I'm going to illustrate this blog post with a simple tale springing from ranch life. This is a true story, obviously, since those are photos. This is The Day Corcovado Learned to Load and Unload from a Trailer. Note that the horse is not freaking out, pitching a fit, or tramping his handlers. No, Corco is doing something more effective. He's adopted The Mule Stance. My mind follows Corco's example as I contemplate rewriting Mogollon.

A while ago, I wrote that I was going to blog about the rewrite, the re-vision, of my draft version of Mogollon, the sequel to my award winning book, Numenon.

That was weeks ago. In that time, we put a Kindle version of Numenon out for 99 cents. Sales went crazy, Numo hit # 1 in Mysticism, and then cruised near the top of the Religious Fiction category.

This was a problem.

Why? Because Numenon is the introduction to the series. It’s got every hook in the world in it to make people want the sequel. It ends with a bang and points the reader dead at  Mogollon, the rewrite of which we are discussing.

Numenon’s readers are already asking for the sequel; some are getting kinda grouchy about it. How long will my readers wait before dumping me entirely?

The book’s first and part of a  second draft is written. All I have to do is open my computer files and wail away, toiling for a really long time to get the manuscript cleaned up as well as I can. Then I have to go through the editorial and proofing process, necessitating months and months of hard work before a publishable version exists.

As owner of an Indie press,  after I do all the above, I get to manage the design and publication process, and then marketing and sales.

I  can’t open the manuscript’s files.  I’d rather do anything than think about the changes  I have to make. I’d as soon dismember my firstborn child as whack away at Mogollon.

DO YOU THINK I’VE GOT WRITERS’ BLOCK?

* * *

An undisclosed amount of time later and the guys have the task in hand. All they have to do is get Corco from where he is into the trailer. All I have to do is get Mogollon into print.

WHAT IS WRITERS’ BLOCK? Essentially, it’s psychological resistance. Usually it involves the writer’s ego: “My work is so important … The world needs my masterpiece. I can’t write. If I can’t write, I’ll die, and the world will be left without my words … What a tragedy.”

I realize that sounds judgmental and mindless of the pain of the condition, but remember that the blocked up person I’m talking about is me. I exhibit almost every causal attitude I’ll discuss below.

The desire to write the Great American (Latvian, Lithuanian, or Other) Novel can shut a writer down: “I have this HUGE idea. Can I possibly express it? Am I big enough? Good enough?” Hand wringing. Angst. Pain. It’s based on an inflated image of one’s importance in the Grand Scheme of Things.

If you regarded finishing your novel the way ranch people regard mucking out the stalls, would it be so hard? So wrenching? Would you stay awake nights because you couldn’t finish the job? No. When writing becomes a job of work, histrionics leave and you can get the thing done.

Writer’s block also can be associated with positive things. Sherman Alexie, the bestselling Native American author, reminds us that success can block you up good. How can you write when your last book was a national bestseller and your publisher is leaning on you for the new one? And grumbling about your contract and the advance you got for the three book deal?

Heart breaking, isn’t it?

Just plain fear is behind a lot of this. Can I do it? Can I bring it across? It’s the terror that arises when one faces in front of a blank screen or empty page. My eyes widen and I suppress a scream  . . .

Real progress: both front hooves are on the ramp. Corco continues to exhibit the Mule Stance. These photos were taken over several hours of intense human-equine power negotiation. Notice the carrot in Barry's hand. Sometimes positive reinforcement doesn't work. Also–Corco had a bath before these pictures were taken. His coat is wet from suds, not sweat. It's the guys who are sweating.

Laziness sometimes lurks behind the inability to finish a tale. Writing a novel is about the hardest kind of authoring imaginable. (Though I think a surgeon friend’s rewrite of his textbook on arthroscopic ankle surgery ranks up there)

You may begin your manuscript and discover that completing it requires the discipline to sit down and bang it out––to sit for days, months, and years. Despite your earth-shaking, sure to be a bestseller idea, your book won’t exist unless you write it down.

“It’s just too  hard … I can’t do it.” Another tragedy.

So you go to a writing group for support and stick around until you hear their feedback to your cherished production. Sometimes this can be bracing in a “pull up your socks” way, and sometimes it can shut down all creativity. Rough editors can do the same.

The rest of humanity, household pets, inanimate objects, and lousy viruses and bacteria can stop a writer’s progress. Life intrudes.

“Marge, there’s a truck in the living room. It just came through the wall.”

Call it resistance or an errant Mack truck, writer’s block is writer’s block. A cure exists. I have written about it: The Ultimate Cure for Writer’s Block. If you get what I say in this article, block will not trouble you, unless it wants to.

* * *

ON THE OTHER HAND, YOU MAY NOT BE ABLE TO FINISH YOUR MANUSCRIPT BECAUSE THE TIME ISN’T RIGHT. You and your book idea might not be cooked enough.

In a revolutionary move, Tony has PICKED UP CORCO'S HOOF and placed it further onto the ramp. Notice that nothing else has changed in the horse's stance. True resistance, perfectly executed. Well done, Corco!

THE PROCESS OF TEACHING CORCOVADO TO LOAD AND UNLOAD ILLUSTRATES THE LESSON IN THIS ARTICLE:

YOU CANNOT MAKE A 1,200 POUND ANIMAL DO ANYTHING. IT HAS TO WANT TO DO IT.

YOU CAN’T MAKE A WRITER SPIT OUT WORDS, EITHER.

WRITER’S BLOCK IS LIKE THE BERLIN WALL:  YOU CAN’T GO AROUND IT, OVER IT, OR UNDER IT AS LONG AS IT’S STANDING AND THE GATES ARE CLOSED.

RECALL THAT THE BERLIN WALL (which some of you may not remember) CAME DOWN WHEN THE TIME WAS RIGHT.

RESISTANCE IS LIKE THAT: It seems like a solid wall, but it’s got invisible cracks. As time passes, doors open, and close. Keep your eye on the wall, and go through when an opening appears. (That means write like crazy when you can.)

WHILE YOU’RE WAITING, DO SOMETHING ELSE.

THINGS TO DO WHILE WAITING FOR AN OPENING IN YOUR RESISTANCE:

READ. You can read all sorts of stuff, including my online magazine,  SPURS MAGAZINE. SPURS is about changing the world, or at least cleaning up some of its nasty bits. I named it SPURS because in life, sometimes you need spurs to get moving. I’ve been writing SPURS since the late 1990s and am about to unleash it in blog form, as soon as I get over my paralysis over rewriting Mogollon.

Advanced training technique: Tony waves his hat while Barry pulls on the lead rope. Corco remains unmoved. Some people resort to offering buckets of carrots and grain at this point. When that doesn't work, they escalate to use of two by fours and longe whips. Nasty. We don't do that. The inter species negotiation process intensifies as and the sun drops on the horizon …

SPURS’ WRITERS’ CORNER. Not only do I have a ‘zine, I’ve got a ‘zine for writers, dealing with topics that writers must manage or go insane. The WRITERS’ CORNER is one of the most popular locations on my web empire. (I’ve got 52 URLs, compadres.)

[Note: If you think Mogollon needs rewriting, SPURS' WRITERS' CORNER needs major surgery. Read it and know it's a draft. I'll rewrite it before I die. Or make it into a blog. Okay?]

SPURS’ WRITERS’ CORNER contains a bunch of articles relevant to writer’s block. These articles walk through the process of writing as experienced by me and many others. (Lots of references & links.) Please allow your browser time to open at the links.

