Writers complain to me all the time about not being productive. Not finding time to write or finish that book they’re working on. We all make excuses, and some are valid. But I would venture to say there are few excuses that preclude the possibility of being super productive.

Take a minute to consider your “valid” excuses for not writing. And don’t say “I work full-time.” Seriously, that is the lamest excuse ever—pardon me for offending you, if I’ve done so. But countless productive writers work full-time doing something other than writing (a job or homeschooling kids or volunteer work—whatever). Another saying of full of truth: “You always find the time to do the things you love.”

You do. You can. You will, if you make up your mind to stop making excuses.

What I believe is that we often make excuses because we can’t stir up the motivation to write. Honestly, writing is daunting. It takes intense focus. Sometimes we just don’t wanna put that effort out.

Fine. You can either push yourself to write when you don’t want to and write garbage, or you can find a hack around your attitude and write well. Before you can come up with useful hacks (workarounds) to your bad attitude, you need to do some self-examination.

Seriously, do you want to be a writer? A successful, productive writer? Then take a look at your excuses and stop making them. First off, at least identify them.

We Need to First Identify Our Excuses

Author David Estes quit a job he hated to pursue writing full-time, and he now he lives in a tropical paradise. Estes didn’t expect any of that to happen, of course. He spent ten years working as an accountant/operational risk officer.

When Estes’s wife began encouraging him to write, he decided he’d aim for one novel. Almost six years later, he’d written twenty-eight books and published twenty-three of them.

He says, “While I was still working full-time, I was writing two solid hours every day. After my wife and I left our corporate jobs, I continued to write about two to three hours a day, so that didn’t change much. More importantly, I was able to focus more on the marketing side of things, which is what really helped me to break through. As far as my ‘secret,’ it really just comes down to commitment—to my stories, to my characters, to a dream, and to my readers, both present and future. I have so many stories I want to tell, so many characters waiting for their chance to come alive in the pages of my books, and I don’t want any of them to get lost in the netherworld of untold stories.”

People told Bethany Claire that one can’t make a living being a writer.

So, when a successful romance novelist told her during a college writing workshop that her manuscript was ready for publication, Bethany just set it aside and kept working on her teaching degree.

“Right in the middle of the lecture, I just quietly got up and marched myself to the registrar’s office where I withdrew from the university on the spot,” she says.

Bethany threw herself into learning all she could about the publishing industry. She attended the Romance Writers of America conference and left with the belief that she could make a living as a writer—and with the knowledge of what she’d need. “One piece of advice that every single successful author said was ‘write a series,’ so the one book I had completed quickly became Book 1 of my Morna’s Legacy Series.”

In May 2014, about a year after her big leap, Bethany landed on the USA Today best-seller list, and her momentum hasn’t stopped.

She currently has seven novels, two novellas, two box sets, and five audiobooks out, with plans for more next spring. “It requires hard, hard work—much more than the normal forty-hour workweek. It requires focus and drive and the refusal to fail, but I can truly say that I love everything about my job, and I know how fortunate I am to be able to say so.”

I have a friend who works full-time as an attorney in San Francisco. He has a family (which includes a special-needs child). He commutes on the BART (local rapid transit train) one hour to work and back five days a week. I’m not sure if he still does this, but when he was publishing two novels a year, he spent that commute time on his computer writing his scenes. One hour on the way to work in the morning.

One hour on the way home. That’s the only time he wrote—because he had other responsibilities, and he knew how to manage his time to lead a balanced happy life and not destroy his joy or his family.

Is he more naturally productive than other writers? More determined or diligent? Maybe he just has the type of personality that can handle a heavy load and lots of stress and hold it together.

Maybe. Maybe not. But what I’ll venture to say is this: he took the time to analyze his life, his biology (I’ll get more into that later too), his personality, and his habits, then figured out the best way to be a productive writer . . . because he wanted to crank out those novels.

Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison worked full-time raising her sons. She carved out time to write during work breaks, before dawn, and on the weekends. Was it hard? Yes. But she wanted to write novels. And she did.

You see, you have to think hard about what you want. Do you really, truly want to be productive? Or are you just saying that? Is it just about the dream, the enticing picture in your head, of what that successful career looks like to you?

Because if you don’t really want to get there, you may be making a lot of excuses for why you are watching reruns of Friends every night instead of writing a scene in your novel.

Just Do It

I’ve written a lot about procrastination (and if you feel those posts would be helpful for you at this stage, go to the search bar up top and type in procrastination) because it’s easy for me to procrastinate. Me—the super-productive writer who puts out numerous books and hundreds of blog posts and email blasts a year (not to mention online courses and charts and worksheets)—a huge procrastinator.

And one key thing I’ve learned about procrastination is it won’t go away all by its lonesome. Ignoring your excuses won’t make them disappear. Every time you think about sitting down to write, that excuse is going to pop up. Or some other one (“Wow, I can see how dirty the floor is—I better get the mop”). Why? Because you haven’t learned the technique of getting out of your own way.

You are standing on the narrow path to productivity, high walls on either side, and there’s this person blocking you. You can’t get past. So you throw up your hands and say, “What’s the use?” Then you turn, head down, sulking, and amble back to wherever hole you came out of.

You have to change the picture. Instead, face yourself down and say no. “Get out of my way.” Push yourself aside, squeeze by. “Just do it” as the saying goes. Or, to quote Yoda: “There is no try. Do.”

This is an attitude shift. It’s hard. But if you are in your own way, no one is going to move you to the side but you.

And, as I said last week, some people have serious limitations or demands, and their excuses are very valid. No one should accuse or pressure others or him/herself to produce more when it just isn’t humanly possible without severe negative consequences. Everyone’s situation is different, so keep that in mind. You want to push yourself, but don’t be hard on yourself when it’s not “productive” to do so.

We’ll talk more about getting out of your own way in next week’s post. But in the meantime, think about the excuses you make that keep you from writing. Share your thoughts in the comments!

But what some of you are telling me goes beyond the technical. I gave you great, clear guidance in the last two posts on how to successfully outline your novel. There’s no reason any writer can’t follow my 3-step method to outlining and come out the other side with a tight outline for a solid story.

What’s tripping a lot of writers up is more than just writer’s block, procrastination, lack of motivation. It goes deeper. Those are just symptoms of what I think is a key problem.

And that’s lack of enthusiasm. I hear comments like “I just can’t get motivated to write my novel” and “I’m having trouble defining and concentrating on a definite problem that I can blossom into a full work.” Or “I just can’t get started.”

