Hi y'all! I just wanted to give a little heads up that I have changed my Instagram name from my blog name to my personal name! I decided that this was a great way to connect deeper with each of you, connect with those who are reading my books and for speaking engagements that I have coming up!
You can read more about my name change by clicking HERE!
I hope that y'all have a wonderful weekend!!
Happy Friday friends!
In late December my family had the amazing opportunity to go see Ekaterina Gordeeva's "From the Heart" Ice show. This beautiful ice show was phenomenal and beyond any and all of my expectations. The artistry was astounding and the skaters did a phenomenal job and the best that I have seen at Lake Placid's Olympic Center.
The show had brought together not only Ekaterina Gordeeva and her husband Ilia Kulik and their daughters, but a star studded cast that included many fellow Olympic medalists.
As a gal who has loved and appreciated the sport of ice skating since I was a little girl this evening was a true ice skating royalty cast that included Scott Hamilton, Kristi Yamaguchi, Meryl Davis & Charlie White, David Pelletier, Paul Wylie, Yuka Sator and several others.
If you have enjoyed ice skating for a couple of decades that you know how much those names mean to the sport of ice skating. This night was a special evening for those that love ice skating and the Lake Placid Community as Ekaterina Gordeeva returned to say thank you to her fans for their support and to honor her late husband (and figure skating partner) Sergei Grinkov with her friends.
Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov (or "G & G" as they were affectionately known in ice skating world) were the 1988 and 1994 Olympic Pairs Gold Medalists and four-time world champions from Russia. They were universally known and recognized and deeply respected as the greatest figure skating pair team of all time.
They shared a love of not only skating together but fell in love off the ice and were married in 1991.
Their love story was known as the "ice skating fairytale" and only made more beautiful by the birth of their daughter, Daria, in September 1992.
In 1994 they returned to the Olympics to win their second Olympic Gold Medal. Unfortunately in late 1995 tragedy struck during a "Stars on Ice" tour rehearsal in Lake Placid when Sergei Grinkov suffered a fatal heart attack at the young age of 28.
Ekaterina Gordeeva, and many of the ice skating stars present at this ice show, gave a touching tribute to Sergei Grinkov in 1996 that was aired on television and aired worldwide. The story of a young mother widowed at such a young age, brought tears to everyone and we all wished her well in the future and prayed for healing for her broken heart.
Ekaterina Gordeeva went on to courageously return to the ice as a solo skater for the "Stars on Ice" show and has toured with the production for many years since that fateful day in 1995.
Twenty years later Ekaterina returned once more to Lake Placid to celebrate Sergei Grinkov and to pay a special tribute show (with all of the proceeds going to the America Heart Association).
The evening was filled with rich emotion as Ekaterina Gordeeva thanked the audience for their support, their love, and their encouragement and compassion to herself and her daughter during that difficult time two decades ago.
She and other skaters performed a beautiful show that left each audience member with a night full of laughter, tears, and hope.
There is something so profoundly inspirational about watching someone go through tragedy and then seeing how they have overcome this tragedy later on in life.
Many of the audience members, myself included, were inspired by her resilience after such an incredibly difficult tragedy in her life.
The thing is is that Ekaterina Gordeeva came into the evening wanting to thank those who had supported her and yet I walked away from the evening changed and inspired.
Inspired to thank the people in my life who are helping me through my own difficult season of life, to thank those who are making a difference, and most of all inspired to remember that better days do come again.
The standing ovations throughout the evening were greatly deserved and were felt from our hearts. Ekaterina and the rest of the cast from the beautiful ice show, "From the Heart", thank you for your beautiful dedication to the sport of ice skating, for sharing your lives with us, and for inspiring us to look to the future with hope.
10 Tips for Successfully Choosing a Self-Publishing Company for Your Book (or E-Book)
February 5, 2016
If you are looking for other posts that I have done on writing and publishing tips you can find them HERE or in the links below:
10 Ways to Support Your Friends Who Have Independently Published Books
12 Ways to Support Your Friend's Book Release
12 Ways to Support Your Friend's Book Release
(1) Take time to decide who you are going to publish your book (or e-book) with.
