What on Earth is “The Author Success Coach”?

Just what is an Author Success Coach? Well, as THE Author Success Coach (long story) I guess I can explain it. Maybe the journey to becoming The Author Success Coach will help a little.

See, many, many moons ago – too many to count – I spent a majority of my days and many long nights in the world of advertising, marketing and public relations. Cool, huh? Not really and not always. It’s a very unique world that prides itself in the many and varied techniques for cutting throats and piercing backs with nice long knives. After twenty-odd years of enjoying the creative part of that universe but dodging blades, I called it quits. Well, I thought I was calling it quits, I had no clue where things were about to go.

I chose other kinds of knives and became a chef – yes, a prepping, cooking, menu planning machine. I worked evenings and nights and weekends and although it was the hardest physical job I ever did, I adored every minute of it. What did I like most? Besides the creative flavor development and beautiful plating elements, I confess I liked the promotional parts of it. I loved being part of the ACF (American Culinary Federation) helping with marketing and PR for events at the various restaurants or country clubs or banquet facilities where I worked. I loved creating menus and food experiences for special promotions or clients. By the end of that career, I had become an executive chef and was still … you guessed it … promoting, marketing and actively doing publicity. It seemed my whole life was about writing and creating campaigns.

Regretfully I had to leave the culinary industry to save my back. Literally. It wasn’t getting stabbed in the back I worried about, now heavy three gallon stock pots were trying to kill me. I’d always been a writer, for radio and television advertising, for print and media, for the press and articles … and for that book I secretly hoped I could write. So many fragments of novels I’d begun here and there started to come together and finally I began the real focus of a writer/author. I gained agent representation (another really long story) and finally publication for an urban fantasy series. Cold in California comes out June 15.

Now, (and by this point, you’re probably thinking, “finally”) we can get to the point. What is The Author Success Coach?

The Author Success Coach is not a writing coach. I don’t work with writers on their manuscripts, I’m not an editor nor am I a plot strategist. I don’t provide writing prompts or tricks for overcoming writer’s block. If asked, of course I’ll try to help, but that’s certainly not my forte.  Trust me, for my fiction, I sought out a great mentor specific to the genre and suffered through all the shifts, changes and tweaks required to present a well written book for my agent search and publisher search. Like the professional kitchen, that was really hard work! Every author should do that. I believe it’s the real difference between a writer and an author.

So, back to the question. What is The Author Success Coach? Having written articles my whole life, blogging was a natural direction. Unknowingly building my platform took me onto twitter and facebook and I discovered the most amazing thing over the past few years. See, I really did have something to offer … some serious value-added information to pass on to other writers and authors. And it all had to do with that career I tried to escape so long ago!

THE INDUSTRY

Because of the shifts in the publishing industry (which may not stop quaking for many years to come), authors desperately need to understand all the elements of marketing, publicity and promotions. Oh! Oh! I know how to do that! It became the focus of my blogs, it grew into a variety of wonderful tools and workshops which I’ve been teaching live and online. This information became so important and sought out … it became its own book!

So, basically what happened is that the platform created the book. Seems a little backward, since I approached the whole social networking world to promote my fiction work. Because of all this I’ve now become a non-fiction author too.

The Author Success Coach: Strategies for Author Success in a Turbulent Publishing Landscape is a book based on my various online and live workshops. It covers everything from creating an effective Book Business Plan, to developing multi-level promotional strategies. It’s a book designed to help authors get past the terror of having to market their own book … and it will be out in September, 2011.

Any questions?  Anything you’d like me to add to the book?

In the meantime, these are the online workshops I’ll be teaching over the next few months:

Upcoming Online Workshops at SavvyAuthors http://www.savvyauthors.com

Creating and Effective Book Business Plan, March 21 – 25, 2011

Platforms Building, One Plank at a Time, March 28 – April 22

Geisha Marketing for Authors, May 23 – 27

Tantric Publicity for Authors, June 13 – 17

I’ll also be speaking live at the Orange County California Writers Club on Saturday, March 12 … and at the San Fernando Valley California Writers Club on Saturday April 16. For more information on either of these live presentations, please contact me at writerchef@sbcglobal.net.