5 Tips For Promoting Your Book(s) #3

Hi again!

1) Get a website. That sounds daunting doesn't it? Some publishers provide a website for their authors. There are people who design them. There are other companies that have website options for a monthly fee. I get mine through vistaprint.com. You can get them for any price point, but I get the delux site because I want to be able to sell my stuff on my own site, elainelittau.com . I have a paypal shopping cart on there and it is great.

2) So...you have a website. So what? You have to answer a few questions about why you have it. One fact of our day and time is that if you have a business, and your book is your business, you MUST have a website. Questions to consider:

a)Who am I selling to? You will want to say 'everybody'. That just isn't true. While many people from each demographic will read your book, you do have a dominate reader profile.

b) Once you figure out who your major buys are you need to decide if they are people who have a lot of technical/computer experience or are they people who love getting mail-outs and paper advertisements. Whether your customer is technically challenged or not, you need a simple to navigate site.

3) The FIRST page of your website needs to tell them, in plain language , what it is you want them to do. An arrow---BUY HERE pointing to the books and things you offer. A sentence in bold type AUTHOR, SPEAKER, BOOK MARKETING COACH...or POET, SPEAKER, WRITER...Make sure your customer knows your purpose on the first page.

4) Your other pages can have your bio and book details and other things you offer, as well as guestbook, book trailers, and all the bells and whistles.

5) Be sure you use good KEY WORDS in describing your website if there is that option. You will want your website to be found easily by search engines. (frugal book marketing, author, speaker, writer, fiction, historical fiction, western fiction, christian western fiction, book marketing coach....)

Until next time, why don't you work on these 5 things?

Post Holiday Blues: Surviving in this Financially Driven Society

Ok ... the holidays are behind us. Many of us spent time with family and friends, enjoying good food and traditional gifts underneath the Christmas tree.  Parties and Christmas lights all around, grabbed our attention. And for a while, there was joy.

But before all this, there was planning and preparation.  And shopping. In a world full of technological advances, we were shown over and over what was "hot" and what was not. We knew what we wanted to buy, before we even made it to the store.  Our hearts were big ... and we wanted the best for our loved ones. Ohhhh ... it's so easy! With pre-season as well as last minute sales, credit card access, lay away plans, and stores vying for our business, it's hard to resist going a bit overboard.

But now come the bills.  Now we have to pay for all that holiday cheer. The flood begins ... and it is almost overwhelming. 

I'm about to give you one of the most important, yet difficult tips for financial sanity in this financially driven society. I call it 10-10-10. This 10-10-10 principle works with any amount of income, from $.10 all the way up to any amount you can think of.  Notice I didn't say it was easy; but it does work. Persistence, endurance and determination are the keys to making this principle work for you in a world that is permeated with buying and selling. 

First, as I told you in "Survival of the Fittest; Surviving in this Financially Driven Society" (which was Part 1), we need to get our priorities straight.  We must know our Source.  Sure, it is we who get up in the morning, don our outfits, feed our faces, leave our homes and families, and walk or drive to our places of employment. But it is God who gave us the means and ability to do so. It is God who gave us the strength and talents we use to support ourselves and bring home the "bread." It is God who gives us the mental capacity to decide where all the money we have earned will be spent. So consider Him first. In His Word, God tells us  to "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse ... and prove me now, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing..." (Malachi 3: 10)

So, in obedience to His Word, our first 10 is the 10% we tithe to the Lord. Don't get all caught up in where that tithe should go, or whether that 10% should be based on your gross or net income. Just find a church or ministry that you believe is working on behalf of the Lord, or one that you believe has needs, and donate the first 10% to God through that organization. 

The second 10 is the 10% you put into savings.  If you don't put some money back for future use, you will never get ahead. 10% may seem like a small amount, especially if your dreams are big. But it's a start. It's a first step. And with persistence and determination, this amount will grow.

The third 10 is the 10% you spend on yourself. This is an important part of the plan. If you don't take some of your hard-earned income and spend in on yourself ... if you don't enjoy some of it ... you will burn out. Our financial burdens will quickly overwhelm us, if we don't take some "time-out" for fun, or new clothes, or a night out, or whatever does it for you.

Pay your bills with the balance of your income.

