Category Archives: Books

Books do so much. They teach, inspire, motivate, educate and entertain. You can travel to other parts of the world, simply using your imagination, as you read travel books. This blog that is written largely by author Denise Turney has a wealth of material on the book industry. Whether you are an author yourself, an editor, publisher, freelance writer, content marketer or literary agent, there is something for you at this blog. Enjoy exploring the articles and learning from what is shared in the articles here.

Complicated Relationships in Father Son Books

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By Denise Turney

Some father son books are getting it right despite the fact that few people may want to admit it. Fact is, some father and son relationships are painfully complicated. Strain in these male relationships exist whether the father is living in the home or has been absent from a son’s life for months or years. Perhaps complications come because some fathers see a competitor, someone vying for their wife’s attention, when they look at their sons. Other fathers might look at their sons and see a child who will, one day, be as physically strong and looming as they are, someone who could easily replace them in a position of power.

Impact Father and Son Relationships Have on Society

Glimpses of this might reveal themselves in relationships male animals have with their teenage sons. After all and although it’s not written in stone, there might be something to male lions, long considered the kings of the jungle, pushing their teenage sons out of the den. If the sons don’t go straightaway, it can create problems, causing male lions to attack and harm their own sons. This tradition ensures that fathers remain kings of their families in the animal world. As difficult as it is to watch a male lion force his sons away from family, often for the remainder of the sons’ lives, when considering the harshness of the wild, it can be understandable.

What’s not understandable is how some fathers vacate their sons’ (and daughters’) lives. This trend among human fathers and sons is especially hard to understand considering the negative impact that complicated father and son relationships have on families, communities and society at large. If fathers vacate their sons’ lives, it could cause sons, even after they reach adulthood, to search for the love and support they should have received but didn’t.

Complicated father and son relationships can also impact sons’ academic performance, whether or not sons abuse alcohol or drugs, economic conditions sons grow up in and sons’ self-esteem. Of course, many of these complicated father and son relationships occur whether fathers force their sons to vacate home prematurely or whether fathers exit the family structure. To force their sons to leave home prematurely, fathers might physically, psychology, financially or emotionally assault their sons, forcing their sons to see leaving home as the only way they can gain a semblance of peace.

Father Son Books Forcing Sons to Vie for Themselves in a Cold, Harsh World

Raymond Clark and his father, Malcolm, a bitter man facing the evils of untreated alcoholism, confront these and other dilemmas in Love Pour Over Me. Yet, Malcolm doesn’t leave. His presence brings pain, yet a comfort of sorts. What isn’t evidently clear is why Malcolm stays, why he doesn’t become another father who walks off and leaves his son, the very thing Raymond both fears and begs for.

As Malcolm and Raymond discover in Love Pour Over Me, one of the thought provoking father son books on the market, nothing short of probing and addressing the struggles fathers and sons share may help open fathers’ and sons’ eyes, allowing them to clearly see that the price of not working to heal complicated father and son relationships but instead continuing to attack and hurt each other is too high. . . for everyone.

Fortunately, organizations and initiatives like the National Fatherhood Initiative, Father and Sons Together, National Center for Fathering and Supporting Father Involvement are taking steps to encourage fathers to develop and maintain healthy relationships with their sons, beginning at infancy. After all, men are not animals, and, when nurtured and guided with love, sons generally grow up supporting their fathers, not competing with them for power as might happen in the jungle with male lions and their sons.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love. 

Sources:

http://www.healthyplace.com/parenting/dads/connection-between-father-and-son/ (Healthy Place: Relationship Between Father and Son)

http://www.fatherhood.org/media/consequences-of-father-absence-statistics (National Fatherhood Initiative: The Father Factor)

Booksellers Surviving Book Industry Changes

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By Denise Turney

booksellers pubishing companies

Publishing companies and booksellers are experiencing industry changes at a pace unlike that seen in recent decades. The only other industry that has experienced changes at as rapid a pace might be the music industry.

Over the last two decades, technology changed the music industry, permanently, so that there’s no chance of going back to the way things were before file sharing and music downloading took off. Now technology is changing the book industry, forcing book publishing companies and booksellers to hang on . . . wait out the final shifting result. For example, today mobile devices and e-book readers make it possible for  readers to download, preview, purchase and start reading books without having to visit a bookstore or library.

