Archive for ◊ October, 2009 ◊

How the Smokin’ Ghost Got Her Groove Back
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 | Author:

A True Story

Once upon a time, a really smokin’ ghost lost her groove. No, she didn’t collide with some old man while dancing down the hall, and she didn’t go to Jamaica and hook up with an underage cutie, either. She just got smacked in the face with that most famous of all movie devices, “undeserved misfortune.”

Aka “life.”

“Think positive,” said her favorite authors. “Get rid of your negativity,” intoned her best friends. “Keep a stiff upper lip,” insisted the positive-reinforcement tapes in the back of her head. “Pay us!” cried her creditors, drowning out all the others.

But “life” had other ideas. The smokin’ ghost’s income plummeted while her debt skyrocketed. And her self-confidence evaporated along with all the clients who used to seek out her help.

Her smokin’ days were over.

Or so she thought.

One afternoon, just as she was about to crawl off into that watery cave with Puff, the discarded Dragon, a real-life avatar came into the formerly smokin’ ghost’s life.

Synchronistically. From out of nowhere.

“You’re going to tell me to think positive, aren’t you?” the wispy thin phantom groaned plaintively.

“Tish tosh. What good would that do?” the avatar said. “Only set you up for failure. That won’t get you smokin’ again.”

“Then … what?” asked the now curious but still undeniably doused ghost.

“I want to show you how to live Today,” said the avatar. “How to gently reprogram your subconscious so you don’t have to work at being positive. How to get smokin’ results again, easier and bigger and better than ever before.”

“Are you for real?” queried the previously positive poltergeist.

“What—you’ve got a better idea for turning your life around?” responded the avatar with distinctly Jewish-mother overtones.

So the formerly smokin’ ghost read the avatar’s eBook. And then took her program’s lesson instructions and material. And she did the homework and, when it was time, listened to the audio files.

And pretty soon—like about two, three weeks—the formerly quenched spirit was back to smokin’ and ghostin’.

So she snuck onto the avatar’s website and bought a program for her sister, a smokin’ naturopath who had always smoked in tandem with her until they both lost their smolder. In tandem.

And her sister read the avatar’s eBook. And then took her program with the lesson instructions and material. And she did the homework and, when it was time, listened to the audio files.

And pretty soon, the smokin’ ghost’s sister was smokin’ again herself. And the reignited specter knew it hadn’t been just a fluke—it was real.

And she had to spread the word.

And so the smokin’ ghost (it’s me! did you guess?) will be hosting a teleclass with her real-life avatar on Monday, Nov. 9 at 4:00 PM Pacific Time. If you want to get smokin’ again in your life—or even for the first time—sign up NOW so you have time to read the program’s lesson instructions and material and do the homework for at least week before the teleclass.

But then, instead of listening to audio files, you’ll participate in a live two-hour session—real-time, person-to-person, ask questions/get answers—teleclass with my avatar, Marilyn Jenett.

The program is called Feel Free to Prosper. (And I do.) The cost is $197 for the whole thing. CLICK HERE to register. All monies go to the care and feeding of the avatar, so she can continue to reignite the doused and ember-dying, wherever they may be.

Synchronistically.

MARILYN’S GUARANTEE

After applying the lessons and participating in the teleclass, if you don’t find the program to be of great value as promised, I will refund your payment completely.

For the record, I get no financial remuneration from this teleclass. It’s my gift to you: the writers I work with, teach, read with, have come to love—and, especially, the writers who ask, “Yeah, but how do you find clients?”

Honest to God, this is how I do it.

Always have, even when I didn’t know what I was doing and couldn’t direct it. Now, thanks to Marilyn, I do and I can. In the few months since I started Feel Free to Prosper, I’ve landed a high-fee client, contracted a standard-fee client, fulfilled a scattering of fast-buck projects, filled my classes, found a new agent, been called upon to do a handful of public appearances, lost some weight (yeah!), and shed an incredible amount of stress.

Best investment I ever made.

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Chip McGregor.com
Friday, October 30th, 2009 | Author:

Maryan Pelland just sent me Chip McGregor’s 10/29/09 blog about personal stories no longer being viable in today’s book business.

He’s absolutely right–from an agent’s pov. Here’s my take: publishers aren’t willing to spend money on these books because the market for them is down since the Internet is indeed awash with such personal stories for free. But therein lies the rub: the public still wants to read them; they just don’t want to pay for them anymore.

Subsidy press, disguising itself as self-publishing service, is really the answer for almost all memoirs these days. I used to rail against it, but now accept its value in the changing landscape. Here’s the trickle down: as life becomes more and more virtual, more and more groups and organizations are springing up so people can physically get together, make new friends, network, or just enjoy live human contact (LHC). Most of those organizations and groups enjoy having speakers as part of that LHC experience. Hence, more and more Baby Boomers and young entrepreneurs are adding “speaker” to their resume and hitting the road, either locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally.

Whenever someone moves their audience, that audience wants to take a piece of them home; it’s a natural human response. Ergo, selling a POD (print on demand) title BOR (at the back of the room) becomes a logical and almost essential revenue stream. Will the speaker continue to get gigs and grow their reputation if the book does not read well? No. Negative reactions spread very fast. Ergo, those speakers need our ghostwriting and editing services.

Plus, using Chip’s advice, authors can not only sell a POD title BOR (back of the room), they can spin their title into a secondary advice book or Ebook. Ebooks are the wave of the present, if not the future. Since the cost is so low–the ability to create an XML file that can be tagged and converted to various readers, all of which is built into Word 7 (Vista) and above–the emphasis returns once more to a well-crafted manuscript which, in turn, promotes sale of the POD hard copy.

In other words, as the playing board expands, our services are in ever-expanding demand.

God Bless the computer age.

For additional information on making money with ebooks, check out Ellen Violette, The eBook Coach. I sat on a panel with her the other night, and she definitely seems to know her stuff.

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