How This Writing Bootcamp Is Getting Writers Published

How This Writing Bootcamp Is Getting Writers Published

How This Writing Bootcamp Is Getting Writers Published

 

Maybe you’ve been considering joining the Writing Gym for a while now. 

But you still want to know: what will it really be like? 

I want to shed some light on what it’s actually like to be a member of the Writing Gym program by sharing one of our member’s experiences. 

Stephen Oliver is a graduate of the VIP Program AND the Publishing Mastermind, and he has also participated in the Writing Gym retreat in England not once, not twice, but he’s signed up for a third time.

Now that’s someone who’s getting results. However, don’t just take my word for it, check out his experience in the video below:

If you’re still curious about what it’s like to be a Writing Gym member, and if you’re serious about writing, let’s talk. 

Unit next time. Happy writing.

How Our Authors Get to the Front of the Submission Line

How Our Authors Get to the Front of the Submission Line

How Our Authors Get To the Front of the Submission Line

Have you ever wondered if there’s a way to get your query to the front of the line and out of the slush pile? Let me tell you about how Mary Murry, one of the Writing Gym VIP Writers, got her manuscript past the submission pile altogether–and directly into agents’ hands.  Mary has been working on perfecting her historical fiction manuscript for years. She finished it in our writing bootcamp while on our England retreat, and was ready to publish and live the author dream.

Like many writers I know, the publishing process felt more daunting than writing.

 

After much success in our bootcamp, Mary decided to take the next step and enroll in our Publishing Mastermind course:

Step 1 was to send Annalisa–our resident writing coach and editor–her manuscript. Annalisa read the manuscript multiple times, and worked with Mary to perfect her craft, making sure her manuscript is in alignment with current industry standards and trends. Step 2 was to sit back, relax, and let Annalisa call agents in our network on Mary’s behalf. Annalisa connected Mary with agents who are particularly interested in Mary’s genre (historical fiction), and have a track record of publishing our authors. And that’s it.

In just two steps, Mary had gotten her manuscript to the front of the line and in the hands of the right agents. 

That’s the kind of work we do for our writers so they have more time to focus on what’s really important: writing and living the author dream. Want to learn more? The Writing Gym is accepting select writers to join our community of successful, published authors. If you’re serious about publishing in 2020, let’s chat. Drop yourself into our calendar here to talk to a member of our team and learn more about our program.

Journey to Publishing: Celebrating Barbara

Journey to Publishing: Celebrating Barbara

Journey to Publishing: Celebrating Barbara

Today I’m excited for two things: to celebrate Barbara’s success in her publishing career, and to give you some insider information on what it looks like once you get that publishing contract.

Barbara and I met at the Writer’s Digest Conference in 2017, when she decided to start investing in herself as a fiction writer. Barbara had gotten her MFA in 2002 and went directly into teaching, becoming a freelance writer on the side. 

She had always wanted to be an author, but with her busy life, 16 years passed with Barbara putting her fiction writing dreams on the back burner. After meeting me, she decided to invest in herself and joined the Writing Gym, where she turned her MFA thesis into a novel.

We began working together in spring of ‘18, and had her manuscript ready the following summer/early fall. We started querying and reaching out to agents, and then Covid happened.

The publishing industry slowed down significantly.

Despite setbacks, Barbara kept querying and had a breakthrough when she pitched her novel to PitMad. A week later, she got a tweet from an editor at a publishing house called Literary Wanderlust, indicating interest in her manuscript. Months later, she got a contract.

Barbara began reaching out to other writers, got encouragement, advice from me, and eventually signed the contract!

 

I asked Barbara to recall some of the questions she had at that point of receiving a contract.

She told me there were many terms in the contract she wished she understood more, and writers have to look for what rights the publisher will have over not only the book, but the writer too. 

Barbara asked to renegotiate the contract, and decided to keep her movie rights. She also asked about royalties, but in the end. Barbara knew this wasn’t going to be the book she quit her day job for. She decided to take the plunge and sign, because she wanted to open new doors for herself through publishing.

For Barbara, there were no red flags and she went with her gut. She got her contract checked by an attorney, and feels confident moving forward.

Her advice is: read the fine print, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and if it feels right for you, you should do it. 

I also asked Barbara what she learned about publishing that she didn’t know beforehand. 

Barbara told me that one of the things she did know was that unless you’re getting some 6 figure, 7 figure deal, which happens rarely, there will be a lot of groundwork for her in terms of marketing and getting into bookstores, especially during Covid. 

She also told me that books aren’t waiting in a big warehouse like they used to be. It’s very much print-on-demand. At the same time, publishing is very slow. There is a length of time after hitting “send” before the book gets published. As of now, she’s in the editing process and her book won’t be out until the fall. 

Finally, I asked Barbara about the impact of the Writing Gym, and how it helped her move toward publication.

“[The Writing Gym] made me believe that I could be a novelist, and actually complete a book which I hadn’t done in the past.”

