By T. R. Shaw Jr.
Author of DEFY THE IMMEDIATE; A Journey of Failure,
Perseverance and Success
My first book, a motivational memoir entitled DEFY THE IMMEDIATE is finally published!
I am excited as it has been a multi-year endeavor with many setbacks and learning curves, which is sort of what my book is all about, failure, perseverance and success. I plan to begin a marketing campaign soon hoping to reach, and speak to as many groups and organizations as possible to share what I’ve learned in my nearly five decades of working, learning, serving, struggling and leading.
I am excited as it has been a multi-year endeavor with many setbacks and learning curves, which is sort of what my book is all about, failure, perseverance and success. I plan to begin a marketing campaign soon hoping to reach, and speak to as many groups and organizations as possible to share what I’ve learned in my nearly five decades of working, learning, serving, struggling and leading.
My personal
journey took me through high school and college, a career in the media, the
U.S. Navy both active duty and reserve. I maintained and built up a fourth generation
family funeral business, and dealt with professional and civic leadership issues
and challenges in many organizations.
You might say
I’m the ultimate generalist. I’ve done a
lot of things and had many experiences.
My hope is to become a motivational speaker and educator. I have something worthy to share, and
something the world needs to hear.
In the tradition of my friend, Carlos
Fontana’s Seven Daily Nuggets blog, here
is what I’ve learned about writing a book.
1. Believe
in your dream and have a vision
With my diverse and complicated
background, I felt I had a powerful message to share. Originally, my goal was to produce a book for
junior military officers and share my stories of success and failure from the
ship’s bridge, there were many! I
planned to give hope to young military leaders that mistakes and bad situations
are not unique, and certainly not always your fault. It was all about how you did…or didn’t react
to dynamic situations. The old saying
hindsight is 20/20 is good, but my goal was to enlighten juniors that your
situation is not hopeless. Things change
quickly in the military. You need to
stay positive and seek good advice.
As the book progressed it grew into
a more comprehensive work with broader mass appeal as I discovered a world
hungry for motivation and inspiration.
2. Don’t learn the Tricks of the Trade…learn
the Trade!
I first heard that saying in mortuary
school at Wayne State University as our professors trained us to properly and
professionally embalm a body. They drove
into us the fact that as you progress you will find better, faster, and easier
methods to do the procedure, but first you must know how to do it right. Pragmatism comes later.
With that in mind I set out to
learn as much as I could about book writing and publishing, and how to do it
right! I devoured websites and read many
books and articles on the subject. All
offered sage advice to the aspiring writer.
However, many were conflicting. Everyone had different opinions on how you
should do it. The key was to look for
the commonalities and learn to evaluate the advice as it applies to your
goals. I also found there are entirely
different approaches to genres. Gaining
the attention of an agent is entirely different for a fiction writer than a
non-fiction writer. Many times attracting
an agent is a real shot in the dark and you just have to learn pragmatism and
take your chances. Expect rejection…lots
of it!
3. Seminars
give you some perspective; take it as a learning experience
I attended a few professional writers’ seminar
where we had the opportunity to “Pitch an Agent.” I thought this might be my big opportunity to
get noticed. I learned a lot in a
one-day event. I studied carefully the
agents attending, what they were looking for, and selected three appropriate agents
to pitch. It was a very humbling
experience. I sat down with professionals
who’d seen it all, I was nothing new. It
briefly dampened my enthusiasm, but I kept believing in my goal.
That seminar I also learned that
non-fiction is a hard genre to sell, especially a memoir. “Who
are you, and why should I care?” seemed to be an unspoken attitude. I wasn’t a celebrity or sports icon. I hadn’t been fired from the White House, or landed
a plane in the Hudson River, but I felt I had many valuable experiences worth
sharing. As I glanced around the room in
one of the seminars, I noticed about 90 percent of the attendees were female
fiction writers competing to become the next J.K. Rowling or Danielle Steele. The experience at least gave me the
confidence I was doing something unique in the publishing world. My story must be told, regardless of what
agents thought.
4. Talk
to others who’ve done it.
I have a few friends, family and acquaintances
who’ve been published in one form or another, they are a great source of
information and ideas. I'm grateful for their shared knowledge and wisdom.
They will continue to be a source of information in the future as I
progress. No one becomes a success on
their own. Likewise, I hope future
authors seek me out when they want to pursue their passion. I will gladly reciprocate.
5. Build a platform
One of the things I learned is that
to sell a book, or an idea, you need a platform. You need several large circles of people to
relate to. I realized I had several
circles of influence I could reach out to with my varied and diverse
background. I found this fascinating and
dove into social media techniques. I
read many books on how to do it and became self-educated. Although I’m not a social media expert, I
learned as much as I could. I’d highly
recommend Michael Hyatt’s book PLATFORM;
Get Noticed in a Noisy World, as a blueprint for building your platform.
