more good books than ever.
* You can only write as well as you read.
* You have more books and authors to use as models for your books and your career.
* You need inspiring, harmonious literary and publishing goals you know how to achieve.
* You have more options for getting published than ever.
* Most new writers self-publish.
*If you succeed at self-publishing, agents and publishers will find you.
* You give birth to your books twice: when you write and publish them.
* You know more and care about your books than anyone else.
* The more publishers pay, the more they push.
* Whether you or Random House publishes your books, you will be the promoter in chief.
* Agent Donald Maass says it takes five books to build an audience for your work.
* Write a series of books that sell each other and that you’re passionate about writing and promoting, and you will create a career.
* You have to keep creating content for the media and communities you need to succeed.
* Books by new writers are ready for the world before the world is ready for them.
* You have to maximize the value of your books before you sell or publish them.
* Building visibility and communities to help you, and test-marketing your books is how to do it.
* You have to be as visible as possible in as many ways and places as possible on publication.
* Social media can make any book a bestseller.
* Marketing guru Seth Godin says the best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out.
* As the world goes mobile, the numbers of readers will continue to grow.
* To keep earning, you have to keep learning.
* You have to be a creative, nimble, resourceful, and innovative entrepreneur.
* You have to be a contentpreneur who repurposes content in as many forms, media, and countries as possible.
* You have to embrace change and technology.
* Technology empowers writers more than ever, not just to make a living but to make a difference.
*You have to be lucky.
* Courage, commitment, patience, focus, faith in your work and yourself, the acceptance of failure and mistakes, along with luck and the rest of this list, will make your success inevitable.
Guest Post By Michael Larsen
Michael Larsen Author Coaching
www.michaellarsenauthorcoaching.com
Co-director, San Francisco Writers Conference: A Celebration of Craft, Commerce & Community
www.sfwriters.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com
San Francisco Writing for Change Conference: Writing to Make a Difference
www.sfwritingforchange.org / sfwriterscon@aol.com
If you like this blog post, you’ll love our publishing courses! Learn more about our courses for authors here.
