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A Great Business Lesson from Isaac Asimov and MAGIC! A.K.A.: How to Become a Published Business Writer Today!
You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you’re working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success – but only if you persist.
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—Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), prolific and acclaimed writer of science-fiction
As a published literary writer myself, I can tell you that Asimov was indeed correct. Keep sending work out! Again and again! And Again!
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Why?
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Because as a literary writer the odds are so heavily stacked against you! The odds of success are daunting. Let’s take a look at three statistics before we move on to the world of Business Writing:
Some Facts from the World of Literary Writing:
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1) Thinking of writing a book? Estimates are (no firm statistics are kept) that in the United States only .003 of all manuscripts that are submitted end up in publication. In simpler terms: for every 10,000 manuscripts sent out, only 3 are published! Need a visual? Here are 10,000 dots; pretend each is a book…3 of them will be published!
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2) Jacob Appel is A Writing Hero of Mine! He is a giant in the world of literary fiction and short stories. Anybody in that field knows his name; his stories have the potential to blow your mind! Take a look through the leading journals of modern fiction and his stories grace the pages. Over 100 of Jacob’s short stories have found their way into publication. Guess what? Along with those 100 published works, he has a stack of over 10,000 rejection letters!
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Yes, with 10,000 rejections, he’s the epitome of success!
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3) The AGONIZING Wait! Write a short story; go ahead! Send it out for possible publication to a major literary journal. Think you’ll have an answer in a few days? Weeks? You’re kidding yourself! I personally have responses, both acceptance letters (quite a few), and rejection (many), which have taken between 250 to 500 days to arrive! Imagine receiving an answer more than a year and-a-half after submission! It’s more common than you might think!
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The Beauty and MAGIC of the Blog: Instant Publication! Every Time!
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A business blog is a thing of beauty! It is the #1 way of attracting clients to a business as far as I’m concerned. It is cost-effective (100% FREE) and anyone can do it! I have personally gotten to the point where approximately 90% of my new paying clients now find their way to my front door as a direct result of having read one or more of my blog posts. That’s how well they work if done correctly!
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So what is it that makes a blog so beautiful?
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1) No Publishers. No sending blog postings out for approval. Simply write great content. Give it a great title and relevant keywords. Hit the "submit" button and send it into Cyberspace! Instant publication every time! Don’t forget to post links in relevant social-bookmarking sites…that’s the key. The number-one rule of blogging is if readers can’t find your postings, they won’t read them!
2) No 10,000 Jacob "Appelian" Rejection Letters Clogging Your Inbox! Every article you post is a "shoe-in!"
3) No Agonizing Wait. It’s instant! Post your blog. Go to Twitter and send out a "Tweet" to let people know you have a new post… Upload the link to BizSugar, the numero-uno business-related Social-Media site. Submit to Digg, LinkedIn and all the others. And in the time it takes to make yourself a good cup of coffee, rest assured that your first batch of visitors is already reading your post!
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Blog for business and get published today!
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…and tomorrow…
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…and the next day!
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Image Credits: Isaac Asimov: JT332 at flickr.com; Clock: ckaiserca at flickr.com; books: beckabat at flickr.com; Magician: wpclipart.com; CheckMark: all-free-download.com
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Yonatan Maisel is a professional writer and published author. He is a history buff who enjoys long walks in the woods with his wife and Canaan dog "Halva." His business-blog, going strong for ten months now, appears here at http://www.jobshuk.com/, with updates occurring twice-a-week.
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Susan,
Thanks so much for your response. I love history, so any chance I get to write about it is fun for me. I’m glad you enjoyed the article. Your advice about fine-tuning is very valid.
Yoni
Janet,
I’m glad you liked the dots! Sometimes we need a little graphic like that to put things into perspective.
All the best,
Yoni