Be thankful for the bad stuff.

Typically this time of year, folks think about being thankful for being successful, healthy, having good friends and family - or a job.

No one ever wants to focus on the bad stuff, and yet, those horrid moments that gave you major heartburn can be some of the finest learning moments of your life - and can save you a lot of heartache in the future. This is especially true about tough marketing lessons.

Top three tough lessons of 2009 authors should be thankful for:

• Bad reviews. Never forget that sometimes, reviewers are just not that into you.
• Trolls. Some people get stupid, idiotic, mean and vicious when they don't like something you say online. Even the nicest person can turn into a troll and make your online life hell. Have a policy for dealing with trolls on your own site, and force yourself to ignore their chatter on other sites (which works, for the most part). Be sure NOT to become a troll on a blog or site that didn't like your work.
• Social media overload. As stated over and over again throughout this blog, you MUST be a good manager of time. Find the right networks for your audience and work them - but don't let them work you. Word smart, not hard.

This list could go on and on, but these are the three major areas authors can really be thankful for lessons. Once you've been burned, you never forget the right and wrong steps it took to correct. What bad stuff happened to you this year that you learned from - and are thankful for that lesson?

Related links:

Etiquette Week posts

Time Management posts

One Author Speaks Out about the Bad Side of Online Promotions

The cool pumpkin photo above was found at ChainLeader.com.

Time management is key to writing - and marketing - success!

No matter where you are in the writing process and how many books you have written so far, I'm sure you agree with me that writing is one of the most fulfilling activities in the world (with a few frustrations every now and then). However, most authors, including me, need to divide their time among writing, their day job, friends, family, hobbies, and yes, we would also like to sleep sometimes. (Although if your best writing ideas wake you up at 3am every night, you stand no chance. Since I started writing, I've been building up a serious sleep deficit.)

When I was writing my newest book, Tales for Delicious Girls, I felt like I didn't have time for anything and especially for myself. When I was working, I wanted to write, when I was writing, I wanted to spend time with my family and friends, and my beagle was getting seriously obese because long walks were something he couldn't even dream of.

Soon I realized that I couldn't carry on like that much longer and I needed a strict daily schedule so that I could squeeze in writing, my work and some fun too. It was not that difficult in the end and I think I managed quite well, so let me share a few tips for busy writers which I hope make your days a little bit less crazy.

Get your priorities straight. You're not a superhero, you can't do everything and you shouldn't even try to unless you want to go insane. When you're writing a book, it should definitely be one of your top priorities, so put it on the list. Your job is another priority because unless your name is Dan Brown, you probably need some extra income (at least until your book becomes a bestseller). Friends and family should be on the list too - for an absolutely selfish reason: You need someone who supports you when you get desperate or develop a writer's block. Hobbies? Be realistic about them and keep just one. I suggest it's a physical activity because the lack of it is a common issue with writers.

Be creative about your schedule. If you work nine to five, it's pretty clear how much time you spend at work. If you're a freelancer like me, your schedule is probably more unpredictable but try to be reasonable about your projects. Remember to organize your work around your writing, not vice versa. Decide to dedicate a certain amount of time to writing every day, without exception. For example, I usually write in the morning, work in the afternoon and do book marketing in the evening. When things get really busy, I get up one hour earlier in the morning to write.

One day for yourself, one day for your family and friends. In order to stay sane, you need time for yourself. For me it's usually Saturday when I try not to work and not to write, unless it's absolutely necessary (and I mean absolutely necessary), and I do things that have nothing to do with work, writing and other people. It doesn't really matter what you do as long as it makes you happy. Go on a day trip out of town, go on a hike, get your hair done, be a couch potato, it's up to you! Just switch off your brain and do something for yourself. When you feel relaxed and happy, you can dedicate the next day to your family and friends, which is what I do on Sundays. Have lunch at your parents', meet friends in the afternoon, make time for all the people you love.