There are so many different ways to self publish your book/e-book and you want to pick the self-publishing option that works best for you. As I mentioned above I chose to go with CreateSpace because I felt that it was the best fit for me currently. For an upcoming book that I am independently publishing I am still exploring all different options. If you want to successfully choose a self-publishing company for your book/e-book make sure you really take the time to read through all of your different options. To be honest I probably spent over six months deciding and debating the pros and cons before I picked and am so happy that I took the time to do that.
(2) Clarify what your goals are for your book.
Understanding what your goals are will change the course of every step you take. For example: are you hoping to self-publish to ultimately become a full-time writer (and hopefully get noticed by a traditional publishing company)? Or are you hoping that your book will have a huge impact on a certain group of people? Has it simply been your dream to have a book published and you don't plan to write another one? Or are you hoping to hit the New York Times Best Seller List?
You may want to do all of these things, one of these things, or a combination, but you must spend the time to really consider what your goals are with your writing. In doing this you will then have a clear picture of not only the publishing direction you want to go in but will be able to easily decide the type of investment you want to make in your project. Having clear goals will help you make the thousands of decisions that you are going to encounter as you head down this road.
You may want to do all of these things, one of these things, or a combination, but you must spend the time to really consider what your goals are with your writing. In doing this you will then have a clear picture of not only the publishing direction you want to go in but will be able to easily decide the type of investment you want to make in your project. Having clear goals will help you make the thousands of decisions that you are going to encounter as you head down this road.
(3) Understand the Differences Between Print-On-Demand Companies and Self-Publishing Companies
First, for clarification, Print On Demand (or POD) is a system of book publishing in which copies of a book are not printed until an order has been received. This allows companies to print books singly or in small quantities. Many people find Print On Demand books a wonderful option for self-publishing (especially if it is your first time) as you can have the books printed as orders come in. Many first time authors like this option so that they don't have to buy a ton of their books and then store hundreds of books that they hoped they could sell.
On the flip side of this is self-publishing where generally a company charges you an upfront fee and then handles all of the print-runs, shipping, etc. just like a traditional publishing company would do. You are responsible for paying for the books publication and production and your name (or the name of the publishing house you create) is listed as the publisher of the book. You also have the opportunity to decide with ease about ISBN information and because you have control over everything you are the sole owner of all of your work and can market and sell as you please.
My best advice for self-publishing is like I mentioned in my first point- which is to do the research and decide what is best for you and what your goals are for your book. Both can be great options for authors depending on what your goals with your book are.
(4) Consider the Cost Associated with Self-Publishing in deciding which Self-Publishing Company You Choose.
What some wanna-be authors might not be aware of (and I surely was not until I got into this arena!) is that there are many self-publishing companies that can charge exorbitant amounts of money for their services and the money you spend is not always equal to the results that you were receive. I have had one friend who has paid almost $20,000 for their self-published book! Now, I am not criticizing this if you want to invest all of this money into your self-published book, but as I mentioned in my 20 Tips for Successfully Self-Publishing your Book (or E-book) post and in point #3 you will want to clarify what your goals are for your book and if you can spend that type of money. Other services are free but you might have to put in hundreds of hours to make sure that your book looks professional. Take the time to consider the costs associated with self-publishing in deciding which Self-Publishing Company You choose.
(5) Consider what each company states is the lowest retail price that you can set for your book.
Going along with tip #4- consider what each self-publishing company you are considering using states is the lowest retail price that you can set for your book. You want to make sure that your book can be competitively priced (especially if you are a first time author). It might be surprising to learn that sometimes a self-publishing company will control the retail price of your print book and can even set it so high that it doesn't match any of the other books in the same genre. Take the time to really explore this and believe me you will be grateful you did. If you hope to market your book at all you will want to have your book price be a competitive feature.
(6) Research the reputation (and reviews) of the Self-Publishing Company you are Considering Working With.
Every single company that you look up will have reviews of unhappy authors, but sort through the complaints to really get a sense of which ones are legitimate and which ones are unrealistic. Take the time to really factor these into your decision as you may run into similar situations that others did. The reality is that some self-publishing companies are in the middle of some lawsuits and you will want to investigate this thoroughly before you jump on board with them.
