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Oct

How NOT to Make a First Impression – What Authors Should NEVER Say

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (5)

Book promotion coach and campaign manager Lynn Serafinn from Spirit Authors shares her tips on what authors should NEVER say to new online network connections.

Recently I received a private message from a new connection on LinkedIn that I thought was so exemplary of everything one should NOT say in a first contact letter, I thought it would make an excellent article for my readers.

Below is a paraphrase of what I received:

Hi Lynn,

My name is Fred Flintstone and I am inviting you to view a few chapters of a soon to be released classic. It’s a controversial memoir about being a Stone Age man in a modern world. Please let me know what you think via the Guest Book at www.fredflintstonetheauthor.com. Please forward the link to someone else who may benefit from it.

Fred

(Please note: Of course, this is NOT the actual letter I received, and did tell the real author I would be sharing this example with my readers)

Let me ask you this: If ‘Fred Flintstone’ were actually a real person and this were a real letter from someone with whom you had just connected (and had not yet even exchanged any messages), what would be your reaction? Be honest.

Well, my first reaction was quite dismissive, if you want to know the truth. I was almost ready to archive it without replying. But then I thought, What was this person really thinking and feeling when he wrote this? I imagined that he thought this letter made him sound confident. After all, our culture is always talking about people needing to embrace self-belief and have a feeling of self-worth. So was this letter a display of genuine confidence or was it from someone who was trying to appear to be confident according to some guidance he learned somewhere?

While my instincts told me this was the latter, I felt it wasn’t fair of me to dismiss the letter simply on the grounds of how authentic I deemed it to be. However, I knew full well that many other people on LinkedIn were likely to dismiss Fred’s letter, not giving it a second thought. And then, what would have been to point of the poor author’s efforts, trying to reach out to his connections?

… Connections! I thought. Ah, yes, that was the real problem.

Fred was not connecting with me. He was talking ‘to’ me, not ‘with’ me. He was not engaging. He was telling me what I should think about his book (that it was a classic) and, furthermore, was asking me to forward it to others ‘who may benefit.’ The words take the ‘high ground’. When you are on high ground, you cannot connect with your reader.

I decided to check out Fred’s profile. Now what was SO interesting is that he worked in the marketing industry. And frankly, to me, the letter showed it. Most of traditional (or what I call ‘Old School’) marketing does not, as a rule, embrace connection as one of its strategies (or values). Furthermore, ‘Old School’ marketing (hey, should I spell it ‘Old Skool’, you think?!) has no qualms about telling us what we should think about their products. Old Skool Marketing (oops, there I did spell it that way) is, in my view, disconnecting and disempowering to its customers. That is precisely why I don’t use it. Still, the old methods are taught in so many marketing training programs even today.

This got me started thinking about my own values and how I believe in empowering people. If I simply deleted Fred’s message, ‘rejecting’ and judging him in my mind, how would I be honouring my life purpose and all I stand for?

I wouldn’t be.

So do you know what I did?

I decided to write Fred back, telling him honetly about my reaction, and giving him a suggestion of what he might have written. It was exactly the same kind of feedback I would have given one of my own clients. Here’s what I wrote back:

Hi there Fred,

Hmm… as one marketing person to another, may I be so bold as to advise that possibly the worst thing you could EVER do in your first communication with someone is to say, “I am inviting you to view a few chapters of a soon to be released classic”?

You might think it sounds confident, but it actually does not impact the reader that way. It comes across as bragging, as we do not know each other at all yet. What’s more, LinkedIn has a very different ethos from other networks, and messages like this are generally not seen as good form.

I’m not writing this to criticise you, but rather to advise you so you don’t end up alienating people on LinkedIn or your other social networks. In social networking, the first rule of thumb is to connect at a personal level and to be generous with your advice and personality.

Here’s an example of an alternative “hello” letter you might have sent:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Lynn,
My name is Fred Flintstone. When I read your profile I wanted to connect because I see you are a fellow author and that you work with other authors.

I’d love to hear more about your book, your message and what you do to help authors. Drop me a line and tell me more when you get the chance.

