This is not just my optimism talking, folks. I am seeing publishing promise in action.

And it’s not just infinite creativity & prosperity for me; it’s infinite creativity & prosperity for any writer who wants to go for it.

However this vision does not look much like the old model of publishing.

It looks more like a new type of author, a type of author who isn’t “all author.”

And there is no publishing “house.” Publishing has moved “in-house.” And by that I mean it has moved to your house.

It looks like a type of author who plays harder than she works, who lets creativity lead, and who knows and maximizes her strengths, while addressing her weaknesses has a publishing house right in her house…if she wants it.

If this sounds familiar than you probably were in attendance at the Writer’s Digest 2012 Conference in New York, AWP 2012 Chicago, Mad Anthony 2012 in Ohio, or the Missouri Writers Guild Conference in Missouri. You heard me verbally kicking all the writers in attendance in the butt while simultaneously inviting them to wake up from the fantasy of getting discovered.

You have probably read all about this type of “empowered writer” in all of my books from Writer Mama to Get Known to Author Mama to The Writer’s Workout to Build Your Author Platform.

If you know my work, then you know exactly what I’m talking about because you have likely experienced the magic of getting in touch with your creative instincts and training that horse until you can ride it to publishing success.

I know empowered writers are out there, because I hear from you every single day. You are my students, my former students, my dream team members, my readers, attendees of my author series, and members of audiences where I have recently taught or trained.

You listened to what I said. You did the things I asked you to do. And you are seeing results. You are changing, you are growing, you are taking charge.

You are embracing your power in a humble way.

This professional empowerment is causing you to pay better attention to your instincts. And now you trust your instincts and follow them. And they are leading you to exciting places of creative expansion and prosperous growth.

Not that empowered writers don’t have any down days. Of course we do. That’s just part of being human. Being a writer or an author does not make you exempt from life.

Writers are not perfect. I’ve never met a perfect writer. In fact, I’m going to say that the less focused you are on perfection, the more likely you are to succeed (except when it comes to a final draft, of course, but you can get help with that).

And I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of infinite creativity and prosperity. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

I like the silent sound it makes when it is happening. I like the quiet power it has.

Make this inner work your reality if you want to see the results later. The future of publishing comes down to a series of pretty simple questions that any writer can ask herself:

Is this a book?

If it is a book, which formats make the most sense?

Whether it is or isn’t a book, what else might it become?

THIS is the future of publishing. Don’t let anybody tell you anything different.

There has NEVER been a more exciting time to be a writer. I hope you get that. I hope you make this statement your daily reality.

I hope you are ready to roll up your sleeves and show us all how it’s done. How you do it. How you write. Who you write for. And that change you create by putting words on…something.

There’s no reason to settle for anything else.

So get to work. Read my work. Grow your skills. Seek the help and mentoring you need to get on top of your game.

Your readers are waiting. And they might not wait forever.

~ Photo by Amontei

Sometimes you just need to write a blog post to pull everything all together, know what I mean?

So, here I am at the first night of the Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference and several cool things have happened already.

I’ve seen some students. I’ve hung out with pal, Jane Friedman. We met all the fine folks on the faculty for the conference.

In the car on the way here from the airport, I learned from St. Louis Writers Guild president Brad Cook that Tennessee Williams won a short story contest hosted by the guild many moons ago, when he was in college, with a piece that likely evolved into Streetcar Named Desire. Isn’t that cool?

Afterwards I was chatting with bestselling author, Claire Cook, and she is wicked cool, as we used to say back in Mass.

You know, Claire Cook? She wrote the book, Must Love Dogs, which was made into a movie with Diane Lane and John Cusak.

You know who I am talking about. I bet you always thought this woman who has written eight books about women reinventing themselves would be wicked cool.

And now you know the truth. She is!

Claire has a knew book coming out, Wallflower in Bloom, and she is going to participate in the Writer Mama Every Day in May Month-long Giveaway. Subscribe to the blog and newsletter now so you won’t miss any of our thirty awesome mom authors!

