Author Archives: admin

Let Love Relationships Change the World

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

hands forming heart love for the world
Photo by ATC Comm Photo on Pexels.com

Love relationships change everything in the world because, thankfully, all that is true is connected in love. That’s possible because you’re nonphysical. Once you see the connectedness in all that is real or true, you may perceive how your thoughts, beliefs and actions impact all that is. In that alone, you can receive an experience that the ego continuously searches for but never finds – evidence of your unlimited power, evidence that you are love.

Power of Love to Change Your Life

You have the power to change your life and impact the people around you. Even more, your love relationships may yield greater results than you imagine. Also, these love relationships include romantic relationships, colleague relationships, family relationships and friendships. They also include people you try to avoid or deem unworthy of your kindness, love and care.

However, it’s easy to only consider romantic relationships when you think about love relationships that you nurture and invest in. Here’s the thing. If you’re following a decades-old romantic relationship path, you might be searching for someone you deem to be “special”.

That means that you don’t think about getting closer with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and anyone else in communication, social engagements, challenging discussions and fun in ways that forces you to reexamine old beliefs you may have held onto for far too long. You’re just on a hunt for this “special” person. In fact, you might have already created this “special” person in your imagination, going so far as to give this person a height, weight, smile, personality, job and financial makeup.

Exciting New Love Relationships

Good news is that you could meet someone who seemingly fits the bill of the “idol” that you created. Even better, the start of this “love” relationship could charge you with feelings of excitement, aliveness, fun, safety, peace and acceptance. Right off the dribble, you might even decide that this “special” person is worth sacrificing for.

Signs that you’ve made this judgment (or decision) include:

  • Sacrificing or reducing the time you spend with family and friends
  • Participating in sex acts you don’t enjoy in effort to make this “special” person happy
  • Visiting places (e.g. golf course, spa, mall, worship centers) that you have no interest in or don’t believe in – again, all for the person you judged or decided is “special”
  • Investing money in the “special” person (again, this is someone who you decided is “special”)
  • Preaching to yourself that what the “special” person wants is more important than what you want

Also, you might think that God will be especially pleased with you if you sacrifice for the “special” person. Clearly, you would have set yourself up for an impossible task. Why? Admittedly, it may take time in the relationship or several experiences you have with this person. But eventually you’re going to see that not only is this person not “special” – if you’re fortunate, you’ll also see that there are no “special” people anywhere.

Don’t Give Up On Healthy Love Relationships

Don’t give up. Despite the temptation, don’t toss in the towel on the relationship if it’s healthy. This means, there’s no physical, verbal, financial or emotional violence in the relationship. A key reason not to give up on the relationship is the fact that, if you do quit on the relationship, you will likely merely start searching for another “special” person.

But remember that there are no “special” people. So, if you sever the relationship, the best you could do is find another illusion of a “special” person. And it may be at the point of discontent (when you realize that the person isn’t “special”) that your love relationship could truly change for the better!

This is when the love relationship could really deepen, helping both your partner and you to awaken more and more to real love, truth, peace and joy. Furthermore, it’s at these levels in a love relationship where your relationship could start to change the world. And again, this can be done with relatives, friends, neighbors, colleagues, spouses or anyone. You just have to decide to only love.

True Love Changes World

Keep in mind all that is true is connected. Can you see how entering into real love, a love that transcends the body, could have a profound impact? For starters, you’d not only be teaching and learning patience. You’d be teaching and learning the value of patience (not tolerance – patience). Because you have to be patient with yourself to stick with and learn these new love lessons. And, you certainly have to be patient with yourself long enough to see real love work.

Choose and practice only love and you’d be teaching and learning trust, honesty, freedom and the fact that what you really are (far more than a body) can never be hurt. And, you’d be teaching and learning that joining in love, even as it regards communication, with another offers rewards that keeping separate from others never will.

You might not notice it at first. But you’d also come to see that you’re lovable as others return love to you. After all, if you’re being loved, you have to be lovable. Another benefit is that you’d see that you can and do love. Watch what happens then. Love relationships, including the love relationship that you have with yourself, really do change the world. But first you have to commit to love.