The Writing Gym helped Barbara get her writing confidence back, and provided her with a community full of fellow writers.

 

One of our goals in the Writing Gym is to create the author lifestyle, and that means different things for different people. Most people want to publish as much as they can.

Like Barbara.

Barbara is planning to come out with book number two, tentatively titled “Good Breeding.” We’re so excited to follow her on her journey as a writer! 

 

It was so amazing to watch Barbara on her journey, seeing her grow as a writer, watching her embrace her fiction, and really become a novelist. Her novel is hilarious, and I can’t wait for people to read it. 

If this sounds like something you would be interested in as well, I’d love to chat with you. 

Until next time. Happy writing.

How To Fast Track To Publishing With The Writing Gym

How To Fast Track To Publishing With The Writing Gym

How To Fast Track To Publishing With The Writing Gym

 

This week I received a manuscript in the mail from one of our Writing Gym members, Mary, and I’m so excited to take a look over it. Let’s take a moment to congratulate Mary. 

She has written so many pages with us in the Writing Gym, and has entered the next stage of the process by joining the Publishing Mastermind.

People ask me all the time, “How is it that you work with authors?” “What is it that you do?”

Once someone joins the Publishing Mastermind, I begin to lay down the foundations for you to become a published author.

For example, Mary is about to enter the Publishing Mastermind’s reading period. During the reading period, I read her entire manuscript not once, not twice, but several times. In addition to reading her manuscript, I’ll help Mary tell the best story she can while maintaining her voice and integrity as an author. But, I’ll also be looking at her manuscript from an industry perspective. 

 

What exactly does the industry perspective entail?

Well, it includes what types of books are selling now, and what kinds of conversations I’m having with publishing house editors, acquisitions editors, and agents. 

When a manuscript is ready, I pick up the phone and start calling agents I know are interested in this kind of thing.

Let’s use Mary’s work as an example, as I happen to know it’s historical fiction set during World War 2. I’m going to start calling agents I know are interested in historical fiction and say, “Hey, I’ve got this manuscript set in World War 2. Here are some things that Mary’s doing. What are your thoughts on that? What are you seeing in terms of what is being acquired right now, and how can we position this?”

What happens with these conversations is those agents become interested in that novel once we’re finished revising it.

We set up a system where Mary will get to the front of the line with her manuscript, because of the conversations with agents and the foundation I’m lay for her.

Once I finish reading the manuscript, I begin working with Mary in the revision phase, and finally, we can pitch it to the industry.

Mary has gotten the attention of an agent, and has gotten to the front of the line because of the conversations I’ve been having with industry professionals on her behalf. 

There’s no shortcut to publishing, but there is an accelerated way.

And that’s what we do over in the Writing Gym: getting you connections based on a quality manuscript that publishing houses and literary agents are looking for.

 

Do you want to accelerate your progress?

Are you tired of getting rejection letters from agents?

Are you unsure if it’s your query, your manuscript or synopsis holding you back?

Are you ready to do something that works? 

 

If that sounds like you, I’d love to chat with you.

I’ve made some time in my schedule next week to chat with writers who are serious about getting traditionally published. Let’s chat.

Until next time. Happy writing.

Little Known Ways to Grab the Attention of a Literary Agent

Little Known Ways to Grab the Attention of a Literary Agent

Little Known Ways to Grab the Attention of a Literary Agent 

 

Before COVID, I spent a lot of time speaking with literary agents over lunch or coffee. Nowadays, we do those virtually. 

One of the things I can tell you across the board is: Yes, they still want an engaging story, and yes, your piece still needs to have a marketability aspect. 

But what are agents acquiring these days?

What kind of author really gets their attention? One of the things agents look for when they are looking at an author is if he or she is a part of the industry. 

What does that mean? 

Literary agents want to see if you are actively putting out your writing. Have you published recently? Have you been publishing poetry? Are you keeping a regular blog? 

They want to see if you are active in your writing life. 

Here’s a really big hint that you might not know: literary agents are taking a gamble on you when they take you on as a client. See, you’re not paying the literary agent. They’re earning money by what they negotiate with the publishing house on your behalf. 

So, they want a long-term relationship and not just a one-time client. They want to help you, as we do here in the Writing Gym, create the author lifestyle and have a long-term career. 

Where do you start before querying? Or, if you’ve already started querying, have you already submitted short stories, poems, personal essays, and more to smaller publications?

You need to be publishing and creating a nest for yourself that says you’re serious about writing and you want to be a part of a writing community. 

What have I been doing to help authors’ visibility, and help them find literary agents that are interested in their writing? 

One of the things I do is I send out weekly publishing opportunities. These are hard to find. If you google “publishing opportunities” or something along those lines, you are likely to be directed to expired contests, contests in which you are not eligible for, contests that are in another country, and scams disguised as contests. 

All of these are nonsense. What we do over in the Writing Gym is vet these publications so we know that they are legitimate. 

