Time to Write

Instant riches! (Well, 15 minutes...)

For a novel I'm working on I created a self-help guru whose movement is called "Wish Yourself Rich." It was based on the highly-successful (financially) "The Secret." I thought reality would never come up with anything more ridiculous.

I was wrong. 

Here's the pitch I got in an email today:

"Do you want to EFFORTLESSLY manifest every goal, wish and dream you have WITHOUT having to learn or do anything at all?

A brand new technology is changing everything.

NO hundred-page books, expensive courses, day-long seminars, or "life coaches."

Yes. You don't need to "learn how to manifest" it or any of it.

Everything you want is yours in 15 minutes.

Money, wealth, insanely abundant lifestyle, success, freedom, breakthroughs, health, relationship...

I do mean EVERYTHING."

SIGN ME UP!

Finally! I mean, who has time to read books, especially ones that are 100 pages long? And a day-long seminar?! Forget it! I'm a busy man!

For sure I don't want to have to do anything at all, especially learn something! That's for geeks!

I'm going to have not only money but wealth! And if there's one kind of lifestyle I want, it's insanely abundant!

There's a PS: "Ya some may call it strange or just a little weird. I don't care. I simply call it AMAZING. Check it out now."

What kind of loser would call it "just a little weird" to get everything you want in 15 minutes without any effort?

This is exactly what I've been looking for. I can spare 15 minutes between episodes of Oprah and Cheaters, so let's see how much it costs.

HOW MUCH DOES INSTANT SUCCESS COST?

It turns out that the key to insane abundance is series of audio tracks you can buy for $47. 

Let's see how it's worked for ordinary people like me. Surely there must be people who have used these tapes who would dictate testimonials to their butler while lounging by their swimming pool and lighting their cigar with $100 bills?

THOSE TESTIMONIALS

Surprisingly, there are only three testimonials.

The first comes from one Belle Gonzalez of Ashland, Oregon.

She writes, "“From the minute I put on my headphones, I instantly felt a different INSIDE my head! It was like my brain felt alive and in tune...in a way I’d never experienced. It was crazy. The most amazing part was, within the first week, I could absolutely tell a difference in what I was manifesting. I had attracted and closed two HUGE contracts! Cha-ching!”

Contracts? That sounds like work! I decided to look up Belle on Facebook.

There's only one. None of her posts are in English, they're in Filipino.  If she got insanely abundant riches, it hasn't affected her eating habits; one of her posts shows a McDonald's tray with burgers and cheese-covered fries, labeled "A+ Meal!"

Next up is Jeremy Bryant of Los Angeles, who writes, rather poetically, if vaguely,  “Using your frequencies has felt like the changing of the seasons...like from winter to spring...only it didn’t take months and months. I’ve got abundance popping up like flowers everywhere in my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

Jeremy Bryant is too common a name to make it easy to locate him, but our final testimonial writer has a more unusual name, Vanessa Sharone.

She writes: "“When I first tried listening to your tracks, I was totally skeptical. Especially when I didn’t experience “instant” results in the first day or two. But I stuck it out, and I am so glad I did. Something powerful happened between week two and three. Relationships started getting deeper and more meaningful. My bank account started getting fatter. I had more energy. I even had friends ask what was up with me! I just smile and point to my headphones.” 

The site says she lives in "Long Beach Island." I had to look that up, it's part of New Jersey. Indeed there's a Vanessa Sharone on Facebook, but her posts are in Malagasy.

Indeed there's a Vanessa Sharone on Facebook, but her posts are in Malagasy.

I had to look that up, too: Malagasy is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family spoken by about 17 million in Madagascar, where it is the national and official language, and also in Comoros, Réunion and Mayotte."

AND THE MYSTERIOUS CREATOR OF THIS MIRACLE PROGRAM?

His name is Eddie Sergey. He spins a dramatic story of his past, including nearly dying at an early age, years of homelessness until he found the answer, etc. etc. 

There's no Eddie Sergey on Facebook, but there are three Eddie Sergeyevs.

One works at a McDonalds, so I think we can rule him out, unless he's hugely wealthy but flips burgers for the fun of it.

One lives in Austin, Texas and appears to be a mixed martial arts fighter or at least fan.

And one lives in Poland. His Facebook site has only two posts on it, both from 2012.

None of these Eddies shows any obvious signs of insane abundance, but maybe that's just me being shallow.

AS FOR ME...

I tried the program, but 16 minutes later Donald Trump was still president so obviously it doesn't work.

I'm going to create an actual "Wish Yourself Rich" program and sell it to the same suckers people who bought this program. Maybe someday my yacht and Eddie's will end up docking at St. Tropez at the same time.

