Ray Brehm's Blog, page 42
April 24, 2017
Orangetheory for Authors
This past Friday I participated in my very first Orangetheory class. For those of you who are not familiar with it, Orangetheory is an exercise establishment that runs only one-hour coach-led fitness classes. It is extremely scientific, as they manage your heart rate during the entire hour, with an emphasis on getting your heart rate into a target zone.
From their website:
“Backed by the science of Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (or EPOC), Orangetheory’s heart rate monitored training is designed to maintain a target zone that stimulates metabolism and increases energy. We call it the afterburn.”
What worked well for me was the emphasis on keeping in the zone, and staying on track by watching a monitor. The hour flew by and knowing what my target was helped me achieve it. It will also help my do better next time.
This same concept is useful when authoring our books. If you are just starting out, you probably have no idea what you should be shooting for as far as sales and promotions. That is why in The Author Startup, I recommended getting a book published as fast as possible and then beginning to promote it.
Once you have your book out there, you need to start monitoring everything. Knowing where you are and what is moving you forward is your Orangetheory for Authors process (if you will).
It starts by tracking all of your promotions, to see what works. You can do that using something simple like Bitly (see how to do it in Track Your Success).
When you create your paperback, there are different things you will want to do. That is why I joined with Bestselling Author Jim Molinelli to create the book High-Performance Paperback (coming in May 2017).
When you are tracking what you are doing, and know what your goal is (an essential ingredient in Orangetheory), you have a much higher chance of achieving it. Seeing progress also helps you stick with it. Just want I need from my Orangetheory workouts.
It is like Yogi Berra said:
“If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
March 8, 2017
Grammarly – A Writer’s Best Friend
I am a firm believer in getting as much help as you can when you embark on new ventures. As an author, I love to write and create. I am not especially fond of editing. Nor do I have a desire to become an expert in the English language.
In my books, Author Your Success and The Author Startup, I recommend you hire a professional editor before publishing your book. But there are so many times when this is simply not practical. Enter Grammarly, my latest “WonderTool.”
Grammarly can give you extremely good reviews of your work, in real time. No more waiting and waiting to hear back from an editor. You can also edit almost anything. There is nothing worse than claiming to be an author, and then emailing or posting words that are not grammatically correct.
Here are some ways you can use Grammarly:
Each draft can be made better by using Grammarly (even before you send to an editor)
Proofread your emails for you
Proofread your Social Media posts for you
Proofread virtually anything you type anywhere (there is a browser plugin)
I hesitated to use it at first because I know that you should always have a professional editor.
But after seeing Ads for it for about a year, I finally gave it a shot. I had no idea how often I was using “the passive voice” or “unclear antecedents.” In fact, I didn’t know what either of those was until the software told me. That is another thing it does for you; it teaches you to write better (just by using it and correcting your errors).
It is FREE to use (there is a premium version – which I ended up buying), but it is worth checking out. You can paste a chapter of your book into it, and it will identify every potential problem.
If you are using a word too much, it will suggest 5 or 6 others. All you have to do is click on one of the alternatives, and it will replace it for you.
If your sentence needs rearranging, it will suggest what to do. You can just click once to correct.
I started using it for my website, books and every other chance I could.
I hope it helps you. You may find it helps clean up your chapters once you have that first draft and gives you more confidence.
It will also save time once you send to an editor because nearly all of the minor stuff will be gone ahead of time.
Since it is free, there is no reason not to give it a shot.
Success Always,
Ray
P.S. This blog post was proofed by Grammarly.
P.P.S. The links on this page are affiliate links, but I would not recommend anything I do not use myself. If you prefer to Google “Grammarly” instead, it is easy to find as well.
February 21, 2017
The Author Startup – The Fastest Way to Write Your Book
“What is the fastest way I can get my book done?”
I pondered the question a minute. There is all this extravagant education out there on writing a book, filled with hundreds of things to do. But the truth is, you do 20% of the work for 80% of the result (The Pareto Principle).
How does one accomplish this? By streamlining all the tasks down to the minimum requirements, and focusing on those.
Why do that? I have a lot of friends who cannot spare the time required to learn the entire process of writing, launching, creating an author platform and all the other things writers are supposed to do out of the gate.
