Confidence.
Each burner has a pot on it that needs to be watched. Each pot is cooking up something tasty.
Craft is bubbling while commitment is on a low simmer; you are out in the community, seen everywhere! That pot is on full boil. While you were out, confidence has scalded; that last manuscript rejection has you wondering if you’ve got what it takes. Who said you could write your way out of a paper bag anyway?
As the Head Chef de Cuisine, your job is to fire up all burners at the same time. Your job is to attend to them to make sure one is not boiling over while the others are stalled.
Juggling is involved. Timing is essential. But this is your piece de resistance! You can do it.
What Are the Four C’s?
On the front burners are craft and commitment. On the back burners are community and confidence.
Whether you are a seasoned cook, or have never donned an apron, whether you are Cordon Bleu trained or a self-starter who learned to steam fish from a YouTube video, you are about to create this special meal. Winning writers keep all burners warm.
It is not an easy task. It’s demanding. It requires an exacting sense of timing, keeping a keen eye on the clock and the intuition to adjust the seasoning just right. It might also require a last-minute replacement of a burned dish, a broken plate, or repairing a malfunctioning burner.
Why work so hard?
Your project at hand is a book, right? You’re not really preparing a meal for twenty. Or are you?
Let me explain: In the past, writers, many of whom self-identified as “introverts” could sell a manuscript to a reputable publishing house. The editor and the house believed in them, supported them as a member of that house’s family. The publisher assigned a publicist and a marketing budget. New books were added onto a publisher’s list which book reps reviewed with book buyers when they visited bookstores. In the past, the marketing department kicked into gear, and, if everything went according to plan, the book was well reviewed. Voila! Book sold. Self-identified introverted author didn’t have to go on book tour if he/she didn’t want to. If all went well, that author could have a shot at another book. If the book didn’t sell, it was remaindered.
Fast forward to 2018. On the one hand, publishing is in a sea change and on the other hand publishing is the same as it ever was. Did you know that Walt Whitman self-published Leaves of Grass? Walt Whitman! Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen self-published Chicken Soup for the Soul. Other best sellers that were self-published include Fifty Shades of Grey, What Color is Your Parachute?, and a long list of iconic books.
With a healthy dose of the Four C’s, all became bestsellers.
Part of the sea change is that writers can no longer afford the luxury of living the life of an introvert. The writer’s life has become a cruel paradox; the work that requires a person to possess high thresholds of tolerance for solitude now requires high thresholds for public speaking, promotion, and public appearances!
Talk about anxiety-producing! So how does a private person become a winning writer? With patience, a custom menu plan and determination, most writers can follow the Four C’s of successful authors.
And here’s the good news. Mastering the Four C’s becomes easier over time. Once the four pots are simmering away, readers catch a whiff of your excellent cooking! Now there’s a crowd congregating around the stove. Murmurs of “Mmm…” and, “How did she do that?” start to hum. A buzz is going around about this “chef” who appears to be everywhere! Readers are curious!
Now, you can turn down the flame on one burner and turn up another. But not one step can be overlooked or ignored when you are getting started. All your skills will be tested. All your perseverance will be tried. Your confidence will be challenged.
You will want to quit. There’s a reason the saying goes, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
In the chapters that follow, you will learn how to refine your craft. You will learn how to manage the first dozen—or hundred!—rejections. You’ll learn how to build your reputation as you are writing your book. You’ll learn how to build your fan base even before your book hits the stands. And when that book comes out, you’ll learn how to speak to your fans, making each one feel important and loved.
The long and winding road:
A few years out of graduate school, I received what every writer dreams about: a love letter from a top agent: “You are clearly very talented. Your book is compelling, but the second half falls down. Please let us know what you decide to do.”
I had hired a writer’s assistant to send my first novel to agents. I didn’t realize that this agent who had praised my work and was asking me to take a closer look at the second half was the agent of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.
This is what we writers call “the backstory.” Established authors can’t help but chuckle when an author is touted as an overnight success; we know the years it took to hone the craft and get the project out into the world. Even Steph Curry didn’t make the cut for the NBA in his early years.
Each author has a unique backstory. While mine is particularly circuitous, you’ll see from the anecdotes peppered throughout this book, I have lots of company.
When the dream letter arrived, I was working full-time and raising a child on my own. I owned a home and was caring for an aging mother. I was writing from 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. before I dropped my sleepy, pajama-clad toddler to daycare and got myself to work.
I had just met the man who was to become my husband. His response to the encouraging missive from the New York agent was that the letter was an open door, a chance, and a golden opportunity: “Quit your job and write!” The edict came with an offer to help me financially. He didn’t have to ask twice. “I’ll have this book published in a year,” I promised. He already knew what a hard worker I was. He saw how focused and determined I could be. As Adam Gopnik, a columnist for the New Yorker, writes: “No one is hungrier than a writer staking out his reputation.” At the time, I was in corporate sales and had been a top producer in my field for over ten years.
Unschooled in the Four C’s at the time and naïve about the pitfalls of the literary world, innocent about the vicissitudes and the complex maze of getting books published, I took my book to an editor I had read about in the professional press.
I didn’t take the time to vet her or research her reputation with writers. Her advertisement proclaimed that she was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and editor. From where I sat, I would be lucky to get her attention.
“Your female characters are male, and your male characters are female.” Ouch. And, in not so many words, she proclaimed the book was no good. She even pulled a book off her shelf to compare a passage I had written about loss to a published novel. Cowed, I was sure my book was a loser. The letter from the New York agent must not have meant anything. The agent must just have been feeling generous and decided to be kind to an aspiring novelist.
How easy it is to diminish praise.
“Many writers learn to write by writing their first book,” said the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor. “What else do you want to write about?”
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