We live in a very connected world
and your virtual presence is extremely important if you want to have influence
and reach. When I looked at the big
picture, I’ve had many experiences that touched many circles of people. I needed to connect with them and learn to properly
self-promote, it’s a practical, not egotistical act. I’ve found platform building to be a
fascinating social experiment and endeavor.
I also have learned that nobody is a complete expert in social media, it
is a constantly evolving medium.
6. Self-Publishing isn’t bad.
I was referred to a young regional
agency by a friend who has had three books published by Mission Point Press in
Traverse City, Michigan. At first I had
them do my editing and give me some advice on how to proceed. They helped improve my query letter and would
have helped me with a formal proposal, if I reached that point. After dragging my feet to do the really hard
and time consuming task of going the “traditional” route, they proposed to
publish it regionally. They understood
how difficult getting the attention of a national agent is. I heeded their advice. They have an impressive collection of many
genres, including memoirs like mine. It
may have been another year of beating the bushes with no resolution or interest
from prospective agents. While it may
cost me a little, at least I’d have book. With a book comes credibility. I believe I have a message that’s worth the
cost.
A published author is an experience
I’m just beginning, it’s exciting.
Nobody really cares how it’s published.
It’s more important to have a book to promote and sell. Self-publishing gives one control in what you
are doing. That’s a great thing!
7. Don’t quit
Like many aspiring authors I often
put things on the back-burner when they became difficult. Life got in the way of what I should have been
doing. Some call it writers block. There is also an element of fear, and
self-doubt which you have to overcome. I’m
a skilled procrastinator and this effort was no exception. Don’t overthink it. Resist the urge to back off. It was more than a few years in the making. Take a break if you have to, but don’t give
up on your dream. The motivation will
return, sometimes it might take a while, but you need to keep your eyes on the
prize, it will be worth it. Good things
take time and effort. If it’s worth
having, it’s worth working for. Keep
moving forward and Defy the Immediate!
A little about the book:
DEFY THE IMMEDIATE is an energizing and inspiring look at real life
failure, success and perseverance filled with personal stories of coming up
short, winning and humility with generous portions of humor along the way. I was blessed to have legendary broadcaster
and fellow Central Michigan University alumni Dick Enberg write my foreward. The title comes from a speech he delivered at
CMU.
Growing
up in the space age of the 1960s, much has been expected of my generation. Throughout my life, I’ve demanded much of
myself. I document my journey of
idealism through the traumas of high school, college, working in the media,
military, the funeral profession and community service. Failure was a frequent accomplice and I
document the stories of working hard, often with the wrong knowledge, coming up
short, sometimes quitting and ultimately succeeding.
Following
a great career as a college journalist, the job market was flat and I was a
starry-eyed visionary looking to accomplish the next big thing. I entered the U. S. Navy to become a public
affairs officer as President Ronald Reagan was building a 600 ship Navy. I had to begin as a regular line officer and
pursue a warfare specialty, surface warfare in my case, before I could transfer
into public affairs, the smallest community in the Navy, and perhaps the least understood. I struggled, and
was challenged to “stay afloat” among peers with more talent, mechanical and
mathematical aptitude, education and background than I had. It was brutally competitive and required a
different mind-set. I struggled
valiantly with help from good people and graduated second to last in my Officer
Candidate School class, but I made it!
On
active and reserve duty, I was dealt many “bad hands” to play and was in
circumstances I couldn’t control. I dealt with both good and bad superiors and
subordinates. It took almost everything
I had to deal with things in a very tough and unforgiving environment. While many would consider my active duty
performance a professional failure, I redeemed myself in the Navy Reserve where
I ultimately found my passion and calling in public affairs where I excelled
and thrived. My journey to that point
was filled with many setbacks and disappointments which I overcame.
For
nearly 20 years, I carried on a dual career as a Navy reservist and funeral
director trying hard to excel in two career paths, facing both systematic and
professional challenges in each career.
I ended up being forced to retire from the Navy during the very best
time of my career, I loved what I was doing and I didn’t want to leave. In the funeral business, I lost my father,
and business partner, to a quick and unrelenting disease and struggled to keep
the family business strong and thriving.
We did well for many years, but I eventually had to come to the reality
my heart was no longer in funeral service.
Life is too short not to pursue your true ambitions and talents. We sold our successful century-old family
business. I faced new challenges and opportunities. I gave up a thriving business and large
degree of financial security. I believe
others can draw inspiration from my experiences and challenges.
DEFY
THE IMMEDIATE is available in local bookstores and online at Amazon.com. W
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