Responding to Changes Impacting the Book Industry

This welcomed convenience may be causing book lovers to visit bookstores in smaller numbers. When I asked one bookseller about the challenges this trend causes, he told me that booksellers who stock rare books may be able to withstand the growing changes technology is bringing to the book industry. This might be true for booksellers as well as for publishing companies. Perhaps booksellers and publishing companies that market, shelve and sell tough-to-find offline books can set themselves apart, continuing to thrive in changing markets.

In addition to selling rare books, to stay relevant, attracting the attention of large numbers of book readers, booksellers could host book club events and host weekly radio programs that focus on current and upcoming events at their brick and mortar stores. They could also schedule interviews with popular local authors, organize literary events at schools and develop and distribute print and digital book reviews.

Publishing companies could hire writers to research and write e-books, how-to books and educational nonfiction books that cover common topics from uncommon angles. They can also hire writers to develop content in unique styles, ones that are rarely found on the market.

Booksellers Win by Making Readers Comfortable

Whatever steps booksellers and publishing companies take to engage book readers, they might have to do something they aren’t comfortable doing. For example, they might have to charge book clubs a fee to use their services. They also might have to ask authors to commit to marketing their book signings, helping to bring in dozens of readers rather than showing up to book signings with nothing except a pen and a box of books.

In regards to booksellers, bearing that they have the space, booksellers can also rent out meeting rooms to business and community leaders. By placing computers and WiFi in their bookstores and offering healthy food and beverages at their stores, booksellers might be able to attract a broader audience.

It’s going to take creativity and innovation, the same type of innovation that’s moving technology forward at warped speeds, for bookstores, and some publishing companies, to survive. Years from now, booksellers and publishing companies that are up for the challenge might be the lone rangers that not only survived, but also thrived, changes currently impacting the book industry.

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.comand get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! Consider Love.

EBooks Online Monopoly

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By Denise Turney

Monopolizing ebooks online may be becoming more the norm than not. It seems that just as book authors are leaping over stigmas attached to self-publishing their written works, another challenge rears its head. This new challenge surfaced in April 2012. It came in the form of a Department of Justice lawsuit made against seven book publishers, namely Apple, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Pearson, Penguin, Macmillan and Hachette.

Goliath as an Ebooks Online Retailer

As reported in ARS Technica’sJuly 18, 2012 “Senator Says Apple E-Book Suit ‘Could Wipe Out the Publishing Industry’” article, the lawsuit charges the aforementioned seven companies with fixing ebook prices. If the DOJ prevails in its arguments, Amazon.com could be left holding the reins to more than half of the ebook market.

Oddly, Amazon.com gained a stronghold on the ebooks online market using the same strategy that worked for WalMart when it opened its first stores in the 1960s – sell products at a lower price than competitors. Today some Amazon.com self-published authors even offer their books for free, at times landing on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. So far no one in the book industry is questioning the validity of a bestseller list that includes books that are given away for free.

But that’s another matter.

When it comes to ebook pricing several publishers and non-book publishing companies (e.g. Apple) selling digital books use the agency model to set their prices. With the agency model publishers set the price on digital books sold to resellers (e.g. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble). Resellers then set the price consumers must pay to purchase the books from them. To increase book sales it’s not uncommon for resellers to sell books below the cost set by book publishers.

Appealing to EBooks Online Readers thru Pricing

If a reseller lowers their prices to such a degree that ebook readers shift their buying habits, opting to buy solely from lower priced resellers than book publishers . . . well, you can see what a financial challenge that would present to ebook publishers. At this point we can only go with assumptions as to why some ebooks online publishers raised the prices on their digital books, assuming perhaps that they did so to gain more profit on the ebooks they sold direct to consumers.

What may not be under assumption (or need be) is the thought that monopolizing the ebook industry is good business. As Senator Charles Schumer said, “As our economy transitions to digital platforms, we should be celebrating and supporting industries that find ways to adapt and grow. By developing a pricing model that made e-book sales work for them, publishers did just that.”

Thank you for reading my blog. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You! 

Sources:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/senator-says-apple-e-books-suit-could-wipe-out-the-publishing-industry (ARS Technica: Senator Says Apple E-Book Suit “Could Wipe Out the Publishing Industry”)

You’re Too Close to Your Life Goals to Quit Now

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By Denise Turney

As soon as we become aware of our life goals, we may feel excited, absolutely exhilarated with the idea that we have a specific function to fulfill. Let our life goals cause us to be placed at the center of attention, and we can become that much more enthused and inspired. It’s easy to understand why we experience those gushing, positive feelings. After all, we’ve just received a message as to what our life goals are. However, we haven’t taken steps to fulfill those goals yet.

