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Home » Archives for Dan Balow » Page 7

Dan Balow

Repetition Is Talent

By Dan Balowon December 14, 2022
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Early in my career, I attended a business conference that had a profound effect on my view of work ever since.

First, I recall the presenter talking about the use of statistics and data in business. Data can support any position, depending on how you use it. It is like having an opinion and finding Scripture to back it up. Almost always the text is taken out of context. The same thing happens with numbers and data. I learned to dig deeper and not take numbers at face value.

Then there was the lecture on not assuming things and the strong advice to avoid doing so, using a certain animal to illustrate the result if you do.

But one of the most memorable items that week was the discussion of talent and ability. In short, true talent is the ability to repeat something.

“Okay, that’s great. Now do it again.” Successful anything is repeating what worked the first time, like writing a second successful book.

A few years ago, a big announcement alerted the world about the discovery of an unpublished manuscript from Harper Lee, the author of the American classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In 2015, it was published (Go Set a Watchman) as a sequel to the classic title.

As of this writing, reviews on Amazon for Go Set a Watchman average 3.8 stars out of 5. The original To Kill a Mockingbird averages 4.8 out of 5 stars. Only 6% of the reviews for Mockingbird were 3 stars or less. Watchman has 38% of reviews at three or fewer stars.

I won’t draw any conclusions, but give it as an example of not being able to repeat something.

A lost art in the media world is that of the regular daily or weekly columnist in newspapers or magazines. They were paid well to be great every day or every week. The pressure to perform or maintain a certain standard was ever-present.

I recall a situation in book publishing about 30 years ago when an author wrote a very good book, which sold well, followed by a multibook contract. Quickly, it became clear the author had nothing else to say. Contract signed, money paid, and nothing would come of it. Where is King Solomon when you need him to figure out this problem?

Any writer who desires to be published, either traditionally or self-published, will be confronted with the never-ending cycle of “What’s next?”

Authors cannot control sales or public perception of a book, but they can control the quality of their work and the commitment they maintain to write the best they can.

There is a difference between someone who writes one book that is published and an author who works for many years on many manuscripts before one is published. The former needs to learn how to push themselves, while the latter is already keenly aware writing is difficult and unfair at times and understands the pressure to pursue excellence.

I like working with people who have traveled a road of creative work for a while and know it is a process of constant improvement and growth. They proved their writing quality is repeatable, which is a talent we all appreciate.

 

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Category: Career, The Writing Life

Pet Peeves

By Dan Balowon December 1, 2022
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Pet peeves. We all have them, and we all do things that are pet peeves for others. How about starting a blog post with a two-word sentence, which isn’t a sentence? Anyone? Bueller? My Pet Peeves On one hand, I am like everyone else. I don’t like repetitive tapping or spam phone calls late at night. Those are the easy ones. I am also incredibly annoyed by bicyclists who never, ever observe any kind …

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Category: Agents, Humor

What’s the Deal With One-Sheets?  

By Dan Balowon November 17, 2022
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I believe it is safe to say almost every book is purchased before it is read. Or, at the very least, the decision to read it is made before it is read. Wow, we are mining the depths of Dan’s publishing wisdom today. There’s a reason aspiring and even experienced authors are encouraged to create a one-page pitch sheet for their books. If you can’t explain your work in relatively few words, you need …

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Category: Book Proposals, Pitching

Give Away Your Story

By Dan Balowon November 9, 2022
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Agents have a difficult time selling any kind of personal story, from memoirs that contain memories from one’s life to other types of autobiographical works that might recap the author’s story as a series of events. Regardless of the type, this writing generates very limited interest from traditional publishers, unless the author has a good-size marketing platform because they achieved a level of …

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Category: Book Proposals, Indie, Inspiration, Marketing

Just Write the Opposite

By Dan Balowon October 27, 2022
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From season five of the television sitcom Seinfeld, a revealing quote from the character George Costanza: “It all became very clear to me sitting out there today, that every decision I’ve ever made, in my entire life, has been wrong. My life is the complete opposite of everything I want it to be. Every instinct I have, in every aspect of life, be it something to wear, something to …

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Category: The Writing Life, Theology

Building Your Platform Without Becoming a Narcissist

By Dan Balowon October 19, 2022
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Authors in the process of building and maintaining their media platforms can easily slip into a self-focused effort, evaluating every relationship with an eye toward their personal benefit, seeking attention in any way possible, and exhibiting all the traits of destructive pride. Well now, there’s a cheery thought to start the day. Some little hairs must have gotten under my collar after my last …

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Category: Branding, Marketing, Social Media, The Writing Life

Publishing Is Publishing

By Dan Balowon October 6, 2022
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Every part of the book publishing ecosystem adjusted its perspective to accommodate both traditional publishing and author-published works. It wasn’t long ago these two paths were treated as either/or decisions; but now they are both/and. Many traditional publishers offer author-paid services, some agents have indie services for clients, and a large number of authors publish both traditional and …

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Category: Book Business, Book Business, Indie, Marketing, Self-Publishing, Trends

Publishing Milestones

By Dan Balowon September 28, 2022
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Today, glance through a potpourri of book releases, important dates, and defining events that make up book publishing in general and Christian publishing specifically. Not all the books or events are “Christian” in nature, but their presence created historical markers to give perspective. (I stopped at 2010 since events and books take time to become true historical markers.) 1440 – German Johann …

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Category: Publishing History

Publishers Are Book Investors

By Dan Balowon September 15, 2022
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Traditional book publishers have a wide variety of employees, each with different but complementary abilities. Every task required to effectively publish a book is under one roof (metaphorically speaking these days, of course). Everything is geared toward publishing books well. The same could be said of many author-paid or indie publishers. Talented people with a goal of publishing well, working …

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Category: Book Business

Food vs. Medicine Books

By Dan Balowon September 7, 2022
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Even though this topic could be applicable to just about any type of book, we’ll be looking at those in the Christian publishing category today. Categorizing books has been part of publishing for a very long time. Officially, there are over four dozen primary book categories designated by the BISAC coding system, which spin off to thousands of subcategories. For example, one of the primary …

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Category: Book Business, Christian, Creativity, Theology
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