Janet's Publishing & Strategy Post

"What I learned from Janet" by Rachael Rifkin (client and intern)

This insightful essay was written by Rachael Rifkin, a client who worked with me as an intern for the past month:

This is not my first attempt at writing this “what I learned” essay. My first draft seemed to be going well. I had about a page written in a second person narrative voice and was feeling quite clever. I was feeling so clever that it took me awhile to notice how tangential and pretentious the essay was becoming. Instead of trying to make it work (like I usually do), I took a moment and let myself consider an alternative—deleting what I had and starting over in a frank, first-person not-trying-so-hard voice. And so far, I’m much happier with the essay (of course, this is just the first paragraph, so we’ll see how it goes).

  Rachael at the keyboard

Learning to let go of the preconceived notions we’ve formed about our ideas—how they should look, their format, etc.—can be extraordinarily difficult. So it’s easy to get stuck there, floundering about. That is, until you allow yourself to let go and re-imagine the problem.

For instance, let’s say you (and by you, I mean me) want to transition from freelance journalism to memoir writing (writing other people’s memoirs, not yours). You might think a book is a good idea (but it’s probably not), so you find a book consultant. Her name may or may not be Janet Goldstein (it is), and she may or may not help you decide that you really aren’t ready to write a book (she does).

After some deliberation, you realize that you’d prefer to just focus on your business. You had gotten caught up in book mode, thinking that it would “sell” your business to people, when really it should be the other way around. And that’s when you take a leap, re-imagine your ideas and ask Janet Goldstein if she’s looking for an intern (she is, and you can come for a month). After all, you’ve always learned best through in-person interaction and example.

So, before I (or should I say you?) even made the trek to New York, Janet was teaching me to look at my project as it was and could be, not as it “should” be. This is something she stresses a lot with her clients, who often see books as the first step, not the last. Ms. Goldstein calls book “souvenirs” (well, Seth Godin said it first, but Janet says it too) because they are something you pick up during the journey—they aren’t the journey itself.

Janet makes it clear in her interactions with clients and the materials she created (the Publishing Reset Program, and 7 Steps to Take Your Book or Project to the Next Level that the journey is about developing your idea and putting it into concrete action. It’s about looking at your project anew and testing it out with feedback. It’s about finding an audience/clients/niche, creating an online presence, belonging to a community, and getting yourself and your project out there. Most importantly, it’s about discovering what you really want, where you are, and where you want to go—and then developing a plan that enables you to do it.

In addition, working with Janet (assisting her with her projects and observing her publishing and strategy consultations) showed me exactly how much patience, commitment, creativity, and uncertainty it takes to set things in motion. Logically, I could envision the steps it would take, but actually seeing someone else run a small business and develop their own projects day after day, was what I needed to bridge the gap between advice and action.

When I applied for this internship, I was feeling lost. Basically, I knew I could use some guidance. Now I realize that I was beginning to identify what I needed in order to move forward with my project, which is an important part of the development process. I needed to find some sort of framework for my own projects and business before I could be confident doing them on my own. Ultimately, I think I needed to see that it really could be done. In the end, not only did Janet provide a framework, she also taught me that project development is an imperfect process that requires a balance of both inward reflection and outward action in order to be successful.

As I write this, I am back home, still somewhat uncertain, but more confident and definitely better equipped to begin.

Food for Thought: Falling in Love...Again

In the spirit of Valentine's Day...

A few years ago, I got a jump start on the euphemistic "career transition" (which I am now thrilled to embrace) when I left my high-profile publishing job and started my own consulting business. (I tell people that I outsourced the favorite parts of my job to myself: strategy and developing people and ideas.)

It was a scary and hard time. I was an emotional wreck. We had lost one income. Our family's routines were turned upside down. And I faced the obvious reality that my husband wasn't, and never could be, an actual knight in shining armor who would whisk me away from my confusion and fear.

But the thing is, during this time of upheaval and sorting out, my husband was all the things a knight should be: strong, steadfast, loving, and confident--in me. I fell in love all over again.

Things changed, and it was good. It made me understand the real meaning of renewing one's vows. Next month we celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Well, our work isn't the same as our romantic life, but we do fall in and out of love with it! So, here are some thoughts about love as a metaphor for our creative projects, and for falling in love with our work...all over again.

