My latest article for Writer's Digest appears in the Writer's Yearbook 2012 on stands and available from WD.com now!

If you have read any of my new book, you know that it focuses on putting your writing at the center of your writing career, and allowing everything else to follow from there.

Yes, you need to learn more skills than ever to succeed at a professional writing career, but the writing must come first and as writers we must return to the writing over and over as we grow our careers.

I have been working with writers for over a decade now and here is what I’ve noticed: a writing writer is a happy writer. And a writer who is doing everything else besides writing, when writing is what they’d really rather be doing, is an unhappy writer.

If you are a writer, everything you are emerges from the writing you actually do. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that.

Enter 2012. We now have more tools available to produce our own success than ever. But this brings a new dilemma—which tools do we use and when? How do we know what to do? How can we do what we do with excellence? And how can we create consistently positive results?

Well, just as the writing would not happen without a writer’s full engagement, writing success won’t happen on its own or maintain itself without your thoughtful, focused attention. It also helps to have a great mentor and be surrounded by other who behave like professionals.

A challenge for me, as a writer and writing coach, has been how can I clone myself? How can I help thousands of writers without becoming personally drained, emotionally exhausted, and creatively spent on a daily basis?

How do I get my hard-won knowledge about helping writers create writing career success to writers and still take care of my own professional and personal responsibilities?

Well, I’ve worked long and hard to solve this dilemma. And I feel I have finally resolved it. Here’s how you can work with me if you would like to:

I write books and workbooks for a global audience of writers. You may know what books I am talking about (Writer Mama, Get Known, Author Mama, and The Writer’s Workout). I have one workbook out so far, with more to roll out in 2012 (so far, Build Your Author Platform goes with Get Known.) If you want to know what I know, read my books. If you read my books and liked them, I would appreciate your word-of-mouth support any time you want to give it. I especially appreciate book reviews.

I write articles for a global audience of writers. I don’t have to ask people to read my articles, they are widely read and widely appreciated by writers. But hey, if you want to forward links to your favorites or tweet them or post them on Facebook, I am all for it. If you want more depth on subtopics of what I know, please read my articles.

I write articles on topics I enjoy writing about for regional audiences of women, moms and parents. I don’t tend to buzz these much because I sell and resell them year after year. Some day, I’ll put them all in a collection, but not yet. Chances are very good that your regional parenting magazine editor is already on my regular contact list.

I audio coach wide audiences of writers. This is new. I learned how to do this in the “flash class” to celebrate the launch of The Writer’s Workout and it went so unbelievably well that I decided to do more in 2012. In the meantime, my newsletter subscribers have first dibs on the first audio coaching session this year.

I speak to large groups of writers. I give keynotes, presentations, workshops, and I moderate panels. My objective whenever I speak is always to inspire writers to wake up and seize the opportunities that are right in front of us. Listeners tell me they are inspired into action by this focus. If you have heard me speak, feel free to get in touch and let me know what you thought.

I teach small groups of writers on a six-week basis. I have been teaching groups of writers consistently for ten years. My writing classes launch writing careers. I teach five sessions of small classes a year. My students learn skills that they can immediately apply to their writing, selling, self-promotion, specializing, and micro-publishing repertoire.

I train small groups of former students on a half-year basis. I have been doing this for two years and I absolutely love it. Via my five-month training groups, my former students get more support from me, I get to encourage them as a group, and the members encourage each other. The results are so powerful they sometimes bring me to tears.

I produce my own success while simultaneously partnering with trust-worthy others. Don’t skip over the “trust-worthy” part. If I feel that if someone is no longer an excellent resource, I will simply stop recommending them. I don’t just partner with anyone for the sake of cronyism. I am selective, conscientious, and a good judge of character.

I am a writer, a writing career coach, a speaker, and a teacher. I keep writing at the center of everything I do. And I encourage every other writer on the planet to do the same thing.

I help writers get from however they feel today to personally and professionally satisfied with their writing life. There is no reason to wait. Success is not “out there.” It’s right here and it’s always waiting for us to wake up and get back to work.

Writing career success never happens overnight. The job is never done. But you’d better believe that it happens. And it can happen for you in 2012. I hope that it does. And I hope that my work is helpful.

I have been teaching for ten years and this experience of working intimately for brief periods of time with other writers has been by far the greatest gift of my professional career.

A lot of writers are invested in how talented they are and in figuring out how to get others to perceive them in the same way. I’m not apt to become one of them. I’m a worker. I have gotten where I am because I work hard, not because I am talented.

