Dear Author,

What have you done for yourself lately?

You’ve written a book?

Not enough.

You’ve had it accepted and printed by a publisher?

Not enough.

You met with your publisher and came up with a marketing plan.

Not enough.

What have you done to ensure your book reaches all the people you know will love it?

What have you done for yourself lately?

You want radio. You want TV. You want print. You want to go viral.

Yeah, I know . . . You were counting on your publisher to make some magic.

Here’s the deal: Some publishers rock n’ roll, while others are rock bottom.

And even if you’re with a rock n’ roll star of a publisher, your “baby”—your book—is just one of hundreds of books your publisher is raising. You gave your publisher custody, but there’s still some major co-parenting to be done.

Learn about publishing so that you understand what your publisher and the publicity department are talking about.

Be upfront with your publisher. Ask: What are you going to do? And if you aren’t happy, don’t waste time complaining. Bury the complaints and sort out what you can do on your own. And if you need help, sort that out, too.

What have you done for yourself lately?

I know you don’t want to blog. You don’t have time for that. You are writing other books and articles and a million other things.

Do you have a site? Or a blog where you could include info. about all the awesomeness you are creating every month? Can you repurpose any of it, to develop a series on your site?

If you do change your mind and decide to blog, will you consider a theme, something that you can repurpose for later—perhaps as a book?

What have you done for yourself lately?

I’ve checked out your  Facebook profile. Why do you have one for friends and one for your book? Every time you have a new book, you’ll have to start another following. Do you really want to do that over and over? Instead of building a book presence, build a YOU presence. Readers want to get to know writers, not a book. Yes, they’ll read the book, and get to know it that way, but their questions will be for you. Their interest will be in how you wrote it, why you wrote it, and so on. Find them. Don’t wait for them to find you.

What have you done for yourself lately?

You’ve heard the power of online outreach, but your ego is still stuck on the traditional.

You still dream of Oprah, knowing if she’d just had you on her show . . . That would have been it. Your book about the gentle caring side of the T-Rex, and the inaccurate pop-cultural portrayal of it as a killer, would have been a best seller.

Stop the insanity. Time to wake up.

What have you done for yourself lately?

Please look in the mirror.

If you aren’t happy with the outreach for your book, blame the person looking back at you (unless it is your mother, or kid, or significant other, standing in front of the mirror with you , in which case you should make sure you are looking at yourself—and blaming yourself).

What have you done for yourself lately?

Unless your name is Janet Jackson, stop singing others the line “What have you done for me lately?”

Do something for yourself.

Note: This post is a part of the “What It Takes” series, running on Steven Pressfield’s blog.

Last week Shawn talked about publishers selling their own books, via his post Last Year’s Model. I want to see publishers doing more of their own selling—and I want digital libraries, too.

Part I: Pay Attention

1998 was the year of You’ve Got Mail. Meg Ryan played the owner of the independent book store being forced out of business by the big chain store going up around the corner.

Booksellers embraced the film for being on target with what was going on in the book world.

Looking back, right on target would have been a film about online sharing and innovative content selling killing the chain stores. Within a year, Napster was rocking the music industry, Apple was developing its first-generation iPod, and Netflix was launching into the video world.

As the music industry desperately chased online sharing, instead of creating it themselves, it left warning signs in its wake. The closing of landmark Virgin Megastores was one clue. A second clue came from video: Blockbuster anyone?

Part II: The Blockbuster SuperLibrary

Back in 1998 I had an obsession with the library. I was convinced that all would be good if the chain stores, Blockbuster and the libraries joined forces.

My 1998 mind frame:

• Libraries are broke. They don’t have the resources to acquire all of the amazing books out there. At the same time, what they do provide access to is a valuable resource. Students have access to books for research, young kids can pop in with Mom or Dad for “story time,” and those who can’t afford to buy everything they’d like to read, can take books out on loan. Outside the lack of money – and the “no eating” rule – libraries had a good thing going.

• Chain stores have money for books. Like libraries, they let people hang out all day and read their books. Unlike libraries, the people hanging in books stores can munch on a scone from the coffee shop in the center of the store, while sitting on a comfy couch—and if you wanted to bring the book with your scone crumbs in the spine home, you have to  buy it.

• Blockbuster and the library both loan books. Blockbuster is profitable because it charges fees. The library will never collect on all the overdue book fees owed to it.

When you mash them together, the libraries will provide the community center, but with the comfy couches and coffee bar from the bookstores. With the bookstore dollars, students will have access to more books—and with the library lending, anyone with a student ID can take books out on loan for free. Other readers will benefit from the larger numbers of books, too. If they want to take them home, they have the option to buy them or take them out on loan. For the latter, there would be a small fee for first run books and special collections.