Are You Lacking Enthusiasm?

Here’s what I think is at the heart of some writers’ problems: they don’t have a project they’re excited about.

This segues into some of what I’m looking at on Mondays (productivity), of course, because if you can’t stir up the excitement to work on a book project, you aren’t going to make any progress, let alone get cranking in a productive manner.

I would encourage those of you who struggle with motivation (and the resultant procrastination) to ask yourself: How much do you want it? We have a lot of choices to make in life and very limited time. How will you spend your time each day, each week, each year?

We want to look back on our life and say “I spent my time well. I had a fulfilling life.” Instead of asking “Did I accomplish a lot or produce a lot or publish a hundred books?” we should be focusing on the quality of our life as well as the impact our lives have had on others.

Captain Picard, in one of the Star Trek movies, said, “What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.”

Wrong Reasons to Write

Why am I saying all this? Aren’t we talking about outlining a novel? My point is this: If you are trying to write a novel because

1) you think it would be neat to tell people you’re an author,

2) you’d like to tell yourself you’re an author,

3) you think you should write a book for some unknown reason,

4) you want to write a book because it will validate your worth, and/or

5) or you have this great idea but you’re not all that interested in writing,

do you think you’ll ever get that novel done? I don’t think so. If you want to be a surgeon but it’s not a compelling enough dream or goal to push you through all that needed study and years of med school, you’re going to quit before too long.

Writing a book is like anything in life that takes a bit of commitment. You have to want to do it or, well, you just won’t.

So this is why I’m asking you: Why are you trying to write a novel, or any type of book, when you’re just not motivated?

If you truly love to write and the desire to write a novel is eating at you, and you still can’t get going, it’s possible you haven’t hit on an idea you’re excited about.

I understand that. I generate hundreds of ideas for stories every year. Out of those hundreds, a handful will get me excited. I’ll jot down ideas for plot and characters and stick them in my folder. But it isn’t until I choose one and start developing the concept that I get tingly fingers.

When You’ve Lost Interest

I’ve had numerous projects I’ve started and stopped because I lost interest. Some I’ve pushed through to write anyway because I believed in the themes and felt the books were important to write. Those kinds of projects aren’t all that fun at times, and no one is holding a gun to my head. When I take on a tough project, I have a reason, and I make a commitment. But it’s not likely you’ll have to deal with a situation like this.

If you generate lots of story ideas, and you just can’t get excited (and not because you don’t know how to proceed or don’t know what you’re doing), you might need to do some soul searching and figure out why you want to write a novel when you really don’t.

It’s possible—very possible—that the more you push through that ennui or malaise or whatever it is that is dampening your enthusiasm for writing, you’ll stumble upon a killer concept for a novel that finally, finally,  thrills you so much, you can’t get the ideas down on paper (or computer screen) fast enough.

Writers like that do want to write fiction. The muse is calling them, but they just haven’t found that one story idea that excites them. If you’re unsure if that’s “you,” what should you do?

Well, that depends on you. On the demands on your time. On how this journey is affecting you emotionally and impacting those around you. When we have a passion for something, even if that something seems unattainable, we will pursue it to the reaches of our sanity.

We’ve heard of Olympic athletes who had to overcome childhood polio or who ran track despite amputation of a leg (or two). We’ve heard of climbers who’ve topped Mt. Everest blind or suffering from asthma. People like this are determined. They may be nuts or neurotic, but that’s beside the point (and a matter of opinion). They wanted it, whatever it was.

So you need to ask yourself, when you keep sitting in front of the computer and you’re just not motivated to write, day after day, year after year: How much do I want it? And what will it cost me to pursue it?

I’m not saying that if you commit to writing a novel, you will have to sacrifice life and limb. It will cost you though. It is a big time commitment.

And if you find, at this moment in your life (for this may change next year), that you just aren’t motivated and you are pushing yourself for the wrong reasons, maybe you should quit.

I don’t mean quit writing altogether. You might want to journal daily or write poetry or short stories. Don’t look at quitting as failure.

I took ten years off writing novels (after penning three) because I just wasn’t motivated. I had a bed and breakfast to run and two small children to raise. I wasn’t into writing in that time in my life. There is a season for everything, Ecclesiastes tells us. And that includes “a time to write and a time to not write” (my addition to chapter 3).

So I hope this look at outlining—for that’s what we’ve been talking about these three weeks—has given you all you need to get a move on. Either to get working productively on your outline or to move on.

Take a few (or more) moments for self-evaluation. You may decide halfway into your novel that you want to shelf it. That’s fine. Just be aware of your needs, your motivation, your reasons. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll choose the right course, and you won’t beat yourself over the head when you do.

Your thoughts? Has this look inside helped you make some decisions? Revealed anything to you about why you procrastinate or lack motivation to write?

There are plenty of blog posts and books on productivity. Everyone and their mother has an opinion of how to be productive. What I’ve found by compiling and sifting through all the information is there are three aspects or focuses that affect productivity, and I’m calling them the Productivity ABCs: Attitude, Biology, and Choices.

Basically every good bit of advice on how to be super productive falls into one of those three sections. And you have to address all three to achieve success. It doesn’t work to change your attitude about writing and procrastinating, for example, if you don’t then change your habits that are supportive of your procrastination.

Whether we like to admit it or not, habits are choices. They might be things we do without thinking, but we are aware of them.

I bite my nails sometimes. It’s a habit. Most of the time I don’t know I’m doing it. But I’m aware of the habit. If I really want to stop it, I’d have to come up with a strategy or two to 1) help me become aware whenever I bite my nails and 2) inspire me to stop and doing something else (like put my hands in my lap). I can’t change my behavior until I catch myself engaged in my bad habit.

And therein lies the choice. I can choose to change or not.

This all points back to the post I wrote two weeks ago: How Badly Do You Want It? You gotta want it.

Cop Some Attitude

Productivity isn’t just about getting a lot of stuff done in a (relatively) short period of time. It isn’t just about getting something done faster than most people do. Rather than measure productivity in time increments, start thinking about productivity as a way of being, a mind-set.

That’s the first shift in attitude I’d like to explore. The “A” in the Productivity ABCs.

Consider this: you could be doing “less” and yet be more productive than previously.

In other words, the effort you are putting out is producing more/better results per minute. Isn’t that a primary goal when we talk about ramping up our productivity?

What does “being more productive” look like to you?

While some may think getting the best tools and techniques and tips are the key to super productivity, why is it, then, that getting those things doesn’t give them the results they’d hoped for?

