What Books Are Made Of

I have been thinking this morning about books. No surprise there, but what may surprise you is what I've been thinking about books.

We all know that books are made from paper and that paper comes from trees.

Photo by: brody4, courtesy of Flickr

What we may not know, or even have the courage to ask, is "Why do some books fail, while others succeed?"

But before I answer that question, it may be important to define success.

Is success making it to the top five in your category on Amazon?
Is success being at your book signing and having a line waiting for you to autograph your book?
Is it getting frequent calls to speak?
Is it becoming popular, so popular others know you when they see you walking down the street?

Books are made of many things. Bark. Sap. Greenery. And it takes great skill (and other things previously mentioned in my posts) to become successful at writing.

 

Photo by: John-Morgan, courtesy of Flickr

So, why aren't you a success?

You've seen the movie stars write books and sell plenty, but they may or may not be a good writer. You've seen television personalities write books and sell tons, (just think of Dr. Phil). And you've more than likely seen writers who have worked their way up to stardom, and others, who, frankly, just got lucky. Their book "theme" was just the right one that people needed at just the right time.

Who knew?

I realize that most of us out there don't fall into any of these categories, but I think that's okay.

When I sell a book I hope the reader gains what they need from it. I hope they learn something. I hope they're a better person because they've read one of my books. Obviously, the Christian books I write fall in to that category, but I hope that (even if the book shelves out nothing more than a good read) I hope they feel it.

It's what we all want.

Books. They're hopefully filled with captivating characters, a setting that breaks the ice, and even, a plot that is so striking, so powerfully maneuvered, that frankly, we just can't put the book down.

Will we sell millions and millions of copies if we do that?

Maybe.

If we add marketing to the mix?

Probably.

But we'll never know unless when get those words on paper and shuffle them out.

When Lying is a Good Thing

Yesterday I was with a group of fine women. We were discussing my book, "Conquering Your Goliaths," and had come to the third stone, "Optimism."

I asked, "What does optimism mean to you?" I got varied responses, including "being positive when you feel like crap."

There are days I feel like crap and when someone asks me how I'm doing I want to spill it. You know what I mean. All of it. Of course, I know that most folks are only saying "How are you doing?" because they expect you to say "fine", and not have you dish out a half an hour of straight talk--negative stuff they really don't want to hear.

But the comment made me think. What if, when I felt like crap and someone asked that question, I said, "I'm wonderful," "I'm fantastic!" "I couldn't be better!"

What if I...lied?

Okay, usually lying is considered a bad thing, something you do to protect the feelings of others or secrets that enter your soul to protect yourself. Lying may even be considered to be a sort of black swarm swimming inside your soul, a swarm you don't want anyone to know about.

But in this case I'd like to think that lying will do something for you. Something for your view on life. Something for your character. Something to lift your day. And if you say it often enough to enough people, you just might discover that you feel terrific after all.

And what sort of lie is that?