Putting your free time, hobbies and friends on the schedule might sound a bit weird at first, but it's the best way to juggle writing and work and still have some fun. Ian Fleming said in 1962: "Being a comparatively successful author is a good life." Which is very true if you know how to organize this good life of yours.

About the author

Barbora Knobova/Tales for Delicious Girls

Barbora Knobova is a writer, love coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from her new book Tales for Delicious Girls. http://www.barboraknobova.com

Take the hassle out of the Inbox to save precious writing minutes.

This week, I got a nasty surprise.

My calendar - my lifeline to the world that holds all things virtual book tour - vanished.

On Friday, it sat, cozy and snug on my home office desk. By Monday morning, it was gone. I was frantic. November is a busy month at Pop Syndicate with author virtual book tour slots through Thanksgiving - all for our special recipe month promotion. I got behind and only had the first week of November completely posted. I'd planned on using Monday to finish up the month.

A frantic search of my work area, under my bed, in closets and suitcases and work bags I haven't used in months proved unfruitful. I was between crying and killing the likely person who moved it.

After a few deep breaths that did nothing to calm me, I logged into Gmail to search for what I could find. Perhaps with a little luck I could piece together the tour by searching emails, I thought. If only I could remember the names of each author who was booked!

With more than 800 new messages in my Inbox and thousands more already read, I nearly hyperventilated - until I saw a long-forgotten label titled, "Recipe Week." I clicked it and discovered I'd been smart enough to label eight of the 13 bookings.

After a little more digging, I remembered one author booked via Twitter and another's publicist was sending entries, so that left just three entries to find.

It took nearly the entire morning - and most of my energy for the day - to search for this blasted calendar and the entries. My hide was saved just because I used a free organizing feature in my email platform - something I'd always done when I worked in a cubicle, but had become lax on while working from home.

This brought home my desperate need to organize my Inbox - a problem that strikes just about everyone who uses the Internet to communicate.

If you deal with a large bulk of email, consider labeling them as they come in. Better yet, create groups that will automatically send emails to certain folders when they arrive.

If I'd stuck with the immediate organizing principles I had in Cubicleland, I would have either labeled the emails as they came in, put them in a folder, posted event-centered e-mails to Google calendar, or posted the information to check them off the To Do list. (Ironically, I don't use an electronic device for the scheduling function because I don't trust them not to lose the information.)

Trust me: Organizing your electronic mailbox will save you time - and panic - in the future. How do you organize your Inbox?

Here are a few articles about how to organize the Inbox:

10 Tips for Organizing Your E-mail (Web Worker Daily)

Trying to Organize Your E-mail? Keep it simple (Monster)

7 Ways to Organize Your E-mail (Microsoft)

Make time for book marketing!

Most authors shudder to think about marketing. Not only do they not want to do it, they use the excuse that they simply do not have the time.

Authors who want to be successful MUST make time for marketing. Unless they are lucky enough to become an automatic bestseller with no work, or snag a publisher willing to put money behind their books, it is entirely up to them to get novel exposure.

Cheryl C. Malandrinos has a terrific article at Writer2Writer about time management for large writing projects. These same principles can be applied to marketing. Be sure to check out her article and take to heart the advice she provides in both writing and marketing.

HOT TIP: The fall time change offers an excellent opportunity to squeeze in some marketing time. Instead of languishing in bed for an extra hour just because you can, why not use the extra hour for marketing? For example, I normally rise at 6:30 a.m., but with the time change, my body wakes up naturally at 5:30 a.m. I get a LOT done in the quiet hour before the others in the house rise - especially writing. That's why I had time to finally get a blog post up at Market My Novel today!

Carol Buchanan

Ever been caught in the “if onlys”? If only you had more time you could write a novel. If only you didn’t have to clean the house, wash the dog, or change the oil in the car.

If only we had more time. Guess what? Everyone has all the time there is. 24 X 7. That’s it.

