Confessions of a Shameless Promoter

Free Book on Amazon Select

2012-02-27T13:05:00.000-05:00

Image via WikipediaWith Kindle Select and the opportunity to offer a free book for up to five days, many publishers a going exclusive with Amazon to catch the attention of Kindle owners and Amazon's huge reader base. Testimonials from writers are encouraging. After the free trial is over, their books are selling better than before the freebie was offered. To make the most of a giveaway, it's important to let as many people know about the giveaway as possible. IOW post everywhere. Also take advantage of sites such as Indie Book List to advertise an upcoming offer.

Free Book

2012-02-25T06:10:00.001-05:00

Weekly Strategies for Writers: Tips on Writing, Editing, Publishing, Marketing & more is a collection of timely tips for fiction and nonfiction writers that discusses the changes, opportunities, and resources now available for writers to make their writing and publishing goals a success. New or veteran writers are sure to find Weekly Strategies a quick, informative read. For ease of use, hyperlinks are included to make tips dynamic and accessible.

FREE BOOK

More on QR codes

2012-02-24T08:05:00.000-05:00

When making a QR code that links to an online URL, it's advised that you shorten the address by using one of the shortening free websites, i.e. Bitly. A simpler URL name is read more easily and tends to have fewer errors. Also, before placing this nifty code on any product, check it with any smart phone that has an QR reader. If your phone doesn't have a reader, they are also free and widely available online for download. There is some leeway in jazzing up a code but tinkering with it could make it unreadable. Because these codes are two dimensional, a lot of information can be stored. Yes, even e-books.

QR Codes

2012-02-22T06:29:00.003-05:00

If you had a cell phone with a QR reader installed, you could take a picture of this bar code from your phone's camera and have immediate access to my Author Page on Amazon. So what's the point? Okay. How about this. You can take this code and place it onto any physical product such as business card, T-shirt, tatoo and when a phone takes a picture of it, it will read my Amazon Author page. Free QR generators and QR readers are widely available online.

Twitter Tips for Selling Books

2012-02-21T01:58:00.000-05:00

Adding Pics to G-Mail

2012-02-20T08:44:00.007-05:00

Image via WikipediaIn my recent travels, I learned how to add an image to my outgoing emails from G-mail. Super duper easy. Go into settings, then labs. Scroll down and enable images, save. Once back in your email, click on image icon, select image from wherever it is, upload and voila. Not sure if the text can be wrapped tho. If anyone knows, holler. (Also been advised to use bigger print.)

Adding Pics to Blog

2012-02-14T03:33:00.001-05:00

Three considerations for adding pictures to a blog. Author uses Wordpress but the info is great for any website or blog. Tip 1:

When you upload images to use on your WordPress blog, you’ll use the Media information dialog. As an example, here’s the entry for an image from a recent blog post about print books and ebooks:

What’s important here is the Alternate Text field. This is where you can boost your image’s SEO (search engine optimization), since this alternate text is placed into your blog post along with the image itself.Quickly size or scale your images...

article

Spanish Teacher & English Student

2012-02-12T09:16:00.001-05:00

Of the Dance/De la Danza

Setting Up Author Page On Goodreads

2012-02-10T02:22:00.003-05:00

Goodreads is an amazing site where authors and readers congregate. However, it can be difficult to navigate. To set up an author account, here are the basics:

How Do I Join?

If you are already a Goodreads member, make sure you are signed in. If not, Sign up for an account.
Search for yourself and click on your published author name. The author name is listed below the title of your book in the search results. If you do not find your book in our database of published works, please see section below (who can join).
Clicking on your name takes you to your basic author profile page. This page has your name at the top and "author profile" to the right of your name. This page is part of our database of books and authors and is separate from your member profile page (which lists your bookshelves and friends).
Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click "Is this you?" to send a request to join the Author Program. Please give us a few days to process your request. You will receive email confirmation when we successfully upgrade your user account to an author account. Joining the program merges your author page with your member page. The email will also contain further instructions for managing your author profile.

For more basics, click to this Goodreads Help Page and Author How To

Gypsy 200

2012-02-08T00:32:00.001-05:00

c 2012 linda a lavid

George Bernard Shaw's Last Words

2012-02-06T04:41:00.002-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.

Dr. Seuss says...

2012-02-04T06:59:00.000-05:00

Image via Wikipedia“Poor empty pants
With nobody inside them.”

“When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles...
...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.”

Paul Giamatti & Gary Shteyngart

2012-02-02T17:01:00.000-05:00

The E-Book Bubble

2012-02-01T00:52:00.005-05:00

From the Guardian (see link below). A disturbing and brilliant argument on the E-Book bubble...

And what has happened to all those new authors who were told they could make money from epublishing? Well, they are working entirely for free (on spec) on the promise of those big 70% royalties on future sales. They write their books, they blog, they net-network and self-promote; they could put in as much as a year's work, all without payment. So much writing-for-free is going on that it upsets the previous paradigm: people start to ask, why should any writers get paid at all? Why should "professional" writers get a wage or advance, when I've had to do all this work on my self-published ebook for free?

And then comes the collapse – if you work for free and have to slash your costs to be competitive – to, say, undercut the vast 99p market by going down to 45p or 15p – then your chances of ever seeing a return on all the free labour you've put in diminish accordingly. Add to this the fact that hundreds of thousands of others are competing with you in this pricing race to the bottom and the possibility of any newcomers making any money from self-epublishing vanishes. The bubble bursts.

On Metaphors

2012-01-31T06:45:00.000-05:00

Image via WikipediaInteresting article...
"However, it’s helpful to think of them (metaphors) not as puzzles writers use to baffle us, but rather as keys unlocking more layers of meaning than we could possibly gain with a literal description.

Wait a second, I just threw a couple metaphors in there without realizing it. Puzzles? Keys? Seems pretty sneaky, but honestly, I didn’t mean to! They just popped out!

The fact that I made the comparisons subconsciously shows that the human mind, in an effort to make sense of its world, is already constantly linking people, objects, ideas, and experiences. Metaphors might seem convoluted, but they’re really outward expressions of the connections we already make in our daily lives. They add depth and insight to our writing."

On Selling Foreign Rights

2012-01-30T08:26:00.000-05:00

"If your nonfiction book is not "too American", there's a very strong chance it could sell outside the USA. To make this happen, you could attend the Frankfurt Book Convention, (der "Buchmesse"), held every October in Frankfurt. I've been there 15+ times and sold hundreds of foreign rights transactions. Some sell for as little as $200 in advance, some for tens of thousands of Euros or Pounds Sterling. It's a wild, crazy four days of excitement and a real experience for any author. (Think of the BEA x200 - almost 190,000 people attended Frankfurt this past year). The other way to sell foreign rights is to find an agent or a scout who specializes in them and let them know about your content. If they think they can sell it, they'll often add it to their list, sometimes for a small fee, sometimes for free. Here's how the process usually goes..." Read entire article

Hemingway's Last Words

2012-01-29T19:05:00.000-05:00

Image via WikipediaTo his wife...

"Good night my kitten."

The Self-Publishing Entrepreneur

2012-01-29T06:08:00.000-05:00

The excerpt below is from Tech Crunch

Marketing. Publishers claim they do a lot of marketing for you. That’s laughable. I’ll give you a very specific story. When I published with Penguin they then met with a friend of mine whose book they wanted to publish. They didn’t realize she was my friend. She asked them, “what marketing did you do for James Altucher’s book”. They said, “well, we got him a review in The Financial Times and we got a segment about his book on CNBC and an excerpt in thestreet.com”

Here’s what’s so funny. I had a weekly column in The Financial Times. I WROTE my own review. As a joke. For CNBC, I had a weekly segment on CNBC. So naturally I spoke about my book during my regular segment. And for thestreet.com excerpt, I had just sold my last company to thestreet.com. So instead of doing my usual article for them I did an excerpt. In other words, the publisher did NOTHING, but took credit for EVERYTHING. Ultimately, authors (unless you are Stephen King, etc) have to do their own marketing for books. The first question publishers ask, even, before they look at your proposal is, “How big is your platform?” They want to know how you can market the book and if they can make money on just your own marketing efforts.

Kurt Vonnegut Wit

2012-01-28T12:18:00.000-05:00

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand

Kurt Vonnegut

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before... He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way.

Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"

One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.

Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004

Adding Twitter to Amazon Author Page

2012-01-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

Amazon’s Author Central allows an author to add a Twitter feed. Here’s how:

1. Sign-in to your Author Central account (or create one) at http://amazon.com/authors

2. Once you are signed-in click on your Profile button.

3. Along the right-hand side under “Photos” and “Videos” is a section headlined “Twitter.”

4. Click the “Add account” link and provide your twitter username. Voila!

Update of On Creative Writing

2012-01-16T17:13:00.000-05:00

My book On Creative Writing is an e-book selling for $2.99 in which all profits go to the Niger Water Well Project. Happy to announce the following:
As of Month/Year: 01/12
Books sold: 34 (sale reports lag)
Money raised: $66.16
Wells financed: 16%

To Download and Purchase: Kindle Nook Apple Multiple E-Formats

Arts and Buffalo, No Longer an Oxymoron

2012-01-12T11:29:00.002-05:00

Amid high unemployment, declining home values, and six-month winters, Buffalo, New York is showing life: the Arts are flourishing in unimaginable ways. For the past couple of years, art spaces and literary circles have descended onto the 500 block of Main Street and staked a claim and commitment to bring some vigor to a dying rust-belt city. It's remarkable. Art Voice, Just Buffalo, Nomad are just a few of the art and literary notables that have risen from the rubble. Where there is life, there is hope. (Chinese proverb)

No Recent Posts...An Explanation

2012-01-11T15:28:00.000-05:00

My verve for posting has been under siege. I've become obsessed with politics, CSpan and my blindness to the present state of the county. The more I hear, read, understand, the more I'm disenchanted with every aspect of government with its cadre of grandstanding Democrats and Republicans who spout meaningless words, sophomoric arguments, and tedious righteousness. Ugh. Somewhere in the morass, I listened to Ralph Nader. What a godsend to my sanity. The year is going to be long.

The Road Continues...Wishing all a Great Year!

