Friday, December 30, 2011

Class Act, An author interview with Barabra Techel

Celebrated author Barbara Techel brings her latest book, CLASS ACT: Selling Books Through School and Library Author Appearances, to listeners in this informative interview on how to pitch to schools, how to determine appropriate fees, what to include in your presentation, and much more.

Barbara Techel is the award-winning author of the Frankie the Walk ‘N Roll Dog book series. She has shared her story of hope and inspiration about her dachshund, Frankie, who is in a wheelchair, with thousands of children and adults since 2007. To date they have made over 300 appearances in Wisconsin and many more via Skype to classrooms across the US and Canada. Barbara is also a speaker and publisher. Barbara and Frankie are avid volunteers as a therapy dog team. They routinely visit a local hospice community, hospital and senior assisted living facility, where they “walk their talk” about the inspirational nature of perseverance in the face of challenge.



Since before her first book was published, Barbara has worked tirelessly to promote her books and the positive message they embody. She has garnered coverage for her story from local, regional and national media through these efforts, and continues to develop and refine her marketing message and approach. CLASS ACT is her first book about what she’s learned, but not likely her last.


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Friday, December 23, 2011

My Life with a Narcissist ~ Podcast Guest Sarah Tate

Writers in the Sky Podcast presents an interview with author Sarah Tate about her recently published book, Web of Lies - My Life with a Narcissist. The interview offers information about NPC (narcissistic personality disorder) and about the author's experiences publishing her work through CreateSpace.


About the Author 

Sarah Tate is a single mother living and working in Switzerland. She arrived in Switzerland ten years ago and apart from a brief stay in France, has remained ever since, as Switzerland has become her adopted homeland. Sarah has three young kids, who take up most of her time, but she still managed to find time to write her first book Web of Lies - My life with a Narcissist. The book is an auto-biographical novel which describes in graphic details, the ups and downs of life with a person who suffers from (amongst other things) narcissistic personality disorder. Web of Lies takes the reader on an emotional journey and gives a deep insight into what it's like to be sucked into the world of a disordered individual, and more importantly, how to escape with your sanity in tact.

Her second book, with the working title Renaissance - A Journal of Discovery, is a work in progress. It describes the road to recovery from narcissistic abuse, and charts the progress of Sarah and her children as they rebuild their lives following the breakup of the family, and slowly come to terms with the devastation caused by Sarah's ex. Her third book, In the Shadow of an Angel is a psychological thriller. It will be out next year.

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Join Us for a "Conversation" with Malinda Dowsett

This week's podcast guest is Malinda Dowsett, the writer and motivational speaker who, along with co-author Lani Barna, transformed her life from tragedy to triumph.

How did these two amazing women do this? They used a tool that we all use everyday: our conversation. Now, in their new book, Change Your Conversation, Change Your Life, they explain how everyone can manifest the life they want by altering the way they speak to each other, and themselves.

This book serves as an easy to follow guide, beginning with shifting one's consciousness from negativity to gratitude. "It is impossible to feel negative," Dowsett said, "when you are feeling grateful for the good in your life."
Click Here to Listen
Like what you heard? Order Change Your Conversation, Change Your Life today at www.changeyourconversation.com

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Microsoft Word Feature and Keyboard Shortcut

Pressing Ctrl+F together will open a box that allows you to type in the word or exact phrase you are looking for. Click OK and Word will start from the point in your document where your cursor is located and find the next word or phrase that is exactly as you typed in the search.

To replace that word or word phrase, click the “replace” tab at the top of the search box and type in the word or phrase you want to substitute. Word will replace one at a time so you may review each change or all of the occurrences at the same time.

In this same search box, you may click on the “go to” tab and locate a particular page number. This is very useful if you have many pages to scroll through but you know that you want to be on a certain page. Just type in the page number and Word will take you there. This option is also accessed by Ctrl+G.



