First Word

You have to humor me today. I am prone to depression (I will admit it because it takes it out of secrecy and makes it mainstream). When I'm depressed I sleep a lot ... A LOT. I don't want to take drugs for it. The last time I did it scrambled my brain like eggs. I need my brains. So, I do natural things, and I try to recognize what's going on and stop myself from falling into the "rabbit hole". I equate the rabbit hole as a very unfriendly place and really hard to crawl back out. Sometimes though I let myself fully celebrate the rabbit hole with the Queen of Hearts. We often talk about how fun it would be to take some people's heads off and maybe spare the others. It's all talk really. You know over a deck of cards. When I let myself celebrate my dark humor I just give myself a day or so. This self-inflicted pity-party involves howling at the moon, too. It feels great. Try a little howling -- best home remedy around. The depression tends to be triggere...

I don't like to color inside of the lines. When it comes to writing stories I don't insist authors color in the lines either. I was asked a question about whether or not a story technique HAD to apply. Truth is outside of grammar and punctuation I don't think anything HAS to be done. BUT I do want authors to know what they're doing vs. just doing what they think is the correct method of storytelling. It's the difference between being intentional and being unaware. Not to suggest that lack of awareness will never work (anything is possible), but unintentionally breaking rules you don't know exist is like rolling the dice and hoping it hits snake eyes. When I write, I write with intention to do what I am doing. If it's breaking rules of storytelling or character development or plotting, I know it does. Why I am doing is what matters vs. just deciding to do it. What is my point? For example, in my forthcoming book Body in the Trunk I quite intentionally mess...

Chapter 3 I attended an annual multimedia trade show in New York City at the Convention Center every year. My company M Marketing and Graphics bought a 10 x 10 booth, and we always seemed to sit across from this Japanese electronics company where the diminutive Asian sales girls wore five-inch heels presumably to make up for their lack of height. I marveled at any woman, short or not, who would dare to wear platform shoes for more than an hour much less 10 hours on a cement trade-show floor. I, on the other hand, wore my comfortable, flat Mary Janes to match my slim black skirt and lavender silk blouse with silver buttons on the two breast pockets that gave it sparkle. I tucked it in with a wide belt with silver infinity clasps in the center to give it a modern, chic flair. I loved trade shows – the energy and meeting potential clients face-to-face. Most of my life was spent in my home office at my computer working on graphics and illustrations for marketing...

The funniest line of the California Capital Book Festival came from patrons who said, "I don't read books." The mystery and humor is they said it at a "book" festival. I think that's akin to going to the dog shelter and saying, "I don't like dogs." I'm not entirely sure why anyone who doesn't read books would wander around a book festival. In more interesting news, we sold a lot of copies of Vengeance is Now . Authors wondering how we managed to probably have one of the top-selling titles of the festival, I'll lend you some advice. Don't be afraid to sell. Get your flyers and your one-liners ready. Don't be afraid, period. Put your best smile on your face. Be charming and nice. Walk up to people. Ask them if they like the genre you're selling and ... sell! I will give serious props to the author Scott D. Roberts. His talent is the close. I pushed the prospects, and he sold the prospects. Give of yourself to others is...

Getting ready for the California Capital Book Festival between Bookfest last week in Manteca has made business as usual more like business at light speed. My company 3L Publishing and several authors including Scott D. Roberts and Cathy Lagorio have booths. I am speaking on Book Marketing and Scott is speaking on Mystery/Thriller writing. Come see Roberts speak: Panel: Mystery/Thriller Writing Panel: Scott D. Roberts, Vengeance is Now; Robin Burcell, The Kill Order; and William Wood, Sudden Impact Date: October 26, 2014 Place: Sacramento Convention Center Event: California Capital Book Festival Address: 1400 J Street, Sacramento, CA Room 312 Time: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm Admission: FREE

Murder! Lust! Power! Revenge! Wilting away in a stale, abusive marriage, Mia meets Evan, a handsome, sexy stranger. They share an immediate, undeniable and otherworldly connection. A passionate affair begins ... A body is mysteriously found in the trunk of a Toyota Camry. True crime writer Tess has a psychic vision and tracks down Detective Phil Harris to help solve the case. Body in the Trunk is an intriguing, mysterious story about wicked games, love-gone-wrong, family loyalty, and ultimately betrayal that leads to murderous rage. Body in the Trunk will be available in limited release on the 3L Publishing website (www.3LPublishing.com), and released nationally in spring 2015.