Top prize of $1000 in humorous poetry contest

If you write funny poetry (on purpose) you may be interested in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest.

Entries are invited until April 1 and, unusually, there's no entry fee. 

Your poem can be published or unpublished and can run up to 250 lines. 

One submission per person, made online. 

They will also award a second prize of $250 and ten honorable mentions worth $100 each. Results will be announced on August 15, 2017.

Submit your poem here.

I seldom feature poetry contest because often the entry fees strike me as excessive for the typically modest prizes, so a contest with free entry and a large prize is a worthy exception. 

POETRY CONTESTS TO AVOID

Unfortunately, there are quite a few scams that target poets.

A common one is a contest in which you don't win but you get a commendation and the great news that they want to publish your entry in a compilation of the very best poems they received. In most cases they require you to purchase several copies in advance, in others they rely on you doing so to show your doubting relatives and friends that you've finally arrived.

These books are always vastly overpriced and you won't be impressed by the quality of the books or of many of the other poems.

Winningwriters.com features a useful list of contests and services to avoid or at least approach with caution. You'll find that list here.

Good news for UK ebook authors

The Bookseller reports that UK ebook  authors will soon be earning more money:

"Authors will be paid from a government fund that compensates authors for loaning their works for free from public libraries.

The catalyst for the change stems from a judgement in November in the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). It held the definition of lending by public libraries in European copyright law also includes remote electronic lending, thus removing the final barrier to its expansion.

The UK is one of the first countries to extend its library lending compensation scheme to remote e-lending, following amendments to the Digital Economy Bill."

The British Library reports that in the year to April 2016 there were 4 million loans of ebooks and almost one million audiobooks.

The amounts earned by individual authors under this program will be small but at least the principle has been established. 

More warnings: Loiacono Agency, Swetky Agency, Warner Literary Group

In case you aren't familiar with the excellent Writer Beware blog, you may want to check it out.

The post of Feb. 16 contains a red flag alert about:

The Loiacono Literary Agency, which apparently has placed most of its authors' works with small publishers for which you don't actually need an agent to submit, or with vanity publishers;

The Swetky Literary Agency, which often suggests that author needs an (expensive) editor--who happens to be the husband or partner of the woman who runs the agency, a relationship they don't mention;

The Warner Literary Group, which has averaged only two deals per year since it was founded, and has been the target of several lawsuits by unhappy clients. They also have a contract with a clause that gives them the right to represent the work not only for the life of the author but also for 70 years afterward.

You can read the more detailed warnings here.

The ease of self-publishing has shaken out some of the more dubious vanity presses and agents, but it still pays to check out any agent or publisher who offers you a contract and go over the contract with a fine-tooth comb.  

 

The problem with easy solutions (in this case, for depression)

The Daily Mail and other publications have reported on a study of depression and saying 'thank you'. The Mail article starts:

"It is only two small words. But saying 'thank you' to others could be the key to beating depression."

Well...let's take a closer look.

THE STUDY 

The US study asked 352 people about their personalities in order to find out the degree to which they feel depressed or grateful, and how they deal with stress and other people.

They found that people who express gratitude are better at reframing negative situations and get depressed less often, and people who are frequently depressed find it more difficult to open up to others and express gratitude less frequently. 

Not that earth-shaking, is it?

If you have a positive outlook on life, you find more things to be grateful for and sometimes you express thanks when others do something nice. 

When you're depressed, the things you see as negative loom larger, there seem to be fewer things to be grateful for, and often you feel less like interacting with people.

THE CONCLUSION

And from this, the study concludes that "Expressing gratitude for small acts of kindness could be impactful to [the depressed person's] physical and mental health."

The problem is that the study didn't then get the depressed group to express gratitude more often and measure whether that made a difference to the extent or frequency of their depression.

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSE AND EFFECT

The study established correlation, not cause and effect. That is, expressing gratitude and levels of depression are connected, but the study didn't show that changing the former will affect the latter.

This kind of unproven conclusion is very common, and publications, blogs, and websites love anything that smacks of an instant answer. The "Three tips for changing your life in the next five minutes without any effort on your part" kinds of posts get a lot of clicks.

GRATITUDE

Regardless of the weakness of the study, finding things to be grateful for and expressing that gratitude to other people or in a journal does seem like a good idea...just not a panacea. 

Thank you for reading this post. :)

 

The diet that fights depression

The first large study of the role of diet in depression shows that what you eat can improve or hinder your chances of going into remission.

The study consisted of one group that was given help from a clinical dietician and one given help with social support.