These friends desperately need books for their brand but don’t have the time to invest.They also don’t want to spend a ton of money paying someone to do something they believe they can do themselves. So, then what happens? Nothing gets done.
The answer? I wrote The Author Startup to address this need. The Author Startup is a process to create a minimum viable product for your book. It is used to get your book out there and build momentum for you.
In The Author Startup, you will:
Learn the Boogie Board Approach for publishing
Use concepts similar to The Lean Startup for you book
Learn the exact tools I used to create and publish a book in 26 days
Find out how to defeat the “Imposter Syndrome”
Receive a complete Action Plan that will change your approach and attitude for publishing your book
The book contains links to an entire action plan, including video demos. Don’t wait to start your book, learn the quickest way to get it published now!
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February 17, 2017
As an author, your greatest ally is MOMENTUM
As an author, your greatest ally is MOMENTUM.
When I wrote Author Your Success, I lost momentum during the editing phase. I wasted at least three months. I was fortunate to have a strong support system of other authors to get me back on track. I saw others launching their books, and I also created a deadline for myself to publish it before Christmas.
It is one of the reasons that most authors suggest having a daily writing goal of at least 1000 words. Because once you lose momentum, or skip a day, it makes it that much easier to lose more the next day. Loss of momentum is a common problem with most people who start going to the gym right after New Years.
It is equally important for an author. Momentum is your greatest ally.
I have now discovered ways to avoid that loss during editing. I also stay aware of other areas that can be potential problems, and I work on my systems for those to keep myself engaged.
It isn’t always perfect, but sometimes the results can be incredible. I have created some great systems or fun ways to accomplish the things I have to do (but don’t necessarily always want to).
When I found that outlining from my mind maps was not an exercise I looked forward to, I created the Dauntless Chapter Framework. It asks six central questions of each chapter, to keep you focused on what is important. That keeps my attention, makes it fun and tends to keep you from adding in fluff.
I also found a way to handle the self-edit (read aloud) portion that makes it fun and kills two birds with one stone.
Momentum is important for your reader as well. You want to write in a way to keep your reader from losing momentum. If they do, they may move on to the next book.
Once I started looking at the momentum component of writing a book (especially if it is your first), I decided I needed a way to convey that to other soon-to-be authors. There should be a plan that removes the noise, and protects the momentum of anyone working on that first book.
That is why I came up with and wrote:
The Author Startup: A Radical Approach To Rapidly Writing and Self-Publishing Your Book On Amazon
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It is coming out on February 28th.
If you feel like you would like to read it (it is short and to the point), the price is only $0.99 until it launches (you can pre-order on Amazon). Then it will increase to $2.99 sometime after publication.
You can pre-order here: The Author Startup
In any case, I hope you are having success with your writing and that you are always maintaining your momentum!
February 15, 2017
You Have To Start Somewhere
I posted this in one of my author mastermind groups, and it received such a great response, I thought I would post it here as well.
*** YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE ***
Around 22 years ago, I was sitting on a Thistle sailboat in the middle of Tampa Bay, FL. I had agreed to help my buddy Mike crew his sailboat in the Thistle Midwinters. It was February (pretty chilly), we had just capsized, we were short handed (should have 4 for crew, but he had only been able to recruit me) and we were soaking wet. He looked at the boats ahead, and said, “How are we ever going to be as good as they are?”
I said, “Well, you have to start somewhere. They didn’t start out as good as they are now.”
What does this have to do with writing? Well, authors as a group are awesome and there are so many willing to give their expertise. But sometimes it can be intimidating too. This can happen, as in my case, even after a bestseller.
I had discovered Dave Chesson’s (Kindlepreneur) videos all over Youtube. The library is huge, he has so much knowledge (which he readily shares). I felt myself saying, “OMG, how will I ever build such a platform?”
Then I read Scott Allan’s post yesterday, “6 Ways You Can Make More money From Your Books and get Noticed on Amazon.” It contained some information I hadn’t seen before. Same OMG.
The same can be said for Chandler Bolt and so many others. You look at them, and doubt creeps in. The task looks insurmountable.
