Turn my Swag On

Goal Setting

At every stage in my life, I set a high goal and was able to attain it. For college I wanted to go to Berkeley or Brandeis. I only applied to 4 schools and got into all of them. For law school I wanted to go to the #1 school in the country, Yale. I punked out of applying, but I applied to 13 schools, all in the top 15. I got into all of them except Standford (down with the Cardinal!). When I graduated law school, I wanted to work at a top law firm. I went through the process and ended up at a Top 40 law firm.

I recently said to myself that now is not the time for little goals. I have two friends that are published and they are are both under two of the top 10 publishers in the US: HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin. One of them already sold the rights to have her book adapted into a film and the other got her book sold in a literary auction, which means lots of people were interested in it. These are my peers and, therefore, my benchmark for success.

So, I am setting a top 10 publisher as my goal.

How do I get there?

Well, this is difficult to figure out, but a major aspect is the marketability of your book. I have started this section of my proposal and I think I have a pretty good segment of the market carved out:

In the academic world, I have connections to lots of published and respected professors. I need my book to be good enough to get testimonials from two of my NYU professors, Professor Derrick Bell (who is super famous in Critical Race Theory circles and beyond) and Professor Tony Thompson (who recently published the bible of books on Reentry studies). I am also getting in touch with NYU to see how they can support me in my efforts. For $190k, I assume there is something they can do to support my efforts. Especially because this book is definitely good PR for them.

I have a chapter devoted to who I consider to be the key members of my network. All of these individuals have their own networks and I am relying on them to be my cheerleaders in pushing my book. Each of them will be impressed with the role that they play and what I have to say about them and all are go-getters so if their name is attached they will want it to be a success.

Aspiring lawyers, law students and lawyers, particularly African-Americans are definitely a key demographic for my book.

Up and coming entrepreneurs are also part of the market for my book.

Another key element is access to press. I have this down in the DC area and I will be relying on my PR mavens on both coasts to help me push this.

I think my title is a seller as well.

Most importantly, the book has to be good. I am still yet to finish a full chapter, though I have been writing everyday. I jump around between the into, chapter 1 and chapter 6. Sometimes I stray and start writing up my marketability piece or, this week, I have been trying to stop myself from writing parts of Chapter 5 which follows my years at Berkeley.

What Now?

These goals are just there to help me dream big an do what needs to be done to make it happen. Right now my focus is on completing my proposal. Sunday is a good writing day, so if I could just keep myself focused on one chapter I know that I can finish it. I feel that it should be Chapter 1 because it will set the tone for the rest of my book, but Chapter 6 is so fresh and full of characters and the meat of my theory that it has been much easier to write. I will set my goal as finishing Chapter 1 and see where I get. No pressure. Baby Riley is due sometime in the next 15 days and she has been a huge motivation to get this done. I am trusting that everything will work out how it is meant to work out, so I am feeling confident and self-assured by my process. Wish me luck!