The biggest compliment for me is for someone to say that I have been helpful, or my book has been helpful, or my body of work over the years has been helpful. Or that something I said or did made a difference in their career.

Another big compliment for me is when a writer says that I have inspired them. When I have inspired them, it’s usually because of all of my hard work and because of my ongoing commitment to writers over the years. I don’t necessarily take these compliments personally because I am driven to do the work that I do just as an acorn is driven to become an oak tree. It’s part of my DNA, as Gary Vaynerchuk would say. It’s just a natural outpouring of who I am.

And I don’t merely write. I write, I teach, I speak, I facilitate, I produce, I partner, I connect, I host, I advocate, I refer, I respect, and I orchestrate. I am a huge fan of writers worldwide. And people who know my work, know that I would not push them so hard if I did not care.

I believe that writers are important and that our work is important, not just to us, but to the future. I believe that pushing writers to achieve their personal best is my job and I love my job. I have been called a “Gentle Taskmaster.” I have been called “demanding and effective.”I think of myself as something of a whip-cracker because I have a fiery personality and it has always been useful for motivating others, even as I motivate myself. I am probably too fiery for some writers’ tastes, too demanding, and too coachy. Some writers want to be coddled, not coached. And this is fine. But they should probably not work with me.

More than anything else I think writers work with me because I am a good mirror. I reflect back to them what they could be writing. I reflect back how they could be advancing their career right now regardless of whatever drama is happening in the industry, or in their families, or in their circle of friends. I reflect back that they are rife with creative potential…but only if they actualize it.

I never do my students’ work for them. (I used to, but I’ve been bitten in the butt enough times to learn that it is not my job to do other people’s work.) Instead, I stand in front of them, as any good coach would and say: “This is your career. Are you going to do the work or what?”

And then I get out of the way, and let them work. And the results are magnificent. Inspiring. Powerful. I cry sometimes reading my students work because I am so moved by their creative self-expression. So I try really hard not to stroke egos, and to encourage effort instead.

We live in a world where self-expression is rarely valued. Almost never does someone say to us, you can take who you are and grow it into something incredible. But that is what I do in my classes, day in and day out. I teach many classes every year, reaching hundreds of students, who inspire me every time they turn in an assignment.

Talent is not teachable. Luckily, for me, hard work is teachable. And every person is talented in many ways, which are often latent.

Chris Brogan has said that what people want more than anything is to be wanted. But being wanted often comes with strings attached from the people doing the wanting. I think what people want more than anything is to be seen for who they truly are without anyone trying to take anything from them. From the point of being seen, your can move forward in an infinite number of directions because no one is holding you hostage or putting conditions on your freedom of expression.

I see my students because they show me who they really are. And this, above all, is the greatest gift of what I do. And so, I keep going forward in all aspects of my work, trying to wake writers up to who they already are, and trying to nudge them to move forward on their own steam.

I want to thank every student I have worked with over the past ten years for allowing me to push you to create more. I have a great deal of respect for every person who is brave enough to express his or her self. It takes guts to do your work in this world and maintain it and not got sucked into the songs and dances of other people.

I believe that there has never been a better or more exciting time to be a writer. And I am going to hold the course and keep doing good work. I hope every writer I know — and that’s thousands of us — will continue to do the same thing.

~ Photo by booyaa

We did it!

And when I say “we,” I mean there is a long list of folks, who helped me get from wanting to publish my first e-book to actually having published it.

I will tell you the whole story with all the steps I took and how you can take them too, soon. It’s a good story and I want to share it. But first, I have several more e-book formats to tackle for Author Mama and it’s not like I can just snap my fingers and it is done.

In the meantime, Author Mama is available on Kindle! Woo-hoo! And I am very pleased. You can check it out here. You can also read Author Mama as a PDF doc.

Special thanks to Rob Siders, who did the e-book formatting, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, who did the cover art, and Cindy Hudson, who did the final edit.

Thanks for helping me spread the word.

Platform is not a place. It’s not your turf. Platform is not a pipe-dream either, a fantasy of what author success is going to look after it is magically transformed by you writing a book.

When it comes right down to it, you can tell whether or not you have a platform by what is on your daily to-do list. And others can tell whether you have a platform or not by how much influence you bring to the table.

Your platform should never be the only thing you do. Because if you are a writer, you are supposed to be writing. But at certain times namely at start-up, consolidation/transition, and book-launch, platform will become a major focus of a writer’s energies.