Telling myself that “if only” I had more time I’d write a great novel is my best excuse. “If only” I had more time, I’d have written this post last week. Instead, I’m on deadline because I didn’t act on four principles of managing time:

• Set a Goal
• Make a Task List
• Prioritize the Tasks
• Schedule the Tasks
• Focus

Set a Goal

What do you want to accomplish?

To meet your goals, set them with reasonable expectations and make them controllable. If you haven’t written a novel before, setting a goal of publishing one in 2010 is neither reasonable nor controllable. It’s a recipe for failure.

A reasonable goal might be to learn how to write a novel. It’s also controllable. You can take classes, read books on how to write novels, join a critique group.

Unless you self-publish, a goal of publishing a novel is not under your control. It depends on agents’ and publishers’ opinions of your work, which you can’t control.

Assuming your goal is under your control, how do you accomplish it?

Make a Task List

What must happen in order for you to achieve that goal? Write down everything you can think of. Your list might be something like this:

Take classes in writing fiction.
Read books on writing fiction.
Join a critique group.

Then list all the items you need to accomplish each one. Taking a class might involve:

Find the right class.

• Research classes at local colleges.
• Research online classes.

Decide on a class.

• What can I learn from this class?
• Can I afford it?
• When is it offered? Does it fit my schedule?

Register for the class.

Making a list is continuous. I adjust mine frequently, and revise as needed.

Prioritize the Tasks

Assign A, B, or C to each task. Most time management systems suggest making task lists, but seldom do they suggest prioritizing them. Yet without prioritizing tasks, I jump from one thing to another with little progress toward my goals.

Assigning priorities can be difficult. We all have families that depend on us, jobs with bosses, household chores. We shop for groceries if we want to eat. Babies have to be fed, the cats has to be taken to the vet, the horse has to be shod.

In general, assign A to necessary tasks, i.e., those that have to be done, that are time-sensitive, or that are more important than others.

Assign B to tasks that aren’t so important as A but can’t be put off very long.

Assign C to tasks that can be forgotten about for the time being. In fact, C tasks are those that you need not think of until someone else (your boss, your spouse, your child) reminds you: “What do you think of my planning memo?” (Great, but I haven’t thoroughly absorbed all of its points.) “Did you take the lawnmower to be sharpened yet?” (The grass is only six inches high.) “Did you take out the garbage?” (Oh, that’s that funny smell.) “Did you fix my bike?” (You can get your driver’s license is ten years.)

In general for me, writing is A; watering indoor plants, marketing, and answering e-mail are B; and housecleaning is C.

Schedule the Tasks

Get tough, unless it’s not possible. Find a time when you can write, block it out for yourself, and stick to it. Be as serious about it as you are with any other block of time you consider inviolate. For a writer, writing time is sacred. If you don’t hold it sacred, no one else will.
I’ve arrived at a point in my life when I can declare writing time off limits to anything else.

Before that, I wrote in cracks of time. Now, the cracks are wider, but I’ve also gotten tougher about maintaining my writing time. I told a friend that I guard writing time like Mama Grizzly with cubs. She said, “I know. I know.”

Pick the time when you do your best writing. Or make time when you can. Some years ago, I heard Mona Van Duyn, America’s first woman Poet Laureate, speak. Afterwards, I asked, “When do you write?” She said, “In the bathroom at three o’clock in the morning.”

If you must write, you will find the time.

Focus

To make the most of whatever time you have, focus. Concentrate. On the story, the characters, the language. The writing.

This may sound like sacrilege, but forget word counts. For some people, setting a goal of X words is a fine idea. For me, it’s not.

I like Truman Capote’s take on word count. An interviewer asked how many words he had written that day.

“One,” said the writer whose In Cold Blood broke new literary ground.

“One word for a whole day’s work?”

“Ah, but it was the right word.”

Sometimes during my writing time I make a decision or have an insight into a character that needs thought. I might not write a word, but during the next days my fingers fly and the story rolls.

