You’ve polished your manuscript. Encouraged by friends and family who read earlier versions, you incorporated their feedback and suggestions into your final draft. Following a style guide, you also checked spelling and grammar. You’ve taken your work to the best of your abilities and are proud of your efforts. Then, you deliver the document to an editor for professional review. And that’s when self-doubt kicks in. What if the editor doesn’t like it? Does the organization of the chapters really work? Have I made some embarrassing mistake inadvertently? Is there a strong narrative arc? Will I have to rewrite it again? A writer takes an enormous personal risk when they give their work to a professional editor. For many, the personal experience of writing is therapeutic. Sharing with others what they have written is simply too risky. And that is okay. Not everything one writes needs to be read by others. But if your intention is to be read, then take the risk. The accomplishment of completing a book length manuscript is significant and worthy of celebration. For every 100 people I meet who tell me they have been thinking about writing a book, only one actually does it. So you’re already ahead of the pack with your sheer persistence. Learning how to seek and receive editorial assistance is the next step toward publication of the manuscript. Writing is largely a solitary task, yet publishing is a social practice involving editors, authors, and readers. An editor’s objective is to make your…

The return on your investment of time and energy spent on building an audience platform depends largely on an author’s strategy. I’ve observed too many authors spinning their wheels with the challenges of the technology, losing sight of the objectives, and missing opportunities to learn more how to market their own books. Here are some tactics that lead to epic failures in social media strategies for authors. Only go on social media to push your message. Focus on upping the number of followers, friends, tweeps, and connections. Do not engage in social discussions. Post your blog on your website. Then tweet it, buffer it, pin it, and post it on Google +, Facebook and LinkedIn. Then just walk away. Don’t read any one else’s blog. Don’t like or reply to anyone else except through tagging or personal messages. Don’t bother to subscribe to other professional writers’ blogs. Don’t leave comments or engage in a critical discussion with a larger community of thinkers and writers. Here’s the rub. Such a strategy becomes self-defeating in today’s transmedia environment. If you operate under this communication model of pushing your voice out to the multitudes, the broadcasting of messages gets old fast and soon will be perceived to be spam. The push model of one-to-many messages doesn’t work very long before it gets drowned out in a multi-to-multi-point communication network system. The give and take, push and pull, and dynamic engagement of readers and writers is the secret to a successful social media strategy.…

The day after Thanksgiving is best spent reading a book.