Chaos Tips from the Superstars Writing Conference
Highlights from the Superstars Writing Conference we attended in early February. But non-writers never fear - we include real-life lessons from the conference and pictures of the Chaos Critters!
Here are eight Chaos Tips from the Supers Writing Conference. There were lots of people and we learned a lot. But these are the highlights that we thought would be most useful to real people - not just writers.
David and Lydia Sherrer taught us to Set Expectations and Follow Through
Their website is https://lydiasherrer.com
The "secret" to book sales is the genre desires and the promise cues substantiated in your book. Audiences have certain expectations for a particular genre, so if your book is in that genre you need to fulfill those desires. The description and cover of your book need to signal that fulfillment. If you order a cheeseburger you want a cheeseburger, not a salad. After all, the same goes for books and life...
Ever notice how you can judge a book by its cover? Or at least, the correctly marketed books. The cover signals to the reader "this is what you can expect".
But remember, the book actually needs to follow through and do so.
The same is true of real life. Your customers - internal or external, family or friends - have specific desires. You have to let them know you plan on fulfilling those needs. And then do so.
Chris Kennedy taught us Doing Good Business
Chris Kennedy Publishing can be found here: https://chriskennedypublishing.com/
Chris Kennedy had several really good seminars that we're going to cover the highlights of here.
· Don't make business decisions based on personal preferences.
· Do the job imperfectly rather than not at all.
· Marketing is about the product - publicity is about you. You need both.
· Have concrete objectives when you start something.
How do these transfer to real life? Well actually almost verbatim.
Keep in mind though, doing the job imperfectly is in contrast to not at all. It isn’t great to have a job half done, but if you never started you will never finish. The goal is still to do a good job.
Think of it as the old adage: An amateur strives for perfection, while a professional aims for good enough. Or: perfect is the enemy of good.
Ray Porter taught us to Give Important Necessary Details Up Front
Ray Porter's narration can be found at many places, including here: https://libro.fm/search?page=1&q=Ray+Porter&searchby=narrators
Ray Porter is an incredible narrator. He works by sight-reading the book. This sometimes has drawbacks. In one book he was narrating a Marine - he gave the Marine a male, South-Western American voice. Three hundred pages in, the writer revealed the Marine was a short woman from Germany.
The real live takeaway is that you need to give people the information they really need up front. They're not going to know it otherwise. And it'll prevent problems in the long run.
Burt from the Tremors franchise puts it like this, "I feel I was denied critical, need-to-know information."
This is also something that came up with agents, editors, and others. Keeping the story from them is a good way to have your project become a pumpkin when you wanted a carriage.
Seth Norris taught us Some Things are About Trust
Seth Norris CPA services can be found here: https://www.norriscpafirm.com/authors
Seth Norris is a CPA who specializes in working with authors. He started his talk by explaining that the main reason people come to a CPA for the taxes is for peace of mind. That means you have to trust your CPA - so he has to earn that trust with honest and clear, consistent communication.
This is true everywhere in life. So live it.
Michael La Ronn taught us Plan for Adversity
Micheal can be found here: https://www.michaellaronn.com/
And here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Michael_LaRonn
Micheal is an incredibly prolific (while maintaining a marriage and a 10-year-old daughter) writer. He writes via dictation. We'll have a post in the future, as we try out the software he suggested, but for now, we're looking at his advice.
In our words, he said to plan for adversity. If you make your living as a writer and something happens where you can't work a keyboard, if you have experience with dictation, you can continue working.
This is advice for life too. Hope for the best - plan for the worst. And enjoy the in-between.
Nick Thatcher taught us Having a Roadmap Speeds Things Up
Nick can be found here: https://www.nickthacker.com/
Nick taught a class on outlining. As part of that, we learned how having a roadmap - a plan of some sort - speeds up the process of writing. You know where you're going. You just have to get there.
In real life, it works the same way. Have a plan. Work the plan. Adjust the plan. But make it a roadmap, so if something fun and interesting happens, you can take that route too.
Craig Martelle taught us You Can Do Anything But Not Everything
Craig can be found here: https://craigmartelle.com/
Craig’s advice is the last from a presenter, but possibly the most important for Anna.
Craig taught us something that we've discussed a lot since we got back to Texas. He said, "You can do anything. But you can't do everything." He was talking about being an author, and writing, publishing, marketing, and publicity.
Just like in real life, there are a lot of tasks. You're capable of doing any of these tasks. But you have a limited amount of time and need to pick the ones that must be done or that provide the biggest return on investment.
I (Anna) am still learning this one at work as well as in writing. I often want to do everything and anything and then become a vortex of chaos as I try to find order and meet all my commitments.
The Superstars Emergency Response Team taught us Grand People are Everywhere
We unfortunately got to work with the Superstars Emergency Response Team. This team was headed by Marta Sprout. Since Anna had a disabling migraine, we don't know the names of everyone that helped her. But they were all awesome, including the ones that weren't actually on the team.
Superstars Writing Conference is here: https://www.superstarswriting.com/
Marta Sprout is here: https://www.martasprout.com/
This taught us something we already knew, but was nice to re-learn. Caring, helpful people are all around you. Don't forget that.
And don't forget to appreciate them.
Critter’s Weekly Question
The question this week is: which of these eight tips most applies to your life?
David and Lydia Sherrer taught us to “Set Expectations and Follow Through”
Chris Kennedy taught us “Doing Good Business”
Ray Porter taught us to “Give Important Necessary Details Up Front”
Seth Norris taught us “Some Things are About Trust”
Michael La Ronn taught us “Plan for Adversity”
Nick Thatcher taught us “Having a Roadmap Speeds Things Up”
Craig Martelle taught us “You Can Do Anything But Not Everything”
The Superstars Emergency Response Team taught us “Grand People are Everywhere”
Thanks for playing along and be Grand People!
~Anna and Tod
You can do anything by not everything. Having a roadmap speeds things up, so set expectations and follow through, while planning for adversity and remember that grand people are everywhere.
Thanks for sharing, Anna, Tod. 🙇♂️
I'd say Ray Porter's advice about giving important details up front. I hate info dumps, especially the multi-page ones, with a passion. 😠
Conversely, this causes me to go light on description. I have to apportion description through the manuscript, which means choosing which aspects to focus on from the beginning.