Laina Turner's Blog, page 119

Positive Energy

[image error]I had a great meeting today about one of my websites. It was a site I have had for awhile but was never really sure of the focus and where I should go with it. I decided last week I would try one more time to see if I could figure out the voice I wanted this site to have and make it work. I reached out to see if I could find someone to help me and today met the person I then had the great meeting with. It never fails to surprise me how meeting someone who is interested in a common goal can not only uplift your sprits but your head starts spinning with all the great ideas to reach that goal and be successful at achieving your dreams.

I walked into the meeting not sure of anything (related to the site) and left 2 hours later elated with a plan and the energy to execute the plan. All it took was interaction with one person. Think about that. Think about how much impact you can have on someone.

 

What are you doing to have a positive impact?

Laina

Writer’s Confusion

So yesterday I wrote about writer’s block and how I had ben blocked from writer among other things. I worked through some frustrations that were keeping me blocked and was excited to sit down and write when I realized I didn’t really want to finish the book I am working on. The 5th installment in the Presley Thurman series. I’m just not feeling it. Now I have some other ides floating around I can write about but I feel I should finish this book before I move on. Tough if I don’t really feel it right now does it matter? I don;t want to let down my loyal fans who have read the other boks and are waiting patiently for a new one to come out though maybe they would try a new book with new characters?

What would you do?

Laina

Writer’s Block

I’ve had it the last few weeks. You could actually call it a complete block from everything not just writing. You ever get like that where it’s not that your being lazy (though I’ve had my share of those times) but rather you have lost your focus and you’re not sure what you should do or want to do? It’s been like that. I’ve alternated “thinking” about what my plan should be with feeling guilty for not doing things I know I should be doing and then getting confused because if I know I should be doing those things why doesn’t it seem right? Why do things seem so difficult? After much thinking on the subject I finally figured out it all comes down to attitude. You can have the best plan in the world but if you don’t “want” to execute it then it’s really a waste of time planning. With me it was a matter of my focus being where I felt it should be rather than where I wanted it to be. I felt guilty for working on the projects that weren’t going to show high returns today but that I enjoyed for the projects that were the big money but I wasn’t really into. I’m realistic and know we all do things we don’t really want to do but will get us a result we need (like a paycheck) but instead of looking at the stuff I wanted to do and looking at the long term investment of time I was allowing myself to get frustrated and not doing any of it.

I decided yesterday I was just going to have a fun day and not work at all. I enjoyed a pumpkin spice latte, enjoyed the cool fall day, and got some shopping in. I didn’t let myself think about the work I should be doing or how far behind I was. I didn’t expect it to fix my mindset but for some reason it did. Maybe because I didn’t have expectations? I woke up today feeling energized and focused on what I can do to reach my goals for the rest of the year. There is still a solid 3+ months left and the holiday season which will be great for me. Sometimes a break is all that is needed to get back on track.

 

Laina

 

Marketing is key

[image error]I have written several times about the importance of marketing as an author. Most indie authors know that writing the book is only half the battle. If no one knows its out there it won’t sell. I started focusing exclusively on my ebooks in May of 2011 and in the past 15 months I have tried many different marketing initiatives. A few that worked and many that didn’t. The positive that has come out of all my marketing efforts is now I know what can actually produce results. That’s not to say I don’t try new things but I am much more careful about where I spend my money.

I have had much success with Kindle Nation Daily sponsorships. More so than any other sponsorship so now if I’m going to pay for something I just do KND and they fill up fast. I just went to look at what I want to do for the holiday season and WOW they are really booked out so I better hurry up!

The biggest boost in sales I have gotten is from making my first book, Stilettos & Scoundrels, FREE.  It has helped in ways I would have never imagined to increase the sales of my other books and now the pressure is one to keep new books coming. Pressure I have because I am way behind where I wanted to be for the year in my writing.It makes marketing a little easier when you have something FREE to promote and so I have been able to get the word out. This has resulted in more hits on my blog, more sales, more people seeking me out for guests post, and more.

 

What has resulted in your biggest boost in sales or readership?

Laina

Get your free copy of Stilettos & Scoundrels

Available on Kindle, Nook, iTunes, and soon on Audible.

 

Keeping yourself on track

Back in April I wrote a blog post on Creating an Editorial calendar. As a blogger I feel it’s important to have an editorial calendar and more importantly sticking to it which is my difficulty. It helps with planning and generating ideas to blog about. A friend of mine recently made a post about finding her voice for her blog (you can read it here) and she wrote about something that affect many of us bloggers. What to write about. Some people have that clear vision of what they want to write about. They are so passionate about a specific thing they are what we call a niche blogger and have a very narrow focus on what they want to write about. Like my friend Rikki I’m not that lucky. I like a lot of things and depending on the day some more than others and there are things I don’t always feel like writing about. So when I created my editorial calendar I organized it around types of posts. I updated it last week and I intend to stick with it this time.

Monday – All about me Monday. I will blog about random facts about me, interests I have, anything that tickles my fancy.

Tuesday – Tips Tuesday where I will give tips, advice, how-to’s, posts that are instructional in nature.