When It Doesn’t Feel like Love Is Enough

Posted on by

By Freelance Writer and Books Author Denise Turney

frozen wave against sunlight in love is enough shape
Photo by Hernan Pauccara on Pexels.com

Love holds all that lives together. In fact, it is so vast that it’s impossible to describe. Talking and singing about it doesn’t bring it more fully into your awareness. It has to be shared, experienced. When you realize that love is enough, you’re encouraged, inspired and invigorated. You also tap into the vision and courage to live the life you came here to enjoy.

When Questions Keep Surfacing

But is love always enough?

It sure doesn’t feel like it’s enough when you’ve endured a traumatic childhood. If you spent the first 12 years of your life being told that you aren’t enough, that you’re less than others and that you don’t belong, as sweet as they may sound to you as an adult, all the sweet messages, quotes and songs about love won’t be enough.

Why? You’ve probably come to believe that you aren’t worthy of love. In fact, you might even be afraid of love. This is the crossroads that Raymond Clarke finds himself facing in the book, Love Pour Over Me. His mother abandoned him when he was only two years old. On top of that, his father has untreated alcoholism. And his father is mean – real mean to young Raymond.

Yet, the only person who can demonstrate love to Raymond is his father. Although Raymond’s story is a fictional account of childhood trauma and its far-reaching effects, the story, unfortunately, mirrors the real-life experiences of millions of children, teens and adults around the world. It might even mirror your own life.

Signs You’re Struggling to Believe Love Is Enough

But how do you know you’re running from the very thing you swear you want? Pay attention to how you feel when people talk about their relationships. Do you think people are lying or exaggerating when they say they are happy and thankful for the healthy relationship they are in?

Here are more signs that you might not believe the source of life is enough:

  • Close relationships scare you
  • You pull away from people when you start to feel emotionally close to them
  • Excuses for why you can’t attend social gatherings are generally how you respond to requests to have fun and be vulnerable
  • Keeping in touch with friends isn’t in the top three on your priority list
  • Living alone, not just at home, but in life feel safer than letting other people in

Love And Friendship

It’s this type of childhood trauma that can leave you accepting mistreatment from people who show you an ounce of kindness, even from men and women who ultimately intend to cause you more harm. Let this vicious cycle start turning and you may spend the rest of your time in this world convinced that love simply is not enough.

Fortunately, there is a path out of this vicious cycle. It starts with telling yourself that you are loved, worthy to receive love and created as an extension of love. You may have to do this for months, perhaps years, before you start to believe it, especially if you’ve spent years hearing and believing the opposite.

And, you have to demonstrate to yourself that you’re worthy of love. Do this while you choose people to allow into your life. For starters and in safety, bid farewell to people who traumatize or abuse you. Do it safely. But start making decisions that find you surrounded by people who truly care about you.

Love Is Enough

Yes. It would have been good if your parents and elders had demonstrated for you that love is enough. But, if they didn’t, you’re going to have to do this for yourself. Also, pray for loving people to come into your life. Ask for guidance to know who these people are. This starts to happen for Raymond at college.

As more loving people enter your life, you’ll start to change. You’ll start to blossom. And you’ll know genuine love messages when you hear them.

Perhaps most of all, you’ll start allowing yourself to receive and give true love. It can take hard inner work to get there. You might even have to go into psychotherapy, meditate, read books on love and more. But, along the way, you should come to know that love is enough. Love really is enough.

Achieve Book Marketing Success from Home

Posted on by

By African American Books Author Denise Turney

woman in brown shirt holding buy books quote board
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

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

Posted on by

By African American Books Author Denise Turney

accepting truthsaccomplishment action adventure power challenge
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

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

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

person underwater with hands up on air ready to surrender
Photo by Patrick Porto on Pexels.com

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

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

colorful rainbow surrounded by cliffs, waterfall and rainbow miracles
Photo by Svanur Gabriele on Pexels.com

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.

11 Signs You Need a Break

Posted on by

By Freelance Writer and Books Author Denise Turney

photo of man in need of a break sleeping on sofa
Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels.com

Signs you need a break can be hard to spot, especially if you’re a hard charger. My hand is raised high on this one. Often, I’m on the go-go-go cycle. It’s a rare day when I sit down. Hopefully, you’re better than me in this area. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t times when you don’t feel like you need a break from social, family or work responsibilities.