I teach a class, Discover Your Specialty & Launch Your Platform that is designed to help make the start-up phase of platform development more manageable and less expensive. This class is really two classes compressed into six weeks and it is now available to writers of all genres. Because there is one irrefutable truth in publishing right now: whether you are self-published or traditionally published, you need to build and maintain a solid marketing platform to become visible and sell books. And even if you don’t plan to become an author at this time, writers of all stripes understand that the size of their platform is becoming increasingly crucial to their becoming and staying hirable.

All of this work takes energy and energy is a creative person’s most valuable commodity. In this class you will also learn how to manage your energy so that you can sustain enough of it to be able to write, sell, market your work and yourself, and continue learning in the long haul. Because writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Which brings us to the best way to go about all of this and that is by writing your way to a clear plan. Once you have the plan, all you have to do is break it down into to-do steps. But many writers never create a plan. They start blogging or join a tribe of like-minded others in good faith that their platform will emerge out of this experience. And sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

Or they look at someone else’s plan and decide it’s not for them. That’s because someone else’s plan isn’t for you. You need your own plan, custom-fit to what you want and need and what your audience wants and needs from you.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Platform is what you DO with what you have to offer (see my full definition here). If you want to build trust, authority, and influence, you need to stand on your own two feet before you start partnering with others. And then partner wisely when you do partner. Because if you don’t partner wisely, you can undermine all the hard work you’ve already done.

Ever since my book, Get Known Before the Get Deal came out two years ago, I’ve been listening to fiction writers lamenting how none of my platform advice applies to them. But if you are a fiction writer ready to acknowledge that platform development and practice are just as important to your future success as the next writer, then I want to work with you. Because I’ve done my homework, and I can tell you that healthy platform habits are just as important for fiction writers as they are for every type of writer.

Don’t be confused. Platform is not going to take the place of any of the other important work you do: writing, selling your work, and continuing to invest and learn for the sake of your career. So if you are looking for magic formulas and short-cuts, stop, and get ready to dig deeper than that. Get ready to serve from a more authentic place.

I have been empowering writers who earn money writing, partner wisely with others, and build solid platforms for almost ten years now. I coach them but they do the work and the most successful folks do the work willingly and joyfully. So attitude really is everything.

If you are ready to take your writing career more seriously, I’d like to work with a few more writers who are ready to build their successful platforms beginning September 8th. This is going to be a really fun, challenging, and expansive six weeks. I hope you will join us. Please contact me if you have any questions. All of the class details are right here.

~ Photo by George E. Norkus

WPSS gave me the confidence and motivation to write quickly and efficiently and not be held back by the possibility of rejection. Within two weeks of completing the class, I had three articles accepted for publication. I’d recommend this class to anyone.   ~ L. Wilde

Christina was the friendly guide who helped me navigate a new writing path. She set a brisk pace, and provided me with all of the tools, opportunities to practice, and encouragement I needed to keep me on course.   ~ J. Barber

I’ve been writing professionally for over a decade, and I still learned a ton from Christina and her course.   ~ J. Crowell

WPSS was exactly what I needed! Christina’s thorough instruction and skilled critique helped me accomplish all of my goals for the course. I improved my writing, learned about the industry, and developed saleable work. I sold my first article during week six, and another one the following week!   ~ M. Jacobson

I got much more out of this class than I could have anticipated or expected.  Not only did I learn techniques for breaking into magazine writing, but I also learned how to fit writing into my life with my toddler. The assignments were just enough to force me to carve out time without being overwhelming.  I will definitely be recommending this class to my mama writer friends. Thanks, Christina!   ~ S. Thompson

This course was just the scaffolding I needed. I had read a lot about publishing and I had begun making writing part of my daily routine, but this class gave me the guidance to know what to do next and how to do it. Now I have the confidence and experience to go out there and start getting published!   ~ S. Vanden Berg

The next session of Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff begins on Wednesday, May 12th. Learn more here.

It’s been three years since the release of my first book, Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Along Side Your Kids from Writer’s Digest Books. And it seems the “place” where writing and motherhood intersect is more popular than ever. I hope when you are considering what to give to mom this Sunday, you will consider a writer-mama-related gift for any mom who is writing-minded. (Read more here.)

I’m very proud to be a hard-working member of the writer mama community in real life and online. Over the past many years, I’ve been writing for publication, teaching other writers, speaking to writers at literary events, publishing high-quality content through my e-zines and blogs, offering scholarships, coaching and training advanced students, hosting book giveaways and live literary events, and befriending writers and authors far and wide.