Just having a lot of tips and tools in front of you doesn’t ensure they’ll work for you.

Sometimes these tips and tools aren’t easily applied, or they don’t fit right into our personalities or lives (or both).

To increase productivity, you have to go deeper, inward.

One big issue, which I’ll expound upon in depth later, is self-sabotage. We are usually the biggest thing in our own way. We may blame family, friends, workload, and the cosmos for why we can’t be productive. But have you ever heard the saying: “If you want to get something done, ask a busy person to do it”?

Why is that truth? Because busy people, who are already overcommitted, somehow can get even more done. They can be super productive despite the demands on their life. (But be aware that just being busy doesn’t necessarily mean you’re highly producing.)

In other words, they don’t make excuses. They don’t say “Oh, I can’t because . . .”

That’s not to say we shouldn’t say no when needed. We have to keep balanced and our priorities straight. The worst thing we can do in our effort to be super productive is neglect our responsibilities to the detriment to our family and our health. Saying no is often the best choice.

This is what this whole big exploration of productivity centers on: achieving our goals while maintaining our joy and balance. So our lives are fulfilling and joyous and productive in a healthy way (physically and emotionally).

Move Out of Your Way

So, first thing we often need to do to become super productive is to move out of our own way. Instead of complaining about why we can’t get that book written, pointing fingers at people or situations, we need to take a look at ourselves.

Do you make excuses? How many times during a day do you say, “I can’t find time to write because I have this to do”?

Your excuse might be valid, but I’m guessing most of the time it’s not. It’s an avoidance technique.

If you say you never have any time at all to write, do you spend time playing games on your phone or computer during the day? How much time? Do you find yourself surfing the Net or scanning through pages of news articles throughout the day? Flipping channels in the evenings searching for something to watch?

Really, I don’t have to tell you how much time we all spend (waste) doing things that we really don’t have to do. Sure, I play a couple of games on my phone in the evening, after I’ve put in a long day working on my computer. It clears my mind in some odd way, and it unwinds me so I can get to sleep. That’s one of my habits that helps me be productive (and we’ll go into the topic of habits further on).

So, that’s a valid excuse. I’m not sitting there on the couch with the NBA playing in the background (because I have to see if the Warriors are going to win by thirty points again) because I’m procrastinating about writing.

I know you know the difference.

So maybe this week spend some time thinking about your “productivity mind-set.” Do you consider yourself a productive person? As a writer, are you producing all you’d like to each year? Do you reach your goals each day, each week? Have you ever formulated any writing goals?

See, if you don’t spend the time setting reasonable goals, you’re already creating roadblocks to success.

Grab my book Strategic Planning for Writers—4 Easy Steps. It’s right there on the sidebar. Just click on it and enter your email (which will put you on my mailing list). And if you’re already on my list and didn’t get that book, shoot me an email and I’ll send you the download link.

That book will really help you lay out some doable goals for your writing career.

Make 2017 the year you become a super-productive writer. Be proactive. It isn’t going to happen by accident. You gotta want it.

Share in the comments: What does “being more productive” look like to you?

Because novels are so complex, it makes sense to lay out a blueprint. Face it: few people have the talent or aptitude to wing it when it comes to writing a solid story without first plotting carefully. And—I’m being honest here—every single successful author I personally know who “pantses” through the writing process suffers from varying degrees of frustration, aggravation, and huge blocks of wasted time.

Seriously. I know authors who write, and discard, numerous full drafts of a novel, taking months of precious time to arrive at the solid plot. I know other pantsers who say that writing novels is a painful, grueling process that they almost hate as much as chopped liver.

To me it’s like being given the choice to go under anesthesia to have some teeth pulled or skip the meds and suffer the pain full-on. I have a friend who thinks he’s being macho to decline Novocaine when he has his teeth drilled for cavities. He feels he’d be a wimp if he “succumbed” to a painless dental experience. So he bears up and suffers. What the heck for? Who is he trying to impress? The dentist? His friends?

What I’m saying here is, why suffer needlessly? Writing a great novel is hard even when you take the “easy” route of carefully plotting and outlining your story. You’ll notice I put scare quotes around the word easy. Let’s just say that of all the tough roads to a terrific novel, the easiest way is going to get your there faster and less painlessly.

I actually have fun writing my novels. I don’t stress about them at all. Each is a magical adventure, with characters awaiting my command. And the reason I don’t stress or fret or worry is I have a process that I know works.

If you’re a soufflé expert, and you have a method that works every time so that your soufflé doesn’t collapse into a puddle of ugliness, you approach each soufflé preparation with confidence. You don’t suddenly, irrationally, worry that this one will flop.

You can get that same confidence with every novel you set about writing.

Last week I mentioned how many of my readers are struggling with outlining. They know they need to write a tight outline before they start crafting the scenes of their novel. Outlining isn’t hard if you first get a handle on novel structure.

See, if you don’t do your homework and know how to build strong pillars of novel components first, and if you don’t know what your key scenes need to be and where they are positioned in your novel, you will stare at your outline and scratch your head. What do I put where? What should I have happen next? And this is what a lot of you writers are telling me you’re doing.

So to be successful at outlining your novel, you need to see this as a 3-step process. This is what works for me. You might find it works for you too.

The 3 Steps to Successful Outlining

Let’s make this simple. First, study hard to master the twelve essential pillars of novel construction. How in the world do you think you can outline a great novel if you don’t have a killer concept, for example? I talked about this last week.

To bake a cake, you first need to make sure you have all the necessary ingredients. And if you want a superb cake, you’ll want the finest ingredients, right? If you check your fridge and cupboard and you discover you’re missing flour and eggs, guess what? You’ll need to take a trip to the market and get those items before you can begin.

So before you begin to even consider writing your scenes, you need to have those ingredients set out in front of you.

Last week I talked a bit about the need for a fresh, enticing concept for your novel. But that’s not all you must have (you can’t make a cake with flour and water and expect it to be delicious when done). You need that compelling protagonist with a clear plot goal that the character pursues up to the climax. You need high conflict and high stakes. If you don’t understand what public and personal stakes are all about and why they are super important, you need to read up on this topic.

You also need to know how to identify, lay out, and draw out your key themes. And then there are secondary characters and subplots. Voice for your characters, unique writing style, a solid understanding of scene structure. These are all ingredients for your novel. It makes no sense trying to create an outline for your story if you don’t have these elements ready to throw into the mix.

So, Step 1 is nailing the key novel components. Those are the elements of your story. Make it easy on yourself. Take my fun mini video course (go at your own pace) and nail those four corner pillars.  Get my 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction book AND the workbook and actually work through the workbook! You aren’t gonna learn this stuff staring at the book cover.