2011-12-26T10:38:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

Three Large Paintings

2011-12-15T17:55:00.000-05:00

Been busy this week. Deys Purdy....

On Inspirational Meditations

2011-12-10T09:08:00.002-05:00

From 101 Ways to Meditate...

Inspirational Meditations combine imagery with the divine, our higher selves, nature, and/or positive thought. Similar to Processing Meditations, these meditations are global in scope and can be used as a component in other types of meditation. Example: A wise one, once established, can be used as an advisor when doing a Release Meditation. Inspirational Meditations have, at their core, powerful healing and transpersonal properties that are accessible and enjoyable.

A meditation from the book...

Wise One Meditation – This meditation helps to discover a wise one who can help you during meditative practice or regular waking moments. The wise one supports you, gives advice, and/or can be a guide. The wise one can take endless forms, i.e., angel, totem animal, your higher self, God, a color, a thing. There are many ways to discover a wise one. It could be located in your special place or crop up as an image in another meditation. A wise one may originally appear undefined and vague (a color, a sound, a taste, a word.) Whenever an image reappears or remains constant, take the time to ask it a question. If the answer is surprising, hopeful, insightful, this may be your wise one. Another way to discover a wise one is to thank your wise one for all the good decisions (be specific) you’ve made in your life. When finished, ask the wise one to come forward with a message. Listen or be alert to whatever comes. Develop interaction by asking questions and dialoguing. Focus: Discovering a wise one.

On Release Meditations

2011-12-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

From 101 Ways to Meditate.

Release Meditations are similar to Imagery Meditations in that they also work with images. The difference is that these images are metaphors for underlying emotional issues that lock inside our bodies and minds causing physical and psychological problems.

Release Meditations work best when you, consciously (before meditation) or subconsciously (during meditation), come up with an image that represents a negative emotion. Using a metaphoric image that represents a negative emotion is a powerful healing tool for two reasons.

First, ascribing an image to a problem, allows for commonality between your conscious and subconscious mind. Remember, our subconscious communicates best through images, symbols, metaphors, memories and emotions. Secondly, by reframing the negative emotion as a metaphoric image, the emotionality of the feeling becomes more neutral. This allows the emotion to be processed and released more easily.

When trying to come up with an image that can be seen, heard, smelled, or sensed consider how the emotion feels in your body or mind.

Let’s take an example of uncontrolled anger. How does it feel in the body? Tense muscles. How does it feel in the mind? Racing thoughts. Now consider those feelings and give them an image. Perhaps tense muscles can be seen as a tight rubber band around your chest and racing thoughts as jagged lightning.

Working with a metaphoric image (rubber band around your chest) is preferred over processing a feeling (tense muscles). Using a metaphor places the emotion a distance away, where it can be processed and released more readily than getting hooked back into the drama of it all.

Only one image is needed as the focus, and it doesn’t matter if it’s an image that was drawn from a feeling in the body or mind. You only need one loose thread to unravel and free negative emotions.

When practicing a Release Meditation, you may think of the image ahead of time or after you are calm and relaxed. Sometimes when you’re in a meditative state, a totally different image may appear. Whichever image you choose, acknowledge it and ask for understanding.

Once the image is clear, the next step is to process it. To process an image, follow these prompts:

Observe the image closely.
Tell it how you feel.
Have it respond.
Ask the image what it wants from you.
Have it respond.
Tell the image what you want.
Have it respond.

Further dialogue can be added, until there is resolution or change.

Change occurs in many ways. The image may change color, size, texture, its placement to your body. This shows that something is happening. When the image becomes less intrusive, softer, not as threatening, some healing is occurring. Should the image suddenly flip and become a healing image, this indicates the negative emotion has been released. Sometimes the image is stubborn and won’t answer back. If you’ve run out of questions, accept this.

When I first learned about this process I was skeptical. Talking to images in your head? How crazy is that? But it works. And it especially works when the images talk back!

When doing Release Meditations, journaling is important. Often times, change occurs but more work needs to be done. Document what happened and how you will proceed the next time. It’s not unusual to bring forth that same image or a different image to do more clearing.

A meditation from the book:

Anger Release Meditation – Relax and breathe deeply. When your mind is clear, think of an image that represents anger. It can be an image of how it feels in your body or mind. When the image is clear, process it by following the prompts on page 48. Alternate Meditation: Imagine a red ball of fire. How far is it from you? What’s feeding it? How is it affecting you? Observe every detail. When ready, decide how best to deal with it. Focus: Anger image or ball of fire.

On Imagery Meditations

2011-12-03T08:45:00.002-05:00

From 101 Ways to Meditate...

Imagery Meditations

An Imagery Meditation uses imagery as its focus. Imagery can be anything that is: seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt. Images or sensory data can be considered before the meditation or arise spontaneously during the meditation. To begin an Imagery Meditation, start with a basic Processing Meditation, i.e., Breath Meditation for 7 to 10 minutes. To get the most out of an Imagery Meditation, it’s best to have a relaxed body and clear mind. This softens the boundary between your conscious and subconscious mind.

Imagery Meditations are powerful tools to communicate with the subconscious. While dreams are a one-way conversation from the subconscious to you, imagery is a two-way discussion utilizing the intermediary language of memories, emotions, symbols, metaphors and images.

Imagery Meditations help you gain insight into your behavior which, in turn, can free you up for personal and spiritual growth. Many of the meditations found in the book also call for dialogue or processing. In these cases, you are encouraged to speak with the image, express any questions, concerns, feelings and listen to its response.

A Meditation from the Book...

Special Place Meditation – Relax, breathe and when your mind is blank imagine a peaceful, special place. It can be from a memory, created spontaneously, or be a mixture of the two. Special places can be changed or edited at any time. Pay attention to details, such as light, temperature, or sensations. Comforting and safe, this meditation can be revisited often. Symbols, images and feelings from the subconscious are sure to arise, which can then be explored during other meditations. Focus: Special place.

On Processing Meditations

2011-11-29T08:40:00.007-05:00

From 101 Ways to Meditate...

Processing Meditations

A Processing Meditation is a basic, sometimes traditional, style of meditation. Processing Meditations often use focal points of breathing, chanting, being in the moment, sitting in a certain position, and are less directed toward specific images or thoughts. Processing Meditations prime your body, mind, and spirit to be receptive to subconscious and unconscious states by relaxing the body, quieting the mind, and bringing forth a tone of allowing. These meditations, in an abbreviated form of 7 to 10 minutes (an induction), are also used in preparation for Imagery, Release, and Inspirational Meditations.

Consider a Processing Meditation like floating on your back absorbing the sun in a warm pool of water. Note the calm and receptiveness this image portrays. Processing Meditations increase receptiveness to other states of awareness.

A meditation from the book....

Relaxation Meditation – A relaxed body is necessary for all meditative practice. Therefore this type of meditation, shortened (an induction), is commonly used no matter what kind of meditation you are doing. In this meditation, make yourself comfortable, close your eyes, and take abdominal breaths. By placing your hand on your lower belly, you should feel your diaphragm move up and down. This is an abdominal breath. Breaths should be comfortable. With effortless, circular breathing, relax your body. Begin from the top of your head and work down slowly. Imagine your muscles relaxing from your head, neck, shoulders and beyond. If there is any tightness, relax those muscles. If you don’t know if your muscles are tight or loose, contract then loosen them. Stress often can be found in the jaw, neck, and shoulders. This meditation is simply about becoming more relaxed. Once you have relaxed every muscle, simply float and drift. Focus: Relaxing muscles.

An Overview of Meditations

2011-11-27T09:13:00.001-05:00

In the next two weeks, I'll be posting on the four types of meditations that can be found in 101 Ways to Meditate. Specifically, the meditations are divided into four groups: Processing, Imagery, Release, and Inspirational. Each group has a different focus although, at times, the boundaries blur. You may find an affinity toward one block of meditations or you may want to mix it up. My wish is to briefly describe a wide selection of meditations so you can try different ways of meditating to see what works best. Alas, we learn differently, have varied preferences, and one size does not fit all. Once you become comfortable with meditative practice, you’ll be able to put together meditations of your own. In fact, 101 Ways to Meditate will only be a starting point.

Processing Meditations are traditional ways of meditating. They are used to gain knowledge and understanding of God, divine purpose, or higher awareness. Processing Meditations focus on relaxing the body and quieting the mind.

Imagery Meditations focus on images that can be seen, heard, smelled, felt, and/or sensed. Imagery Meditations help with gaining a greater understanding of the subconscious state by using the intermediary language of imagery, memory, emotion and/or metaphor.

Release Meditations focus on negative emotions and their release. Images, often in the form of metaphors, denote underlying emotions that are then processed. Release Meditations clear the body and mind of toxicity.

Inspirational Meditations explore spiritual or transpersonal issues using imagery as their focus. Inspirational Meditations add color and texture to the otherwise somber Processing Meditations.

Of the Dance, A Dual Language Book

2011-11-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

Of the Dance/De la Danza is a parallel text (Spanish/English) collection of six short stories by award-winning author Linda A. Lavid. These stories are contemporary and range in ease and difficulty from dialogue to literary passages. To facilitate learning, text in both languages is provided in parallel format to assure easy reference in either Spanish or English. The narratives chosen for this book revolve around the relationships between men and women with the conflicts and complications they cause. Please note this collection has explicit language and is for adults.

Of the Dance/De la Danza es una colección de textos paralelos (Español / Inglés) de seis cuentos de la galardonada autora Linda A. Lavid. Estas historias son contemporáneas y varían en facilidad y dificultad del diálogo a pasajes literarios. Para facilitar el aprendizaje, el texto en ambos idiomas es proporcionado en formato paralelo para asegurar una fácil referencia ya sea en Español o en Inglés. Los relatos seleccionados para este libro giran en torno a las relaciones entre hombres y mujeres con los conflictos y complicaciones que estas causan. Tenga en cuenta que esta colección tiene un lenguaje explícito y es para adultos.

You'd like Of the Dance/De la Danza if you...

are learning English or Spanish
want to brush up on language skills
enjoy contemporary stories
prefer seeing the written language
want to increase your vocabulary
are a visual learner
want to learn idioms

Purchase:

Kindle

Multiple E-Formats

Amazon

Why Meditate?