So the plan is ... 10% tithing, 10% saving, and 10% spending. 10-10-10. Everything gets taken care of with this plan. Nothing gets left out. And the plan can be worked with any amount of income you have. As with other issues, it's not always easy. Especially in the beginning. But it is workable. And you can start now for the next go round of holidays!  You will be the winner in the end!

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

Grieving Through the Holidays

It's that time of year again. Time for joy, holiday parties, gift giving and receiving. Time to worship the One whose birth we celebrate. It's also the time you feel grief so strongly, because the one you love has passed on. Or you lost your job. Or that fire or tornado or hurricane has destroyed all your worldly goods. Or maybe you have recently been diagnosed with a deadly disease. This is the time of year when everyone's happy, right? But you're not. You're in pain.

So, what is it that you can do? How can you get through these holiday celebrations without losing your mind, or having a breakdown ... or worse yet, becoming a hermit? Well, the very first thing you need to do is suck in that next breath of air!  Force it out, and then do it all over again!

The purpose of this blog is not to go through all the causes, symptoms and stages of the grieving process. You already know those, because you're experiencing them as we speak.  The purpose of this blog is to bring encouragement and hope to you through this holiday season.  To share some information with you that could help you get past the pain, and onto healing ... despite those emotions that make you want to hide from the world.

I read a book once called "A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss," by Gerald Sitser. Mr. Sitser had experienced his own grievous trauma, and, therefore, was knowledgeable about what he wrote. On page 138, Mr. Sitser made this comment: "Sorrow itself needs the existence of God to validate it as a healthy and legitimate emotion. If there is no God, it makes no difference how we respond. It becomes entirely subjective, like individual tastes in ice cream. If sorrow is subjective, and it doesn't matter how we respond, then why not laugh at tragedy, loss and depression? How do we establish the absoluteness of good vs. bad, anyway? And where did we get the idea of "good" and "bad" in the first place? People feel pain in suffering because suffering is bad. We know this because we have knowledge of what is good. Such knowledge can only come from God."

Following Mr. Sitser's logic leads us to another point: denial of our negative emotions will only keep us in bondage to them for a longer period of time. We must acknowledge their existence. And then we must make a conscious choice to put them in their proper place.  In other words, throw those negative, painful emotions out like yesterday's trash. How? How is that possible? By making a conscious choice to acknowledge and grasp hold of the fact that even through the painful emotions, hope exists. Hope for healing. Tragedy is designed to defeat and destroy us. So, is healing possible? It depends on what you believe! And on what you do about hope! Grieve ... but never without hope.

Grief will destroy us, or it will transform us ... but it will never leave us the same. Our lives will never be the same as they were before the tragic event. But we can move on. And it can be a healthy, positive, productive, and most of all Godly, growth and change. Here are some practical suggestions that will help you overcome grief, especially as you progress through this holiday season:

1)  Prepare yourself. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 4: 23 to "guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."
2) Get a moderate amount of exercise. Exercise has been known to reduce stress.
3) Pay attention to your diet. Stick to the good stuff. Cut down on refined sugar, white flour products, caffeine, nicotine and anything else that is harmful to your body.
4) Get proper rest, as well as a good amount of sleep.
5) Talk to someone. There's healing power in sharing your burdens with someone.
6) Keep a journal of your thoughts, feelings, prayers and answers to prayer. Later, you'll be able to look back and see how much progress you have made.

Make a conscious choice to grab onto the hope of healing. Then take some positive steps in that direction. And don't forget to pat yourself on the back ... because even the smallest of steps is a major accomplishment!

Scratching at Life

Wherever books are sold

One morning I was sitting on my couch having a quiet moment before God.  My couch was my “prayer closet” at the time, and I was praying and reading about Him.  It wasn’t too long after I sat down that I began to hear noises in the corner of the room … scratching.  The sound of scratching got louder and louder.  The house I lived in at the time was built on a pier and beam foundation, and it had crawl-space access to the underneath of the house.  Hearing that scratching, I remembered that I had forgotten to fix the screen that covered the hole accessing the crawl space.  I realized that some sort of animal had probably gotten under the house through that hole, and it was doubtless trying to scratch its way to who knows where.

