Whew! What an active day!
Not that I did anything besides write and plan but…my mental muscles are strong now that I realize that I can create eBooks on my own.
I am sooo excited to report that I MADE THREE WHOLE DOLLARS FROM MY EBOOK SALES TODAY!
LOL!
Ok, so I had a deep and annoying, yet challenging yet refreshing chat with my friend Ryan today. The thing is, I have no idea what I’m doing as I pursue my goal of branding myself as an author, speaker and relationship therapist. All I do is research others who have attained similar goals and reach out to them by email asking for advice. Then I try to imitate what they have done, their business model, by using my own special skills and personality.
Since I have no one to guide me, this road is a little lonely and frustrating. I used to daydream about having a mentor who would tell me, “Do this. Call this person. Speak like this. Write like that.” No one has materialized who can play this role in my life so I have to figure it out myself. Thank goodness I have supersmart friends and through the magic of facebook, somehow I’m connecting with other equally ambitious and talented people and I learn from them.
One of them is this chick that I met when I was in Houston last year. I think we sat at the same table at the Power Summit and exchanged business cards but I haven’t seen or spoken to her since then. Maybe an email or something, I don’t know. All I know is, she contacted me on facebook and we’ve been lighting up the messaging service ever since. She is ambitious, started her own company and is eager to partner with me since she has similar goals and is already a published author. I look forward to seeing where this leads.
Another person who really excited me is the chick who organized Marry Your Baby Daddy Day. Remember that movement that happened a couple of years ago that encouraged couples who were co habitating to go ahead and get hitched? Well, I reached out to her because I had a question about my marketing plan and she was happy to offer help. Since then I have become addicted to her blog- she’s CRAZY! I love her style and her flavor and I believe we think alike on a certain level. She’s not afraid to write about the things we THINK about but never admit to. I can’t wait to buy one of her novels, since she too, is already a published author and I’ve been asked to contribute to her blog whenever I have the inspiration. I love that! My web presence is growing steadily!
I had to stop writing my 2nd book because I have to tie up the first one. Since I decided to find another publisher, I also have to find another designer for my book and eBook. My designer got missing on me and that is unnaceptable to me. AGAIN, if you are working with me there needs to be an open line of communication and mutual respect and if you do not provide that, we can not work together. Period. This makes me sad because she is a fierce designer and person but…I can’t compromise on this. Once I begin to feel like I’m not being taken seriously when it comes to my work, I walk. My work is very important to me and so is feeling as though my requests are being respected. So here I go trying to learn how to design for myself.
My friend Ryan says I should not even be thinking about learning design because I need to focus on the gifts I already have and let someone else whose gift is design, help me. Yeah, I feel him but after investing a WAD of cash into this project and then being let down, I need to learn to rely on myself. Please forgive me if my projects aren’t as beautiful as they could be. I’m just starting to learn how to use photoshop and to be honest it’s not fun at all to me. I don’t have an artistic imagination like that.
The business of writing a book is much more than just WRITING the book. After the words are on the page you have to find an agent and then a publisher and THEN you have to go back and forth designing and editing the book. The advice Ryan gave me, since he’s a very successful businessman, is to cut the price of my eBook down to a dollar in order to make it more affordable to people. I was upset, but he was like, “If you make it a dollar, more people will read it and pass it along then when your bigger projects come up, you can charge more. Right now just let your friends and readers support you with this small price. You’ve been giving away free content for years, they’ll spend a dollar to thank you since you’ve been faithful to them.”
So I slashed the price and checked my sales and I got THREE SALES TODAY! LOL! When I think about it, I have to be proud of myself because it took me 2 hours to create the eBook (and it looks like it-LOL!) and I used some of my old poetry which only took me having to copy and paste from my computer. I hope to sell at least 100 copies and since it’s so easy I’ll offer more eBooks on success every once in a while just to keep my arsenal of content flowing.
~sigh~
I feeel great! I know I’m up for a challenge with this whole ‘becoming a designer’ thing but maybe I’ll actually be good. LOL! Sorry, I don’t really believe in myself that much. I’d much rather stick to writing but until I can attract a designer who is talented, consistent and an open communicator I’ll have to figure it out myself.
Oh yeah…I’m uploading the audio files for my last 3 radio shows so you all can hear me try to figure this radio talk show host thing out. ~smile~ It’s fun because you’ll get to hear my bestfriend Tamara speak and a lot of the other people I write about. You can check out the links to listen on my online portfolio.
Be brave. Do the thing that feels right. And if you can’t find help, figure it out for yourself until you can do better. No Excuses. Go for what you KNOW you deserve!