Stephen Covey’s recent Huff Post article on children and the crisis in education inspired me to write in response, which in turn led me to think about his seminal work The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Here’s my take on how these habits might apply to nonfiction writers who want to transform themselves into published authors:

1. Be proactive. Writers write. It’s what we do, every single day. As Ray Bradbury once said,

“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you’re doomed.”

Produce “shitty first drafts,” as Anne Lamott describes them, by all means–but don’t for one moment kid yourself that they are any good. Edit, hone, refine. Don’t expect good writing to come easily. It doesn’t (speaking as someone with over 20 years’ experience as a mainstream, internationally published best-selling author and freelance journalist). And that’s the joy. Because anything that comes too easy doesn’t feel as intrinsically satisfying as something that requires focus, skill, and patience. Wouldn’t you agree?

2. Begin with the end in mind. When I received the request from Gaia Books for authors back in the early 1990s and read one title that was up for grabs: The Book of Crystal Healing, I immediately saw (in my mind’s eye) my name on the cover. “Thoughts are things.” See your book; imagine what it will feel like to hold it in your hands, to direct friends and family to amazon.com to read about it, to position it at the back of the room to generate interest and sales when you offer workshops or talks as a published author. Make the experience real…that’s the beauty of our imaginations. And if you’re a writer then you have that readily at your disposal, right?

3. Put first things first. For goodness sakes, learn about the industry you intend to get involved in. There are no end of resources available to you on the web. Find them. Read them. Absorb them. One of the biggest beefs of agents and publishers is the number of aspiring authors who don’t know the first thing about their business. And publishing is a business. Think about why you want to write your book and use that as a springboard to determine whether custom-publishing, self-publishing, POD or finding an agent and mainstream publisher is right for you. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, money and potential heartbreak in the long run. Professional writers are curious individuals. Become more curious and informed about a world you don’t yet know.

4. Think win:win. Your nonfiction book is not all about you and what you want to tell the world. It’s about solving your readers’ problem(s). Think of it as providing a recipe…something your reader can use to create a delicious meal. What content will be most important to them? How can you structure the book so it’s compelling and easy to read? Make it easy for the reader (who might be an agent or publisher in the first instance) to say “yes.” Give folks what they want and need.

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Pity today’s poor literary agents. Not only do they face a barrage of low quality inquiries, but many writers have no conception of what their working life is like. As with #4, taking the perspective of the agent or publisher (many of whom have blogs…go find and read them!) helps you understand how to make them love you. It’s not difficult. Like, reading their submission guidelines, following instructions…if you don’t have that interest in attention to detail, why on earth would someone trust that you can provide reliable content?

6. Synergize. Boy, do some folks have trouble with constructive feedback, as Penny C. Sansevieri found and reported on in a recent Huff Post blog. Find experts who can help you, listen to them, and learn. Authors pride themselves on being lifelong learners. Are you one?

7. Sharpen the saw. The best tip I can offer you for creative renewal comes from my own experience as well as reading folks like Twyla Tharp and Sue Grafton who understand the importance of exercise and action. According to an article I read recently in the AARP bulletin by Barbara Strauch, entitled Put your brain to work, vigorous exercise–whether that’s at the gym, walking the dog, or playing a ball game–generates new brain cells, which in turn create more neural pathways, the very pathways that connect otherwise disparate concepts and result in “aha” insights. Taking time out is not a waste of time for successful authors like us. I get some of my most inspired ideas (like a genius title for a book that I sold recently to a client, that came to me while walking my dog) when I’m away from the computer, not thinking of work.

So. How many of these habits do you currently embrace? And how many are you prepared to?

What can a publishing company’s in-house training video teach you about creating compelling content? Check the main article in my April newsletter.

As celebrity book publicist, Arielle Ford, outlined in a recent email campaign, the key to selling books and products is to tell a story. That advice applies even when you’re writing nonfiction. In 2003 I wrote an article for the Harvard Management Communication Letter entitled What’s Your Story? (Reprint # C0307C) in which I outlined why and how well-told corporate stories so powerfully engage customers and employees alike. If you want to attract good agents, the best publishing houses and hook your readers–you need to know how to convert your knowledge into intriguing narrative.