            Strange how our minds work, but at that point I began to wonder where that animal thought it was going.  It didn’t have to scratch its way through anything to get somewhere.  To get wherever it wanted to go, or any place else in the whole wide world, all it had to do was to go back through the same hole it came through to get underneath the house in the first place … which was probably that unfixed opening … and it would have all the freedom it was seeking.  No struggle, just walk through.  It reminded me of something I once heard about a fly being trapped in a glass.  It has been said that a fly will buzz around that glass until it dies, without realizing that liberty is only as far away as the top of the open container.

            Aren’t we like that?  How much do we “scratch” at life, going nowhere, when freedom is right there, just waiting for us to find it?  Our moments of refreshing could be closer than we realize because God is closer than we realize.

            Times of refreshing.  Oh, man  … we all need them, don’t we?  We have been walking around in the desert (our own personal, barren, wasteland; one that parallels with the desert the Israelites walked around in for forty years) for so long!  We need that oasis of refreshment … we see it in the movies and we know from the Word of God that it is ours for the asking.  “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” Jesus tells us, “and I will give you rest.”

            We all need that rest.  Even God rested!  He created the world in six days, and on the seventh day He rested.  He even ordained that day as special calling it the Sabbath.  He knew we, as human beings, would need to rest at times, so He commanded us to rest on that day as well.  God’s Son Jesus also rested.  So what makes us think we can do without it?  

            But how do we go about obtaining them?  When do we have time to include them in our busy schedule?  And how can we even believe they are for us personally, when our hearts are in such pain and distress?  Just as the Israelites did, we walk through that desert.   And as if that drought in our spiritual lives weren’t enough, then … after the desert … just like the Israelites, we have battles to fight.  Just when we’re ready to get out of the desert and claim our own “Promised Land,” it’s then that those battles start.  Just when we’re finally ready for a little R & R (rest and relaxation), we’ve got to gear up, don our spiritual armor and face those “giants” that would keep us out of our own promised land. 

We fight battles.  But all the time we’re questioning, and we want to know … how can we reach the point that Joshua led the Israelites to, that point where we too can “rest from war.”  Resting does provide refreshing.  It does provide life.

We were created with what has commonly been referred to as a “God-shaped hole” within the very core of our being.  Something within us needs satisfaction and fulfillment.  Something within us needs peace, joy, love and goodness, just to name a few of the things we seek after.  Somehow, we seem to look for these things in all the wrong places.  We look for love within sexual relationships.  We look for peace within circumstances that are going our way.  We look for joy inside a bottle of alcohol or relief through mood-altering drugs.  We become “a-holics” … work, alcohol, drugs, sex, money, food, sympathy, relationships, or anything-else-we-can-find-a-holic.  What we find in those “places,” is that none of this fits the bill.  Oh, we may find temporary satisfaction, joy or rest from some of these things.  But soon we are seeking again.  We’re looking in all the wrong places.  It reminds me of those bright-colored toys we used to buy for our toddlers … you know, the ones that they would have to find the right shaped object to insert into the same shaped hole.  A square peg, for example, would not fit into a round hole.  The toddler learned manual dexterity, eye-hand coordination, etc., through playing with this toy.  But what this particular toy could not teach us was how to fill that “God-shaped hole” we were created with.  What we need to learn is that just as only the correctly shaped object could fit into its counterpart hole, the only One who can fill a “God-shaped hole” is God Himself.   

            Maybe we’re looking for times of rest and refreshing in all the wrong places as well.  Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord.  It is to Him that we must turn for rest and refreshing. It is possible to put aside all our cares and worries for the moment, and come into the presence of the Lord. Not only is it possible, but it's absolutely necessary for our health and well being. Times of refreshing … they are a matter of life and death! 

Your Book's Not Selling!

Are you discouraged with your book sales? Have you been working extra hard to get the word out about what you've written ... yet it doesn't seem like there's much response? TAKE HEART! Be encouraged! Keep on keepin' on! Here's a story that relates:

I took an Executive Secretarial course in college. When I graduated ... guess what I thought I was going to be? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out ... but guess what else? It didn't happen! I had to work my way up through the ranks, until eventually I got to the management level.

