Make more money as an author

                                                             by Trina Boice
                                                         www.trinaboice.com

Have you discovered Steve Harrison yet?  He's awesome.  I've been listening to his teleseminars for over a year now and am so impressed with the great quality content he shares for free.

Are you where you want to be as an author, speaker or expert in your field?
Are you getting as much publicity as you should?
Are you selling as many books as you should?
Are you getting the recognition you deserve as one of the top experts in your field?
Are you making the level of income you should?
Are you having the impact on others you should?
Are you hearing from lots of people about how your work has changed their lives for the better?

If not, let Steve Harrison, show you some faster -- often MUCH faster -- ways to get where you want to be.
Join Steve on Wednesday, March 21st for a free webinar (or telephone seminar) on which he’ll be revealing
'Fast Track Promotion Strategies for Authors, Speakers and Experts.'

https://m164.infusionsoft.com/go/QL15FT/A12889


Here's just some of what you’ll discover on Wednesday:
* A proven way to land speaking engagements much more quickly. Steve used this strategy to speak to over 1,000 people at a conference with Brian Tracy.
* A key strategy the author of 'Skinny Bitch' used to make her book a New York Times Best Seller with over
2 million copies in print.
* What to write in your subject header when emailing the media. Steve will reveal a 'magic phrase' which got a producer from the Today Show to call a few hours later wanting to book the guest.
* How a job search expert was able to stand out from all the other job experts out there and sell 10,000 books in three weeks by using one technique Steve taught him.
* How to overcome any fear or hesitancy you have about promoting yourself. Steve will reveal a simple but profound principle which changed his life and has helped him generate millions of dollars over the last 20 years.
* How to get on your local TV in a matter of hours, not weeks or months. Steve will share how one of my clients didn’t even know who to contact but three hours later the local news crew was interviewing him.
* Years ago when Steve and his brother/partner Bill were first working together in their two-bedroom apartment, struggling to pay their bills, they discovered an important marketing lesson which took them from struggling to successful. He'll share it with you because he knows it will help you too.
* How to write and publish your books much more quickly. The surprising difference that allows million dollar authors to be much more productive and achieve success faster than everybody else.

Again, go here now to register for Wednesday's webinar or telephone seminar:
https://m164.infusionsoft.com/go/QL15FT/A12889
 
 I'll be listening to it too!

The Annual Lyrics Contest Winner Announced!

We've made it a tradition to film a music video to be shown at the Storymakers conference each year, and we ask our attendees to submit their ideas for lyrics that spoof popular songs and contain references to writing. We are pleased to announce that our winner this year is ...

Michelle Jeffries!

We'd like to extend a special thank you to this year's entrants for the music lyrics' contest. This year's decision for a winner was especially hard since many of you have such a knack for clever and witty lyrics. We thank you for sharing your talents with us.


We plan on filming this year's music video in April. If you live around the Salt Lake City region and are interested in appearing in this years' music video, please contact us at stephaniefowers@gmail.com for more details. 


The music video this year will play in the LDStorymaker's bookstore, so come and check out the finished product when you come shop for your favorite books! 

Videos from the last couple of years:

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Well, it's a chicken dinner unless you ordered the beef ...


First of all, let me extend a huge thank you to all who entered the Show Your Love contest.  You really did show your love by helping spread the word about the LDStorymakers conference, and it was fun to tabulate all the results.  We appreciate your support of us and can't wait to see you all in May!  Honestly, it's the highlight of our year.


We would now like to announce the winners!


First Prize - Berin Stephens


Berin has won a seat at the VIP table for Friday night's dinner at the conference. His dinner companions will be Kevin J. Anderson, Molly O'Neill, Holly Root, Michelle Wolfson,and Kathleen Ortiz. In addition, he will receive a query critique and a two-page manuscript critique.




Second Prize - Tasha Seegmiller


Tasha has won a seat at the VIP table (same dinner companions as listed above), and she will also receive a two-page manuscript critique.




Third Prize - James Duckett


James has also won a seat at the VIP table, along with Berin and Tasha.




Fourth Prize - Lisa Swinton


Lisa has won a query critique and a ten-page manuscript critique.




Fifth Prize - Rose Owens


Rose has won a query critique.




Sixth Prize - Lana Jordan


Lana has won a query critique.




Again, congratulations, and another big thanks to everyone who participated!

Show Your Love for LDStorymakers!

Ah, love ... don't you just love love?  The month of February is the best month of all for celebrating love ... no, not because of Valentine's Day, silly! It's time for the Show Your Love contest in conjunction with the LDStorymakers Writers Conference!

We've held this contest for the last couple of years, and those who participated will tell you - it was fun and the prizes were well worth it.

So let's break this down a little bit.  What's at stake here?  What are we playing for?

Prizes: Three lucky people will win seats at a star-studded VIP table for Friday night's dinner.  That's right - Kevin J. Anderson, Molly O'Neill, Holly Root, Michelle Wolfson, and Kathleen Ortiz will be your dinner companions.  I recommend watching for parsley between your teeth. You're responsible for getting yourself to and into the conference, and we'll take care of the rest (except for the parsley) because we're good like that.

But that's not all - let me break it down for you.

First Place Prize:  Seat at the VIP table, a query critique, and two-page manuscript critique

Second Place Prize: Seat at the VIP table and a two-page manuscript critique

Third Place Prize: Seat at the VIP table

Fourth Place Prize: Query critique and 10-page manuscript critique

Fifth and Sixth Place Prizes: Query Critiques

*Our special thanks to Holly Root, Lisa Mangum, Michelle Wolfson, Kirk Shaw, Kathleen Ortiz, and Weronika Janczuk for donating our prizes!