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Monday, December 19, 2011

Author Blogging 101: Blog Infrastructure

by Joel Friedlander
What defines a blog is a matter of opinion, but in my mind the basic element of a blog is a stream of posts that are usually presented with the newest one first. This reflects the very first blogs that were really online journals.
What makes a blog a part of “Web 2.0 or an interactive social-media site is the comments. Blogs without comments are still blogs, but they aren’t part of the social media landscape since there’s no way to interact with them.
But blogs have evolved quite a bit since their beginnings, and can now be the center of a multifaceted web presence with sophisticated content management and e-commerce capabilities.
How you set up your blog, the size and number of your columns, the specifications for your type fonts and headings and emphasis settings are all part of the infrastructure of your blog. All together its the bits and pieces, many of them behind the scenes, that make your blog “go.” Let’s make a list:
Blog Infrastructure
1.       Platform—This blog runs on software from WordPress.org. You can also blog on Blogger, Tumblr, Posterous, TypePad and numerous other platforms. I like WordPress because it’s widely used and supported, it’s open source and freely shared, and it’s easy to find resources from training to technical help.
2.       Header—The area at the top of your blog. On most blogs this is going to be used for a logo, the title of the blog, and where the visual branding is strongest.
3.       Text column—The main text display area, usually somewhere in the middle of the screen. You can set the width of this on lots of blog software, but keep in mind that the length of your text line has a crucial impact on overall readability. The optimum will show about 10 words per line.
4.       Sidebars—These are the narrower columns next to your main text column. You can have no sidebars, one or two or three sidebars, really it’s up to you and the limits of your software. Sidebars also hold more infrastructure items likes widgets.
5.       Posts and Pages—Many blogs, including WordPress blogs like TheBookDesigner can contain both pages and posts. These are handled quite differently by the blog software.
6.       Pages—These are fixed pages like those you will find on any website. They have a place in the hierarchy of your pages and subpages. Being able to create both posts and pages gives you the ability to create a hybrid site that contains both your sequential, dated articles (posts) and your fixed articles or other content (pages). For instance, most blogs contain an “About” page, and that is a fixed page of content.
A separate type of page is one created on demand by your blog, which is really a content management system. What does that mean? All your posts are stored in a central database, and can be shown on screen in response to different choices a reader makes. For instance, if you use categories to organize your posts, a reader can click the name of the category and your blog software will create a page that displays the most recent posts in that category, with the rest just a click away. These on-the-fly pages are also created by clicking on a tag, or by doing a search for some specific word or phrase. Clicking the headline of any article will create another type of page, the single post page, that shows the entire article and nothing else.
There are many kinds of pages that can be included in your blog.
·         Informational pages, like those that describe your services or link to other resources in your field.
·         Sales pages, for displaying one or many products for sale directly from your site.
·         E-commerce pages, where you sell a whole selection of goods, like an Amazon page of books and products you recommend.
·         Landing pages, often used in internet marketing to focus attention on one specific action the reader is supposed to take. These are often stripped of page navigation and sidebars. When the design of the page leaves only the option of taking the action or leaving the page, they are called “squeeze” pages.
·         Opt-in pages are a special type of landing page used solely to allow a reader to sign up for a product, a service or some special offer.
7.       Page navigation—Most blogs have a navigation bar (or “nav bar”) that gives you access to the fixed pages you include for display.
8.       Footer—Down at the bottom of your blog you’ll see your blog footer. This area may be very small, just one line, or it might be quite deep, with links, opt-in forms and other content. What you can put in the footer is mostly a function of which software you’re using.
9.       Plugins—On WordPress blogs, plugins are small programs that can be added to your blog’s software to perform even more duties. Some of these plugins are almost mandatory. An example is Akismet, which catches spam comments and sends them to a spam folder for you to examine. Another is Google Site Maps, a plugin that allows your evolving blog to be more accurately indexed by Google’s roaming robots.
10.   Widgets—These are more functions you can add to your blog, often created by third party providers. Widgets mostly live in your sidebars and do things like display ads, or your recent Twitter stream, or the books you recommend, or your mailing list opt-in form.
11.   Themes—Software like WordPress is mostly behind the scenes, managing your content for you and displaying it for readers in response to their requests. At their simplest, themes add a “skin” or visual style to the underlying framework. At their most complex, they contain lots of software themselves that allow you do perform functions not included in the basic platform. These themes might be free themes you can install any time you like, and change at your whim, to alter the appearance of your blog. Premium themes have a lot more variety and sophistication, along with more features. Premium means they cost money.
Parent/child themes like Genesis create another level of software run by the parent theme that adds functionality to the blog, and also allows you to swap out child themes to change the look and feel of the site. When you get started, it’s fine to stick to a free theme. Just add a header to personalize it and start publishing, there will be plenty of time for all these other improvements later.
12.   Syndication—Your blog generates a feed when you publish your content. This feed can be picked up by a third-party service and sent to lots of different places. This syndication is a powerful way to multiply the impact of each article you publish. For instance, people can subscribe to your feed and get your posts delivered automatically. You can also direct your feed, with a little help, to other locations like your Facebook page. The beauty of this is that it’s easy to do and mostly free. Usually referred to as RSS for Real Simple Syndication, and is represented by the RSS icon you’ll see on most blogs.
13.   Categories and Tags—I found the difference between these two mystifying at first, until I ran into an explanation from another author. They said they considered their categories like chapters in a book, and tags like items in an index. Categories give you a high-level organization, while tags are more useful to describe the terms in an article that people would be searching for.
14.   Under the hood coding—Of course there’s a lot you can do by creating custom code for your blog software, but that’s not something I spend any time on. I hired a great blog designer to create the look of my blog and the style you see in the headers, heads, typography and sidebars.
It’s important to know the parts of your blog. It will save you a lot of time when you first get started just trying to figure everything out.