Final Words

If life happens, and the dog sicks up on the rug, or the baby does, or you can’t put off the laundry another moment because public nudity is not socially acceptable and besides it’s cold out there, don’t beat yourself up.

Writing will happen. If only you give it a chance.

Magazines add to clutter

Most writers love magazines.

They hoard glossies for pictures of models, location ideas, research, and - of course - articles on writing.

But those magazine piles can add unnecessary clutter to your office. (Be honest: How many haphazard stacks of books and magazines are just waiting to tip over with the help of your cat?) Here are some ways to control the magazine mess:

• Store them. You can buy inexpensive magazine storage cases or plastic bins. Unfortunately, these put them out of sight - and out of mind. Those stories you want to save aren't readily available for creative inspiration. It also adds to closet clutter.
• Donate them. Most libraries gratefully accept donations of magazines for patrons. Be sure to use a permanent marker on the mailing label before you deliver them.
• Recycle them. Some recycle centers accept magazines. Check with your local recycling center for details.
• Clip them. It's tough, sometimes, to take the scissors to the pages, but this is the most effective way to save magazine articles and photos that inspire you. Once you read through a magazine, put it into a stack. Look at it about a month later. You'd be surprised at how few articles you actually want to save. Cut them out and put them into files, or in a three-ring binder, to keep them organized. Be sure to mark the pages you want to keep so you can easily find them later on.
• Stop them. It is easy to just keep renewing magazine subscriptions - especially if you have a budget for them. At least once a year go through your magazines to see which ones continue to fit your tastes. Stop subscriptions that don't fulfill a need. If you still have several issues left, consider giving them to a friend who may like them.

I just started major magazine clutter control. Here is a method that seems to work for me: While watching movies, I go through magazines and rip out what I want to keep (typically recipes). Then, I cut those large pages down and paste them into a notebook - a spiral notebook is best. Those with articles or recipes on the front and back go straight into the appropriate file folders.

It amazed me just how few items I saved from these magazines. In my mind, I figured I'd want something from every page - which is why I kept them in the first place. Now, I have a small, extremely manageable stack of papers that will be sorted into folders - and no precariously stacked magazines waiting for a kitten to knock them to the floor. Seeing the bottom of the chair and the table where the stacks sat for months feels GOOD - and makes me want to purge some more.

How do you control magazine clutter?

Tony Eldridge

Special thanks to Tony Eldridge for today's post in the Market My Novel Time Management series!

It seems that Things To Do are never-ending tasks that find a way of dominating our time. I know that with me, I have to juggle watching 3 year old twin boys during the day, creating videos, blogging, writing, contacting and scheduling guest bloggers, attending offline meetings and working a job that I choose to work during the 3rd shift so that I can find time to do everything else. Somehow, my wife and I try to find some time to spend with each other.

Yeah, I know... cry me a river, right? The truth is, we all have tasks that we have to find a way to get done consistently and accurately. Well, I had so many things happening that I started to turn reactive with my time management. I let my tasks dictate to me how I was spending my time rather than mastering my tasks and ultimately finding peace of mind and more time to do the things I wanted to do. My wife said to me, "Maybe you ought to examine how you are spending your time." By then, I was living (barely) on three hours of sleep a night.

I finally decided to take a proactive stand and get a hold of my time management practices. I found a way to use tools available to us all that effectively turned my computer into a virtual personal assistance. The results: I now sleep about six hours a night, spend more time with the twins and I get more things done. It's a great feeling to know that things are done (or will be) and not have to constantly be worrying about what I am missing.

Here are some simple ways that I found to take charge of my time and how they act as my own personal assistant:

Find a calendar and use it- I use MS Outlook, but Google and Yahoo have calendars that have many of the same powerful time-saving features. These calendars also allow you to sync with Outlook and your iPod Touch or PDA. I will be talking about the things I do in Outlook, but know that you can recreate the same things in these free online calendars. (Sir, you have three appointments today at 9:00am, 11:00am and 3:00PM- Bring your PowerPoint to the 11:00 meeting.)