Step 2 is knowing your key scenes and where they’re placed. I spent months last year on my blog (see last week’s post) explaining what your ten key scenes are and how they work in your story. In addition to knowing those ten scene types, you also have to know how to craft strong scenes.

While I suppose this could be a step in itself, it’s more an addendum to Step 2. I also wrote countless blog posts on scene structure. We spent months at the start of 2016 looking at bestseller first pages. We also dove into my scene template and discussed the pertinent elements you need to have in your scene outline.

And that brings us to Step 3. To properly outline, you need to have in hand key information that will help you fit the scenes together like puzzle pieces. Here are some of the posts on using my scene template that will explain all you need to include in your scene outline:

Using a Scene Template to Craft Perfect Scenes

Why Using the Ten-Scene Chart Will Give Your Novel a Solid Framework

Nailing That Ten-Scene Foundation for Your Novel

How Writers Can Benefit by Outlining Their Scenes

These are but a few of the posts, so if you need further help, search for more of these by typing “scene outline” or “scene template” in the search bar.

Use my scene template to get all your scenes down, then put them in the best order based on Step 2 (understanding the key scenes). For example, let’s say you’ve come up with 34 scene ideas, and you’ve used the template so you have a clear purpose for each scene—because every scene must have a purpose in your novel—and now you want to move to the outline stage.

What’s the next step? Find those scenes that fit into the slots for your ten key scenes. Identify the scene that presents your inciting incident. Then find the midpoint scene. Then the big scene at the climax, followed by the wrap-up denouement scene. Find your pinch point scenes and get those in place. Keep shuffling through those scenes and putting them in the right places until you have those ten scenes.

Then start layering. Put in the transitional scenes: the reaction to the actions. The processing and decision scenes. Remember the analogy of filling the jar? Start with the big rocks, then add the pebbles, then the sand, then the water. This method works every time if you have a mastery of your essential pillars of novel construction.

Step 3 is using the template (or creating a scene summary using the template’s elements) so you have those scenes are laid out nicely in order. Three steps. It’s not rocket science.

Of course, you can keep this loose enough to add and shift. I’ve often added many scenes to a novel as I’m writing—ones I hadn’t thought of but were perfect for the story. When you have the framework in place, it allows for wondrous creativity and spontaneity.

Don’t be deceived by those who say outlining or plotting destroys creativity. It’s quite the opposite! A framework allows for the best creativity. Think of those eighty-eight piano keys and how many thousands of diverse and magnificent pieces have been created within the framework and limitation of those keys.

These three steps will ensure your success. Nail your pillars. Then nail your understanding of the ten key scenes and the natural action-reaction cycle of behavior. Then use the scene template to get all (or most) of your scenes down, in order, clear of each one’s purpose in helping or hindering your protagonist from reaching his goal.

Any questions? What is the hardest challenge for you in this process? Share in the comments.

We might whip ourselves, pour on the pressure with guilt or threats, and while that might make us get the work done, we will be miserable doing it.

When it comes to writing our books, we certainly don’t want it to be a miserable experience. Writing is supposed to be fun! We’re supposed to love writing—that’s why we long to do it full-time and make it our career.

Sadly, I’ve met too many career authors who hate writing. They didn’t start out that way. But while they’re currently cranking out best sellers year after year, they’re not happy campers.

Habits and methods aside (for I believe some are miserable because they don’t ever plot, and they stress all the way through writing each book worried they won’t make their publisher’s deadline), many writers have learned to be productive . . . but at the cost of their joy (and perhaps even their sanity). 

The Goal: Being Happy in Productivity

Maybe that’s too obvious to mention—that we don’t just want to crank out books; we want to be happy doing so.

But I think it’s worth discussing.

Some writers, like me, love the stress of deadlines. I used to work for various newspapers in what was called the Composing Department. That’s the department that put the pages of the paper together—oh, long before computer tech invaded the newspaper world.

You know—back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Our job was to print out the newspaper articles on a special paper, use an Xact-Of knife to cut out the columns, then run the pieces of paper through the waxer roller (to apply wax to the back). From there we’d stick the pieces on the big white tagboard pages of the mocked-up edition until every article and ad was in place. All the while the clock was ticking above our heads and editors were leaning over our shoulders, hurrying us along with press deadline looming.

More than once, I had an editor snatch the big sheet off the work table the second I ran the roller over the last waxed piece, to hurry it over to the camera room. Whew.

But I had fun. I liked the pressure and challenge. And I’m a weird type of person that loves to inflict ridiculous self-imposed deadlines on my projects—because that’s what helps me be productive and crank out my books (or blog posts or email blasts).

Here’s the thing: I’ve learned how to be productive and happy doing so because I’ve taken the time to do the analysis. Which is what you’re going to be able to do after going through all this material.

I’ve analyzed my personality, my habits, my attitudes, the ways I self-sabotage, the types of excuses I make, the hacks that work (to get me crashing through my obstacles) and don’t work, my biology, my eating and drinking preferences . . . and more.

And after analyzing all this stuff that makes up the picture of who I am and how I function each day, it become super clear to me how to be highly productive—and still stay happy.

In fact, all this analysis didn’t just help me keep my joy of writing; it elevated it.

Productivity Must Have a Foundation of Proficiency

I mentioned how satisfying it is to publish a book. Think, then, how fun and exciting it would be to publish three or four books a year. Great books. Ones readers love.

Of course, part of that success—a big part—is reliant on your skill and application of the hard work and time put into mastering your writing craft. But we’re not delving into those deep waters in our look at productivity. Let’s just assume you have been putting in the hard work to become an excellent writer. And in order to be highly productive, that’s a must. If you don’t master the skills of your craft, you can’t produce great books on a regular basis.

Let’s just stop here for a second.

A big reason so many aspiring writers aren’t productive is they haven’t mastered the skills needed. It’s no wonder they can’t finish that first (or third) novel. Or that memoir or self-help book.

If you’re standing in front of a machine that makes door handles or microcircuits—anything, really—and you don’t know how to operate the darn thing, nothing is going to happen. You won’t produce anything. Those little parts won’t come marching down the assembly line conveyor belt.

So, while you may not be ready to produce a line of books because you haven’t gotten your chops yet, reading this material on how to be productive is going to help you immensely.

Why? Because you can apply everything you learn here to your pursuit of mastering your craft.