Article by Joel Friedlander
Joel Friedlander is a self-published author and book designer who blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.





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This Week's Podcast Guest: Author and Speaker Malinda Dowsett

Be sure to listen to the WITS podcast this week when we speak with Malinda Dowsett, co-author of Change Your Conversation, Change Your Life. This transformational book is a must-read for anyone seeking to overcome anxiety, stress and depression and manifest the life they truly desire.

For years, Malinda and Lani Barna leaned on each other as they struggled with tragedy, disappointment and upheaval in every facet of their lives. They knew there had to be another way, and they decided that they must begin with "changing their conversation".

Our words have immense power to shape our lives. When we speak negatively about our circumstances, we reaffirm and perpetuate them. Change Your Conversation offers guidance on how to change the dialogue that you have, not only with others, but with yourself.


Join us this Friday to hear about how Malinda and Lani transformed their lives, as well as their goals to help millions of others do the same. To order the book now, visit www.changeyourconversation.com/

Friday, December 16, 2011

Author Jennifer Chase Joins Us to Discuss Dark Mind

Award-winning author Jennifer Chase sat down recently with WITS team member Sarah Moore to discuss her release Dark Mind.  Jennifer has visited with WITS in the past to discuss her other novels--Compulsion, :Dead Game, and Silent Partner and it's always great to catch up with her.

In Dark Mind, Emily Stone and Rick Lopez, who readers of Chase's other work will know well, visit the island of Kauai and become entangled in the hunt for a serial killer who has tortured and murdered woman in order to please his god.  Chase knows the island well and envelops her readers in the physical beauty, culture, and language of the area.  She also takes us into the dark and remote areas of the island that become a terrifying breeding ground for suspicion and violence.




During the interview, Jennifer Chase discusses what it is like to carry a character like Emily Stone over several novels, how she separates after writing a particularly difficult scene, and how her marketing efforts have evolved over the past several years.

Click here to listen to the entire interview.

Dark Mind can be purchased through Amazon.com.   

Book Review for Dark Mind by Jennifer Chase
written by Sarah Moore

To share that the most recent offering by author Jennifer Chase is my favorite means that I really love this novel, as I have enjoyed every book that she has published. Dark Mind is the fourth novel by Jennifer Chase, and through its pages Chase takes her magnificent ability to put her readers inside the mind of a serial killer and to produce plot twists that literally take your breath away to a new level of thrills and intensity. Whether or not you are already familiar with Jennifer Chase’s work and have eagerly been anticipating this new release (like me), or she is an author you are discovering for the first time, you will not be disappointed by Dark Mind.

Chase brings character Emily Stone back to the forefront in Dark Mind. Still happily connected to Detective Rick Lopez in an endearing romance, the two arrive on the island of Kauai to investigate a child abduction that is part of a larger, disturbing trafficking network. Once there, the couple becomes drawn into the search for a serial killer who has been attacking women and then sacrificing their bodies in grotesque and public ways to please his god. Joined by former FBI investigator and good friend Jordan, who fans of Chase will recognize, and local investigator Sergeant Lani Candena, Emily and Rick explore the darkest and most remote locations in Kauai in their hunt to bring a vicious monster to justice.

