Want to Publish on the Kindle? Eat it!
This is an excerpt from my newest book soon to be released on Amazon: Don’t Panic! The Beginner’s Guide to Creating, Marketing and Publishing your information eBook on the Kindle
- Eat your frog – I learned this from productivity guru Brian Tracy, he says, “If every morning when you wake you eat the largest nastiest frog you can, the rest of the day become quite effortless.” While this is a bit of an odd saying, it sticks to the inside of your skull. What does it mean? Simple, take on your biggest task first thing in the morning, which is your most creative time of day. So to put it even more simply, when you wake up, don’t check your email, watch the news, or some other way to squander your time. Use this particularly fertile time to do what is most difficult and most important, write your book! – From Publishing on the Kindle
- Aim for a B not an A – I learned this over the years of blog writing. Initially, I would try to knock out an A, and I would hit a wall and maybe get a B+ but the energy expended was too much. Then I learned to write a post, sit on it for a day or two, and look at it in the morning with fresh eyes. Suddenly it became effortless to knock that paper up to an A. You see, if you aim for that B, it takes a lot of pressure off of you. Pressure that will halt your progress and creativity. Just get it on paper first, then worry about polishing it. I know your high school English teacher would probably disagree but has she ever written a book? I think not… – From Publishing on the Kindle
- Editing is for the END – I once saw a writing program to combat writer’s block. It was so simple, and honestly a little embarrassing. What would do is erase material as you go so there was no way to look back. This is a problem with reading as well as writing, people keep wanting to look back. They want to fix that last sentence, that misspelled word highlighted by Word, they want to nit pick in order to not have to move on! Do you see? That this is one more lazy tactic the brain uses to avoid the pressure of creating. We must ignore the calling of the weak wishing to walk rather than run. We most focus only on getting the material out, and it doesn’t matter if it looks like a pile of Jinga blocks, we can organize later. – From Publishing on the Kindle
- Love your criticism and confront your critics – Not many people are good at taking criticism, they feel personally affronted when someone challenges them. I about a year ago I received a very critical review on Amazon. I have to admit really wanted to drive to this guy’s house and have a talk with him about a baseball bat. Didn’t this guy realize his nasty review could really hurt my business? Didn’t he understand that I wasn’t a large publisher able to take a little negative beating? No, he didn’t and once I calmed down a bit I had to ask myself if he was right, and to my shagrin, he was. I immediately set to work and in a few days was able to rectify his nastily written concerns. I then contacted him via Amazon, sent him a new copy, and actually received an apology from him. The review was erased, the bad feelings removed and my book improved. – From Publishing on the Kindle
- Out-source if you can – Like a moron I tried to refurbish, by myself, the bar I just invested in. I kinda knew what I was doing, but was this a good use of my time? Should I have been the one to spend 20 hours painting? When I could have put that time into writing? What is my most valuable skill set? Writing? Or spending a week trying to understand Photoshop in order to make a crappy cover that a 18 year old could have made in 30 minutes (literally). I know you probably would prefer to micromanage or save some dough, but it might be cheaper than you think to have someone edit, or make a cover. Heck I had a college student edit for free for me once simply because she wanted to put it on her resume. Place your time where it is most valuable, writing. Btw, it ended up costing me only $100 bucks to paint the entire bar, something that would have taken me two eight hour days. Is my time really worth $6.25 an hour?? Is yours? – From Publishing on the Kindle
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