Remember the Law of the Little Shovel, and resist the urge to dig a thousand shallow holes.

JANET LANE: Focus on what you can do, and do it well. Nurture your talent and keep writing your first priority.

SHOOT: I need to brand this message on the inside of my eyelids!

clipped from janetlane.wordpress.com Seth Godin wrote in his blog of “The Law of the Little Shovel.”  It makes so much sense, I thought I’d expand on this concept as it applies to pre-published and published authors. The Law of the Little Shovel, and I’m quoting Seth:  If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.  If you walk around town with a little shovel, you’ll just end up digging thousands of little holes, not one big one.  Call on one person ten times and you might make the sale. Call on ten people once each and you will likely get ten rejections. I see this principle working with novel promotion and literary brand development. We receive so much advice from well-meaning writers that we can get carried away, digging thousands of little holes, holes without depth or substance because we’re trying to accomplish the work of several experienced staffers at a public relations firm.