• THE WRITER’S CORNER: INTRODUCTION
• HOW TO START WRITING: SIMPLE. HANDLE THE MESS IN FRONT OF YOU
• DO YOU HAVE TO SUFFER TO WRITE WELL? One of my favorites. Uses Kay Redfield Jamison MD’s writing on bipolar disorder and creativity.
• WRITERS’ TERROR AS OPPOSED TO BLOCK OR DOUBT Getting down to what writers’ really think and feel. You meet my writers’ group and learn how I felt as I wrote my first book.
• THE ULTIMATE CURE FOR WRITER’S BLOCK If this article doesn’t get through your Block, take up golf.

Tony and Barry attempt to FORCE Corco into the trailer. Barry is inside the trailer, pulling hard, while Tony applies muscle at the other end. Does it work? What do you think? You can no more force a horse into a trailer than your brain to kick out the right words. (Note: Do not do what you see above at home. What's shown in the above photo is extremely dangerous and very bad horsemanship. Corco could kill either man if he lunged forward or bolted backwards.)

TO DISTRACT YOURSELF WHEN YOU CAN’T WRITE,  YOU CAN ALSO CLEAN THE HOUSE, ROLLER SKATE, GO TO YOUR SHRINK, BLOG ABOUT YOUR BLOCK, ENTERTAIN YOUR FELLOW WRITERS, OR TAKE A NAP.

MOSTLY, CONTEMPLATE THE SITUATION UNTIL YOU REALIZE THE REAL REASON FOR YOUR BLOCKAGE/STOPPAGE.

WHAT WRITING THIS ARTICLE DID FOR ME WAS MAKE ME REALIZE THAT:

• I’m tired.
• I need a break.
• A real break where I do NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH.
• NO book marketing, planning the next move, scheduling book signings, reading blogs on marketing, sales, the latest Net techniques.
• Take the box of books out of the trunk of the car “just in case.”
  
• I need to stop doing what I’m doing and allow my personal process––my soul, if you will––to call the shots.
• When The Universe wants me to finish Mogollon, I will, and probably pronto.
  

[HERE'S AN EXERCISE: I throw them in all over Stepping Off the Edge, might as well here. Please jot down any images or thoughts that come to you while you read my list, and the rest of the article, including hops to Spurs' Writers' Corner and Spurs Magazine. Take some time and generate your own list of word blockers. Where are you in the process above? I'm not saying that you're worn out, either. Your situation reflects your writing style and process. You may need a kick in the rear.]

MY REAL PROBLEM IS: I’M POOPED.

I’m taking that break, goin’ to Santa Fe for three weeks. Santa Fe, New Mexico, is like catnip to me. Where we stay, there’s no Internet, no phone, no TV, no roads. Just wind and sky and a few snakes.

Tony leads Corcovado out of the trailer. Note how relaxed the horse is. He never had a problem going into or out of a trainer from this day forward.

WHAT DOES CORCO  SAY ABOUT THIS?

About a minute after the previous photo, Corcovado walked into the trailer easily and with no fuss. He’d decided that he wanted to.

When your soul/brain/heart/body/hands decide it’s time to write, you will. You’ll write good stuff, that deserves to see the light of day.

PS. If you liked this article, you will like my book Stepping Off the Edge. It has much more about living the writer’s life, success, triumph, despair, and JOY.

STEPPING OFF THE EDGE on KINDLE– 99 cents for a limited time!

NUMENON on KINDLE––99 cents for a limited time!

Hasta luego, amigos! I’ll write more later! I have a date with a dirt road and cactus.

Numenon, by Sandy Nathan, is a 2009 Nautilus Book Awards Silver Winner!

Sandy Nathan
Winner of the 2009 Silver Nautilus Award for Numenon
The Nautilus Awards are dedicated to “changing the world one book at a time.” The Nautilus Award was established to find and reward distinguished literary contributions to spiritual growth, conscious living, high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership and positive social change.

By winning a Nautilus Silver Award with her book, Numenon,  author Sandy Nathan joins the ranks of  Deepak Chopra, M.D., Barbara Kingsolver, Thich Nnat Hanh, Jean Houston, PhD., Eckhart Tolle, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. All are Nautilus Award winners.

Stepping Off the Edge is a wild ride to sacred places. Includes an exclusive interview with Bill Miller, award winning Native musician, artist, & speaker.

Now you can buy the Kindle edition of my award-winning book, Stepping Off the Edge , for 99 cents! The book is offered at this great price for a limited time only. Click here and go to the Kindle store.

The Kindle edition of Stepping Off the Edge is absolutely gorgeous: The Native American themed interior and cover converted to the Kindle format better than I hoped. All of my pen and ink drawings are included and look beautiful.

This is the book that proves spiritual studies do not have to be boring. Stepping Off the Edge is part memoir, part self help, part riding lesson (horses play a big part), and all amazing.

This book was written during a period of my life that I’m glad is over. Though it provided great material and a way of illustrating everything useful I learned earning two master’s degrees and a life of spiritual practice.

Join me as I find my roots in Missouri’s Ozarks, travel to Tennessee to a Native American retreat, and meet Bill Miller, multi-Grammy winning musician and artist. Lots more, including the meaning of the word “fault” to people from California.

STEPPING OFF THE EDGE WON SIX NATIONAL AWARDS!
* 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist in New Age (Spirituality/Metaphysics)
* Bronze Medal Winner in Self Help, 2007 IPPY Awards
* National Indie Excellence Awards 2007: Finalist in THREE Categories: Memoir, Self Help, & Spirituality.

FROM THE BACK OF THE BOOK:
When Sandy Nathan set out to write a book about her profound experience at the Gathering, a Native American spiritual retreat, little did she know it would guide her to chronicle a life of stepping off the edge. Again and again , she takes the risks needed for her soul’s growth and vividly presents her personal journey––one of growing into the courageous spiritual being she is. Sandy reminds us we all possess spiritual greatness: It is our birthright.

By walking with Sandy along her path we get more than a glimpse of a person. We get a revealing and inspiring view of her life. Her adventure and the understanding she adds as she writes help us use her experience to enhance out own development. This book does much more than tell about a life: It takes us by the hand (or sometimes by the nose) and leads us to the opportunity afforded by spiritual practice. And practice is the key word.

Stepping Off the Edge is alive with information and inspiration. It is a book about doing. It’s more than a book that describes chocolate cake or even one that tells you how to make chocolate cake. It is a book that gets your mouth watering for chocolate cake and then lets you loose in the kitchen stocked with recipes and everything you need to make your own chocolate cake. With fudge frosting. And chocolate chips if you want them.

In this fascinating narrative you will encounter the basics of prayer, meditation, worship, spiritual retreat, and how a life can become dedicated to the pursuit of experiencing the divine. You will even find how to domesticate your mind and make it an ally in your quest for inner knowledge.

It is said that the path to self-awareness is a solitary one. Stepping Off the Edge opens you to the possibility that it can be fun, challenging and rewarding.

Sandy Nathan & Bill Miller at the Gathering Book Signing

WHAT DO THE CRITICS SAY?

“This is a dynamic book. It’s alive with Ms. Nathan’s passion, and her presence is in every line, teaching and learning with you, helping you when you stumble, because she’s stumbled too. It’s rich with energy and meaning.”
- Gerald DiPego, Screenwriter, Phenomenon

“Sandy’s book has got to be one of the most fun to read books about spirituality ever written. She takes the reader along on her adventures with a down to earth approach and style that keeps the reader in touch–with both reality and spirituality. Informative, entertaining, and enlightening.”
Natural Horse Magazine, Volume 8 Issue 5

"It May Be Forever" Cover by Lewis Agrell. I love this cover!