Fulfilling Life Goals Doesn’t Always Feel Easy

We haven’t faced any opposition yet. We’ve simply received a dream filled with promise. Our imaginations go to work, telling us it’s going to be easy fulfilling our life goals. If we’re keen on organization, we might even sit down and create a setting life goals worksheet. Reading quotes about life and personal life goals examples that are written by leaders who put in the work and achieved their personal goals may become part of our daily practice. It’s this passion Raymond Clarke feels as a track and field star in the new book, Love Pour Over Me.

Then we take steps to actually move toward the fulfillment of our life goals. For example, if we want to be a New York Times bestselling author, we may take the time to discover that we’ll likely have to sell at least 250,000 copies of one of our books to hit that bestselling book list. Because we’ve never spent hours marketing and promoting our books, we may read a blog or article where another writer expressed how doing a few radio interviews, developing a website and using search engine optimized keywords in book press releases made selling thousands of copies of his novels effortless.

Of course, we don’t question the accuracy or honesty of what the author shared. Instead, we assume the author shared honest facts. So, off we go, creating accounts at every major social media network, writing one press release after another, hiring a web designer to create a search engine optimized website for us, scheduling radio and blog tour interviews and paying to sell our books at vending events.

It’s Always Too Early to Quit on Your Authentic Life Goals

Weeks then months pass. When we go to count how many books we’ve sold, we find that we haven’t even sold 100 copies of our books yet. Frustration starts to creep in. We may even wonder if we have the right life goals. Some of us will change our life goals, thinking that simply switching a personal goal will make fulfilling the goal easier. After the same cycle repeats itself, we might even start to think there’s something wrong with us. What’s wrong is our expectation, our belief that people who achieve success have an easy road to travel.

Yet, if we truly love what we do, if we really love what we’re going after, we won’t quit. Love itself will call us back. If we don’t quit pursuing life goals that are our function to fulfill, we’ll produce a good result. We won’t quit. We’ll do what it takes to move closer and closer to fulfilling our life goals. We’ll be and stay open to change (after all, who gets it all right the first time).

If this has been you – if you’ve been taking the steps to fulfill your life goals for a long time, take heart. You might be right at the edge of a breakthrough. You might be on the cusps of life changing events. You might be almost there. My friend, you just might be too close to your life goals to quit now. Raymond had to learn this in Love Pour Over Me; it might be time for you to learn this life lesson too.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

How to Sell Profitable Ebooks Online

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By Denise Turney

Although writing and publishing ebooks is an achievement that may leave you feeling hopeful and excited, if you plan on selling your ebooks online you’re going to have to learn how to market and promote your titles. To do this you can start taking steps to find and connect with your book’s target audience online, people who enjoy reading the types of fictional or nonfiction books you write. Some authors use the Internet to help sell a million or more copies of their ebooks.

Write Quality Ebook Material

Write a quality e-book. To do this consider working with a professional editor to review and make changes to your book to improve features such as character dialogue, setting, pacing, plot and character development. You can also get your book edited to ensure the grammar and sentence structure is accurate.

The Association of Authors Representatives, Poets and Writers and the Literary Market Place are some resources you can use to find reputable book editors. Do your homework. Ask editors for references of other book authors they’ve worked with. Follow up with these book authors, asking them how satisfied they were with the book editors’ work. Also, ensure that you create an intriguing title and cover image for your ebooks online. If you write your book from a different angle, you can also cause your book to stand out. This is what happened with the classic book, Portia.

