Free Publishing Advice…And How They Are Costly 

There are many people offering free advice–quick YouTube videos, Facebook lives–talking about free advice on:

• How to write a book
• How to publish a book
• What is the best way to publish a book

The worst part is that people get into this “free advice” trap.

Let’s suppose you wanted a boat. You come to me and say, “I want a boat.” In response, I walk you through how to make a canoe without asking you what kind of boat you really want.

You go home with all these instructions on how to make a canoe, but you realize you have no idea what these instructions mean to you and how it’s going to help you. You become a resentful towards me, because I gave you this free advice on how to build a canoe, but all you really wanted to do was sail to Europe with a different kind of boat.

In the end, I gave you the wrong kind of boat and the wrong kind of instructions–I gave you free advice, but not helpful advice, not the kind of advice you needed to get to where you wanted to go.

In the publishing world, many writers get these free but low cost advice. These writers go to free library groups, library lectures, low cost writing workshops and conferences. Yet, they don’t get the advice they personally need.

All they get is advice that has nothing to do with them and want they want to do.  

The problem with the boat example is this person came to me and said they wanted to build a boat, and I said “Here, let’s build a canoe” without asking what kind of boat they want, what they want to do with the boat, and where they want to go with it.

In publishing, your goals are really important for how you’re going to get where you want to be. Free advice will not help you get from Point A to Point B.

You may have seen in Write to Publish that at Date with the Muse and at the Writing Gym we don’t believe in “one size fits all.”

Everything that we do form the moment you have an idea for a book to the moment that you are quite literally in national TV has been costumed the whole length of the way to what you want. Advice needs to be customized to what your goals are.

In the Writing Gym we want to know who you are and what’s important to you so we can help you to get there.

Somebody once told me that free advice is worth what you pay for, but I think that it is actually more costly than free. It is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole–trying to use a solution that does not work for the problem itself.

In the Writing Gym, we give you a plan that can save you frustration and time. We offer you adaptable resources–multiple podcast interviews with experts, published writers, New York Times best sellers, publicists, and many people in “the know” talking about their experience.

They won’t tell you “here’s how to build a canoe.” Instead, they’ll say, “Here’s how we have built some canoes in the past and how they’ve been successful.”

These are also the kind of things you can see in Write to Publish.

When you see that I post a free class, a masterclass, or an interview on to Write to Publish, please do not overlook them–these are resources that can help you. Even if you just scroll down the page, you’re going to see postings about what people have been able to do through the Writing Gym programs–whether it is finishing a novel, discovering new strengths as a writer, talking about successful marketing plans, or query letters that actually work.

We are getting real results from people every single day. These are no accidents–it is because we take the time to get to know these authors like our friends and help them to get from Point A to Point B.

If you are ready to be seen for who you are, what you bring to the world, what you have to offer, and want a unique plan to do all these things, let’s chat. We want to help you get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible and as successful as possible with the right kind of support behind you. We want to give you the right boat the first time. If you are ready for that, let’s talk.