Recaps on the Missouri Writers Guild Conference and the Mad Anthony Writers Conference coming soon…in the meantime, sleep!

Yes. We’re sure.

I am speaking on this topic at the Mad Anthony Conference this weekend and then speaking about it again at the Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference next weekend.

To get myself warmed up, I took a look back at some of my thoughts on the subject. And while I was at it, I got curious about what others had to say, so I did some searching and came up with a couple of neat posts.

What will I be saying at the two upcoming conferences?

I’m sorry. That information is top secret. You should really come if you want to find out. (See my appearances schedule for details.)

However these posts will give you a general idea of where I stand on the subject:

Posts by me:

There Has Never Been a Better Time To Be A Writer

The Spectrum: Why It’s Never Been A Better Time To Be A Writer

Stop, Drop & Micro-publish (over at the #amwriting blog)

Whip Your Literary Ambitions Into Shape at the Missouri Writer’s Guild Conference

Posts by others:

A New Definition of Writing Success by James Scott Bell, Kill Zone Blog

10 Reasons There Has Never Been A Better Time To Be A Fiction Writer, The Web World of Scott William Carter (an oldie blog post but a goodie, and he’s from Oregon, though I do not know him)

The Business of Writing, An Interview with James Scott Bell by Girls With Pens

What do you think? Are you convinced or skeptical? Never a better time to be a writer? Why or why not?

~ Photo by ozgurmulazimoglu

In my interactions with thousands of writers a year, I often find that when it comes to the topic of eBooks, writers often have stars in their eyes (can I get rich? will it be easy? how long until I get discovered?), instead of focusing on basic truths of eBook writing, which are also basic truths of writing careers in general.

When you create an eBook organically from scratch to serve your readers, you get to stop focusing on getting rich, making it easy on yourself, and getting discovered, and put your focus where it rightly belongs: writing the best darn eBook you can write, publishing it in whatever formats make sense, and getting it in front of people who are interested in its promise so they can decide whether or not to hit the “Buy Now” button.

Here are twenty-one tips on writing, publishing, and marketing nonfiction eBooks for sensible people:

1. Don’t listen to people who say you are going to get rich doing this. Their focus is in the wrong place. Publish eBooks with integrity, just like you would do anything else. Integrity is the focus of everything you do, right?

2. If you focus on serving readers rather than getting wealthy, you will be rich in the ways that matters most and your eBooks will succeed. People who do quality work on a daily basis understand this.

3. Focusing on selling an eBook just for the sake of selling an eBook is just as foolish as focusing on writing a book for the sake of writing a book. Get your game face on. There is no reason to write, publish, and market a book, unless the book/eBook is merited. If it’s not merited, save your energy for other pursuits.

4. EBooks are merited more often than traditionally published books because the marketplace is wider, deeper and more flexible than it is for traditionally published books. This is because of “The Wide Tail.” Bottom line, you don’t have to sell a million copies, you might be better off selling hundreds of copies.

5. EBooks, like books, both take an enormous amount of energy to write, publish, and market if you want them to make any kind of serious impact in the trajectory of your career. And, of course, you do, right? Please don’t believe anyone who tells you something different. If your eBook is not an integral part of your growing writing career, take pause. Publishing eBooks is not a recreational sport. Steer clear of folks who make it sound like it is.

6. On that note, recognize that eBook publishing is not magic. An eBook is  just one more literary vehicle for your expertise to fill, so it can reach readers. There are dozens of literary forms. Some are much less complicated than eBooks. If you have not tried other shorter, nonfiction forms, you probably should before you tackle an eBook.

7. There is an exception to every rule. Let’s take a closer look at a good case study of an exception. The people who write this blog, in my opinion, should be working with professionals who can help them create a saleable eBook on their topic. In this case, they have a platform. They have media interest. They have an incredibly helpful niche that is just radiating integrity. And no eBook. That’s just not right. Even if they have traditional publisher interest, I would suggest they get an eBook done and on sale now. Why shouldn’t they capitalize on their success and on their hard work?

