ANOTHOLOGY OR EULOGY?
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
Really? I think they should pay us to be in these books. Worse yet I bet you already have boxes of them sitting under your bed gathering dust bunnies. People please stop asking me to pay to write in these community anthologies. There’s only one Chicken Soup For The Soul and if you want to be in a book writer your own. My answer will always be NO and here’s why. It’s all about integrity.
I bet the people who put these books together told you it’s important to have a book so you can say you’re an author and an authority in your field. Let me tell you. A chapter doesn’t make you an authority. Besides why would you want to pay to write in a book that you can’t give away and is almost impossible to sell?
What is good about being one author in twenty-Five? I just don’t get it. I guarantee you it won’t make you famous. Sure you might get twenty minutes of fame during a book signing but if you paid $500 to spend hours writing a chapter and then you get 20 minutes worth of book signing time you just paid $25 per minute for that recognition.
Putting your name on a collaborative book puts your reputation at stake and could cause major problems with integrity. What if one of those authors does something out of integrity like tax fraud or commits a felony. Yikes! Then suddenly you’ve got your name on a book with a felon.
I have an associate who recently contributed to an anthology. She not only contributed a chapter she contributed a great deal of time in support of the project. Unfortunately the whole project was taken over by another author who made an agreement with a book store that the books would be exclusive to that store. My associate is furious because she didn’t even get any books and she paid $600. The only way she can get a book is to go to the bookstore and pay $4.00. This book mine as well read as a eulogy to the relationships in this book.
Write Your Own Book
Here are a couple of examples:
The Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, A Chorus Line, faced constant infighting between choreographer and director, Michael Bennett, and the original writers. Bennett began simply as a consultant, but soon took over as director and asked for full creative control. To the authors, Bennett made unnecessary changes and casting decisions that compromised the original vision and Bennett himself would later say he was a co-writer of the show. The show made Bennett a star on Broadway, but the others (with the exception of musician Marvin Heimlich) never achieved the same recognition as a result of Bennett’s moves.
Competitive Pricing & Kroc’s Aggressive Business Moves
In the world of business, the story of how McDonald’s came to be a global franchise was as the result of competitive pricing by its founders, the McDonald brothers. When businessman Ray Kroc discovered the potential of the fast food chain, he sought to expand the number of restaurants, but the brothers refused to let it go beyond the handful that were currently in business.
Kroc used aggressive business moves to buy the whole company for a ridiculously cheap price; the McDonald brothers fought with Kroc the rest of their lives over their initial deal and how he swindled them away from their own business. Again, be careful of who you make deals with.
Your Integrity Is All You Have
Don’t take your integrity for granted. Be independent and headstrong in not allowing others to stomp all over your creative work because you may find yourself buying something you created but lost the credit, recognition or reputation for creating.
Better yet create your own book like I did. Being an author in a chapter, just to get published, does not make you an writer in the world of writers. You can do this. Even if you dictate your message and stories into a recorder you can have someone transcribe it into a book. If you have a book published with 60,000 words and approximately 250 pages with an awesome cover you have the ability to become blessed as a keynote speaker. Yes, it takes time but you don’t have to do it all in one day. Take your time and do it right. Maintain control of your work, manage the mission of your message and leave a legacy for those who follow.
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Selling Through Your Heart
Empowering You To Build Relationships For Financial Freedom
