New Year’s Resolutions for champs

Are New Year’s Resolutions for chumps or champs?   do you set goals? Do you set your goals up every day, week, month or year to win or fail?  do you know how to make the difference?

I work with talented, creative professional people who may think Getting Published is a game of chance, lack focus or have unrealistic expectations and show them how to clarify, imagine and make their wildest dreams coming true …

and it starts off with goal setting… too many folks write, affirm, and/or set up goals wishing, hoping, not really believing and certainly not to do anything about them so they do not work.   BIG SIGH…

You are a successful person, right. Have you ever noticed that some people are successful in one or two areas of life, maybe three… maybe one… usually not in all areas of life… shining success at work and failure in relationships. Good with people, bad with money.  Talented artist, messy home and relationships. Good with dogs, bad health. And so on… Or people are HAPPY and poor or Successful and miserable. Perhaps peaceful and compassionate and loving people but wimps at work.

Or you know how to (fill in the blanks) but do not know how to (fill in the blanks) and you’ve always wanted to (fill in the blanks)… but don’t have the time, money, resources or (FILL IN THE BLANKS) TO GET WHAT YOU WANT IN LIFE

well, maybe you have been letting your IFS AND/OR BUTS GET IN THE WAY (and do not even know it) and are Determined that 2013 will be DIFFERENT… A NEW YEAR… a Year of Fulfilling YOUR own personal Bucket List of Dreams… 

hint…

how would you feel if…

Sometimes when people meet me they shove a book in my face, and they want me to sign it, or write on their shirt, or take a picture with them. I feel like….(fill in the blanks)…

If you’d like to Go to Vegas and Stack the Odds of Winning heavily In Your Favor, (Win the Jackpot, Baby), give me a Call Today !!!!

Just call me Lady Lucky 

 

 

 

 

gifts for writers

well, run, don’t walk, get yourself a copy of APE!!!!  before you start going bananas, check it out…

http://amzn.to/APEtheBook

Love the ebook, APE. as a writer, editor, publicist, who has written books, edited other people’s books and memoirs as well as promoted best-selling authors books, it made me laugh, giggle, and smirk… Guy Kawasaki speaks in REAL plain everyday language talk… and gives the REAL down and dirty tips of the who, what, where and how of self-publishing… includes the challenges of traditional publishing… and provides real life examples of how to be successful and do the future NOW.

Too many people want to write a book and have unrealistic expectations. As Guy talks about, a lot of people want to write for the wrong reasons, fame, money, and to impress others. But these reasons do not a best seller make. It is also a BIG DREAM of SOMEDAY, the day between Sunday and Monday and it never arrives. Either they do not finish the manuscript, try to take easy shortcuts, end up getting discouraged by agents and traditional publishers, eventually use a vanity publisher, or give up altogether.

I love that he included a link to the youtube video So you want to write a novel and all of the other live links.

Authors must be entrepreneurs and publishers as well as good writers. Having something to say is vitally important along with multi-tasking, wearing a number of different hats, juggling a bunch of balls in the air all at the same time.

It is always best to learn from someone who has been there and done it and made it and Guy Kawasaki makes it doable with 1,2,3 steps pointing the way home.

As Kawasaki says:

“The relationship between author and publicist is usually the most contentious one in publishing because no author has been happy
with his publicist in the history of mankind. (No publicist has been happy with her author in the history of mankind either, though!e relationship between author and publicist is usually the most contentious one in publishing because no author has been happy
with his publicist in the history of mankind. (No publicist has been happy with her author in the history of mankind either, though.”

So if you are not going to be happy with your publicist, publisher or agent, you may as well get over yourself and be all three (or more) and become a whole human in the process. (Transformation of the soul of a writer after writing a book)… shhhhh…

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/12/11/25-gifts-for-writers/

 

writing a fairy tale

magical and inspirational… can be used to write fiction, a press release, article or a book (children’s, romantic fiction and more)… check it out…

enjoy the journey…

http://www.upworthy.com/imagine-the-best-time-of-your-life-if-youre-not-imagining-right-now-watch-this-v?c=utw1

I especially like the way he changed the ant and grasshopper fable.

http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-write-a-fairy-tale

1. I added another character: Spider, who’s role is only minor one and many other animals with even less important roles. We’ll meet them later.