8. Generally speaking the best time to write an eBook is exactly the same as a traditionally published book. When you are the right person, with the right content, at the right time, you should write that eBook. Timing sells books. Content sells books. And solid expertise and thorough research sells books.

9. Let the eBook format emerge out of what makes the most sense for the reader. In teaching my Micro-publishing For Mom Writers class the focus in the class is on writing the most frictionless eBook possible. Nothing else can happen until you have written the best eBook you can write. This should be your primary focus until the job is done. Nothing else is as important.

10. Speaking of working with others, you should probably collaborate with others when writing, publishing and marketing nonfiction eBooks. Don’t go it alone. We don’t need any more poorly written, poorly targeted, and poorly marketed anything in this world. So unless you are committed to multiple collaborations to create, publish, and launch the best possible product, I would hold off until you are willing.

11. Steer clear of cult-like groups. You don’t need a group of people to commiserate with, you need a clear mission and a kick-ass eBook. You need to be an individual, who can partner with others and serve others. Your book serves the world, not a group of cronies. I push my students to be strong individuals with a clear sense of professional purpose and this helps them to become more self-confident professionals, who create their own luck despite external circumstances.

12. Focusing on the reader is not only the most important thing for your sanity and success, it’s also the most important thing in any business. If the customer is always right, then the reader is also always right. Addressing reader needs and frustrations isn’t just one thing, it’s the primary thing.

13. Polish your eBook until your excellence appears effortless. This requires a lot more work than you think. I can think of about thirty-three possible formats for your eBook. But the best possible format for your eBook is the one that will appear seamless to the reader because the reader will be so busy absorbing the excellent content that you provide.

14. Forget everything everybody says about pricing. You will price your eBook according to what the reader will pay for it, period. This is also known as “what the market will bear.” Sell your eBook for the highest price that readers will pay to move quantities of the book. Trial and error is the best way to figure this out.

15. You will know when you have achieved a marketable eBook because advance readers in your target market will rave about the eBook. Until this happens, you are not there yet.

16. If you are not there yet, it’s likely because you didn’t work with a developmental editor, you didn’t have early readers give you feedback, you didn’t have people help you fine tune and proof the manuscript, and you wrote the eBook you felt like writing rather than the one that readers didn’t know they needed.

17. Your eBook is a natural extension of everything you do and everything you offer and everything you are known for. It goes with the big picture of who you are and what you do.

18. You will sell as many copies of your eBook as you offer. No offer. No sales. Not comfortable with sales and self-promotion? This is going to be a problem. Every writer, with very few exceptions, must become comfortable with selling and self-promotion and do it with wisely and well. There is no shame in creating excellence and offering it to others. If you have a problem with this, you need to get over it. If you hang with a crowd of people who have a problem with this, see number 11.

19. Discoverability is a huge factor in the success of your eBook. If I want to buy it but I can’t find it in an online search in seconds, you’ve lost the sale.

20. Discoverability is also key for readers who don’t know about you or your eBook but are looking for any information on your topic. You want these folks to be able to find your eBook, right? Then you need to offer it on a website with excellent Search Engine Optimization. You need old media, social media, and word-of-mouth. Anyone who says that any author does not need all of these things is grasping for straws.

21. The time and energy you devote to your eBook will likely be worthwhile and win-win-win for everyone involved. If it won’t be worthwhile and win-win-win, don’t do it!

Are you willing to get to work on your eBook now? Are you committed to selling it for the life of your writing career? Are you going to devote the best of your writing, publishing production, selling, and self-promotion efforts to the project? Great. Then you are probably going to succeed in both the short run and the long run.