Chapter 6             It had been many weeks since Tess and Phil began their rituals of lunch and cocktail meetings. Tess had remembered their first cocktail meeting. They had scheduled it right after they met at Starbuck’s. At first, they had a tempestuous nature to their relationship upon her revelation that it had been more than just a TV appearance that had sucked her into the case not just her desire to write true crime. What Tess had rarely shared with anyone were her psychic gifts.   It hadn’t been just the body in the trunk or the handsome detective who had ignited a passionate desire to know what had happened and share it.   After she had seen the show, she had gone to bed that night and had a dream. She had seen a woman’s hand on the trunk of the Camry, but it hadn’t just been the hand it had been the feelings – like emotions plugged into and replacing her own. It had been the yearning s...

I just got off the phone with a prospect. She saw a presentation I recently gave. She said she was so impressed. She cited one thing I said as important, " 3L Publishing's mission is to strive for excellence in everything we do." My desire for excellence is driven by my passion for publishing and books. I know what I like. I know what I as a consumer want to see. What I don't want to see is a low-quality book where no care was given to the quality of the product. I want not only the experience of working with my company to be a great relationship with our authors and clients, but also I want our final products to shine and reflect handsomely on the author and my company. I want every author or client to know that regardless of anything else, their books or marketing materials will be well-done. They will show off their final products with pride. They can feel good about it. When I've achieved those goals I've done what I set out to do -- strive for excellence...

I was asked to teach a writing class via a note sent to me from one of my newsletter readers. After teaching the class and being complimented on my speaking abilities, I was given three leads on three book projects. Now some often suggest that a weekly newsletter unless it produces direct sales has no value. My three prospects later suggest the opposite. One of my biggest challenges with business owners and authors is getting them to understand it's long-term opportunities you hope to attract from marketing activities. I've done the newsletter for eight years now. I write it weekly. Have I ever had someone say, "Hey! I read your newsletter let's do business." No. It doesn't work like a cash register - ka-ching sales! Marketing and keeping your brand in front of prospective business is about long-term exposure and visibility. It's about creating brand familiarity and recognition. It's also about building long-term relationships with prospects. My ne...

Writing a book means more than words on paper and a cover to hold it together. One of the biggest mistakes I see writers and business people make is not understanding the most important point: a best-seller would be incredible but the book is really an opportunity to expand and do more. Books of any kind (fiction or nonfiction) will attract new opportunities. A book written though to support your business is the biggest opportunity of all. Books give authors credibility and position them as experts. Experts get called upon to speak or be featured in the media. Exposure and increased visibility as an expert attracts overall interest in either you as an author and your book or your business. More interest in your business and book spells out opportunities. The opportunity could be an invitation to speak somewhere else and sell more books. The opportunity could be to attract more customers or clients to your business. Either way if you realize your book opens doors to other things, which ...

I have a major beef with the Holiday Inn Express . Let's start with a pop quiz: How do you interpret this phrase? Deposit is due for the entire stay upon booking . Do you take that as "payment in full" is due for entire stay upon booking? Here is my interpretation of that phrase, which by the way is right from their reservation system. Let's take the definition of the word "deposit": a sum payable as a first installment on the purchase of something or as a pledge for a contract, the balance being payable later. Raise your hand if you took the word "deposit" to mean "payment in full". You mean NONE of you understand the word deposit as payment in full? How about a "sum payable as a first 'installment'." Any of you understand that as "payment in full"?  I am just asking because the Holiday Inn Express deceptively used the word "deposit" to really mean they wanted the "payment in full...

You have to love Facebook. Yes, it's a great business marketing tool; but on the personal front it is a place to reconnect. I have a sweet story for the morning "musings". Several years ago we used to get pedicures with a Nail place near my old house. Ann, the owner, just adored my children. She hugged and loved on them like her own, especially my daughter. I got a divorce, and Ann moved her shop to places unknown. Well as the story goes, fast-forward to 2014 and she's got a new shop and doing my friend's Stacy's nails. Stacy and I worked together in the same profession. Ann takes note and asks if she knows me. Stacy says "yes" and so it goes. Ann then finds me on Facebook. Voile! Reconnect. Turns out her new shop is near where I live now, too. So I told her I would bring my daughter for a visit and to get her nails done. You have to love Facebook.

I learned this lesson about sales: it doesn't matter if it's a $14.95 book or a $50 bundle, the same amount of time goes into the sale . I discovered a while back after talking to people at book festivals and events and selling books that the sale is the sale time . Price points don't suck up the sales time. People want minimally around 10 minutes of your chat time before they buy. After working hard for that 10-minute sale and only making $14.95 it seemed like a lot of effort for little money, which is why I started to realize: the sales time is always about the same regardless of the price (unless it's a huge item). I figured that a sale for, say, $50 would be better if I was going to have to spend that 10 minutes no matter what. Thus, I thought: bundles! Don't just sell a $14.95 book, sell something with the book -- T-shirts or something else but more than just a book. That way your per "minute" sales effort has a higher amount attached to it. And why...