Market Ebooks Online Using Social Media

Sign up for social media network accounts and post an image of your e-books on the main pages of your accounts. Provide a brief overview of each of your e-books and a URL where visitors to your social media accounts can purchase your books. Also post items like book reviews, upcoming interviews where you’ll discuss your ebooks online, ebook blog tour dates and press releases about your e-books at your accounts. Major social media networks include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, Pinterest, Floost and ScoopIt. The more you market, the more book sales you might notice you’re receiving, so get out here!

creating bestselling ebooks

Blog About Your Ebooks Online

Create a blog for your books and for yourself. Include search engine optimization (SEO) keywords in your ebooks blog posts to increase the numbers of visitors you receive at your blog from search engines. On your blog’s main page include items like your books’ covers, links to your ebooks related videos and links to your social media network accounts so visitors to your blog can follow you at other online locations, like your social media networks. Free, easy-to-follow blog platforms include WordPress, Blogger and Posterous.

bestselling ebooks

Media Outlets and Ebooks Online

Write press releases about your ebooks online and distribute them to media outlets like newspapers and magazines. For example, you could write and distribute a press release about an upcoming writer’s conference you are speaking at. When writing press releases mention the title of your ebooks and where readers can purchase or learn more about the books online. You can also schedule online radio interviews with talk show hosts and book blog tour hosts to discuss your e-books.

Ebooks Online Giveaways

Giveaway copies of your ebooks as a part of a contest or quiz. Announce ebook giveaways in press releases and at your social media networks. If you go on a book blog tour you can also giveaway copies of your e-books to readers who participate in your blog tours. To get the word out about your ebooks so you sell more copies, also consider giving away copies of your e-books to online book reviewers and book club presidents.

Build an Ebook Website

Build an ebook website that includes features like your biography, ebook synopsis or overview, book cover, free excerpts from your e-books, book reviews and a book order page. You can also include a photo of yourself and a cover image of each of your e-books at your website. Consider setting up accounts with companies like PayPal or you can direct readers to purchase your books directly from resellers like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Google Books and iTunes. Promote your website in search engines and book directories.

Use Video to Promote  Ebooks Online                                                                                                         

Set up an account with online video companies. Upload videos of you reading excerpts from you e-books and/or conducting interviews about your e-books with members of the media. Also consider creating a trailer for your book. If you do not have experience creating book trailers, you can work with marketing companies that develop trailers for authors. To get the word out about your videos, add links from your videos to your social media accounts. In addition ask your family and friends to tell people they know to view your videos. Be sure to include the title of your e-books and the URL where people can purchase your books on each online video.  

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-arogundade/10-steps-to-ebook-success_b_1571095.html (Huffington Post: 10 Steps to Ebook Success)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/john-locke-donovan-creed-_n_1317237.html (Huffington Post: John Locke, Donovan Creed, Author, on Selling a Million Ebooks)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/06/become-an-ebook-superstar (The Guardian: How to Become an EBook Superstar)

Track Runners Who Inspire Track Fans

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By Denise Turney

Track runners inspire track fans by refusing to quit in the face of great odds. For example, American track sprinter, Tyson Gay, didn’t make it to the Olympic finals in the 100 meters at the 2008 Olympics. During the four-by 100 meter relay, the men’s American relay team dropped the baton during his exchange. Yet, Tyson Gay didn’t quit. He underwent surgery to repair his hip, and hit the track again. Four years later, at the 2012 Olympics, Tyson Gay got his Olympic medal, and oddly, he got that medal in the four-by-100 meter relay. The fact that he made it to the Olympic finals after recovering from surgery is amazing all by itself.

More Track Runners Who Are Inspiring

Tyson Gay is just one of the track runners who’s inspiring track fans around the world, who’s showing people firsthand what focus, commitment, resilience and hard work can help achieve. Throughout history, track runners have overcome great odds to reach their goals. Wilma Rudolph, born with polio, was one of 22 children. She was also born prematurely. The sprinter from Tennessee who entered this physical world in 1940 appeared to have an uphill climb right from the start. It’s nothing short of a miracle that Wilma Rudolph went on to run at all, let alone win three gold medals and one bronze medal at the Olympics. As a member of Tennessee State University’s Tigerbelles, Wilma Rudolph raced her way into history. Italians nicknamed her “The Black Gazelle.” A stretch of highway in Clarksville, Tennessee is named after her. She was a woman who loved track and field until her passing in 1994. She earned her way into history books and inspired countless track fans and everyday folk along the way.

It’s hard to mention Wilma Rudolph without mentioning Jesse Owens. The two track sprinters may well be the greatest symbols of the sport in the minds of many track fans. Born James Cleveland Owens in Oakville, Alabama on September 12, 1913, Jesse Owens won four gold medals (no easy fete in track and field) at the 1936 Olympics. It would take more than 40 years before another track runner would win four gold medals at an Olympics; that happened in 1984 when Carl Lewis won four gold medals at the Olympics.