At the end of three months, one-third of the dietary group were in remission from depression, compared to 8% of the other group.

Members of the dietary group were encouraged to eat vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, fish, lean red meat, olive oil, and nuts.

They were encouraged to avoid refined cereals, candies, fried food, fast food, processed meat, and sugary drinks.

The ones who stuck closest to these recommendations benefitted the most.

 

The study appears in the journal BMC Medicine (http://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y)

A way to earn from your serialized fiction

Radish is a mobile app for reading (and paying for) bite-size chunks of fiction.  

This kind of app is already popular in Asia but hasn't yet caught on to the same extent in the US or Europe. The most successful similar site is Wattpad, but it doesn't charge and therefore doesn't pay its authors.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

People who use the app will get to read the first chapters for free and then will use Radish "coins" to purchase additional chapters. The Digital Reader reports that the fee to get early access to additional chapters will be about 36 cents (US). 

The revenue is split 50/50 between the site and the author.

The app's founder says that even though the app has just had its formal launch (following a soft launch one year ago) they already have 700 authors on board, and their leading author is making $13,000 per month.

He didn't identify this author but the Radish site says it's working with writers who have massive followings on social media, so I feel secure in saying your income will not be anywhere near that amount.

The app is taking author applications now at their site. You have to provide a link to a site where they can see and assess your writing, and they say it could take a month before you hear back.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Is it worth going for this when there's so much free content available on the web, and when people can read novels on their Kindles and phones?

Well, the company has raised $3 million from author Amy Tan, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, and UTA Ventures, so obviously there are people willing to bet that it is.

If you have content available it could be worth getting in early. Be sure to check the terms and conditions--I know that you keep your copyright and are free to publish later in another format but I haven't seen the detailed T&C statement.

If you do get your work on the site, I'd love to hear how it works out for you!

(Need some help polishing your prose? Check out the best advice from the great classic and modern authors in my book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Does dropping the price of your e-book work?

One of the main e-book marketing methods used by self-published authors as well as traditional publishers is a temporary price drop. Does it work, or does it just mean you make less money?

Author and scientist Dan Koboldt, who has done many useful marketing studies relating to self-publishing, has reported on the results when the e-book version of his novel, The Rogue Retrieval, was put on the promotional price of .99 cents for three weeks by HarperCollins. The usual price was $3.99.

BOOK PROMO SERVICES AND THEIR COSTS

During the promotion period, Koboldt used ten book promotion services, at an average cost of about $25 per.

These reach anything from 112,000 readers (BargainBooksy - $40) down to 4800 (BKnights on Fiverr - $10). He also took out an ad with Riffle Books ($30). 

Probably the top book promotion site is BookBub, but they are very selective about the books they highlight, and this time around they didn't choose his book.

Importantly, he also benefitted from being promoted in the HarperCollins daily e-mail to almost a million readers, and from being mentioned on their Twitter and Facebook channels. 

THE RESULTS

Koboldt breaks down the likely results from each of the promotional services but overall he figures he sold about 250 copies during the promotional period (actual sales figures won't come in for a couple of months).

He doesn't say how many he would have expected to sell during that period without such promotion but it's safe to say it would have been a lot fewer.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Probably the main benefit of this kind of promotion is visibility on the Amazon ebook lists and the possibility that some of those who buy will like your book enough to spread the word and to buy another one of your titles if you have more available; from a strictly financial standpoint, Koboldt will get less in royalties for those 250 copies than the $226 combined cost of the promotions.

The bottom line: if you're looking to build word of mouth, and have a long-term goal of establishing yourself as an author, this kind of promotion can help; if you're promoting only a single title, with no plans to release another in the foreseeable future, it may not be worth the money.

PS: Of course, one cheap way to promote your book is to mention it on your blog, as I do once in a while for my books, Your Writing Coach and Your Creative Writing Masterclass, both from Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. :)

 

 

How better posture can help you overcome depression

A couple of recent studies suggest that improving your posture can help you overcome moderate depression.

Dr. Elizabeth Broadbent reports that sitting upright rather than slumping helps you be more confident in your thoughts, more persistent with difficult tasks, and to feel more proud of your accomplishments. 

Another study suggests that walking upright rather than hunching your shoulders and keeping your gaze low can decrease feelings of depression and low energy.

Deep breathing and certain yoga positions also have been shown to help alleviate depression and anxiety. In one study, women who attended yoga classes twice a week for three months reduced their depression by 50% and increased their feelings of general well-being by 65%.

Obviously, these are no substitute for getting professional help if you are deeply depressed, but they won't hurt and they could help.

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-02-03-treat-depression-with-good-posture.html