Here are some great examples, in my opinion, of writers who publish eBooks as an integrated part of their existing platform and are richer writers for it:

Malia Jacobson
eBook: Ready, Set, Sleep
http://www.maliajacobson.com/

Judy M. Miller
eBook: Parenting Your Adopted Child
http://judymmiller.com/

Jenny Kales
The New Nut-Free Mom: A Crash Course in Caring for Your Nut-Allergic Child
http://nut-freemom.blogspot.com/

Cindy Hudson
Mother-Daughter Book Club Meeting Planner Guides: Collection One (eGuide)
Book By Book, The Complete Guide to Creating Mother Daughter Book Clubs (Traditionally Published)
http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/

I am the author of three books from Writer’s Digest: The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. I also published Author Mama and The Build Your Author Platform Workbook in digital formats. Please subscribe to my ezine, The Prosperous Writer, and this blog so we can stay in touch.

Here’s are a few things I’m going to be presenting on this spring:

Marketing and self-promotion for ebooks

Why it’s never been a better time to be a writer

Whip your literary dreams into shape

Tips for navigating the gig economy

Writing career exercises for self-discovery and profit

Crafting nonfiction queries

How to power up your platform for the Internet age

Read all about my appearances for Oregon Writer’s Colony E-Publishing Workshop in Portland, Oregon, Mad Anthony Writer’s Conference in Hamilton, Ohio, and Missouri Writer’s Guild in Chesterfield, Missouri on my appearances page.

I would love to see you at any of these three events. Please send me a note if you are able to attend.

I am now scheduling for fall 2012. Please let me know if your literary organization or association is interested in inviting me to your upcoming event or conference.

These are some examples of Tech-savvy Writers for our discussion at AWP 2012 in Chicago today.

Get this, writers: traditional media is the circulatory system. But new media is the nervous system. And the two work great together.

The circulatory system makes sure all your everything gets nourished. But the nervous system means you get to have the perception to appreciate that nourishment.

When you want awareness about your book, you want the extended nervous system of humanity to know it.

Just make sure you bring the circulatory system along too, if you possibly can.

These writers do. Check ‘em out!

Cheryl Strayed

Most recent book: Wild, a memoir from Alfred A. Knopf (March 2012) and forthcoming Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar coming this summer.

It’s never too late to get techy!

Strayed is not the most tech-savvy writer you’ll ever meet, by any means. But remember this, writers—better late than never!

Strayed is appearing at AWP this year and you will be hearing her name a lot in the upcoming months if you haven’t already. She has a feature interview in the latest Poets & Writers magazine and also recently had a feature in my hometown paper, The Oregonian. In a rising tide of publicity genius, Strayed timed the big reveal of her role as “Dear Sugar” on The Rumpus to tie in with the launch of her two new books.

Wild will be released in March (you can pre-order it here) and another book that chronicles her columns from The Rumpus will be released this summer.

Strayed wrote a memoir about hiking the PCT, that’s the backstory.

Strayed wrote the line: “Write like a motherfucker,” for therumpus.net. That’s the lead-in story to the backstory.

The end of the story is that more people will read her memoir in the long run because she wrote that top-secret Rumpus advice column.

So put your judgement aside, writers, and see the Internet and technology as your allies, not your enemies.

Learn more about Cheryl Strayed. And buy her books!

Cory Doctorow

Science Fiction writer and activist, Cory Doctorow is one of the smartest people I have ever met. If you are also intelligent, I hope you will follow his proactive, provacative example.

What I’ve learned from Cory is that it does not matter how intelligent you are; it matters what you DO with that intelligence. Your intelligence is either serving your heart or imprisoning it (or something in between). I hope, for your sake, dear writer, that your intelligence is not only serving your heart, but also serving the world.

You can have an ego, that’s fine. Cory certainly has one. But as long as you use your ego in service of the world and others, we are going to cut you a lot more slack than if you just sit around indulging your pride.

