P.H. Solomon's Blog, page 327

PHS:

This is a wonderful post. Even with a solid plan and schedule everyone needs discipline – re-blogged on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Lessons for Life:

Motivation is overrated.

With every goal I try to reach and every habit I try to internalize, I always start off motivated and eager to climb the ladder to success.

But where is my motivation three months later at 5:45am, looking up at a long day of work after a sleepless night?

Where is my motivation during a horrible week, wrought with upsets and disappointments?

I curl up in bed, knowing full well what I have to do, but my motivation is no where to be found.

Motivation is a feeling. It is sand in your palms, sensitive to even the slightest breeze.

So what force do we use to accomplish our goals if not motivation?

Discipline.

Courage is not the absence fear, but the ability to go on despite it.

Discipline is not the absence of avolition, but the pledge to push forward regardless of it’s presence.

Discipline is…

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Have you got a list of things that you need to do as a writer? Do you lack funds to acquire some or all of these needs for your writer platform. Here’s 4 tips for inexpensively improving your platform without breaking the bank.

1. Lack funds to create a website? Use a free one like WordPress.com. Want a custom domain name with your site for minimal cost? WordPress and other such hosts can help with that too. Here’s what WordPress can do!

2. Need to use email with your own domain name? Try it for minimal cost via Google Apps. Here are the instructions.

3. Have a product, announcement or other tweet you want new followers to see and retweet? Pin your tweet to the top of your feed and it will be the first post seen on your feed by visitors. Here are some visual instructions to do just that:

Go to your feed and choose something you’ve posted and click on the 3 dots for “More” and then click “Pin to your profile page”:

Here’s what currently stays at the top of me feed:

4. Want to add pictures to your blog posts but lack funds? If you have Microsoft Office installed you can use Click Art from Office. Verify that the Click Art is from Microsoft by either hovering over the image or right clicking on the image and choosing properties to see the originator. To access this library from Office 2010 click on the Insert tab and then on the Click Art button:

In fact, the picture at the top of this post is from Click Art. Read the terms of service for Click Art and understand how you may use it. If you need to use royalty free pictures for re-sale that’s another issue altogether so know what your are doing with pictures. For a great discussion of Microsoft’s Clip Art usage click here.

That’s all for today. See the News page for upcoming announcements like the month-long October special for “The Black Bag”! Feel free to leave comments below and I will reply! Remember to sign-up to follow by email and receive a coupon for a FREE copy (any e-book format) via Smashwords for “The Black Bag”. Thanks for reading!

PHS

Clip Art Image Copyright by Microsoft. Clip Art Used by Permission of Microsoft

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Filed under: Creativity, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Tips, Twitter, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: creativity, Indie Publishing, The Black Bag, Tips, writing

PHS:

Nonnie, I’m right there with you on impatience – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim!

Originally posted on Watch Nonnie Write!:

While watching an episode (accidentally) of Oprah’s Life Class, I came across an interview that she was holding with actress Gabrielle Union.  In the piece, Gabrielle was speaking about how, in her past, she was a true-life mean girl.  She would be so jealous of other women in the business, that she’d spread rumors, speak ill of them, just tear them down…for no reason at all…well, but for that thing called the green-eyed monster (and you all know how much I detest her).  It wasn’t the part about her jealousy that struck a chord in me, it was the moment she said a friend convinced her that it was time that she “worked on herself.”  The friend came over to her one day, in the midst of her tearing another woman down and pulled her aside.  The questions the friend asked, caused Gabrielle to take a hard look at herself.

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PHS:

Well said and wise observation – re-blogging on Archer’s AIM

Originally posted on bottledworder:

from pixabay

People vary vastly in their approach to work or play. So when I see a lot of writing advice doing the rounds (including my own), I’m rather skeptical.  Unless the advice is really specific, regarding tone, structure, syntax or something else, it serves little purpose for me beyond motivation, which, admittedly, is a huge part of success in any endeavour.

Some of the advice comes from writers themselves, when a dry spell probably compels them to write about something and what better a topic than the one they know most about—writing?

A lot of the impetus for writing about writing comes from a high demand amongst readers, who would be writers, and are looking for some magic recipe that will tell them how write. They expect such instructions to be clear and bulleted, exactly like the ones on how to put a bookshelf together or how…

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Available at Smashwords and All Major E-Book Vendors!

I just published my first e-book entitled The Black Bag which is on Smashwords catalog now. But I had a limited budget on which to complete this project. Since it is a short story I decided to publish it entirely as a DIY project.

Now many people might gasp and say that I needed professional services to produce this e-book and I agree regarding larger projects. However, I wanted the experience of doing the whole publication myself.

So what did I learn? For starters, Mark Coker’s Style Guide is extremely helpful to authors. But there are two aspects of the process that taught me what to expect from hiring other people to do some of the work. Here’s what else I learned.

1. Formatting isn’t that hard. I would feel completely comfortable formatting a full novel based on what I learned from the Style Guide. I was able to create styles and clean up errors in my short story with ease. The only mistake I made was using a template title page. It ended up having a table embedded which was not friendly with Smashwords converter (The Meatgrinder). This was easily remedied by deleting the table along with the text and creating a style after which I re-created the title page so that the problem with conversion was cleared.

2. Coverart is tricky but doable. I used a photo purchased from iStockPhoto but I initially added the text onto it with PowerPoint. Even though my photo was initially large enough, PowerPoint compressed the size so Smashwords did not consider the cover large enough. In the end, I downloaded Gimp and got the text added after which Smashwords accepted the correct size.