For the first time in her writing, Chase involves the physical environment as a major character in her writing. The island of Kauai provides an amazing backdrop for the storyline, with its gorgeous beaches that create a sense of peace and pure beauty, as well as the uninhabited woods and caverns that can be terrifying to those not familiar with the land. Chase also displays a deep knowledge of, and respect for, the local culture and traditions. The readers are not just placed on an island and asked to accept the storyline; they are transported into the language and mystery and mysticism of the land, making the authenticity of the work thoroughly believable.

As has been a particular strength through all of her books, Jennifer Chase continues to put forth a powerful psychological component in her writing. We are asked to delve into the thoughts and fears of a serial killer, even taking breaths with him and walking with him as he stalks his prey. I found myself having to shake off the intensity of these episodes before moving forward with the next scene, which speaks to the strength of Chase’s writing and her obvious background in criminology. And, Chase also succeeds at another critical element of a thriller novel . . . she keeps the reader guessing. The suspense is effectively built so that you never know when danger may strike and the twists in who the “bad guys” are in the novel evolve wonderfully. It’s not an instance in which you read a scene and think, “Oh, she wants me to think this guy is the killer, but he won’t be.” The revelations really are unexpected and make for a great climax to the book.

Jennifer Chase does not disappoint with her new novel, Dark Mind. Far from it. Instead, she proves that her creative mind continues to generate fresh and compelling story lines and characters. If you are looking for a book that is smart, beautiful, and even a bit frightening at times, you need to pick up a copy of Dark Mind.

Tips on Self-Publishing an E-Book

Getting a contract with a regular publishing house is more difficult than ever, even if you have a dynamic story. With E-Books rising to prominence and increasing competition from others, book publishers have become increasingly risk-averse when selecting authors to work with.

You may have done market research and tried to interest a regular publisher only to be rejected. To find a regular publisher, you have to write up a book proposal with a letter, a synopsis, and up to three chapters of your book. It can take years to even receive a nibble or rejection. In addition, many publishers look to recycling undergraduate and
master's degree textbooks as a means of profits instead of publishing new works. Publishing your e-book, however, provides a great alternative to help you meet your aspirations as a writer.

When you publish your book with a regular publisher, you relinquish your leverage by signing over many rights of your book to the publisher. To get that seal of approval from a regular publisher, you'll receive an advance and royalties. Some publishers only pay royalties or purchase the book outright, while others pay advances and expect the author to use the money to promote their book. The negotiation process is a laborious and complicated one which can be mind-numbing.

When you publish your work as an e-book, you receive the primary income from the book, not the publisher. You don't have to wait for the next quarter to see money from your book nor will you have money withheld against print book returns.

Publishing your book as an ebook yourself means you have full control of the look, cover, format and contents. Of course, if you want the book to sell, you'll still want to have it professionally edited, formatted, and have a dynamic cover created for your work. Nevertheless, the final result is yours and yours alone. No editor is going to change your vision into something acceptable to a large, faceless publishing company.

In addition to the creative aspect of your work, you will also be in charge of formulating and executing a marking plan that best works for your particular book. You decide what percentage of a sale you'll give to different vendors for promoting or selling your book. You have much more say in the pricing of your book than if your e-book were released by a regular publisher, where you'll have little to no say in pricing

The CNET article "
How to self-publish an ebook" provides tips on publishing an ebook. This includes setting the price on your book low enough, sometimes less than $4.99, in order to incentivize weary readers to take a look at your book instead of sticking to bestseller lists.

Smashwordssimplifies creating your ebook and getting it into circulation. It features e-books published by little know, independent publishers to one of the largest independent publishing networks in the world. Self-publishers such as Booklocker, CreateSpace, and Lulu can also help get your e-book to market. While you can do much of this yourself at CreateSpace and Lulu, you can also buy packages to ensure that your book has a professional appearance.