In fact, whether you’re a hard charger or live a life at a more balanced pace, you might feel as if nothing has changed even as you’re starting to exhaust. Also, if you’re generally relaxed and accept experiences without a lot of resistance, you may not notice that your emotions are shifting. But that doesn’t mean that you aren’t tired and need a break.

Practice Awareness to Spot When You’re in Need of a Break

This is a reason why it’s important to practice awareness. Yet don’t just pay attention to how you’re feeling.  Pay attention to your thoughts. And be honest about emotions that you’re experiencing and thoughts, including troubling thoughts, that you’re having.

For example, if you feel anger, be honest and admit that’s the emotion you’re feeling. Avoid searching for someone to blame for why you feel the emotion “anger”. Just acknowledge that it’s the emotion you’re experiencing. Anger, like all emotions, will come and go.

Or you could feel peace, happiness, jealousy, frustration or tired and in need of a break. Emotions that you feel do not define you. No one owns an emotion. In fact, as you continue to practice awareness, you’ll see how emotions and thoughts come and go. It’s when emotions get stuck or keep returning with short intervals that you could be receiving signs that you need to take a mental break.

11 Signs You Need a Break

Here are 11 signs that you may be in need of a break, mentally and/or physically. Love yourself, engage in rest best practices (which will be covered later in this article) and be patient with yourself.

  1. After sleeping 8 or more hours, you still feel tired or sleepy
  2. Thoughts feel like they’re racing or coming at you way too fast
  3. Appetite changes find you wanting to eat a lot or not wanting to eat at all
  4. Sleep is hard to come by no matter how long you lay in bed
  5. Nearly everything irritates you
  6. Desire to go outdoors starts to wane
  7. Exercise is the last thing you want to do even if you have a history of exercising every day
  8. Emotions feel charged or stronger than normal
  9. Sugars and fattening foods seem like the cure all for everything
  10. Emotional outbursts are becoming a daily event for you
  11. Focusing seems to take way too much energy

Rest Best Practices

Now, how to keep advancing when you’re tired and need a break. The best practice is to rest in God or to rest in the Creator and to accept that you’re always and only loved. Other rest best practices to take include:

  • Raise your hands in the morning and stretch, allowing appreciation
  • Speak with someone in the morning. You could do this in-person, over the telephone, via video or text.
  • Perform cardio at your desk at least once a day
  • Get outdoors and enjoy a walk
  • Drink plenty of water
  • Avoid drinking sugary and/or caffeinated beverages (or minimize the amount of sugary, caffeinated beverages that you drink)
  • Practice awareness
  • Rest an hour before retiring to bed
  • Sleep at least 6 sound hours a night
  • Reach out to family and friends – stay connected
  • Do at least three things that you love every day (for me, writing novels is on that list!)
  • Write down 3 good things that you do each day (you just might surprise yourself)
  • Meditate 5 to 10 minutes a day
  • Pick a day and focus on having fun and relaxing
  • Let other people help you
  • Open your windows and blinds and let loads of natural sunlight into your home
  • Seek help when you know you could use support

Sure. You could ignore the signs that you’re in need of a break. But that may not improve your situation. Instead, add rest best practices to your daily patterns. Also, acknowledge how you’re feeling and thinking. And rest in God and know that you are always and only loved.

Why You Should Use Book Marketing Analytics

Posted on by

By African American Books Writer Denise Turney

cool trendy african american man with dreadlocks reading book about book marketing on street
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Book marketing analytics are a writer’s best friend. Why? Book marketing can be a challenge for authors. This is due, in part, to the fact that authors, particularly novelists, rely on imagination and creativity, not hard facts, to develop their works. While writing, creativity, imagination and relying on the muse are blessings. They aren’t necessarily blessings during the book marketing process.

Book Marketing Options

In fact, novelists can sink into magical thinking after their books are published. Fortunately, there are doors that lead from fiction writing to book marketing to book sales. The first door sees fiction writers handing the job of marketing books to publicists, marketing specialists and content marketing writers. But those options cost money.