I asked my friend, the witty and wonderful Mary Gordon Spence (a.k.a. the Story Whisperer) for her thoughts on how aspiring nonfiction authors can become “fabulous storytellers.”

Mary Gordon Spence

Dr. Liz: From Joseph Campbell to the Harvard Business Review we read about the importance of storytelling–for engaging readers and helping them connect with and remember what we want to share with them. As an exemplary storyteller yourself, Mary Gordon, what’s the most important thing to remember when converting “information” into story?

Mary Gordon: You know that old saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words?”  My take on that is that some well-chosen words can create a visual tapestry more powerful than any picture.  And when we paint with words, we allow our audiences to create a broader and richer image of our message using their own patterns of visual thinking.

Many people subscribe to the idea that statistics are the stories.  I was married to a statistician; I know these people!  They love the research, the experiments, the formulas–research for the sake of research.  I never understood why they wouldn’t DO something with their findings, like applying them to make the world a better place.  They said that was up to someone else. If we want to create change or engage people then we need to be those “someone elses.”

I heard a speaker who was trying to garner community support for a new hospital. “You should see our new hospital beds; we’ve got 37,” he said. They are more durable and have more settings.  We’re proud of our beds.  They are state of the art.” In my opinion this speaker had confused the statistics about the beds with the stories about the patients who would occupy the beds.  I wanted to know how their lives would be forever changed by this hospital.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that our messages should be unboring, unexpected, understandable, uncomplicated and unforgettable–we just can’t accomplish this with numbers alone.

Dr. Liz: My clients are principally business people who recognize the value of writing (or having me ghostwrite) quality nonfiction books that, once published, can be used as promotional tools. Many are unaware of the trend toward “creative” nonfiction, which read almost like novels. Do you see a link between (and can you explain more about) this trend for storytelling and the proliferation of information available nowadays, especially via the Internet?

Mary Gordon: I don’t embrace the category of creative nonfiction.  Maybe it’s come about because folks used to think nonfiction was boring and now they’re finding out that it’s not.  The truth is more powerful and colorful than anything we can make up!

Telling a good story actually begins with the way we see things.  Two people can witness the same situation.  One can tell the dullest version of the event; the other can create a powerful story.  Both are factual.  My mantra is FINDING MAGIC IN THE MUNDANE.  That means noticing all the intricacies lurking right below the surface; they indeed are magic.  I think we should carry magnifying glasses around, real or imaginary, especially if we want to tell good stories.

Dr. Liz: Are good storytellers born or can anyone be taught to become one?

Mary Gordon: Everyone is a teller of stories.  How we approach storytelling is something else we can blame our parents for!  If we were born into a family where language was rich, colorful and expansive, then we have a huge advantage. If our folks gave one word responses to our questions, that’s our model, and we’re going to need a little help.

Example:

1) “Daddy, what’s that?” asks the three-year-old child.  “It’s a rainbow,” responds the daddy.

2) “Daddy, what’s that?” asks the three-year-old child.  “It’s a rainbow, responds the daddy. “It’s formed when sunlight passes through raindrops.  I remember a rainbow I saw with my mother when I was a little boy.  She stopped the car and we got out, sat on the hood and gazed into the sky until the rainbow disappeared.  Then she took me for ice cream.  I always associate ice cream and rainbows.  Would you like to go get some ice cream, son?”

I love to help people turn statistics into stories for I have a knack of readily identifying the big picture.  Do the people I work with become fabulous storytellers?  Not all of them.  What they are able to do, however, is recognize that there is a story and realize that “once upon a time…” is far more engaging than “57.7% percent responded with a standard deviation of 2.”

Perhaps the Bee Gees said it best:  “It’s only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away.”

Nonfiction writers can learn a lot from investigating what works outside their own genre. As I was designing the curriculum for Wednesday’s (3/24) The Six Hour Book Proposal workshop, I wanted to find examples of the way screenwriters successfully pitch ideas to the Hollywood studios in a very succinct yet visual way (“A love story on board the Titanic during its maiden and final voyage”), to illustrate to participants the importance of being able to describe their book in one sentence.

