Michael W. Cook's Blog, page 2

My favorite quote

“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.” -Saint Augustine

Saint Augustine of Hippo

Emerson Quote

"Labor is watched over by the same pitiless laws. Cheapest, say the prudent, is the dearest labor. What we buy in a broom, a mat, a wagon, a knife, is some application of good sense to a common want. It is best to pay in your land a skillful gardener, or to buy good sense applied to gardening; in your sailor, good sense applied to navigation; in the house, good sense applied to cooking, sewing, serving; in your agent, good sense applied to accounts and affairs. So do you multiply your presence, or spread yourself throughout your estate. But because of the dual constitution of things, in labor as in life there can be no cheating. The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. These signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent, namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen. These ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the mind, and in obedience to pure motives. The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the operative. The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power." -Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do you have an Author Platform?

I am a huge fan of Dale L. Roberts. He has a wealth of information about self-publishing. I have acted upon his advice several times in the past month. I am sharing a portion of his advice on an Author Platform:

"Building an Author Platform – Book Rescue Season 1 Episode 4
December 13, 2021 by Dale Roberts

What the Heck is an Author Platform?
... your author platform is all the assets you’ve built online to promote yourself as an author, along with your books. Your platform includes, but is not limited to:

- Your website
- Your social media pages and profiles
- Your Amazon Author Central page
- Your book sales pages on various online retailers
- Your email list

Why Do You Need One?
... You must build a brand to make it in self-publishing... By building an author platform, you are securing your brand.

It’s important for you to establish your brand and platform because as long as you rely on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Vella, those customers aren’t yours. They belong to those respective platforms.

By building a website and opt-in page for your email list, you are capturing your readers and turning them into your customers."

Source: https://bookrescueshow.com/building-a...

The Amazon Self Publisher: How to Sell More Books on Amazon Kindle Edition
by Dale L. Roberts

See more here:

Self-Publishing w/ Dale
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfpubwithd...
Twitter: @selfpubwithdale
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SelfPublish...
Website: https://selfpublishingwithdale.com/

Author Landing Page

I created an author landing page using MailChimp:

https://cook-publications.mailchimpsi...

Do you want a FREE e-book?

Join my mailing list. Here is what you can expect with your FREE membership:

★ Free snippets from my published books
★ Previews of my works in progress
★ Stimulating quotes from books I'm reading
★ Interesting facts from my book research

Emerson quote

“Labor is watched over by the same pitiless laws. Cheapest, say the prudent, is the dearest labor... But because of the dual constitution of things, in labor as in life there can be no cheating. The thief steals from himself. The swindler swindles himself. For the real price of labor is knowledge and virtue, whereof wealth and credit are signs. These signs, like paper money, may be counterfeited or stolen, but that which they represent, namely, knowledge and virtue, cannot be counterfeited or stolen. These ends of labor cannot be answered but by real exertions of the mind, and in obedience to pure motives. The cheat, the defaulter, the gambler, cannot extort the knowledge of material and moral nature which his honest care and pains yield to the operative. The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power: but they who do not the thing have not the power.”

— Self-Reliance and Other Essays by Ralph Waldo EmersonSelf-Reliance and Other Essays

Quote of the Day

"Every action is a choice, even if you
choose to not act." -Michael Cook

Meditations for Modern Man: Wisdom from your Father

Who is Glooskap?

Millennia before Europeans arrived in North America...
...the first human was created from a bolt of lightning!
Who was this universal symbol of the Algonquin-speaking world?

Glooskap the Divinity | Passamaquoddy Legends story preview #NativeAmerican

https://youtu.be/h7BV0h0Z77w via @YouTube

-Michael Cook

Passamaquoddy Legends: Glooskap, Lox, Master Rabbit, and other tales

Inaugural Blog Post 6/6/2022

Today, I watched a YouTube video by The Home Boss entitled "How To Make Money Blogging - Ideas for beginners". Since I recalled Goodreads encouraged authors to blog to help build their audience, here I am. My current audience on Good reads is 1, so it can only go up from here... unless I get disappointed and unfollow myself.

I think my blog will contain:

★ Quotes from what I'm reading

★ Interesting fact from researching

★ Snippets from my books

★ Teasers from my works in progress.

I do this on my Twitter account but will test it out on Goodreads (see https://twitter.com/MikeCook_author for more).

Michael W.Cook