Most of the book contests, like the Benjamin Franklin Awards, IPPYs, Indie Excellence, and all the rest, are closed for the year. The books have been submitted and they’re being judged. Will your book win? Two factors have a very large weight in determining whether you walk away a winner––or get passed up: Your COVER and your TITLE. Today we’re going to talk about book cover design. While it may be late if you’ve got books in competitions this year, you can use what follows for future years.

I’m very pleased to introduce my second guest blogger, Lewis Agrell of The Agrell Group. Lewis and I go back years. He designed promotional materials for my first book, Stepping Off the Edge. I loved what he did and called on him to do the same for Numenon. Lewis designed a one-sheet for Numenon, book marks, and a gorgeous over-sized post card. He also designed the e-book that I’ve been giving out to those who sign up for my email newsletter. And his wife, Kathryn, edited it. What a team!

I think this blog is going to be known as the “get deep into the psychological underpinnings of writing & publication” blog. Irene Watson of Reader Views introduced us to Jungian personality type. I added a bit, and now Lewis is going to introduce concepts that I learned originally in graduate school in counseling.

Knowing these concepts is very important: They’re operating in your buyers’ minds and souls (and yours) whether you know it or not. Better to know it. But don’t worry! Lewis Agrell makes them user friendly!

Lewis has been kind enough to let me illustrate the blog post with some of his covers. And now, here’s Lewis Agrell on book cover design:

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BOOK COVER DESIGN?

In my estimation, the best covers are the ones that are the most beautiful. Billions of dollars are spent every year in advertising, fashion and manufacturing to infuse more and more beauty. Why? Because beauty attracts the eye. That’s why the most beautiful models, actresses, cars, houses and boats cost the most  money. Beauty is a precious, treasured commodity. Beauty has specific qualities. These qualities are harmony, balance, unity, synthesis, and refinement. Designers struggle to make the colors and design elements (fonts, photos, illustrations, and other graphic elements) work in such a way that the greatest beauty is attained.

KILLROD The Cross of Lorraine Murders. Cover by Lewis Agrell. Simple, elegant, & beautiful design employing archetypes––the cross and circle, which also looks like a moon. Love this, too.

Attributes of the Designer

Why are some designers better than others? This is not a simple question to answer. Designers must be trained in the basics of graphic design, particularly color theory. The other qualities that are necessary are:

1. Experience (it helps to have tried many different approaches to design work, and learned what does, and does not, work)
2. Intelligence—reading as much as possible about the industry is very helpful, because it is important to stay current, not only with the latest design movements and techniques, but also the tools of the trade (computers and software).
3. Worldly awareness: it helps to know what is going on in the world, because world events are often reflected in design work. Witness particularly the dynamics of the sixties and the seventies, when many social shifts occurred. Designers and illustrators exploded with new ways of working, as a reflection of the dynamism of the period.
4. Sensitivity. A designer must be sensitive to the material with which he/she is working, as well as to the needs, desires, and expectations of the client.

“As he thinketh…so is he”

An individual’s consciousness can vary tremendously. Wherever a person places the bulk of his attention will indicate the level of awareness. People are generally focused either physically, emotionally, or mentally. It is best for a designer to have as high an awareness level as possible.

Why is this critical?  Because a designer, or any creative person, cannot create beyond his or her level of awareness. When a high level of awareness is attained, that individual also has a connection to the lower levels, having passed through them, at some point in his or her maturation.

For example, a designer who is entirely focused on the physical realm, would not do well with a project focused on matters of the heart. A designer who is swept up in the world of emotions, would not do well with a project that has deep philosophical leanings.

In the mental realm, there are three areas of focus:

• The lowest is the subconscious. Designers focused on this level create work that is very dark and mysterious—perhaps even very ugly and horrifying—and certainly distorted and misshapen. The primary color in their palette is black.
• The next mental level is that of the concrete mind. This is the realm of logic and reasoning. This is the area of scientists and mathematicians. The design solution from an artist focused on this level will be very balanced and harmonious. The Golden Ratio, or Divine Proportion (approximately 1.618) might be very important for a designer on this level of consciousness. Someone who has a mental focus labors very carefully to determine a proper approach, utilizing logic, reasoning and analysis.
• The highest level is known as the superconscious. In this level, symbolism is very important to the designer. Also, the designer will use a palette of very bright, cheerful, and uplifting colors. The keys to identifying designers who work on this level are a) their work reflects a wide variety of creativity or understanding; and b) they generally “know” immediately what the best solution will be for various projects. The “Eureka!” moment is very common for these designers. They will usually have a vivid mental image in mind before a person finishes explaining a concept to them. They think very quickly.

Many designers specialize in one particular area. This is because they have a strong physical, emotional, or mental strength, and design in that area.

"The Money Belt" This is not a "grunge" cover. Great for mass market book. I love this cover: clean, catchy, powerful. Does the job!

The “grunge” look

If beauty is so important, why is there a “grunge” movement? The reason for this may be a temporary backlash to the “perfection” that can be created by computers. A world saturated with the unwavering perfection that computers are capable of creating can become a bit maddening to designers who like to put a more human touch to their work, so designers are fighting against the coldness of computers with “grungy” designs—those that appear as though they are not created from the computer, even thought the computer remains an indispensable tool for production.

This will become overused and will be rejected in time, in the same way that the psychedelic look passed away at some point in the early seventies. Great beauty will always be the sine qua non for designers. Deviations from beauty are only a temporary stylistic meandering. For example, ugliness will never gain a foothold in auto manufacturing because of the importance of high volume sales. When one particular car was created that people thought was not beautiful (the Edsel, 1958), the car sales were dismal. Car manufacturers don’t want a repeat of that noted failure.

What catches the eye besides beauty? Newness and uniqueness. An example of this is reflected in the story of the designer who needed to create a new cereal box to be displayed in grocery stores. He saw that all of the boxes had bright, vibrant colors. So, what did he chose to do? He created a cereal box that was mostly white. This “non-color” stood out from the rest of the boxes on the shelves, gaining that valuable eye-catching quality.

"Mediterranean Madness" Cover by Lewis Agrell. In a genre cover, the designer must give readers what they expect. Wow, and good design.

Genre design

There are genres of books that have a “standard look,” that the buyer expects to see, for example, romance novels. All purchasers of romance novels want to see an image of a very strong, handsome, romantic yet masculine man embracing a beautiful woman on the cover of the book. To deviate from this “formula” is to risk loss of sales.

The same is true with fantasy novels. The buyers want to see a careful rendering of a dragon, or some such fanciful creature. Wouldn’t it be odd to see a biography without a painting or photo of the person about whom the book was written? The challenge for the designer, when dealing with these genres, is not a simple one. He/she must create something similar, yet unique and powerful.

How to pick a designer for your book

The easiest way is to examine the designer’s website and see if there is a style that is similar to what you imagine for your book. If you like what the designer has done, but don’t see something that you are looking for, simply send an email to the designer and ask if he/she has done anything similar to what you have in mind. Very often, the designer will have work that is not on the website.

If you still have doubts about the artist’s ability to create what you want, you can always hire the artist to do a concept sketch. If you are less than happy with the concept sketch, you can then either ask for another sketch, listing your desires, or you can thank the designer for his work (be sure to send a check for the hard work!) and then move on to another designer.

Designing your own cover

Don’t do it. That’s my answer to all writers who want to design their own cover. You have put a lot of energy into your book. You want the cover to reflect as much energy and power as your carefully groomed text. The person who can provide that energy and power is someone who is trained in graphic design.