You do not have to be perfect, dear writer. Perfection is unattainable and unsustainable. But there is no excuse for self-indulgence and laziness. Got off your rump and write something. Than do something with it. Isn’t that what we’re all here for?

I recommend any of Cory’s books hand’s down (especially to sci-fi fans) because they are so acclaimed and he is so adored by his fans. However, since I am not a sci-fi gal, I particularly like his two collections of essays, Content and Context. Tons of food for thought in there for any writer today and you can listen to them on audio for free.

Seth Godin

If every writer read all of Seth Godin’s marketing books, we would need to have this panel because marketing and self-promotion would be a required class in every writing MFA program in the country. And I know we are doing better but we are not there yet.

So don’t wait for your writing program to get schooled. School yourself. Seth’s books are remarkably accessible and east to digest. You can read them while you are on the bus or waiting to pick up the kids. Just read them!

Godin has saved my career more than once. He is a strong influences in my two recent books, Get Known Before the Book Deal and The Writer’s Workout Coach, both from Writer’s Digest Books.

You can buy them new or used and thank me later. Here’s the most recent list. Read them all is what I recommend.

Here’s an introduction to our panel, the panelists, and an opportunity to follow the panel via the panelist blogs as well as on Twitter.

Here’s the details of our panel on Thursday, March 1st at 1:30 pm

R175. The Tech-Empowered Writer: Embrace New Media, Experiment, and Earn
(Christina Katz, Jane Friedman, Seth Harwood, Robert Lee Brewer)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
What can a professor, a journalist, a novelist, and a poet teach you about new media? Using real-life examples from our own experience and that of other tech-savvy writers, we’ll construct a composite of how working writers use technology to invest in their careers, experiment and launch new works, and grow their income opportunities. Whether you need a day job, a part-time job, or just enough gigs to pay a few bills, there have never been so many ways for tech-savvy writers to earn.

Come back to this blog on Thursday, March 1st for some great examples of writers who are using technology to grow and empower their careers.

In the meantime, check out Jane’s blog: JaneFriedman.com (her post on our panel)

Visit Seth Harwood’s blog

Visit Robert Lee Brewer’s blog

And check out our tweets:

@thewritermama

@JaneFriedman

@sethharwood

@RobertLeeBrewer

Here’s a little more about us:

Moderator: Christina Katz
Genre: Nonfiction
Specialties: Writing career how-to from beginning to traditional book deal (craft, sales, platform, specializing, niche development, ebooks, book proposals, and income stream development)
Christina Katz is the author of three books from Writer’s Digest: The Writer’s Workout, Get Known Before the Book Deal, and Writer Mama. Her writing career tips and parenting advice appear regularly in national, regional, and online publications. A “gentle taskmaster” over the past decade to hundreds of writers, Christina’s students go from unpublished to published, build professional writing career skills, and increase their creative confidence over time. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia College Chicago and a BA in English from Dartmouth College. A popular speaker on creative career growth, Christina presents for writing conferences, literary events, MFA writing programs, and libraries. She is the creator and host of the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, her daughter, and far too many pets. Learn more at www.ChristinaKatz.com.

Panelist: Seth Harwood
Genre: Fiction
Specialties: Writing fiction, how-to build a fiction platform, and podcasting
Seth Harwood received an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and went on to build a large readership for his first novel, JACK WAKES UP, by serializing it as a free audiobook online. After Jack Wakes Up was published by a small press and reached #45 in Books on Amazon, Three Rivers Press (Random House) bought it to re-release in 2009. In 2010, Harwood published his second novel, Young Junius, with Tyrus Books.
Episodes of Harwood’s crime fiction podcasts have been downloaded over one million times across SethHarwood.com and CrimeWAV.com. In 2011, Harwood raised over $7,000 using Kickstarter to build publishing costs and an advance for his third novel, THIS IS LIFE. He’ll be teaching an upcoming Author Promotion online class through Stanford Continuing Studies starting on 4/16. You can contact him to learn more at SethHarwood.com and AuthorBootCamp.com.