2011-11-03T22:29:00.001-04:00

We all have so many questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Why do I behave the way I do? And, to answer these questions, we search by observing, reasoning, experimenting. Still no matter how many answers come our way, more questions remain. I suspect if life were clear and easily divined, the mystery and intrigue of living would quickly bore us and we’d shrivel up. We are meant to question, to search. It’s in our DNA. But there are other reasons to meditate.

Meditation heals at every level. Physically, a meditative state: releases toxins, relieves stress, enhances relaxation, improves heart/lung efficiency, increases energy, reduces fatigue, and increases oxygen throughout the body. For emotional wounds, psychological trauma, meditation is a soothing balm and an accommodating resource to release unneeded baggage. Finally, to make sense of the chaos – at times ego-produced, at times out of our hands – meditation helps us step back and take a grander perspective beyond the personal.

Meditation is versatile. Gone are my days of facing 45 minutes of practice that often seemed too removed from everyday life. Meditation is a way to explore and understand the great mysteries, but it’s also a way to understand yourself. Answers to questions big and small can occur with any meditation. In fact, you may meditate for one reason, but a breakthrough may come in another area. Example: Perhaps you’re meditating to release anger when a week later you unceremoniously toss out that last pack of cigarettes.

Finally, meditation is fun, exciting, and always new. Razzle and dazzle of the highest order. For this, you’ll just have to try.

List of 101 Meditations found in 101 Ways to Meditate

2011-10-31T22:16:00.001-04:00

A full index of all the meditations found in 101 Ways to Meditate:

Index of Meditations

4-4-8 Meditation
Adjustment Meditation
Allergy Release Meditation
Anger Release Meditation
Anxiety Release Meditation
Asthma Release Meditation
Back at cha Meditation
Body Celebration Meditation
Body Scan Meditation
Breath Meditation
Burden Release Meditation
Cancer Release Meditation
Chakra Meditation
Childbirth Meditation
Condition Release Meditation
Creativity Meditation
Departed One Meditation
Depression Release Meditation
Details from a Special Place Meditation
Draw Breath to Parts of the Body Meditation
Drop of Rain Meditation
Elements Meditation
Emotional Body Meditation
Empowerment Meditation
Enjoy a Bountiful Moment Meditation
Favorite Memory Meditation
Fear Release Meditation
Feed the Soul Meditation
Forgiveness Meditation
Frustration Release Meditation
Gift Meditation
Gratitude Meditation
Grief Release Meditation
Grounding Meditation
Guilt Release Meditation
Habit Release Meditation
Headache Release Meditation
Healing Hand Meditation
Healing Light Meditation
Healing Meditation
High Blood Pressure Release Meditation
Inner Child Meditation
Inner Light/Screen Meditation
Inner Smile Meditation
Inner Sound Meditation
Insight Meditation
Integration Meditation
Intellectual Body Meditation
Irritable Bowel Release Meditation
Jealousy Release Meditation
Kindness Meditation
Kundalini Mantra Meditation
Laughing Buddha Meditation
Letting Go Meditation
Loneliness Release Meditation
Loving Kindness (Metta) Meditation
Manifestation Meditation
Mindful of the Moment (Mindfulness) Meditation
Movement Meditation
Negativity Release Meditation
Not-Trying Meditation
Obstacle Release Meditation
Omniprescence Meditation
Open Doors Meditation
Pain Release Meditation
Panic Release Meditation
Peace Meditation
Performance Meditation
Pet Meditation
Physical Body Meditation
Pink Bubble Meditation
Pivotal Memory Meditation
Plant Flowers Meditation
Post-Surgery Meditation
Prayer Meditation
Pre-Surgery Meditation
Protector Meditation
Question Meditation
Reduce Chatter Meditation
Relaxation Meditation
Saint Meditation
Savior Meditation
Simple Memory Meditation
Sit in Nature Meditation
Smoking Release Meditation
Special Place Meditation
Spiritual Body Meditation
Spontaneous Image Meditation
Stress Release Meditation
Stretching Meditation
Success Meditation
Taoist Meditation
Tension Release Meditation
Totem Animal Meditation
Viral Infection Release Meditation
Walking Meditation
Weight Release Meditation
Wise One Meditation
Witness Meditation
Word Repetition Meditation
Worry Release Meditation

Meditation Basics from 101 Ways to Meditate

2011-10-30T22:26:00.000-04:00

Cornerstones of the meditative process are simple but important. The following tenets will assure success. As you read what follows, understand that each step, even journaling, plays off the other like an orchestrated ensemble of blended notes. In other words, the practice of meditation is not linear but dynamic. For instance, relaxing the body can be a focus that can then quiet the mind, which then allows for more focus.

Allow 20 minutes. Meditation is not ego-driven, that is to say, the thinking brain does not drive the meditative experience. Meditation is a communication with our intuitive, transpersonal, subconscious selves. To do this, the body and mind must be relaxed and remain in an impersonal, receptive state. It takes most people 7 to 10 minutes to quiet their bodies and minds. The remainder of the time is for focusing. Once meditation is practiced regularly, you may be able to relax your body and mind more quickly. Still, it’s advisable to meditate for the full 20 minutes. Consistent shortening of the meditation time, can lead to a daydream state rather than a meditative state, which in turn may sabotage all the benefits meditation has to offer.

Set the tone. Consider the following words: compassionate, playful, acknowledging, open, curious, hopeful, receptive, allowing, accepting, surrendering. These words express the tone by which a meditative session becomes fertile. Setting a receptive tone can be done with an affirmation, prayer, image, or how the environment is staged (see page 14.) Example: Before I meditate, I light a candle, put on a CD, and visualize a budding red rose. Receptivity can also be expressed during meditation.

Relax the body. The body cruises along on its own, or at least that’s what we were taught in school. Don’t believe it. Trillions of cells, endless maneuverings, sparks of electrical energy are bombarded by memories, stress, toxins, diseases that lock into tissues, bones, muscles, organs, nerves, etc., throwing off our natural ability to be balanced. So how can we settle our bodies down? By breathing, slowly and deeply. This is done by elongating exhales and breathing from the diaphragm, that part around your belly button. In the Processing Meditation section, you’ll find many ways to relax your body. Try different ones to see which work best. Breathing alone can be a meditation that heals body, mind and spirit.

Clear the mind. To explore subterranean places, one needs to cut the distractions. A ticker tape replay of the day’s highs and lows, worries about this and that, anger, judgment, fear, anxiety, negative self-talk have to stop. It’s all static. Imagine trying to listen to a ball game at a rock concert. Before long, frustration settles in and you give up. Processing Meditations often focus on clearing all thought. This is done by focusing on how muscles move, how the breath is taken, or in the absorption of a simple sensory detail such as a ticking clock. As in relaxing the body, clearing the mind can be a meditation on its own.

Develop a focus. The focus is the core of the meditation. Each of the 101 meditations listed has a core component (focus) that is explained in its description. The focus of a meditation is the key that unlocks mysteries. Surprise and insight may occur during this period as the boundaries of the intuitive, subconscious or spiritual states become permeable. It is often through metaphor, imagery, memory, and emotion that insight is able to bubble into our conscious minds. When unusual images present themselves, pay attention, examine their detail, then dialogue. Should tears arise, allow them to flow for when there are tears, of joy or sorrow, there is truth.

Give gratitude. Gratitude is a powerful tool in meditation because it honors and thanks the process. Whatever your wellspring of universal wisdom (healing energy, higher power, your subconscious) happens to be, it needs to be thanked. But there’s another reason. By giving gratitude, you also show an openness to receive, which in turn encourages your wellspring of wisdom to give more. Think of how it feels to receive a sincere thank you from someone. How likely would you be to give again? Expressing gratitude communicates this and can be done throughout or at the end of a meditative session.

Journal. Journaling is an account of your meditative session, a blueprint for future meditations, and another way to acknowledge and thank the process. The best time to journal is right after the session while the experience is fresh. Reviewing the meditation can lead to greater clarity since your mind is on track and ready to evaluate. In summarizing your meditative experience, document: content, images and insights gained; what made you happy or sad; the meditation used and its effectiveness; any problems with relaxing the body, clearing the mind and/or keeping focus. After evaluating the journal entry, you can plan future action. How can you tweak the meditation to make it more effective? What threads need to be revisited for greater understanding? By taking the time to journal, you are honoring and thanking the process by giving it attention beyond the actual meditation. This in turn will lead to greater pans of gold. While at times, meditation can be a process of fits and starts, it’s also a practice that builds on itself. Journaling is an integral part of establishing a solid foundation. A 31-day journal is included in this book. Use it as you see fit.

On Meditation Block

2011-10-29T18:12:00.015-04:00

No matter how well you prepare, how great your intention, how open you are to the process, on some days, your meditative practice may be ineffective, boring, frustrating. Here are some possible blocks and how to address them.

• Intrusive thoughts. After some attempts to bring yourself back, give gratitude and gently awake. Once fully alert, write down what was so intrusive. Were these thoughts a rehash of the day or wildly tangential? If the former, try a different meditation; if the latter, document in journal, and evaluate how these thoughts can become a focus for another day’s meditation.

• Fall asleep. Change the position you’re in and/or change aspects of environment, i.e., play different music. If you still fall asleep, perhaps you’re genuinely tired and need to get some rest.

• Rushing through. Not allowing at least 20 minutes of meditative time will eventually short-circuit and sabotage the process. Consider having a guest for dinner who’s always looking at his watch. Is he encouraging interaction? enjoying the food? expressing gratitude? And, most importantly, will you invite him back?

• Body too wired. Not everyone can lie or sit down and relax. If you tend to be very active, begin with a moving or walking Processing Meditation.

• Nothing’s happening. Ask yourself if there is an underlying resistance to meditation. Could your upbringing, religious background, belief system be affecting your practice?

• Fearful of not doing it right. Be kind to yourself. However you can navigate and make meditative practice worthwhile is what’s important. There are no tests; no one’s watching. Be playful.