Productivity and Life in General

It’s the same with anything we attempt in life. You need to learn how to be productive in the pursuit of any goal. You want to learn how to sew your own clothes? Turn your ugly yard into a beautiful and bountiful vegetable garden? All these tips will help you be productive in reaching your goal.

So while this information is geared to writers cranking out books, I hope you’ll see how you can apply all of this to life in general. To everything you take on in your life.

It’s the tweak on the old adage: writer, know thyself. When you understand yourself—your attitudes and motivation and biology—you can make wise and practical decisions and choices that will impact your success.

Don’t you want to be productive and successful in everything you do?

I do. And I want to make the best use of my time, which is a precious limited resource in our lives. I want every minute to count, but I also want to live a balanced life, free from unhealthy stress (I qualify that because I believe some stress is great for us), with my priorities straight.

Each of us has a different order and set of priorities, and you know yours. So keep those in mind as you go through the steps to becoming a highly productive writer.

What about you? How important is it for you to love what you do? Have you ever stopped to analyze what factors contribute toward your productivity and which ones hinder it? Share some of your thoughts about attitude and productivity.

I want to take a look at the top 20 or so, and throughout the year, on Thursdays, I’ll be addressing these. Suffice it to say, many requested topics are ones I’ve covered extensively on my blog. Which tells me a few things:

• My readers aren’t aware they can search the blog for past posts. You can. And should! There are hundreds of thousands of words written and published on Live Write Thrive. I’ve spent hundreds of hours writing these posts, and the sheer amount of content, if words could be transformed into grains of sand, would be so heavy, I doubt even Hercules could lift the sack. While I often revisit topics from time to time, it’s usually to share a new insight or take on the matter. So, if you need help on some bit of craft or how to survive the writing life, do a search in that plain-old search bar on the top right side of my blog. Then read up!
• Or my readers have read all they can get on the topic (from my blog and craft books) and still want more. And that’s great. I’ll give more. That’s why I’m here—to keep it coming.
• Or my readers have read it all and just don’t get it. Whatever it is. I know how that feels. Sometimes it just takes time. If you’re a beginning writer and you’re facing a mountain of a climb to get to the top just to be able to outline a novel or write succinctly, you need to be patient and just work on one key skill at a time.

I’m so glad to hear from you. I want to provide the content you need, when you need it. Your feedback gives me lots of ideas, and I’m reaching out to industry professionals to guest post on some of those topics (in which they’re experts in).

So let’s take a look at the first of twenty requested topics (and I’m not doing this in any specific order).

Help with Outlining

Seeing as I spent months on this topic, it got me scratching my head. I’ve probably posted twenty to fifty posts in the last year that touched on outlining,

I’m big on outlining, as many of you know. I think it’s crucial to outline your novel before you tackle writing it. And of the hundreds of novels I critique and edit each year, very few are well structured. Very few need only a slight amount of reworking. Very few have solid plots with scenes in the right places.

Maybe some of those writers did outline their novel. But here’s the thing: if you don’t understand how a novel is structure—and I’m talking very basic here—then your outline is going to suck. Sorry, but that’s the truth. That’s why I spent months going over the ten key scenes you need in your novel. I’m going to give you a list of some of those posts, as well as the chart to download, so you can get this outlining thing started the right way.

I say this a lot: structure is key. The best writing instructors agree that novels follow a basic structure. And this story structure applies to movies and plays as well. Readers and viewers are accustomed to structure. So while you can break the rules, it is best to learn them and follow them until you nail them. Don’t go with that adage “Rules are meant to be broken” until you’re an expert on the topic.

One person wrote in their survey response: “I need help outlining. I’m having trouble defining and concentrating on a definite problem that I can blossom into a full work.” Another wrote: “I need help refining my idea/plans for a novel so that I can begin outlining and writing.”

Listen, before you can dig into that outline, you have to work on those pillars of novel construction. You need to come up with a concept with a kicker: an original, fresh, riveting idea. Sure, there are no new ideas out there. But you can take an old idea and give it new life with originality.

I’ve said this perhaps a hundred times: if you start with a weak, boring concept, it’s going to be near impossible to write a great novel based on that foundation. Hear me clearly on this. Too many writers waste months of their lives writing boring novels. Don’t go there. Don’t start writing until you’re sure you have a killer concept. You’ll disappoint yourself and any reader chancing upon your book.

I wrote lots of blog posts on this, and then put together the book The 12 Key Pillars of Novel Construction. And then created an online video mini course on the four corner pillars. You can’t make excuses for not learning this stuff. Many writers have emailed me to say thanks for all this material because it’s exactly what they needed and couldn’t find anywhere else.

And that’s just the concept.

If you’re floundering at this early stage of your novel development, first nail those pillars. Once you have clear your concept, protagonist and goal, conflict and high stakes, theme, secondary characters and subplots—all that stuff—you can begin to lay out that outline using my template and charts. I’ve made it as easy as possible.

While I’ll get into this topic further next week, for now, if you’re struggling with outlining, and you’ve already gotten all your novel components strongly in hand, read or reread these posts, and then download my charts and templates and get to work!

The First 10 Scenes You Need to Plot for Your Novel

Layering a Subplot into Your Novel

Ways Novelists Can Break from the Structural Rules

Understanding Premise and the One-Sentence Story Concept

Layering 10-20-30 Scenes in Your Novel

These are just a few of the posts on the topic, so if you’re in need of going deep here, read them all. They ran every Monday for most of 2016.

Here are some of the charts you can download:

The 10-Key Foundational Scenes (PDF)

10 Key Foundational Scenes (Excel Chart)

20 Scenes for a Romance Novel

Scene Outline Template

Check out my resource page for other freebies that will help you with all this.

What specific issue do you have with outlining your novel? What resource (book, chart, post, etc.) has helped you the most? Share in the comments.

Some authors write every day; they feel they have to. And maybe finding time to do so isn’t an issue. Others write sporadically, sometimes putting writing off for months, for whatever reasons. But how frequently you sit down to write, or how many words you write a day, doesn’t necessarily correlate to how much you produce.

Plenty of authors who hardly have an hour to write a week put out more books a year than some authors who write all day every day. And while being a “fast” writer may imply you can crank out more books than a “slow” one, that’s also not necessarily the case (I put those words in quotes because fast and slow are a matter of perspective.)

Do you recall the fable of the tortoise and the hare? Who won the race? We’ll talk about all this later on.

So, time does not equal productivity. The trick is to get the most “productive” bang from each minute you write or engage in any writing-related activity.