We send these newsletters out every week. If you are serious about publishing and creating that author lifestyle,  I strongly suggest that you get on our list of vetted publishing opportunities. 

Drop your email in this form and we’ll send you the list right away. 

Keep up the good work and until next time. Happy writing.

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How to Finally Shed that Skin, and Write the Book

How to Finally Shed that Skin, and Write the Book

How to Finally Shed that Skin and Write the Book

 

 

On this episode of our Writing Gym Podcast, we have Manny Wolfe as our guest. Manny Wolfe is a personal branding consultant as well as a writer and here, he talks to us about his book, The Tao of the Unbreakable Man

Manny Wolfe

“It’s the thing that launched me into space,” Manny says about his book, “It was written from… a desperate need for catharsis. It’s a book about catharsis and it gave me catharsis at the same time. I wrote the book to once and for all perform an exorcism on the way that the judgment and the disapproval of my family affected my life. [I see my book as] the final piece of shedding the really, really unhealthy skin of my childhood.”

It’s a book about catharsis, and it gave me catharsis at the same time.

 

 

 

 

Naming a book is one of the things that writers struggle with, and Manny shares his titling journey, one that is rooted in very important experiences from his life. 

 

He took inspiration from the Chinese philosophical concept of the Tao (or Dao, 道). 

“Eastern philosophy has played a big part in framing the way I look at accountability, responsibility, dealing with challenges. All that stuff is very sort of important to me. And the reason I went with unbreakable was actually because of a rare moment where my mother and I were talking about some protracted struggle that I had been going through.” 

“And she just looked at me and said: I have no idea where you get that strength from. It was very uncommon for her to give direct complements. And it just stuck with me. ” 

Manny also wrote a paper in college in which he explores the idea of what it really means to be unbreakable, and these two moments met in his head.

“It was no question. I’m calling it the “Tao of the Unbreakable Man.” 

One of the interesting observations from where I sit, at Date with the Muse through the Writing Gym, is there’s always a moment of breakdown and a moment where healing happens.

At the Writing Gym, we help fiction and nonfiction authors alike, regardless of what genre they’re writing in. And it’s funny, because these moments of breakdown and healing happen to fiction and non-fiction writers alike. 

As a fiction writer, we asked Manny what his healing journey from writing was able to give him. 

“I do have a childhood and a young adult life that most people can’t wrap their heads around and so, if I’m being honest, I tell these stories to show off sometimes. But as I told these stories to my wife, she clearly and sincerely told me to write these experiences down. I didn’t know what to say. I tried to give her the excuse that I always planned to write a book, but I thought I’d wait until I was more successful. And she was flabbergasted.

She told me: “The fact that you’re alive and that you’re trying to be a good parent and that you’re trying to be a good man after what you went through is all the success you need to justify writing the story.”

He went home that night and started writing, “without trying to make [himself] look good, without trying to make the people [he’s had bad experiences with] look bad.” The whole thing was “therapeutic,” as Manny describes it, and he greatly credits his wife for grounding him. When it got to the point where he needed to end it, he was at a loss.

Yet, this was also the point in which his catharsis came in. “The whole book was really about my trying to fit in with my family and my guys and my dysfunction as a group.”

Being born in a cult, Manny stated that it affected how he created meaningful connections with others. He felt like he’ll never feel a connection outside of his own group that he grew up with. When he pulled away from them, little by little, the rift between him and them, as well as his identity was unavoidable. 

“I couldn’t stop writing until this is all out of me. It was physically hard and it was slow. But it felt like I pulled a cancer out of my mind. I felt all the injustice and the anger and the frustration and the sadness leave me. My whole life changed after writing that.” 

 

Now that his message is out in the world, we asked Manny what kinds of benefits he has experienced from this.

“Virtually all of the benefits were what you might call secondary or unexpected.” He admits that it feels great to say that his book is an international bestseller; it has an impact. To boil it down, he is happy about how many doors his book has opened up for him.

Manny has also shared what important lessons he got in the process of writing. “I realized that I was sort of processing the voices of all the authors I liked… Now, I literally have over 200 pages that I keep of false starts and I use those to remind me to just be my effing self. It was a real decluttering process to get to my own voice and to have courage. I’m writing for me. We hit the sweet spot in branding when we are our authentic selves.”

I’m writing for me.

Writing is one of the most intimate acts that we have because we’re sharing our soul with the world. It doesn’t matter if we’re writing fiction or not–at some point when we get into that piece of our soul, we become vulnerable. Manny then shared with us some insightful thoughts about writing as an art.

“I would argue that just telling the truth isn’t quite enough. Other people share great ideas, but it’s not always done in a way that makes me feel connected. A good writer, for me, has the ability to get their most important ideas out in a simple and engaging way.” 

Lastly, for aspiring writers, he advises them to grow their audience massively.

“And get to the point where you’re telling the truth. I’ll leave that vaguely so you can ponder that.” 

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