Don’t ask me if I ever ran any numbers on this mash-up—or if I figured out how to keep little kids in the coffee shop from mangling the rare book collection. I didn’t work any of that out.

Part III: Back to the Future

I’m a long-time fan of O’Reilly Media. I’m not a programmer, which leaves me out of many of their actual book offerings, but that’s ok. It’s everything else they offer that has my interest.

Around the time I was focused on libraries, O’Reilly was, too—but in a way that made a hell of a lot more sense.

In Tim O’Reilly’s own words, from his 2009 article “Safari Books Online 6.0: A Cloud Library as an alternate model for ebooks”:

There has been a lot of attention paid to ebooks lately, and for good reason. Electronic books are portable, searchable, and more affordable than print books. The web has accustomed readers to having the latest information at their fingertips; we all ask why books should be any less available “on demand.”

Amazon’s Kindle has received the most mainstream attention (with new entries like Barnes & Noble’s Nook making dedicated ebook readers into the latest competitive horse-race), but ebooks are taking off even faster on the iPhone and other smart phones. Ebooks are one of the most popular classes of iPhone application. Recent releases of O’Reilly ebooks as iPhone applications have even outsold the same books in print. Direct sales of the ebook bundles we offer from oreilly.com (PDF, epub, or mobi files) also exceed our direct sales of print books from the site.

Yet our most popular ebook offering by far is often not even thought of as an ebook. Safari Books Online is an online book and video subscription service, launched in partnership with the Pearson Technology Group in 2001. It contains more than 10,000 technical and business books and videos from more than 40 publishers. It has more than 15 million users (including the number of concurrent seats available through libraries and universities); it is now the second largest reseller of O’Reilly books, exceeded only by Amazon.com, and its revenue dwarfs our sales of downloadable ebooks. It’s also the most affordable of our ebook offerings for those who are regular consumers of technical content. The average Safari Books Online subscriber uses at least seven books a month, and many use dozens (or even more), yet the monthly price (depending on the subscription plan) ranges from little more than the price of a single downloadable ebook to no greater than that of two or three.

Here’s the rub: most people thinking about ebooks are focused on creating an electronic recreation of print books, complete with downloadable files and devices that look and feel like books. This is a bit like pointing a camera at a stage play and concluding that was the essence of filmmaking!

At O’Reilly, we’ve tried to focus not on the form of the book but on the job that it does for our customers. It teaches, it informs, it entertains. How might electronic publishing help us to advance those aims? How might we create a more effective tool that would help our customers get their job done?

It was by asking ourselves those questions that we realized the advantages of an online library available by subscription. One of the best things about online technical books is the ability to search the full text of a book. How much better would it be to be able to search across thousands of books? Safari Books Online was our answer.

So in those early Napster and Netflix days, when execs in books, movies, and videos were focusing on the chains and how to get on top of sharing, O’Reilly figured it out.

And in the decade since they figured it out, I’ve not seen another publisher do it on the same scale—and at such an affordable price. Yes, there are other digital libraries, based on subscription models, which are sold to universities and the like, at thousands a pop, but to the individual readers? There’s a void.

Part IV: Let’s Get It Together

In last week’s “What It Takes” post, Shawn mentioned a suggestion he gave to a friend about ten years ago, when the friend was consulting some of the big publishers.

What if the big six came together and “saved” Borders? They don’t ‘take over’ Borders, they “bail it out” with a major capital investment that gives them preferred voting shares and allows them to bring in their own management? That’s a good story, right…”how the big publishers joined forced, saved jobs and kept books vital!”? And they could brand the stores with sections devoted to each of their offerings…can’t you hear your wife saying to you… I’m going over to the Simon and Schuster boutique, meet me at the Macmillan store after you’re done at Penguin.”

“That’s never going to happen. Too many cooks, too much risk. That scenario is a non-starter.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Too much money at stake. Too many moving parts…I guess you’ll have to recommend that they do the obvious thing.”

“Yeah, that’s the first thing I came up with.” My friend looked at his noted, “here it is…number one…Take a page from upstart amazon.com and start selling your books directly to consumers, build your own marketing database and connect buyers with your authors.”

I agree with what Shawn was thinking ten years back. My add-on, with the knowledge I have now, would be the library.

Booksellers come and go–as do publishers… But libraries . . . Those have been a constant throughout world history. They never go away.

Safari Online has tapped into that truth. I hope other publishers do, too.

Part V: Closing Notes Via Tim O’Reilly

The following is from one of Tim O’Reilly’s articles from late last fall:

… the more we realized that important as O’Reilly books were to our customers, we didn’t cover every topic, and the service would be even more powerful if we brought in other publishers. That’s when we approached Pearson Technology Group, one of our biggest competitors, to join us in a joint venture, and invited other publishers to participate as well.