Panelist: Jane Friedman
Genre: Nonfiction
Specialty: Future of publishing, writing and technology, and writing how-to
Jane Friedman is an assistant professor of e-media at the University of Cincinnati, and the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. Her expertise on media and the future of publishing has been featured on NPR, PBS, and Publishers Weekly, among many other media outlets. She has also consulted with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund in San Francisco. Her website and blog (JaneFriedman.com) was recently named one of the top 10 blogs for writers in 2011-2012.

Robert Lee Brewer
Genres: Poetry and nonfiction
Specialties: Poetry, chapbook publication, and blogging
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor for the Writer’s Digest Writing Community, focusing specifically on Writer’s Market, Poet’s Market, and WritersMarket.com. He was voted Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere in 2010 and hosted as a National Feature Poet at the 2011 Austin International Poetry Festival. In 2011, he self-published two limited edition chapbooks, ENTER and ESCAPE–both of which sold out within weeks of their release dates. Robert blogs about poetry at Poetic Asides on the WritersDigest.com site and everything else at My Name Is Not Bob. He is married to the poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their five kids (four boys and one princess). Learn more at http://robertleebrewer.blogspot.com, www.writersmarket.com, and www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides.

I am the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal from Writer's Digest Books.

When it comes to platform development, I have learned a thing or two about a thing or two over the past twelve years. Here are a few insights…

• Have a specialty focus, but don’t adhere to your specialty focus so tightly that you miss opportunities or don’t get to follow your healthy creative instincts. Nobody ever said having a platform meant cutting yourself off from your inspiration.
• You don’t need a guru to develop and grow a platform, but you do need solid, informed, up-to-date advice from a number of knowledgeable resources according to your current needs.
• Platform development is not a one-time event, it’s a career-long process. Learn what you can now and keep learning as you grow your career over time.

I have explored platform development as an aspiring author, as an author, and as a multi-book author, and I always enjoy the challenge of learning new ways to communicate who I am and what I offer to others as I expand my writing horizons.

This past summer, I wrote a self-study course for Writer’s Digest which I have turned into a workbook to accompany my second book, Get Known Before the Book Deal.

Get Known has helped thousands of writers go from invisible and unknown to visible and known, and it can help you, too, especially when used in conjunction with my workbook, Build Your Author Platform.

During the week of The Associated Writing Conference, I am knocking ten bucks off the workbook price, so you can purchase Build Your Author Platform for just $29.99.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction of Build Your Author Platform…

This self-study workbook is designed to help you identify and grow your author platform from scratch. What’s a platform? In 2007, I created the following definition of the word:

A platform communicates your expertise to others. It includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership.

Basically, your platform is everything you DO with your expertise. A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Once you establish a platform, it can work for you 24/7, reaching readers even as you sleep. Of course, this kind of reach takes time. If many others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then you likely have an active platform.

I find it helpful to define a platform as a promise writers make to not only create something to sell (like a book), but also to promote it to the specific readers who will want to purchase it. This takes both time and effort, not to mention considerable focus.

I hope you will purchase the workbook and use it with Get Known Before the Book Deal to get started building your professional platform today! Happy platform-building!

Next Round of Classes Begins a Week From Wednesday!

Many of you know that I am a writing career coach. The reason that my advice is often more informed than most is that I draw from personal experience, research and interviews, and ten years of working with real live writers.

Therefore instead of serving up a bunch of generic information or borrowed knowledge, I offer a depth of insight and awareness that really only comes with time and experience.

I don’t give my advice and time away for free often. Although I do have structured ways that I give, for example through the Northwest Author Series and formal class scholarships.

The bottom line is that I prioritize my paid work and I coach my writers to do the same. There is a very good reason that my students are not the muck-slingers of Twitter or the folks who spend all day chatting on Facebook. It’s because they are busy working and getting paid to work. They are busy growing solid, lasting writing careers.