The ABC article, "
EBooks: Could You Be the Next Self-Published Star?" shares stories of authors who actually made money as self-published e-book authors. E-book sales are on the rise. According to the article, although book sales across all platforms grew just 3.8% between 2009 and 2010, e-book sales grew a whopping 164.4% over the same period. While writing, self-publishing, and marketing a book as an e-book is not for every author, e-books are a positive way to get your story out to the public by your own means and on your own schedule.

Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and videogames. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead.


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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Book with a View December 2011



Title: Millennium Slave: Part I
Author: Sijuan King
ISBN: 978-0-984-65790-2
Published: W.E. Smith Co., 2011
Available on Amazon.com
Reviewer: Dana Micheli

Sijuan King has always dreamed big, and she never shies away from the hard work necessary to make those dreams a reality.  As a child, she performed for her family and friends, and even sang with a female singing group at local nightclubs. As an adult, inspired by the success of her uncle, boxing icon Don King, she received her MBA, ran several successful businesses, and still found time to raise a family of her own.  She also remained active in the arts, and even wrote, produced and performed in her own music video. Now she has attained yet another lifelong goal with the release of her first novel, Millennium Slave, Part I.  

 Millennium Slave is the two-part story of a man who—like Si—will stop at nothing to reach his goals.  When the novel opens, Charles Allen Hart has reached the pinnacle of success. Armed with brains, charm and an MBA, he is appointed CFO of one of the world’s largest corporations while still in his thirties.  When he purchases his dream home-- a penthouse apartment near Central Park-- he knows his hard work has finally paid off.

He also has wonderful family and friends, as well as the love of Trudy Henderson, a brilliant and beautiful civil rights attorney. When, as part of his promotion, he is offered a cruise on board the corporate yacht, Charles accepts and asks Trudy to go with him. Their first night at sea, he asks her to be his wife, and her acceptance is the final piece of his perfect and well-deserved life, falling into place.

But there are evil forces at work that Charles cannot even conceive of, and he is about to get caught up in their centuries-old plan to preserve their way of life. These forces are powerful enough to make a two-hundred-foot yacht disappear into the Atlantic, and its passengers and crew declared legally dead.

Now locked in bondage thousands of miles from home, Charles works tirelessly to formulate an escape. He will need every ounce if his physical, mental, and spiritual strength in order to defeat the secret society of powerful men who have enslaved himself, his beloved Trudy, and so many others he has grown to care about; some of whom have never known the taste of freedom.    

Throughout the course of the novel, Charles learns that control is an illusion, for everything he had was ripped away. He also learns that freedom is more important than materialism, and that wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places, and from the most unlikely people.  Millennium Slave is an epic story of both heartbreaking tragedy and triumph of the human spirit.

While this novel is a “what if” story, it is also representative of injustice—including human trafficking and enslavement—that is still happening throughout the world. This issue is close to Si’s heart, and she plans to use it as a platform to advocate for social justice, both in the United State and around the world.  

“The storyline came to me fully-formed,” Ms. King says, “Its characters were inspired by people I’ve known and who have inspired me. The subject matter is representative of injustices going on in the world, injustices that I would like to work toward eradicating.” 

Millennium Slave, Part I ends with a painful cliffhanger, but readers won’t have to wait for long to find out what happens to Charles. Si is already working on Part II, which is due out in early 2012.
You can purchase your copy of Millennium Slave: Part I at www.sijuanking.com  It is also available at Amazon.comand www.barnesandnoble.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Be Still: And Let God Be God
Author: Robert Paul Baeyens
Publisher: Deep River Books
ISBN: 1935265121
Reviewer: Dana Micheli of WITS
Available on Amazon.com

Robert Paul Baeyens’ book, Be Still, is a Life Changer

“Be Still, for I am God”. . . these words changed Robert Paul Baeyens’ life, as they will everyone fortunate enough to read his book. It stands alone among the thousands of books on spirituality, religion, and the path to eternal life, and is simply a must—read for anyone seeking a closer relationship with God.

Be Still and Let God be God chronicles Baeyens’ journey from depression to triumph. With the raw—and sometimes painful—honesty of a private diary, it takes us through the tragic loss of his father, the loving, inspirational support of his sister, and his battle with the inner demons that caused him to keep God at a distance for so many years.