I just published a memoir about being a Stone Age man in a modern world at www.fredflintstonetheauthor.com. As you are experienced with promoting authors, I’d be most pleased if you visited it sometime.

Looking forward to connecting,

Fred

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you see the difference, Fred? In your letter, it’s all about you. Furthermore, you are asking me to help promote you without even bothering to talk to me as an individual. In the one I just wrote, you show that you have looked at my profile and considered me as a human being. Then, you are inviting me to tell you more about myself. THEN when you ask me to visit your site, it is humble and appreciative and not “you should read my book because it is a future classic”. That will never win people over to you.

BTW, this is the sort of stuff I teach people all the time. I help authors build their platform, which means building relationships. I have produced 6 top-10 authors this year alone, 4 of them have gone to #1. So trust my advice and it will help ensure your book has a chance at becoming a classic.

Warm wishes,
Lynn

Ok, I have to admit, when I hit ’send’, my heart did a little flip-flop and I asked myself if I wasn’t been rather BOLD in sending this letter. But then I thought, I’ve got nothing to win or lose here. My intentions are actually to HELP this person succeed in his project. He can reject it completely if he wants. He can write back to me and tell me I’m an arrogant jerk who should mind her own business. I was prepared for whatever happened.

As it turns out, Fred did write back a few days later.

He wrote:

Hi Lynn

Thanks for your letter. It was… enlightening.

What do you charge for your services?

Fred

I SWEAR to you, this is a true story!

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Your contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., are real people. They have hearts and souls and desires and talents just like you. Connect first. Find out to WHOM you are writing. READ their profiles. Ask questions. You don’t need to sell ANYTHING if people like you.

Connect! Connect! Connect!

I hope you found this real-life example useful. AND I want to thank Fred, who is a GREAT sport for letting me paraphrase his message, for giving me some great content for my readers. I know it will help many people.

Fred, I really do hope your book becomes a classic.

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several top-10 book campaigns, including FOUR #1-sellers, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, self-promotion tips, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.

Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.

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Oct

Module 2 Week 10

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Module 2: Pre-Publication Marketing Musts

Week 10: Tricks for Staying Sane, Saving Time and Keeping it Real

Subtitle of this newly revamped module: “100 Days to Build Your Online Promotional Platform”

LESSON SUMMARY

This module has taken us into the realms of some very challenging learning, especially for those who are less familiar with technology, blogs and/or social networking. As a result, it’s easy to imagine that some people might feel overwhelmed and will experience a very sharp ‘learning curve’ as they begin to apply everything we’ve covered in this module. Surely some people might wonder how they will be able to achieve all that they need to achieve, what to speak of writing their book. They might even suffer from a fear of losing their identity in the process, feeling as though they have been swallowed up by the great soup of technology into which they have fallen.

Thus, I felt it was highly important to close this module with a lesson on how to stay sane, save time and BE YOURSELF during this process of building your online platform. How can we get everything done, maintain our chosen lifestyle, and feel like ourselves as we enter the arena of serious online promotion?

OBJECTIVES FOR THE WEEK

In this lesson, you will learn:

Lynn’s top 5 tips for staying sane while managing all the things needed to get done
Lynn’s top 5 tips for saving time and being efficient in your promotional platform building
Lynn’s top 3 tips for “keeping it real” as you build your promotional platform

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Oct

Module 2 Week 9

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Module 2: Pre-Publication Marketing Musts

Week 9: Choosing and Using Forums and Niche Networks to Expand Your Influence

Subtitle of this newly revamped module: “100 Days to Build Your Online Promotional Platform”

LESSON SUMMARY

So far, we’ve talked a lot about the “big” social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. But there are many other forms of social media that can help to build our online platform in ways the larger networks do not necessarily provide. The media we will be exploring in this lesson are forums and niche networks.

A forum is an online place where people who share a common interest or problem come together to discuss a special topic, share ideas and tips, and offer/ask for support, etc. A niche network is an online place where people who share a common interest come together to make friends, socialise, share personal and professional resources, etc. Typically every member would have their own profile, and the site might give people the opportunity to create blogs, post events, start or join special interest groups, send and receive private messages, and other features.

