Monthly Archives: December 2020

Achieve Book Marketing Success from Home

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By African American Books Author Denise Turney

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Book marketing is work. In fact, marketing books is so much work that authors can easily spend 90% or more time solely on marketing after they publish new books. Fortunately, there are no-cost to low-cost ways to get the word out about your books without leaving home.

Book Marketing Festivals

For example, The Everywhere Book Fest, the Miami Book, FLIP, Hay Festival of Literature and Arts, Brooklyn Book Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Harlem Book Fair pull in hundreds, some of the events attract thousands, of book lovers and book buyers. For instance, in 2018 more than 250,000 people attended the Miami Book Fair.

Clearly, book festivals are great places to implement author marketing strategies like distributing postcards, handing out brochures, flyers and free book excepts. Also, large book festivals are great places for authors to talk with book lovers and book buyers face to face.

Authors who ask visitors who stop by their festival booth to sign up for their digital newsletter, could send festival visitors holiday greetings, birthday greetings and other book marketing messages post festival. After all, a key benefit of marketing books is relationship building. As an author, if you want to expand your readership and increase book sales, make developing and deepening relationships with readers a priority.

Ways to Market Your Books from Home

But what if you’re an author who’s unable to attend book festivals to market your books? There are ways to connect with readers online and start developing new, rewarding reader relationships. These are genuine relationships, not communication pathways to saturate readers with “buy my book” messages.

Below are ebook marketing, Kindle marketing and other novel marketing actions that you could complete to introduce new readers to your books from home:

  • Social media marketing books – Schedule social media posts using automated systems like HootSuite, Buffer, etc. But don’t just post book excerpts, answer questions, respond to book polls and like and comment on other authors’ and readers’ social media posts.
  • Amazon Ads – With the right keywords, authors could increase book sales by running Amazon automatic and sponsored ads. Consider taking free Amazon ad webinars to learn how to market your book on Amazon. Before running campaigns to market your books. Also, review ad reports, looking for effective keywords, twice a month. Be open to making campaign changes until book sales increase and your ad spend costs drops. The goal is to turn a profit, so watch your ad reports and make adjustments as needed.
  • Virtual readings – To market your books, you can host virtual book readings on platforms like YouTube and Facebook Live.
  • Digital newsletters – Create and distribute digital newsletters. Add newsletter sign-up forms to your official author website. There are email marketing systems like MailChimp and Constant Contact that you could use to manage digital newsletters.
  • Press releases – Write and send press releases to media.
  • Postcards – Design electronic postcards and send to book club presidents and book lovers.
  • Private group discussions – Hold discussions about your books at private social media groups.
  • Virtual book festivals – Attend virtual book festivals.
  • Blog – Start a book blog and link it to your website. Use Google Keyword Planner to find effective keywords to add to your blog articles.

Building Reader Relationships

EBook marketing isn’t the only book marketing strategy that’s a good fit for authors who market their books from home. Tools like social media, electronic postcards, brochures and digital flyers have made it easier to market print books from home.

However, authors who truly gain from book marketing, focus on developing reader relationships. They may send readers a birthday card, holiday greetings or attend book club events, places where they might not sell a single book. Yet, as readers start to feel that authors sincerely value reader-author connections and strive to create the best stories for them to enjoy, those readers may turn into an author’s regular book buyers.

And it’s that reader and author connection that’s often the biggest reward. Little surpasses the reward of hearing a book buyer share how much she enjoyed reading your novel.  Even better is hearing a reader share how deeply your book touched him, perhaps inspiring him to make a good life change. The good news is that authors can make these reader connections from home or abroad.

Harnessing the Power of Accepting Truths

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By African American Books Author Denise Turney

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Power of accepting truths is real. After all, truth is the gateway to freedom. Yet, it’s the idea of deep truths that we love. For example, we love the idea that all humans are created equal. But we compete, compare and search for differences then tell ourselves and each other that we aren’t, in fact, created equal.

Add in the fact that humans don’t like being wrong and it’s easy to see how we point to evidence that our beliefs and our biases are right. After this cycle gets started, it could take us years to pause long enough to examine what we’re doing. It could take us years to accept the truth, or could there be a shortcut to accepting truths?

Want To Know The Truth

I’ve caught myself doing this numerous times. For me, there’s often an element of magical thinking at work when I turn away from the power of accepting truths. When I pushed myself too hard and felt near burnout, I told myself that it would all be better after a night of sleep (magical thinking). Truth was that I had to acknowledge what I was doing to myself and insert healthy change into my day, which (thankfully) I eventually did.

