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Daily verse with purpose: James Joyce
I’ve just stolen your best idea!
“How come?” You might ask. “Is it even possible, simultaneously, but independently come to a pretty much same idea?”
It’s a tough question. Yet through history there are many evidences of multiple discoveries, especially in science, where researchers independently came to same conclusions and results. For example, the case of electromagnetism: Joseph Henry, lesser known American scientist and engineer, discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance, independently of Michael Faraday, but Faraday was the first to publish his results. In later years, two scientists did meet and collaborated but in the scientific world Faraday reaped all credits and praise.
Oxygen, chemical element was discovered independently by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, in Uppsala, in 1773 or earlier, and Joseph Priestley in Wiltshire – yet the Priestley took the credits since he managed to publish his work first. Antoine Lavoisier, a French chemist, also discovered oxygen in 1775, was the first to recognize it as an element, and coined its name “oxygen” – which comes from a Greek word – meaning “acid-former”.
But this kind of phenomena is not limited to scientific work only. In her newly published book, Elizabeth Gilbert shares her own experience – when two people come to pretty much same idea – even when it comes to writing a novel. She had an amazing story for a novel and she wanted to write it for years. During that time a lot of personal and family changes happened in her life and it simply kept her from completely devoting to writing. And all the time she struggled. One day she accidentally finds out that a friend of hers and a fellow writer, Ann Patchett, came to pretty much same idea about the novel (the plot and geographical location just resembled too much). Her friend manages to publish the story with noticeable success and at that particular moment she new that somehow it wasn’t ‘her novel’ and that idea simply found other and better conditions to flourish. She further notes:
The worst and most destructive conclusion I could’ve drawn was that Ann Patchett had stolen my idea. That would have been absurd, because Ann had never even heard of my idea…People convince themselves that they have been robbed, when they have not, in fact been robbed. Such thinking comes from scarcity – from a belief that the world is a place of dearth and that there will never be enough of anything to go around.
And I completely agree with this point of view. We do live in the ocean of ideas. Especially in the Internet era we have almost limitless access to acquired knowledge and information resources. And every one of us is a fishermen. Each day, each minute we try to catch new ideas and make them work for us. But like with every fishing process:
- are we patient enough to wait for the right catch?
- is our ‘fishing rod’ strong enough to sustain even the biggest catch?
- and do we have a developed plan what shall we do with our catch – if we are not fast enough it might just jump over the deck back to the sea!
In other words – even coming to a good idea is usually the easy part. But the conditions, our skills, our determination and devotion to a process will ultimately determine if our idea is going to fruition into something valuable or maybe somewhere, in the other part of the world, someone else has invested more energy, time and other resources to implement similar idea. Each idea has to be welcomed, nourished in such conditions that it has all that it needs to grow.
What I truly believe is that the idea cannot be stolen. Actually that exact fear that we might not be the first is keeping us from our ‘best creative self’. What we can do is to try strategically to position ourselves and our idea and prepare in advance for the work ahead: along the way reexamine our objectives – it will help us stay on the course with our creative project and make important decisions.
Daily verse with purpose: T. S. Eliot
Daily verse with purpose: Thomas Hardy
Daily verse with purpose: Augustus William Hare
9 traits successful entrepreneurs and authors have in common
Many times we get involved in a writing and publishing – just by accident; with first no intention of doing it and often as a side effect of our other activities. First book I ever published was a textbook for University needs. It was developed with purpose to help students who were following my courses, and really, except writing it – I didn’t have much else to do: printing, publishing, distribution..everything was taken care of. And I didn’t have to go too deep into the details of the publishing process.
My second book, was more a commercial one, with specific focus on small and micro-enterprises. I got a deal with one very small publisher in Belgrade, but the hardest part of the work was on me: networking, marketing, speaking engagements, ext. In a way as a published non-fiction writer I became an entrepreneur, since my book became a product that needed to be marketed and eventually sold. It was for first time I was doing something like that on my own – of course I made a lot mistakes, but I also learned a few things (mostly about myself and how it is hard to be an entrepreneur in the writing business).
To be a successful published author (both traditionally and self-published) you need some skills that are characteristics of a successful entrepreneurs. Your book is your product, and you want to take advantage of every little thing that can help you spread the word about your latest written gem.
What can an author learn form a successful entrepreneur?
Do your research.
Like with any other product, you need to do your homework and research how much of the similar is out there: being your fiction story or a ‘practical guide’ your are developing. How is it relevant for your market? Do you even know your market? Probably you won’t figure out everything at once, but even before starting to write a book, you need to be well informed.
Be prepared first to test the waters before taking a deep dive.
As much knowledge you might already have, what I mean by this is that there are going to be many trials and errors taking turns in your publishing attempts, since rarely first book becomes a huge success (or a bestseller) -just as entrepreneurs at the beginning have many ideas, but often one or two become feasible and economically viable. It takes time, and the first book, like a first idea, can often be just a step towards something much bigger, with higher impact.
Be persistent and focused.