Safari Books Online now contains more than 17,000 books and videos from dozens of publishers, and is the richest source for professionally curated technical and business content on the web. And we’re somewhat amused by the disbelief that the “paywall” erected by sites like the New York Times appears to be working, since we (as well as a host of scientific and professional journal publishers) have been serving our customers with subscription-funded sites for the past decade or more. As I predicted back in 1994, the web has room for every business model imaginable, and smart publishers will learn to exploit all of them.

Note: This post is a part of the “What It Takes” series, running on Steven Pressfield’s blog.

“You need to tighten your boots

“They hurt.”

“They’ll loosen once you get going.”

“No they won’t.”

My son and I hate putting on our ski boots. We want to hit the slopes, but there’s still that boot hassle.

He screams and complains.

“These boots are soooo stooopid. This is the worst day of my entire life!” (He errs on the dramatic side. . .)

I practice the breathing exercises I learned when I was pregnant and try to avoid pinching my fingers, catching my skin between a fussy latch and boot.

He wants his boots loose.

I want mine tight.

I tell him to tighten his boots.

He says no.

I shake my head and remember the same conversation, decades earlier, when my father provided his two cents on boots.

We make our way to the lifts, place our skis side by side on the ground, step into them, and exhale. There’s something magic about hearing the click of the boots into the bindings. The annoying boots are forgotten and we’re on our way—until he loses control.

Have you ever driven a car with a loose steering wheel? You turn the wheel and the tires don’t follow. There’s a disconnect. It takes excessive turning of the wheel to make something happen.

That’s what happens when you wear loose boots. Your feet are the steering wheel. When you turn your feet, your boots, like your car wheels, should turn. If the boots are too loose, your feet move within the boots, but the boots don’t go anywhere—which means your skis (or your car) won’t follow.

I sit with my son and try to explain that if he can get through the tightness in the morning, he’ll be good the rest of the day, but I know it’s a lesson he’ll have to learn on his own.

You have to choose discomfort before you can take a sweet ride down the mountain.

I don’t know when I started tightening my boots as much as possible. It’s just something that happened. One day it clicked, like my boots into my bindings, and I exhaled. I got it. I learned to breathe through it because the joy on the other end was worth it.

I’m still practicing my form—and find myself cursing fear when I crash on a run and then avoid bumps the rest of the day—but I’ve got the boot thing down.

If I can get through the boots in the morning, I can choose the runs the rest of the day.

I’m looking forward to seeing my son tackle some of those runs, too.

Whistler, British Columbia. Photo credit: Callie Oettinger

Note: This post is a part of the “What It Takes” series, running on Steven Pressfield’s blog.

Whenever I tell someone about Bob Danzig, they’re inspired to learn that someone who lived in five foster homes by the time he was eleven achieved so much—and then they’re shocked to learn that he was with the same company for 40+ years.

I met Bob in 1997, just as he was heading into his 1998 retirement from the The Hearst Corporation. Bob started as an office-boy, just out of high school, at the Hearst-owned Albany Times Union. Twenty years later he became the publisher of the paper, and then moved to New York City as CEO of The Hearst Newspaper Group and vice president of The Hearst Corporation.

Following last week’s “The Right Team” post, David Y.B. Kaufmann commented about the “good editors” and wrote that “the publishers are like the owner of the team. The good owners put in place good managers…”

If you ask Bob about his years with Hearst—especially those early years, he’ll tell you about the mistakes he made and the people who continued to stay in his corner because they believed in him. They knew he had potential.

And when he shares successes, he talks about those who helped make the successes possible. He values those around him and—though he’s never said this to me—I think it’s because he was valued. The social worker moving him from his fourth to his fifth foster home told him “You are worthwhile.” It wasn’t something he’d heard before. But she continued saying it, making him believe it.

And when he believed it, others around him did, too—including the publisher of the Albany Times Union, Gene Robb. Gene was on the board of the university Bob attended at night. Without Bob knowing, he requested Bob’s grades be sent to him at the end of each semester. And with the final semester, told Bob that he’d like him to follow in his footsteps as the next publisher—and then set him on a road to doing just that.

Bob was on a team that recognized talent and was willing to nurture it—for decades.

Jeremy’s post-“The Right Team” comment asked about authors “jumping ship” and knowing when “it is good enough.”

I took this one to my husband, a life-long Miami Dolphins fan.

“Why’d Marino stay with the Dolphins for so long? I asked. “He’s cited as being one of the all-time greats, yet no ring. . . Why didn’t he go to a different team?”

His answer: “Loyalty—and things were different before all the free agents.”

