Writing and Publishing Your Personal Success Story

Nothing stirs the emotions quite like an individual success story. I think it is fair to say that we all love reading or listening to tales of how someone has triumphed over adversity to achieve success. Someone else’s success, after all, can be a source of inspiration for others. So what makes a good success story?

Aside from inspiring others to action, a good success story charts the history of an individual’s effort to overcome obstacles to achieve their goals. These obstacles can come in many forms, such as escaping from poverty to become a successful entrepreneur or creating new opportunities out of a life-changing experience. In any event, a good success story is one that evokes empathy rather than sympathy.

We’ve all heard of Steve Jobs, the founder and CEO of Apple, and the story of how he was given up for adoption by his biological mother. How he dropped out from mainstream college education but went on to found Apple, a seriously successful company with a brand image that now spans the globe. Steve Jobs’ success has also been punctuated by numerous personal crises including a battle with cancer. Nonetheless, at no point in his life has he ever given up his goal of successfully serving others.

Steve Jobs’ success story exemplifies the courage and tenacity of someone prepared to take on life’s inequities to lead a productive and fulfilling life. Moreover, Steve Job’s success has inspired countless people around the world by revolutionizing how we communicate with each other. This is an enormous achievement by anyone’s standards.

But what about those individual success stories that never see the light of day or fail to make it into mainstream media? What happens to those stories? More often than not, those stories are lost along with the lessons that go with them. However, occasionally, a person who feels strongly enough about their personal achievements will take the plunge and write and self-publish their success story. In general, such a person will not print and publish their story out of vanity. They will write their story in the sincere hope that it will inspire others to rise up out of the mire of misfortune and to conquer their fears to live a more meaningful and productive life. One such person is my writing colleague Carole.

Carole was involved in a near-fatal helicopter accident some years ago. The accident left Carole with terrible head injuries, which effectively put paid to her career as a helicopter pilot. It was a life-changing event, to say the least, and it took some time for Carole to come to terms with the reality of her new situation.

After months in a critical care unit and subsequent years of rehabilitation, Carole began to look at other career options. She really had no choice if she was going to keep a roof over her family’s head.

In any event, Carole tried her hand at writing. At first, it was difficult, for obvious reasons, but it wasn’t long before she soon discovered a real passion for putting words down on paper. Carole loved the writing process, so much so that she decided to coach others in the art of writing. Now she has written a book called ‘LIVE YOUR LIFE BOLDLY,’ a personal story of how she overcame serious physical injury, including brain damage, to start a new career as a writing coach. Carole’s book will be released in electronic format later this year, and I would highly recommend it as a good read.

Carole’s success story is a good example of how an ordinary individual created opportunity and success out of adversity. It is not always easy to write about oneself and lay bare our most intimate details for the whole world to read. But, for some of us, writing about our personal struggles and triumphs is the only strategy we have for excising the ghosts of the past and to bring closure to events that have dramatically changed our lives.

So long as what we write does not delve into the realm of self-indulgence, then people will read what we have written. As Mikhail Lermontov so aptly put it in the introduction to his epic novel, A HERO OF OUR TIME, ‘The story of a human soul, even the pettiest of souls, is no less interesting and instructive than the story of a nation, especially if it is the result of the observation of a mature mind and written without the vain desire to evoke compassion or wonder.’

If you’ve got a personal success story to tell, then you should write and share it with a broader audience. You may have lessons that others might want to learn. 

Write with a passion to communicate, not for money

Today is Sunday. After what was a warm and beautiful day yesterday, the weather has turned cold and grey. It seems that winter is not yet ready to let go of her grip on this part of Eastern Europe. How I long for the warmth and color of spring’s awakening. I guess I will have to wait a little longer for winter to be banished to the season to which she belongs.

Although there is much to appreciate about winter, I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed being forced back into the house with this sudden and unexpected cold snap. However, not all has been lost as I was able to catch up on a documentary about horse whisperer Gary Prince.

I checked out Gary on the Internet, but there was only a limited amount of information about him and his work. Nonetheless, what Gary had to say about horses and his connection with them got me thinking about my writing.

I’ve always loved animals, especially horses. As sophisticated as our society has become, there is still much that we can learn from the animal kingdom, not least how to connect with each other in a positive and meaningful way. And this was the point that Gary was trying to make during the documentary.

Gary’s unique connection with horses was born out of passion, a desire to connect with an animal of beauty and grace. Encouraged by his father, Gary learned how to ride at the age of three. Eventually, Gary’s natural riding ability took him into the competitive arena of horse dressage. It was here that he began to truly understand his gift of being able to communicate with horses. It came from within, a burning desire to be at one with a creature he had grown to love from a very early age. And herein is a lesson for all of us who are moved to become writers.

Passion, desire, connecting and understanding are words that all newbie writers should learn and comprehend before they set out on their writing career. All too often I come across newbie writers who enter the profession on the assumption that writing is a path to making money. It is not. Few, if any of us, ever reach the privileged position of earning a living from the articles or books we publish. At best, most of us can only hope to generate a little pocket change from the things we write about. So why do we write?

The reason why many of us write is that we have a passion and desire to connect with others. Just in the same way that Gary has a passion for connecting with horses, successful writers have a love for connecting with their audience.

If you are writing only to make money, then your audience will recognize that you are not in love with your chosen profession. They will quickly abandon you once they discover your writing lacks passion, much in the same way as a horse will throw its rider if the rider kicked it too hard with a set of sharp spurs!

Your success as a writer can never be measured in dollars or cents. It can only be measured by the number of people who actually read your material. It doesn’t matter whether you sell or you give away what you have written, the most essential part of writing must be your desire to connect with your readership.

