First Word

I always make these mental notes about social media to share with you all -- my knowledge-seeking readers. Every so often, I see "social media faux pas" and think I should comment here vs. start a flame war. Actually, flame wars are something that I'm also going to provide some advice on, too. So, here we go your sage wisdom from the "so-called" sage (some days maybe LOL). (PS, my favorite social media is Facebook .) Aforementioned flame wars have no place on your business or professional page . I avoid political discussions or debates for that very reason. Nothing sets the stage better for a flame war than a political debate with some "sort'a friend" you barely know. Now the exception here is, of course, if you have a politically motivated topic, product or service. An engaging debate is always welcome to promote your overall message. A "flame war" that often involves a lot of inflammatory discussion, though, should not be welcome. You...

I had this discussion last night. We were talking about why I didn't want to do my "Build Your Business Book in a Day" workshop for free just to attract prospects. What I said lends itself to this blog.  The perception of free can do two critical things: 1. People aren't as motivated to attend something that is FREE because if something comes up they will easily "wash" the free program. They lose nothing. Sometimes the potential "loss" is a motivator just to get someone out the door ... or out of bed for that matter ;). 2. The perception of FREE begs the question, "If it's worth nothing it's probably worth nothing" and kills perception of value. With lack of perceived value, why bother? Now there are times when free is great. Free giveaways for valuable things like a Cruise to the Caribbean can attract a lot of business. Who doesn't want a FREE Caribbean cruise. Giveaways of something that obviously and without question ...

Traditional publishing is the premiere way to publish for authors, so goes the myth. But did you know that many big name authors now self-publish? Do you know why for some authors this has become a more desirable route? 8-12 percent royalties -- when you use services like my company 3L Publishing , royalties range from 35 to 100 percent. If you sell 10,000 copies at 10 percent, say, for $10 books, that is a $1 a book. You've made $10,000. If earn 35 percent of that same $10 it's $3.50 per book, which is $35,000. You can quickly see why some big names decide to publish independently. Agent Fees : Now let's take that $10,000 and pay the agent who got you the traditionally published deal. Most agents take between 10 to 20 percent. For the sake of easy math, let's subtract your agent's fee of $1,000 for your $10,000 and now you have $9,000. The self-published author with a name, still has his/her $35,000. Which would you rather have? $9,000 for selling 10,000 ...

As an ardent social media user, I have learned trial by fire how to maximize its use to attract business. I have roughly 3,500 connections on Facebook, about 500 and 500 respectively on Linked-In and Twitter. I've not built up Linked-In and Twitter to the same degree as Facebook for my personal-use reasons. I do get weekly queries and questions about my company 3L Publishing via social media and specifically Facebook. Since I am now an expert by learning hands-on, I want to impart some advice for other prospective social media users who desire to build up business vs. socialize. How did I get 3,500 connections on Facebook . Am I famous? No. Did I create a sort of fame? Yes. Here is how I got that many connections over a three-year period. Public Relations -- in the beginning I did a lot of promotion for my company 3L Publishing . I still try to do a lot of promotion, but these days my time is more crunched in project work. One key exposure, though, will roll in interest and c...

When I first began my career, and I had spent little time around women who had money to spend on their wardrobes, I thought you really couldn't tell the difference between designer labels and regular clothes from the run-of-the-mill department stores. I bought the belief that cost didn't influence anything in terms of fabrics, etc. Then I worked with this woman who wore high-end designer suites. I quickly noticed a huge difference between my cute, little Limited skirts and blouses and her clothes. People eschew designers and say it makes no difference, but I always joke and say throw that little Wal-mart blouse in the washer and see what happens. Can we say dish rag now? Your personal style and your choice of designers makes a difference and influences your image. It's funny to me that the men in my life make comments more than the women. I never tied the idea of "sexy, classy" with where I shopped. But if you're trying to project an image, you need to fir...

With so many self-publishing choices, many authors confuse something very important: the ability to publish OR the ability to publish it RIGHT . Many different "distribution mechanisms" like Create Space enable authors to publish on the cheap (and I use the word "publish" loosely since Create Space is not a publisher but a "publishing tool"). Authors write the book and find the tool (they call the tool their publisher, which again it is not a publisher), and they call their books published. They also believe they got such a deal, and this cheap publishing tool enabled it. The book might sell to friends and family -- and that's all the audience it will ever find. It wasn't even done professionally. It's often not professionally edited (the author is a professional writer and their English teacher friend proofed it). They didn't have a graphic designer design it, they hit "format" in Word and it is "formatted" and not d...