The book explores nearly every facet of the human condition—from our relationships with family and friends to our habits, beliefs and temptations—and their connection to God’s role in our lives. It also delves into the beliefs of several different religions, as well as prominent individuals throughout history. In this way he shares the wisdom of great people—from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Pastor Joel Osteen—and reinforces the point that God has truly placed teachers in our paths, at every turn.

But Be Still is not armchair theology; Baeyens courageous “experiments”—from walking in the shoes of an atheist to see life from the “other side”, to living as a homeless person to better realize the blessings in his own life—make this book incredibly moving and like no other I have read.

Perhaps the biggest reason this book is so special is that Baeyens shows us—not how to follow his path, but to find our own.
Be Still is available at Amazon.comand www.barnesandnoble.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Title: The Disturbing Effect on Moonlight
Author: Mia Zabriskie
Publisher: Mia Zabriskie Books
ASIN: B005FXHOE2
Reviewer: Dana Micheli of WITS
Available on Amazon.com

Mia Zabriskie, author of The Disturbing Effect of Moonlight, Returns with Another Nail—Biting Thriller.

Her new thriller, Fraidy, captures not only the timeless suspense of the murder mystery, but the appetite of today’s reality—obsessed TV viewer.

Twenty-two-year-old Deanna Lovelock is striking, brilliant, and haunted. As the story opens, she is leaving the dorm of her Boston university and heading home. While there, she plans to solve the vicious murder of her beautiful but troubled mother. Ten years ago, Deanna found Gracie Lovelock’s bloody body on the floor of that house, and it has shaped every moment of her life since. As an attempt to pay tribute to—and surpass—the work of the filmmaker father she adores, she decides to chronicle her investigation with a video camera.

But not everyone is happy that Deanna is back in town. For the Lovelocks were not the only family destroyed by Gracie’s murder; their neighbors, Zack and Harlan Booth, still live under the shadow of suspicion cast upon their father, who had been Gracie’s lover.

As Deanna, Zack and Harlan try to piece together the events of that horrible night, each has a different theory as to who had the most to gain from Gracie’s death. Was it a stranger, a serial killer presumed dead, or even Deanna herself? Should they believe the ravings of the feeble—minded yet psychically gifted man who predicts the actions of a monster named Fraidy?

Zabriskie’s writing is so vivid, you can smell the rot of death in the old Victorian house, hear the sound of a brutal killer creeping up the stairs, and feel the impotent rage of Harlan Booth as he speaks of his broken, suicidal father. One’s only regret in reading this book is the knowledge that “all good things must come to an end”; one’s only solace is that Zabriskie will undoubtedly outdo herself the next time around. Fraidy, along with her other books, are available on Amazon.comand www.barnesandnoble.com



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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

TODAY: The 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn New book asks: Can we heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell?

The 7 Graces of Marketing (paperback and Kindle) is available from Dec 13th at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book
Today is the official book launch of the brand new book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell by my friend and colleague, Lynn Serafinn. I wanted to share this news with you, because this book truly stands out as a title many are calling "ahead of its time". 

While Lynn is known as a leading online marketer, this book is definitely NOT a "how to" book on how to "do" marketing. Rather, it's a book about how we can "be" with marketing, both as business owners AND consumers.

A bold, holistic and often spiritual examination not merely of the world of advertising, but also of our entire worldview, The 7 Graces of Marketing reveals how our relationships with Self, others, our businesses, our economy and the Earth impact every aspect of our lives. Addressing both the conscious and unconscious mechanics of marketing, Lynn shows the impact consumer culture has upon our health, our economy and the delicate ecological balance of our natural world.

The book is intended to be a starting point for discussion, hopefully leading to global changes in the world of commerce. Here are Lynn's poignant opening words from the book:

This is a book of questions, not a manual of answers. And I shall make no apologies for the fact that you are quite likely to have many more questions after you have finished reading this book than when you began...Instead of needing to find all the answers, let us agree to engage in the free dialogue of ideas. Let us unlock any barriers that may lie between us. Let us see and respect each other for what we all are: sentient, intelligent beings, who are made of the same 'stuff' and who share the same planet. Let us see and hear each other. Let us allow ourselves to be seen and heard. And now, with that in mind, let us begin with the first question of this book, and the one that will underpin all the other questions to follow: 'Is marketing making us ill?'