You may have a picture in your mind of what success looks like to you—and that picture includes having numerous published books that sell well. You may have already written a book or a dozen books, but perhaps you’re not feeling productive.

You may argue that too many things are vying for your time, and you can’t get into a schedule and mind-set to produce on a regular basis.

This is the challenge for just about every writer, and it’s nothing new. Creatives of all types, throughout the centuries all across the globe, have had to figure out a way to carve out the time for their creative pursuits. Much of the time, creative people have to work other jobs to support themselves. Not all of us have the luxury of devoting huge chunks of time to our writing.

Yet, surely you’ve heard of many writers who’ve “cranked out” books while working full-time. Or raising and homeschooling a passel of kids. I know one writer who’d penned six award-winning novels in that many years, wrote and published about six hundred magazine articles a year, while raising and homeschooling six kids under the age of ten (at that time). Not sure why six is a constant here, but it is.

Was I astonished? You bet. Jealous? Oh yeah. I, who many consider crazy productive, felt like a worm when I learned about this author. How in the heck did she manage all that? She must be a genius (well, she is, with multiple advanced college degrees in subjects that would blow your mind).

Okay, I chalked it up to her being an exception. An unusually organized person. Maybe borderline (or beyond?) neurotic. A type AAA personality that would make my type A look like a wet noodle. No one can be productive like that. Or practically no one.

Or so I thought.

Super-Productive Writers Are Just Crazy, Right?

I’ve gotten to know a number of super-productive authors. They each have published more than one hundred books, many of them best sellers. Many of them long, deep books—not eight-page picture books for children.

These authors also find time to teach, raise kids, conduct workshops, tour, go fishing or play golf, keep up a blog, teach online courses . . . and the list goes on.

What I learned about these authors that surprised me is this: they’re not neurotic. They’re not obsessed, foregoing sleep, burning the candle at both ends until they melt into a puddle of wax. They’re actually quite balanced and level-headed. They show no hint of madness—as far as I can tell (other than the usual creative madness).

So, what’s their secret?

I’m going to share some identifiers of productive writers with you. But keep this in mind as well: everyone is different, and what works for one writer may not work for you.

My aim in tackling this topic is to give you as much helpful insight into productivity as possible so you can become the highly productive writer you dream of being.

We’re going to look into attitude, habits, hacks, and practical steps you can take to squeeze as much productivity out of you as possible without making you crazy. They’re the ABCs of success.

If you want to be a successful writer, you have to be productive. It’s that simple.

So get ready to learn some cool things and be open to making adjustments in your attitude and schedule and habits.

I believe every writer can become a productive one, and that being productive brings great rewards. We feel a wonderful sense of accomplishment when we publish a book and send it out into the world to readers. But we feel an even greater satisfaction when we crank those books out and repeatedly thrill our audience that is eagerly awaiting our next masterpiece.

An Important Consideration

I don’t want to ignore this one important point, though: some writers have huge challenges. Some suffer from chronic illness. Some are caring full-time for a loved one. Some have mental challenges. While it’s possible a writer with tough challenges might never crank out books, there are ways for her to at least be more productive during those coveted writing times.

It’s not helpful to lay on the guilt if you know you’re unable to produce like so many other writers. We should all find joy in our writing, regardless of whether we write ten books or only ten pages a year. However, I believe every writer can benefit from exploring these productivity ABCs. Only know your circumstances and abilities. So take this journey with me and see what works for you.

Ready to get cranking? Next Monday, we’ll look at the first big chunk we need to break into grist for the mill: attitude.

How’s your attitude? What attitude of yours gets in your way to becoming super productive? Share in the comments.

Do you feel like you’re trapped in a dark hole of morass, sinking deeper and deeper, the mud rising to your hips, your chest, your throat? Is despair smothering you like a heavy blanket? Is your own life moving past you like a train, and you are forced to watch and cannot board? Has crippling lethargy wrapped its tentacles around you so tightly that you cannot move, sucking from you all energy and the will to live?

If you want to get better, to feel alive again, if you want to step out of this darkness and take control of your recovery, you can use your skill with words to help yourself.

I’ve been there. I understand. Together with Alexander Draghici, a psychologist specialising in emotional disorders, I’ve written a book to guide writers like you out of the dark hole.

You can be your own therapist and at the same time improve your fiction-writing skills.

How to Describe Your Emotions

When you suffer depression, your brain produces intense negative emotions: grief, anger, resentment, fear, inner pain, regret, shame, guilt, worry, envy, self-loathing, and more.

As a writer, you have a powerful tool to reduce these emotions: simply use your descriptive skills. The effect is astonishing and fast.

Here’s how you do it:

Whenever you feel bad, identify the emotion. Observe where in the body you feel it and how it feels.

Describe it. Use a simile (a comparison with something else).

“I experience . . . It feels like . . .”

“I experience. . . It feels as if . . .”

Here are some examples from my own notes:

“I experience fear. It feels like a giant iron fist clutched around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs.”

“I experience anger. It feels like hot acid rising from my stomach into my throat.”

“I experience worry. It feels as if I had an ugly toad squatting between my shoulder blades.”

“I experience inner pain. It feels like a knife ripping inside my gut.”

By labelling and observing your emotions, you’re objectifying them. They lose their power over you.

At the same time, you’re becoming a better writer. You’re creating vivid emotional descriptions that you can use in your fiction. In years to come, whenever a point-of-view character experiences one of these emotions, you can look up your notes on how it felt to you. You’ll have a fresh, original description that will dazzle your readers with its raw, vibrant authenticity.

Don’t worry if you can’t come up with brilliant prose. Just describe what you feel.

From My Personal Experience

I discovered this technique after a session with a cognitive-behavioral therapist who advised me to label and observe emotions so I would recognize them.

This was tremendously helpful—and I immediately saw that this therapy could double up as practical writing research.

It got to the point where I actually welcomed the negative emotions. (“Ah, jealousy! Great, that’s a new one for my collection.”) I felt pleased about the bad feeling . . . and that immediately gave me a boost.

Those phrases have been so useful in my fiction writing. If you read my short stories and novels, you’ll come across sentences like these:

“The iron fear of fist clutched around his chest and squeezed the air from his lungs.”

“Anger rose like hot acid from her stomach.”

“Worry squatted like an ugly toad between her shoulder blades.”

“Pain ripped like a knife in his gut.”

Sound familiar?

Book reviewers often praise my skill at conveying emotions in a fresh, vivid way. One reviewer even quoted the sentence about the ugly toad as an example of my original writing.