Task List- I love these tasks list. Sometimes you don't need to create an appointment (which takes place at a specific time on a specific date), you just need to have a task that needs to get done. You can set up these tasks for a one-time job or for reoccurring activities. You can set these reoccurring tasks to take place with no end or for a specific number of occurrences. One thing I love about Outlook is that it allows me to flag an e-mail to automatically assign a task to it. This is a great way to make sure no e-mails fall through the cracks. There is also a physiological benefit associated with tasks: Your body releases endorphins when you check off a completed task and it feels sooo good! (Sir, here is a list of your tasks for the day.)

 Alerts- Appointments and tasks can be programmed to send you an alert before they are due. You can schedule these alerts to take place anytime before they are due. So, if you set an appointment 2 months out, you can set up an alert to remind you about it the day before. Alerts are great ways to serve as a back-up to scheduled events (Sir, don't forget you have an appointment tomorrow with Mr. X at 2:00 PM.)

Schedule E-mails- This is a nifty little trick that I just learned how to do in Outlook (I'm not sure if Gmail or Yahoo mail allows this or not). When there is an e-mail that needs to go out later, I write it, schedule it to go out at a specific future date and time, and it sits in my outbox until the time arrives I have scheduled it to go out. I love this and it bypasses the need to create a task to send the e-mail out and allows me to take care of it immediately. I use this when I schedule new guest authors on my blog. Since I schedule them months out, it's nice to be able to send a friendly reminder a few days before I need the post. Now I can schedule that reminder the moment I confirm the date they will be a guest on my blog. (Sir, I will remind Ms. Doe about her guest post six days before you need it.)

Sync with my iPod Touch- There are settings and apps available that allow me to sync all of these things with my iPod touch (Thanks to my wonderful wife for this unexpected and awesome 40th birthday gift last month!) Not only can I sync my appointments, tasks and e-mails so I can have them with me when I am away from my computer, I can create new ones on my iPod Touch and sync them back on my computer when I get home. (Sir, here is list of all your appointments, tasks and e-mails for you to have access to on your trip today. I will update your calendar with your new appointments and tasks.)

I know that I haven't shared anything earth-shattering here today, but sometimes the most effective things we can do are often right under our noses. You want to know what the great thing is about setting up a time management routine using these tools? Multi-billion dollar corporations use these same tools effectively because they work. They are simple, free, and powerful. The more you use them, the more ways you can see how they can help you. The built-in functions are deep and actually pretty amazing.

To get started on these tools, start to play around with them. The help menus do a pretty good job at teaching you how to use the features, but I find that video tutorials found on YouTube are wonderful at showing me shortcuts and time-management applications I may need. Also do a Google Blog search for people who share their tips on how to get the most of these tools. Once you get started and really rely on these tools to help you with your time management activities, you will be thrilled at how they can help you master your schedule and not let your schedule master you.

About the author:

Tony Eldridge is the author of the award winning action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect, which Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the creator of Marketing Tips for Authors, a site the publishes free tips and videos to help authors learn marketing techniques for their books. You can read the serial release of The Samson Effect at http://samsoneffect.marketingtipsforauthors.com/

Lisa Mason

If you’re trying to write your own articles for article marketing, there are a lot of things to know. You need to understand basic spelling and grammar skills, SEO and keywords, how to create great headlines and so much more. This can be a lot to take in, especially if you’re new at article writing.

One of the most difficult problems new article writers face is time management. It can be difficult to learn all of these things and still write well in a fast and efficient manner. However, there are some things you can learn and things you can do to help you manage your time and get more done when it comes to article writing and marketing.

