First Word

I see Linked-In posts in the writer's and editor's groups, and sometimes the discussions inspire this blog. Today, one group asked whether or not you should read your own reviews. Let me start this by saying that I've never met a single author who doesn't read his/her reviews. Call it vanity, self-interest, or pure curiosity, but let's not act like we don't want to know what people are saying about our books. I'm certainly not going to act "above it all" here and say, "Nooooo, of course not!" LOL Okay, BUT here's the rub. When you read your reviews be prepared for whatever it says. Here's the even bigger piece of advice: whether good or bad, don't take it personally !!! Now, one problem with Amazon reviews are those reviewers who do take a run for the jugular and personally say nasty things about the author. In my "book" we don't call those folks reviewers! We call them HATERS!  When I released my first fic...

My beloved has a name and a heart so large He makes me laugh and laugh and laugh He cheers me up when times are tough He touches something so deep inside of me He loves me with his touch He adores with me his eyes He sings to me and makes me smile He is an amazing gift He is a sacred blessing He is the most wonderful man I’ve ever met And he is mine And I am his And the love we give to each other – is our true gift! ~ Michelle Gamble

It’s not easy being a business owner. You experience a lot of pluses – personal freedom, flexible schedules, independent decision-making, and financial success when the wins come. What happens though when your business endeavors start to suffer? The risks have the rewards and the losses too, right? The biggest problem when business begins to decline is managing your outlook and keeping up your morale. As the owner of the business you have to keep a close watch on your attitude about challenges. If your attitude sinks it won’t help your business to increase. Negative attracts negative and positive attracts positive. Problem is when the negative is causing a major drain in your resources and finances you may find it challenging to keep a smile on your face. Having worked on dozens of self-help and business books over the years, I’ve learned a lot about “attitude management”. My own business has faced several challenges this year. Some of those problems were unex...

We are retooling and re-launching the Malo and Mallori children’s book project. Input from orthodontists indicated that most children aren’t nervous about their Early Evaluations and the monster as someone to soothe the fear wasn't working. So I decided to change it to an adventure. The lesson in this project is to figure out what’s needed NOT what you THINK is needed. A fail point in any business endeavor is to not understand what your audience wants vs. what you presume they want. Sometimes you have to test the waters. When it comes to books, I highly recommend you put your book out to a focus group before you release it. Your focus group should be comprised of unbiased volunteers who will read your book and provide honest feedback. The problem I see is that many authors will have friends and family read their early versions. Friends and family don’t want to hurt your feelings. It’s not likely you’re going to get the kind of constructive feedback you ne...

I wanted to take a moment to give thanks to you all for making 2016 the best year it could be despite how it started out. I’ve learned so much about my own limits, resilience, and ability to overcome and begin the process of rebuilding to make my life even better. This year started out with my discovery that the person who had become closest to me was deceiving me – not in a small way, but a really BIG way and over a protracted period of years. The personal and professional heartbreak at first numbed me out. I couldn’t believe what I found out was actually true. The enormity of the deceit floored me. It was a strange, surreal moment when the first big lie got revealed. I remember getting off the phone right after I discovered the truth and picking up a photo he had given me. I hurled it so hard against the wall it crashed through the plasterboard and left a hole. Mid-hurl I let out the most painful scream (which felt kind of good, BTW). How could anyone mani...

Did you know that whether you’re an author or business professional that you are the “storyteller” of your product or service? Yes, it’s a unique way of looking at it, but you are the person charged with either the oral or written history – whether it be a book or a widget. As Chief Storyteller your job is to inform the world about your product and share it. When you consider it as a “story” vs. “marketing” it puts it in a whole new light, doesn’t it? Marketing and public relations is about spreading the “message” about your product. What “story” are you trying to tell the world? It’s like you’re the oral tradition of your company and it’s being passed down only it’s not to your ancestors it’s to the masses. Your job is to craft a story that is: 1.     Targeted to the right audience and what they want to know about or hear. 2.     It’s compelling and demonstrates the benefits and value. 3.     Most of all it’s ...

Are you ready for 2017? Are you ready to win? Have you set your goals? I began thinking about it some weeks ago. I’m more than ready to sweep 2016 into the Hall of Go Away and move toward an exciting new year with all new possibilities and opportunities.  So what are your goals? Goals motivate us and give us signposts to signal where we want to go. Without goals most of us are just kind of haplessly doing and not necessarily thinking about what we’re doing. My advice for goal setting is to do these steps (please feel free to use this as a template for your own goal-setting activities): 1.     Set at least 1 audacious goal. My audacious goal is to make my forthcoming book The Abused a top-selling thriller. 2.     Set at least 5 BIG goals for your professional life that are just solid goals. So here are my 5 goals: 1.     Get our gross income increased three-fold 2.     Attract 2 corpo...

I have a confession to make: 2016 was the toughest year. I have been scratching and promoting and trying to retool the business for increased prosperity. I’ve been reflecting a lot and hoping to regain some lost momentum. My life partner Chris Carter shared something interesting with me, and it’s an invaluable and something to pay attention to for other business people. He said that once you’ve started to achieve a certain amount of momentum that is the time to strike. If you don’t strike while the ball is starting to roll faster and faster, you will likely lose that stride and go backwards. I’ve seen it happen to others. I see many authors who start to catch their momentum only to be discouraged or distracted away from their goals and fall off the wave. It happened to me due to my 2012 divorce. My book California Girl Chronicles was peaking. I was on tour and selling books like crazy, especially in bundle deals with my “Love My Coconuts” t-shirt and the s...

I thought I would pack this issue of First Word with some great marketing resources for books. I'm signed up on many different lists and newsletters. So here are some interesting resources and tips you may want to check out.   Sign up to do online book talks with Pearls of Creation . Several authors have said this one is good. Here is the information:   Email: Marge@pearlsofcreation.com or Pearlsofcreation@yahoo.com Website: http://www.pearlsofcreation. com http://www.Pinterest.com/ 1000pearls/   Cross-promoting other authors on Twitter . Several authors help each other and pass book release information back and forth. When I posted some information about my earlier novels, I sold some eBooks. It definitely came from Twitter re-tweets of the material.   Write a great pitch to major media outlets . Don't be afraid of big names like the New York Times . The sheer intimidation factor can prevent some authors from even promoting to major me...

An interesting discussion came up the other day with one of my new clients. We were talking about public relations for this new product line. He was saying he wanted to send a press release out a week to promote the product launch. I looked at him and said, “Public relations isn’t about press releases and how many you can send out to get attention.” I’ve noticed sometimes people mistake advertising and marketing with public relations. I thought I would take a moment to clarify it. Public relations is designed to raise awareness about your company, product or service . It puts your name out in the public domain and promotes your message. Problem is that some people confuse “message” with product promotion. Media doesn’t want to receive weekly notices about your product launch. Media wants headlines and news. When it comes to book promotion they want human interest and material that will spark discussions. Remember, media is in the business of “information” not ad...

I just finished my new novel titled The Abused . I also received feedback from my focus group of early readers. Responses were all extremely positive with the common comment being “I couldn’t stop reading it.” I get asked all of the time, “How do I write a page-turner?” My answer may sound simple, but it’s not easy to do. The main ingredient to writing a page-turner is to create constant intrigue. Your reader must be interested and intrigued enough to want to keep reading. How do you create intrigue? Tip #1: Show don’t tell . Last night I read a chapter from The Abused. “I love the way you built up the tension. How did you do it?” So let me give you the set up scene from the book… On this outing, Frank was in his usual laid-back mood. Jonesy had gotten up early ready to jog. They were standing in front of the morning fire watching the gray tin coffee pot that sat on the grill begin to bubble up. Jonesy wore a green jogging suit, and Frank had on...