Being a writer

Hide Responses / Show Responses

  • Mailbag 12:17 pm on August 21, 2012 Permalink  

    How can I promote my book 

    Do you have any tips on having a successful book launch and what
    strategies helped you the best?

     

    • Penelope Trunk 12:20 pm on August 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      A book is something you can offer up to an audience when you have an audience. First you need to take the content you think should be in a book and use it to create an audience.

      You know how if you try to tell someone everything about yourself the first time you meet them, they will not want to know anything about you? The same is true with ideas. If you try to give someone all your ideas at once, before they know anything about your ideas, then they won’t want to read your ideas.

      You need to give someone pieces of what you think like you give someone pieces of your personal history. You don’t start with a book. You start with smaller things, to get people interested in you. A blog post, a column, a short YouTube video. All those things need to add up to something, that an audience appreciates, and then you give them your book, and they are excited to get it.

      A lot of people are good at writing books. But writing a book is like lecturing to someone. You have to have the conversation with them, first. To make them want to listen to you. And the conversation is much harder – you have to care a lot about the people you are talking to.

      Penelope

  • Mailbag 11:43 pm on July 26, 2012 Permalink  

    Should I blog under my own name? 

    Hi Penelope,

    I have a dilemma about this topic: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/07/19/blog-under-your-real-name-and-ignore-the-harassment/

    The quandary is that I write about suicide.  Anonymously.  This allows me to protect my career and also avoid censoring myself.  Now that I’m gaining some readership and preparing to take my blog to the next level, I am concerned about never having a body of work to attach to my real name, because I’ve finally accepted that writing is the one thing I would regret not taking a shot at in this life.

    So while it’s hard to ask, “What would you do if you were me?” because you write about taboo subjects all the time and accept the risk….what does one do if it’s all risk and extremely low potential for reward?  Start a completely different blog under my actual name with “safer” content?  Stay anonymous and continue to write what seems to matter to people, and worry about it later?  I have your words in mind:

    “And one more thing. I have found that if I am nervous to post something—if I think I might look bad or reveal too much or give advice that people will hate—these are the posts that people care about, because they further my connection with people and further the conversation we’re having, and connection and conversation are the crux of linking.” 

    Thanks,

    [Name redacted]
    >http://www.downfromtheledge.com

     

    • Penelope Trunk 11:47 pm on July 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      The interface is lovely. The site is elegant. You’ve done a nice job with your site.

      You should blog under your own name. Of all the things that are terrible, doing something this good, that you are this devoted to – doing it anonymously is too close to a metaphor for suicide. So you have to use your name. To do it anonymously is to give up on everyone around you — their ability to see the site and see you for who you are. your ability to be yourself in the world and be accepted. All that stuff is really important given that the topic is suicide.

      The most important precaution to take is to be able to talk about this site in an interview. You get a job from an interview, and you get an interview from a resume. When someone reads your resume they will probably not go to the suicide site. But it might come up in an interview — they might google you before the interview or something like that. So have a good explanation for why you do it. I’m assuming you have been close to the edge. Don’t say that. Say that you write the blog because you are fascinated by how people cope with feeling like they are on the edge. You think it’s a common feeling to want to give up and it’s a special thing about humans that we don’t give up. Say general, sociological stuff instead of personal stuff. Then people will feel fine talking about it in an interview.

      Penelope

    • Deborah Hymes 12:49 am on July 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Penelope, you just blew me away. Your insight that writing anonymously on this topic is a kind of metaphor for suicide — I feel like this is one of the best answers you’ve ever given. And how to handle the blog’s existence professionally. This is truly awesome advice.

      And to DownFromTheLedge, your site is wonderful. It’s astonishing to me that you are able to express yourself with such clarity and insight even in the midst of the pain that sometimes overwhelms you. You are truly gifted. If you can indeed “come out” about your blog, I think you may be surprised at the respect and affirmation you’ll receive. Count me as a new fan. ;)

    • Robin 12:30 pm on July 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Ooooh…I used to blog anonymously and *wow*, the idea that it’s a metaphor for suicide stings with truth.

      The site mentioned is amazing and I could relate to much the blogger had to say.

      Link to site didn’t work for me, fyi. Thanks Penelope. Turns out this mailbag question was an answer to a question I didn’t know I had.

