Economical Stress-Relief

As I recall, my physical body and remaining brain took months to relax after the rigid catatonia of autumn 2008. The term "stress relief" wasn't even amusing, much less helpful until the flinching stopped.

Eventually (1) my daughter began getting the treatments she so desperately needed, and (2) I noticed that so far, I wasn't homeless. Plus my survival strategy had included stocking up on a whole lot of various dried beans. So I wasn't going to starve either. And I discovered I had an inborn ability to hunker down.

But it took several more months to admit that the remaining high stress was still bad for my health. I was too work-driven to take time out for renewing daily walks, but I would sporadically treat myself to a 30-minutes meditation time (more or less) between the end of my work day and beginning of Brian Williams. Not that I was able to stick to a regular schedule. My free-style meditation times would come in three or four-day chunks, then be superseded by business networking or grandkids' visits. I now know that an erratic relaxation schedule is far better than none. (At the time, of course, I beat up on myself for not sticking to A Plan.)

I've now added another thrifty stress-relief remedy to my repertoire and have vowed to do one or more of the three every day. So far, so good. They are:

• A walk outdoors. Even 15 minutes lifts my spirits and turns my focus from anxious enterprise to bird-watching.
  
• Meditation time. I don't follow a formal method, often simply doing a self-guided meditation to a place in nature, real or imagined.
  
• A long Epsom salts bath. My personal rule is 20 minutes or longer. (I warm up the water after a while.) The package says to use 2 cups per tubful, but 1 to 1 1/2 seems to work fine. Making a gentle effort to stop thinking, I try to get to a floatie-zone mentally as my hands float in the water.

If I weren't still budget-watching, I would add an occasional massage and a Reiki treatment. (Hey, even a seasoned Reiki Master appreciates being a receiver sometimes!)

Happy relaxing ~

Linda

The Great Recession & Me

It's been awhile since I last wrote. So much has happened since October 2008. For many people worldwide, our relative security collapsed. We stumbled through the hours dazed and confused. Rational planning seemed useless because of the employment situations, market plunges, and the nauseating feeling that we, individually and collectively, were teetering at the edge of a bottomless abyss.

For many of us, non-recession shocks kept piling on, heedless of our percarious balance. That wrenching feeling of utter loss of control can make babbling lumps of the most competent people we know.

An independent business owner loses one client after another at the same time her health insurance premiums shoot up. The 39 year old single mother of two is confined to a wheelchair, yet dozens of tests and doctors cannot nail down which type of neutopathy is responbile, therefore no treatment can be given. It's 0 degrees on a December night in St. Louis. There's a sleeping two-year old angel in the back seat; the car overheats for the first time ever; and there's no one to call to come and help. Spinning out out control...

And yet we cope, and don't do so badly after all. Hindsight can be so comforting!

Enduring, and continuing to deal with, such reversals in life have taught us a lot both about our own strengths and about becoming more flexible in our problem solving. Lately, I've come to realize that much of what we've learned is worth passing along - both to each other and to future generations.

With that in mind, I'll be writing my own ruminations about practical, empowering actions, attitudes and mantras for a few months, as well as the solutions and toe-stubbings others have experrienced.

It would be wonderful if you shared yours with us by way of "comments." Your stories might just be the help the rest of us need in the future.

More ruminations coming soon ~

Linda

Journal the Intimate Story of Chaos

Grab your pen or keyboard. This is the time to journal about your experience of the current economic chaos. Your written record of this historic time will produce the only realistic, human vertion of what will eventually be told in cold, impersonal terms in our grandchildren’s school books.

But that’s one thing it definitely is not. Impersonal? Hardly.

This economic blitzkrieg will have maimed virtually everyone before it’s over. The young couple who loses their home, the abruptly terminated midlife exec or the older almost-retiree all stand stunned at the suddenness.

We each will experience it our own unique way, perhaps concerned about different challenges, or more likely a combination thereof, than a neighbor will. But how you deal with it will become part of your legacy as surely as your DNA.

Write it, help the future readers understand how devastating the uncertainty has been, how demoralizing to be forced to cut back on newspaper delivery, church donations, small gifts for grandkids and the sick feeling of the earth still quaking under our feet.

Tell them. And don’t be surprised to discover you feel some relief of tensions from writing it out!

Good luck with your writing ~

Linda

Why I Chose to Publish My Own Books

As promised, here's the story behind me opening my own publishing company, first to self-publish, then to publish other authors' books as well.