What do forums and niche networks offer us that may not be provided by larger social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc? How do we choose the right forums/niche networks for our needs? How do we make the most of what they have to offer?

OBJECTIVES FOR THE WEEK

In this lesson, you will learn:

The purpose of forums and niche networks within your promotional campaigns
Considerations for choosing forums and networks
Considerations for setting up your profile
How to identify useful features
Interaction and rules of engagement
Using them for leads generation
Staying current, weeding out the dead wood

Click “READ MORE” to view lesson content for the week.
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Categories : Mod 2 Week 9

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Oct

Unlocking The Secret in an Amazon Book Launch

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (3)

Book promotion coach and campaign manager Lynn Serafinn reflects on the Law of Attraction when her client, Luis Diaz’s book Memory in the Cells hits Number 1.

I learn so much every day of my life.

Let me set the context. Just a little over 24 hours ago, my fantastic client (and I really mean that), Luis Angel Diaz, launched his book Memory in the Cells: how to change behavioral patterns and release the pain body. The book, which was originally written in Spanish and has only now been translated into English, is about healing your emotions at the deepest level of your being. I first met Luis on the Ning networks, and have watched his work for the past few years. When he first approached me to be the campaign manager for his book, I knew that he already had cultivated a widespread, loyal audience in the Spanish-speaking world for decades, and that the release of this new translation of Memory in the Cells would be his first real introduction into the English-speaking audience at a global level.

Over the course of the past 5 months or so, I have been working closely with Luis and his team to create a wonderful promotional campaign that would reflect his personality, his values, and the true essence of what he does. That is really the fundamental principle behind all the promotional campaigns I co-create with my authors. My campaigns aren’t really about the book so much as they are about the author (and, yes, we create them together—that is absolutely vital). In this way, the campaign becomes something unique that cannot be duplicated by anyone else. It is my experience that when the heart and soul of the author is fully present within the core of the campaign, the campaign has a special sparkle to it that “magically” makes it work—even if it is a first-time, self-published author.

I call this approach “the path of least resistance to the Self” and it’s my fundamental principle to how I approach life. My core belief is that when we are truly and visibly authentic in the world, then all that is meant to flow into our lives comes to us with ease and grace.

“Ease” doesn’t mean we don’t WORK for it—heck no! Frankly, during these Amazon book launches, I have to block out 3 solid days because there is simply so much to do and so much promo copy to write that I’m pretty much “on call” 24 hours of the day during that time (I didn’t go to bed last night until 5am, and then I got up again at 9am). When I say “ease” I mean that the ideas are flowing, the energy is flowing and you just plain feel fantastic (even if you ARE in serious need of sleeping for about 12 hours straight after the launch is all over!).

Now, a lot of people might say that this sounds like the “Law of Attraction.” But the funny thing is, I never have used that term to describe my approach to life. In fact, I’ve pretty much shunned the term because I found the film version of The Secret to present things in a way I couldn’t really relate to. It all looked too simple—desire, believe, receive. I remember the scene in the film where the girl looks in the shop window at a very expensive necklace and it’s suddenly around her neck—well, I must confess it put me off the whole film because it seemed shallow to me (I do admit I have never read the book; I am told it is much better).

Well, what is so funny (or at least I think it is) is that yesterday I came face-to-face with The Secret, and I’m feeling like it’s a real test of my own power of intention!

Within a few short hours of the release of Memory in the Cells, it SHOT up like rocket to the #1 place in Canada in three categories including Mental and Spiritual Healing and New Age (which is a massive category, and VERY hard to get to #1). Luis’s book even surpassed authors like Louise Hay and Eckhart Tolle and so many others you would recognise. Moreover, it achieved an astonished rank of 14th of ALL books in Canada. That means, out of something like 2 million titles, his is the 14th bestseller of ALL of them in any category. It’s remarkable to say the least, and I am really feeling pretty pleased with myself today, especially as (as of this writing), the book is STILL holding strong to the #1 place.

