An excerpt from a work in progress: Writing Success Guaranteed: How to Deal Yourself Five Hearts to Win the Publishing Game. If you would like to be a beta reader, please write to Mike at larsenpoma@aol.com.
Books and the community of the book are needed more than ever. But technology has changed publishing more in the last ten years than the last hundred. Tech has shuffled the cards writers and publishers play, forcing them to deal themselves a new hand.
The biggest challenges authors and publishers share are D&D:
* Distribution: getting books into bookstores
* Discoverability: enabling book buyers to find them
Western culture evolved around three bodies of water: the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and now the Pacific. Technology has driven D&D from the Hudson to the Pacific. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have replaced publishers as the primary sources of sales and awareness.
Publishing exists to make public the work of writers, but most books are privished: Publishers are forced to deal them a losing hand by depriving them of the marketing and distribution they need.
The New You
To succeed, you have to reinvent yourself. If you’ll be content writing for pleasure until readers find you, just keep writing. But to guarantee success as quickly as possible, deal yourself the five cards that make up the royal flush of hearts. They guarantees you a winning hand.
Comedian Cathy Ladman said: “Marriage is….like a 5,000-piece puzzle, all sky.” Writers may feel that way about writing, publishing and promotion. So the book uses a game of chance to show you how to eliminate risk. Because content is king, the next five chapters present the challenges you face as the most powerful hand in poker: a royal flush. Because you have to love your calling, your readers, and serving your communities, it’s The Royal Flush of Hearts:
You are the Ace
Content is the King
Readers are the Queen
Cash is the Jack
Sustainability is the Ten
Overcoming the Odds to Make Success Inevitable
The odds writers have to overcome:
- Your book will be one of more than 2 million books published a year.
- 75% of books don’t earn back their advances.
- 93% of new published books don’t sell more than 100 copies.
- Agents and editors reject more than 99% of submissions.
- Consumers endure 5,000 marketing messages a day.
Writers beat these odds every day. The five hearts will show you how you can too. Don’t gamble with your future. Guarantee yourself a winning hand. Lady Luck smiles on writers who play with heart. Play the write cards right, and you don’t need bluffing, wild cards, or a poker face to win. Take the risk out of writing. Deal yourself a royal flush and writing isn’t a gamble. Success is inevitable. But to win the publishing game, you have to play the whole hand.
About the author:
Mike Larsen is an author coach who loves helping writers achieve their goals by adding value to their readers’ lives. Mike cofounded Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents, which sold books to more than a hundred publishers and imprints. Books: How to Write a Book Proposal, now in its fifth edition, coauthored by Jody Rein; How to Get a Literary Agent; Guerrilla Marketing for Writers (coauthor). His next book: Writing Success Guaranteed: How to Deal Yourself Five Hearts to Win the Publishing Game, www.michaellarsenauthorcoaching.com.
