Why Writing Your Book is Not Enough (and What You Can Do About It)

The third annual Business of Writing - Success Workshop will be held this Saturday, October 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO.

The first BOWS inspired me to write one of my most successful posts on this blog, How to Succeed in the Business of Writing if you DON'T Live in the Kansas City Area. (It was a follow-up to another post with the rather bombastic title How to Succeed in the Business of Writing.)  In the follow-up post, I wrote about some of the wonderful pieces of advice I received from presenters at the first workshop.

That post quickly became my most visited post on the site, and, though it's since been eclipsed by other posts, it remains in my Top Five--a pretty impressive feat for a two-year-old post.

Such interest tells me that readers truly care about what it takes to succeed in the business of writing. As most of us probably know, it's not enough to write a wonderful book. You have to sell it. You have to understand concepts such as marketing and branding. You have to use social media to your advantage as an author. And you have to make nice with bookstore owners so they will carry your book.

BOWS has turned out to be a goldmine of advice from professionals of every stripe--publishers, lawyers, social media experts, and the like. BOWS isn't a workshop for writing--it's about what to do after you've written that book. If you don't possess this knowledge, the work you've poured your soul into will gather dust on your shelf (or on your hard drive) until it is thrown out by your survivors (or erased from your computer) after you die.

Don't let that happen to your story.

If you're in the Kansas City area on Saturday, come to BOWS. You'll be glad you did.

More information can be found here.