Jesse Owens’ wins uprooted Adolph Hitler’s statements about a master race. According to the Official Jesse Owens website, Jesse got his start in track and field while attending school in Cleveland, Ohio (my home state; had to put that in here). Perhaps more than the other track runners mentioned in this blog, it was Jesse Owens who had to race with courage, pride, dignity, passion, resilience and tenacity in ways the other track runners except for Wilma Rudolph (thankfully) have not had to. Jesse had to deal with racial discrimination before and after the Olympics. What he achieved and when he achieved it has set him apart. As with the other track runners mentioned here, Jesse Owens continues to inspire.

There are so many track runners whose exploits on the track and field inspire track fans as well as children, teens and adults who don’t run. To name a few, there’s Edwin Moses (unbeaten in the hurdles during his professional career; oh . . . he’s from Ohio too!), Evelyn Ashford, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner Kersey, Michael Johnson, Usain Bolt and Jim Thorpe. These track athletes meet their personal and family responsibilities then go on to achieve excellence at their sport. They truly are inspiring.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

College Friendships that Last a Lifetime

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By Denise Turney

Finding friends can be intimidating, especially during college. Yet, many of us are finding friends while exploring new communities and succeeding academically.

After all, college isn’t only a time when women and men meet, going on to date for years or marry. College is also a time when enriching friendships are formed. Some of these friendships change our lives forever.

Finding Friends in College

College friendships are similar to friendships we form with neighbors when we’re in kindergarten. We laugh and cry with these friends. After awhile, we build trust with these friends, trust that finds us sharing deep personal secrets with them. These are the people who pop into our minds when we’re reminiscing about sweet moments from our childhood.

Finding friends at college who engender this same trust in us is a sweet reward. If we’re at college right now, we probably text or call our friends before we head out for the weekend. They’re our study partners, the people we buy tickets to concerts and school sporting events with. Everybody who knows us on campus knows who our best friends are upon sight because we all spend so much time together. It’s almost like we’re brothers or sisters.

Let tough circumstances come into our lives, as they do with Raymond Clarke and his college friends, and we’ll put our heads together and try to figure a way out of the situation. If we’ve had our friends for years, we may never tell on each other. We might not even confront each other when one of us has clearly crossed a line.

Finding Friends at College, Friendships that Last a Lifetime

This can have positive and negative consequences. If we start protecting our college friends to the point where we start lying for them, we might find ourselves keeping deep secrets. On the other hand, our college friends can open us up to love and care in ways we hadn’t before experienced.

Choices we make as we continue finding friends in college can work like stepping stones as we head toward adulthood. Some of the choices we make will blend into the very fiber of all of our lives, becoming permanent bits of our personal histories. Years from now when our hair has started to gray, our college friends might be the people we call first when we’re putting together fun group events like barbecues and anniversaries.

After all, while finding friends at college, we have the chance to create rewarding relationships that last a lifetime. We might lean on and celebrate these friendships as we age. In fact, sometimes college friends, as they do in the new book, Love Pour Over Me, are meant to be in our lives . . . forever.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/Love-Pour-Over-Me-ebook/dp/B007MC0Z2C

Barnes & Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-pour-over-me-denise-turney/1109600654

How to Choose the Right Ebook Publishing Company

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By Denise Turney

Technological products like computers, mobile devices and e-book readers make it possible for book buyers to download and start reading novels and nonfiction books with the click of a button. This convenience has seen e-book sales rise by as much as 117 percent for 2011 according to Publisher’s Weekly. It’s a growing market that authors and people with a story to share may want to get into. After all, publishing e-books can allow writers to receive benefits like royalties, media interview requests and fans. However, not all e-book publishing companies offer the same benefits, some e-book publishing companies even charging higher formatting costs than others.

Publishing e-books can turn you into a bestselling author within a matter of months.

Read Reviews

Search for e-book publishing company reviews and ranking reports. While reading reviews and ranking reports consider factors such as how long the company has been in business, the number of books the company publishes each year and the types of files the publisher accepts from authors to convert into e-book format.

Ask Published Authors

Contact authors who have already had digital books published and ask them for e-book publishing company recommendations. For example, you can email authors, tell them that you are considering publishing an e-book and ask them to tell you who they think are the top three e-book publishers to work with. Let authors know if your book has illustrations and/or charts and graphs as some e-book publishers may be more experienced at formatting books with illustrations, charts or graphs than others.