Around 1990, my writing partner, Bev, and I were on a creative tear. One of our projects dealt with dealing with the recession on the home front, and we needed an agent to present the manuscript to the Big Houses (the large publishing houses in New York). First we searched for one who specialized in nonfiction. Then we bent our brains around writing the most intriguing query letter we could create. (You have to convince an experienced agent to even read your manuscript. And the legitimate ones will not charge a reading fee!)

Mike S. in Massachusetts asked us to send "the book" to him. (Holy mackerel!) But there was a standard, fairly rigid book proposal format in which it must be submitted. Off I went to Barnes & Noble to buy the then-bible of formal proposal writing, and we embarked upon the long and I think grueling process of of producing said proposal which included:

• A brief summary of the book.
  
• Table of Contents with Chapters and subchapters.
  
• A brief author bio, emphasizing the credentials qualifying him/her to write this book.
  
• Two or three sample chapters.
  
• An exquisitely tasteful but irrestible sales pitch.
  
• A comparison, title by title, of similar books on the bookstore shelves and the popularity thereof.

Those were the primary points, and of course had to be the most near-perfect writing we'd ever done! It ran about 60 pages.

Then we had to take the whole thing to Kinko's and have 5 copies run and comb-bound.

After a couple of tantilizing nibbles, he finally got a letter from an editor at Fireside (Wow!) saying that it was "well done and marketable," but they felt they already had titles that would complete for the same customer dollars.

Did you get that? Fireside Press thought the book was well done and would sell ... but they still wouldn't take it! Well, friends, that just felt so wrong. If it had been poorly done or was otherwise a poor excuse for a book, it would have been one thing. But well done still wasn't good enough.

A few years later, I began writing the divorce books -- books that were meant to help people who were going through the painful and confusing process of ending their marriage. But it couldn't help anyone until it was on the bookstore shelves (or on the Internet). So I studied and went to seminars and meetings and read about a dozen books and learned how to set up a publishing company. Was it hard work? You bet. But it was the way I could get my helpful words into the readers' hands in a reasonable amount of time.

And that is the story of the birth of Pen Central Press, the publishing division of Pen Central Communications. I thought you'd like to know ...

Happy writing ~

Linda

Book Publishing & the Time Factor

This time we're going to look at a few aspects of the time involved in self-publishing your book. My thoughts are based on you wanting to produce a commercially viable book (classy enough for the local Borders) through basic self-publishing. That means opening your own publishing company and performing all the functions of a book publisher including paying for the printing and binding. Here are some of the primary preparations:

• Read authoritative books on self-publishing a top quality book. As mentioned earlier, the most thorough manuals are Dan Poynter's Self Publishing Manual now in its 16th edition and the Ross's book, Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, 4th edition. There are others, and I encourage you to read 2 or more in addition to those. Yes, there will be some repetition, but you'll pick up new lessons from each one.
  
• Write out your business plan, even a rough one, to include sending requests for quotation to at least 10 reputable book printers, figure out your company name, file that as a DBA (doing business as) with your state, and begin devoting a portion of your brainstorming time to producing and selling the book, on top of writing it.
  
• Hunt for and interview graphic artists who have experience in designing book covers. (More on that quest later.)
  
• Rewrite your manuscript a minimum of 3-4 times before you even think of sending it to an outside editor. Polished text is the name of the game.

In other words, study the business of self-publishing and put that knowledge into play!

X Major caveat: Having experience in the business world
will be more valuable to you than all the sparkling reviews
in the world! If you don't have it, invite a business-savvy
friend to guide you.

When I received my very first sizeable fax order from Ingram (book wholesaler), I danced and cavorted like a writer possessed - OK, that's exactly what I was. Then I realized I hadn't designed my company invoices yet or packing list. But I was doublely fortunate. I'd work in a purchasing department long, long ago, and remembered the documents and procedures I'd learn then.


Therefore, if you feel a strong pull to publish your own book as I did, plan to invest some time in learning the business. It's actually fascinating to some of us! But it does cost a lot of hours and days of personal study.

As you read the books and consider the time involved in setting up the business, taking and invoicing orders, shipping books, marketing and other duties, think about whether these activities intrigue and attract you, or if you run ascreaming into the great hereafter. Thsi isn't a pass/fail situation. Listen to your gut.


Next time I'll share my story of why I chose to open my own publisihig company, Pen Central Press.

Happy reading - and writing ~

Linda