Author Spotlight on Marcia Moran, Stroke Forward
This looks at a stroke from the eyes of the patient, the caregiver, and the community. It explores solutions that are unconventional, yet are
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Author Spotlight on Joie Seldon
About the book
An easily digestible, liberating and inspiring manual for how to harness the power of your greatest personal resources for life and work. In spite of the enormous impact emotions have on our lives, most people don’t know what emotions actually are nor how to intentionally utilize them in service of personal fulfillment.
The book is a guide to emotions, contains foundational knowledge, and exercises for releasing long-held feelings from the past. You will find tools for managing emotions in the present. Joie provide’s guidelines for healthy and productive communication. Reduce stress, get unstuck and live a life of vitality.
Connect with Joie Seldon
Author Spotlight on Jo Ann Richards
Midlife Magic takes you on the transformative journey of Jo Ann Richards’ life, from childhood through multiple bad marriages, she sheds light on abuse, divorce, and death. Her current marriage is to a military intelligence officer incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit.
Jo Ann was an active member of the Mormon Church for nearly 30 years until leaving it behind to fully embrace the world of UFOs, elementals, magic, and the paranormal. Through her challenges, she found her strengths, gifts, and inner power, and learned that dreams can, and do, come true.
Connect with Jo Ann Richards
Author Spotlight on Janine Bolon
Author Podcasting
Janine Bolon is an expert in podcasting and writing books. Author Podcasting is a guide for author’s who want to promote their book without coming off as salesy.
Inside Author Podcasting, you will discover:
- Tips for creating a media kit.
- What makes a guest hosts are eager to interview.
- A checklist for after you appear as a guest.
Buy the book, Author Podcasting
Connect with Janine Bolon
Author Spotlight on Clare Biedenharn
Heart to Heart: Spiritual Care Through Deep Listening
Clare Biedenharn became an advocate for her husband when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “What would you do if this were YOUR family?” For many the natural inclination is to ‘fix’ the problem by offering suggestions, but that approach is limited by one’s experience and personal biases. There is a more effective way to connect with others. It is a skill that can be learned. It begins with a question – an open, honest question.
Dr. Clare discusses an effective model of listening she field-tested with critical care nurses. She consults with individuals, health care professionals, and organizations, helping them discover deep listening can lead to deep connection.
Where to buy the book, Heart to Heart: Spiritual Care Through Deep Listening
Connect with Clare Biedenharn
Author Spotlight on Greta Oliver
College Roadmap: Essential Tips For First Time College Students and Their Families
College Roadmap: Essential Tips For First Time College Students and Their Families. The book contains 20 tips to help parents and their students navigate the journey to higher education. It is a workbook. Worksheets are included for families and their college-bound students to complete. Her book addresses many topics of interest to students preparing for and going to college.
She organized the book into three parts:
- Before Acceptance
- During the Wait
- After Acceptance.
Each part describes the tasks that both parents and students should be concerned about. It includes descriptions of how completion of these tasks can aid in finding a college that fits.
Where to buy the book: College Roadmap
Connect with Greta Oliver
What’s in and on Your Head?
I needed to rest my head after my September marathon of daily recording. I was a little burned out. I’ve made a few short videos for instructional purposes, but I haven’t been recording every day.
And I wondered what would help me get back on track. My goal is one video every week, not every day, but every week.
Two subjects have come up that are close to my heart and I’m sharing them with you.
One: October is Anxiety and Mental Health Awareness Month
And I found myself in a bit of a slump. I’ve lived with intermittent depression. For the past few years, I’ve been happy. Not all the time. Not every day is one when I feel great.
This recent depression relates to the pandemic and to my being an introvert. I failed by omission to reach out to people.
I can fix this if I do a bit at a time. I’m making a commitment to myself. Make at least one phone call to reconnect with someone every day. It doesn’t have to be a long phone call. I can even put a timer on it to reduce feeling overwhelmed. I have a disinclination to talking on the phone because I talk for a living.
Mental Health Awareness
And if you’re feeling unhappy or feeling challenged, there are a lot of new services available online, as well as through your healthcare provider. Start early to turn things around. Music will usually do it for me. While happy music gets me out of a sad mood fast most of the time, this gloom persisted for a couple of weeks. Now I’m feeling more optimistic. You can take control of your happiness by being kind to yourself.
Hair Odyssey: a Source of Pain and Pleasure
Travel back in time and see how my hair has changed over the years. What I once believed was permanent wasn’t. The hair on my head has been through a lot and will continue to change. Thanks to the effects of internal and external factors, my hair is a work in progress.
2012 Judy Baker perfect hair
Number Two: Hair
The hair on my head makes a difference in my identity, which is interesting to me. I know of several studies about the impact of hair on our self-image.