Graphic designers have spent years, or decades, perfecting their art.Keep in mind that they spend eight hours a day, five days (or more) a week, twelve months a year, year in and year out, working to perfect their craft. They have tried and failed, so they know what doesn’t work. They have succeeded, and their work has been tested in the marketplace.

Simply put, they know what they are doing.

You wouldn’t rewire own your house yourself; you’d hire a professional electrician. The same goes for book cover design: Hire a professional. Sure, it can be expensive, but the extra “oomph” that you get in the professional design may translate into an increase in the number of books sold, simply because people are attracted to and impressed with the cover design! To sell the most books, save your pennies and hire the best graphic designer that you can afford. You’ll be grateful that you did when you see the results.

Please, don’t take my word for it. Talk to authors who have used professional designers to create their covers. You might be surprised by what they say.

"No Sisters Sisters Club", an engaging cover for a Young Adult book.

Lewis Agrell has been an award-winning professional designer and illustrator for thirty years. He worked as the Chief Artist for the New York Times Company at its largest regional newspaper for ten years. He and his wife, Kathryn (a writer/editor) are the principal owners of The Agrell Group, a graphic design/creative writing firm, located in Prescott, Arizona. To contact them: Lagrell@commspeed.net or Kagrell@commspeed.net   Phone: 928.445.7038.

From Sandy Nathan: It’s been a privilege to share Lewis’s thoughts and words with you. Here’s a surprise. You may think that book covers of this quality must be very expensive. Not so. Lewis’s covers––front, back, spine––usually run between $500 and $1,200. You may want to consider him for your next book.

"Shades of Truth" A provocative one piece cover for a mass market book.

With horses, you win the minute you walk into the arena. This is a Matched Pairs Class at the La Bahia Peruvian Horse Show in Watsonville, CA. My husband and I are riding horses that are full brothers––same mom & pop. Except for the extra chrome (white markings) on Azteca, these horses pass for identical. The judge told us after the class, "You won that class the minute you walked into the arena." Your book will win or lose the same way.

Most of the 2009 book contests are closed. The books are and supporting materials are in. The judging is on. The contestants hyperventilate as the countdown continues. Will they be finalists? Actually win?

A nice thing about book contests is that you are an award winner even if you’re “just” a finalist. In the same way that Academy Award nominees get to say, “Academy Award nominee Snelda Grottie” forever, you can say Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist. Being a finalist counts as an award!

I’ve got my book, Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money, in five contests. I’m about to freak out. Should I have entered it in different categories than the ones I entered? Where’s the receipt from that very prestigious competition I took a chance on? I did enter it, didn’t I?

The anxiety will continue for the contestants until the finalists are notified. And longer, until the winner is announced––often at Book Expo America, the largest  book publishing event in North America. This year, BEA is May 28 to 31 in NYC.

It’s a little late for an article about setting your book up to win in 2009 book contests, but I’ve got to do something to fill the time.

I’M SANDY NATHAN. So far, I’ve won eight national awards for my two books. I’ll post a list of my wins at the end of this article.

Less well known is the fact that I also have experience as a book contest judge. My writerly credentials, contest wins, and the fact that I graded papers at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business for 18 spring quarters make me an ideal candidate for judging.

I love it, truly. Brings back memories. I used to work for a top rated Stanford professor along with a jaded team of other smart people. Every year, he gave each of us a FOUR FOOT TALL stack of academic papers to grade OVER THE WEEKEND. Brutal.

I got really good at separating fluff from substance. Fast.  The books presented to me to judge remind me of those wonderful days of the nonstop pursuit of achievement, which I have not left behind.

HOW CAN YOU WIN A BOOK CONTEST?

If you win a book contest, chances are you already know how to win it. Here’s a story: When the Publisher’s Marketing Association (now the Independent Book Publishers’ Association) notified me that my book, Stepping Off the Edge, was a finalist in the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards in the New Age/Spirituality category, I boo-hooed. They choose only 3 finalists per category nationwide, one of which would be the winner. This was the first contest I’d entered. My first book.

“Oh, I can’t believe it. I’m so excited. Oh, my God. I’m so grateful. One out of three finalists! I can’t believe it. This is so wonderful!” I walked around our ranch emoting tearfully. Then something happened.

The overarching category of my writing is spiritually––which is based on spiritual or religious experience. That’s because I have spiritual experiences and have had them all my life. In the cacophony of my inner dialogue, one voice stands out. It’s calm, clear, unaffected, and never wrong. I think of it as God. This voice spoke:

“What’s the big deal, Sandy? You’ve been a straight A student most of your life. Why shouldn’t you win? You know what went into that book.” There was a pause and more communication. “Don’t you trust Me to reward you? To notice that you’ve done a good job? Don’t you think I care about you?”

Oops. My tearful gratitude had the smell of a contestant on a TV quiz show flipping out over winning a new refrigerator. It was an unnecessary display of ego and self importance, which also pointed to my lack of faith.

So let’s leave that behind and talk about how to win.

The key is: If you win a book contest, you already know how to set up a winner. It’s a job of work, like mucking out stalls at our ranch.

Just like winning a horse show class.  You win the instant you ride into the arena on a winning horse. Similarly, you win in a book contest the instant the judge looks at the array of books he or she has to judge. Your book has to leap out of the stack of ho-hum contenders and SING. Also tap dance.

HOW DO YOU DO THIS? WITH YOUR BOOK!

1.  HARDBACKS SHOW UP BETTER. You’re a judge.  Thirty or forty books are sitting on a table. You won’t read all of them. You see well-designed hardback with a killer cover. Your eyes and hands gravitate to it. Wow. It’s beautiful. Paper even feels classy. You put the book in the “keeper” pile. Hardbacks have more weight in competition.

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. Your cover should hook the viewers' archetypes: The symbol in the middle of my cover is based on the photo of a Shiva Nataraj I own. Not only is the circle an archetype of wholeness, Shiva is revered all over the world. Including by me. Note the high contrast and predominately black cover. This design will dominate pretty near anything.

2. YOUR TITLE AND COVER will make you win or sink you. Do you know how to judge a cover? Lewis Agrell of The Agrell Group, will be a guest blogger with his terrific article on what makes a winning book cover. I’ll post it soon.

For now, let’s rely on phone book ads. Open the yellow page ads in any phone book. Scan the page quickly. Where do your eyes land? Note the ad. Do it again on another page, and another.

In all probability, the ad that draws your attention is SIMPLE. UNCLUTTERED. EITHER BLACK, WHITE, OR MOSTLY EMPTY. The ads that grab your eyeballs and hold them have attained PAGE  DOMINANCE. People hire consultants to create dominant ads for them.

Now go to a book store sale table and look at the books. Which books grab your eyes? Which do you pick up? Buy? A book contest is like that table. Clear, bold, design that dominates the competition will win.

YOUR COVER MUST HAVE AN EMOTIONAL HOOK. THINK ARCHETYPES. Primal images. Something that grabs the inner psychology of your reader/judge.

To win and much more importantly, to be purchased, your book cover AND SPINE must dominate any table and any bookshelf.

3. YOUR TITLE IS REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT. First off, your title embodies your book’s essence. It is the first word or words the reader sees. It should be engaging, easy to read, evocative, and compelling––it should set the emotional tone for your book. As should the SUBTITLE or TAG LINE (THE ONE LINE DESCRIPTION BELOW THE TITLE.) Also, most of the big catalogs of books will list your book by its TITLE ONLY. Better be memorable. Like Twilight.

4. THE WORDS ON YOUR COVER, FLAPS, AND FIRST FEW PAGES OF YOUR BOOK, YOUR BOOK’S COPY, SHOULD BE UNFORGETTABLE. These words are your prime real estate and are what will make your book succeed. The book contest judge, book store owner, and your buyer will make a decision about your book based on these words––in seconds. You want emotional hooks, ease of reading, and enchantment in these places.