The same thing happened when I wrote my first book. I never had any thoughts at all about becoming a writer or an author. It happened by the grace of God (literally), through my studies to become a licensed belief therapist. Since I knew God was behind the writing of my first book, it followed in my mind that He would touch the hearts and minds of those He wanted to get the word to that He had planted in my heart.  Thus ... the sales would be there! But they weren't. (You'd have thought I would have learned my lesson with the Exec. Secretary job ... but nooooo!)  I literally spent almost all of my waking hours at my computer, marketing my book on line. So much so that God eventually had to say to me: "What's more important ... what you're doing or WHO you're doing it for!" (Notice that there's not a question mark at the end of the sentence. There's not an answer to be given. God was trying to tell me that even though I was working for Him, I was missing out on the most important aspect of life ... relationship with Him.)

I believe that at the time, I had the best marketing agent at Tate Publishing. Yet I'm now into writing my 5th book (as well as having written a behavioral management program for troubled teens, and that one's not published yet) and the sales still aren't there to any huge degree. Tate Publishing is really into recognizing and finding your "niche," which for the most part, at least up to this point, I thought I had. Marketing is definitely not my "niche." (My father was a salesman, and my son was in retail for a long time. But the gift bypassed me!) Yet I'm still marketing on line, as well as traveling to different trade shows, book festivals and book signing events. But still ... few sales.

Being an author is a very difficult field to be in. With a million new books published every year, there are a lot of us out there with something to say. Yet, I'm still working at it ... I have a book that was released  earlier this year (Here...Have A Miracle), and I have another in the production process as we speak. (Walking Toward the Light) And I'm into writing my next book after that. (My 3rd, 4th & 5th endeavors.)

I CAN'T STOP! Why? Because I believe that God is behind it. He's the One who gave me the talent, the words to say, and the ability and equipment to get the job done! He's the one who gave me the message. Sooooooo ... what's happening is that I'm "planting the seeds" and leaving the results up to God. (Check out I Corinthians 3: 6) It's the only way I can keep on doing what I'm doing. Depend on Him for the results.

I hope you will be encouraged with what I've said here. Let it soak in to your own writing career. One other thing that has helped me, is being in touch with other Tate authors. Following their tips, watching their events to see if there's one I might be able to join, and reading their encouraging posts.  I do wonder about the sales from time to time. But I'm going to keep on keeping on ... and I hope you will too!

Spiritual Warfare

Available at barnesandnoble.com

Have you ever seen a movie containing a scene of a battlefield … for example, a scene depicting a civil war battle? You see the scene from a distance; both sides standing out in a huge field, in lines, armed with nothing but their rifles. Sometimes there are so many soldiers that they are in groups. Each side faces the other, and begins to walk towards their enemy at the command of their leaders, who generally are sitting atop a hill or mesa, viewing the same scene that you are watching. They shout their commands, which are passed on down through the ranks to the front lines.

The suspense rises as the two sides march towards each other. When they are within range, one side is commanded to take aim. They shoot, and the front line soldiers on the opposing side drop to the ground, dead. While the front line that shot first reloads their rifles, the second line on the receiving side of the first rally takes aim and fires at the front line that just shot at them. Then their front line soldiers drop to the ground, shot dead. The battle continues like that until ammunition runs low, at which point the two opposing sides join together in hand-to-hand combat. More often than not, the scene ends by showing a “scenic” view of the country-side littered with the dead bodies of many soldiers. Maybe the heroes on both sides are walking through the war-torn country side, commiserating with their second in command about one or another of the reasons for this massacre.

Now, I’m not a military person, but every time I watch a movie with old-timey battle strategies like that, I wonder. I don’t know if it really happened that way, but if it did it would surprise me. It just seems ludicrous to me … both sides standing out there in the wide open field, with no protection from the shots fired at them from across the meadow, no chance of survival unless the man standing face to face with you is a poor shot. No protection … while your enemy has the power to shoot directly at you!

I am very grateful that the battles … especially the spiritual battles … we face today are not like that. I’m glad that God gives us protection ... the armor of God (Ephesians 6: 13 - 17).

The first order of business in any warfare, is to know exactly who your enemy is. Our true enemy does not line up in a field or meadow with a neatly-pressed uniform, and take aim across space against you, a totally unprotected, brave, but extremely fearful, human being, who is just standing there waiting to die. Your enemy is one you cannot see with your eyes of flesh. He is the evil one who is still around after having deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. He puts his boney fingers into the “pot” and stirs up all kinds of strife and trouble, even in this day and age. He knows exactly what circumstances to use to get us off track, exactly what button to push and when. Without God, we would have no defense. However, as a first line of defense, God tells us exactly who our enemy is, so that we can know exactly who we should be fighting against … and who we shouldn’t.