We as human beings, identify with our hair, both men and women, and as someone who experienced total bald baldness when I had cancer, losing my hair was probably the hardest of all my challenges.
I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. My hair was at its best right before I got sick. When my hair came back, I had curls for about a year-and-a-half. My hair it went through different colors. It came in white, silver, black, then brown, dark brown again with gray. And I have a lot grayer.
Now this is this is my seven, seven-year anniversary, I believe. 2013. 2021 minus 2013 it’s my eight-year anniversary.
My hair isn’t the same. It didn’t come back lush and wonderful. Women struggle with hair loss and our hormones influence how our hair looks, the amount of hair we have. Many factors go into how our hair looks, feels, and grows. When women are pregnant, they get lush hair. But after having a baby about, their hair may thin, break, fall out. I know it is difficult but you are not your hair.
A friend who does heavy weightlifting recommended collagen powder. When we first met, she had wispy hair. When we reconnected, her hair had transformed. Now I put collagen protein powder into my coffee, and it has helped me fill in those gaps around my hairline.
I have always had fine hair, but (after chemo) I had no hair in spots around my temples and on the back of my head. Collagen powder made a vast difference in the quality and the amount and volume of my hair. The changes began a few months after I started taking collagen daily.
Watch my 8-minute video on the mental health, hair, and healthy habits.
RECAP
If you’re feeling down, get some help, talk to somebody, and know you’re not alone. There are three things I do for my mental health.
1. I’ve been meditating almost every day. I’m not perfect, but I do it almost every day. Exercise made a vast difference.
2. I exercise, and exercise saved me. I used medication for a few years about 30 years ago. The meds and exercise changed how I could be in the world. I’m so grateful for both.
3. Joining Weight Watchers, watching what I eat, being sure I get good nutrition, enough water, and enough sleep. That is my recipe.
Most of the time, it works. The last part of my wellness recipe: water, food, and good sleep. If you have issues with your image and weight, check out Weight Watchers, now ww.com. The program includes online support groups, connect groups and great tips. I keep learning.
Take Care of Yourself and Your Head
What is on your head may be a source of pain inside of your head. I know I could lose my hair tomorrow and I wouldn’t crumple. I am more than my hair and so are you.
Judy Baker, Book Marketing Mentor helping busy women CEOs get more bang for their book.
Find out how I can help you and sign up for free tools and resources at https://book marketingmentor.com
Happy October.
Resources for Health and Happiness
https://www.straighttalkcounseling.org/mental-health-awareness-calendar
Playlist for Your Book
Listen to this playlist. When I am writing, music can be a way to ease the words out of my head or get me moving. Ambient, jazzy, meditative, mellow, a mix of moods and meanings.
Sharing Playlists
Spotify presents music, podcasts, books, and a robust search engine. They offer variety and depth of information. It is easy to locate topics of interest. The algorithm suggests other songs, podcasts, and books I might like based on my previous choices. Their catalog abounds with magnificent options for entertainment and education.
Soundcloud.com is another platform where you can create and share.
Have Fun and Create Your Playlist
You can share an experience, spark a conversation with your curated list. You have another way to expand your relationship with your readers.
Ask for recommendations to add to your list. Invite comments about your choices. Spark, curiosity and conversation.
Share your Playlist
Send me a link to your playlist. It just might get me to read your book.
Turn Your Book into Social Posts to Hook Readers
Your Table of Contents
We’re looking at the table of contents for Easy Self-Help Acupressure for Grown-Ups. And why would we be looking at the table of contents?
Because today I wanted to encourage you to look at your book, go through chapter by chapter and pick out a tidbit, a valuable piece of knowledge that you want to share with your audience.
And from each chapter, you’re going to create a series of social posts
Canva
We’re going to head on over to Canva.
I created a folder with assets I’ve collected for Deborah.
Watch how easy it is for me to put new content, new assets into Canva.
From my computer, I’m going to grab two images.
Drag and drop to upload the images and assets. Anybody can do this.
Have a folder on your computer where you store all of your brand graphics and you can just drag them in to Canva.
Instagram Posts and Stories
In Canva, I’m going to select an existing template, something that’s already created and customize it. If you are using a template, try to find one with similar colors to your brand. As you get more comfortable, you will know how to adjust the color to match your brand.
Before and After
You can see where I started side-by-side with a finished design.
I selected a template as a starting place and added her colors to it.
I kept with that same template and duplicated pages. And then I brought in her logo.
How to
Let me show you how easy that is to do, so I’m going to duplicate this page.
I’ve got an exact copy of my page.
I’m going to Deborah’s folder in Canva. And as you keep creating, you’ll probably want to organize your designs and save them into folders in Canva.
I’m going to get rid of all I don’t need and leave “more tips that Deborah Meyers Wellness.”