Writing copy is a skill. You can write text like an angel and not be able to pump out a winning tag line. I’ve got an Emmy-nominated screenwriter Laren Bright, the best copy writer I know, preparing an article for this blog. He’ll tell you how to do it.

I say: Hire it done if you can possibly afford it. Copy writing is like writing poetry: You need to be able to produce succinct messages packed with meaning and emotional associations in a tight space.

5. BOOK DESIGN, INTERIOR & EXTERIOR: YOUR BOOK SHOULD LOOK LIKE RANDOM HOUSE PRODUCED IT. NO LESS. We’ve talked about the cover, title, and copy. Every page and every word should be as well designed as your cover. Go to a book store and look at best selling books. Get a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style and memorize the order of pages in a book.

A very important thing to note: NEVER HAVE YOUR TITLE PAGE ON THE LEFT. DO NOT DO THAT. Do your homework. Know the proper order of pages in a book. Know what a half title page is and where it goes. The contest judge will know all about this.

6. SELF PUBLISHING, SMALL PRESSES, THE MAJORS: Some contests are specifically for self published books, by that I mean books put out by the big POD printers like lulu.com, iUniverse, Outskirts Press, BookSurge and the rest. If this is your competition, let your lulu imprint show.

If you’re in open competition, hide it. Some people have real prejudices against self-published books. There’s not as much of a prejudice against author-owned small presses––after all, Benjamin Franklin did it. So did Mark Twain, DH Lawrence and tons of big literary names. If you own and operate a small press, that puts you in a different category, even if your book was printed by CreateSpace or Outskirts Press. Just make sure that nothing about the mass producers shows.

If you take this approach, create a killer logo and press name, and have the book professionally designed and produced, you’ll be in good shape to compete in contests.

I have no prejudice against self-published books. I have a real bone to pick with poorly produced self-published books whose authors don’t respect me––the buying customer and reader––enough to get the thing professionally edited and proofed before offering it for sale. Or stick it in my face and expect me to judge it.

DO NOT PUT YOUR BOOK UP FOR SALE UNTIL IT IS TOP QUALITY IN EVERY WAY. YOU ARE CHEATING YOUR READERS WHEN YOU OFFER SLOPPY WORK.

7. PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION: The book contest judge may not have time to read all of your book, but he or she will sure sample pages and text. Typos, lousy interior and exterior design, cheap paper, all of it pops out. Hire an editor, copy editor and proofreader. Hire a book designer. Believe it or not, they’re not all super expensive. Look at my blog roll. Some great professionals are listed there.

TEMPLATES: Many of the big POD publishers offer templates for book interiors. These don’t show up well in contests. The text is set too tight, and the margins too small. There’s not enough variety in the overall design. In contests, judges see many books with very similar, standard interiors. If your book is one of thirty in a category, or one of THREE HUNDRED, it has to stand out. Templates won’t do it.

8. PERIPHERALS: YOUR WEB SITE, STATIONERY, & PRESS KIT. You did include those with your entry, didn’t you? I assure you, the winners did. The book contest judges are very likely to check your website, especially if you make it through enough of the hoops to stay in “the good pile” to the end. The “ad-ons” are breakers.

Two books might be ranked about the same, but if one author has an amazing web site and hosts a blog with a bazillion visitors a day providing a vital services to the world––who do you think will win? Ditto if on author provides copies of his book’s terrific reviews, testimonials, and advertising materials in a lovely custom folder. Which book will win?

Oh, yeah. What about the VIDEO FOR YOUR BOOK? Is that linked prominently on your site? Mentioned in your press kit?

9. THE BOOK, AS IN––WHAT’S BETWEEN THE COVERS? In your writing group, you concentrate on the writers’ skills and arts. Word by word, you construct and deconstruct and reconstruct your masterpiece. Ditto working with your editor. Your write, rewrite, have it slashed and burned, and make it rise again. You struggle to express exactly what you want, worry about pacing and plot and characters.

I was in two writing groups for a total of eleven years. I’ve worked with maybe six or seven good, tough editors. The content of your book matters, especially if you want it to sell. If you want word of mouth to propel it. If you want to read it yourself in future years and not be embarrassed by it.

The contest judge or panel of judges isn’t going to read all of your book. They’ll sample it and look at different aspects of it.

Does that mean you can skip the 11 years of writing groups and all those creative writing classes? No. Whatever random page a judge’s eyes fall upon will produce an impression. All the pages have to be good, since you don’t know which one will be read. Know what terms relating to race, ethnicity, or sexual preference are OK to use in modern literary and cultural circles. Get it right.

The curious thing is: Most people writing in academic settings concentrate solely on the quality of their manuscripts. They don’t look at any of the other points noted here, any of which can destroy their chances of winning a book contest or selling. That’s because in the major creative writing and MFA programs, people assume that they will be published by the major publishers.

They haven’t had direct experience of the realities of the publishing industry. Such students often have no idea that to succeed, they may have to set up a small press and learn to do things they never were taught in school. Academic programs may not talk about the recession and cut-backs and literary agents being laid off, either.

The real world can be a big surprise, even if you got your MFA from Iowa.

Producing a book that wins contests is a big job requiring a commitment of time and money. It doesn’t have to be a HUGE commitment of money, but its going to cost something. Before you enter a contest, you should know what you’re up against.

Some of the awards won by Rancho Vilasa. A few of these are my wins. The real victory that comes from athletic competition is a winning of soul, which is transferable to other endeavors. If you can show a horse and win, you can do anything.

To win in a horse show, you need a horse that grabs the judge’s eye the instant he enters the arena. He needs the stamina to look good at the end of a grueling class. For book contest, you need a book that’s set up to win from one end of the judging process to the other. And then into the marketing arena.

That’s it, folks! Happy competing!

Sandy Nathan, award winning author of Numenon & Stepping Off the Edge. I’m a bit burnt out writing about winning. Here are some links to what I’ve won in book contests:

• Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money
• Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice.

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money

The Kindle version of Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Mystery is available and priced at an unbelievable 99 cents!

Here’s a link to Numenon on the Amazon Kindle Store!

Am I crazy? Like a fox! When I last looked, Numenon was #8 in Religious Fiction (closing on The Shack), and #1 in Mysticism in two categories of Religion & Spirituality. JOIN THE STAMPEDE!

Buy the Kindle version of Numenon, and you can enter the world of Will Duane, the richest man on earth, and Grandfather, a great Native shaman, in less then a 60 seconds. Numenon won two national awards as an Advance Reading Copy. It’s entered in more contests. We’re waiting for results.

Here it is on my web site: Numenon on SandyNathan.com

Here it is as a print book on Amazon. Look at those Five Star Reviews.

Check out this video:

This is Roberta, my cousin from Seligman, Missouri. Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen? I'd better finish writing that sequel.

“SANDY, I’VE GOT A REAL BONE TO PICK WITH YOU,” Roberta said, sounding peeved. She’s my cousin from Missouri. We were on the phone. I hadn’t talked to her in ages. “WHEN YOU SENT ME YOUR BOOK, I LOVED IT. I STUCK MY NOSE IN IT AND DIDN’T STOP READING UNTIL I WAS FINISHED. YOU COULDN’T PRY ME OFF.

“I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THE SEQUEL. I WANT TO KNOW WHEN THE HELL I’M GOING TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS. WHERE’S THE SEQUEL?”

I laughed so hard. I love people from Missouri. Plain spoken, no bull. Just the truth.

