Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "strategy"
If it's Broke, FIX it
We’ve all heard the expression “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” That’s very true. However, sometimes it’s broken. Point blank. One mistake I see new authors make consistently, whether they’re writing a book, sales copy, web content, or any other type of material, is to keep going down a particular road when it’s not accomplishing anything. I see it over and over again and I fail to understand it!
There’s a lot to be said for not ever giving up. Nevertheless, sometimes the thing you are doing to try to achieve your goals just isn’t working and nothing is going to change that. Switching gears is not giving up!
You can’t get stuck on stubborn and think that your way to do something is the only way. This may sound a little silly, but think about the Wright brothers. When they were trying to invent the airplane, they were studying birds. So, their original plan was to make the wings of the plane go up and down like our fine feathered friends. If they had refused to acknowledge that that plan was failing, we would not have airplanes today.
Sometimes you just have to look at what you’re doing and evaluate whether or not it’s giving you any return on your money, efforts or both.
For example, something I harp on continuously is writers giving free books away. If you’re a year or more out from your book launch and you’re still running around handing out free copies of your book to try to stir up some interest, but you have very few sales, then you are doing nothing to further your career. Of course, that approach is doomed to failure anyway, but suppose you have a GOOD idea for a marketing plan? Or at least what you THOUGHT was a good idea, but months or years down the road your sales volume is very low. Clearly that plan is not working and you should troubleshoot to try to find out why and switch gears as soon as you can to get on a better track.
Sometimes there’s a lot of trial and error involved and there’s nothing wrong with that! The thing that’s WRONG is when you get fixated on “not giving up,” to the point where you refuse to acknowledge when something has failed. Lots of different approaches fail. And interestingly enough, some approaches work very well for certain authors but not so well for the next. That’s okay too. Find what’s best for you and run with it. But part of finding out what’s going to work also involves admitting what ISN’T working, and that’s very important as well. Therefore, never feel like you’re giving up because you need to move on to a different method or technique, it may be exactly what you need to do!
There’s a lot to be said for not ever giving up. Nevertheless, sometimes the thing you are doing to try to achieve your goals just isn’t working and nothing is going to change that. Switching gears is not giving up!
You can’t get stuck on stubborn and think that your way to do something is the only way. This may sound a little silly, but think about the Wright brothers. When they were trying to invent the airplane, they were studying birds. So, their original plan was to make the wings of the plane go up and down like our fine feathered friends. If they had refused to acknowledge that that plan was failing, we would not have airplanes today.
Sometimes you just have to look at what you’re doing and evaluate whether or not it’s giving you any return on your money, efforts or both.
For example, something I harp on continuously is writers giving free books away. If you’re a year or more out from your book launch and you’re still running around handing out free copies of your book to try to stir up some interest, but you have very few sales, then you are doing nothing to further your career. Of course, that approach is doomed to failure anyway, but suppose you have a GOOD idea for a marketing plan? Or at least what you THOUGHT was a good idea, but months or years down the road your sales volume is very low. Clearly that plan is not working and you should troubleshoot to try to find out why and switch gears as soon as you can to get on a better track.
Sometimes there’s a lot of trial and error involved and there’s nothing wrong with that! The thing that’s WRONG is when you get fixated on “not giving up,” to the point where you refuse to acknowledge when something has failed. Lots of different approaches fail. And interestingly enough, some approaches work very well for certain authors but not so well for the next. That’s okay too. Find what’s best for you and run with it. But part of finding out what’s going to work also involves admitting what ISN’T working, and that’s very important as well. Therefore, never feel like you’re giving up because you need to move on to a different method or technique, it may be exactly what you need to do!