That holds true for more than football—and it’s an issue for both sides.

In publishing I’ve run into editors who look down on the marketing team with a bit of intellectual snobbery. And I’ve met the editors who are open to everyone—open minded, void of egos.

There are the authors who blame the publishers because their books aren’t doing well. And there are the authors who take the time to get to know the business and then do what has to be done to push their books out.

There are the publishers who blame the authors when a book tanks. And there are publishers who work hand in hand with authors.

There are publishers, editors, marketing teams and authors who say no to almost everything and there are those that respond on the opposite end, with a yes, willing to try something new, loyal, in each others’ corners.

There are authors and publishers who are loyal to each other—and those that don’t know the definition of loyalty.

There’s a lot of complaining about publishing, but there are good teams out there.

But what happens when you are on a good team and it can only go up so many levels—you’re living in a retro six-story building, and the luxury hi-rise with the penthouse suite is calling, saying it wants you to move in?

There’s a scene in the movie Ray, when Ray Charles tells his current label that he’s switching to a bigger one. I don’t know if this is how it really went down, but in the movie, one of the smaller label’s suits gets mad and the other wishes Ray well, saying he’s proud of him.

I get the first suit’s disappointment and admire the second.

Ultimately there’s a bottom line that we have to hit.

But if we could figure out a way to collaborate—pool talents of the indies and larger houses, we could hit some new heights. Instead of everyone busting ass to create their version of the wheel, we’d all travel a greater distance, if one house handled the wheel, another the carriage, another the driver. . . .

Ray’s first team knew him and knew his strengths. History shows the next team did good by him, but I wonder what would have happened if the first had continued, with help from the second. Both had something to offer.

Most recent example of this? End Malaria, the new Domino Project book. Sixty authors came together, waving their fees, to create a book with $20 of each sold going to help end Malaria. They pooled their talents for an outside project.

This is on the author level, but imagine it on the publisher level and beyond.

Endless possibilities.

Note: This post is a part of the “What It Takes” series, running on Steven Pressfield’s blog.

Jose Bautista joked that he led for foul balls.

And then he landed on the Blue Jays’ doorstep.

Jays’ manager Cito Gaston saw something in him.

And Jays’ batting coach Dwayne Murphy pointed out how to fix his swing.

And then he hit 54 home runs in 2010.

And then his 2010 record was called a fluke.

And then he found himself doing better in 2011–and being called one of the best players in baseball.

Read Joe Posnanski’s Sports Illustrated article titled “Do you believe in Jose Bautista?” This sticks out in the article:

“Everybody had always told me I was late swinging the bat,” Bautista says. “Well, I knew that. But they didn’t really tell me what to do about it. Or anyway, I didn’t get the message, you know?”

“We just had to get him on time,” Gaston says. “That was the biggest thing with Jose.”

Murphy and Bautista changed the mechanics of his swing. “He had that natural bat speed,” Murphy says. “He was a natural pull hitter. But he didn’t know how to pull the ball. I told him that with that bat speed he should destroy inside fastballs.”

It didn’t click right away. Then heading into another game, a team mate offered advice:

“You know what you should do,” [Vernon] Wells said. “Think about starting as early as you can possibly imagine, so early that it seems ridiculous. And then start even earlier than that. What do you have to lose? If you look like a fool, you look like a fool. It’s just one game.”

Bautista took Wells’ advice.

Game changing.

Bautista always had the talent and the work ethic. That wasn’t enough. He needed help getting to the next level.

Quite a few teams passed on helping him. Instead, trading him to another team.

And then he landed in a place with leaders who could see the talent — and who were willing to do something to pull it out.

Some players go straight to the big leagues, and the team is ready to support them right away. Others start out slower–with equal, if not more, talent–but need a little help to blow out their stats.

In publishing, it makes sense for publishers to work with authors falling into both categories. Go in it for the long haul. Nurture and encourage the authors–and no matter what, don’t trade talent for any amount of money. Can you imagine if the Red Sox had held onto Babe Ruth?

And teach them about the business so that they have an understanding of everything that’s going down. Develop long-term programs to keep amazing talents in one place, instead of constantly worrying about them jumping ship, from Cleveland to Miami…

And for the authors, share your ideas, but listen, too. Bautista listened when he was with the right team. And that’s hard for some authors. They’ve been on the wrong team for so long–or they’ve listened to too many horror stories from other authors–that when they hit the right team, there’s a lack of trust. They don’t recognize that people are trying to help them, to do the right thing.

Work hard.

Find the right team and/or team members.

Listen.

Work harder.

Lead the season in home runs.

Note: This post is a part of the “What It Takes” series, running on Steven Pressfield’s blog.