Meditation Products from Amazon

2011-10-27T15:13:00.002-04:00

Here's an Amazon product list to jump start your meditative practice...

1. 101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self by Linda A. Lavid
$10.63 Used & New from: $7.42 (1)

2. 101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self [Kindle eBook] by Linda A. Lavid
$2.99 (1)

3. Summer Solstice by Summer Solstice (Windham Hill Series)
Used & New from: $1.76 (9)

4. Set of 6 Incense Nag Champa Sunrise Sandalwood Midnight Patchouli Celestial By Satya by Satya
$8.94 Used & New from: $3.95 (78)

5. Soy Basics Seed Soy Candle, Vanilla Bean, 18.5-Ounce by Soy Basics Seeds
$11.52 (10)

6. Gerson Company Everlasting Glow Flameless Ivory Wax Candles with Drip Effect, Set of 3 by The Gerson Company
$9.95 Used & New from: $7.99 (27)

Setting the Stage for Meditation

2011-10-25T15:10:00.003-04:00

Think about a time when you walked into a place of worship and lit a votive candle; or when you turned down the lights and listened to music; or took a long walk on a beach. However you were able to buffer the outer world and ease into a familiar calm is how meditation should be approached. Ideas for preparing your environment are listed below. Try them on for size. It’s not necessary to do them all. Pick, choose, or go out on your own.
Preparing your environment:
• Set up an altar. An altar is a reminder of the ritual, which in turn, prepares your body and mind for practice. Place objects in your sacred place that have meaning for you.
• Have a mantra. Historically mantras are assigned to an individual by a spiritual teacher. A mantra is a sound that creates spiritual transformation. A commonly used mantra is Ohm or Aum. Developing a comfortable mantra of your own is fine as well. Play around with single-syllable sounds that feel pleasing to you. Mantras can be spoken aloud or silently. They should be connected to the breath on the inhale and exhale.
• Add an affirmation or prayer. When adding an affirmation (positive thought) or prayer, think of the mood you want to set. An affirmation and/or prayer can be lifted from religious texts or made up by you. Options are many and varied. Use those that have significant meaning for you and set a receptive tone.
• Use Beads. For counting repetitions, consider using prayer beads, a rosary, or any number of items you can string together: seashells, legumes, beads from broken jewelry, etc. The advantage of making your own strand is that you can customize the number of beads. Example: I use counts of 40 for my breathing meditation induction.
• Light a candle. Candles fill an area with calming soft light. One-hundred percent (no blends) beeswax or soy candles with lead-free wicks are the friendliest to the environment and to your lungs. LED candles are safe alternatives.
• Scent. Incense, scented candles, plug-ins, flowers, can be used for focus, to soothe, or to encourage breathing. Care should be taken when using essential oils since they are concentrated and, depending on the oil, potentially toxic.
• Sound. Nature sounds, music, Tibetan bowls, chimes, even playing a wind instrument (long exhales calm the body) help a meditative session. An advantage of using taped sounds is that you can arrange the sounds to fill the length of your meditation session. This way you don’t have to keep glancing at the clock.
There are many ways, only limited by your imagination, to prepare for a session. Busy schedules, family/work lives, space issues, may have to be taken into account. Still, a way can be found to set aside a place and time, even if it’s in bed, when you awaken or go to sleep.
The following products may help to set your special place...

Reader and Writer Groups on Facebook

2011-10-22T14:18:00.000-04:00

Whether you're a writer or reader one of these Facebook groups may be of interest. See you there!

Resource for Writers: http://www.facebook.com/groups/167291323360455
Recommendation for Readers: http://www.facebook.com/groups/263664407008932

The first group - share anything writing/publishing related. The idea for the second group is to strut (excuse me, post) your stuff. Link to your novels so readers can find you.

Leonard Cohen....Hallelujah

2011-10-07T20:34:00.000-04:00

How to Get Readers Interested in Your E-Book

2011-10-05T01:48:00.000-04:00

The following article is from Coker's Smashwords Blog. It evaluates the data taken from a survey on how a reader discovers an ebook.

Key findings, plus my observations:
1. The most-selected answer was "Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards," with 29% of respondents choosing this. By contrast, only 4% selected, "Personal friend/family member recommends it to me." I think this is fascinating, because it implies readers might trust the collective wisdom of strangers and online acquaintances more than they trust the recommendations of immediate friends and family. At the risk of placing too many eggs in this basket, remember 71% selected something else.

2. The second most common answer was, "I look first for my favorite authors," coming in at 18%. This makes sense. As I mention when I present my Seven Secrets to Ebook Publishing Success talk, the author is the brand and if the author can earn the trust and loyalty of readers, readers will return to that brand for their next read. Readers in this group may also be more risk-averse. One respondent commented, "I'm at a point in life where I mostly stick with authors I already know and like. Why waste time and money on something I may not like?"
Read entire article

Comparison of E-Readers

2011-10-01T10:07:00.000-04:00

Kindle now has a family and entry into the e-reader market can be purchased for $79 USD. So what exactly is out there and what are their advantages?

There are too many e-readers to cover them all so we’re keeping it simple, comparing Amazon’s Kindle lineup with some of its main competitors, the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Color, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Reader Touch Edition and Kobo’s Touch. Although it’s a tablet, we included the Kindle Fire because of its e-reader origins and its new role at the head of the Kindle family. Check out our chart…

Free E-books. Good or Bad Idea?

2011-09-25T17:54:00.000-04:00

The following snippet is from an interview with Mark Coker.

The Impact of Free Ebooks
I’ll often hear from authors and publishers concerned that free books devalue books. They fear readers will be conditioned to demand free and won’t pay. This isn’t the case. Authors who don’t utilize low price points for some of their catalog are missing out on the biggest, most underutilized marketing secret.

Readers today have access to tens of thousands of free public domain classics, thousands of free indie books, and millions of pieces of free Internet content. Yet readers still buy books. Why? Because readers, once they trust an author to give them a great read, will pay for books worth buying. Every author’s worst competition is not other authors or low-priced or free books. Your competition is staring you in the mirror. Write the best book you can.

Every author has the opportunity to create something that is entirely unique in the world, and because it’s a one-of-a-kind readers will pay for it if it’s worth paying for. Writers confident in their ability should find this fact encouraging.

Read the entire article

Editing YouTube Videos

2011-09-17T21:57:00.000-04:00

You can now touch-up YouTube Videos. Basic but easy.

A Glimpse into Margaret Atwood

2011-09-12T10:36:00.000-04:00

The Kindle Single. What's It All About?

2011-09-11T08:03:00.000-04:00

I recently read an article from Publishers Weekly how Amazon, with its new Kindle single publishing program, may be a threat to The New Yorker:

The question is: what’s stopping Amazon from gathering a store of “more literary” short stories from respected writers and releasing them every week, putting them directly in competition with The New Yorker? They’ve already challenged every publisher, Apple, Barnes & Noble (not to mention killed Borders), Wal-Mart, and basically every other retailer in America. So why not start the siege on the old guard of literary journals and magazines? If Amazon decided, could they succeed?

Personally, it's hard to imagine Amazon competing with The New Yorker. Do they want to hire staff writers? Or perhaps head-hunt TNY authors over to the dark side? Why bother? Amazon already has a perfectly viable partnership with TNY: their staff writers write books that are sold on Amazon; TNY is available to download every week on Kindles worldwide. More importantly, Kindle singles do fill a niche for writers who prefer writing and publishing shorter works at competitive prices and for readers who like briefer articles/stories.
More on Kindle Single

Book Title. Is Yours In or Out?

2011-09-09T09:47:00.001-04:00

From The Guardian, a brief article on how book titles change with the times. Present mode: short, very short. Oh,dear...

There's no copyright in titles, as Muriel Spark ruefully pointed out on discovering that Peter O'Toole had followed her in using Loitering with Intent. The sheer number of titles now layered in the collective memory makes novelty ever harder, and there is pressure from publishers for simplicity and brevity – ideally single words, since the spectacular sales of Stalingrad and Blink.

This is evident in novels too, with Twilight in commercial fiction and Atonement in lit fic the equivalent models. This week's Booker shortlist saw almost all the remaining longish names eliminated. And the exception, Julian Barnes's knowingly secondhand The Sense of an Ending, exemplifies the other trend, of books that recall others – AL Kennedy's The Blue Book, Vendela Vida's The Lovers and Joanna Briscoe's You all likewise have forerunners, while Sebastian Barry's On Canaan's Side, Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child and Hari Kunzru's Gods without Men are also echo-laden. Read entire article.

David Foster Wallace Reads...

2011-09-05T23:35:00.000-04:00

Interview with Elmore Leonard

2011-09-02T17:50:00.001-04:00

And the guy lives in Detroit. What's not to love?

Words Deleted from Dictionary. Bye.

2011-08-29T11:07:00.000-04:00

Recently, researchers for the Collins Dictionary released a list of words, such as charabanc and aerodrome, that are used so rarely that they are considered obsolete, and will no longer be included in smaller print dictionaries.

The following are among the words that the Collins lexicographers have identified.

Interview with Stephen King

2011-08-28T08:29:00.000-04:00

Self-Publishing. Another Definition.

2011-08-25T07:32:00.000-04:00

From Publishing Perspectives, an odd argument to redefine self-publishing. I suspect the writer of this article has not self-published. Still, an interesting discussion (comments below linked article are redemptive).

At present, do you think self-publishers are, well, too selfish? With the relentless focus on “me, me, ME!” wouldn’t DIYers learn a great deal more about the publishing process — from editing to production to distribution — if they were to work on another person’s book? By taking the risk and responsibility of “publishing” rather than merely uploading a manuscript to an online distributor or production company and hoping for the best? Wouldn’t readers, in the long run, be better off as the professional values of traditional publishing proliferate through this new generation?

It’s my personal belief that a DIYer or self-publisher should not call themselves a “publisher” until they they take risk and responsibility for publishing another person’s work, which in turn is taking responsibility for another author’s well being. Yes, you can argue the semantics of it as much as you like, but until that point a self-publisher is merely a “printer” (digital or conventional, sophisticated or not) adopting an honorific that they don’t deserve. Read entire article

Global E-Book Awards

2011-08-21T19:37:00.000-04:00

Alas,
101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self remains a finalist. On the bright side, no need for that trip to New York City to interview with Charlie Rose. Who has the time? Thanks for all your enthusiasm!

