Amateur Mindset V Professional Mindset

You've probably heard it before that our thoughts control our lives.

Everything that happens to us depends on what we’re thinking.

So where is your mind when it comes to your writing?

Do you have an amateur mindset or a professional mindset?

Are you planning to work as a professional writer or do you just think that if you write enough pretty words you’ll make money…somehow?

Being a Professional Writer

All successful writers have a blog (or website) and they use social media to grow their audience, get attention and spread their message.

And if you want to do the same you firstly need to have a clear message.

You need to know what it is that you’re trying to say.

And once you know what your message is, you need to get it across clearly.

When you first begin a blog, you only need to get your message across clearly, not perfectly.

Don’t wait for perfection before publishing online because clarity always trumps perfection.

If you’re still unsure what your message to the world is, then try and think of what your worldview is.

Every great writer has a worldview.

To find yours, just ask yourself what is it that bothers you that needs to be fixed?

What problem fascinates you?

Once you know your worldview then you’ll know the audience you’re trying to reach and exactly who you're talking to.

And if you’re still unsure of your worldview, ask the 5 people closest to you to describe you in 3 words or 3 short phrases.

You’ll be surprised what others know about you that you’ve never noticed yourself.

And it doesn’t matter if you want to write fiction or non-fiction. Your worldview will be visible in your writing whether you know it or not.

So it’s better if you know exactly who you’re writing to and what it is that you want to say.

Because that is what writers with a professional mindset do.

http://ruthiswriting.com/links/quickcash.html 

How to Have a Great Idea For a Book

To make money you need to have something to sell.

And as writers, what we sell are our words, usually in the form of a book.

Books are our products that we sell.

But what do you do if you want to write a book but have no idea what to write about?

First, identify your expertise:

~ What do you enjoy researching?

~ What do you enjoy writing?

~ What do you know a lot about?

Next ask; who is your audience?

It’s no good writing a book if no one wants to read it. So picture in your mind the type of person who would enjoy reading your book.

Amazon is a great place to use for inspiration and ideas.

You can look at which books are most popular and you can see readers comments.

With Amazon’s “Search Inside” feature, you can get a really good idea of a book’s contents and the style of writing.

And in the reviews you can find out what people liked and didn’t like as well as what they would have preferred the book contained.

Once you know what to write about, you need to make sure that all your blog posts and emails that you write also serve your audience.

Don’t write only for yourself. Always let your audience know how they can benefit from what you’re telling them.

Then write lots of books and promote them heavily online.

Just always remember that before you write any book, you need a “hungry” market waiting to buy it, so know your audience and always write for them.

And if you want to know how to find hundreds of ideas for writing books, read:

Goodbye Writer's Block: How To Be A Creative Genius And Have An Abundance Of Ideas Plus The Inspiration And Motivation To Write

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/WB.html

Paperback Publishing With Kindle

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about how I’m now publishing some of my books in paperback with CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon.

http://ruthiswriting.com/articles/2017/createspace.html. 

And last week I received an email from KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) on Amazon, where I publish my ebooks, telling me that KDP now publishes print books too.

This makes it possible to offer a print and an ebook version of your books from one account.

And on KDP you receive 60% royalties from all print sales, minus the cost of printing.

So the question is, am I disappointed that after setting up my books with CreateSpace, it’s now possible to do it through one account for print and ebooks?

No. Not at all.

At the moment the print option with KDP is still in Beta stage so not all the services I receive from CreateSpace are available.

For example, publishing print books through a KDP account doesn’t provide an option for  receiving physical proofs, author copies or expanded distribution.

So for now I’m happy to leave my print books with CreateSpace and I’ll probably migrate them across to my KDP account once the services are improved.

But if you only have your books available as Kindle ebooks, now is a great time to offer a print version as well through the Kindle POD option of publishing, which is also free to set up .

You can find out more and set up your own free Amazon publisher account at kdp.amazon.com.

Crucial Writing Advice

Lately I’ve received a few emails from people giving me their opinion on my blog posts.

But let me get one thing straight first -

My advice about how to earn money from your writing (which is what ALL my posts are about) are only aimed at one group of people - those who are serious about wanting to earn money from their writing AND who aren’t afraid to do the necessary work.

Yet the emails I’ve been receiving are from people who don’t actually want to write.

Instead it seems they only want to read about making money from writing and that somehow money will magically appear in their bank accounts.

They say they don’t have time to write.

Don't have the skills.

Don’t know how to start.

Don’t know how to keep going.

Or they’re just too busy doing other more important things.

So let’s get a few things right about this subject.

Earning money from writing means:

• Writing every day.

• Publishing/submitting everything you write.

• Actually wanting to write.

• Buying any books/resources necessary to help you.

All the advice I give is crucial if you want to be a money-earning writer.

So don’t let this fall of deaf ears.

You must be reading this because you want to earn money from your writing.

So do yourself a favour and write and publish/submit something today.

Then think about what you’ll write, publish/submit tomorrow.

Once you make a determined start it’s easy to keep going.

Make today the day you stop wasting time and start writing more.



Do You Have What It Takes To Do The 12 Month Writing Challenge? 

http://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/12MTH.html