Tell me about your vision. Well, Harry, I've
been in publishing for a long time. And part
of the reason that I'm in publishing is because
I know that books change people's lives. And
I know that firsthand because I majored in journalism
in college. I went to Indiana University. And
back then. I was working on the campus newspaper.
And I was, as I look back on my life, I realized
I was rebelling from my upbringing, from my parents.
And I was on this big campus, Indiana University,
30 ,000 students on the main campus. And I was
working on the college paper, and I couldn't
get my fingers on the right keyboard. And so
I kept... muttering to myself, Jesus Christ,
Jesus Christ. And this little blonde haired girl
that was sitting next to me turned to me and
she said, oh, Terry, don't say that about Jesus,
because one of these days when you really need
him, you'll call out for him and he won't be
there. And I thought, what's this? I'm a Christian.
I go to church when I'm at home. I read the Bible
in church when I'm at home. I knew nothing, Harry,
about. really Christianity, but she invited me
to go to this little bookstore a couple blocks
off the Indiana campus. They had pretty cards
and posters, and maybe I'd find a book that interested
me. So I wandered down there a couple days later
about this book called Jesus the Revolutionary.
I thought, how in the world could Jesus be a
revolutionary? And so I took that book back to
my room. I read that book, and it showed me a
different side of Jesus than I'd ever seen before.
And about that time, Somebody invited me to this
Jesus people gathering in downtown Bloomington.
People were sitting on little scraps of carpets
with little candles lit. And I knew from being
in that room that those people had something
that I didn't have. So I got a Bible and I changed
the direction of my life. So instead of becoming
a newspaper reporter, which is what I thought
I was going to do, I joined this group called
Wycliffe Bible Translators. Studied linguistics.
I worked in Guatemala, Central America among
the Southwest Cachiquel people. Then I wandered
back to my writing and that's kind of where I've
been ever since. But I wouldn't have made those
kind of choices if I hadn't read this book years
ago. So I know books change people's lives firsthand
because I read this book and it changed my life.
Yeah, that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that.
So how did that land you to where you are at
right now? How did that journey from reading
a book to becoming an author yourself? Yeah,
that's a great question. I started writing for
magazines, and I ultimately became the editor
of our mission's newspaper, Work with Bible Translators,
and I went to writers' conferences. And that's
always a thing that I advise. I encourage people
to do is to go to a writer's conference because
you can meet editors and you can learn a ton
about how the publishing business works if you
do that. So I was at one of these writer's conferences
and I was talking with an editor and she said,
Terry, I've got this problem. And we do children's
books at David C. Cook. And we're charged really
to write, to encourage children to go to the
world with. with their lives. But we don't have
a single book that talks about that. So what
kind of ideas do you have? Well, at that time,
my kids were little. So I was reading a lot of
children's books to kids. And I knew that Stephen
Lawhead, who writes fantasy books, also had this
set of children's books that he wrote under the
name Steve Lawhead. And they combined a real
photo with a little cartoon character to show
kids that. to help them get into the imagination
part of the story. Howard had a hot air balloon.
Howard had a spaceship. And so I said to the
senator, what if we combine real pictures from
our mission work around the world with a little
cartoon character to show kids that they could
go anywhere? She said, oh, that's a good idea.
Write that up and send that to me. And so I made
a little note. I went home. I wrote it up. And
we went through a number of versions of that
book before it actually got published but in
1992 that was my first book harry that was published
called when i grow up i can go anywhere for jesus
a little 32 page children's book that i wrote
that's awesome wow thank you for sharing that
so what would you say terry is your why about
your vision like why do you do what you do now
yeah you know the why I do what I do is I work
in publishing. I've been working at a New York
publishing house, Morgan James Publishing now
for the last 13 years. It's my third publisher.
So I've worked with hundreds of authors through
the years. And I guess the reason I do this and
get up every day and do this kind of work is
because these books are important. And I know
the messages that are inside them are important
to the authors. And I just want to help them
get out there and be successful. So one of the
things that I know from working in this too,
Harry, is that many authors have false expectations
about their book and what's going to happen with
it. So I wrote this little book called 10 Publishing
Myths, Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed.
I want people to be able to get this book. So
I've set up this website. If they go to publishingoffer
.com, publishingoffer .com, they can get the
book for only $10 from me, along with over $200
worth of free bonuses. And that includes the
shipping and everything. And part of the reason
I did that is because I really want authors to
understand there's a lot. in the publishing process
that they can't control. It's outside of things
that they can do. But there are a number of things
that they can do. And so I really tried to emphasize
in this book practical actions that every author
can take to help spread the news about their
book and get the word out there about it. That's
awesome. That's amazing. Thank you for sharing
that with me. I have one more question for you
before we end today's segment. Do you have a
story that pertains to your why that you want
to share with the audience today? Well, yeah.
The biggest story that I have related to my why
is that life -changing decision that I told you
I made reading that book, Jesus the Revolutionary.
That was the story behind my why. Another story
that comes to mind is I was a literary agent
for a while. And Mark Victor Hansen, the co -author
from Chicken Soup for the Soul, invited me to
come out to Los Angeles. He was having this event
called Mega Bookmarking University. And so I
went to this event and I took pictures from people
during the event. But I also sat there with 400
people and listened to all the different speakers.
And at that point in my life, Harry, I'd written
about 50 books for traditional publishers. publishers
were paying me advances they were making pretty
books they were getting them in the bookstore
all that kind of thing but but my books weren't
making money because once a year or maybe quarterly
publishers send you a financial statement and
all of mine were in the minus category and so
i just didn't know what i was what i was i must
be doing something wrong i just couldn't figure
out what it was as i listened to these people
i realized how little i was actually doing to
be telling people about my my own book back then
sure i had a terrywhalen .com website but i was
doing hardly anything else to be telling people
and one of the speakers at this at this event
was jack canfield the other co -author on the
chicken soup for the soul books and jack has
this book called the success principles yeah
where he really studies what does it take to
be successful the very first success principle
says that i will take a hundred percent responsibility
for my own success now none of us want to take
100 responsibility we want some publisher or
some marketing person somebody other than us
to do the work but i decided back right there
that i was going to take 100 responsibility for
my own success so i started to blog and I've
been blogging, Harry, since like 2004. I got
in on the early days of blogging, but I've been
blogging every week since 2004. Now, they say
there's over 600 million blogs that are out there,
but I found an article about a year ago that
listed the top 27 content producers out there.
And Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday, people like that.
And my name was among those 27. And it's not
that I've done anything magical here. I've just
been consistently blogging every week for years.
And suddenly that builds up to be a huge volume
of material. I've got over 1 ,700 entries in
my blog. I mean, there's a lot of content in
that thing. And it's helped a lot of people.
And it just shows me that... Everybody can do
this. You just have to do it persistently and
consistently is really what it takes in order
to be able to find success when it comes to book
publishing. Thank you for being here today. I'm
really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros
Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This
is going to get more and more fun. We'll have
more and more engagement as well. We'll invite
people to participate in the show and thank you
for giving us your time and attention. Have an
excellent time building out your vision and becoming
a vision pro yourself.