I stumbled upon MoviePitch.com’s Idea Workshop page where the you’ll find three common reasons why ideas get rejected. The same applies to nonfiction and represents a valuable checklist to ensure your book idea is as compelling as possible:

1. Too familiar

Many aspiring authors I’ve met write query letters or craft proposals that boast that theirs is the first, the only, the most unique book on…. and that’s just one of the ways in which they look like complete amateurs. You might think your idea has never been captured in book form before; a thorough examination of bookstores’ shelves and the Amazon listings usually shows that you are wrong.

Your book might be the personal story of how you developed your taxidermy business but how does it differ from Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Milgrom?  You might be inclined to write about overcoming an addiction to save every piece of cardboard or paper that’s come your way, but how does that compare with the authors’ approach in Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things? Think you’ve got being an entrepreneur nailed and want to share your thoughts and experiences? Check out Rework so you can outline how your approach is really unique.

Do a competitive analysis. Better still, work with someone who can stretch you to review competitive books that you didn’t think of as competitors. Don’t make the mistake of querying an agent or publisher with the claim that yours is a book like no other, only to have them point out to you that they are aware of at least a dozen tackling similar ideas in much the same way.

Here’s when new writers don’t know what they don’t know. The publishing industry doesn’t want you to send them anything too original. They don’t know what to do with it! Read the prologue to Susan Rabiner and Alfred  Fortunato’s excellent Thinking Like Your Editor to discover how publishing houses like to specify exactly where a book will sit in stores (e.g., the science section or the Star Trek section?). Tell them your book on living with a schizophrenic is a cross between Swallow the Ocean and Relative Stranger, make sure the writing is danged good, and you’ll make more headway than trying to make out it’s one-of-a-kind.

2. Too general

Ah, the books that are written for everyone. Please don’t do that…and especially don’t convey that to an agent or publisher. Really, it’s nigh-on impossible to market to everyone. How can you say the right things to the right people when they span such a huge demographic?

To write effectively it’s important to keep your reader in mind. Targeting women who are stepmothers or mothers needing to develop a relationship with their ex-husband’s new wife presumably made it easier to write No One’s The Bitch. The authors’ approach would not have been so compelling, or the advice so salient, if that book had been written for any woman.

Similarly, a book that purports to cover every bit of knowledge you have about selling real estate is going to compete with The Complete Idiot and For Dummies guides. One on leadership will have to contend with John C. Maxwell and others. Best to come up with a really clever angle for your book, for example: developing leadership in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Just as an aside, when I put in the search term “leadership” in Amazon.com I was confronted with almost 60,000 results. “Developing leadership in children” turned up only 23!

3. Good but not pitchable

In the movie world, these kinds of ideas rely hugely on execution–can you get the particular director you need, the budget, certain actors in the starring roles etc? I remember the time a prospective client sent me her three page manuscript for what she conceived to be a highly illustrated, beautifully packaged children’s book. This was someone who had never written for children before, had no connections in publishing (oftentimes who you know/who knows you helps), appeared to have little concept of ensuring the vocabulary was suitable for her audience, and was expecting a publishing house to invest in an unknown during an economic downturn with a book that was going to cost a fortune to produce. The idea may have been good (well, sort of), but the idea was–in my view–not pitchable.

Recently I ran a workshop where the participants were asked to network with each other, succinctly explaining what their book was about. One person was reticent to take part because her book was just so unique and compelling and–heck–majorly saleable, she didn’t want anyone else to steal it. Persuaded that folks are too focused on their own ideas to want to pinch (let alone know how to execute on) someone else’s, the exercise went ahead.

During this ice-breaker I wanted to discover which ideas the participants liked best. Interestingly enough, it was not the “unique, compelling, saleable” idea…sometimes we need to get past our own egos and realize that what we think is amazing is someone else’s “so-so.”

This will be brief. And written in one of the designated times I’ve now set aside for online activities, inspired by the article E-Mail is Making You Stupid in the March issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

The gist of the article is that the countless interruptions brought about by emails, texting, tweeting,  writing on Facebook walls etc. is not only draining productivity, but affecting the quality of our thoughts during the rest of the time.

Everything bings and bongs and tweets at you, and you don’t think…Michelle Rupp, NRG Seattle

Why am I writing about this? Because it has direct relevance to those millions of people who say they want to write a book but somehow can’t find the time.