Expert Advice from Psychologist Alexander Draghici

For a person who struggles with depression, getting a handle on those negative emotions can sometimes feel like a herculean task. Depression is often perceived as a deep and heavy fog that clouds your judgment and prevents you from finding your way out. You feel “bad,” but you don’t know how to describe your emotion, and this will most likely cancel your ability to exercise control over your feelings.

By using writing as a therapeutic tool, you’ll be amazed to see how your once hazy emotions will slowly begin to take shape right in front of your eyes. In other words, you’re no longer fighting in the shadows but on an open field.

Think of it this way. People who struggle with depression tend to ruminate a lot. They spend hours thinking about various causes, factors, and consequences of their negative mood.

The main problem with rumination is that it leads nowhere. You’re like a lost explorer, going in circles, thinking that this path or the next one might get him out of trouble.

Writing down your thoughts and emotions is the equivalent of climbing atop a tree in order to get a better sense of direction. More specifically, it gives you the opportunity to temporarily separate yourself from that confusing mix of negative thoughts and emotions and become an outside observer who can clearly see the big picture.

Metaphorically speaking, the act of putting your emotions on paper symbolises your attempt to externalise them. Even more, by describing each and every one of your troubling feelings, you make an effort to understand the very core of depression, thus taking the first steps toward healing.

Just like the profiler who manages to sketch accurate portraits based on vague descriptions, you too can create a detailed image of your negative emotions just by putting a few words on a piece of paper. In fact, you can even improve this exercise by painting/drawing a picture for every emotion that you’ve described.

Do you struggle with feelings of depression? Have you tried writing down descriptions of how you feel? Has this helped you?

Rayne Hall is the author of more than sixty books, mostly dark fantasy and creepy horror, as well as the editor of the Ten Tales fantasy and horror anthologies.

Visit her website or follow her on Twitter for writing and publishing tips.

Subscribers to her newsletter for writers get a free pdf workbook Grow Your Unique Author Voice.

Write Your Way Out of Depression: Practical Self-Therapy for Creative Writers is available for Kindle and in paperback.

As writers, we’re concerned about being productive. Or, at least we should be. Why? Well, how can we truly call ourselves writers if we aren’t producing anything others can read? We can journal for years, or toy with ideas. We might even pen a novel or two.

But at what point are we really “writers”?

In the professional sense—the career sense—we’re not writers until we’ve published something.

I’d spent more than twenty years writing novels, acquiring literary agents, and submitting my work to publishers. Though I considered myself a writer—because the bulk of my time was spent dedicated to carving out my writing career—I wasn’t yet a professional writer. Not until my books became available to readers.

If we are aspiring to become a “true” writer and publish our books, at some point we have to think about productivity.

Why? Because once we connect with readers and start building a platform and fan base, we don’t want to lose them. You may be content with writing and publishing just one book in your life. And that’s fine. That’s what Harper Lee did (up until the end of her life, when she published her second and last novel). But one book a lifetime is hardly the definition of a productive writer.

 Readers Expect a Steady Flow of Books

 Writers who want to make a career out of writing books have to think about productivity. Readers discover a writer they like, and when they do, they’ll usually read everything the author has written to date. That’s what I do when I find an author whose writing I love. And that’s exciting for an author; those are the kind of fans she wants.

But what happens if readers are waiting for the next book to come out . . . and it doesn’t? While some fans will buy a favorite author’s newest novel whenever it releases, there’s a matter of traction to consider.

Simply said: readers want a steady flow of books from their favorite authors.

And how can an author truly gain traction (grow his fan base and sales) if he doesn’t regularly put out books?

I’ve heard it said by many in the industry, best-selling authors included, that to really be a success (as far as productivity goes), a writer needs to release a book every three to four months.

While that’s not likely to occur if you’re solely on a traditional publishing track (since you are at the mercy of your publisher’s schedule), it is something not only doable but desirable if you’re self-publishing.

This isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but the logic is sound. Especially if you’re trying to brand yourself. You may be writing a series or two (or five). Your readers, now that you’ve hooked them with that first novel, are eagerly anticipating book number two. If you wait a year or more to release the next one in the series, and then wait another two years for the subsequent book, that momentum of growing readers may dwindle or fizzle out altogether.

And another consideration: How can you start making a steady (or even terrific) living from your books if you aren’t cranking them out on a regular basis?

What Cranking Is Not

 Maybe the term “cranking it out” has negative connotations to you. I get that. We don’t want to pump out garbage in the form of books just to meet our self-imposed deadline of “a book every three months.” That will bring fresh meaning to the word deadline. Your career will be dead in the water if all you focus on is the productivity and not the quality.

So the challenge for writers is to figure out how to be super productive and not compromise quality or integrity.

I believe writers can learn to “crank it out” in a good way. And while doing so may be easier for some and harder for others, I believe any writer can become super productive, and I’m going to show you how.

It’s not just a matter of attitude, although that plays one part. I believe we need to consider way more than attitude to become super productive.

A New Series on Live Write Thrive

For a number of weeks, to kick off the New Year (and since this is when many of us make resolutions for the year), we’re going to go deep into writer productivity. Not just look at stuff that will help you be organized or get a book written but how to be super productive.

Hundreds of you readers filled out my survey last year, and some key issues pervaded the answers. Writers are struggling with motivation, getting their books finished, finding time to write, and . . . being productive in general. Since I crank out quite a few books a year, as well as 100,000+ words in blog posts, create online courses, teach workshops, and work nearly full-time, I’ve got a good grasp on how to be super productive and still have a balanced and fulfilling life.

I don’t write every day. In fact, I took a sixteen-month break writing fiction until I jumped into penning Colorado Dream this last fall. While I usually put most of my editing jobs on hold, I wasn’t able to do that. But I still found time to crank out that 130,000-word novel, and, while on a writing roll, wrote a long novella as a prequel (and freebie for those joining my Western romance readers’ list), and published both before Christmas.

Am I just crazy or a fast writer? Well, maybe both.

But that isn’t why I was able to get two novels written and published in a few months. It’s because I learned my ABCs. Meaning, I’ve taken the time, over the years, to analyze my attitudes about writing, my biology, and my choices. This self-examination, which is what this new series will cover, is what will help you hack past the roadblocks you’ve (yes, you) set up that are blocking your way to productivity.

We’re going to take a look at these three key factors to productivity—and I think you’re going to learn some new, fresh ideas on the subject. You might think of them as the “Productivity ABCs”: attitude, biology, and choices.

Most importantly, we’re going to tackle those obstacles to productivity—within and without.