From this point, Lynn invites us to dive into a fascinating dialogue spanning 400+ pages of extensive research, historical examples, a wide variety of philosophical and sociological perspectives, refreshing humour and masterful storytelling, as she takes us on a compelling exploration through "The 7 Key Relationships", "The 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing", and ultimately, "The 7 Graces of Marketing".

The book is already receiving a lot of critical acclaim from other authors and speakers from the world of business and marketing, who are earmarking it as "the new paradigm" for the future. Here are just a few samples of what others have said:

*  *  *  *  *

"At last--here's a brilliant reframe of marketing and selling. Lynn Serafinn offers a brave new world, where competition and scarcity give way to collaboration, abundance and greater connection among all humanity--and we still profit and prosper as we help each other. I love it!"
~ DR. JOE VITALE, author of The Attractor Factor, Buying Trances
"The world NEEDS this book! Lynn is ahead of the curve, and leading us toward how we will ALL look at marketing in the future."
~ RICHARD S. GALLAGHER, author of How to Tell Anyone Anything and What to Say to a Porcupine
"This is what the world has been waiting for! Finally a marketing book that guides us out of fear, lack and limitation into love, prosperity and abundance."
~ DR. ERIC PEARL,
author of The Reconnection: Heal Others, Heal Yourself

"An amazing book…It's so ahead of the times, and is the kind of book that can set a new paradigm altogether."
~ WILLIAM GLADSTONE, Founder Waterside Productions Literary Agents, author of The Twelve, co-author of The Golden Motorcycle Gang

"Natural, fresh and original, The 7 Graces of Marketing is the defining organic approach to marketing…"
~ LIZ GOODGOLD, author of Red Fire Branding: How to Create a Hot Personal Brand to Have Customers for Life!

*  *  *  *  *

Buy The 7 Graces of Marketing from Dec 13th at

I am pleased to be supporting Lynn in the launch of this book, which is taking place on Tuesday December 13th.

When you buy The 7 Graces of Marketing during the launch, you can receive dozens of personal and professional development gifts from Lynn's friends and colleagues, as well as the complete set of MP3s (over 10 hours of audio) from Lynn's 7-part "7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit", with 24 internationally renowned guest speakers discussing all of the "7 Deadly Sins" and "7 Graces" of marketing. Nearly 2000 people registered to attend this exceptional live event which took place last week, and now you can get the complete audio set as a gift, simply by buying the book, along with nearly 50 other free gifts.


To pick up your copy of the book (in paperback or Kindle)
 and claim your bonus gifts, go to:

I hope you'll check out The 7 Graces of Marketing by Lynn Serafinn this week, so we can begin the dialogue for a more connected way of doing business and marketing that will serve both humanity and the Planet.





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Monday, December 12, 2011

Author Blogging 101: Where Are the Readers?

by Joel Friedlander

There’s nothing more typical, and more dispiriting, than a new author blog that has just started, and on which the writer is diligently posting articles, and wondering why no one seems to be noticing.
Hey, we’ve all been there, and most blogs start exactly that way, particularly if this is the first blog you’ve ever worked on.
It’s almost as if the process of doing all the technical work, setting up your blog, getting the theme right, the plugins all working, all the plumbing going right, is a distraction from this one fact: Where are the readers?
We All Start With a Readership of 1
Every blog starts with the counter at 1: you are the only visitor. Let’s face it, your whole blogging journey is going to be growth from here, there’s no other choice.
One of the first things I learned about blogging was to not rely on friends or family to become blog readers. In fact, assume that they will rarely read your articles.
So how does a blog go from a readership of 1, with no support from people close to you, to something alive, vital, and thriving? Where do all those people come from? How the heck do they find your blog in the first place, considering the sheer size of the internet?
That’s where traffic comes in, and why you need to understand what it is, where it comes from and what you can do about it. And we’re going to go over each of those issues.
But first, let’s take a high-level look at blog traffic to get our bearings.
Three Kinds of Traffic
There are really only three distinct ways people come to your blog or website, and it pays to know what they are. Here’s how I look at it:
1.       Organic traffic—This is what I call people who arrive at your blog by clicking a link somewhere that wasn’t paid for. In other words, it coincided somehow with their own interest or curiosity.