    • Sadya 1:55 pm on July 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Adding to what PT has said, you could say you’ve been reading alot of Sylvia Plath’s work and with that you could steer the conversation into/about literature and authors.
      You might have written about your own personal struggle on the blog and that’s probably making you nervous- that coworkers and potential employers might bring that up.
      If you have a strong professional credibility then it won’t matter. Secondly, noone might actually read ALL the posts, we tend to overestimate how damaging a secret aspect of our lives might turn out.
      And you are grossly underestimating the reward part- the personal reward as well your contribution to your readers will be immense. Go for it!

    • Alex 5:17 pm on July 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I found my solution by blogging under a pen name that is very similar to my real name. That way I can choose who sees my website (you can’t find it by googling “Alexis McKenzie” – but it has my photo and it is easy to take the credit for work done by “Alex Kenzie”).

      In writing, there is a long history of authors using a pseudonym for one reason or another. I see nothing wrong with that.

    • downfromtheledge 12:11 am on August 3, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Really wonderful to hear everyone’s perspective on this. Penelope’s response was like a punch to the gut, and all of you have given me great advice to mull over. Much appreciated:) -Bri

  • Mailbag 10:42 am on April 30, 2012 Permalink  

    Does social media favor extroverts? 

    When I was using Google asking how to start a blog your name came up. I took your message to just begin and ran with it. That was a few months ago and I still do not feel as though I have a direction or voice yet but I truly enjoy it as a creative outlet.

    I have read many of your posts and the other day came across one where you were talking about Twitter.  I have an aversion to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the Pinterest, all of the social media for the masses.  I have taken the Myers Briggs test 4 times professionally and always an INFP.  Since you are a Myers Briggs fan do you think Introverts are on Twitter or is it the 75 percent Extroverted population that find it so lovable?

     

    • Penelope Trunk 10:49 am on April 30, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      First, as background, here are the two posts we’re referencing:

      http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/penelopes-guide-to-blogging/

      http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2010/02/10/twitter-can-save-your-life/

      The short answer is that extroverts do not have an advantage in social media. Social media is about sharing ideas and caring about people, and introverts can do these things as well as extroverts.

      That said, today, 95% of all communication online is through social media. The last 5% is email. No kidding. This means that if you want to be relevant in today’s workforce you have to pick some social media tools you are comfortable with and start using them.

      I like blogging because I think it provides the largest range of benefits for the least amount of work. I know this sounds counter-intuitive because writing a blog post is more work than, say, writing a tweet. But a blog is about your own ideas and a tweet is about sharing other peoples’ ideas. So you get more mileage sharing your own ideas.

      A blog is not about getting traffic. A blog is about finding a way to convey your ideas so people can quickly understand how your brain works when they want to get to know you. So, with that as the goal, maybe you are doing a better job on your blog than you realize. And, if you are not interested in sharing your ideas, you should figure out why.. who wouldn’t want to be known for how their mind works?

      I did a series of webinars about how to get benefits from blogging without having a lot of traffic. You can get a job, meet new people, rise up in your field quickly, all sorts of stuff that does not require a lot of traffic. Here is a link to the webinar series:

      http://brazenu.com/secrets-of-an-a-list-blogger-a-week-with-penelope-trunk/

      Penelope

    • Rachel 5:16 pm on May 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      What’s up with the Twitter post? It seems to be cut off just after beginning of point number 2 (of 5).

    • Penelope Trunk 7:23 am on May 14, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for letting me know, Rachel. I fixed it.

      Penelope

  • Mailbag 7:40 am on February 26, 2012 Permalink  

    How do you keep track of what you read? 

    I am in awe of your breadth of reading and your ability to keep track of it all so that you can draw on it later. How do you keep track of all the studies you cite and all the links you incorporate into your posts? I have yet to find a really fast and accurate way to do it.

     

    • Penelope Trunk 7:48 am on February 26, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I’m starting to think that I write the blog as a way to have a place to put all the things I read.

      I keep articles organized by list. I have lists of big ideas, and each idea has a bunch of articles that relate to each other on the same list. And I have lists of articles that I think are interesting but I can’t figure out a way to put them on the blog. I keep the lists in gmail because gmail is searchable.

      I also receive tons of links from readers. I check every single link, and sometimes, even if i don’t think I’ll ever write about something, I have it swimming in my head, and I end up wanting to link to it, so I just search for it in gmail.