If you would like to be one of them, I am offering four upcoming six-week classes:

Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff LINK and Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform LINK begin on February 22nd.

Pitching Practice LINK and 60 Ways To Flex Your Content and Prosper in Your Niche LINK begin February 23rd.

The next Micro-publishing For Mom Writers Class begins April 12th LINK. The class is already starting to fill up and space is limited. April will also be the last time that this and all of these classes are offered at the current prices.

Training groups don’t start up until August LINK, but keep in mind that classes are prerequisites to advancing up the ranks of my coaching groups. So please plan to take classes before you aspire to join one of my Dream Teams.

AWP in Chicago, Here I Come!

I will be traveling to Chicago in the beginning of MARCH to moderate a panel on The Tech-Empowered Writer: Embrace New Media, Experiment, and Earn with Jane Friedman, Robert Lee Brewer, and Seth Harwood. We are going to have some serious fun at this panel. I hope we will see you there, if you are attending AWP. Our panel is Thursday, March 1st from 1:30 – 2:45 pm in Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor. Please come up and say hello afterwards if you will be attending.

Because I have some extra time available while I am in Chicago, I am offering low-cost, one-on-one power up your platform consults. These prices are reduced even further for former students to the point of being ridiculously cheap. Not sure if I will ever offer these again, so if you live in the Chicago area and you would like to have a one-hour discussion about how identify your platform dynamic and use it to take your career to the next level, please email me at christina at christina katz dot com. You do not have to be a registered attendee of AWP to meet with me.

Hope to have a chance to brainstorm with you in the Windy City!

Speaking of the Windy City…I have an essay that will appear online this week and the setting of the story is in Chicago. More on that tomorrow! Have a great week!

Yes, it’s never been a better time to be a writer. I keep saying this and so do others. We all seem to agree on this point, however, there has likely also never been a more challenging time to be writer because of the spectrum of choices available to writers on a daily basis.

From the perspective of the writer, which seems to often take a backseat to the points of view of publishers and pundits, writing career growth is on a spectrum. It’s on a spectrum from the moment you start trying to sell your work when you begin to see how many possible targets you have for your best writing.

• Writing exists on a spectrum of lengths (from a tip to a magnum opus).
• Publishing options exist on a spectrum of options (from self-published to big six).
• Partnering options are also on a spectrum (from indie and unagented to traditional and agented).

Just because you are traditionally published and agented, does not mean that you can’t also make the most of micro-publishing opportunities. And just because you are not agented, does not mean that you can’t also make the most of micro-publishing opportunities.

Increasingly publishers agree. They won’t turn down work just because it has already been published.

So what are you waiting for, writers? I’ve been telling you to produce your own careers for seven years. Barry Eisler calls it be the CEO. I don’t care what you call it. I just care that you step up to the podium and start orchestrating your own success because no one else is going to do it for you. There are no more good reasons not to write your best work and get it out there in multiple formats.

I know it’s a bit overwhelming because there are so many choices at any one given moment. I wrote The Writer’s Workout to aide writers during these tricky times (Amazon link). It’s a great tool to help you get focused and stay focused on your journey.

The thrust of the four season sections are listed below:

• Spring: Find your writing  momentum
• Summer: Sell your words
• Fall: Work your platform dynamic
• Winter: Build a body of work and a life-long career

I have said that indie publishing is dead. Indie publishing isn’t dead because it’s no longer an option. What’s dead is the idea that you have to choose us or them–indie or traditional. Every writer is a publisher now, and once we all accept that, likely by the end of 2012, we won’t need the distinction between the indies and the traditionals any longer. Every writer will be an author. Every author will be a publisher, even if they are also traditionally published.

There will be a spectrum of choices at every decision-making juncture. That’s what we are seeing in the news with best-selling authors already. And perhaps that’s how it should be.

Thoughts? Comments? Objections?

~ Photo, revolution, by Peej’s Photos