SpiralTruth

I’ve been using Twitter a lot lately as a way to find out about some of the stuff that’s brewing out there just a bit outside of the mainstream. It sort of reminds me of when I’d go into a record store and browse heavy metal CDs, just looking for a band with an interesting name or a great album cover or song names that sent my imagination running. Like anyone else, I still listened a lot to whatever was being played on the radio, but I also enjoyed the excitement of actually finding something myself, without the help of big advertising. Then I’d mercilessly harass my friends about this great band that they absolutely have to hear! My friends are probably very grateful that the Internet has been so successful and I now have an outlet other than them. Feel free, my millions of anonymous friends, to click on to something else, but I’m telling you, you’ll be missing out on me giving you the details on a pretty cool author I ran into on my random Twitter treks… Meet Gretchen Rubin. She’s a writer who, for a while, was stuck in a lawyer’s body. Post-freedom, she’s published four books and has one on the way: The Happiness Project. That’s the one that drew me in to find out some more about her. The premise is pretty cool. It’s a memoir of a year spent trying out all the various tips and tricks, from gurus and scientific studies alike, that are intended to make us happier. Now, there are A LOT of books out there about how to make yourself happier. Hell, there are entire “self help” sections dedicated to it. What makes this one different? Well, I think the really refreshing thing about it is that Gretchen isn’t a guru or a psychologist or a scientist or anyone else you’d expect to be writing on the subject. And she doesn’t pretend to be. Instead, she’s made herself the guinea pig and is giving us her insight on how these ideas work for someone who isn’t trying to sell them. Nothing against the gurus. The problem is that they (at least, hopefully) already have the problem figured out. They have their answers to the happiness equation. And sometimes something they’ll say will hit you just right. You’ll get that wonderful life changing epiphany. You’ll suddenly “get it”. But many times, they can sound like they’re speaking a completely different language. Or you can feel like you’re just going through the motions. Giving a depressed person the ol’ glass is half full line probably isn’t going to help them too much. Because they can understand it intellectually, but they can’t feel it. That’s the problem. They don’t know how to internalize that idea. And so it’s just an empty cliché. The thing with experts is that even if they’re giving you simple principles, it can feel like an impossible journey to get to where they are. There’s a part of you that wonders if maybe they were just made to be happy and you weren’t. Gretchen’s giving us that bridge. She’s allowing someone to read about the journey from the perspective of a happiness trainee. Self improvement is a very admirable thing. But even better, when you’re able to do it, is to lead the way for others. It seems to me that Gretchen is doing that with this project, and I’m betting her book, when it comes out, will be a great addition to the books of the happiness gurus that you may have collected over the years. And while you’re waiting, you can check out her site for some more bite-sized blog posts on the same subject. She’s also managed to figure out something else that I’m very interested in at the moment, and that’s getting published. I decided to ask her about that and, since I’m documenting my own journey towards getting published (like Gretchen’s doing with happiness, I’m hoping to document my struggle with what you do after you’ve written that book from the perspective of someone who’s very much a novice) I’m going to let you know what I found out… I now have it from at least one published author that it is definitely a good first step to find an agent if I intend on going the traditional route. She also suggested that it’s worth thinking about all the other options for publishing that technology has given us, including blogs, e-books, and self publishing. I wholeheartedly agree on this and do have it in my back pocket. I will publish in some way or another, and feel very lucky to be living at a time when that option is there for me. However, knowing the difficulties of self promotion in the music world, I know you’ve got to really like doing that if you want to be successful on your own. I’m slowly learning the promotion side, but to be honest, I’d rather be spending that time creating stuff. So I think it’s worth it to at least try and find someone who believes enough in what I have to say to help me out in this department. Here’s some advice she gave that I hadn’t already considered: 1. Find out who represented other authors who are writing similar books and look for any connections I might have. This seems obvious after you hear it, but wasn’t at first. I imagine it’s kind of like applying for a job. When I started, it was the “pound the pavement” approach, which was often ridiculously time consuming and not a whole lot of fun. I wouldn’t even think about starting out that way at this point. I’ve kept in touch with people from previous jobs that I liked working with. I didn’t even realize I was networking. But I’ve gotten people jobs and people have gotten me jobs without even having to go through a formal application process because we’ve kept in touch. Now, the arena of book publishing is totally foreign to me, but my experiments with Twitter have gotten me closer to that group. At this point, I’m feeling pretty humble, but just asking questions and getting involved, even if it doesn’t lead directly to a book deal, gets me on the same wavelength and considering new ideas. 2. Blogs are, in a way, a resume for agents and publishers. She mentioned that she and other people she knows have actually been contacted and offered representation because of their blogs. Of course, it would be silly for me to wait around for an agent to contact me simply because they read my blog and liked it, but it does suggest that it’s good to just keep writing and see self-publishing (especially with how easily it can be done via blogs) as another way to help a potential agent get a taste for your writing. One thing that I did just because a friend had been bugging me to do it was post a preview of the first few pages of my book. At the time I didn’t think about this as also potentially helping to attract an agent, but allowing them to get a taste of my writing immediately without including it in an annoying email attachment is a good thing. The worst that can happen is they see it and think it’s horrible, in which case, we’ve avoided wasting each others’ time and I can move on to either improving the writing or finding someone who is better suited to represent me. A huge thanks to Gretchen for taking some time to respond to me and give me some tips. I imagine she’s pretty busy with her new book coming out, and spending time giving advice to a complete stranger should definitely get her some major karma points! I’ll be sure to post an update when the book’s out.