      I also read a lot in print. And when I like something, I tear it out and put it in my pile. I end up having a big pile that I carry around with me everywhere. My thinking is that I never know when I’ll write my next post and I want to have my pile with me when I write that post. I am thinking, though, that carrying around the pile is insane. I just can’t bear to have read something interesting and not put it on my site.

      In fact, my pile is right next to me now. So I think I’ll publish a link from one of the pages I’m carrying around…

      Here is a great story in the New Yorker about a guy who left his ipad in a Taxi and then used his cloud backup to ping his ipad and chase the taxi down over the course of days. I love this article. It’s short and fun and amazing. I hope you love it too!

      http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/10/111010fa_fact_crowley

      Penelope

    • Lindsay 6:57 am on February 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I used to tear out articles, too, and then lose them. So I started creating binders with those plastic sheet protectors. Makes life much easier and you can get some cute binders now!

    • junger 7:22 am on February 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I haven’t started using it, but apparently folks are in love with Pinterest as a way to save and keep track of stuff. I’ve recently started using Instapaper to save longer form documents to read them offline – not great for readily available links to blog about, but gives me a reading list at the end of the day to go through.

    • Kate 9:02 am on February 27, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      If you are reading primary research, try Mendeley – searchable way to store PDFs. Scientists use that (or the Papers, the Mac equivalent). You can leave notes directly on PDFs, or tag them into one or more “playlists”, much like iTunes.

      The search capabilities are comparable to Gmail.

    • Deborah Hymes 3:07 am on February 28, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Evernote. It’s awesome. You can clip/archive a link, an article or a page. Totally searchable. Easily sortable into folders if you want a deeper system. Accessible from anywhere. You can also add your own notes, thoughts, keywords. So you can easily keep track of items for multiple blogs or projects. Seriously, try it out!

    • Penelope Trunk 3:53 pm on February 29, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      These are such great suggestions! Thanks you guys.

      Something I think about a lot is public vs private. Delicious and Pinterest are public, so it’s like publishing all the links before I publish them. I can’t decide if that’s good or bad…

      Penelope

      • Mark W. 8:43 am on March 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply

        Delicious allows you to individually mark as private your bookmarks. Right click on a bookmark, select properties, and check in the box labelled private (it’s located in the upper right corner of the dialog box). Also, I’m pretty sure you can do this when you’re adding a new bookmark.

    • Alison 4:56 pm on March 2, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      If your goal is remembering & organizing casual/informal ideas from blogs, personal conversations, etc:
      Evernote
      *Android app lets you voice record musings, and it’s multi-platform/format friendly for however you’re trying to digitally remember things

      If your goal is storing formal published papers, quickfinding content within them, & collecting their meta-data for instant citations into your own formal writing:
      Onenote ($), Zotero (open source free equivalent), Mendeley
      *will merge into MS Word for clickable citation insertation in your own writing

    • Mark W. 8:37 am on March 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      Another option is Diigo which is a social bookmarking service. They describe themselves by the following text -
      “Diigo aims to dramatically improve your online productivity. Building upon the strengths of award-winning Diigo V4, widely regarded as one of the best and most popular social bookmarking, web annotation, collaborative research services, Diigo V5.0 has added additional data types (screenshots, pictures, notes, etc) and platform support, such as Chrome, Android, iPad, iPhone, etc. With Version 5.0, Diigo moves one step further towards its vision of providing the best cloud-based personal information management (PIM) service that enables users to collect, highlight, access and share a variety of information, on a variety of devices.”
      More information and links to text and video are here – http://help.diigo.com/ .

  • Mailbag 7:56 pm on February 19, 2012 Permalink  

    What are your tips for self-publishing? 

    Would you consider adding a new topic, Self-Publishing, to your Mailbag section? I would LOVE to read about how you self-published and promoted your first book and I’m sure many of your readers could benefit from your knowledge and experiences, both good and bad, going the self-publishing route.

     

    • Penelope Trunk 7:59 pm on February 19, 2012 Permalink | Reply

      I don’t have a section like that because honestly, my experience with self-publishing is so different than other peoples’ would be. The hard part of self-publishing is not writing the book or getting it into book format, the hard part is marketing. And I have a blog with a million readers. So I have a built-in audience to sell to. I don’t have to do very much marketing at all.

