Interview 2: How to Become a #PMOT Author?

The second interview in this series of #PMOT authors is with Gina Abudi . 

It’s a big milestone to be an author- why did you decide to be one?

I have a significant amount to share with others based on 20+ years of experience. Most particularly, you see many individuals who have left - either voluntarily or not - their current job going out on their own. They need some guidance on how to begin their business adventure and how to sustain it. My current book does just that.

What are your published works and where can we find them?
I have been published on a number of websites and blogs, including Vistage, Business on Main, and a number of international websites/blogs and magazines. I have one published book to date and I have been a contributing author for another book. I’m hard at work on my next one! My current book is: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Best Practices for Small Business, Alpha Books, 2011. I co-authored the book with Brandon Toropov. It can be found here. 

  

The book to which I was a contributing author is Gantthead’s Project Pain Reliever, J. Ross Publishing, 2011. You can find that book here.

How long did it take you to write your last published book?

Once I officially began the book, it only took about 4 - 5 months to write The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Best Practices for Small Business.  I did all the writing on weekends and in the evenings.

What was your schedule like while working full time and writing it?

Not always easy!  I restricted my writing to weekends and in the evenings so as not to interfere with the job. It meant many late nights certainly and weekends where I did not much other than writing!

How different is authoring a book from blogging?

In my opinion blogging is easier because I have no restrictions other than what I put on myself, and, of course, based on what I know my audience wants from the blog. When writing books, especially when working with a publisher, you have guidelines to follow and sometimes you may want to include information in the book that is not able to be included due to space constraints, etc.

Three things every #PMOT author should know?

• Commit some time every day to writing - even if it is just 30 minutes a day
• Stick to the timeline you have from a publisher. If you don’t have a publisher - create your own timeline and stick to it!
• Have someone read the book with a critical eye. It’s hard for you to be critical since you are too close to it.

Is it tough luck finding a publisher?

Yes, it is.

Frankly, I sort of “fell into” it. I was asked to do a technical expert review a year prior to taking on this book and ended up having a conversation with the acquiring editor at Alpha Books about writing. He introduced me to a co-author who introduced me to his agent, who is now my agent also. That being said, you should still try to submit your work and keep at it. Don’t give up!  There are also many small boutique publishing houses and many options for self-publishing.

Name a book/incident/person that inspired you to become an author.

There is no particular book, incident or person that inspired me to become an author. I do read lots of books - both fiction and non-fiction and business focused books.  I suppose I could say that all my reading has inspired me!  For as long as I can remember I wanted to write. My dream is to one day write a fiction book - a mystery!

Gina Abudi, MBA has over 20 years of consulting experience in helping businesses of all sizes develop and implement strategy around projects, process and people. She is President of Abudi Consulting Group, LLC and an adjunct faculty at Hesser College (NH) teaching in the business administration department. Gina regularly presents at conferences, forums and corporate events on a variety of topics.  She has written a number of white papers, case studies, and articles on various management and project management topics, which can be found on her blog:http://www.GinaAbudi.com.  Gina serves as President of the PMI® Massachusetts Bay Chapter Board of Directors. She has been honored as one of the Power 50 from PMI^®.   

Interview 1: How to become a #PMOT Author?

If you are still celebrating the first week of this year, doing more in 2012 will matter or how to have a great year without setting a goal!

The next few posts will be about #PMOT authors and how they have managed it. We start with Elizabeth Harrin.

It’s a big milestone to be an author- why did you decide to be one? 

I have always written; when I was younger I wrote stories and poems. For me, there was never an option of not writing, and getting a publisher seemed like a logical next step. My motivation for Project Management in the Real World was partly because I wanted to write a book before I was 30. We had the book launch event a month after my 30th birthday, so I nearly made it!

What are your published works and where can we find them? 

Project Management in the Real World came out in 2006. Social Media for Project Managers was published in 2010. They are available on Amazon and the other online stores or you can get them through bookshops. You can pre-order Customer-Centric Project Management from the Gower website now, I think. That isn't due out until the summer, provided my co-author, Phil Peplow, and I finish the manuscript in time.

I have also self-published two books: Get Started Using Social Media on Your Projects is a practical ebook that walks you through the steps to - you guessed it - start using social media on your projects. You can get that from my blog. Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Ten Strategies to Stop Feeling Like a Fraud at Work came out just before Christmas. I wrote that because I gave a presentation on the subject and it seemed to impact so many people that I felt there was more to say on the topic. You can get that at www.overcomingimpostersyndrome.com or from the Amazon Kindle store.

How long did it take you to write your last published book? 

Social Media for Project Managers took about 6 months to write, if I remember rightly.

What was your schedule like while working full time and writing it? 

I do remember the last few weeks being horrendous. The deadline was fixed because it was due to be launched at the PMI Global Congress in Washington and I was working full time and then writing every evening and all weekend. The hardest part isn't the writing, although that is tough. It's the co-ordination of everything else: quote approvals and permissions, footnotes and references, preparing images and tables, checking formatting, proofing over and over, responding to the copy editor's queries (I had to take out the word senior because she felt US audiences would interpret that as meaning 'old' when over here it means 'executive'), reading the galleys, doing launch interviews ahead of time. There is a lot more that goes into producing a book than just the words.