Exactly the kick in the rear I needed to face the hairy beast of a manuscript. Mogollon––it’s pronounced MOW-GO-YONE. That’s the Spanish pronunciation. The Native pronunciation is MUGGY-YONE. The Mogollon are an extinct Native American people.

The word Mogollon is all over the Southwest, and it’s the title of Numenon’s sequel, in production now.

I’ll quit stalling and get to work. Roberta wants my book.

Here’s a conversation between me and my editor:

Sandy: I just started the rewrite of Mogollon, and counted the words in its multitudinous files. 240K words. Arggh! I thought I had it half rewritten.  Any tips?

Melanie Rigney (Editor for You): Yes

1.   Identify your protagonist.

2.   Identify where he/she is at the beginning of the book… and where you want him/her to be at the end.

3.   Identify the crisis/turning points in the book that the protagonist faces (and wins or loses) within the   book.

4.   Identify the antagonist, what or who is keeping the protagonist from getting what he or she wants.

5.    Consider all your secondary and tertiary characters. If their subplot does not tie into the ultimate and satisfying ending, cut them and the subplot. (Remember Mme. Mercier’s life story [which appears in my new sci-fi that Melanie just edited], and how much better Angel [the sci-fi manuscript] read once it was gone?)

A good way to do this is to use a Post-It to record the action and purpose of each scene. If the scene doesn’t drive the action forward, cut it.

Hope that helps!

This is why I use professional editors. They can give you clear, concise advice like this. This is different than going to your writing group, passing your work by your writer friends, or your blog buddies. Melanie (and many other real pros) will do the same to your manuscript. Slash and burn, I call it. Painful, but necessary.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about Jungian type and writing. I don’t know Melanie’s Jungian type, but from the sample of her writing above and what I’ve seen of her work, I’d say she’s a thinking type.

Notice the spare, clear, logical use of words. Tight. Thinking type.

I can do this. I can. I will. I just have to open the file and get to work. Now.

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. Mogollon, Numenon's sequel is coming. As soon as I rewrite it.

When my editor sent me a succinct five-step formula for reducing my monstrous 240,000 word draft of a novel to a crisp 100,000 words, I had an “Ahah!” moment. Why not blog it? Perfect. Share my travail with the world. Get a sense of accountability because other people were traveling along with me, hoping to learn something. Cheering me on. (Yes, it’s OK to post comments, as long as they’re not spam. Encouragement is encouraged!)

I’m going to post that short and snappy recipe for literary success next time. Something more important rammed its way into my mental queue: This article.

I wasn’t ready to write or rewrite anything. I felt awful; something was jammed inside me, right under my ribs. It felt like a garden hose. A coiled garden hose. Worse than that: It was a coiled garden hose dripping with Tabasco sauce.

I’d been working like crazy. I wrote on various on-line forums, and then posted three articles on YourShelfLife.com. These are not easy to write, by the way, especially the one on Jungian type for writers.

I wondered, “Why am I doing this? This is important information, but will anyone take the time to read it?” I always add pictures when I feel that way.

Because of the time spent hunched before my computer, my shoulders were in their “I’ve turned to stone” phase. Rather like the vampires Stephenie Meyers describes, but without the glamor.

When I feel like this, I go up to my room, throw the wedge-shaped foam thing my surgeon gave me to keep my ankle from ballooning on my bed, and hit “play” on my favorite chant CD. I lie there and forty-five minutes later, after having relaxed and allowed whatever’s bothering me to surface, I get up feeling like a human being again.

This is a key point. Bazillions of how-to-write books exist. Tons of authors, editors, book doctors, and writing coaches will tell you how to write the breakout novel, how to self edit, and succeed in competitive and frustrating publishing world. Systems, how-to lists, point after point to be mastered.

I will not do this. I’ll tell you how I do it. Whether I’m writing bloody, rockin’ sci-fi, a memoir, or about the richest man in the world, my overarching topic is spirituality.

Spirituality is about spirit, defined as “a vital force that characterizes a living being as being alive.” Spirit is the difference between a living person and a dead body. To write about spirit, you have to know about your spirit––the only one you can really know––and get down past the Twinkies and junk food existence of daily life into the real stuff. Here we go:

The first question to ask before writing or rewriting anything is: Am I the person to write this book? And––Do I have permission to write this book?

There I was yesterday afternoon, lying on my bed, leg with its fused ankle and replaced knee elevated, listening to perhaps the most moving, beautiful music in existence, especially if you like Sanskrit. I had a heating pad under my shoulders to defrost them, and clutched my blankie and stuffed teddy. (Might as well give the full picture.)

Usually I go through a period of moderately severe discomfort as I relax from my initial, frozen skunk state into meditative bliss. (This is normal for spiritual practice.)  Yesterday was different.

I went from a having a Tabasco coated garden hose in my gut to extreme grief. I hovered in the driven state my compulsive writing had created in me, waiting for my mind to relax and get some relief. All the time a gorgeous chant was swelling and receding.

I relaxed enough to be at the floating state right before the good stuff comes––insight, bliss, contact with other worlds. Departed people.

My brother as a child

My brother’s face came to me. My brother was a beautiful man, more than movie star handsome with eyes so bright blue that they seemed like some Hollywood make-up person had inserted them.

I loved him from the moment I saw him. He was three days old; I was nine. I loved him, even though our age differences put us in different realms. (He was learning to walk when I was thinking, “When will they let me have a horse?”)

I teased him mercilessly and adored him. I watched him and knew everything that happened to him. The two of us were the only ones who knew what really happened.

We lived in a family system where no one won. My brother lost more heavily than any.

He died in October 2007 at the age of 54. He was as beautiful in death as he was in life.

That’s what came up when I did my curative meditation lie-down. Grief. Images of him at different ages floated above me. He visited me, my beautiful departed brother.

I discovered what really hurts about losing someone. It’s what wasn’t said and what didn’t happen. I never told my brother, in clear words, so he could hear and understand them, how much I loved him. What he meant to me, and that I knew what happened. I never said that I tried as hard as I could, and I couldn’t fix our situation. I couldn’t fix it, and I couldn’t be enough of a hero to make it right. I was over my head and powerless.

Grief came to me, the true face of my discomfort. Primal pain.

That’s why I couldn’t begin my rewrite:  The coiled hose was a load of unfelt feelings. My first editor once said, “How can you not feel feelings?” It’s easy. In graduate school, we had to memorize two single-spaced pages of defense mechanisms we humans create to avoid feeling what we feel. They’re what keep us shallow and inauthentic.

Stephen Levine, regarded by many as the foremost grief counselor in the country, says, “We live in an ocean of pain.” All of us have endured great loss. Some of us have endured great losses: We’ve been napalmed, lost limbs, sight, homes, and whole families in war or genocide.  The rest of us know the losses that all of us endure: the deaths of beloved family members, jobs, security, and trust.  Beneath these is the cry of the universe, the cry of universal pain that we feel when we read works by Khaled Husseini (author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns) and others.

We live in an ocean of grief.

I floated in that ocean yesterday afternoon, my mantra singing around me, the afternoon light playing through the windows. I came to know the rest of Stephen Levine’s message: We live in an ocean of grief. The only way to survive is to experience the grief and then feel the love of the universe, the infinite, intelligent, blissful love that upholds us and is our ultimate home. It’s larger than grief.

I felt that, too. It released my grief. I lay weeping for a few minutes when the CD ended and then got up, knowing I was almost fit to write.

My first meditation master said that he never began any large task without waiting for permission from his meditation master. OK. My master died in 1982; his master died in the 1960s. We’re talking metaphorical here, not like a permission slip from your mother. My meditation master didn’t proceed until he received inner permission to begin his quest.