      That said, if you want to know how to print a book in China — which, surely, you do not want to know because you have to speak Chinese to do it — here is a post:

      http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/07/14/self-publishing-update-my-importexport-business/

      Penelope

  • Mailbag 7:20 pm on November 29, 2011 Permalink  

    So I’ve been trundling along writing my little theatre and… 

    So I’ve been trundling along, writing my little theatre and writing blog at missclaraklemski.com with an average of about 30-50 readers each time I post, usually clicking on from facebook.

    Then recently I posted a passionate article about my reaction to a play at the Sydney theatre company Belvoir St Theatre and I’ve had more than 100 readers and most of them have been from google searches – as if word had somehow got out that a review was out there about the production that was controversial.

    I have had a few comments that have been a bit nasty, something which I have never experienced before and I wondered: how do you handle nasty comments or people who don’t like what you wrote? I don’t want to hurt anyone but I don’t want to withhold my opinion just because it is safer. Do you do any damage control that you feel is necessary or do you hire someone to do it? Finally, how do you determine what needs damage control and what doesn’t if a lot of the readers don’t actually comment?

     

    • Penelope Trunk 7:23 pm on November 29, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      It doesn’t matter if someone does not like your review. There is no right or wrong answerto an art review. There is only interesting or or not. You wrote an interesting review that made people talk. Good for you. It’s flattering to have people talk about the topic you bring up — because people are thanking you, in their own way, for being interesting.

      Don’t defend yourself. Its lame. Your opinion is your opinion and you already said it once. Defending it is saying it again, like it wasn’t well done the first time. But you did a fine job the first time.

      The mantra I say to myself when I get mean comments: Everyone has their opinion. Be grateful people are reading yours.

      Penelope

  • Mailbag 2:40 pm on November 22, 2011 Permalink  

    Who’s Really Writing these Questions? 

    I am curious if you are writing some of the questions in the mailbag?  For example the most recent one Which Careers Give you Work/Life Balance and I’m 30 and I’m worried I’ll never have a career?  The word choice and writing style in both of those questions sound very much like you.  I don’t see it an the other questions so I’m really curious if you wrote the mail bag questions that I referred to.

     

    • Penelope Trunk 2:42 pm on November 22, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      I write the headlines. Not the questions. Although I think about writing the questions, believe me.

      I wonder the same about Dan Saveage. Do you read him? He’s my favorite Q&A guy and I think he really heavily edits the questions.

      I started the Mailbag section because I’m answering so many questions each week anyway. It was supposed to be something on my site that would be fast to update. That would change if I started writing the questions myself, so that’s probalby the biggest reason why I won’t be writing the questions.

      Penelope

    • d-day 5:28 pm on November 22, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      I like the Mailbag section, and it’s frequent updating. Thanks, Penelope!

    • Emily 11:02 pm on November 22, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Does he really edit the questions? I thought maybe people wrote the questions in the tone of the writer who answers to get more attention from the writer. Another example is Dear Sugar – on the Rumpus.

    • A 12:26 am on November 23, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      I know Dan Savage will edit out personal information or images/videos. I assume for the column he has to sometimes cut for length, or to fix the occasional typo. I don’t *think* he edits content or tone, but I can’t promise.

    • Amanda 7:20 pm on November 23, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      As a magazine editor, I’ve made up my fair share of reader questions and even written the touted expert’s response for him/her. Ditto for embarrassing stories, etc. Most of the real reader submissions we get are fairly bored/repetitive. You’d think they would pick up on the tone/topics of columns we run in every issue, but nope.

  • Mailbag 9:53 am on October 31, 2011 Permalink  

    Will You Review My Book? 

    Hi Penelope,
    How are you? I’m an author and executive recruiter (currently at [big impressive company]), and have a book coming out next month. I’ve been told it’s bad form to request a review from a big-name blogger without first building a relationship, but that seems a bit backwards to me (or perhaps just disingenuous). I’d love to get a book review from you and am wondering if you’d be willing. Please let me know if you have any questions or what I can do to be of help.
     

    • Penelope Trunk 9:54 am on October 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Whoever gave you advice was right.
      I get ten of these emails a day.
      It would take me about an hour to write the review of your book. But you don’t want to spend an hour, over a year, developing a relationship. So neither of us has an hour to give the other.

