The New Year is all about new beginnings. Make 2010 the year you create your dream of writing your own cookbook a reality! To help you do this successfully, you’ll also want to think about increasing your ‘fan’ base and “getting better known.” This will require some work, so I’ve listed some helpful adjustments you can make to ensure your success!

Have you been waiting for the “right time” to get to work on your cookbook? I would like to tell you that there’s no time like right now to get going. And if you start now, by the time it’s the New Year, you’ll have a head start and have some momentum to keep going! If you start now, your cookbook can be a reality in 2010. If you procrastinate, telling yourself “It’s the holidays,” you will miss a really good opportunity. What excuse will you have in January? You have to decide to move forward, and that means no matter what. Just TAKE ACTION, and get started!

Here are my Top 12 Great Tips for getting your cookbook project going, and building your “author’s platform.” Take note, these are NOT marketing tips; I’m just showing you how to live as you “step” into your greatness! Start these good habits now so when you do really go into “turbo” in January, you will be rid of time wasters, negative habits and energy robbing situations.

1. Schedule regular time slots to work on your cookbook and your “author’s platform” and get to work. If you’re a morning person get up an hour earlier and create as the sun rises. The hour right before the sun rises is one of the most powerful times of day. If you’re a night owl, stay up late to get it done. Either way, give yourself a regular slot of at least sixty minutes per day (2 hours is even better) five time per week. But if you are a night owl, make sure you get enough sleep. You may need to catch a nap during the day. If you have children, schedule your time to work when they are doing their activities. Enlist the help of supportive friends, or your parents who can help you by taking the kids off your hands for a couple of hours. Find a way. You just have to stick with the program. Don’t use your children as an excuse for not writing your book. They are the reason you should write your book…think Legacy!

2. Determine your soul purpose in life, and post it on your computer. Once you figure it out, surround yourself with it whenever you can. This is your larger job in life. It’s not a task, per se, but the general gift that you are meant to give to others, such as ‘help people feel more gratitude,’ ‘help people to eat more healthy,’ ‘wake people up to the power of nature’ or ‘remind people of their compassion,’ ‘awaken passion in others.’ You get the idea! It can be uncovered by journaling, or even meditating on the question. Your soul purpose in life is the basis for your “author’s platform,” It’s where your cookbook comes from, and where the “hook” lives and breathes.

3. Recognize five time-wasters and put an end them – right away! If you are constantly checking your email, STOP! Other time wasters include spending too much time on the phone, sitting in front of the TV, and reading the paper from start to finish. Take a clear look at how you spend your time, and honestly assess your time usage. You won’t have time to do your cookbook if you continue to engage in these time wasting activities. And believe me, the thing I hear most often from would-be authors is “I don’t have enough time!” And guess what…that’s why they remain “would-be authors.” Not enough time? BS, make the time! If you are truly committed, you will make time for something you truly desire. If not, then you are just kidding yourself.

4. Politely and elegantly opt-out from at least three situations or relationships that waste your energy. Energy wasters only leave you feeling depressed, frustrated, annoyed, unappreciated and vaguely used or even “beaten up.” YIKES! Who needs that? Get them out of your life right now, and you won’t believe how much energy they free up for your cookbook! For instance, “doubters”, if you have people in your life who do not believe that you can write a cookbook, get rid of them. It’s that simple. Friends who want to take up your time and energy, but don’t give – I call them “energy vampires.” Relatives who like to call you up and pick fights or volunteer you for opportunities-tell them you are writing a book, give them the message that for the time being, you no longer volunteer, at least until you book is completed. And please, don’t feel bad about this; your cookbook is a much greater gift to society as a whole than helping your friend’s, cousin’s, cousin’s, friend move! Get the picture? Stop trying to be nice to everyone and be nice to yourself! It’s called self-discipline!

5. Find a support buddy, group, or a coach if you have trouble sticking to marketing tasks. Think “accountability partner.” This is simply an ally (or a group of them) who really gets behind you and your vision for you and your cookbook. You can connect via email, phone or live meetings to share inspiration, support, triumphs, disasters and ideas. This is especially helpful if you’re a procrastinator. Get in touch before AND after you get your work done each day. I’m working with an accountability partner right now. It’s no big deal. We email or speak for a few minutes almost every day. Trust me, it works! Remember, do no spend time with anyone who is not 100% supportive of your book project and your efforts. If you work from home already, you can determine 2 days out of the week that are strictly devoted to “business development.” I go into this is great detail in my “7 Secrets of a Successful Self-Published Cookbook.” And if you hire me as your coach, I’ll be your accountability partner!

6. Create a beautiful workspace you love. A great creative workspace can be a separate room (preferably) or a devoted corner of your living space that has ALL the tools you need. Clean this space until it shines. Include inspirational helpers, like visual props, pictures, quotations and anything else that gives you positive feelings. Design it with the same care as you’ve planned the work of your cookbook and your “author’s platform.” You’ll be spending a lot of time in this space, so make sure it is a nurturing space that is organized and gives you energy!