As a fiction writer, you could go through the second door and use marketing analytics to steer your book marketing efforts. Time may be your greatest investment. It takes time, consistent time, to market books. For example, if you use Barnes and Noble, social media, Kobo, Google or Amazon sponsored ads to market your books, download marketing analytics twice a month. But don’t just download the reports.

Content Marketing Analytics

Review the reports. Pay attention to which keywords are getting clicks that turn into book sales. Lower bids on keywords that receive clicks but, no sales. Also, attend free social media and book retailer ad webinars. Keep learning. Book marketing tools and platforms change. Attending webinars can keep you abreast of these changes.

If you use eBook marketing tools like social media automated marketing platforms (e.g. HootSuite, Buffer, Marketo, InfusionSoft), review marketing analytics associated with those platforms. And make changes based on what the analytics show. Do the same with content marketing analytics.

Also, set up a Google Search Console account. Bing is another search engine it’s good to have a search console account with. Submit your author website sitemaps and ensure they are indexed by major search engines. You can check this through your search console accounts.

Content Management Systems

Additionally, you may want to work with content management systems (CMS) that have robust content marketing analytics. SEO keyword analytics, meta tag description analytics, paragraph length, image alt text, excerpt features and keyword headings are a few features to look for in content marketing analytics.

Another thing, when doing content marketing, perform keyword planning before you start writing landing pages and blog articles. Make sure your writing flows, is conversational and reads naturally. Also, focus on providing tips, insight, guidance and entertainment more than focusing on adding SEO keywords to blog articles.

About Digital Marketing Analytics

Digital marketing analytics can keep you from slipping into magical thinking as a novelist. This is an advantage. Why? Magical thinking could find you believing that your novels are going to sell loads of copies simply because you wrote the books.

If you don’t think you’re doing this, ask yourself why you’re not marketing books that you write. And, if you are marketing your books but not receiving lots of book sales, ask yourself why you aren’t doing what it takes to increase your book sales — even while you keep expecting your book sales to suddenly (somehow) pick up.

Marketing analytics can help you to steer clear of magical thinking. The length and depth of this advantage may be unknown. In fact, this advantage, can save you thousands of dollars. Also, it can save you countless hours, frustration and heartache. Really. It can.

But you can’t just have digital marketing analytics. You have to review the analytics. See what you need to change and make adjustments. This is an ongoing process. As you start to understand what works for you and take the right book marketing actions, you should see your book sales increase.

7 Smart Self-Care Choices to Flip into Good Habits

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

smart self care isn't selfish signage
Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com

Smart self-care choices could protect you from burnout, frustration or depression. Selfcare is more than a buzzword. In fact, if you grew up taking care of yourself because one or more of your parents was missing or chronically ill, you know that no one is going to look out for you better than you can. It’s not just that you know your thoughts, emotions, fears and passions best, you’re the only one who’s always with you.

Putting Smart Self-Care Choices in Action

Today’s busy, at times downright hectic, world requires self care at home and self care at work. But, how can you find the time to practice daily self care? A good start is to be honest with yourself.

Be honest about how you feel. For example, as part of daily self-care acknowledge when you feel tired, exhausted, confused, disillusioned, afraid, alone, helpless or outraged. Also, acknowledge when you feel peace, joy, love, safe, hopeful, encouraged, motivated and inspired.

It’s hard to take action on what you don’t acknowledge. Other examples of self-care include:

  • Slowing down and resting before you go to bed so you can restore yourself with a good night of deep sleep. Meditating before bed, ending work at least an hour prior to bed and reading a good, light book can inspire deep sleep.
  • Trusting inner guidance and opening yourself to healthy relationships, not abusive relationships.
  • Getting outdoors in natural sunlight every day for at least 45 straight minutes. Use sunscreen to protect your skin. Vitamin D from natural sunlight may improve mood. In fact, getting outdoors may be one of the easiest things to do for self-care.