Who me? Today's humor comes from (where else) my loud-mouthed cat, Bill. My boyfriend Kirk, who picked him out with me at the SPCA, asked me, "Was the cat meowing too loudly again?" "He always meows too loudly -- it's in his job description," I dryly replied. "We should have looked more closely at his job description," said Kirk with a chuckle. And, of course the cat is jumping on the pillows on the sofa, because those are his favorites. Bill could spend an entire hour twirling, tumbling and tossing those pillows with little notice of anything else around him. My other least favorite Bill activity is for him to get on his hind legs and pounce on my leg (as I'm walking through the room). Another uninvited pounce involves my feet at the base of the bed where I'm folding clothes and a paw briskly with claws extended comes from beneath the bed ruffle to rudely scratch the top of my foot. And finally, we have the infamous toilet-pape...

I have this famous saying about editing: If it's wrong yesterday it's still wrong today. What does that mean? When you're editing a manuscript and you spot a mistake, but you're not certain you don't overlook it and keep going. You use a resource like Grammar Girl to confirm your suspicion about whether it is right or wrong. Why? Because if it's wrong, it's wrong, period. The infamous grammar police aren't going to write you a kind note that says: Dear Michelle, I suspect that the mistake on page 10 was something you questioned and then overlooked, but you did know it was wrong, right? So we're giving you a pass. All our best, Grammar Police The real trick is to know it could be wrong . I once played that Who Wants to Be a Millionaire board game with my family. I almost always won. Why? Not because I was the queen of trivia by any stretch of the imagination. It was because I knew what I didn't know -- and I knew to "phone a frie...

Build Your Business Book in a Day --  Workshop Price: $99.95 Date: October, 5, 2013 Time: 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Location: 200 South Lexington Dr., Main Office/Club House Sign Up: Click here , (if you're not on Meetup.com, just join (it's easy) and then hit "Yes" and it takes you to PayPal. You can also have us process your credit card, cash or check by sending an email to info@3LPublishing.com or calling 916-300-8012. Michelle Gamble-Risley, CEO of 3L Publishing ( www.3LPublishing.com ) and author of two business books and publisher of a half-dozen others, is teaching a  workshop  titled  "Build Your Business Book."  This three-hour  workshop  will help business people and entrepreneurs interested in gaining valuable opportunities by writing a book to support their businesses. Nothing sells your business better than a book. Here are the benefits of having a book to support your business: Gain credibility as a subject m...

This discussion takes place I would say about twice a year -- target marketing. I am forever on the receiving end of a mass marketing campaign that is so off-target, I wonder if the marketing executive even understands what he or she is doing. The biggest offenders typically come from those who put little or not effort into their mailings lists or who they are doing outreach to. So, let's start with today's offense. If you are my "friend" on social media (Facebook) chances are you connected with me and not the other way around. I don't do much "friending" because I really don't need to do it. People come to me, and I have about 3,500 connections, which is plenty. This morning I have a message from a guy who asks two of the offending "mis-target" questions. Here they are: 1. Do you blog? 2. Do you want to learn how? Let's start with the basic breakdown. First, this person didn't look at my profile at all. The biggest and proba...

I am in the rambunctious mood this morning. I got up at my usual start time to work, which is roughly 8:30 a.m. I have a specific routine I follow. And, of course I got to the social media posting, which I do daily to promote business, and what do I almost always have in my in-box? A pick-up line from some wayward fool who thinks that Facebook is the 21st century equivalent to Looking for Mr. Goodbar . What I thought would be entertaining for you, my dear readers, would be to share some of these scintillating pick-up lines. So, here we go: "10 Social Media Pick-Up Lines that Fail" (P.S., I am not dating anyway but rather on a self-imposed break from it ... so don't get any ideas here LOL). I'm going to start with the most "primitive" to the hilarious. "Hi."  "Hi ya." "Hi Michelle" "U R pretty" "U R beautiful" "You're so pretty" "Hi, I want to marry you. You are my one. You'r...

Help us make Scott D. Roberts book  Vengeance is Now  the winner in the essay contest for the Author's Show. Please go here, click on his name and read and then vote! The main contest link is here: page:  click here . Click on "Scott Roberts," read the essay, and vote. All you have to do is go to the Vote survey, click on "Scott Roberts" and your vote is done. The essay is hilarious and definitely stands out from the other submissions. His actual submission link: Russell Crow is a Complete Jerk. Read it by  clicking here .  