2. I expanded setting with a tiny twist: this time Ant comes to Grasshopper. You see, she is concerned about her neighbor. We don’t know if she came to her place to offer a help or to mock her misery, but we also can’t accuse her of cruelty as we can in Aesop’s version.

3. As you have already noticed, I didn’t change the basic plot. I definitely want people to know where the idea came from and how I used it to make something new, useful and hopefully beautiful.

4. This time Ant is on a mission. As I said, we don’t know why she came to the Grasshopper, but she is the one who goes out.

5. Now the Spider enters as a helper. He, not the Grasshopper, opened Grasshopper’s door. That’s it. I said it is a minor role. But Ant is shocked and listeners are all ears. This is what a storyteller wants. To be heard!

6. We don’t have one on one confrontation here, instead of that Ant is confronted with great discovery: Grasshopper’s home is really a concert hall where she performs her music to wide audience. She is not hungry at all. She is even selling tickets for her performances!

7. Happy ending for everybody: Grasshopper is still enjoying playing her music, all other animals are enjoying listening to her music.

And if you insist on the moral: Everybody has his own way to happiness!

http://www.squidoo.com/story_telling

Journey to author

Famous writers journey to becoming authors… JK Rowling

JK Rowling was on welfare for two years while she wrote Harry Potter. Now she feels appreciative of the government and gives back to her country. She stays and pays because she feels she owes her country for her success.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-october-15-2012/exclusive—j-k–rowling-extended-interview-pt–1

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-october-15-2012/exclusive—j-k–rowling-extended-interview-pt–2

Though the seeds of Harry had been sown as early as 1990, Rowling didn’t put all of the pieces together and start writing in earnest until the mid-1990s when she was living in Edinburgh, Scotland, raising her daughter, Jessica, alone. Not able to afford even a used typewriter — let alone a computer — Rowling wrote the earliest drafts of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in longhand. “I knew I wanted to get published. And, in truth, writing novels is something you have to believe in to keep going. It’s a fairly thankless job when no one is paying you to do it. And you don’t really know if it’s ever going to get into the bookshops so I really did believe in it. But I was also very realistic. I knew the odds were not on my side because, an unknown author, you know? It’s tough. It’s tough the first time to get published, so I persevered. I loved writing it and I felt that I just had to try.”

http://januarymagazine.com/profiles/jkrowling.html

Between June 2007 and June 2008, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling banked an astonishing $300 million, easily making her the wealthiest writer on the planet. There have been whispers that Rowling is a sweet $50 million richer than the Queen of England, although Rowling has denied the claim.

The Casual Vacancy. Read the full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/22/jk-rowling-book-casual-vacancy

http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/

 

Second place on the list goes to prolific author James Patterson who brought in a paltry $50 million for his efforts. Patterson’s new book, Cross Country, part of his wildly successful Alex Cross thriller series, is set for release on November 17th.

Fright meister Stephen King takes third place with a respectable $45 million. King is breaking new ground with his upcoming release, Just After Sunset: one of the book’s short stories, “N,” has been turned into a 25 episode digi-drama. Find out more and watch the episodes HERE.

Tom Clancy, best-selling espionage and military science writer, is in fourth place with $35 million this past year.

romance novelist Danielle Steele with $30 million.

rich authors include Nicholas Sparks, Janet Evanovich, John Grisham, Dean Koontz, and Ken Follet

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-world-s-five-richest-authors-and-i-think-we-all-know-who-s-sitting-pretty-the-top-spot

Nearly every author is a mystery or thriller writer, most of whom got their first book published in the last couple years. Not only would I have liked to see some non-fiction writers tell their story (surely non-fiction writers struggle with finding a publisher), but I would’ve liked to have seen authors from other English-speaking countries (is the process the same as in the US?) and from other fields of fiction; as well as stories from authors who have been published for more than a year or two…

http://www.amazon.com/How-Got-Published-Famous-Authors/dp/1582975108