More Smart Self-Care Choices

  • Connect with family and friends every day for emotional self-care.
  • Eat a healthy diet of green, leafy vegetables and fresh fruit. After all, taking care of yourself involves your whole self.
  • Express your thoughts and emotions in a safe place. Examples of self-care expression include writing feelings, thoughts and dreams in a journal, singing, dancing and painting.
  • Set clear boundaries to practice self-care in the workplace. For instance, you can set clear work start and end times. Also, to practice self-care at work, take regular breaks, enjoy your lunch away from your desk and speak up if you experience bullying or abuse of any kind.
  • Spend time with friends during lunch at least once a month to practice self-care at work. It’s good to be alone. But you don’t want to overdo it.
  • Listen to encouraging, uplifting music, podcast and radio shows. The same goes for books.

Above all, treat yourself like you’re the best friend you have. Remove yourself from verbal, physical, sexual or any other form of abuse. For emotional self-care, speak love to yourself.

For example, you could state kind facts about yourself in front of a mirror in the morning. You could also write down one good thing that you do each day and list it in your appreciation or gratitude journal. These are just a few self-care ideas that you could flip into healthy habits.

Smart Writers Avoid These Story Missteps

Posted on by

By Books Author Denise Turney

woman writing in front of her computer
Photo by RF._.studio on Pexels.com

Writers can learn a lot from real life and the arts. In fact, inspiration for these writing tips came to me while watching a television drama. As interesting as the plot for the television drama was, the characters made too many mindless choices to keep me hooked.

After a while, I felt too frustrated watching the characters make choices that would put anyone’s life in jeopardy. Kindergarteners would know better than to do what these characters did. It was more evidence that great storytelling takes work, more than an intriguing plot.

To Tell Great Stories Writers Avoid These Mistakes

Because the acting was good, I actually tried to figure out why the characters in the TV drama were unbelievable. A possible reason could be that the producers and directors were so focused on the story that they often tossed practicality and common sense to the wind. And it’s easy to do, which brings us back to story development.

To sharpen your writing craft, consider practical real-life patterns and traditions as you write. In other words, don’t have a novel character raise six kids as a single parent, operate her own multi-million-dollar business and run two marathons a year, all without ever feeling tired. Even if you’re writing fiction, write believable characters. The more real characters you write feel and seem, the better.

Also, avoid these story missteps:

  • Misalign character motives to what you reveal about the character’s childhood, development and experiences. In other words, don’t make a pastor have a marital affair just because the pastor moved to a new town or just because a woman tried to seduce him. Give the character strong, believable motives.
  • Craft story scenes were women close the front door, not once lock the door, and go upstairs or into the basement without so much as a second thought. This happens in way too many movies, including thrillers.
  • Set women characters in suspense settings but avoid having these same women characters look through a peep hole or glance out of the edge of their blinds to see who’s on the porch or front stoop before they open the door.

More Storytelling Tips for Writers

  • Build deep, abiding trust between two strangers that have known each other less than a day, the type of trust that, in real life, takes months, sometimes years, to develop.
  • Embed a motive to save someone in a character to the point that the character turns blind, even ignoring her own instincts, common sense and basic human impulses to save the person.
  • Develop a character so that he exhibits only one personality trait, ambition or motive.
  • Limit a character to a single emotion, only allowing a character to express rage, fear, kindness, weakness, intelligence or courage.
  • Introduce fashion, housing, food, slang and cultural trends into a television drama, fanfiction, a short story or other storytelling that did not exist at the time the story takes place.

Power of Realistic Fiction

Great storytelling takes work. Even if you’re a writer who can knock out an engaging story absent an outline or character sketches, it takes time, focus and skill to write a story that resonates with hundreds or thousands of book buyers. For starters, you’ve got to appeal to each book buyer’s interests, ambitions, passions and fears.

Even if you write science fiction books, you have to create such believable characters that readers perceive the characters to be real. Readers have to believe that the story could happen, even if the story takes place on another planet.

And yet, the story has to have practical elements. Readers need to believe that your characters’ motives, weaknesses, strengths and personality traits are relatable. Whether you’re writing a novel, a stage play, major motion picture script or television drama, make sure that your characters use common sense. After all, if you’re a skilled writer, people could think that the choices your characters make really are the best options.