Do you ever ask: Do I have permission to write what I’m going to write? From my deepest self, and the universe?  Those are the ones that matter.  Your publisher and agent are important, if you’ve got them, but its this inner permission that will allow you to reach material that is WORTH writing, not the drivel that fills the shelves. It will allow you to write what you really want to write.

Do you know what it feels like to have that permission? I feel it like the floodgates on a dam. If I’m not in harmony with my larger world, if I’m trying to write without permission, the gates are closed, shut tight. A trickle escapes, maybe. It has that rock hard feeling of a hose under my solar plexus.

Permission granted: Gates open wide. Living water flows directly from its source, a vast
creative wellspring. I can’t stop writing––or rewriting––and every word rings true.

I don’t have permission to begin rewriting Mogollon, yet. I have permission to write this for you. Clear, clean, and short, for me. Permission to begin the rewrite is coming.

We live in the material universe lost in our own concerns, living like mindless drones in an anthill. We never look up to see that we live at the base of a mountain rising into the sky. A mountain that touches the moon, surrounded by substance that could carry us into a world beyond all that we can imagine.

Ants read how-to books. Writers work from the ocean of love.

My brother and I in the 1970s. We loved each other to the bone.

Amore et Psyche––Desire and the soul. Today, we'll talk about psyche, the soul.

Personality type may seem an abstract and unnecessary thing for writers to be concerned about. Shouldn’t we be polishing our prose with our writing groups and editors, instead of worrying about our psychological types?

No. Personality type is something writers must know, in addition to how to construct a killer novel and get it sold. Why?

1. You have a personality type whether you know it or not, and whether you care about it or not.

2. Your personality type is intrinsic to who you are and expresses in your writing, as your writing.

3. Your readers also have personality types. Their reading preferences are shaped by their personality types.

4. The wise writer knows this and adjusts his or her writing style to appeal to as broad a spectrum of reader tastes as possible.

I read Irene Watson’s initial guest blog with great interest. She’s writing about Jungian type. When I ran into Carl Jung’s theory of personality type in graduate school, I was electrified. I recognized it as life changing information. Let me add my two cents to what Irene provided.

How did Jung come up with his theory of personality type? The great Swiss psychologist, Carl G. Jung, was puzzled by the radical differences between the ways he and his buddies thought. Who were his buddies? Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, giants in the history of psychology, like Jung.

How could three powerful, brilliant, and visionary minds see the world and human personality so differently?

Jung’s typology is his explanation. The theory is quite complex, but it’s practical importance is simple. What’s the bottom line to Jung’s theory?

PEOPLE THINK DIFFERENT.

Yes, I know, Steve Jobs claimed those words for an Apple sales pitch, but it’s true. If we’re going to succeed in the world, we need to REALLY GET THAT PEOPLE LIVE IN DIFFERENT PERCEPTUAL UNIVERSES.

As authors, we must bridge those worlds if we want to reach our readers. We’d better start with knowing which type we are, if we’re going to be marketing our writing to the right audience. Here’s a web site where you can take a test to determine your personality type.

A good reference

What is Jungian Personality Type?

Jung came up with four basic types of personality. Two of these are rational––the thinking and feeling types. By rational, I mean operating according to an internal set of rules. These may be logical (in the thinking type), or based on internal emotional values (the feeling type.)

The other two types, intuitive and sensate, are irrational; they don’t conform to an internal value or thought system. (Each of these types also operate in an introverted or extroverted way. I’ll skip this for brevity.)

Jung said that children can be observed preferring a type early on, perhaps around age five. One child may become an academic success, be praised for it, and develop into a thinking type. Another child may have success in sports and literally run with that––develop as a sensate.

Everyone has all four functions, even it they prefer one. We have the four functions because we need them to survive as human beings. We need to be able to think logically, as well as know how we feel emotionally, and know the emotional states of people around us. We must be aware of intuitions and guidance from the larger universe. We have to be able to control our bodies and master the physical world.

Our dominant psychological function acts like a team captain. It’s like our dominant hand––we know how to use it and do use it most. But because we can’t do everything with one hand, we develop our other hand, and the rest of our body.

Similarly, we must develop our non-dominant psychological functions.  They provide backup when we need them, like a non-dominant hand. The functions we develop as backups are those on either side of our dominant function on the chart above. A thinker is likely to be a pretty good sensate and intuitive, but clueless about feelings, his own and those of others.

The inferior function is opposite of our primary type. It’s too far from what we do best to really shine. It remains in the shadow, aced out by the big brothers who run the show. The inferior function is sort of like the elbow of the personality. What can you do using one elbow? Still, you need it. You have it.

WHY DO WRITERS NEED TO KNOW THIS? The way we write is influenced by our personality type. Let’s spend some time looking at each type.

THINKING TYPE: Thinking types orientate themselves in the world by thoughts and facts, right and wrong, intellectual models and systems. They operate on principles and logic. These can be wrong––lousy thinking and bad logic––but the thinking type will cling to them. Thinking types have trouble expressing personal feelings and appear relatively cold and unemotional.  Historic figures: Sigmund Freud (Jung’s buddy!), Franklin D. Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates & Richard Nixon. (Thinking can be good or bad. Source: mypersonalityinfo.com) WHAT DO THEY LIKE TO READ? Material that reflects their interests: Logical, fact driven content, intellectual puzzles, maybe intellectual thrillers. Pared down writing with no fluff.

Sigmund Freud, shown here reading the print version of yourshelflife.com,
is a classic thinking type.

SENSATE: Sensates orientate themselves by data from the world around them. They are concerned with power in the highest way: If what’s real to you is the physical world, controlling as much of it as you can makes sense. Practical, realistic, confident, & active. Adaptable. Athletes and sports heroes are likely to be sensates. Historic sensates: Alfred Adler, known for his personality theory stressing “will to power” and one of Jung’s buddies. WHAT DO THEY LIKE TO READ: Stuff about the real world, power, politics, action, sports. Here’s your thriller market.

Alfred Adler

FEELING TYPE: The feeling type orientates himself by emotional responses tied to personal values. The feeling type is in touch with his or her emotional state and very aware of the emotional states of those around him. Interested in people, feelings, love, passion. They are not hysterics or fountains of feeling. Feeling types are so skilled at handling their feelings that they may appear cold. WHAT DO THEY READ: This is the women’s lit, chick lit, romance market. Can also be higher toned literature on feeling/people related themes. Maeve Binchy would fall  here.

INTUITIVE TYPE: Intuitives have a vision. They are tuned in to a world beyond the physical and draw strength and comfort from it. They can express their intuitions and visions to others and enlist them as to carry them out. Intuitives are charismatic, charming, interested in people and solving problems of others and the planet. Introverted intuitives can be religious leaders. Extroverted intuitives can be excellent business, picking up on currents of change that others miss. Historic Intuitives: Carl Jung, Jesus Christ, and Adolf Hitler. (The intuitive’s vision  doesn’t have to be correct.) I would say that Steve Jobs shows up here, an extroverted intuitive. WHAT DO THEY READ? The Bible and other sacred texts, books about saints and spiritual experience, The Da Vinci Code, spiritually themed material. Stuff about their area of intuition. My books, Numenon & Stepping Off the Edge, are perfect books for intuitives, written by an intuitive.

Carl Jung

Not only do the personality types behave very differently, they WRITE DIFFERENTLY and READ DIFFERENTLY. I’ll try and find or mock up what theses writing styles are like in a later post.

What’s the distribution of these types across the population? This is what’s important for writers.