So, I hope you’ll join in here with me and share your thoughts on these posts.

I’d like to know what #1 thing is preventing you from being super productive as a writer. And then I’d like to know what three things you think you can start doing right now to move this obstacle out of the way so you can scootch past it.

Share in the comments! And get ready to change your life! Mondays will be all about writer productivity, so be sure to put your email in the box at the top right of this page to get the posts delivered to your email every week.

In addition, if you’re serious—really serious—about being a super-productive novelist, you need to join my Novel Writing Fast Track group. Thousands are in this group, and they’re benefiting from all the emails sent with tips and helpful advice and resources.

When you join this group, you get my writing craft book Writing the Heart of Your Story for free. And you’ll get at least one free ebook a month, and can enter the monthly drawing to win a great writing craft book written by one of my favorite writing instructors.

It’s all free! And you can unsubscribe anytime. So make it your choice to be proactive about your writing career right now. Stop procrastinating and making excuses (if that’s what you do) and take advantage of all this free help.

You can join my group by Clicking Here!

And if you are already on my mailing list but not in the Fast Track group, all you have to do is click on the “Update Your Preferences” link at the bottom of any of those emails sent to you. Fill out the form and make sure the JOIN box is checked, so you’ll be added to the Fast Track group.

May 2017 be a year of great productivity!

Today I’ll be posting with my “publisher hat” on, and I’ll share with your readers 25 tips that will help you impress publishers and distinguish you and your work from the slush piles. 

1. Understand that publishers are very busy people. We are juggling multiple authors and manuscripts, as well as promotions, events, and marketing. We have little time to spare, especially when swamped with hundreds of manuscripts, many of them sent when a publisher is closed for submissions. Showing a publisher that you understand they are busy and submitting during their open submissions time shows you respect their time.
2. Learn everything you can about the publishing company. Learn about the publisher, their authors, and the works they’ve published to ensure that you’d be a good fit. Connect with them on social networks. Share their posts and tweets. Buy some of their titles, especially in the genre in which you write.
3. Read and follow their submission guidelines. Most publishers post their guidelines on their websites. Read them carefully, and pay special attention to whether or not they have a specific time frame for submissions. Follow their guidelines! Give them exactly what they want. Be prepared to answer questions, especially regarding past sales.
4. Hook the publisher in the first sentence of your query. Just like a well-written book, your query should hook them in the first sentence. Read your first sentence, and ask yourself: “Would this make me want to know more if I were a publisher?” Ensure that you follow the Four Firsts for your manuscript.Don’t know what I’m talking about? Learn about the Four Firsts here.
5. Let your personality shine as a positive person. Don’t be afraid to show publishers who you are. Just be sure it’s someone publishers will like. Be humble, appreciative, and a team player. Don’t act like you know it all. You don’t.
6. Be open to learning. With the ever-changing landscape of publishing, successful authors must always be open to change—and to experimenting when new things come along. Show a willingness to learn and to evolve with the industry.
7. Be everywhere online! Recognize the importance of a website, blog, and social networks, and use them frequently. Even if you’re not yet published, you should have a website, a blog, and Facebook and Twitter pages dedicated to your writing. Publishers will look for these.
8. Have an impressive platform in the SAME genre as the one you’re pitching. If you’ve been writing nonfiction and have a huge following there but are pitching a work of fiction, understand that the audience isn’t the same—unless there is a common theme. Example: Nonfiction books on dealing with autistic children have a specific audience of people looking for help with dealing with autistic children. A novel featuring an autistic child as the main character would then appeal to this audience.
9. Don’t rave about how awesome your book is and how it’s going to sell thousands of copies in the first week. Be humble and stick to the facts.
10. Show you understand your audience and that you know who your target audience is. Don’t pitch a book with a ten-year-old main character as a novel for adults. And don’t pitch an unpublished book as “for anyone, any age.” There are few titles that fit that description, but this is established by sales and time.
11. Don’t send the book until the publisher asks for it. Unless the publisher’s guidelines tell you to send it with the query, wait for them to ask for it.
12. Ensure your book is as error free as possible. Run a spell-check and grammar-check before sending it. And have at least one other person edit the entire work, preferably someone with actual editing skills who understands CMOS rules.
13. Know what CMOS is and understand the rules. Have a hard-cover edition on hand or sign up for the online edition. Show your knowledge of CMOS style rules in your manuscript. CMOS is the writer’s Bible.
14. Do not e-mail the publisher to ask if he/she has read your book yet. If the guidelines do not stress a time limit, ask for one when the publisher requests your manuscript.
15. Impress them with your publishing credits. If you have published other works in the same genre or type (fiction or nonfiction) as the book you want to submit, let the publisher know, and point them to your Amazon profile page.
16. Make sure you have an Amazon profile page if you have published works available on Amazon. If you have no profile page, you’ll look like someone who doesn’t know what she’s doing.
17. If you have won a prestigious award, mention it briefly. Ensure you know the difference between a “prestigious” award and one that means very little.
18. If you have published other works in the same genre, briefly summarize what you have done to promote them. Impress publishers with your marketing abilities and creativity.
19. Reviews are vital! Make sure you have a substantial amount of reviews on your published works, especially those in the same genre as the book your are hoping to submit. Don’t query a publisher or agent until you have 10+ reviews on the majority of your works, and an average rating of 3.5 or above stars.
20. Don’t pitch a publisher your manuscript while also pitching your services as a book cover designer, editor, marketing coach, formatter, etc. Query separately. Be professional.
21. Be editable. Your book isn’t perfect. Even if you’ve had it edited by someone else, the publisher will need to know that you’re open to being edited.
22. Don’t ask if you can supply the cover, cover description, or images for the cover. Publishers have their own creative designers.
23. Understand you have competition. Know who your competitors are and who has written works comparable to yours. Watch how they promote their works on social networks. Learn from those who are selling.
24. Make the publisher curious enough to want to ask you questions. Don’t tell them everything in your first e-mail.What you want is for the publisher to engage in conversation with you. You want to give them everything they ask for and hint at anything outside of that. For example, if a publisher doesn’t ask for sales data in their guidelines, you could mention you made a best-sellers list for two weeks in a row. Let them ask for more information. When they do, give them everything you can, including where the best-sellers list was published, what ranking you got, and total sales to date for that title.
25. Express gratitude. Be thankful for the publisher’s time and for any feedback or advice they give you. They don’t have to give you any feedback­—or their time.

Learn anything here you hadn’t thought about before? What items do you feel are the most important to convey to a publisher about yourself or your book?