You an divide this organic traffic into:
1.       People who click your own links, like the signature file you use in your email, or the link you use as a member of a discussion forum, or when people click your link in a social media profile.
2.       People who click other people’s links, for instance if you contribute a guest post to another blog with a link back to your own blog, or the link in an article that’s been republished from an article site. This also includes marketing you do like entering blog carnivals, and all the times other writers link to your articles.
2.       SEO traffic—I think of this as traffic that you attract from search engines by writing your blog posts in such a way that they aim at specific keywords that appear in people’s queries when they are looking for information in your field.
You can build SEO traffic through a variety of means, including
1.       Blogger tools like themes that help you optimize your posts, add-ins like Scribe (affiliate) that analyze your posts for SEO efficiency or other specific tools.
2.       Blog design, in which a designer can code features into your blog that will benefit you when it comes to search engines
3.       Hired SEO experts, not an option used by many indie authors that I know of. However, experienced SEO consultants can have a major impact on your blog’s search engine rankings.
3.       Paid traffic—This is all the traffic that results from payments of one kind or another. For instance, you might use:
1.       Pay per click, where you bid on specific keywords and then pay a small fee each time someone clicks the link that’s displayed on content-appropriate pages.
2.       Advertising, like running a banner ad on someone else’s blog, or running a Facebook ad campaign.
3.       Sponsorships in which you materially sponsor or co-sponsor a contest, an award or some other event that brings people to your site.
Each of these three kinds of traffic can be used to bring new readers to your blog. In fact, there are specific strategies you can use for each of them.
The great thing about working on traffic is that even small steps will have an effect. When you learn some of these strategies and apply them over time, the effects snowball.
That’s when a combination of the links coming from your own efforts combine with the effect you have within your niche. Other people start linking to you because of the contribution you make with your articles and blog posts.
Content marketing, the natural tool of the blogger, always starts with great, useful content. That’s what people will link to.
As we continue to look at author blogging, we’ll also continue to explore each of these avenues by which readers find and reach your blog. And I’ll share with you the strategies I’ve used on my blog and the results they’ve produced so you can see firsthand how this all works.


Article by Joel Friedlander
Joel Friedlander is a self-published author and book designer who blogs about book design, self-publishing and the indie publishing life at TheBookDesigner.com. He's also the proprietor of Marin Bookworks, where he helps publishers and authors who decide to publish get to market on time and on budget with books that are both properly constructed and beautiful to read.






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Saturday, December 10, 2011

Editor's Corner December 2011

Here we are in the last month of a very exciting and wonderful year that brought much change for many people. In spite of the hardships some people encountered, we have survived and even thrived as we made strides in awakening and remembering that we are grand creators. Aligned with the natural power of the universe, we have manifested new careers, healed a sense of separateness, and accessed the love and oneness of All That Is.

In some ways it’s sad to see a year come to an end; in other ways it’s exciting because we know that right around the corner there awaits a fresh new year brimming with unlimited potential to create whatever we desire. I hope that is the optimistic stance you are holding during this time of transition.

I have seen transformations in my family, my finances, and my personal relationships in 2011. I am indeed grateful to have moved into my destiny as I share uplifting spiritual insight through my books, podcasts, and coaching. It warms my heart that more and more people are writing to tell me how much they are growing from reading my books, tweets, Facebook updates, blog posts, and participation on LinkedIn. I hope you are connected in these avenues and will continue to correspond with me to share your experiences during 2012 as we take the next step in the evolution of human consciousness and expansion of the Earth.

This shift in consciousness allows us to see that there is no need to compete with others. There is enough water in the ocean to float all our boats and there is no lack of any kind when we are fully connected to Spirit in all our endeavors. This mindset shows us how to market our books, services, and products in a win-win manner as outlined in Lynn Serafinn’s new book, The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell. I encourage you to tap into the rich marketing resources and spiritual wisdom of Lynn and the panelists who will be sharing in a free upcoming telesummit. There is more information in this issue, so be sure to read everything in this jam-packed, year-end edition of Writers in the Sky Newsletter.

Have a wonderful and enjoyable holiday season!

Yvonne Perry,
Owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services
Website: http://writersinthesky.com
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