Finalist for Global E-Book Award

2011-08-19T02:58:00.000-04:00

101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self is a finalist for the Global eBook Awards. Yikes. I wrote this book. The winners will be announced on Saturday in a live webcast from Santa Barbara, CA. It's like the Academy Awards. I'm already thinking of my acceptance speech..."You like me. You really really like me." or some such. Fingers crossed. If I win, batten down the hatches. You won't hear the end of it.

On the Beloved Bookstore

2011-08-17T10:03:00.000-04:00

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Branding by Carolyn Parkhurst

2011-08-12T12:19:00.002-04:00

Luck or Perseverance?

2011-08-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

A lot of gurus in the self-publishing industry say success is more about luck than anything else. This is really odd since these same people have been extremely hard-working and vigilant about writing and marketing. Here's an interesting short article that echoes my sentiment....

Building a tribe is not a matter of a miracle, instead, it’s about converting tiny groups of people at a time, leading them, connecting them, building an audience. When a self-published author does this, she has a new job. Not the author part, the publisher part. She’s not putting a book into the universe and hoping it will be found. She’s not even putting a book in a journalist’s hands and hoping it will be hyped. No, she is engaging in a years-long journey to build a platform. It might take a decade to become an overnight success, but if you keep it up, if you keep building, the odds keep getting better and better. Read entire article.

How to Make Your Blog Popular

2011-08-07T13:50:00.000-04:00

The following is an excerpt from WikiHow on Blogging.

There are different types of blogs, but the majority fall into these three categories: personal/journal, collaborative (more than one author), and topical (based on a particular subject or niche). There are also photoblogs and link compilation blogs. Successful blogs find a niche and stick with it. Is there some aspect of your life you're burning to share? Are you an expert in some field of knowledge? Are you obsessed with current events? Find your passion and your reason for starting the blog, and go for it. Again the key is: it's for you; others will not be willing to read if they sense you're trying too hard to be popular.
A personal blog is sometimes the hardest style to do. Even if you're a brilliant writer and profoundly funny, you have to remember that people who know you "IRL" (in real life) may be accessing your journal. Some bloggers have found many quarrels have started because of information that was published in a personal blog. The key to this is: a) Only use first names if permission is given; if not, use the first initial of the person, and never use last names. b) If the information you share may get someone into trouble or hurt some feelings, then make the entry private (so only you can read it) or don't post it at all. c) Remember that the blog is about you, not about gossip or what your mother's uncle's baby's momma did to the guy across the bar last week...we don't care, and I'm sure that person doesn't want everyone on the world wide web to know either. To read more, click here. The best section is listed under tips. Scroll down the page.

Publishers Unite? But They Love Kindle!

2011-08-04T08:58:00.000-04:00

I just read an article from The Chicago Tribune advising publishers to rise up and fight the e-book tsunami. It's a curious, but uninformed opinion on so many levels...

Why hasn't America's publishing industry launched an ad campaign as seductive and aggressive as the Kindle's? Not to market front-list titles or authors, but to market the paper book form itself? In other words, sell consumers on the exclusive pleasures and qualities traditional books offer that e-books cannot. That's exactly what Kindle's TV commercials have been doing, saying here's what we can do that regular books can't.

Kindle ads are ingeniously engineered. Through a string of images (Kindle in your back pocket; Kindle withstanding licks from a dog), Kindle advertises itself as thinner, lighter and more durable than a book. And with a number of memorable taglines like "Books in 60 seconds," Kindle boasts its unique advantages: 900,000 titles available on Amazon; rapid downloads; able to hold an entire library in the space occupied by a single paperback. Read entire article.

Worldwide Thirst for English E-Books?

2011-08-03T09:17:00.000-04:00

I often say I only want 1000 dedicated readers, adding, that since there are over 7 billion people in the world, this is hardly grandiose. Of course I've overlooked an itsy-bitsy problem - not everyone speaks, let alone reads, English. What can I say...I'm egocentric. Anywho, here's an interesting article on this topic...

A number of publishers from Spain and Latin America (who requested to remain anonymous) suggested that it was another form of North American arrogance merely to assume that everyone who could read the English e-book would want to read it. Each of them suggested that, among their readers, the preference was to read in their native Spanish, and that the lackluster sales of English language e-books in the Spanish-speaking world where they are available in significant numbers validated that point of view. Of course it is important to note that, in the case of Spanish, it is the third most widely spoken language in the world and English as a second language is not as prevalent as it might be in countries where there is a smaller population and their own language is less-widely known. Read entire article.

The Espresso Machine. Say What?

2011-08-02T16:28:00.017-04:00

A couple of years ago, before e-books eclipsed the publishing world, there was great talk, and hope, about the Espresso Book Machine (EBM), a mini POD machine that would crank out paperbacks in drugstores, train stations and church basements. There are Espressos but they are in libraries, a few libraries. So what's up? A librarian's interesting review...

I’m a middle-aged man, which means I actually learned this lesson long ago, and I honestly wasn’t expecting our EBM to really usher in a millenial day of perfectly friction-free access to an unlimited supply of high-quality books. But I did expect that a machine that promises instant distribution of over 3,000,000 titles would offer something like very fast production of lots and lots of high-quality books. Technically speaking, the EBM does print books very quickly. It takes about five minutes to print a 300-page book — as long as the machine is warmed up. If it isn’t, you’ve got to let the glue melt, which will take 45 minutes to an hour. And, of course, 3,000,000 titles sounds like a lot of content, but much of it consists of very old titles in the public domain, only some of which represent content that anyone cares about. We knew this going in, but it’s still been a bit disappointing that more current content hasn’t been added more quickly to the database. On the other hand, one of the great strengths of the EspressNet book database is its depth: shortly after installing our EBM, we were able to find and print an obscure 300-year-old German text for a faculty member who had been trying, unsuccessfully, to find a printed copy of the book for years. That EBM-powered serendipity changed the structure of his course.
Read entire article.

Bestseller lists and E-book Success

2011-07-31T17:57:00.001-04:00

Interesting article from paidContent...

How much do e-books benefit when they hit the Nook and Kindle bestseller lists? A lot, new findings suggest. Meanwhile, the New York Times bestseller list appears to have less effect on e-book sales.

Iobyte’s Dan Lubart, who previously examined the effects of Kindle Sunshine Deals on the Kindle bestseller list, turns his attention to at the Nook and Kindle bestseller lists, alongside BN.com’s print bestseller list. “We found that there is a significant benefit to making these lists, and that benefit is far stronger for e-books than it is for print, where titles rise and fall in sales rank far more frequently,” he writes. “In fact, e-books that rise high on the bestseller list can normally look forward to a far longer time on the list than an equivalent print book.” Read the article

Shifting Sands of E-Book Sales

2011-07-30T10:52:00.002-04:00

Recent report on the blooming e-book market. From Publisher's Weekly....

"E-books and online retailers showed strong market share gains in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the first period of 2010, while book clubs and hardcovers had noticeable declines. Those were some of the shifts in trends derived from Bowker's PubTrack Consumer service.

According to PubTrack, e-books represented 6.4% of dollar sales in the first quarter of 2011 compared to 1.6% in last year's first period, while online retailers' share of sales increased to 35.3% from 26.3% year over year. Online retailers benefited from the increasing popularity of e-books and also have grabbed a growing share of print book sales." Read entire report.

I Want to Be This Guy

2011-07-28T10:53:00.002-04:00

"Sendak’s sense of humor is pitch-black and ribald, though this fact, and the baroque essence of his work, is often lost on readers now that his books have become canonical. “A woman came up to me the other day and said, ‘You’re the kiddie-book man!’ I wanted to kill her.” He hates to be thought of as safe or his work as classic, and he won’t tolerate overpraise. “My work is not great, but it’s respectable. I have no false illusions.”"

iV.F./i Portrait: Maurice Sendak Culture: vanityfair.com

Terrific Summary on the Advantages of Self-Publishing

2011-07-23T18:32:00.001-04:00

The following excerpt from, "Why I turned Down Two Publishing Contracts" by Pamela Olson, is from Self-Publishing Review....

Meanwhile, here’s what publishers take away from you when you sign with them:

Creative freedom. If they want to stick you with a hideously ugly, inappropriate cover design, they can. If they want you to take out the kissing scene, they can make you do it. They always hold the power because you can’t opt out of the deal unless the publisher breaches the contract or the book goes out of print (a slippery concept in a world of eBooks and print-on-demand, and it can take months or years for it to kick in).

Most of the profits. Publishing houses have enormous overheads, which means an author’s per-book take is squeezed, sometimes into practical non-existence. I know a guy who published with a small house, sold 3,000 copies, and still hasn’t made a dime. Most authors are lucky if they can get $1 per book sold.
If you publish your own book, there’s almost no overhead and you can keep most of the profits. The way my book is set up, I take 25% of the cover price if the book is sold through Amazon, 66% if I sell it myself (which adds up quickly!), and 70% of revenues from eBook sales. Read Entire Article

My Thoughts on Writing and Stuff. An Interview with Morgen Bailey.

2011-07-21T06:30:00.000-04:00

Taken from my interview with Morgan Bailey...

Morgen: Hello Linda. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Linda: I’m a retired social worker with a lifelong obsession of trying to figure out why people act the way they do. This, rather than the love of language, is why I write. Curiously, I began writing in my forties having shown no particular talent. In fact, my worse subjects in high school were English and typing. However since I wanted to tell stories about people, I had to learn how to write. Before long the challenge became a passion.

Morgen: Ooh yes, I know how that goes, and I studied before really writing seriously, and feel better for it. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Linda: Mysteries drew me in, but over the years I’ve written fiction and non-fiction books. To date I have a novel, three short story collections, two books on writing / publishing, and a book on meditation. I’m now working on a serial story that can best be described as meta-fiction.
The entire interview...

Podcast for Breath Meditation

2011-07-18T20:30:00.001-04:00

Lordy. Hours spent in doing this podcast. A little rough around the edges. Oh well. Check it out...