But magical thinking isn’t the only thing that might stop you from accepting truth. Refusal to look at what you’re thinking, believing or doing can also prevent you from accepting truth. The downside is that you wouldn’t be free. You’d also have to try to shelter in thought defense systems in effort to keep good truths out of your awareness.

Finding and Accepting the Truth

To thicken these self-imposed barricades, you might seek people to agree with you, to share your erroneous thoughts or ideas. Yet, that doesn’t change the truth. However, if you keep defending and repeating and/or acting out your erroneous beliefs, you could start to think that these thought errors are, in fact, the truth.

Don’t ignore the power of the mind. It has the power to accept or block inner truth and universal truth. In fact, there may be no more powerful tool anywhere, which brings back the starting point. There is power in accepting truth. Start small if you feel that turning away from erroneous thoughts you have used to feel safe for years will place you in emotional danger.

As an example, if you struggle with a food or beverage addiction, you could study what the food or beverage does to the human body. Or you could visit a facility where the food or beverage is made.

A friend did this with pork. After seeing for himself how hot dogs were made, he never ate pork again.

Desire for Deep Truths

The more you see how erroneous thoughts are keeping you from accepting truth (the gateway to freedom), the more you may desire the truth. But be advised. Your mind might fight against accepting truths, especially if you feel unloved, uncared for and unsafe.

Yet, there’s very good news. Even if you endured an abusive childhood and/or abusive adult relationships, you could always start learning to love yourself. When you love you, you’ll always be loved.

Power of Accepting Truths Leads to Freedom

As you feel mentally safer, your desire for truth may expand, deepen and strengthen. Then, you may start to spot erroneous mental patterns and ask for help to release those patterns, replacing them with good truths.

But please be warned that if you look at what others are doing and feel you’re being slighted if another person continues in thought defense systems and erroneous thinking, you could feel anger. And you might feel as if your accepting and living in truth won’t change the world, improve the world or make another person better. You also might decide to stop accepting truth. Yet, that won’t change the fact that truth is the gateway to freedom.

So, keep accepting the truth, one experience after the other. At the very least, you’ll be free.

Surrender Your Expectations to Gain a Better Life

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Surrender your expectations to enjoy the life you want. It’s not as hard as it seems. Generally, it starts at the beginning of whatever it is you’re pursuing.

If you look back, you’ll see that much of what you’ve done felt exhilarating at the beginning. Starts are exciting, full of hope, trust and surprise. They rarely require surrender. Instead, you might have to pump the brakes and slow yourself down. You’re so ready to step into something new.

There may be no better time when you don’t need convincing that a relationship, project or travel plan will absolutely turn out fabulously. Then, you get to the middle of a relationship, work at the same company for two years or are six months into a year-long international nature trip.

Surrender Your Expectations at the Start

As fun as your nature trip has been, there have been bumps. Imagine this. While in Italy, on a winding country road, you get lost. But you keep driving, figuring that you’ll find your way back to your hotel. Five minutes don’t pass before a tire on your rental car pops then flattens. It’s night. All you feel that you can do is curse and bang the steering wheel. Yet, that won’t get you to the hotel.

Then, there’s the food that you ate while visiting Brazil a day ago that your stomach is still angry with you about. When it comes to work, you’ve been on the job long enough to get to know the different personalities. You get along with nearly everyone. But the strong-willed executive assistant is rubbing your nerves real thin. And one of your managers just won’t stop challenging your every decision.  It wasn’t that way when you started. There was nothing to surrender to then.

In fact, on your first day at the job, the entire team treated you to breakfast, hugs and the most delightful conversation. Oh, and that used-to-be-new relationship. There are things about your partner that are starting to annoy you. It’s only happened twice. But you’ve started to wonder if you picked the right partner.

Welcome to the Middle – Time to Surrender Your Expectations

You’re in the middle, the place where struggle can occur and the only way out is through surrender. Better, you can’t go back and you know it. If you stay, you’ll have to set a new goal for the relationship, job or trip.

For example, instead of staying in the relationship so you can prove to your family and friends that you married the right person or staying together so that your kids can grow up with both their parents living in the same house, the new goal for your relationship might be to have a blast exploring the world together, starting two businesses that thrive for generations and, more importantly, helping each other to awaken spiritually.

Even with the changed goal, it’s going to take focus and commitment. Why? You’re going to want to quit. Now that your goal has shifted, to succeed, you need to do two more things. You need to surrender and trust.

Surrender to your true Self. And, surrender to the Creator. Then, trust that the Creator and your true Self know the way that you should go. Sound easy? Only if it was.