Let’s bring one book in the series into the design. I uploaded the book cover image to Canva (drag and drop from my computer into Canva; it creates a copy of the file and doesn’t affect your original on your computer).
I’m going to do a little of editing to add a shadow to the book cover. I’d like the cover to pop off the page. Page Lift is the shadow that I’m applying to the book image.
Add a QR Code
I’m happy with that, but you know what. I’m not telling you how to get to the book? And, it is available for purchase. We can go to Amazon where we started. I was an Amazon affiliate. I am going to get the tracking code for the book, a link. I’m going to copy the link and we’re going back over to Canva and there’s a magic thing you can do, create a QR code. You paste that URL from Amazon right into Canva. Next, you select to generate a QR code. Boom, there it is. It creates a QR Code from the url you paste in.
As I edit the image, it is easy to duplicate an item by selecting the element and holding down my option key as I drag.
I noticed the font is not one of her brand fonts. Myriad pro is one of her fonts and I uploaded it to Canva. I’m changing the font to match.
Okay. So now I’ve got this image. That is what I’m want, what I’m going to use for posting. I’m going to change the title up here.
Step-by-Step
(To save time, I will show you want I did in advance.)
- I duplicate the page.
- Go back to her folder in Canva.
- Replace the Grown-Ups book with the cover of the Parents and Family book.
- Go to Amazon and select the book, get the code, copy it to generate a new QR code in Canva.
- The new QR Code appears in the center of the design. Delete the old QR Code image.
If you’ve got a series of books, rinse and repeat the steps with each book.
Download Your Designs
I want to download the Instagram post images I just created in Canva.
Select the pages to download. And as soon as Canva has finished processing my request, it’s going to ask me, where do I want to save the file? I’m suggest saving your images into the folder with your brand graphics.
When you download multiple pages at one time, you will get a zip file.
Double click to open the zip file.
If you are posting to Instagram, as you know, you cannot post from your computer/desktop.
I add the images to my photo app and then they can be uploaded to Instagram from a mobile device (phone or tablet).
Table of Contents is a Great Place to Begin
So that is my quick and easy tip on how to take your book content, starting with your table of contents, to create a story based on the chapters in the book. After you create your graphics, post to the channel of your choice. And today was a demonstration of creating stories for Instagram.
(I sent the photos to Deborah Myers to post to her Instagram account @deborahmyerswellness).
Judy Baker, Book Marketing Mentor.
I hope this series is of help to you.
You can find me on Instagram @bookmarketingmentor, And I’d love for you to follow me.
I’m doing my very best to post a new video on YouTube and update my Instagram feed each day in the 30-day challenge.
I recorded an Instagram live because I’ve got to get over my fear of doing live video.
I’ll see you tomorrow when we are talking about writing a letter to your readers.
Get More Bang for Your Book with Book Marketing Mentor.
Turn Your Words into Social Posts that Attract
Turn Your Words into Images
Today, we’re going to turn your words into images that you can post. I did a selection of quotes about writing. I met Lisa See when she was on a book tour at the Sonoma Valley Library. I selected her quote, copied the text.
Next stop, Canva.com
I selected a template for a Facebook post and paste her quote into the Canva frame. I’d like a background that would work with this idea. I use the element of a little typewriter, which could be your logo.
I searched in Canva and I found a background I really liked, water.
Add your website to the image.
Change colors and fonts to match your branding.
In a few clicks I created a template. You can duplicate pages and make changes. In this case it is easy to adjust each of the quote images. I changed the background, the color of the text, and I kept the elements that I want to be on each of the images.
You can go through your book and pick a quote from each chapter or perhaps use the titles of your chapters for your designs. Develop your unique template from scratch or start with one of the templates in the Canva program.
You could quickly and easily create 5, 6, 10, 20 graphics using your words and branding for posting in just a few minutes.
Download Your Images from Canva
The next step I take is to download, the images. I suggest you name each of your pages with identifiable names.
You can publish directly to Facebook from Canva, but I tend not to do that because I want to control what I’m doing and where I’m posting.
I downloaded all three of images in a zip file. I’m going to be putting the images on Facebook, (https://facebook.com/bookmarketingmentor).
I posted the Lisa See and Terry Pratchett quotes.
Words into Social Posts for Fast and Easy Posting
That is how quickly and easily you can get your words out to your audience and become the master of your social channels. I would love to see how you are turning your words into social posts.
Judy Baker Book Marketing Mentor. I’m here to help you get more bang for your book. Get more readers, get more book reviews, and revenue.
You can find me at bookmarketingmentor.com and on https://Facebook.com/bookmarketingmentor.com and on https://Instagram.com/book marketingmentor.com.
And join me in the 30-Day Challenge
I’ll see you tomorrow. When we talk about three questions for your social channels.
Download the 30-Day Calendar and prompts.