Something magical occurs when you connect with others through your writing. That magic comes in the shape of an invisible bridge to your audience, a bridge that transcends space, time and place.

Ask yourself this question: Who are my favorite authors? The chances are that at least one of your favorite authors has long since passed on, leaving only their indelible thoughts to trickle down the passage way of time and into your hands. As a consequence, your favorite dead author’s success can never be measured by the sound of a cash register. They are simply no longer around to collect royalties or payment from their work.

The only way to measure a dead author’s success is by counting the number of people that their work has influenced since their demise. Many of the classic writers of the past knew this. However, their passion to communicate with others kept them at their desk long after their contemporaries had abandoned the writing profession from want of success through monetary gain. George Orwell’s ‘1984’ is a case in point.

When George Orwell wrote ‘1984’ he was dying, and he knew it. His motive for writing ‘1984’ had nothing to do with monetary gain but everything to do with communicating a message, a warning to audiences of the future about the perils of a totalitarian government . It is a message that continues to resonate with all freedom loving audiences of today. George Orwell was a writer with a passion to connect with others – a whisperer from the past still communicating with audiences long after his passing. Now that is what I call success!

Writing E-books: Identifying and Answering Your Audience’s Needs

Writing E-books and selling them is very much about identifying your target audience’s needs and then answering them. To achieve this you will need to ask a number of questions. This process is called an ‘Audience Needs Analysis’.

An ‘Audience Needs Analysis’ helps you to identify specifically what it is your audience wants to know. The speed of life today means that your audience simply does not have the time to read superfluous text that has no bearing on their needs or wants. So an ‘Audience Needs Analysis’ will help you to keep your audience’s needs in focus while you are writing.

You can begin your ‘Audience Needs Analysis’ by putting yourself into your audience’s shoes. This will give you a new perspective on the topic on which you are planning to write. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who is my audience – what is their age group, are they fellow professionals or hobbyists?

2. What does my audience know about the topic I am planning to write about?

3. What does my audience need or want to know about the topic?

4. What questions will my audience want answered?

5. After reading the e-book, what is the best possible outcome for my audience?

6. What is the best possible outcome for me as the author of the e-book?

Once you have answered the above questions you will be able to formulate a set of aims, objectives and possible outcomes. Some readers might be under the impression that an aim and an objective are one in the same. They are not.

An aim is what you intend to do, whereas an objective is the purpose behind what you intend to do. For example:

Aim: The aim of this article is to help readers to identify and answer their audience’s needs.

Objective: After reading this article, the reader will be able to identify their audience’s needs, and, as a result, will be able to produce better quality e-books that will meet the demands of their audience.

Possible outcomes: A better informed readership who will continue to read my posts or articles, and, perhaps, even make referrals.

Of course, you can have more than one aim, objective or possible outcome. But you should note: The more aims, objectives and possible outcomes you have, the more complex your writing project becomes. Remember, the idea is to keep your audience’s needs in focus, not drown them in a complex set of overarching goals.

Having established your aims, objectives, and possible outcomes, you should start thinking about a writing frame that will help you to synthesize what you have learnt about your audience. An anagram that I have found useful for answering an audience’s needs is BOMBER B. Note: You can use BOMBER B for presentations and as well as writing projects.

B – Bang! Get your audience’s attention by telling them something interesting or by asking a question related to their needs

O – Opening: Outline the basic structure of your e-book and tell your audience how they will benefit from reading it

M – Message: List four or five points that your e-book will cover – no more than five as too much information will overwhelm your reader.

B - Bridge: Connect the points to your audience’s needs - show/demonstrate how your audience will benefit from understanding these points

E – Examples: Give examples or state facts in relation to the points your e-book is making

R – Recap: Summarize the information you have imparted in your e-book

B – Bang! Finish with impact by linking back to your opening statement or question – tell your audience how your e-book has clarified the statement or answered the question.

BOMBER B is a simple but effective tool for synthesizing and packaging what you have learnt from your ‘Audience Needs Analysis’. Both the ‘Audience Needs Analysis’ and BOMBER B will keep your writing tight and focused. Why not give them a try when you write your next E-book?

Why People Fail to Make Money from E-books

There are many reasons why people fail at writing and publishing e-books. But most of those reasons are related to the individual’s disposition rather than any problems associated with the e-book publishing industry.

First, most individuals entering the e-book publishing industry do so without fully understanding what it is they want to achieve.

Second, developing an e-book publishing business takes time and energy. Impatience is probably the biggest contributing factor towards people giving up on e-book writing and publishing as a possible source of income.

If you decide to become an e-book author/publisher, then be prepared for a lot of hard work over a long period of time. Even though there are no guarantees that your efforts will be successful, determination and hard work will swing the odds in your favor.

Third, becoming an e-book author/publisher is about learning the tools of the trade
The world of e-book publishing is very different to the one most of us encounter at the shopping mall where glitzy packaging entices us to buy the book. The Internet does not have that touchy feely experience about it most of us have become accustomed to when we go shopping. On the contrary, e-book publishing requires you to get your message across in a sincere and direct way that convinces prospective customers to purchase your e-book offering.

Learning about what works or does not work in the world of e-book publishing is imperative to your success as an e-book author/publisher. And the best way to learn about what works or does not work is to use the tried and tested methods employed by the more successful and experienced members of the e-book industry. Taking note of what the professionals do will give you a solid base of knowledge from which you can develop your own ideas.

Fourth, choosing the right e-book niche is vitally important if you are to succeed as an e-book author/publisher. You do not want to enter a market already saturated by competitors. You are a newbie and will soon become overwhelmed by the size of the competition. Survey the e-book landscape before you take the plunge. Choose something that matches your talent and your demeanor. Market research will prevent you from making the wrong, and perhaps costly, decisions.