Here’s how you can (and if we all did this then maybe technology would occupy its proper place as a tool, and not the master of our lives):

1. Designate between two to four times in the day when you check electronic messages and stick to these times. One of my former students set hers out at the bottom of her signature so everyone could see that if they sent an email at 9.05am she wouldn’t respond until noon at the earliest. Very little is so important these days that a few hours’ wait won’t hurt us. If it is, I trust someone would pick up the phone.

2. Turn off the TV, radio, iPod or whatever else is crowding your mind with noise. The greats in science, art, literature, and life knew the value of quiet time; time when your mind is free to think deeply, or maybe not even to think at all. I don’t know about you, but my best ideas come to me when all is quiet.

3. Make appointments with yourself, mark them down on your calendar and stick to them. I’m writing a novel. It’s not going to write itself. I schedule time alone, just me and my Dell Notebook, dog lying at the bottom of the bed snoring (like now) and I immerse myself in this imaginary world I have the honor to create.

That’s it! “Technology is an addiction,” Rutgers professor of management Gayle Porter is quote as saying in the Entrepreneur article. I know that some of the literary greats were addicts of one kind or another. But technology is so much more insidious, it seems, sucking up time and leaving us brain dead and lacking in creativity.

You have a choice. To be a writer you need to “be” a writer. I’m off to be one now…bye (back again at the appointed hour).

I recently met Rusty Shelton, managing director of Austin literary publicists, Phenix & Phenix. This interview is the first in an occasional series of discussions I’m having with folks who can offer different perspectives on what is involved in conceiving, developing and birthing books in today’s technologically changing times.

For more great advice, go to Phenix & Phenix’s book publicity blog.

Interview with Rusty Shelton

Having experience in both the book industry and career services, I was struck by the similarity between the mistakes that would-be authors make in their query letters to literary agents and the faux pas of job seekers. Here is Rachelle Gardner’s* Top Ten List of Query Mistakes and my (in italics) observations related to careers:

1. Not making me feel special.

Multiple agents are listed in the “To” field of the email.

Writing a letter that has obviously been drafted for more than one job application—and you’ve forgotten to make the appropriate changes (i.e., you are applying for job X but have addressed the letter to company Y).

2. Not knowing or caring who I am.

Your letter is addressed “To Whom it May Concern” or “Dear Agent” or to another agent, or with no salutation at all.

Addressing your cover letter “To Whom It May Concern,” Dear Sir or Madam, or (yes, it happens) Dear Human Resources.

3. Making me answer “no” after one sentence.

Your query begins with a rhetorical question. The problem with this is that usually my answer to your question is “no” so you’ve already lost me. Especially the “Have you ever wondered…?” questions.

The “No!!!!” in this case is the cry of shrieking recruiters who have read, “I am writing this letter to apply for the job of….,” a million times before.

4. Putting the cart before the horse.

Your query begins with “This is the first in my planned 9-book series.” Don’t do this! Pitch ONE BOOK first. Toward the end of your query, you may include a brief sentence something like, “If this book is successful, it could easily become a series.” Another getting-ahead-of-yourself mistake is talking about the awesome movie your book will make.

Banging on about how great you are with no evidence to support this assertion whatsoever. One young man went so far as to tell me that he always informed prospective employers that one day he was going to be the President of the United States. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having high aspirations…only in his case my response was a stunned, “Huh?”

5. Fudging the truth.

False personalizing: Pretending you have a connection with me when you don’t. Or false referrals: Saying somebody referred you when they didn’t. It drives me crazy how many people write, “Michael Hyatt recommended you.” When what they really mean is: “I found a list of literary agents on Michael Hyatt’s website, and you were on the list.”

Ditto with careers. Collecting someone’s business card after a two minute conversation does not a relationship make.

6. Fudging the truth, part 2.

Saying you’re a previously published author when what you really mean is that you self-published.

Lying anywhere in your resume or cover letter. You’d be amazed how many people do this. Including high powered executives. Read all about it.

7. Intentionally breaking the rules.

You acknowledge that I don’t rep a certain genre or category, but you’re pitching it anyway.

Applying for a job for which you are seriously under- or inappropriately qualified.

8. Being stuck on yourself.

Your query is 90% about yourself, 10% about your book. I need to know about the book! Especially for fiction. For non-fiction, since platform and qualifications are so important, your query can be 60% about the book, 40% about your platform.