Podcast for Breath Meditation

Creating a Facebook Fan Page

2011-07-14T01:15:00.001-04:00

Six steps to making a Fan Page on Facebook....

1. Visit this URL: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
2. Decide what the best category is for your business. (Spend a couple of minutes on this as you can't change it later easily).
3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click "Create Page".
4. At a minimum, add a short description of your business and a website address. This is in the "Add Information To This Page" area. Upload your logo as a photo/image.
5. Click on your business name in the top left corner (it's a hyperlink) and then click "publish this page" (until you do this, nobody but you will be able to see your new Facebook business profile).
6. Finally, and this is important, from your new profile page, click "Add to my products". This way, you become the first "fan" of your business.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/2778/Now-Any-Business-Can-Tap-53-Million-Facebook-Users-For-Free.aspx#ixzz1RzFVuKUK

Review Sites Galore

2011-07-13T01:58:00.002-04:00

Below find an extensive list of book reviewers. Many are blog sites. Some are for Kindle-only books. Read guidelines and check out the sites to make sure your book/e-book is a good fit. An excerpt....

"A word of caution: if your book is un-edited, full of typos, or otherwise unfinished-don't bother contacting the reviewers below. Trust Thy Reviewer. Not everyone is going to love your book. That's Okay. A few negative reviews are expected. Don't freak out. But take the advice under advisement, and be smart about it. Let's say you send your book out to 10 reviewers. If one reviewer hates your book, but nine reviewers LOVE it, you probably have a hit. On the other hand, if all ten reviewers think your book is a giant piece of crap, it's probably a piece of crap. Back to the drawing board. Please contact us if you are a book reviewer and would like to be added to this list."
Review Sites Listing

Why Stop at 99 cents? Give Your Book Away.

2011-07-12T00:27:00.001-04:00

In a recent article in Self-Publishing Review, author Henry Baum does the unthinkable...lowers his novel's price to zero*. The rationale: tons of interest or at least downloads. Here's a snippet....

"I’m in the middle of an experiment with Amazon pricing. Around 6 weeks ago I set my novel to free on Smashwords (instead of pay what you like). My plan was for the book to be distributed free to Barnes & Noble. Amazon would then price match B&N and also make the book free. This is what happened. For a couple days I was listed on the first page of Kindle bestsellers – during that period I was getting 250 downloads an hour. Sure, I’m making nothing – but I can’t imagine there are a lot of writers who don’t like the idea of 250 downloads an hour. Certainly, a lot of people are hoarding books and sampling a few pages – the way you’d do at a bookstore, where you sample books before settling on what to buy. But even if, say, 500 of that 10,000+ actually read the book, this is how buzz starts." Read the article

*Amazon does not allow authors to place any price below .99 on Kindle books. However since Amazon will not be undersold, if a price is lower on another site, Amazon will match it. That's why there are free Kindle books.

Sixth Sense Technology...The future book is a blank piece of a paper.

2011-07-10T11:46:00.000-04:00

Amazing fact...the technology is in place to do this. Cost $350.00

Success, A Brief Talk by Richard St. John

2011-07-09T06:58:00.000-04:00

Another Testament on Successful E-book Publishing

2011-07-07T08:36:00.001-04:00

The following excerpt is from a blog by Bob Mayer. He, like myself, writes across genre/niche. He, like myself, prices two books at .99 and the rest higher. He, not like myself, sold 37,000 e-books last month. In this post, he sites seven steps to success. Here's number two....

"Be a marathon runner, not a sprinter. I’ve run over 40 marathons, including NY and Boston. It’s grueling. It’s different from any distance less than 26 miles, 385 yards, because at 20 miles, even the best trained runner who has never attempted beyond the distance, will hit the ‘wall’. In my first marathon, NY, I hit 20 miles in about two hours, which is pretty good. A 6 minute a mile pace. The next 6 miles took two hours. I’d hit the wall and it was painful. But I did finish. Susan Wiggs hit #1 on the NY Times paperback list last year in 2010. Her first book came out in 1978. An overnight success. Not. It took 18 months for me to go from selling a handful of ebooks a month to selling my current level of 1,400 a day. And that’s with an extensive backlist and having been a bestselling author in traditional publishing. Success in publishing requires being a marathoner and feeling that pain once you’ve passed 20 miles and haven’t yet hit 26. That’s where most people quit."

Read entire article.

A Golden Era for Self-Publishing Writers

2011-07-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

It's not just the Hockings or Lockes or Konraths who are making cash. Many indie writers are joining the party.

"The publishing industry is certainly changing at the speed of light. There used to be only one choice if you wanted to make any decent money writing novels: spend months (or years) querying for an agent, waiting months (or years) while that agent shopped the project around, and then if accepted, waiting up to two years for the book to actually hit the store shelves. If your book wound up on the midlist (which by definition most did) then low volume and a small cut of the books total sales price made it financially impossible for authors to write full time as their sole source of income.

There was a time when self-publishing produced little to no revenue, and doing so was often the last resort for a project that had been rejected by everyone it had been put in front of. Now, in the post digital revolution, the model has been turned upside down. Authors are going to e-books first based on earning potential and a quick time to market. If they do well, then they leverage their sales for larger advances and favorable contract terms. Of course self publishing is not for everyone, but at least for those that decide to go this route, they won’t have to be that one in a million outlier—if they can achieve the e-book midlist status, they stand a good chance of telling their boss, “I quit, I’m going to stay home and write for a living.” Read entire article

The Simple Mechanic of Infinite Execution (Part I)

2011-07-03T08:13:00.003-04:00

I'm very excited to be writing and publishing a serial The Simple Mechanic of Infinite Execution. It is presently planned as a seven-part series. The serial will only be available as an e-book and Parts will be placed on sale in the beginning of every month until finished. I don't have a clue if it will sell, but the idea of writing, publishing and selling an ongoing serial is exciting. I'm especially intrigued to see if Parts not read in succession will entice readers further.

The Simple Mechanic of Infinite Execution is about sex. It is also about characters real (writer and reader) and imagined (man and woman). The narrative sets sail in a seventh-floor lunchroom. Shortly thereafter the fictive romp evolves complicated by blurred boundaries where everyone plays a part. Part I is available in Kindle and many other e-book formats. Cost: $.99 USD.

Excerpt:

Continuing, let me say I’m a naughty girl. Perhaps the word naughty tantalizes you with sexual innuendo and playfulness. And a naughty girl, takes it one step further to licentiousness. I choose words carefully. I don’t want to become boring, predictable. It could be my demise. At any moment you could reach for the remote and flip on the television.

So, I say I’m a naughty girl. And in a split second your mind conjures fleeting images: nakedness and last night or week-end or month when your lover, spouse was on top, panting and slapping against you. I should be embarrassed about such things. I was prudishly raised by church-going parents and a cadre of nuns who covered their bodies in wool and heavily starched cotton. But I am shameless. Holding your attention is everything to me.

However, words are hardly enough. I know my limitations. A shiny hook must be dangled.

This story is about a man and a woman, a boss and a worker bee. They are from different departments, different social strata, different worlds. He drinks dry Martinis and plays golf at the country club. She line dances to country music between sips of diet Coke and rum. And, as you may suspect, he is ten years older and married.

Like us, their meeting is serendipitous, a matter of being in the same place at the same time. Please note I did not say at the wrong place at the wrong time. I try not to judge or give away too much too soon. Simply we are here while they are there, standing in the company cafeteria ordering sandwiches to go, specifically tuna fish on whole wheat. They are positioned rather close which is surprising since there’s no need. It’s almost two o’clock in the afternoon and the cafeteria is practically empty.

Book Promotion, Littered with Vicious Petards

2011-07-01T01:46:00.005-04:00

Petards, if you don't know, are cute little bombs used for blowing up foundations. It caught my eye in the excerpt below.

"What the internet has done for writers is a double edged sword. Published with a major house, or self published, a writer is open to taking the helm on much more of her/his own promotion than it is possible to imagine. Billions of potential readers are out there and the writer can connect to them, personally. But the road is littered with vicious petards. I recall one author, several years ago, that made the New York Times, not for the quality of their book, but for the shame of spamming millions of internet users with unwanted advertisements. It was a career death sentence. Other authors have sunk themselves by shilling for their books, surreptitiously, on message boards, sabotaging competing books with bad Amazon reviews or simply annoying bloggers, by not knowing the professional way to approach them. A writer has to think of themself as a brand, even if they don’t want to. A writer has to remember that everything that leaves their computer has their name on it and it could remain online for all eternity." Click to read more.

E-Book Readers on the Fast Track

2011-06-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

From PewResearch...

E-reader Ownership Doubles in Six Months
by Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research, Pew Internet Project
June 27, 2011

The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011 from 6% in November 2010. E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook, are portable devices designed to allow readers to download and read books and periodicals. This is the first time since the Pew Internet Project began measuring e-reader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults.

Tablet computers-portable devices similar to e-readers but designed for more interactive web functions-have not seen the same level of growth in recent months. In May 2011, 8% of adults report owning a tablet computer such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom. This is roughly the same percentage of adults who reported owning this kind of device in January 2011 (7%), and represents just a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010. Prior to that, tablet ownership had been climbing relatively quickly. Click here to read the full report.

101 Ways to Meditate, Intro Video

2011-06-25T01:16:00.004-04:00

An introductory video on Meditation...(No, I'm not in prison)

Paloma: A Laurent & Dove Mystery FREE OFFER

2011-06-22T17:41:00.001-04:00

The reviews are starting to come in...

Jeannette's review Jun 21, 2011

Recommended for: Mystery and fiction fans
Read on June 21, 2011 — I own a copy

Wonderful mystery! Max is a recently retired FBI agent who still can't get over the woman who testified in a mob case 25 years ago and then went into Witness Protection. Agnes changes her name to Nancy, marries and has a daughter. Then 15 years later when one of the mobsters is paroled, Nancy drowns. Max finds this hard to accept and eventually tracks her and her new identity as Paloma. But it now looks like someone else has found her and attempts are made on her life. Max begins to investigate, eventually reconnecting with Paloma and finding they have much more in common than just this case. The mystery is complex, well thought out and has interesting characters. Are there more "Laurent & Dove Mysteries" out there or coming? I hope so! I read this one in one sitting!