The link above takes you to a site displaying a distribution of people across the various personality types. I tried to find good numerical data for the typology; this was the best I could do. I’m assuming it’s based on the test results on the site. (The site itself warns that the estimates are not necessarily correct. Not only that, like so many sites I looked at, they’ve changed Jung’s terminology to suit themselves. Swell.)

WHAT DO THE DATA SHOW? The incidence of thinking types (Intellectuals) is only 10% of the surveyed population. Intuitives (Visionaries) make up only 11.5%. Two small, diverse groups making up only 21.5% of the population, thinkers and intuitives represent small market shares. (Caveat: If these two groups read many more books than their share of the population, they may represent a larger market share. So where do we find statistics on book sales by Jungian type to prove or disprove this?)

The combined feeling types and sensates (Protectors & Creators on the linked chart, though Lord knows which is which according to Jung’s terminology) make up a whooping 78.5% of the population. I can’t tell from the site providing the data which are the sensate and feeling types, but if these numbers are anywhere near right, they mean that the LARGEST WRITING MARKETS by a long shot are among sensates & feeling types.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO WRITERS? It means that if you’re a sensate or feeling type, count your lucky stars. A huge market exists in your type, and you’ll be able to write for them easily, because you’re writing for yourself, essentially.

If you’re an intuitive or thinking type, you’re probably looking at a small market if you write the way your personality type indicates. That means you’re going to have to learn to build bridges to the other types to increase your market share and sales. Best to do this by studying this material carefully. What you’ll need to do is inherent in the definition of your type and the types you’re trying to write for: cut it back, fluff it up, subtract or add feelings, put in action. Do what your editor says.

Here’s one example: I was riveted to read Irene Watson’s article on personality type. Why? Because she describes me and my writing perfectly. I am an intuitive.

You’d guess this by the fact that I’ve written a book on spiritual practice and have launched a series about a great native shaman meeting the richest man in the world. (Numenon is an exercise in Jungian typology, which readers may recognize after reading this article. What Jungian types do the main characters represent?)

Numenon: A Tale of Mysticism & Money. A book written by an intuitive.

So what did Irene Watson say about the writing of intuitives? “Intuitive people can relate to stories.  The more fluff, descriptive scenes, and full character development, the better they can relate to and enjoy the story.  They are emotional and empathetic.” Irene Watson

I love stories. Life lessons. Stories about people. I love my characters and want to know how their lives work out––every friggin’ one of them. Did you know that 4,000 people are attending the Meeting, the fictional retreat in my series? I fell in love with many of them, to the extent of writing a 240,000 word sequel to Numenon.

It pains me to realize that readers may not be interested in the details of cleaning horses’ feet the natural way.

I’m an intuitive, writing as an intuitive. When I discovered that only 11.5% of the population are intuitives, I was troubled. I also understand my editor more. “Cut it! Just cut it! Delete! Delete!”

If I were a sensate or a feeling type, all would be cool. I’d whip out the romances or thrillers, no sweat. (OK, sweat. All writing is hard.)

That’s it. Read and apply! My next blogging task will be to blog the rewrite of Mogollon, the monster sequel to Numenon. I want you to feel my pain. And joy!

Until the next post, Sandy

Sandy Nathan, award winning author of Numenon & Stepping Off the Edge

The disclaimers: Before you fall in love with Jungian Typology, I need to warn you that some theorists think it’s bogus. Jung wrote a while ago, and things change. Some theorists say, “Nice try, Carl, but right brain/left brain research makes you obsolete.” Other modern writers go, “Well, it’s still useful, conceptually.”

Then we have the dudes and dudettes who’ve changed the terms to market it. Somebody did up Jungian type into a management tool, with different names for the players. Sold it for $$$. And, as we’ve seen above, they’ve changed the types’ names. Why? The originals were good.

So, while I’ve provided links throughout, I don’t recommend or endorse the sites they go to. The concepts are very cool. They can be applied all over, especially to marriage partners and understanding the problems of getting along with others.

We need to know our types and that the way we think REALLY, REALLY is different than the modus operandi of the other types. That’s the message here.

A BUNCH OF LINKS:

C. G. Jung (1921) Psychological Types, Chapter X General Description of the Types In Jung’s own words.

The Meyers & Brigs Foundation, where the MBTI Instrument (test) was developed and can be given. Good info.

Personality100.com “The most detailed personality assessment on the Internet”. OK. This page gives you famous people, fictional characters, and the frequency of personality types. Also good career choices for each type. Good data. No clue if test is free or not???

PersonalityPathways: Exploring Personality Type & Its Applications Good site with Personality100.com link for test.

businessballs.com Charming name, lots of info about personality types from Ezekiel, Hippocrates, Jung, to Myers

Another Jungian type test.

Sandy Nathan, award winning author of Numenon

I want to let everyone know that “Your Shelf Life: How Long Will You Last?” has gotten almost 21,000 requests for pages in its few months of existence. Many thanks to my readers!

The full, 8-part report on my Amazon Bestseller Day is up. This is essentially an e book about how to plan and execute your bestseller day––and a cautionary heads up. It’s got links to resources throughout and my hard won insights. The best way to read it is sequentially, reading from part 1 to 8. The menu to the right under Categories  will guide you.

I’m excited about the direction the blog is taking. As you writers and authors know, themes get clearer and more focused as we develop topics.  “Sanity and success” is emerging at the theme of Your Shelf Life. How can we fulfill our dreams as writers AND stay sane?

In addition to putting up my own posts, I’m lining up some expert guest bloggers.  Irene Watson of ReaderViews will be a regular guest. Her first post is up, a very important look at personality type as it applies to our readership. I look forward to working with Irene; she’s a real pro who knows LOTS about success in the book world.

Julie Ann Wambach, PhD, is preparing a guest blog article. Dr. Wambach is a clinical psychologist and author of Battles between Somebodies and Nobodies: Combat Abuse of Rank at Work and at Home. This is a really important book, one that I reviewed and am going to study for many years. (If you’d like to read more about the book, you can see my review here. Positive votes cheerfully accepted.)

Why am I so excited about Dr. Wambach’s book as it applies to writers? It’s because of its systems approach and new insight on human hierarchies. This has direct application to the social world in which we writers exist. Julie talks about the hierarchies we live in: at home, in our families, and in social situations. She carefully describes abuse of rank––belittling or hazing. Behaviors that make one person feel big and another feel small. These can escalate.

When I was in graduate school in counseling, we were taught the family systems theory. In earlier types of psychotherapy, the individual patient was stressed. The patient’s social and familial setting  was pretty much ignored. Back in the 1960s and 70s, Virginia Satir and a few other path breaking therapists noticed that they’d get the “patient” in a family functioning again, only to find someone else began to show psychological symptoms.

After lots of observation, these therapists realized that that the structure of the families involved required one “crazy” individual at all times. The family system was diseased. The person with the symptoms rotated to perpetuate the systemic disease. The therapists began to treat the family as a whole, and everyone began to get better.

Writer after receiving rejection letter. Does the system support you as a human being?

What does this have to do with writers and authors? I’ve been in the writing for publication game for a long time. When I experienced the seeming stone wall facing new writers, I thought, “Ahah! Look at the SYSTEM YOU’RE IN. Can you win here?”

The systems inherent in the traditional publishing industry and the newer world of small presses and author owned publishers bear examination.

I’ll do that here.

I’m lining up an array of other guest bloggers, from a corporate attorney to experts in on-line addiction and personal finances. I’ll announce their articles, or you can link to yourshelflife.com or sign up for my newsletter to receive news.

Sandy Nathan & Shakti. Our first ride since I had my ankle fused. Terrific!