How different is authoring a book from blogging? 

In blog posts you make a point in 700 words. In a book, the whole argument has to hang together over 70,000 words! Some of the worst books I've read are when a blogger takes a collection of blog posts and puts them in one document and calls it a book. The structure needs to be completely different.

Three things every #PMOT author should know? 

• If you want to write, write.
• Don't write a non-fiction book without selling it first. Just do a book proposal, as you will get feedback from the commissioning editor about how they want to make it fit into their list.
• Don't underestimate the amount of work, and always add a month or two extra into your contract with the publisher so you give yourself some slack.

 Is it tough finding a publisher? 

No. Well, I didn't find it difficult the second or third time round. First time round I pitched to a big publisher who took a year to say no. I should have done better research because I realise now they would never have published a book by a nobody like me. I matched my next attempt at selling Project Management in the Real World to a smaller publisher, the British Computer Society, and they rang me the next day. I have had a great experience working with them and my other publishers.

Name a book/incident/person that inspired you to become an author. 

That's tough. My mother would let me sit on her lap while she read romance novels, but it was my grandparents who gave me a journal for Christmas one year and that started me out writing.

Elizabeth Harrin is Head if IT Programme Delivery at Spire Healthcare, and Director of The Otobos Group, a business writing consultancy. She was recently named IT Professional Blogger of the Year by the readers of Computer Weekly. Find her online at www.GirlsGuideToPM.com or on Twitter @pm4girls. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

This year starts the beginning of the SIPM Business Group. 

As you know the beta site is doing really well and was built with the help of volunteers- all of them my friends, I always wanted to do more with the site so more people know about project management first hand. Maintaining a site and keeping up with it (adding new features) requires a lot of time and some money.

So, the SIPM Business Group was born.

The Business Group offers three packages and customized work- we work with small and medium businesses including start ups.

The money of course allows me to pay my friends and volunteers who have been with me for so long and at the same time grow the beta site. By the way, the beta site got a new name- it’s called CONNECT- The SIPM Community.

The Business Group offers:

• Branding through social media
• Search Engine Optimization (both on page and off page)
• Customized website development (including design)

The special offers are posted through twitter.

January- February, we have a $350 on page optimization option for 60 working days. For more information, you can email at info@sipm.biz

And if everything goes right, the newbies can work on the project management side with their mentors for the SIPM Business Group projects. So many of the newbies say they don’t get the chance to work on project management to try their hands and develop skills- this initiation hopefully will solve some of it and provide everyone with a stepping stone.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t

make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and

then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.—Maya Angelou

I hope this year brings in lots of luck, good opportunities and amazing work to you all.

Happy Holidays

Almost ready to take off for the Holidays.

If you are celebrating Christmas- Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful New Year everyone. I will be back on Jan 5.

Till then- enjoy the e-books or simply be inspired.

Do Something

View more presentations from Sarah Kathleen Peck

Gift Yourself

This holiday season, gift yourself first.

Here are some good stuff that will help you see yourself:

•Imposter Syndrome - Its worth every single minute of your time and it’s such an important factor to understand that this e-book is a must read. While you relate to the real life stories and see yourself in them, you know how to encounter it next time.
•Go through the book reviews and pick your favorite, even if you don’t want to buy the book, borrow it from the library.  This holiday season, I have ordered books and 2 out of the 3 are after reading reviews and their effects on someone else.
•Make Sh*t Happen – Is by Jenny and doors open January 10 it will be $297 and open to 36 people who are ready to find their courage and change their lives.
•Gift yourself by building your own brand this holiday season- stand apart from the rest of the crowd, work on your credibility and see yourself grow.
•Find a mentor, there’s no replacement for a mentor.

Family/Work Balance

Honest Confessions

Being honest isn’t easy.

When I started this blog, I wanted everyone to know the hurdles and the real life story of what happens every day.

I have been honest but there are times when you tend not to write about the truth- the horrible days, the irritating moments and the failures. When you are aware that the blog is being read, you don’t want to feel vulnerable and to protect your work identity and private details, you skip it.

But here am I, someone who promised to tell the truth, don’t want to be miles away from the truth as well.

I have had bad days like most of us, really bad days at work- when someone doesn’t get the point, takes advantage of me being polite, back stabs you for not getting what they want, sabotages your projects just because they want to and hate you for you-can’t-figure it out. It’s all part of the game.

It’s all alright as long as you can take it or if it happens for a few days and you have managed it well. Mentors can be great assets during this time period, especially if you have in-house mentors. However, there will be always days, when nothing gets solved, you feel horrible, feel belittled and feel you are in the wrong place.

Team building and management is an art and when they don’t follow certain aspects of life, work life can becomes as stressful as it sounds.

Stress, deadlines, projects can all be handled if you have a great team and good support system at work. When it doesn’t, stop blaming yourself- you can do so much with your life.

Pick up your life and get going, get another certification, look for your next job, write the perfect resume and don’t blame yourself for not being the right fit. Sometimes, it’s just not about you!

Want to read up on what great project managers do, download the collection of interviews that happened in the blog by clicking here  (its free).

Pic Courtesy: Google Images