I had this conversation with a fellow writer. We were discussing our lifestyle and aspirations. The comment was made that it's not very inspiring when your only excitement in life is TGIF. People live their lives, work, and feel happy it's Friday. It's a grind. One time when I was just starting out and had graduated from my BA I whined at my then-boyfriend, "But I don't want to work 9 to 5." I remember he burst out laughing, but it was true. I didn't want the only excitement in my life to be TGIF. I didn't want to work 40 hours or more a week for the "man" or "woman" and I really wanted to find a nice log cabin somewhere and write my stories. What I was expressing though was a desire to live a full, rich and exciting life where I followed my passion. How many of you can say you are living "the dream"? Have you settled into a life of TGIF? Does this really excite you the most? I don't work by anybody's rules anymo...

In any busy business owner's schedule, the biggest challenge is to keep growing business and prospecting for new business. Many prospective clients (if you've built your brand) will query you, but the goal is to keep moving and building the relationship. When you've got limited resources, the goal becomes even more challenging. But the downside is many businesspeople often leave money inadvertently on the table by not nurturing and following up with those prospects. As is the case with any challenge, the key is to create structured routines. Set aside X amount of time to do this and do that. Now when you're not being proactive vs. reactive it can be difficult. When constant attention-needing fires get set, learn new skills and techniques to manage those blazes. One thing to do is adopt the policy: your fire is not my fire. This means you receive the message from a client and then process the information and come from it from a prospective: is this good for MY business...

Businesses go through fits and starts. As growth occurs so do hiccups. Trial and error equals results. Sometimes you have to keep trying new things to manage business growth without inadvertently upsetting current business. Sometimes, though, upsetting current business cannot be helped. When transitions and changes in business happen, the best approach is to re-pour the foundation and then let the cement dry. We recently went through some growing pains. What I did was get out ahead of the issues. When you get out ahead you are doing "preventative" maintenance. What does this translate to? Let me illustrate. We were having fulfillment issues. Once the problem was identified (orders not going out the way they should), I didn't wait for complaints. I identified the problem. I found a solution. Now here comes the foundation-pouring approach. Rather than try and patch the problem, I came up with an entire overall solution. I moved my inventory and storage closer to my main...

Do you blog? Have you ever tried to match up your blog topics to audience response (which is what you absolutely should be doing)? I'm always looking for ways to increase readership. So I regularly read my readership statistics. Here is what I've found. Keywords do count but finding the keyword of the day is challenging . Keyword interest fluctuates like weather changes. You honestly cannot gauge it. One day this keyword works the next day it no longer works. My advice, keep playing around with different "popular" keywords and mix it up. The popular posts' real value . The only popular posts that consistently rank up in my blog seems to have "sex-related" themes. Now if I were writing an erotic blog this might be great. Why is that the reason? Because I heard this statistic: 70 percent of online traffic is seeking sexually-related content. Problem here is I am an author and publisher not a sex proprietor. The idea is to attract the right traffic ....

Today's humorous pondering relates to postage stamps and more specifically the NEW famous chefs stamps. Since I've been doing operations on my own I am paying attention to postage. The Post Office folks know me now, and so that opens the door to some banter. So the nice fellow asks, "Do I need stamps?" On this day, I did indeed need some. He whips out this sheet of stamps with the faces of famous chefs (Julia Childs was the only one I recognized). He shares about the sheet and the chefs (doesn't know one of them), and I found my funny mind thinking random thoughts. It occurred to me that for the outrageous price of postage I could afford NOT to have famous faces on my stamps and maybe nothing at all. In fact, I mused I would be willing to pay .10 cents less for a white stamp that simply reads: GENERIC STAMP. Yes, love that one. Oh, come on stamp collectors, you'll pay more for famous faces. On the other hand, I want the .10 cent discount for the generic stamp....

So you blog ... daily. So you write a weekly newsletter. So you regularly post on social media. So you do speaking engagements. So you send proper follow-up marketing messages. So, so, so, so ... do you have direct sales results you can pinpoint? I have this question asked regularly. I'm going to give you a non-answer: no, but I know I have to do it. The basic formula is don't stop the machine because you can't define why you have a widget at the end. What will happen if you stop a machine? Will the widget still appear at the end? You know the answer -- no. Widget not made widgets not dispensed. The underlining lesson: you can't stop making widgets and expect to have more widgets. I'll put it clearer: can you afford to stop marketing just to see if your marketing works? If you answer "yes" then you must have some great cash reserves set aside. Stopping the machine ... stopping marketing just to see what happens is risky business. I like to tell clien...