Wednesday – Writing Wednesday about all things writing related.

Thursday – Review day. I will post the book reviews I do.

Friday – Fun Friday where anything goes.

This is a guideline that should help me stay on track, keep a theme going, and create a more narrow focus for each day on what to write about. Let’s see if I can stick to it this time.

Do you have a blogging schedule you live by?

Laina

Happy New Year!

[image error]Ok, I realize it’s August but the summer has been kind of a blur and I thought renewing my focus on work related things would benefit from me setting some resolutions for the remainder of the year.

This summer was amazing. I was able to spend time with my children, I taught horseback riding lessons, took afternoon naps, all things that I normally am not able to do because I am working. I admit it was a little stressful knowing that there was still things that needed to be done and not making them a priority but I was able to get over that and balance it all making family a priority this summer.

Now the kids are back in school (as of last Wednesday) and I need to re-declare my focus and make up for a little lost ground on my writing, my blogging, and my social sites. It’s not that far from the real New Year and I have goals I set for 2012 I need to work hard to meet. I am looking forward to achieving my goals!

How was your summer? Are you on track to your 2012 goals?

Laina

Horseback Riding Lessons

[image error]This post will be a departure for my normal posts in the sense it has nothing to do with books or writing. This summer I spent 6 weeks working as a riding instructor at a horse camp and LOVED every minute of it. I grew up with horses and when this opportunity presented itself I jumped at the chance to work with horses and kids. Because it was so enjoyable I decided to start giving lessons as well. I quickly filled up the time slots I had and again have enjoyed myself so much I wanted to open up a little more time to spend on this.

So if you live in the Carmel, In area and have always wanted to learn how to ride a horse, or your child has, let me know.

POPLAR RIDGE HORSE RIDING LESSONS

 

Riding Lessons

Each lesson is one hour in duration with approximately the first ten minutes for grooming and saddling and approximately the last 10 for unsaddling and grooming.

Cost

1 hour – $40

Purchase a block of hours to use and save

3 – 1 hour blocks $105

6 – 1 hour blocks $175

12 – 1 hour blocks $300

Blocks of time must be used within 3 months of purchase. We realize things happen and every effort will be made to work with scheduling changes. Tardiness will result in reduction of riding time and no shows will count as a lesson.

We look forward to working with you!

 

Laina Molaski

Horse Trainer

Contact Laina to schedule your lesson today at  laina@lainaturner.com

 

 

Olympics

[image error]I don’t know about you but I LOVE the Olympics. I’m not a sports person but I get wrapped up in all the sports. Maybe because it only happens once every four years or maybe because it’s not every day I can watch rowing or fencing but I love the events, I enjoy the back story of the athletes, and I just like the energy.

These athletes work so hard on achieving their dream and it puts in perspective how easily some of us non-Olympians give up on our dreams just because they seem hard to achieve. It comes down to mind-set. The commonality of these athletes is their commitment to the goal, their positive attitude. I’m sure they too have days where they don’t feel like they are making progress but when it comes right down to it they persevere. They don’t stop but continue to work their ass off the next day and the next. As a result they are in London living their dream.

Congrats athletes for being a great example to all of us!

Laina

It’s a new day

[image error]July 2012 was by far the best month I have ever had since starting my focus on indie pub ebook career in June of last year. There are a couple contributing factors to July’s success. One is Stilettos & Scoundrels went free on Kindle, Nook, and iTunes. I know that free visibility (although it brought out haters) has helped my visibility with the other books and therefore resulting in better sales. I also dropped the prices of all my books to .99 cents. Prior to July my short stories were .99 but the rest were 2.99. I now wish I wouldn’t have done both things at the same time so I would have a better idea of which really drove my sales but my gut tells me it is both combined. I am now trying to decide of I should put my prices back to what they were and see if the momentum continues but then I hate to see it slow down because reaching new readers is super important! That leads me to the financial aspect. Because of the royalty aspect dropping my price to .99 means I have to sell almost 6 times as many to make the same amount. So although I had a record month in books sold I will make less in revenue than I normally do.

Anyone have an opinion?

Laina

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Fresh starts

Am I the only one who likes to say to myself, “Monday, I will start fresh Monday.” That Monday is interchangeable with the first of the month, the New Year, tomorrow….you get the picture. I know that’s more about procrastination than it is about a “fresh start” but sometimes you must fool yourself into getting started somehow.

I am writing about this because tomorrow is August 1st and I have many things that I’m going to start at the beginning of the month. You know because it’s all fresh and new. I thought maybe if I stated in a public forum my goals for August I might actually get to all of them instead of getting behind next week and make my August fresh starts my September fresh starts (which I have already been tempted to do).

1. write daily and get caught up with my production schedule

2. blog 3x a week

3. focus on the A Mom Entrepreneur site as I have unofficially taken the last couple months off – not a good thing

4. stick to my marketing plan ALL month (which includes goals 1, 2, and 3)

5. finish writing the August marketing plan so I can do steps 1-4 and is what makes me want to make this Septembers plan

 

July has been a great month in spite of my being completely off focus and I will blog on that tomorrrow after the month is over. But back to August. What are your goals??

 

Laina

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