Category inspirational

Oct 31 2014

You have Talent!

Talent

TALENT

You have talent. Yes, you do.

Pick an art, sport, trade, or career that you enjoy.

Think of the people who really excel and thrive at it.

They have talent, right?

Then look at yourself.

You may have passion. You may have hope. You may have potential.

But you may not see your own talent in that same light.

Why not?

Because you’re comparing yourself to people who have developed their talents, who were motivated to succeed, who were confident that their hard work would pay off, who continued to work hard even when the chips were down.

But you know what?

Those talented individuals have weaknesses, too.

And in the early days, their talents weren’t as obvious, since they weren’t as developed.

And their weaknesses stood out more.

Not much different than you are now.

Which is exactly what you need to realize.

You have talent.

You need someone to tell you that you have talent.

Well, I’m telling you.

What you really need is to believe it yourself.

Because if one of the Talented looked at you and told you that you had talent, you would suddenly be highly motivated.

You would know that you were on the right path, that if you just worked hard, you would succeed.

But you doubt yourself.

Because none of the Talented even know that you exist.

You’re afraid.

You don’t want to waste several years working hard, when in the end it may never pay off.

That doubt and fear are obstacles to your motivation. They impede your success.

Do you know why the Talented don’t seek you out and tell you that you’re one of them?

Because you haven’t yet developed your talent, and because your weaknesses still stand out.

Don’t see yourself just as you are now.

Don’t see yourself failing.

See yourself evolving into one of the Talented.

Tell yourself that you do have talent. That it is worthwhile. That you’re on the right path.

Be confident that you can become one of the Talented.

Motivate yourself.

Work hard to develop your talents.

Work hard to improve your weaknesses.

And then you will become one of the Talented.

Confidence and motivation go a long way.

But doubt won’t stand aside and let you coast to victory.

Nope. Doubt will be waiting patiently.

For your weakest moments.

Then it will pounce on you. It will team up with fear.

You need to know that this ambush is coming.

Prepare for it. Be strong. Let your confidence and determination shine through it.

Laugh doubt and fear in the face.

You can do it.

You have talent.

Much of your competition has talent, too.

But many will try half-heartedly or not at all because they doubt themselves.

And many will fall from the path because they also must battle fear and doubt.

You must stay confident, motivated, determined. These are your weapons.

It won’t be easy.

You have to work for it. Hard. Very hard.

Preparation. Planning. Practice. Patience. Perseverance.

All the hard work makes the success taste so much sweeter.

Just remember, you have talent. You can do it.

View a positive outcome and work toward it.

Never give up.

Prove the naysayers wrong.

Prove yourself.

Read Tuesday

Imagine a Black Friday type of event just for book lovers.

You don’t have to imagine it. It’s called Read Tuesday, and it’s free: www.readtuesday.com.

Please support the Read Tuesday Thunderclap. This will help spread awareness on the morning of Read Tuesday (December 9, 2014). It’s easy to help:

  • Visit http://thndr.it/1CkO2Bg.
  • Click Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr and sign in.
  • Customize the message. (Optional.)
  • Agree to the terms. All that will happen is that the Thunderclap post about Read Tuesday will go out the morning of December 9.
  • (The warning message simply means that Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr need your permission to post the Thunderclap message on December 9. This is the only post that Thunderclap will make.)

Halloween Reading

Looking for some spooky books to read this Halloween month?

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/scary-books

Chris McMullen

Copyright © 2014 Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing
  • Boxed set (of 4 books) now available for Kindle pre-order

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Jul 8 2014

The Beauty of Marketing

Beauty

Book Marketing

There isn’t just one way to do it. The fact that there are many different book marketing strategies is your opportunity. Find a way to look at marketing in a way that you can enjoy it.

You want to be successful, right?

  • It’s not about embracing someone else’s idea of marketing and carrying it out with due diligence.
  • It’s about finding an effective marketing method that you can embrace with a passion and make it your own.

Most indie writers are artists at heart, not businesspeople. Yet self-publishing success, both on and off Amazon, depends on effective book marketing.

  • That doesn’t mean that you have to switch from artist to salesman to sell books. That’s like hammering a square peg through a round hole.
  • It means you have to view marketing as an art or craft to master, and pursue it with passion. That will fuel your self-motivation.

Look at this article. It’s about book marketing. I didn’t use $ signs for the picture. I left my artistic hat on and turned marketing into a rose.

You, too, can wear your artistic hat successfully both as a writer and an artist. Successful indie authorship is a combination of writing and marketing, both of which are driven by passion and feature creativity.

The business side of marketing books can seem dull and boring to writers. Many indie authors think of the following features when they first encounter marketing:

  • Advertising.
  • Self-promotion.
  • Screaming loudest.
  • Generating hype.
  • Judging a book by its cover instead of its content.
  • Salesmanship.

Actually, most of the things on the above list aren’t effective when it comes to book marketing.

If you approach marketing as something that’s dull or boring, you’re definitely not going to succeed at it.

  • Again, this doesn’t mean you have to get excited about something that you naturally feel is boring. That has inherent limitations.
  • Rather, it means that you have to find a way to look at marketing that makes you inherently passionate about doing it.

Fortunately, marketing does have highly artistic and creative elements that can appeal to writing artists:

  • Marketing is about sharing your passion with others.
  • It’s a chance to interact with others and let them discover your excitement about your book. (Let them ask you what you’ve done lately, rather than advertise what you’ve done. This distinction makes a huge difference.)
  • It’s an opportunity to put readers in a positive mindset before they open your book. People you interact with in person and who enjoy the interaction are more likely to look forward to your book with a good frame of mind.
  • You can wear your artistic and creative caps when you get involved in the cover design (a big part of marketing—it’s part of the packaging). Even if you hire a cover artist, you’re still involved in the design of your cover.
  • Blogging is a great match for marketing books. You love to write, right? Not only that, you get to interact with people who read your blog. You get to be creative coming up with ideas for posts and finding images to use.
  • Creativity is a great tool for catching the attention of your target audience and engaging interest in your book. When you talk to people, you have the chance to show your creativity in the conversation.
  • Imagination can also be a helpful marketing tool. Come up with a creative marketing idea and you’ll enjoy carrying it out; others may enjoy your creativity and check out your book.
  • Even your curiosity can be a benefit here, such as your curiosity for how to think of marketing in a way that doesn’t sound like salesmanship. Use your creativity to find other ways to think about marketing.
  • Branding is an art form. Pursue it as an art. Brand an image for yourself.
  • You can even approach marketing as a scientist. Come up with different hypotheses about marketing strategies and test them out.
  • Embrace book marketing as an art form and strive to master the craft.

If beauty truly lies in the eye of the beholder, then you have the power to see how beautiful marketing can be.

Chris McMullen

Want free information about book marketing? Find all my marketing posts by clicking here.

Copyright © 2014 Chris McMullen, Author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers

  • Volume 1 on formatting and publishing
  • Volume 2 on marketability and marketing

Follow me at WordPress, find my author page on Facebook, or connect with me through Twitter.

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Jan 3 2014

Happy Today! :-)

Happy Today

Why should we wait for holidays, birthdays, and special days to wish everyone a happy day? We shouldn’t.

Every day should be special. We should be happy every day.

So here’s a wish for a Happy Today.

It’s not just good for today. It’s good for every day.

Have a very Happy Today.

Because it will always be today. Even when today becomes tomorrow, you will still think it’s ‘today.’

So have a Happy Today that never ends.

Smile! 🙂