Distribution

Ask the e-book publisher for a list of resellers they distribute books to. Types of resellers include Amazon.com, Google Books, Ingram Books and Barnes & Noble.com. Also find out if e-book publishers have distribution contracts with companies that service libraries as, generally, the more distribution channels a publisher has the more books you may sell. For example, Portia, a classic book about an African American defense attorney dealing with breast cancer, is available to libraries through distributors like Baker & Taylor.

E-Book Readers

Find out the different types of e-book readers the publishing company formats e-books to be read on. Kindle, Nook and Kobo are types of e-book readers. Also check to see if your e-book will be formatted and for sale in portable document format (PDF) format so book buyers who don’t have e-book readers can purchase, download your book to their computer or mobile device and read it off a PDF. Available through Ebookit.com, Love Pour Over Me, can be read in each major electronic format. Keep in mind, that the more formats electronic books are available in, the more book buyers and readers you may gain.

Services Offered

Look for e-book publishers that offer a range of services, including cover design, marketing and copyediting. Although you may not choose to use all of these services as soon as you publish your e-book, you may want to use more of the services after your book has been on the market for a few weeks. In addition, you can save yourself money by finding out how much it cost to format your e-book before you sign a contract with an e-book publishing company. Compare prices and services offered at e-book publishing companies before you sign a publishing contract. Also be prepared to market your own books as an author.

Royalties

Learn the percentage of royalties you will be paid on each book sold. For example, some e-book publishers may only deduct 15 percent off the sale of each book it sells direct to consumers, while other companies may deduct a larger percentage. Also, find out if you can sell your e-books on your own website or blog to increase sales.

Considerations

Traditional print book publishers are starting to publish e-books. You may be able to sign a book deal with an established book publisher and get your book published in print and digital format. Also, remember to market and promote your book after it’s published by taking steps like writing and sending press releases about your e-book, scheduling radio interviews, creating accounts at social media networks and telling your social media account followers about your book and participating in book blog tours.

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/30/your-money/the-rise-in-self-publishing-opens-the-door-for-aspiring-writers.html?pagewanted=all (New York Times: Options for Self-Publishing Proliferate, Easing the Bar to Entry)

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/50921-baker–taylor-in-deal-with-smashwords.html (Publishers Weekly: Baker & Taylor in Deal with Smashwords)

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/financial-reporting/article/50805-aap-estimates-e-book-sales-rose-117-in-2011-as-print-fell.html (Publishers Weekly: AAP Estimates, E-Book Sales Rose 117% in 2011 as Print Fell)

Feature Interview with Raymond Clarke, Starring in Love Pour Over Me

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Meet Raymond Clarke:  Born in Dayton, Ohio in the 1960s, Raymond Clarke is a world class track and field athlete. His athletic exploits have landed him on the cover of magazines like Athletic Ambassador, Track Historian and Sports Hall of Famers. Although rarely discovered, Raymond’s academic achievements are on par with his sports accomplishments, earning him Class Valedictorian of his graduating class. He has overcome great odds, tremendous childhood challenges, many of which have stopped millions of other men and women. While at a famous university in Pennsylvania, he shares a myriad of ups, downs and good-good times, as well as harrowing experiences (some life threatening), with three of his best male friends. Raymond Clarke’s determination and resilience, and, more importantly, his healed heart, help him see and later accept the woman he was born to love. This fictional character’s story is told in detail in the new book, Love Pour Over Me which is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Ebookit.com, Google Books, iTunes, print bookstores and libraries.

love pour over me book by denise turney

Denise: How are you able to love Brenda so deeply considering the fact that your mom, the most important woman in a man’s life, left you?

Raymond: If you’ve ever known something was right deep in your gut, you’ll understand when I tell you I knew, I instinctively knew, Brenda was my woman. Despite all we went through, nothing could disturb that.

Denise: Did you ever go looking for your mother?

Raymond: (Sigh). No. I thought about her a lot, especially when I was a kid, but I never took off and starting looking for my mom. I wouldn’t even have known where to start.

Denise: Why did you choose UPemb?