Food for Thought: Creativity + Community

It's been a busy couple of months. I've been immersed with big projects--the kind that stretch you and leave you a bit breathless. And I was equally busy out in world registering voters in Pennsylvania and at home exchanging emails on all the crucial issues of the day. Hope you've been doing meaningful things this fall and connecting with others in  satisfying ways.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The theme of community is on all our minds--and I'm not talking about the current obsession with social media. The hurtling economy has forced (nudged) us to have conversations we may have avoided—or just skipped over--with ourselves, older parents, children away at college, life partners, and even friends. But while the conversation has been sparked by fear and uncertainty, it has also been a great leveler. We're connecting in truer ways. We're all in it together.
So what does this have to do with the working, writing, launching, wanting-to-express-ourselves, wanting-to-succeed endeavors that are most important to us?
What I'm getting at is that we often separate our creativity from our community. When we put the two together, each is more powerful.
Communities need the creative spirit of the people in them. We need to breathe life into our relationships, projects, and goals. If we don't bring our whole selves to what we're doing, our communities lack inspiration ("breath"/"life"). Likewise, we need the spirit of community to bring our creative ideas to fruition.
At its most basic level, community is about connecting with others. For a writer, it's about connecting with an audience, and the creative exchange that happens in that moment. The audience starts with our internal self and moves out from there. But without an audience in mind--without keeping that sense of community and connection in our minds--our ideas are likely to fall flat. The burning desire to communicate crystallize our words, images, stories, and meaning like nothing else.
You can think about creativity + community as:
 "Curb Appeal"
At a writers conference, I heard Sena Jeter Naslund, author of the bestselling novel Ahab's Wife, talk about her struggles with the plot of a recent novel. She said she talked to any and everyone she met about the novel-in-progress to see if it had "curb appeal," She kept looking for the right frame. When she finally figured out the puzzle, everything "clicked"--everyone she spoke to wanted hear more about what happened! Creativity plus creativity unlocked the door, figuratively, and the writing then flowed.
 "Asking, Why?" - Novelist Barbara Kingsolver hears her characters in her head. She knows who they are and what drives them. In writing Pigs in Heaven, an unplanned sequel to her beloved first novel The Bean Trees, she wrote almost a whole draft with the nagging feeling that something didn't make sense. The adopted child, Taylor, who is central to both novels, was abandoned as a baby. Until Kingsolver resolved the "Why?" of Taylor's adoption and the community the child was separated from, the book lacked a necessary truth. Getting to the deeper issues, Kingsolver transformed the book and led to a rich and deeply rewarding experience for the reader.

 "Word of Mouth (WOM)"
On a less artistic plane, book editors (and bloggers, too) ask themselves, "Who do Iknow who would care about this  book/subject/author and can I imagine them recommending it to others?"
We can use the WOM question to test our passion for our ideas. 
• Do we want to share our work and ideas?
• If not, what would make us  feel more passionate or confident?
• If we're thinking about the ideas  of others, do we want to become a loudspeaker for the work?
• Is there  that spark that catches our imagination and compels us to share it  with others?
Thought exercise: Have a conversation with yourself about your idea or current project. Does it capture your passion, intent, and purpose? Then imagine what insights, information, inspiration, or direct feedback you might seek in your current community, or in a community that's right for your ideas? Think about Curb Appeal, Why?, and WOM and what Creativity + Community lead to.

Food for Thought: Saying Yes Is Emotional

Seth Godin, the bestselling business book author and marketing thought leader, took the words out of my mouth in his Change This Manifesto posted yesterday, "How to Sell a Book or Any New Idea." On page 7, he asks each of us to imagine how much time we need in order to be "ready." Do we needed 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years? When can we say yes to a key step that will move us closer to what we want to do? Many of you reading this Post have a bias toward action and you may need to find ways to slow down to connect with your voice, your audience, and your purpose. But many of us need to find more ways to say yes. We need to find ways to say yes more often and with less fear. One my favorite chapters in the book I coauthored with Howard Behar "It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Lessons from a Life at Starbucks" is the last one, called "Dare to Dream: Say Yes, the Most Powerful Word in the World." When we say yes to ourselves, we also say yes to those around us. I've found that with each step I take to develop my own business, writing, ideas, and dreams, the stronger I feel and the stronger the connection I make with my clients, colleagues, and partners. I'm no longer watching, evaluating, "editing," or judging. I've got skin in the game, and my heart on my sleeve. Howard says, "Saying yes is all about people. It's an emotional word that leads to actions and reactions that have emotional results." In fact, maybe that emotional response is a key that tells you when you're truly saying yes. Are you holding back, or have you invested your whole self? Are you saying yes and open to what comes next--good or bad; positive or negative; raging enthusiasm or a blank stare? If you race ahead pell-mell and think you're saying yes by doing, doing, doing, maybe you're missing the yes of small, brave steps that put you and your ideas to the true test. If you hold back too much to safeguard your work-in-progress, maybe you're not saying yes after all. A thought exercise: Consider a current project you want to launch; think about how much time you need to "be ready"; map out the key steps; set a deadline for saying yes and act on it. If your time frame is more than six months or a year, think of a smaller chunk that you can say yes to in the next 1-3 months. That's the time frame most people can keep track of and plan for. Write down your "yes," put it in a safe place, and mark your calendar with your deadline. See what happens.