Here is what I realized:
No matter where you are right now, one of your heroes was there at some point. They are now past that point, and you are on your way past. No one starts on top. And if they were where you are now, you can do it too.
So, now all I have to do is look back at my soaking wet, (apparently wise) 20-something self, out there in the middle of cold Tampa Bay and say, “YOU HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE.”
That applies no matter where you are in the process. Today you start there.
February 7, 2017
BOOK: Build Your Dream Team by Candela Iglesias Chiesa
Wow! I just had a great interview for my soon to be released Podcast. Candela Iglesias Chiesa is the Bestselling Author of Build Your Dream Team: Leadership Based on a Passion for People.
We had a great conversation about her passion for helping others change their mindsets and transition from team member to team leader.
What I found most fascinating was some of the concepts she is teaching can be applied to new authors as well. For instance, she talks about experiencing the “Imposter Syndrome.” This is when fear takes over, and you feel you are in a situation you are not qualified to be in. This could be as a new team leader, but also as a new author.
I have experienced this myself, writing my own books. From what I understand, even the “greats” like Stephen King have that fear with each book they publish. The thought goes like this, “Is this the book where everyone discovers I am no good?”
Candela combats that in her book with some great techniques. One of them is knowing your avatar. Who are you writing for? If you focus on your avatar and knowing you can help them, you can push through the imposter syndrome. Based on her inspiration, I am basing an entire chapter in my next book (more on this next week) about it.
You can find out more about Candela at www.candela-iglesias.com.
If you are interested in her book, she has graciously given us access to the companion workbook FREE here: www.candela-iglesias.com/workbook
February 3, 2017
BOOK: The Holy Grail Of Book Launching By Mimi Emmanuel
I had the pleasure to day of speaking with Mimi Emmanuel, the Multi-Bestselling Author. Her most recent book, The Holy Grail Of Book Launching, is one of my favorites, and was a huge help when it came time to launch Author Your Success.
Mimi and I could have talked for hours. She has a wealth of information on everything from book launching, scriptures, social media, blogging, creating marketing art for your books and all aspects of your online platform.
If you plan on launching a book, this is a must read or an “almanac on book launching” as I called it when I first read the book.
I will save the rest for the podcast episode, but if you want to find out more about Mimi:
The Holy Grail Of Book Launching on Amazon.
February 2, 2017
BOOK: Intentional Thinking By Dale East
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dale East, Best-Selling Author of Intentional Thinking last week. First and foremost, Dale is just a great guy and very approachable. I loved our chat.
While we discussed mostly how he wrote the book, why and how he launched it to a Bestseller, I will leave that to the Podcast when it comes out.
Intentional Thinking is about learning how to live the life you deserve. If you have ever felt there is more to all of this existence than you are currently experiencing, this book is for you.
What personally resonated with me was the quote: “…..if you’re thinking and doing what the majority is thinking and doing, you’ll probably never be or achieve all that you are capable of.”
Furthermore, you are what you think. So, many times we have to retrain ourselves on how we think or process events. This book creates a system for that. You can choose happiness and fulfillment. You can choose to eliminate fear, worry and stress.
The great thing is, you can read his first three chapters free and see if the book is for you.
Check out: http://intentional-thinking.com/
There will be additional freebies from Dale when I publish his Podcast Episode.
How to Format Your Book for Kindle
This one is easy. There are so many options out there, that is both good and bad.
What I have figured out is you want to avoid copying and pasting as much as possible. That means if you are using Scrivener, or doing it in Word, you may be doing a lot of that. Scrivener can export to Kindle or Word, but there is a large learning curve and investment in learning the formatting (organizing your book is easy).
You also want it to look as professional as possible. Here is the issue. You can easily double or triple the time involved in creating the .mobi file for Kindle when you have to generate, load to your kindle and test it.
Here are some of the options:
Scrivener (Export to eBook) ($49 one time purchase)
Pressbooks ($19.99 or $99 if you eBook and Print – we addressed how to format for print in another post
Reedsy (Free)
Hire someone on Fiverr
Upload your word doc straight to KDP
Creating eBooks seems to be a lot easier than print, but you want to see if you can avoid the issues I mentioned earlier.
