Jan Fernandez and Nancy Juetten at the Patrick Snow Best Seller Publishing Institute Event on Bainbridge Island. Photo by Gus Fernandez

What a fabulous group of aspiring authors I met at Patrick Snow’s Best Seller Publishing Institute, held last week on Bainbridge Island.   Randy Broad, James Donaldson, Dr. Patricia Nan Anderson, Cody Hill, Alex Snyder, Gus and Jan Fernandez, Frank Reed, Cheryl Dore, Marlee Haber, Janice Brady, Brandon Chin, Kris Walton, Sandra Lynn, Jack Fecker, Shiloh Schroeder, Howard Howells, Sara Harvey Yao, and Michele Lisenbury Christensen were among those in attendance.

We all learned a thing or two about the essential steps to take to write our books and market them to earn best-seller status.  I was on hand to share some essential do-it-yourself publicity tips and resources to empower the guests to get seen, heard, and celebrated in the media in their own backyards and beyond.    I also helped some of the guests turn their boring bios into rock star bios on the spot.  The gratitude flowing my way from guests who has previously struggled to get their stories right was abundant and  rewarding.

If you’ve set your intention to write YOUR book in the New Year, Patrick offers these tips::

• Write 20 of the greatest lessons you want people to learn as a result of reading your book.
• These lessons become chapter headings.
• Put those lessons in logical order.  That list becomes your “Contents” page.
• Then, it’s a matter of writing three pages a day or putting pen to paper for one hour a day.
• Get up an hour earlier, use your lunch break to write, and do what it takes to get the job done.
• Repeat this affirmation: “I will do today what others won’t so I can have what others don’t.”
• Over a six to ten month period of time, you’ll write your book.
• Then, you can engage an editor, a cover page designer, and other experts to bring your manuscript up to an A+ effort.

If you have a book in you and need a coach to guide you through the steps, Patrick does a great job in this regard.  If you want to get a taste of the guidance Patrick offers, he hosts a weekly call every Monday at 8 a.m. PST.   Send him an email at patrick@patricksnow.com with my name in the subject line, and ask for the phone number and PIN number so you can sample his guidance and decide when you would like to be part of his program.  You just might find the coach you’ve been looking for to get that book in your head on paper at long last.

If there is one thing I’ve learned this year is that having the right coach or mentor at your side makes the journey to success a whole lot easier and more inspired.   If you’ve got a book in you and need a coach to get the book out of you, this could be just the right introduction to guide you forward.   Connect with Patrick and make some progress on your journey.

By the way, don’t you love that purple jacket I’m wearing in this photo.  My son and husband gave it to me for my birthday at the top of the month, and I just love it.  This leads me to a sassy, fashion tip for the aspiring speakers among us:

Never underestimate the power of a great jacket to make you feel fabulous.