Writing Is The ‘Easy’ Part
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As co-authors/co-publishers of the “50 Ways to Christ” series – and with the rapidly-approaching release of Vanessa’s debut novel, “The Second First Lady” – there was little chance we’d miss the National Christian Writers Conference at the Howard University Divinity School on Aug. 14. Founded by Antonio Crawford with assistance from Pam Perry (featured in the video above), the conference made for a long day, from 8 am to 6 pm, with a few kinks and a quick lunch. But it was a worthwhile investment of time and treasure.
One of the highlights was meeting Karen Hunter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who once worked at the newspaper I grew up reading from back to front – The (New York) Daily News. She has since become a heavyweight in the book world, co-authoring several best-sellers and launching Karen Hunter Publishing, a division of Pocket Books at Simon & Schuster. Karen reminded attendees that “words are powerful and we need to put them in the marketplace with that thought.” She also insisted that “our writing should be thoughtful and thought-provoking. Or why else do it?”
Karen did an outstanding job filling-in for Michelle McKinney Hammond as the keynote speaker, after Michelle had to cancel due to a family emergency. Karen joked about the unfairness in having to devise a speech on-the-spot AND having to follow the Howard University Gospel Choir. The acclaimed group treated us to three songs, including “Oh Happy Day” and “Total Praise.” They were small in number (only nine singers) but made a big impact.
The afternoon sessions focused on marketing, which we learned is about 90% of becoming successful authors. Andrew Morrison, president of Small Business Camp, talked about using books as leverage for consulting, contracting and speaking opportunities. Nationally-acclaimed motivational speaker and best-selling author Willie Jolley spoke about the need to “hustle” to sell your books, getting in front of as many people, groups, organizations and microphones as possible.
Sean Isaacs, CEO and co-founder of Isaacs Marketing Group noted that business schools define marketing as “the four Ps: product, price, placement and promotion.” But he offered his own, more-specific definition of marketing: “Strategies and tactics to identify, introduce, create, sell and maintain satisfying relationships with past, present and prospective customers that result in value for both the customer and the marketer.” The final presentation was made by William Patterson, CEO of The Baron Solution Group. He overwhelmed us with a wealth of information on developing a product line, creating residual income streams and getting others to promote your products and services at no cost.
So we’ve got plenty of work ahead as we near the release of “The Second First Lady” – not to mention releasing the second edition of “50 Ways to Put Christ Back in Christmas: And Keep the Spirit All Year Long.”
As it turns out, writing is (kind of) the easy part.
DS