Conclusion: due to need I will hire and illustrator and commission my artwork but I may do my own formatting. For this size project it was worth my effort and time to do it myself. Now the question is whether the e-book is good enough. Well, take a look at the cover and the sample to see that all the internal links and formatting are correct. If it finally passes the litmus test with Smashwords and is distributed over the premium catalog then I’d say I did a pretty good job on this small project. NOTE: The e-book has passed muster for membership on the Smashwords premium catalog.

Have you every tried self-publishing as a DIY project? If so, what problems did you have and how did you rectify them? If you haven’t, what’s keeping you from trying?

Please leave comments. Also you will receive a coupon for a free copy of my short story by subscribing to this blog via email. Finally, follow me on Twitter @ph_solomon.com or on Facebook.

Thanks for reading,

P. H. Solomon.

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Filed under: Creativity, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Writing Tagged: Announcement, Coverart, creativity, Formatting, P. H. Solomon, Planning, The Black Bag, writing

PHS:

Re-blogging on Archer’s AIM – these are great for writing dialogue too!!!

Originally posted on Thought Catalog:

image –

Flickr / Nicolas DECOOPMAN

The more I talk to people, the more I realize that conversations, connections, and closeness have less to do with your external attributes and more to do with your vibe, genuineness, and willingness to enjoy someone else’s company.

Truth is, I’m not a special person: I’m short, I have acne (I’m turning 27 soon), and I’m introverted. Sometimes I stutter. Sometimes I don’t want to talk to anyone. Sometimes my hair has a life of its own.

And the more I talk to people, the more I realize that none of that matters. So what does matter?

Well, here are a few lessons I’ve picked up over the years that have helped me escape my comfort zone and feel comfortable around strangers. Now, I’m no suave conversationalist and I still deal with my barriers; but tips these have helped immensely with talking to…

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PHS:

Enjoy the shelf, Joy! Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Rave Reviews by Nonnie Jules:

Hello and welcome to “WHO’S ON THE SHELF?” with yours truly, Nonnie Jules!  Since we are a book club, you know we had to offer something that included a book shelf.  A lot of interviews merely cover an author’s work or an individual’s career stories.  Here on this “SHELF,”  we get down and dirty and ask the questions no other interviewer dare ask.  We ask the questions that you want to open up a book and find the answers to on your favorite authors and fellow book club members, but no one has dared to cover them.  WE get personal!  Because when you sit on the RRBC “SHELF,” YOU are an open book!

Today we have a very special guest on the SHELF with us.  Joy is one of our VIP members, that means she’s UBER-SUPPORTIVE, and if you’re a VIP, you get invited to our exclusive VIP…

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Some days my analytics suffer and sometimes they really click well. Part of the reason for fluctuations in analytics is availability to interact. Weekends and holidays are some of the reasons I might post less. Of course I can schedule some tweets and posts but I also need ways to share other content than my own. I’ve found Klout to be a source that supplements my social media, especially on the days when I spend less time on my author platform. Here are a few aspects of Klout that help my social media:

It suggests some Twitter followers for me. I’ve followed some of these and gotten extra follows back off this action.
It suggests articles I can schedule to tweet the next day. This is great to share content links that I like. I’ve gotten extra retweets on days when I’m not able to be as active as other days.

These little suggestions have proven to enhance my author platform in supplemental ways that really help over weekends and holidays.

Do you have a Klout account? What do you use as a supplemental strategy to enhance your analytics when you have less availability? I’d love to hear from you so please leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

Clip Art Image Copyright by Microsoft. Clip Art Used by Permission of Microsoft

 

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Filed under: Blogging, Creativity, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, Tech Tips, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: creativity, Facebook, Goals, Indie Publishing, Klout, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Pinterest, Planning, Social Media, The Black Bag, Tips, Twitter, writing

PHS:

An interesting take on character development – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim!

Originally posted on Storiform.com:

At times, my protagonist lacks the third dimension. Today, I found out why.

In her book, The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal, PhD, suggests that our prefrontal cortex’s ability to say, “I will,” “I won’t,” and “I want” separates us from the animals.

It’s as if there were two people inside each of us, she says – one who wants to be thin and one who wants a donut.

To bring a character to life, it may be essential to include the thing that this brilliant PhD health psychologist from Stanford considers the defining human trait: self-control.

Every living, breathing, leading fictional character contains two different people who are fighting for control. It’s an internal war.

Like everything real, the level of internal conflict falls naturally into a bell-shaped curve.

Heroes will often be outliers in their area of strength, of course…

Johanna, for instance, doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself for her autistic brother (he’s fighting depression in the latest version, actually).

But when it comes…

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PHS:

An interesting question – I get mine from journaling and what I’m doing.

Originally posted on Jodie Llewellyn:

In general, I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas for blog topics. Most of the time they just appear in my mind and work out! But every now and then I’m stumped on what to post. I imagine this happens to a lot of us. It’s probably the reason most blogs die slow and painful deaths.

Where do you find your blog post inspiration?

I find mine through google. I do searches like “blog post ideas for writers” and ultimately stumble across a gem of an idea. I also cruise Pinterest for quotes that I like and they sometimes trigger an idea also. I never plan ahead, I always just write posts by the fly of my pants. I know some bloggers have their blog posts planned out weeks in advance, but I’ve never done that.

Where do you find your ideas for your blog posts?

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