      Penelope

    • Redacted 1:31 pm on October 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Penelope,
      Thanks for the quick (and honest) response. I thought it would be more genuine to start with a direct request and hope a relationship built from there, but it sounds like that was probably the misguided thinking of a newbie. This was my first attempt at contacting someone in your world, and I hope you’ll accept my sincere apologies for coming at it the wrong way.

      I’m really impressed by your site and writing style. Very fun, and very inspiring. So , how should I go about building a relationship with you (would still love to, if that’s a possibility).

      • Penelope Trunk 1:33 pm on October 31, 2011 Permalink | Reply

        The fast route to a relationship: You’re a recruiter at [huge, impressive company] and I have a startup in the recruiting business (Brazen Careerist). So you should figure out how you can help me with that, and then I’d be more excited about helping you with your book.

        The slow route to a relationship: You send me interesting emails, and comment on my blog, and I learn from those moments to enjoy you for your interestingness and I want, more and more often, to talk to you just because it’s nice.

        Penelope

  • Mailbag 3:20 am on October 14, 2011 Permalink  

    Shortcuts to Journalism Success 

    What business models are open to journalists? I know you exemplify one model but you must have thought of others?

    My background is as a journalist but I am currently home with my twin babies and trying to come up with a goal and plan for my return to work.

    I have worked at newspapers like The Guardian and, since going freelance five years ago, I have written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines and websites. The essence of things is that I need to choose between trying to get better paying journalism work (doing more magazine work), doing more self publishing or leveraging my skills into more lucrative but less fun work ( such as corporate writing).

    What would you recommend?

     

    • Penelope Trunk 3:22 am on October 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      In that paragraph of yours that begins: “I have worked….”
      You have to do all the things in that paragraph at once. All successful professional writers I know did all of that stuff til they get famous enough to be really choosy.

      I think you are looking for a path to get out of doing the difficult, tedious, low-paying work that journalists do. But there is no path around it right now — only through it.

      I wrote for free all the time for about ten years. And I am lucky. Because I can make a living as a writer at this point. Most people write for free for ten years and even if they are recognized as doing great writing, they still cannot make a decent living.

      I don’t think journalism is a practical career — it’s one of those careers where you have to pay dues for a long time in order to get to the top of an industry that pretty much never, ever pays well.

      Penelope

  • Mailbag 2:58 am on October 12, 2011 Permalink  

    Starting a Tell-All Blog 

    So, you’re the queen of writing posts and tweets that say things that some people love and some people think are crazy or offensive. I’m on the love side, of course.

    I’m an INFJ, which means I’m a good writer, I’m (deep down) very sensitive, and I’m very judgmental (I always have opinions). After two and a half years of not being able to find a job, freelance, or start a business without getting pissed off by the people I’ve met, the severe disappointment has caused me to become a bit loopy. All of a sudden I want to start a blog (or something that has to do with writing) where I get to say whatever I want about personal acquaintances, bloggers I read, celebrities, whatever, no matter how offensive people might think my opinions are. Is this something I should embrace (a gift from the marketing gods) or is this blog idea a bad idea?

     

    • Penelope Trunk 3:00 am on October 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      I think the blog would be a waste of your time.

      It would not be helping you to be a better person or solve any of your problems with interpersonal relationships. And if you’re not doing that for yourself, you’re not doing that for anyone else. So why would they read? No one is a good enough blogger that they can write without having at the top of their mind the question: How does this help my readers?

      Penelope

    • Raven 3:04 pm on October 21, 2011 Permalink | Reply

      I wonder if this person is really an INFJ because I am an INFJ as well – and our tendency to be judgmental comes from wanting to understand people’s (emotional) motives. And from that, we always want to “figure out” people so we can better understand how to deal with them. I don’t think an INFJ would get anything out of tell-all blog because it would be just blabbering without any true purpose, as Penelope already mentioned.
      Saying whatever you want about other people (no matter how offensive) is not a a gift. It’s attitude that comes from tactlessness and lack of sensitivity, which directly clashes with an INFJ’s natural sensibilities.
      Also, I was unemployed for 2 years and got fired – a lot- and I did think I was going loopy as well. However, my blog was a space that helped me figure out more about myself. It is an amazing journey.

← Older posts