(7) Because self-publishing is easy everyone is doing it and you will need to work ten times harder to get your book noticed so compare which Self-Publishing Companies can help you market the most.
One of the important things to keep in mind is that because it is "easy to publish" everyone and their mother is publishing a book. If you are looking to build a reputation for writing, create a writing portfolio, etc. you are going to want to spend the time to make sure that your book is unique, has an interesting view point, and looks professional and that the self-publishing company you choose will help you accomplish your goal. You will need to work ten times as hard to make sure that your book is getting noticed. The reality is that leaders in the industry say that less than 5% of self-published books are "decent" and less than 1% are actually "good". This is an incredibly low number and you want to make sure that you are working towards hitting this number and that the company you choose to self-publish with is only going to help increase your marketability not hinder it.
(8) Consider the Author Price of Your Book from Each Company.
Take the time to consider what each company will charge you for the author price of your book (or the price that you pay per copy). As a self-published author you will most likely be buying lots of books and giving them away to reviewers, friends and family, bloggers, school visits, reselling them at readings, making them available to sell on your social media sites, etc. Because of this you will want to make sure that the self-publishing company you choose allows you to purchase your books (and sell them) at a reasonable price.
Similar to tip #5, you will want to make sure that your self-publishing company is not pricing your book so high so that your author copy is astronomical. Some self-publishing companies will offer to give their authors only a 20-30% discount off of the book price, while others will only charge a 10-20% markup of the actual printing costs. This is really really important to think through and consider so take the time to do your research on this before you commit to a self-publishing company.
(9) Consider Additional Features that Each Self-Publishing Company Has including translation services, audio books, e-book platforms, etc.
Remember how I shared in my 20 Tips for Successfully Self-Publishing your Book (or E-book) post how hard marketing is for a self-published book? Well because of this you will want to be as creative as possible in the packaging of your book and the different forms it can be available. Take the time to research the additional features that each self-publishing company has so that you can have this information for the future! As a side note: interestingly enough, experts in the field agree that having an audio book helps make your book more "credible".
(10) Explore What Royalties You Will Earn.
On each of the self-publishing websites you are considering, take the time to explore the retail pricing and the royalties you will earn. (Oh, and please cancel out any of the companies that don't list this as an option on their website or state that you have to wait until your book is "reviewed" before they will give you this information. This is highly suspicious and unfortunately there are several of them!)
I hope these 10 tips are helpful y'all! What about you? Do you have an tips for successfully choosing a self-publishing your book (or e-book)? I would love to hear them!
As some of you are aware and know, this past week has been extremely tough for my family. On Friday evening my grandmother, my dad's mom, passed away less then a year after my dad's brother, my uncle, died. I can't thank you enough for all of your prayers for my family, especially for my dad during this time of loss. Personally, I have been struggling with some extreme Lyme symptoms and pain, plus recovering from an accidental gluten mistake from which I had an extreme reaction, plus struggling with extreme pain.
BUT, as you might have seen on my instagram, in the midst of loss and these very hard days we received the BEST NEWS EVER! Yesterday, at my skin Cancer check up I was told that there are no new spots AND that instead of having check ups every few months I have graduated to yearly appointments!!! I promptly broke down in tears to which my very kind doctor cried with me and said, "you are doing this...you are slowly healing and seeing all of the hard work that you are doing to get your life back... congratulations... " *tears*
One day at a time friends... one very very slow day at a time of healing I am slowly starting to get my life back... Words can't describe how grateful, humbling, emotional, and exciting this news is as I know so many of you have helped me get to this point and are still helping me through my go fund me page.
Thank you so much for all of your continued prayers (especially for fiances, pain, and symptoms that I am dealing with and for treatment), your love, and your support in this very long journey of fighting Lyme Disease and Cancer.
-Isaiah 62:12-
One of the most difficult times in the single journey can be during Valentine's, especially the week and day of. On this day of “love” with all of the
red, all of the balloons, all of the heart candy, all of the flowers, and all
of the expressions of romantic love, it can be easy as a single gal to sometimes just want to curl up in bed and
pull a quilt over my head until Valentine's Day has passed.