Here are some tips for time management for article marketing:

• Create a “game plan” for how many articles you want to complete in a particular period of time
• Be sure the goals you set are realistic and attainable
• Set forth a step-by-step guide for reaching these goals
• Discover where you are wasting time- time yourself writing each article or log what you do during your writing sessions. Many people find they are surfing the Internet, posting on Twitter, browsing Flickr and other activities instead of actually writing
• Prioritize to reach your goals- If you don’t seem to have enough time in your day for everything, it may be that you need to let go of some things that are not as important
• Learn to time yourself on writing tasks- then stick to it. If you go over your time limit for one thing, skip it and move on to the next thing. You can come back to it later when you have time. If not, you will be behind on everything and it’s impossible to “make up” the lost time.
• Stay organized so your writing system goes as planned
• Always write something during your allotted time for writing- even if it’s just free-writing to loosen up the brain

Now with these tips on time management for article marketing, your article writing and posting does not have to seem like such a difficult or daunting task. You can use these tips each and every time you write articles and also incorporate them into other parts of your life as well.

Happy article writing!

About the Author:
Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles and the author of How to Earn a Living Writing for the Internet as well as two poetry anthologies and a how-to poetry book. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of eBooks and thousands of website pages and related content in her 10+ years as a professional writer.

Set Goals for Better Time Management

First in a series about time management for authors

Too many of us are living beyond our means.

I'm not talking about money; I'm talking about time.

With the push for self-promotion among authors, marketing tends to overtake writing time - and everything else in life.

Managing your time is key to implementing successful marketing strategies - and keeping your sanity. It is not easy. You have a lot to juggle - and you MUST be flexible when new priorities rear their time-sensitive heads.

Time management is about more than just keeping a calendar filled with the events of your life. In order to be effective with your time - and move forward with your career - you must have a vision of the future and know how to achieve that vision. That means you must set goals and objectives. These help you create a road map for success by reminding you what you need to focus on to reach long-term objectives.

For example, if you know that in five years you want to build your blog presence, then you will want your schedule to reflect time-intensive activities to build up your blog. Knowing this long-term goal will make it easier to vet smaller projects that might seem important at the time, but will ultimately take away from your goals.

Before you sit down with a calendar to detail your life, you need to sit down and create a list of goals and objectives. Here's how:

Get a clean notebook. Go out and buy yourself a really cool one that has staying power. A fresh notebook sometimes makes people more creative and the blank sheet offers a fresh start.

Make lists. First focus on yourself. What are your personal goals? Are you using your writing career to expand your business, or do you want to sell books for a living. Where do you want to be in 10 years? What do you want to do with your family? Apply this same technique to your next two lists: one for family and one for writing.

Prioritize your lists. One you go through the brain dump of putting everything down on paper, you need to prioritize what's on the list. Do this for each individual list.

Combine your priorities. Now comes the really tough part. You need to take all three lists and pull them into one prioritized list. This is where you decide how important your writing career is to your overall life, including family and other business activities. Is it your top priority or does it fall far down the list?

Keep your vision close. Tack your list next to your desk, on your refrigerator, the bathroom mirror - somewhere you will see it every day. Seeing it helps you believe it - and stick to your goals. It also helps you more easily decide which activities will benefit your future, or will deter you from your goals.

Setting goals and prioritizing them is NOT easy. It could take several days. Give yourself a deadline of two weeks. Create your lists, then leave them a few days. Go back and prioritize them. Leave them again a few days before you combine all the lists into one. Don't allow this process to drag on. Give yourself a two-week deadline if that will keep you on target.

This system may not work for everyone, but there are several resources for those who want to start serious time management.  Here are other resources to help:

Personal Goal Setting (Mind Tools)

Personal Goal Setting: Time Management Guide

My recent post, Tips for Time Management for Authors,  was by far one of the most popular posts viewed at Market My Novel.

Authors: You have spoken. You need tips on time management. Market My Novel is here to help.

Each Friday beginning in October, I will feature more in-depth tips on time management.

Have a specific question about better ways to manage your time? eMail Market My Novel and your question may be featured in a blog post. Be sure to include your full name, book title and Web site if you would like free publicity of your work.

If you have tips you want to share with other authors, eMail Market My Novel to schedule a guest blog.