Let’s cut to the chase, and find the tool you may use for a long time.
I use Vellum. It is Mac only, so if you use windows, you might check out Reedsy. That is what I use for print.
Here is what I like:
Free to try and use until you actually want to export your work to eBook formats (from there you can pay $29 per title, by a pack of 10 for $99 or pay $199 for unlimited forever).
It shows you inside the tool how each page will look in each type of reader (iphone, ipad, kindle fire, kindle paperwhite, etc).
No matter how messed up the formatting of the text is (say from Word), it cleans it right up.
It handles images very well. You can import easily, adjust the size (it has 4 sizes) and it will flag the photo if you are trying to display it too big for the resolution provided.
It is actually a great way to organize your book (say you don’t want to invest or learn Scrivener yet). You can drag and drop chapters and create sections with ease.
Also, if you are new, when you add front or back matter, it will give you a default text (so you have to go searching for Dedication wording or About The Author structure).
Since it is free, go try it and play around with it a little bit. You should find it super easy to use, and a great addition to your toolkit.
February 1, 2017
How to Format Your Book for Createspace
I have been through hundreds of hours on this topic myself. The truth is all I wanted was a reasonably good looking (i.e. professional) interior format for my book. More often than not, I ended up with heartache (and lots of wasted hours). Interior formatting is painful, unless you find the right tool.
Here is a list of what does NOT WORK well:
WORD
WORD Templates provided by Createspace
Scrivener Export to PDF (albeit I have not searched the entire LEARN SCRIVENER FAST course yet)
Pressbooks (this was my go to for my first couple of books, but only after 40 hours of setup – more on this below)
I even googled as many variations of “How to Format Your Book For Createspace” as possible.
The best I could come up with was Pressbooks. Now, don’t get me wrong, if you are an HTML and WordPress expert, it will work well. They have a platform attached to market and sell your book. But when I was working on the print version of “Author Your Success,” I ran into a page (chapter) that would not accept whatever carriage return (or HTML code) I put it. That is when I started looking again.
“It shouldn’t be this hard,” I thought to myself. I screamed. We don’t need to be professional formatters or learn that trade. We are writers; the formatting should be easy.
I know most people will say to farm out the work. I agree most people probably should. But there are two reasons I will not.
I like to have control.
Speed. I am constantly tweaking or coming up with new freebies, or changes to my books. I do not want to pay or feel worried that I may have to pay AND WAIT every time I make a change.
I started working with Vellum for my eBooks, and it is awesome. Regardless of what the format of the text is you dump in there, it comes out nice and clean.
Alas, they do not have a print book option.
One thing about me is, if I don’t like something, I always keep my eyes open. I will also use an inordinate amount of time trying new things out (at the expense of my writing I suppose).
So one day I was reading a post about different formatting tools. The post itself spouted the usual suspects (they all make those sound easy, and they aren’t).
But in one of the comments, someone subtly said, “Try REEDSY.”
I tried it, and I about fell out of my chair. It was incredible and unbelievably simple. I changed gears for my book “Author Your Success” and had it formatted and looking beautiful in 24 hours. I was hooked.
Here is a screenshot of my book:
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Another BIG issue with formatting your interior is images. I have spent 100s of hours on this as well, trying to get them formatted correctly, only to have them altered by the interior formatter (Pressbooks, Word, Powerpoint). REEDSY handles them easily, with drag and drop and gives you control (just remember you want them to be 300DPI for print).
Oh yea, by the way, REEDSY is 100% FREE.
Their motto is: Formatting Should Be Free.
I may never use another method of formatting again (I say that knowing that people are developing better and better technology all of the time, so maybe that is not true).
They appear to make their money by creating a marketplace for editors.
There is one caveat: you can not force new chapters to start on the right-hand page. I contacted them, and they said according to the Chicago Manual of Style, that is not necessary. So, what do I know (except that I like it there)? However, I do not like it enough to suffer any of the other solutions to have chapters that always start on the right.
If you want to format for print on Createspace (or Ingram Spark), try it out (and thank me later – haha). They also have free courses on things like creating your audiobook.
How do I format my book for Createspace? Easy, REEDSY.
