Filbert Publishing

Writing Etc. Make Your Writing Sparkle. Write Killer Queries. Get Published. www.FilbertPublishing.com

Notes from Minnesota

Hey Freelancer!

Wow. So much to say this week.

First, the writing contest is going GRAND!~! Kudos (and a huge THANKS) to everyone who entered. I'll announce the winners in the next issue of Writing Etc. If you're like me, a rather impatient type, you can follow me on Facebook where I'll announce the winners throughout the next two weeks and/or head over to my blog, where I'll post the winning entries.

It's been MUCHO fun reading what you've sent in! Great work, writers.

Next up, I've been a busy beaver this spring. Here's what I've been up to.

I'm moving out of the writing niche. In fact, Filbert Publishing has just published my last book for writers... actually it's three.

Advice to Freelance Writers: Insider Secrets to Effective Shoestring Marketing, Managing a Winning Mindset, and Thriving in Any Economy, Volumes 1 - 3 are my swan song and final tribute to a community I truly love.

Yes, Writing Etc. will continue, after all I intend on continuing to write. However, I'm branching off in a new and very exciting direction.

Second, after ten years, I decided to pour everything I know about writing, marketing, and mindset, into a three volume set (over 450 pages of pure freelance information), throw in 5 CDs (more on that later), to give savvy freelancers a most comprehensive, easy to read, easy to implement game plan for defining success, then going after it with both barrels blazing.

Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

You've got a Writing Etc. to dig into.

Enjoy!

Beth

P.S. Be sure to check out our best sellers. Here's the link

P.P.S. Share Writing Etc. with your freelance friends by clicking here.

Beth's Hot Pick of the Week

Advice to Freelance Writers: Insider Secrets to Effective Shoestring Marketing, Managing a Winning Mindset, and Thriving in Any Economy, Volumes 1 - 3 is my final tribute to the freelancing community. Because I knew I wouldn't write any more books aimed at writers, I spilled all my secrets, every trick, held nothing back and created a comprehensive 3 volume set covering:

Tricks to stay on “track” and achieve your goals faster
How “Mindset Marketing” will render you immune to the “negatives” of this biz
What's worse than not landing your “dream assignment?” Landing it unprepared. I'll show you how to avoid this
Why you need to ditch “Life 1.0” and embrace “Life 2.0” as well as why this affects your writing career in such a profound way
How to harness the power of one second to get more done
“Power Words” can punch up your writing.” However...
How a foray into the Corporate World can vitalize your writing career
In Volume 3, I dig deep into marketing, revealing specific techniques, their pros and cons, and revealing which ones worked best for me, as well as which ones tanked.

Finally, because your a Writing Etc. subscriber, I'm tossing in five audio CDs including:

Dealing with Negativity
Dealing with Change
Awakening Your Muse
Marketing 101
Freelance Q&A: Equipment, success, mindset, finding freelance work, true negativity

Each book retails for $12.95 ($38.85 total for the three volumes). Each CD retails for $9.95 (49.75 total for 5 CDs).

You'll get the whole sh'bang for $29.95.

Just click here: Buy It From CCNow

Make Your Writing Sparkle

I'm up to my ears in book launches this week so this column will return next time. :)

'Til next time. :)

Prompts for the Week

Still busy with launches. We'll connect on this next time.

Have a great week!

Feature Article

How to Define and Achieve Your Success

Beth Ann Erickson

You can easily define your success and achieve it.

But here’s the rub: You must, absolutely must, know what you want. You need to define what success means to you.

Does success mean a six figure income? Does it mean you set your own hours?

Does it mean you’re working with people you enjoy? Maybe you want to make a difference in your community.

Perhaps you want to ________ (fill in the blank).

Once you define success, once you know what you want out of this biz, it will become your Polaris, continually guiding you through this crazy profession.

Whenever a new opportunity arises, and new opportunities always arise, you can measure it against whether or not it will enhance your voyage toward Polaris.

It’s tough to say “no” to a potential assignment, but when you follow this path, you’ll be amazed at how assignments present themselves, you evaluate, you decide whether or not to take on the task, and how new, targeted doors will continually open.

Once you know exactly what you want to achieve, you leave the rest to the magic of the universe.

You don’t know exactly how you’ll achieve your goal. Those doors open exactly when you need them.

It actually becomes a matter of trust.

But I can break it down a little more.

You know what you want, then you pour hope into the process.

You send the query, then you hope.

You hope you’ll eventually hit pay dirt.

As long as you cultivate hope into your career, you won’t consider the option of giving up.

You cultivate hope by engaging in regular, consistent marketing. You send out a set number of queries every day. You send out solicitation letters. You write that second novel.

As long as there’s a glimmer of a chance that your short term goal can be realized, you’ll experience that all-important ray of hope.

Then, as you notice you’re making consistent progress towards your Polaris (as a result of your consistent action) your hope begins to evolve into full-fledged belief.

Hope begets belief.

This is a nearly imperceptible shift in your mindset.

One day you’re hoping you can make a living as a writer. Then you achieve just a few acceptance letters. Unknowingly, you tentatively strengthen your hope and find yourself believing that you can actually achieve your goal.

You know you believe when you feel confident joy as you write. You’re beginning to feel an inkling of adventure as you query, research, and plan your next project. Positive thoughts begin to outweigh the negative ones.

You believe you can actually achieve your loftiest goals, you believe nearly anything you can imagine if possible.

But it gets even better.

As you move along and allow belief to grow, you will eventually settle into a sense of knowingness.

Belief gives birth to Knowing.

You begin with hope. Hope grows into belief. Belief begets knowing.

Somewhere along the line, as you remain faithful in writing, marketing, querying, you begin to understand that marketing is a numbers game.

As you send out queries, you know a certain number of them will hit pay dirt. You understand that as you write a set number of words every day, you know that your skills will continue to develop and grow.

You no longer need to believe that all will work out, you know it will.

Subtle yet very distinct difference.

The bridge between belief and knowing may seem insurmountable when you’re in the “hope” stage, but as you proceed through your writing career, you’ll find the progress through these three stages as natural as breathing. As beautiful as the writing process itself.

All that is required throughout this process is continual, faithful action.

Write daily. Market on a regular basis.

Remain faithful no matter what physical reality may look like. The inward landscape always trumps what our physical senses may be perceiving.

You may occasionally feel discouragement, but when you focus on your Polaris, if you busy yourself acting like a busy writer, you will very soon find yourself living a busy writer life.