If this peaks your interest, download this FREE book for the next two days
Expires 6/24/2011....

Click Here
Scroll down and select the format you'd like to download
Add the following code at checkout: FM24N (not case sensitive).
Download to your computer, e-reader, or read online.

Five Writing Tips

2011-06-20T19:04:00.001-04:00

Taken from Publishing Tips: Weekly Strategies for the Independent Writer:

Ernest Hemingway said, “Leave water in the well,” meaning at the end of a writing day, stop short so you'll know where to start the next writing day. This works. Some law of inertia I suspect.
What makes character? In fiction, as in life, who we are has to do with challenges faced: a new mother, a soldier back from war are qualitatively changed. Inherent in challenge is conflict, the life force of any story. To build conflict make your created world a hazardous place for your protagonist. See him/her cringe, fight, run, lie, lose. And don’t let up. Also consider levels of conflict: the police want answers, the bank’s foreclosing, and dear granny can’t be found.
In writing fiction, always know what your characters are feeling, then illustrate that feeling through one or all of the following: dialogue, interior thought, action, description. For instance, if a character is angry, have him shout (dialogue), swear in his head (interior thought), slam a window (action), and/or have something occur in the setting that reflects his mood: shattering glass (description).
To keep dialogue fresh, use sentence fragments, contractions, and if germane to the character, commonly-used slang: gonna, wanna, y’know. Avoid dialect unless your ear is flawless and you are prepared to be consistent throughout.
A scene is the basic building block of storytelling where two forces collide. If a scene doesn’t have action and conflict, it needs to be omitted or rewritten. To evaluate a scene consider the following: who are the characters? what does each character want? how is the conflict between them played out? what’s the outcome?

Amazon's Author Central

2011-06-17T05:49:00.011-04:00

Amazon's Author Central has been supersized. It's a one-stop portal to access, correct, add information about you and your book(s). It's here where you can check sales, add info to book pages, update your profile, join Search Inside, become an Amazon Associate account, update reviews, add books, and much more. Some specifics...

On Amazon book pages, an author's name is hyperlinked (underlined). When clicked, a customer is sent over to the author's page. The information on this page is placed there by the author through his/her Author Central account. An author can add: photos, bio, books, blog/twitter feeds, videos, events.
For every book on Amazon, an author can check sales for the past eight weeks. This includes paperbacks and Kindle sales. Info includes: in which state the books sold, how many, and when they were sold.
To jack up the info on any book page, an author can: make corrections, add editorial reviews, update the description, include front/back flap info, add a table of contents, join Search Inside.
Serves as a repository for all customer reviews on every book.

Click to learn more about Author Central.
Click to open an Author Central account.

Virtual Book Tours

2011-06-15T06:03:00.003-04:00

Virtual Book Tours are essentially posting on other blogs about your book. The posting can be a short interview, a review of your book, a guest post, podcast, video, book trailer, excerpt, live chat, article, contest. To entice attendance, freebies, like an autographed book, can be offered. Part of the agreement is also for you to advertise your appearance and direct your readers to the blog that is on your tour. Think of it as a five/ten city stop only on the Net. So where are these blogs that may be receptive to your book? Here's a start. Below find a sampling of blogs that have author tours. There are thousands. Check out the sites first to see if they may be a good fit, then contact the host. Also consider doing the same for other authors (cross promotion) on your blog.

My Reading Room
Teens Read and Write
Reading Teen
The Fiction Enthusiast
YA Bibliophile
I Like These Books
Amaterasu Reads
Word for Teens
Girls in the Stacks
Hooked to Books
YA Addict
The Book Scout

Blog Book Tours

Stephen Tremp

Marian Allen

Diane Wolfe

Alex Cavanaugh

Helen Ginger

Acme Author’s Link

Make Mine Mystery

Blood-Red Pencil

Mark of the Stars
My Book, The Movie
Writers Gone Wild
The Dark Phantom Review
The Romance Studio blog
All Kinds of Writing
Hope. Dreams. Life...Love
Cyber Launch Party

Making a Guide on Amazon

2011-06-13T06:55:00.003-04:00

Another way to promote your book on Amazon is to make it a So You'd Like To...guide. This is a great way to promote nonfiction books. The guide must include at least three Amazon product links. Once finished the guide will be placed on your profile page where it can be edited or deleted. Amazon will also post the guide. Here are the instructions. A guide can be extensive and informative. Here are some Writing Guides. Once you have a guide you can promote it as well.

First Chapters at the Ready

2011-06-11T06:20:00.000-04:00

So what exactly is this? The first chapter of my book Paloma. To place a first chapter of your book into a blog or website, go to the book page of your book (this only can be done for books that have print and Kindle editions), then go to the green Kindle widget and click read the first chapter. A window will open up. Customize the size of the screen (this is 500x325) to fit into your website/blog and add your vendor associate tag (optional). Copy the embed and past into the HTML of your website or blog. The nice thing about this is that a chapter appears right away. There's no downloading, waiting. Visitors can start reading immediately. And there's a link to buy.

Amazon's Listmania

2011-06-08T19:36:00.001-04:00

This month I'm discussing ways to optimize marketing opportunities on Amazon. Listmania is one such opportunity. With this marketing tool, writers can develop a list of books (including your own), that will then be placed on other book pages. An author has no control when or how often the list may show up, but it's worth the small effort to take advantage of this free advertising opportunity. Keep in mind, listing your book with only bestsellers will put your list in a queue that may or may not be posted. One book can be placed on many lists. Here's the page to begin developing your list. Listmania lists are stored automatically on your profile page* and can be edited or deleted at any time.
Some guidelines...

List books similar to yours. Could be of a similar genre, time period, place.
Make many lists for any one book. Again, think of genre, place, etc.
Do a list for every published book.
Attract readers with a catchy title.
Include credentials to show others your expertise in developing such a list.
Explain how your list can be used.
Share your list with friends.
Do lists with other authors.

*A profile page is different than an author page. It's a page that is offered to anyone with an account on Amazon. It stores your reviews for products, your lists, guides, and short bio. To set up an profile page, go here.

A Podcast Test

2011-06-05T07:59:00.002-04:00

For the last few days, I've been attempting podcasts. Here's the best so far. Tape whatever you want on any device that produces an audio file. I used a voice recorder. But you can download Audacity or other voice programs. Open an account at archive.org and upload the file. Grab the html link and place it into body of blog. Very easy and FREE. Check it out. I'm special and pretty much fried after 24 hours of putzin around....

Piano Practice

Nellie McKay

2011-06-02T02:20:00.002-04:00

So funny....So beautiful....

Copyright Infringement Notification

2011-05-31T09:54:00.002-04:00

With the proliferation of e-books, copyright infringement is increasing. Recently many authors have noticed their work on sites without their authorization. Below find a Copyright Infringement Notification I sent to Amazon. Shortly after it was received, Amazon took down the rogue Kindle. Below the notification are Amazon's instructions.

Copyright Infringement Notification

My name is Linda A. Lavid and I am the author who maintains all rights to my book Publishing Tips: Weekly Strategies for the Independent Writer (ISBN: 978-0981707006) The book is published by Full Court Press, an imprint of FCPressLLC which is my company. I have not authorized this book to be issued in a Kindle edition (ASIN: B002ASASZM). I have never uploaded this book, set a sale price, agreed to any trade discount or made arrangements to make this a Kindle download. In recent communication with Amazon, I was told to contact the distributor of this book. I called Lightning Source and they deny having transferred any electronic rights to any distributor and stated that electronic rights are not part of the contract I have with either them or their distributors. For the above reasons, it appears by my copyright has been infringed.

* I am the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.:
* I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
* This notification is accurate.
* I acknowledge that under Section 512(f) any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability for damages.

Contact Information:

Name

Address

City/State/Zip

Tel.

E-mail

From Amazon:

This procedure is exclusively for notifying Amazon.com and its affiliates that your copyrighted material has been infringed. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, provide Amazon.com's copyright agent the following written information:

An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest.
A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon.
A description of where on the site the material you claim is infringing is located.
Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
A statement by you that:
- You have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
- Under penalty of perjury, the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Amazon.com's Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement on its site can be reached at:

Copyright Agent
Amazon.com Legal Department
P.O. Box 81226
Seattle, WA 98108-1226

Phone: (206) 266-4064
Fax: (206) 266-7010
E-mail: copyright@amazon.com

Getting Reviewed by Amazon

2011-05-29T00:52:00.002-04:00

I'm trying to get a handle on how to promote books on Amazon. This is my first posting on the topic.

At times, you may notice an editorial review given by Amazon.com for some books. To submit your book for possible review, here's the information you'll need. Below you'll find the book categories.*

To submit your book for possible feature or review, send it via the U.S. Postal Service to the address below. Please refer to our extensive list of subject areas to determine which category would best represent your book. Indicating a category will ensure that your request is processed in the most efficient manner possible.

Amazon.com

Attn: Editorial - [Product & Category]

701 Fifth Avenue

Suite 1500

Seattle WA 98104

Once your materials are received, they'll be passed along to the appropriate editor(s).

Please know that we receive many editorial submissions each week, and we are unable to acknowledge receipt of a review copy, nor are we able to speculate on whether or not we will be able to review or otherwise promote your title.

*Books Categories

Amazon Student
Arts & Photography
Audiobooks
Audible Audiobooks
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Calendars
Children's Books
Christian Books
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Crafts & Hobbies
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Politics
Professional & Technical
Puzzles & Games
Rare & Collectible Books
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Self-Help
Sports
Teens
Textbooks
Travel

Westfield Farmers' Market

2011-05-27T01:53:00.000-04:00

Opening day
Saturday, May 26
9AM to 2PM
Moore Park (Rtes 20 & 394)
Westfield, New York.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Are Publishers Irrelevant?

2011-05-25T08:28:00.002-04:00

I recently listened to an interesting, fun debate on "Are Publishers Irrelevant?". The podcast runs about an hour. It's entertaining and worth the listen.