Has anybody ever asked you: "Did you put on your armor today?" I've had that question asked of me many times in my Christian walk. I’ve thought about and meditated upon the armor of God for many years. I used to picture myself putting on this armor … placing the helmet on my head, buckling the breastplate around my chest, and folding my pant legs in exactly the right manner so as to be able to tuck them into my boots. Grabbing up the shield and sword, I was on my way into battle. But God doesn’t leave us in our foolishness for very long. I came to realize that spiritual armor is not just what we envision (through prayer) ourselves putting on every morning when we wake up.  These are very real pieces of armor that we must hone and manage our very lives with!

The first piece of armor I felt God gave me, was the helmet of salvation. That’s extremely important. We must know that we know that we are saved. This is not a matter of pride because we think we’ve done something good, so we’re going to Heaven. It’s a matter of accepting what Jesus did for us, and taking Him at His word. About this one point (our salvation) we must be absolutely sure. If doubt comes in to this issue, if we are unsure about our salvation, we will never win any spiritual battles.

Next comes the breastplate of righteousness. Interesting concept, righteousness. In this day and age when so many believe that “what’s right for you may not necessarily be right for me," it’s hard to get back to the basics of right and wrong. There are basic “rights” and “wrongs,” you know. God’s Word says so. Yes, some things are good and/or right for one that would not be good or right for another. But what is written in the Bible by the Holy Spirit of God, there can be no question or doubt about. If God says it, it’s a done deal. Righteousness is holy and upright living. Decency and honesty. It is not a bullet-proof vest that we need for protection, it’s a true and sincere desire for upright living. We don’t don a literal vest, or breastplate, we cultivate and develop a desire for doing what’s right, and then we begin to conform our actions to that desire. That’s what the “breastplate of righteousness” is all about!

Having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace means that we “walk” (live) in peace with all, as far as we have the ability to do so. Once again, this is not an actual putting on of a pair of boots. It’s a style of living that will help keep us protected against harm. The shield of faith … that one’s pretty obvious. Developing and exercising faith, provides a shield that will protect us from the tricks and deceptions of our enemy. And the sword of the Spirit … come to learn and know God’s Word, because through it and by it we can have the weapon we need to win the face-off with our enemy. With it, we can avoid many pitfalls that could produce harm, or even death, in our lives.

So you see that the pieces of spiritual armor are not something you "put on" every morning when you wake up, and "take off" at night when you go to bed.  This armor is very real concepts that each of us need to be developing and living by.  It is this armor that will help us overcome the battles we face. With this kind of protection, we're sure to be the victor!

Legislating Humanity

You'd think we'd learn ... humanity's problems cannot be solved through legislation.  

We've just come through the most extensive, expensive mid-term election process of my lifetime. People were not happy with the political climate as it stood. Therefore, many incumbents were voted out of office, and  "new kids on the block" replaced them.  Do we really think that will help? Will Washington change its policies and procedures now, just because there are more Republicans there?  Do we not realize that this current administration is coming in on the tail end of the last one? And the last one came in on the tail end of the one before? Each has had to deal with and overcome the faux pas of the administration before it.

When will we learn ... there will always be Democrats. There will always be Republicans.  There will always be the rich and the poor. There will always be the white and the black. There will always be men and women. There will always be lines and boundaries over which some cannot resist crossing.  There will always be greed, pride, anger, and hunger for power. There will always be problems to solve, and there will always be people sitting on the opposite sides of the fence on how to solve them. 

That's because humanity in and of itself is not only imperfect, but it also has a sin nature to deal with.

We are each uniquely created. We are all different, with differing viewpoints and opinions.You cannot legislate humanity. If you try, what you'll end up with is so many laws that there will be no room left on earth to write them all down!  Certainly there would not be enough law enforcement officers to enforce all the laws and catch all the "criminals," or enough time to try them all in a court of law, or space enough to house them all in prison. In fact, who would determine who is the "criminal," since last time I looked, law enforcement officers are human as well, and they are endowed with the same imperfect human nature that the rest of us are! Well then, maybe we should just lock everybody up!

Ridiculous? Yes. The "cure" for humanity is not in more, or even different, legislation. When will we realize ... the only "cure" for humanity is to be found in Jesus Christ.