So, what must you do to enter to win?

Rules:

Blog about the LDStorymakers Writers Conference and link to the conference site. This is worth 5 entries.

Blog about the Show Your Love contest and link back to this post. This is also worth 5 entries.

Become a fan of the LDStorymakers Conference Facebook page and invite 5 friends to become fans. This is worth 1 Entry (limit 5 entries).

Mention the conference and/or the contest on Twitter. Either post the link in your tweet, or use the hashtag #storymakers12. This is worth 1 entry per day, up to 5 per week.

Post the conference attendee badge on your site or blog.  This is worth 3 entries. You can get the code for this on the sidebar, to your right.  Here's what the badge looks like:  

Leave us a comment in this blog's comment trail and tell us everything you've done.  You have from now until the stroke of midnight Utah time on February 29th to rack up as many points as you can. You must be a registered attendee of the conference to participate - and if you haven't registered yet, you can do it right here. Attendees and presenters are eligible. We will announce the winner at the beginning of March. If your e-mail isn't accessible through your Blogger profile, please leave it with one of your comments so we can contact you. Winning, and not knowing it, would be pretty rotten.

All right, minions! Get busy! Win the dinner of a lifetime - how many people can say they ate dinner with some top agents? Not many! Be one of them! Show your love, help us spread the word about the conference, and walk away cooler than you were when you walked in!

Best Books of 2012

                                              by Trina Boice

                                           www.trinaboice.com

While I dream of having one of those cool personal libraries so large that it requires a ladder to reach the top shelves, my husband is in the anti-clutter mode, so I have been selling my old books online, using www.bookscouter.com to find the best prices.

One of the companies that buys back books is Powell's, creator of the "Puddly Awards", their version of the Oscars for books. They ask their readers to determine which titles were their favorites during the previous year. Here are the results for their 2012 awards:

Best Fiction: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Purchase The Help Deluxe Edition here







Best Nonfiction: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Purchase a copy of Unbroken here







Have you read either of those two books? I have to confess that I only had time to see the movie "The Help" but I absolutely loved it. Some of the actresses in the flick are already slated to win an Oscar. What did YOU think of the book? How did it compare to the movie?

How about "Unbroken"? I haven't talked to anyone who has read it. Have you? What did you think? Do I need to carve out some time to read it because it's that good?

If we were the one to decide the book awards, which books would YOU choose to win?

Retirement Quest, Make Better Decisions by John Hauserman, a Review

 Retirement Quest, Make Better Decisions is a valuable book. I didn’t realize at first that it could be valuable to me because my eyes glazed over as I read the first few chapters. I began to wonder why I had been asked to review it, as it seemed to have been written for the monetarily sophisticated, people already conversant with financial planning. In fact, John Hauserman states in Chapter 5, “This book is intended for mature readers who have already achieved a reasonable level of financial security and responsibility, and for younger people who are in a wealth building mode.”

My eyes unglazed when I hit Chapter 6, though, when Hauserman began explaining the basics of financial instruments, how they work, and the strengths and weaknesses of each. I didn’t know, for example, about bonds and coupon rates, and how one of the primary determinants of a bond’s coupon rate is the creditworthiness of the bond issuer. As Hauserman says, “This is a very significant factor, and responsible money management therefore generally dictates that one not necessarily choose the highest-yielding bond.” Who knew?

The book is full of lots of sound information. Throughout, Hauserman preaches the gospel of diversification—even in your cash holdings. Now, you may think that a cash holding is, well, cash. But you will find that isn’t necessarily so when you read the book. He also stresses the need for discipline and regularly rebalancing, which he explains on page 54.

Hauserman points out that younger people need to step up to shoulder the responsibility for their own retirement, for, by law, ”once the [Social Security] trust fund is exhausted—it is anticipated that this will happen around the year 2030—the benefit formula is to be rewritten based upon the economics of the program at that time. In simple terms, this means that we should expect, if all goes well, that around the year 2030 we will experience a benefit cut of about 50%.”

Hauserman also makes the point that this is a way citizens can not only serve themselves but can serve their country, for the republic’s economic well being is tied to the economic health of its citizens. He quotes John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what you can do for your Country” speech in this context.

Retirement Quest is a thoughtful book, building on a solid philosophy. The writing is clear, but for someone like me, or for young people in a ‘wealth building mode,’ I would say to start at Chapter 6, read to the end, and then go back and read Chapters 1-5.

Visit John Houserman's web site at:  http://retirementquest.com/home.aspx   

You can purchase Retirement Quest, Make Better Decisions by clicking here.

Disclaimer: Though a copy of this book was given to me to review, the fact that I received it free had no bearing on the opinions expressed.

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What's the future of paper books?

The Amazon Kindle was the company's biggest seller out of all their merchandise this last Christmas.  Publishers, authors, and readers are all wondering what the future holds for books actually made out of paper.  I seem to think that a true book lover just can't resist the feeling of a real book in hand...that being said, I'm one of the recipients of a Kindle reader from Santa last year...


Jonathan Franzen, the author of Freedom and The Corrections, launched a passionate defense of the printed book—and an attack on e-books—at the recent Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia. “The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom I can spill water on it, and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology,” said Franzen. “And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model.” 

Wondering whether nonelectronic print will be around in 50 years, he said he fears that “it’s going to be very hard to make the world work if there’s no permanence like that. That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government.”

So what do YOU think?  Will you be reading "real" books in ten years?  Do you own an e-book reader?  Love them both?  Need them both?  What would you say to Jonathan Franzen?