Today, I work full time, but I started out unpublished and unknown just like all writers do. I worked my way up, clip after clip, book after book, one day at a time. And this is why I never get tired of receiving e-mails from my students saying that they just got their first clip, or they just broke into a market they’d been trying to crack for months, or they just got the book deal, or they heard from a reader that what they’d written really made a difference to them.

No matter how many e-mails like these I get, I still get a huge, “YES!” feeling from every single one. I still feel like what I do is important and worthwhile, and helps women to discover or recover their unique “voice.” I still say to my husband when he gets home from work, “Guess what?” and then I share the news.

My next round of classes for mom writers who want to get published begins on May 12th. Some students get published before the six weeks are up. Others get published and continue to publish after the class wraps up. Some go on to build a career that can support a nonfiction book deal. If you are interested in joining our ranks, please sign up now for classes I’m offering for beginning and intermediate students. I also host an extremely high quality essay-writing class with Abigail Green, whose students positively rave about how good her class is.

Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff: Finally, a writing workshop that fits into the busy lives of moms! This class focuses on getting you into print sooner, rather than later, and without pulling all-nighters or paying a fortune in babysitter fees. You will learn how to create short, easy-to-write articles—a skill that will make it easier to work your way up to longer, more time-consuming articles (like features and profiles) when you’re ready. You will try your pen at tips, fillers, short interviews, list articles, how-tos, and the short personal essays—all within six weeks. And you will learn to submit your work with a basic cover letter. More here…

Personal Essays That Get Published: It pays to get personal these days. Given the popularity of reality shows, blogs, and tell-all books, interest in everyday individuals’ experiences is at an all-time high. Writers are often told, “Write what you know.” What subject can you possibly know better than your own life? Whether you want to pen an introspective essay about your struggle with infertility, a first-person article about your travels in India, or a short humor piece about parenting, your life is a goldmine of rich material that all kinds of publications are pining for. More here…

Pitching Practice, Write Six Queries in Six Weeks: In this writing class, pitching is all you do. Over the course of six weeks, you crank out six queries, which is exactly the kind of practice you need if you want to get into the habit of landing better-paying assignments. After you write and send six queries, you will never again ask, “What makes a strong query?” You will have developed your own style into prototypes that you can use over and over to obtain future assignments. And finding your own rhythm, not someone else’s, is what effective query writing is about. More here…

Writer Mamas, Come and Celebrate Your Proudest Moments! I’ll be hosting the Writer Mama/Author Mama Proudest Moments Celebration on May 14th. If you still haven’t sent your proudest moment in, you still can, I’ll extend the deadline through Friday, May 7th at midnight. Details: Submit the proudest moment of your writing career thus far to me by May 7, 2010 at midnight April 30, 2010. I will then compile them and post them on the party date, which is Friday, May 14, 2010. Keep your “moment” to 200-400 words, single-spaced, put it in a Microsoft Word document, and e-mail it to my new e-mail address (“katzchristina at comcast dot net”), which you should add to your address book, if you haven’t already because I have a new address. More here…

Join the Conversation: If you have not yet signed up for The Prosperous Writer, I encourage you to join the conversation. Each week I write about one of the 52 qualities of prosperous writers and encourage readers to respond with their own thoughts in their blogs. We have explored some compelling topics already but past issues are not archived, so you must subscribe to receive them. Just add your e-mail address to the “subscribe” field in the upper-right hand corner of this page to join us!

Thank you so much, moms, for all of your support over the past many years. I hope to continue to help moms work their way up to the status of “writing professional” for a long, long time to come.

…Rachel Latham.

Hearty congratulations, Rachel!

I look forward to working with you in class in a few of weeks. I will send you a class confirmation shortly.

Thanks to EVERYONE who applied! Choosing scholarship recipients is  extremely difficult because I always receive so many applications from worthy writers. And this time around was no exception.

I encourage you all to apply again for the next WPSS class. I will announce the dates in May. Anything you can do to beef up the your traditional publication credits between now and the next application round is a good strategy.

Watch this blog, christinakatz.com and/or subscribe to The Prosperous Writer e-zine for all the details. I’m very happy to be able to grant one scholarship each time I offer this class.

If you have not checked out my classes, you can learn more on the “Register” page. I am still accepting students for the May 12th Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff class. In fact, if you want to participate in the fall Dream Team that begins in August and runs through December, you’ll need to complete Writing & Publishing the Short Stuff first.

Imagine, you could be getting published regularly (like many of the current Dream Team members) this year!

Congratulations again, Rachel. I look forward to working with you!