Like in any business, an author needs to be focused and resilient in his attempts to make his book a high selling product. These abilities enable both the entrepreneur and author to keep going when the outlook is not favorable. The first book from Jack Canfield, a well known self-help guru, was originally rejected by 144 publishers. When he finally did get a publishing contract, a publisher wasn’t very optimistic: he said he’d be lucky to sell 20 000 books. Yet, a book sold in over 400 000 copies and became a bestseller. That’s the power of persistence at work!
Be persuasive.
As an entrepreneur, if you are in search for an investment funds, no matter how the great idea is, investors are far more interested in an already running company with developed business model and well defined products. They need to know they are investing in something worth while. The same comes with your publishing efforts: If you want to publish a traditional way, why would a publisher offer you a contract? You have to give publishers a reason to sign you, and just having a good book idea is not always enough. You need to be persuasive and convincing, develop a persuasive author bio and book presentation. In self-publishing is even harder: you need to convince the whole world in your idea. And just as any entrepreneur you bite the bullet, go out and do it.
Conquer ‘the marketing’ mountain.
Most people, being artists, writers or engineers are simply horrified by the term marketing (I’m the first in the line!) and I do believe that developing a high quality product (book), that is focused on contribution and purpose, that offers people a way to experience something new and different is the best promotional aspect – product speaks for itself. Yet, for people to try (read) your product first have to know it even exists! That’s the toughest job of the entrepreneur and author: to spread the word. Marketing creates demand for the product. Even before the product (book) launch. Later, the quality of the product will do the rest.
Develop your support system.
You can’t do everything on your own. It’s simple as that. You need someone who is already knowledgeable of the business in question, that can guide you and offer assistance. Someone who is trustworthy. Mostly that falls into marketing arena, because as I said it’s the hardest part of any business venture.
Think in terms of revenue streams.
Every business has a business model. So does a writer. Not only does writer can sell book, but there are other forms to translate a book into a different type of product: an online course, webinars, some type of coaching ext. Or delivering the existing product in a different format (audio book) or dividing it into a series of smaller products. This topic will be in detail addressed in one of the future posts. Here you can learn about alternative ways to earn money as a poet.
Building meaningful relationships.
In this post I go in length on the importance of community and how to develop one.
Here community are not only your readers, but any contact in the value chain of getting your book out there: from booksellers who will recommend your book, editors and illustrators that will dress your book and your readers who will impatiently absorb in every word you’ve written and come back asking for more. Once you build your community, it is an ongoing process maintaining it and growing it further, because in the long run the more you invest in your relationships, the more it will pay off later – especially when other products come in.
Be prepared to learn.
Along the way you will be amazed of how much you learn about yourself and how you are improving yourself in general. Every contact you make, sales pitch or presentation your are improving your communication skills, you are meeting new people and you are becoming a member of a whole new world: publishing world. Juts being part of the writing and publishing process is gratifying enough because you are creating, developing, contributing and you are leaving something behind you, as a fruit of your creative efforts.
Daily verse with purpose: Mark Strand
Daily verse with purpose: Isaac Assimov
Catch new ideas while redefining the obvious
Through out the day we encounter many words – some we like, some we dislike; some we even avoid to use, or we overuse. Why is that?
To every word we attach our meaning, definition and somehow just one word can influence our way of thinking and how we form opinion.
The next exercise I’m going to propose belongs to type of writing that some experts and psychologists call free writing. As in this article, author Joel Friedlander sees that free writing:
- is a practice that helps to liberate your writer’s voice and connects you to the vibrant stream of creativity that lies just under the surface of our ordinary thinking.
- can be used to launch you over a writer’s block, to explore painful emotional memories, and to work out problems in a longer work. It can be used for making contact with one’s own unconscious.
- is a simple, structured practice that is flexible and forgiving. It can be used as the base of a writing practice, or spontaneously whenever you want to go deeper into a subject.
You pick one word – it can be a word related to your current project you are working on or just some random word you find interesting, attractive or annoying. The purpose of the exercise, is in your own words to write down general definition, widely accepted meaning of the word.
Then ask yourself do you agree with given definition and give your reasons why you agree or disagree.
Afterwards continue writing what’s your own meaning, what emotions it triggers and ext.
For example, the word danger. One of the generally accepted definitions is life-threatening situation. For me, first impression is the feeling of unease, uncertainty, fear, unpleasant surprise and losing control over situation.
You can write as long as you like. One, two paragraphs. It’s possible that at one point you will feel stuck and think “This is stupid, it doesn’t take me anywhere!” , which is the critical point -by continuing to write, you are unlocking a new stream of ideas that otherwise you might have stopped before they had chance to get out.This type of playing with your insights, examining thinking patterns – opening the word can help you further tap into your creativity potentials. I personally find this exercise very useful – especially when it comes to writing/creating something new, from personal perspective. It can be helpful in terms of crafting a story, poems and blog post and all you need is just one word to start.
Give it try and share your experience in the comments below.
Business in Rhyme 