Two independent publishers, Rudy Shur of Square One and Richard Nash of Cursor, and two non-publishers, Daphne Kis of She Writes and Mark Coker of Smashwords, squared off. Notably, none of major six publishers were present. Perhaps they were sequestered in the Situation Room trying to look busy with charts or something. The crowd, from the applause, seemed to favor the publishers. On the other hand, the audience may have simply been friends of Richard Nash, who I have to say, had the most interesting way of speaking: halting, brooding, as if he were reading Shakespeare aloud.

Essentially, the debate was less about publishing and more about how technology has changed the game. In the end, everyone had a Kumbaya moment and agreed that it will be the writers and small niche presses that will best survive the technological tsunami that has struck the publishing industry.

By the way, if you've listened to the podcast and are curious as to who, what is Richard Nash, here's a picture. He looks normal, happy...

Tanking Sales. Ouch.

2011-05-23T13:46:00.000-04:00

In March, and for reasons I can't explain, my e-book sales took off. So well, I put the sales on a chart, then mapped their climbing trajectory. Lord in heaven, it was just a matter of time before I'd be reaping the joy of exponential returns, money raining from the sky, and bubble baths in Paris. Then April happened and everything plummeted. Surely there was a glitch. Some weird anomaly or maintenance schedule that held back the reporting of sales. But April passed and the numbers were never adjusted. What? Say it wasn't so. But it was.

Deflated, despondent, I ate ice cream. (Worth mentioning is Perry's Lemon Meringue, Cappuccino Fudge Chunk and Blueberry Cheesecake.) It wasn't just the poor sales, I also wondered why readers bought then stopped. Were the books that disappointing? But with some distance and a clearer mind, I was determined to see a silver lining.

And there was a significant silver lining. Because the few e-books I had were selling, I took on the charge to update and convert all my books into e-books and distribute them madly, across every platform, hither and yon. Now, I'm almost finished. Okay so I had a bad month in April, but I'm feeling May. Besides, should I be disappointed, there's Perry's Banana Cream I have yet to try.

The 99-cent eBook

2011-05-21T19:16:00.000-04:00

The 99-cent eBook is getting a ton of press these days. To those writers/publishers who price e-books, do you low ball to snag reader interest or charge more for the hefty royalty of 70%?

With a royalty rate of 35%, making money on a .99 book means you'll need to sell a lot. It also means you'll get more traffic and interested readers to check out your work. Think of it as free advertising that pays you. Yeah. Crazy. But when a product is so cheap, is it also disposable? Value, for many, is in a product's cost. Does cheap mean worthless? Will the book be read? On the other hand, when a book is sold and money's in your pocket, do you even care if anyone reads it?

The other pricing option is to go higher (minimum $2.99), where the royalty rate jumps to 70% and the net gain is $2 dollars for a $2.99 ebook as opposed to 35 cents for a 99-cent ebook. Sure you may sell fewer, but you'll make five times more while the price is still low enough to entice readers.

Of course, the beauty of e-books is that you can do both, i.e., adjust the price, up/down and see what happens; or price some of your books low and others high. The other beauty of this dilemma is that commercial publishers are reluctant to go anywhere below $5.00, which means indie authors have a wide playing field with direct access to readers who commercial publishers are ignoring. What's not to love about capitalism?

Cultural Reference: Joni Mitchell

2011-05-20T01:36:00.001-04:00

I read a writer's blog yesterday that referred to Tom Rush's "Urge for Going". Well, yes he had sung the song but wasn't that Joni Mitchell's? Indeed it was. And before long I was pulled into her narrative. Following crumbs, I read, watched, listened, and connected some dots forgotten.

Some highlights:

-Born in Canada 1943
-Polio at 8
-Smoking at 9
-Child up for adoption in 1960s
-Played the streets of Toronto
-Fine Artist (self portrait)
-Poet/singer/songwriter
-Creative guitar tuning
-Folk/Jazz fusionist

Lyrics of "For the Roses" (also an album to savor):

I heard it in the wind last night
It sounded like applause
Chilly now
End of summer
No more shiny hot nights
It was just the arbutus rustling
And the bumping of the logs
And the moon swept down black water
Like an empty spotlight

An interview...

It's nice when icons grow old with you. There are no memories. More like real time but from a different vantage point.

On the Road

2011-05-19T04:18:00.011-04:00

Since selling in bookstores wasn't an option, I took my show on the road, first with other writers, then on my own. Before long I was a full-fledged, box-carrying vendor at: fund-raising events, book fairs, art festivals, craft shows, church bazaars, flea markets, shops, libraries, group meetings, bars, state parks. And herein lies the silver lining I spoke about in the previous post: not having a bookstore as an outlet for my books, forced me to get involved with selling in person that in turn made me a far better promoter and seller of my books.

From pain to gain, I...

learned what worked and how to tweak my presentation for increased sales.
became more comfortable and confident in the selling process.
understood what venues were a good fit for my books.
hooked up with other vendors and picked their brains for more venues.

By 2008, I had enough contacts and resources to have a selling venue every week-end. Fees varied, but I quickly learned to be discriminating. I did the best in high traffic venues where I was the only bookseller amid those with higher priced items. On good days I sold 20 to 25 books. Slowly, I began to extend my reach beyond Buffalo and went in for events that were two days long.

In 2010 (one of 2010's surprises ), I hit my stride when I joined a weekly Farmer's Market. To date, I have a mini storefront (aka tent) for seventeen weeks during relatively good weather, in beautiful Westfield, New York...at no cost. Bam.

I'm not sure if any of this would have happened if I had gotten my books to sit, all lonely and forgotten, in bookstores.

Bookstores and Me. A Checkered Past.

2011-05-17T07:53:00.002-04:00

A shocking event yesterday...a bookstore wants to stock one of my books. In fact, they are asking for a case. Say what?

Publishing since 2003, none of my books have ever been in bookstores. Yes, I had tried, and yes, I had failed. My mistakes are painful to review. But I must. A recap of ergos...

Self-published books are rarely ordered by bookstores and mostly accepted on consignment, ergo toss out your sell sheet for ordering from Ingram.
When a book is sold in a bookstore, they usually take a 40% commission off of the cover price, ergo before your book is printed, price it accordingly.
To make money, books must sell for more than than what you pay for the book plus the store's commission, ergo make sure you know ahead of time how much author copies cost.
Placement in a bookstore involves wooing the manager, ergo talking up a part-time stock girl may not be the most effective use of your time.
Once you do meet with a store manager stay on the topic of your fabulous book, ergo getting into a spirited conversation of what an agent does or doesn't do may cut the meeting short and leave everyone feeling...well, put off.

Hey, nobody's perfect. Besides there was a silver lining (next blog post) to all my missteps. For now we must celebrate....In June, 101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self will be available at the Lily Dale Bookstore.

Ignoring Amazon?

2011-05-15T02:28:00.000-04:00

Guilty as charged. And living dangerously in the process.

Among my paperbacks, and Kindles, and Great Britain, and Germany, and other Amazon outlets (France, Canada, etc.), I have a ton of stuff on Amazon. I toss up my books and essentially move on (set it and forget it). But is this wise? Am I missing huge marketing opportunities? Well, since Amazon is a mega-reader site, probably.

If you’re a writer with books on Amazon, when was the last time you …

updated your bio
added new reviews to your book page
made sure everything is tagged
checked how your book is presented on International sites
got involved with their community boards
added a blog
posted a review
evaluated your pricing
read their promotion/marketing suggestions
interacted with a reader

To get you started, here’s a link to update your book page. To get me started, I’m taking one week in June to focus on Amazon. Completely. Totally. No more depending on luck landings, those dangerous, undirected, winsome free-falls that rarely convert.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), A Publisher's Choice

2011-05-13T13:41:00.000-04:00

As more writers become publishers and write, convert, and distribute e-books, a decision must be made: To DRM or not to DRM.

Digital Rights Management restricts how a digital file can be used. When a digital file is DRM protected, it can not be copied, printed or shared. This sounds great for authors, but is it?

Here are some considerations:

DRM files can be easily hacked.
Customers prefer DRM free because it gives them the option of reading an e-book across platforms, i.e., reader to phone to computer.
Passing an e-book around is free publicity.
Certain individuals (Mark Coker, JA Konrath, Barry Eisler) who lead and support the indie movement are against DRM since it inhibits sales.
Whether DRM or DRM free, copyright law and protection remains in effect.

101 Ways to Meditate

2011-05-11T09:27:00.001-04:00

Back to my narrative...

With dwindling funds, I entered 2010. It turned out to be a year of surprises. I began in earnest working on two novels that were well underway. Turns out neither was to be completed. In late April, I woke with a list in mind, a list of meditations, and furiously wrote them down. By the end of June, my sixth book, 101 Ways to Meditate: Discover Your True Self, was written and published. All within seven weeks. No one was more surprised than me. So how exactly does one write a book that quickly?

In an earlier post, I talked about the writing of fiction vs nonfiction. Now I have something to add. For me, writing nonfiction is summarizing and organizing what I already know. Sure there may be some research, but I I understand the topic and know enough to make a book out of it. Fiction on the other hand, no matter how much I outline, has to be created, slogged through, weighed, considered. It's a job.

Anyway, in the book, I discuss meditation and what it means to me. An excerpt:

So what exactly is meditation? In the simplest of terms, it’s about relaxing the body, quieting the mind, and having a focus. It’s also a way to access knowledge intuitively, to experience a world beyond the senses, to communicate with the personal or collective unconscious and, most importantly, to understand who you are.

Before going further, I’d like to say, other than relaxing the body, mind and having a focus, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. Whatever works for you is the right way. Meditation is personal and accommodates itself to your frame of reference and choice of focus.

Why meditate? We all have so many questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Why do I behave the way I do? And, to answer these questions, we search by observing, reasoning, experimenting. Still no matter how many answers come our way, more questions remain. I suspect if life were clear and easily divined, the mystery and intrigue of living would quickly bore us and we’d shrivel up. We are meant to question, to search. It’s in our DNA. But there are other reasons to meditate.

Finally, meditation is fun, exciting, and always new. Razzle and dazzle of the highest order. For this, you’ll just have to try.

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