Resisting the Aim of Surrendering

Ego is going to put up a fierce battle to keep you under its guidance. You may be enticed to return to old addictions (e.g. soda addiction, food addiction, exercise addiction, gossip addiction, alcohol addiction). Also, you might be tempted to return to old relationships. Who knows? You might even start to think sidestepping surrendering and going back to a former job is the way that you should go.

But why do you want to go back? You’ve already spent time in the past. Certainly, you know what’s back there. If you don’t surrender and go back now, boredom, low energy and lack of engagement could await.

Surrender to Gain a Better Life

So, are you feeling afraid about what could lay ahead?

And what part of you is feeling afraid?

To surrender, you need to have faith. You absolutely need to trust the very Source that created you. And why not? You trusted Source while you were being created. Certainly, you can trust now.

Surrender. Pray. Meditate. Explore. Ask questions. Stay curious. Live open. Practice patience. Love yourself. Practice awareness. Be honest with yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Let yourself learn. Accept the best visions for your life. Walk in faith. Love at all times. Tap into your core. Follow inner guidance. Take smart actions. Keep advancing.

How to Open Yourself to More Miracles

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By Books Author Denise Turney

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Miracles are all around you. In simplest form, miracles remove what appears to keep you from being aware of love. Also, God phenomenon or real-life spiritual wonders are described as an experience that occurs outside of natural or scientific laws. It’s due to how these experiences occur that they are considered God wonders.

You Don’t Have to Be Religious to Receive Miracles

Better yet, religious affiliation nor religious beliefs are required to receive miracles. But whether you’re offering prayers for financial help or another prayer for a blessing right now, to receive or to see miracles and to experience miracles firsthand, you need to do more than expect goodness.

You need to open yourself to miracles. And, here’s a key, a very important key.

To receive miracles, give the miracle of forgiveness. A Course In Miracles is a book dedicated solely to forgiveness. Before you read the book, it may prove beneficial to study projection. You could also practice awareness and try to catch yourself projecting.

If you’re like me, you’re going to resist accepting that you engage in projection. And, who could fault you? After all, it’s hard to see how your thoughts could influence your experiences, including how others perceive you and treat you. Just a hard sell. But, that doesn’t mean that you aren’t projecting.

Projection and Real-Life Miracles

Here’s an easy way to look at projection, especially as it regards real life miracles. Think about a projector, the equipment used to project or show an image that’s placed on a machine out onto a wall or screen so that more people can see the image.

With experiences, the mind is the projector and thoughts are the image. The world is the wall or the screen that your thoughts are projected onto. You have no idea how much I fought this. But experiences showed me that it is so.

For example, when I focused on one to three traits to appreciate about someone who I was struggling to get along with, the way that the person responded to me actually changed. This I have experienced many times.

Miracle Of Forgiveness

In other words, my thoughts about the person changed. Then, what I projected or saw in the world regarding the person changed. These experiences are like real life miracles.

So, to open yourself to real life miracles, look for the link between your thoughts and what you’re seeing in the world. Be honest. Be aware. You can always change your thoughts. In fact, changing your thoughts is a first step to open yourself to miracles.

Blessings Come with Forgiveness

The second way to open yourself to miracles is to forgive. Sounds simple. But, the miracle of forgiveness is powerful. A tip to forgive is to start writing one to three actions, talents, etc. that you appreciate about the person you feel the emotions of anger, fear or sadness around. Do this every day until you witness a shift.

For instance, after you practice forgiveness, that person might smile and speak to you or you might stop feeling angry or afraid when you hear the person’s name or are in the person’s presence. Those are signs that something has shifted.

Let Go of Control

Another way to experience the miracle of forgiveness is to spend one to two uninterrupted hours speaking out loud, “I love you” followed by the name of the person you’re at odds with. Watch what happens the next time you see the person. I did this with someone who I thought would hate me forever. In one week, the person treated me with kindness.

Don’t use this practice as a way to manipulate someone. After all, you’re trying to see how a miracle works. You’re not trying to control anyone or anything, which brings up the third way to open yourself to miracles.

To experience real life miracles, let go. Accept that you cannot (nor probably would even want to) control everything. Avoid trying to control how miracles play out. Attempting to control miracles could leave you feeling frustrated, angry, afraid and even blind to miracles that are around you right now.

Expect Miracles

In fact, it would be shocking if real life miracles played out exactly the way you want them to. So, if you’re sending up miracle prayers for financial help, you might not get the salary increase that you want. Instead, you might receive a promotion that puts you in line for three times the bonus you’d received a year ago.

Or you might win a financial award, win a settlement or receive an unexpected financial gift – none which are related to a salary increase. But all which are forms of financial help. Therefore, stay open, forgive (this includes forgiving yourself), love yourself and others, settle into appreciation and don’t try to control outcomes. Oh, and expect miracles.