With a cover letter your “pitch” should be 100% about what you can do for them (the company you want to work for).

9. Making it obvious you’re not a good writer.

Your query is poorly written with bad grammar and punctuation, poor choice of words, lousy sentence structure, no unique voice… showing me very clearly that you can’t write.

Ditto – a major turn off in any walk of life.

10. Ignoring my submission guidelines.

I ask that you include the word “Query” in your subject line, and that you include a few sample pages of your manuscript, pasted into the email. I also ask that you do not include attachments or expect me to click on links. It’s not that difficult.

Ignoring clearly stated application criteria such as forgetting to send in writing samples, omitting names and contact details of referees etc.

Bonus Query Mistake!

After receiving a rejection… you write back to ask for feedback. Sorry. If I offered feedback in the initial rejection, you’re lucky. If not, unfortunately that’s the way it goes.

The same frequently applies to recruiters. Folks who don’t know you and don’t want to hire you are the least inclined to help with your professional development.

* plus the following contributors from Twitter: @Janet_Reid, @ColleenLindsay, @WolfsonLiterary, @BostonBookGirl, @Agentgame, @Onyxhawke, @DaphneUn, @Hroot.

Of course, we shouldn’t forget that writing blogs–good, funny, unique, thoughtful, this-would-make-a-great-book kind of blogs–can help attract the attention of agents and publishers and secure you a nice little book deal.

Deb Ng, posting on the Freelance Writing Jobs Network site, has selected a list of 13 Blogs That Became Books. Check it out!

Having made comments in an earlier post, arguing that you are unlikely to find deep, thoughtful commentary on a blog, I came across the Thinking Blogger Awards.

Thinking Blogger Award logo

Author! Author! blogger Annie Mini is one recipient. It’s interesting to note, however, that Annie’s posts (with glorious, accompanying photographs), are considerably longer–more chapter length–than you’d expect from a blog.

Note how Laurelle VanFossen differentiates a “thinking blogger” from everyone else:

It’s passion.

It’s that fire in your belly, morally committed passion that leaps off the blog page.

You know this person is living, and writing, their passion.

The same passion, fire, desire to birth something brilliant must be present to write for any medium. Nevertheless, it’s good to hear there are “thinking bloggers” out there and someone’s had the sense to give them an award.

Reviewing the Top 10 Nonfiction books of 2009 for Time.com, Lev Grossman writes–in reference to Richard Holmes’ The Age of  Wonder:

There was a time when anybody with sufficient brains and willpower could go down into his or her basement and come up with a major contribution to what we know about the world.

Such thought-experiments take time — to conceive in the first place, to develop and take shape, to reflect upon, and finally to birth into the world. Good books–brilliant books–are, I believe thought-experiments in written form. They need to be borne of deep reflection (which is why I have an automatic negative reaction to those tomes that purport to help you write a book in a weekend–NOooooooooooooooo!!); reflections coming not just from the author but their agent, commissioning editor, and the other editorial and publishing staff involved in its birth.

Books can change lives in this way. Blogs — nah! Many are streams of consciousness, some (the better ones) are distillations of the blogger’s subject-matter expertise, distilled into manageable chunks. A blog, while a wonderful outlet for the habit of writing regularly, of testing reactions to small chunks of useful information, and developing the confidence to write a book, is hardly the place where you find deep, considered thoughts. After all, aren’t you supposed to be blogging, like, four or five a week if you’re going to achieve any following?

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the book publishing industry will continue to be greatly exaggerated as long as intelligent people maintain a desire to hold something solid and thoughtful in their hands as they ponder a book’s ideas and arguments.

When I think of a book I think of a well-structured, touching, life-changing movie that–once out of the theatre–causes you to think deeply about life. A blog, on the other hand, reminds me of a 30-minute episode from a TV series. Entertaining, certainly, but likely to be forgotten very quickly.

Perish the thought that, as Daniel McCarthy predicts, “book publishing will become more blog like.” If we have a hope in hell of wresting the direction of human advancement out of the hands of highly specialized corporations with their own agendas, and back into the hands of ordinary people, we need more of us “with sufficient brains and willpower” to both read and write books.