7. Eat right, drink lots of water; keep power bars or shakes in your creative workspace. Take time to prepare delicious, nutritious meals. They do not have to be complicated to be healthy. Eat fresh vegetables, salads, and fruits. Always have a glass of fresh water at your finger tips when you are working. For energy boosts, I favor Isagenix products. Cliff bars, Luna bars, Power bars, spirulina shakes and the like all provide great bursts of energy when you’re burning the midnight oil. Don’t forget them! Keep them handy. These snacks honestly give you more sustained energy than caffeine, without rattling your nervous system and keeping you awake when you need to sleep. Remember, the brain needs nutrition and sleep. You are asking it to do a lot of work!

8. Dedicate a weekend to completely de-cluttering your home and creative work space. Sell off or give away ALL the unwanted but usable stuff. Clear out all the accumulated stuff you’ve jammed into drawers, shelves, corners and assorted nooks and crannies. Don’t be afraid to discard, or make great bags for sale or give away. Clear out your clothes closet and give those usable clothes to a worthy cause. This act releases energy that gives you a great boost for your cookbook writing and “author’s platform” building.

9. Exercise every single day – at least five times a week for 20 minutes a day. Whether it’s a sweaty workout on the treadmill, going to the gym and pumping, going for a long walk with your dogs, swimming, skiing, yoga – anything that gets your heart rate going. I really enjoy kick boxing. It really gets me going! You need to generate energy in your body in order to be able to energize your platform and bring people to you who want to know about you! You need fresh air and oxygen. You need to get up from your computer and stretch and walk around every hour also. Get up and just walk around the block if you are working many hours in a row. Go out into the backyard. Just breathe in some fresh air. Your brain really needs the extra oxygen, because you are working hard!

10. Build a daily social media presence. Start or end your day with a blog post. If you don’t have a blog, you need to get. Preferably a Word Press Blog. Why Word Press? Because it has tools and awesome plug-ins you can easily install that enable your blog post to automatically upload to Twitter as well. Go to ‘Pages’ on Facebook and make sure your RSS feed to your blog is set up so it automatically posts to Facebook. Add recordings from a potential Podcast to your weekly uploads to your blog. Add video to you blog. Circulate in the blogosphere and find blogs that reach your market and get to know those people and start to ‘cross-pollinate’. Drive people to your Facebook Fanpage. If you don’t know how to use social media, please ask me. I can help you! I can also help you learn how to feed the “Google monster” so everyone knows what you are doing. By the time your book is ready, you will be known. That’s one of the reasons you need a Word Press blog rather than a regular website. Websites are static. No one can interact with you on a website. But they can on a Word Press blog. Word Press blogs are “dynamic.”

11. If you have a day job, bring your lunch to work. That way, you can spend your lunch hour on your cookbook or your “author’s platform.” That’s what I did when I was writing my first cookbook in 2007. Realize that going out for lunch while you are in the middle of writing a book is a time waster. Also realize that this is temporary. You will have plenty of time for wonderful lunches with friends when you cookbook in completed! So close the door and shut the workday out. Then pull out your sandwich from home or heat up your pasta and get busy on your important work. If you do have to heat some food, slip out to the microwave a few minutes ahead of time so you don’t waste time waiting in line to use it. During this lunch hour time write your promotional emails, get your social media going, identify your time-wasters and develop a plan to drop them, etc. And don’t open the door for anyone until that sacred hour has passed! This time is yours! Make the best use of it! Don’t let anyone rob you! If you don’t have a door and are working from a cubicle and absolutely feel you must go somewhere else, do so, but go alone to a nearby café or coffee house where you can use your laptop. This also applies if you cannot access social media sites from you work computer, some companies do not allow it. So just work with your situation. Don’t use it as an excuse to get nothing done.

12. Start Speaking up. As an author, you are going to have to get used to being in front of people, telling them about your cookbook. Standing up in front of a crowd can help you spread your mission AND make you big bucks – even at small, unpaid gigs. Your speaking expertise will help you sell books. Speaking is THE single most important thing you can do to get known by hundreds or even thousands of people fast. But it’s not just about the content of your talk; it’s about how you close your talk. There will be more opportunities for this type of training when I launch the International Association of Cookbook Writers, IACBW, in January 2010. So stay tuned for that.

If you begin implementing these hints into your life now, you will be well on your way to success! So good luck, and get going!

Remember, my system, “The 7 Secrets of a Successful Self-Published Cookbook,” is a step-by-step, easy-to-follow system that will get you writing your cookbook in no time! For more information on my system or working with me visit:

http://www.cookbookcoach.com/

If you have questions or want to discuss working with me, contact me at:
info@cookbookcoach.com

We can set up a FREE 30 minute phone consultation.

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