Simple Concepts Can Often Be The Most Life Changing

    ​Once upon a time, early in my newspaper career, I read an article in the Rotary Club magazine that changed my outlook. It was an article written by Bill Gates Sr. that was a condensed version of his book, Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime. He talked about his success in life and how it got there. The hook? He attributed all of his success to one simple concept. Showing up. Is your mind blown yet?
     Gates outline that many of the opportunities in his life were simply from being there. Being consistent with putting himself out there and not waiting for those things to come to him. This seems so simple, but in my early days as a business owner, it changed the way I thought of things. How often do we sit back and lament the things going wrong in our world, but we do nothing to change it?
A wise speaker once said all success comes down to one easy acronym…GOYAKOD…Get off your ass and Knock On Doors. This isn’t industry specific…it can be applied to writers of books as easily as it can be applied to newspaper reporters.  Who is going to come to you, if they don’t know you exist? And once they know you exist, are you consistently following up so they know you are there?
    In any industry, you won’t get far if you aren’t putting yourself out there, but in the publishing world, publishers won’t be breaking down your door without you first reaching out to them.
    The second nugget I live by was another super simple concept gleaned from Sterling Editor, Brett Duquette, at an SCBWI conference in September. Brett’s talk was full of great information, but he said one thing that I felt was invaluable…Always be a pleasure to work with. Again…super simple…but mind-blowing at the same time. You only get one chance to make a good impression, what are you doing with it?
    In my experience, I work much harder and have more lasting relationships with the authors and illustrators that I enjoy working with.
Based on these unpretentious concepts, I compiled a list of Dos and Don’ts  in the Publishing Industry….

• Do follow up with people. It isn’t uncommon for life to get busy and to do items to get pushed on the back burner.  In my world, I get around 200 emails a day. (True story, I double checked). I have a pretty complex email hierarchy, but sometimes the email gremlins have been known to devour an email or two. I don’t mind someone emailing after a while and double checking if they haven’t received a response. Don’t email every day to ask the status of something…or even once a week. If I’ve been in recent contact with you and given you an update, chances are not much has changed in a few days. I once had someone submit the same story to my website over 40 times. Needless to say, I stopped responding.
• When you GOYAKOD, do a little research ahead of time. Don’t address your query letter to someone specific and misspell their name. Don’t violate their submission policy. Don’t address the query letter to someone that isn’t the acquiring editor. Don’t submit something that their website specifically ask you not to. A real plus for me is when the query letter references specifically about my company. Also, I would discourage having the words crazybitch in your return email. (True Story)
• Do be yourself. This one may be the most important. When you show people the real you, they get a better sense of who you are and can relate better. I am the first to admit, I’m a hot mess. I have a learning disability that frequently creates typos because my brain sees it a little differently. I’m super organized, but busy so I am constantly running behind or right in time for everything. I was 10 minutes early for a dentist appointment the other day and I think she almost fainted from disbelief. Always be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. When people understand your limitations and your capabilities, they understand you.
• Do realize that life is to short to work with grumpy people. Again, this is my opinion, but I would rather work with one person that is a pleasure to work with, then ten New York best-selling authors who were hard to work with. Always value yourself. 

In all things, not just publishing, the concept of showing up is a good one. Humorist Will Rogers once said, " Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

---