Valentine's Day as a single lady can feel like a day where singleness is written with a capitol “S” on my forehead and everyone knows that I am “alone”. I struggle and yet, feel challenged to pray as I know the truth that I can act out on my feelings towards this day and live in "loneliness" or I can embrace the truth of God's word, knowing that I am "sought after" and loved.
I am loved by the Lord.
Scripture says that I am loved beyond measure, that I am loved more dearly than I could ever imagine. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) I am not loved for a short time but forever by the Lord. I love how Jeremiah 31:3 states: “I have loved you with an everlasting love…".
Our time and circumstances here on earth are temporary, but the Lord's love lasts forever. We may not feel special on Valentine's Day, but we are to the Lord. “I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.” (Haggai 2:23)
One of my most favorite verses as a single gal is from Isaiah 62:12: “You will be called Sought After.” Don't we all want to be 'sought after'?!?! I know that I do!!
Valentine's Day as a single lady can feel like a day where singleness is written with a capitol “S” on my forehead and everyone knows that I am “alone”. I struggle and yet, feel challenged to pray as I know the truth that I can act out on my feelings towards this day and live in "loneliness" or I can embrace the truth of God's word, knowing that I am "sought after" and loved.
I am loved by the Lord.
Scripture says that I am loved beyond measure, that I am loved more dearly than I could ever imagine. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) I am not loved for a short time but forever by the Lord. I love how Jeremiah 31:3 states: “I have loved you with an everlasting love…".
Our time and circumstances here on earth are temporary, but the Lord's love lasts forever. We may not feel special on Valentine's Day, but we are to the Lord. “I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you.” (Haggai 2:23)
One of my most favorite verses as a single gal is from Isaiah 62:12: “You will be called Sought After.” Don't we all want to be 'sought after'?!?! I know that I do!!
As we wait in this single season let us trust that the Lord has a beautiful story, and that we are preciously sought after. Even this Valentine's Day where we are single the Lord is crafting a beautiful and miraculous story for our romantic lives. On this Valentine's Day, rest in this precious truth that you are loved, forever, immensely, passionately, and most of all that you are sought after.
I am so excited to share with y'all today a custom gift from a couple of weeks ago! This Branson Altered City Journal was a delight to create!
I loved the opportunity to weave in the altered city journal with the Christmas theme which is something different then I had done before!
It was a delight to create an altered city journal for my dear friends and to pray for them as I spent time adding embellishments and praying that the Lord would bless their ministry.
Happy Thursday y'all! I hope that you are having a wonderful week!
Today I am so excited to share with y'all this blog hop that is going on! Y'all know how much I love May Arts because it is talked about so much here on the blog and all of the time on my instagram! Well today I am so excited to be apart of this blog hop that showcases both May Arts and Stampendous!
I honestly love all of the ribbon from May Arts (and the amazing Ribbon Resource store)! There are so many different textures, styles, colors, and products that you will quickly fall in love with!
For today's blog hop we showcasing our creations with both the May Arts Ribbon and the Stampendous stamps that we received. I wanted to create a birthday sign for my precious grandmother (whom I call "Ba" as a nickname) as her birthday is next month!
I love the colors, the sayings of the stamps (and the lovely and elegant lady stamp with the suit!) and the way that the ribbon brings everything together! I love all of the different ribbon that May Arts has to offer there is truly a wide range of availability and all different options.
The following is a list of the ribbon that I chose (and the approximate amount of each):
2 Inch Solid Pink/White Ribbon - 10 inches
1.25 Mauve Silk Ribbon -6 inches
1/4 Ivory Silk Ribbon- 12 inches
1/4 Pink Silk Ribbon- 12 inches
1.25 Inch Fuchsia Silk Ribbon - 2 1/2 inches
Pink Burlap String Ribbon- 10 inches
Interested in buying some of these ribbons that I have mentioned? S0me of them are on sale right now so stop on by to check that out by going to the Ribbon Resource online shop and if you would like to see all of the blogs involved in the hop today here is a complete list:
Rebecca VanDeMark <--- you are here
Happy Thursday y'all!
Blessings,
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