Raymond: Coach Carter (he’s probably the closest thing I had to a loving father) and the school’s awesome track and field program. Track is my passion. Thank God, I’ve been very good at the sport since I was a kid. Plus, I got a scholarship to UPemb and with Coach Carter’s help I know I can earn a gold medal in the Olympics.

Denise: You hang out with a cool group of friends. What do these guys mean to you?

Raymond: Oh, man. Anthony, Patrick and Doug, these three dudes are my brothers. Sure. We’ve had our close calls, especially me and Anthony. The two of us have damn near cheated death and more than once. But we always work things out. I love those dudes. They’re like family. (shaking his head) We have some good times together! Our ladies get along pretty good with each other too, well. . . most of them.

Denise: Do you keep in touch with your friend from high school, the guy you ran with back in the day? . . . . .

Read the rest of this feature interview at:  http://www.lenasledgeblog.com/2012/09/raymond-clark-interview-by-denise.html

Get your copy of “Love Pour Over Me” Now at –

http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

What Makes Women and Men Fall in Love?

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By Denise Turney

Years ago I thought falling in love was something orchestrated only by heaven. Now, I wonder if that’s really the case. True. Little — if anything, feels as invigorating, as intoxicating and as all consuming as falling in love. Yet, as magical as falling in love feels, studies have revealed that the process of falling in love can be orchestrated, with intent, by everyday folk.

Power Feelings of Falling in Love

Your Amazing Brain says we fall in love in three stages. In the first stage, we feel lust (others might call it infatuation) for someone. Then, we move on to attraction and finally the third stage of attraction. The entire time we are moving through each of these stages, our brains are fast at work, causing the process to seem almost mechanical.

During the first stage estrogen (women) and testosterone (men) increases. It’s no wonder we feel so nervous and giddy during this stage. Hormones are rushing through our systems, including our brains, at heightened levels. It’s during the attraction stage that we can’t seem to stop thinking about a person. Adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin (the godmother of good feelings) take center stage during the attraction stage. We also tend to view the person we’re falling in love with as being perfect or damn near perfect. Some refer to this as wearing rose-colored glasses (of course, sooner or later, those glasses come off).

After we’ve been in a relationship with someone for several weeks or months, we may start to enter the attachment stage. This is when we start producing an increase of oxytocin and vasopressin. However, should our brains start producing or secreting lower levels of these hormones, we might start feeling less in-love with a person.

Growing Into Deeper Love With Someone

Studies have shown that the process of falling in love can be orchestrated if couples spend enough time together to allow their brains to move through the stages. There’s also still more research being done to discover what happens to our brains and our bodies during the early, middle and late stages of being in love. Perhaps we’ll never fully know what happens to us during the time in our lives when we can feel so out of control as we start feeling incredibly strong emotions when we meet and/or think about someone. What we do know is that the feelings generally don’t last.

If we run away from relationship challenges and don’t have conviction about a loving relationship, we may never reach deep commitment, we may never enter the deepest and sweetest places of a relationship. It’s what Raymond and Brenda learn in Love Pour Over Me as they try to understand why they feel so drawn to each other, almost as if heaven is pushing them together, so soon after they meet at college.

Falling and staying in love would be easy if all we had to do was focus on the one we felt a strong emotional and psychological connection to. But, that’s not the way it goes. As happens with Brenda and Raymond in the book Love Pour Over Me, other events of our lives seem to get in the way. There are jobs to go to, children to care for, houses to keep up, friends to hang out with . . . the list goes on and on and on . . .

Before you know it, we’re not feeling so in love anymore. Maybe it’s because our minds and our brains get cluttered with too many other things to focus on. Who knows? What remains sure is that, whether studied or not, little beats or compares to the feelings of falling in love. It’s an exhilarating time, and when it’s right, when a relationship can and does stand the test of time (and any other test thrown its way), being in love is right – perfect.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please return often and read more blog posts. To learn what happens to Raymond, Brenda and the other characters in Love Pour Over Me, hop over to Amazon.com, B&N.com, Ebookit.com and get your copy of Love Pour Over Me today. And again I say – Thank You!

Sources:

Love Pour Over Me – http://www.ebookit.com/books/0000001582/Love-Pour-Over-Me.html

Your Amazing Brain: The Science of Love – http://www.youramazingbrain.org/lovesex/sciencelove.htm

Psychology Today: The Early Stages of Falling in Love – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/get-hardy/201203/the-early-stages-falling-in-love