"Fuck-Head" aka Bill. Can't you just see the "evil" in his eyes LOL? Today's usual Friday morning musing has turned into the "OMG! I screwed up my shoulder and neck!" edition LOL. My shoulder hurts like a freaking friday all right! At least I have my sense of humor to fall back on. Oh, and I wanted to post this on Facebook, because I thought it was funny, but thought better of it. You can't use profanity on Facebook, as I've been told. So, here is another amusing comment. My tabby cat, Bill drives me crazy. He meows and sticks his little paws under my office door to be let in. He is a desperate "cat" for sure. Well, anytime I'm in my office or bedroom, he yowls at the door. So, I was talking to my friend and said, "Let fuck-head in." Then I laughed. It made me think of the movie The Jerk when Steve Martin calls the mutt "Shit-Head". "Come on Shit-Head." My cat's nickname is "Fuck-hea...

I am constantly having my company 3L Publishing compared to what I call "distribution mechanisms" that are not true publishers. Authors think that many of the new eBook distributors are publishers. I try to dispel this misconception. Some of these "tools" include Create Space and Smashwords. Now some of these services will provide what I call rudimentary services such as editing and graphics, but the prices are so low that you have to understand the difference between the perceived value vs. true value. Create Space is primarily a distribution mechanism for eBooks. You follow their parameters for the eBook formatting and then it's distributed via their systems. Now I am not an expert on Create Space, but also I do caution authors who believe Create Space is their publisher . These groups, and this includes Smashwords, are in the group of self-publishers, but typically don't provide any substantial assistance and real publishing methodologies. For example,...

I remember I sat down once with a psychic (I know many of you don't believe in the metaphysical, and that's okay), and I was discussing a particularly difficult situation. He told me "flow the love." And then he told me to just try consistently flowing love on people and see what would happen. He told how he was extra "loving" and positive with the workers at Taco Bell. So, he made a pact with himself that he would go in there every day, and he would see what his positive, thoughtful and loving attitude would produce. He told me by the end of the "experiment" he had the Taco Bell workers calling him by his first name and shoving free food at him. Now his story was much more embellished than my little synopsis, but his point: flow love and people can't resist it; you will get love in return . So in my ongoing desire to expand and try new things, I decided to do nothing but flow love in my personal life and business. I wanted to see if it wou...

My mind is always active, and I have these stray thoughts. Today's meandering question: Why can my eye catch on the yellow highlighter pen mark-ups on my calendar while the red pen (meaning urgent) never works. I have found this odd, little truth. If I don't highlight an item, I swear it gets missed. One would suppose a " red " pen would catch my attention. Doesn't red mean stop? But alas red doesn't seem to mean anything. BUT if I highlight the red pen , it works marvelously. If I have appointments on my calendar and I highlight the red ink, never fails! My eye will see it. If I want to guarantee that I NEVER see the appointment or the due date, well, don't use the highlighter. When I was in college, key points in my textbooks I wanted to remember, I highlighted. (BTW, I always took tons of notes in class. Why? Because it kept my mind busy and I wasn't bored. Anyone can relate?) I have the busiest mind around. My guy (not sure if we're officia...

I believe its author Stephen Covey who covers the habits of successful people. I didn't read the book, but I've heard it referenced among other authors and individuals enough that I know some of its facets. As an entrepreneur, I've learned what works and generally what doesn't work. I've discovered that some of my natural traits and instincts served me well in business. So, I thought I would guide others by sharing what are the things that I do that help me to succeed. Discipline -- and it's a job not a get-of-out-work free card . When you run your own show, you will find temptations abound. You don't have a boss. You don't have a supervisor. Your only person driving the team is YOU. If you're not disciplined and don't have enough fortitude to avoid temptations such as a bike ride at 2pm vs. work then it's very likely you'll run right into problems. I learned from the first day I went independent that you go to your desk and you do the ...

As a business owner (I'm CEO of 3L Publishing, www.3LPublishing.com ), we all want to succeed. No one does anything unless, of course they're a little nutty to fail. We all want to succeed and flourish. In my road to entrepreneurship, I've learned a lot. I've had many ups and downs. I've made a lot of money. I've made less money. And I need to make more money. If you're thinking of starting a business or you're wondering how you could improve business, here are three critical things I've learned about succeeding in business. Tip #1: Surround yourself with people who are more talented than you are . What? Yes, if you want to look even better, make sure your team are truly talented. Those who are smarter, more talented, and skilled will shine a better light on you, and they will help you succeed. It's foolish to surround yourself with people with less talent out of insecurity or any other emotional neurosis surrounding your ego. Having an incredi...

Most people are familiar with the word Reiki but I still meet a lot of people who don't really know what it is. Simply put, it's manipulating energy. Okay, okay, I see that you are looking at me with "huh?" still written on your face. Let me try to explain a little further. Energy cannot be destroyed or created, it can only be moved, manipulated and transformed. According to Reiki.org “Reiki is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive. If one's "life force energy" is low, then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy.” We drain our life energy when we only give and give and give and do not take care of ourselves. Without personal practices in place to replenish ourselves we become energetically depleted. Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction...