First Word

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, CEO, 3L Publishing ( www.3LPublishing.com ) I get frequently asked if my company 3L Publishing is a self-publisher (we are a hybrid publisher), and what is the difference between 3L’s services and self-publishing and traditional publishing? The answer isn’t simple. I am going to give you a check sheet that shows what 3L Publishing provides as a hybrid publisher vs. the other models. Caveat : Every publishing house is different. Other publishers may provide some of the services I’m not checking off. Please don’t take any missing checkmarks as misleading information. The information is general and not specific to any one publisher. I’ve been criticized in the past for not providing a complete picture. If I’ve missed anything, please feel free to share. My intention is only to help clarify the marketplace and answer questions not mislead or misdirect. Also, you may read this and feel it’s slanted in favor of my company. Be advis...

Jesus of Nazareth lived as both the Son of God and as a mortal. As God’s servant he was charged to spread a new gospel within Judea. As a mortal, he had willingly subdued his feelings and desires until by accident he met an exceptionally kind and beautiful woman. Julia, the lovely, cultured and married daughter of a Roman Centurion, ignited a special love in Jesus from the first time they met. Through a web of fateful encounters, Jesus came to know the amazing Roman woman he would grow to cherish and to love unconditionally. Fates’ Thread is an epic story of the powerful love between Jesus, called the Son of God, and his soul mate Julia, the woman to whom he gave his heart. In this beautiful and poetic story, we see two people tempted by passion and their struggle to resist temptation, and we learn how their lives were changed forever by their love. Fates Thread: A Memory of Jesus will be formally released just in time for Easter in April 2014. It re...

Rating: ***1/2 The Other Woman was a cute comedy with heart. The set up goes like this: Carmen Diaz's character unwittingly falls in love with a married man and one night decides to surprise him at his home in Connecticut. To her shock and embarrassment her man doesn't open the front door, but (a-hem) his wife greets her. Realizing her boyfriend is married, Diaz's character leaves, but his wife Kate (played by Leslie Mann) is suspicious. She looks on her husband's phone bill and is able to track down Diaz's character, a high-powered lawyer, at work. After realizing it's true that her husband is having an extramarital affair, Kate hyperventilates and causes such a scene that Diaz's character attempts to rescue her. From there, the real mayhem gets under way as the newly bonded women discover more than one mistress. As a divorced woman who also had a relationship with a man who cheated, I felt Mann's pain. They did not gloss it over and make it cute ...

Many of my single friends have shared some horror stories about online dating and using services like Match.com. Some of my favorite stories: The woman who used online dating to get a free dinner every night of the week. The woman who asked the guy to stop and get a drink before they even got to dinner. The woman who brought her full-grown daughter to the dinner date and forced the guy to buy them both dinner. The guy who sent his penis picture before asking the girl out just to "prove" he had the goods.  Those stories are the minor ones that stand out and make me laugh or just shock me. I always wonder, who does this stuff? Apparently quite a few people. So I don't have any online dating horror stories to share, which isn't to suggest that I didn't use the online dating services; but I may not have used them as vigorously as some people. So how did I avoid the pitfalls? My advice is going to be simple and may not apply to everyone. First, I always posted...

What is the best way to market your book? A very good question that doesn't have a one-note answer. Like many products on the market, the best way to market something often depends on: 1. The buying mood of the public. 2. The way to reach the right audience. 3. Experimentation 4. Timing 5. Know when to hold or fold How do you determine the answers to those five things? The no. #3 ... experimentation. With each book (or product for that matter) you have to try different avenues to see what sparks sales. For some books TV appearances generate sales and for others nothing. Book reviews generate sales -- sometimes. Feature stories create interest -- sometimes. To create what we call in marketing "the snowball effect" you have try different things. And sometimes it's not just one thing (a book review and a TV appearance) it's several things combined to create that perfect storm to spark interest. Then there is the last problem of no. #4 -- timing. Sometimes it ...

I have recently encountered some legal discussions, and I realized some people may not understand some realities of today's digital world. For unaware businesspeople who may not know I thought I would share the following information. Texts --did you know that if a legal dispute comes up your text conversation can be used in court? Yes, the cell phone companies keep records and entire transcripts of text conversation can be pulled up and used in court. Agreements made in text are like a digital handshake and can be used to bolster your case. Email --emails are the equivalent of that same digital handshake. An email can be used to show an agreement was made. Also, employees should be aware that email sent from their employer's machinery is subject to be monitored. Yes, employers can read their employees' emails. It's company property, and employees who use for personal reason should be aware of the legalities. The best case is to always get a signed contract, but th...

Over the years I've figured out some unusual ways to do business on the cheap. Who doesn't want to save a buck, right? So, here are some cheap tricks to do business with less expense... Gmail is a great backup device . What I do is pay the annual $30 fee to buy extra storage space each year. I then have an automatic backup system for every document I send to my team, which equates to all of the documents. I don't have to buy extra storage devices. If I need to save something and back it up I send it to myself. Blogger is free . If you're not looking for links to other blog sites and just need a straight-up blog tool then Blogger works great. My only expense is the graphic design required to keep my brand consistent. This expense is recurring about once every couple of years just to update the look. You can't beat free. Pandora is mostly free . I listen to music all day long. I pay the extra $30 annual fee for Pandora for unlimited listening. I like Pandora ...