Have a look at the illustrious company he is in:

And again #1 in New Age in Canada…

But here’s where The Secret comes in.

The book also got as high as #5 in the UK and a very impressive #3 in the US, and the rankings in the US were just a few books shy of the top 100 of all books, which is, frankly, astronomically good for ANY author, what to speak of a self-published (and first-time in English) author like Luis. But you know how it is… once you have a taste for #1 you want it all. I WANT his book to go to #1 in the US. Like a hawk I’ve been watching the rankings every hour and I see it creeping up 1 notch at a time… holding at #3 for hours and hours and hours…

So then I thought I’d take a look to see what’s sitting in front of him at #2.

Can you guess?

Yup. Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret!

Ironic, isn’t it? It is sitting there like a big giggling challenge for me, seeing if my desire for Luis’ success is powerful enough to “attract” that elusive #1 slot in the United States. It’s asking me, “How much do you really want this?” “How much to you really believe you will receive it?”

Ok, here’s my answer: Totally on both counts.

I REALLY want this for both Luis and myself:

For Luis, I believe reaching that pinnacle in his genre would give a real push to his speaking platform in the United States, and worldwide.
And for me, well, I just keep aiming to get higher and higher on each campaign I create because every time I push the boundary that much more, it brings in more energy and potential for my future clients and makes my business stronger. It’s also creating more abundance not only in my life, but also in the lives of others, because the more my business grows, the more people I hire to work on campaigns with me!

So right now, I actually have come to a completely different relationship with The Secret and the idea of “Law of Attraction”. I am viewing both as a wonderful opportunity for me to create a solution to my desire for Luis to move into the #1 slot on Amazon US today.

And so I wrote this article.

And seeing “obstacles” as not being obstacles at all, but rather as opportunities for creating new solutions to what we most desire in life is, I suspect, what “The Secret” really is, after all.

So, as I said, I learn so much every day.

Let’s see what happens.

You can find Luis’ wonderful #1-selling book Memory in the Cells at http://memoryinthecells.com. And just to “attract” you to check it out, if you buy the book TODAY, you can receive over 30 free downloadable gifts from an array of international experts in many fields of personal development. I’m also offering my mini eCourse “Making Friends with the Monsters Under Your Bed.” I’ve received well over 100 requests for the download in just the past day. Certainly attracting something!

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced FOUR #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

Sign up for Lynn’s bi-monthly newsletter Creative Spirit (fill in form below) packed with inspirational articles, broadcast guide to her radio show, and news about upcoming spiritual author book releases.

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Sep

Channelling and Writing – Interview with Author E.Dee Conrad

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (1)

Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 6 of the Virtual Blog Tour for A New Dawn Awaits by author E.Dee Conrad.

A New Dawn Awaits is a compassionate and inspiring channelled collection of short inspirational reflections, bringing together wisdom of the ages, showing us how to access knowledge that has been part of our consciousness, but has been dormant, for eons. E.Dee’s intention in writing this book is to help readers reach inwards into their divine essence and outwards to the energy that connects us as one humanity.

Yesterday, E.Dee visited Shelagh Jones’ Wheel of Life blog at http://ht.ly/2C1hN. For today’s stop on the tour, as so many of my readers are authors in the mind-body-spirit genre, I thought it would be interesting to interview E.Dee on the topic of what it is like to channel a book, as I think it can be both a tantalising and daunting idea for writers. I asked E.Dee four questions on the topic.

* * * * *

Lynn: Can you tell us a little about your emotional journey of being “called” to write a channelled book?

E.Dee: I was 16 when I first realized I would write a book – but a “technical” one, not fiction, which somehow made it more possible in my mind. This realization lasted about 15 seconds and didn’t reappear for another 27 years! When it resurfaced, I was scared because it really pushed me out of my narrow comfort zone, but I was also excited because it felt like a project that would allow me to contribute to humanity on a scale I never thought possible.

Lynn: What advice can you give to writers who are curious to explore channelling but don’t know how to get started?

E.Dee: We all have the ability to channel and most of us do it on a regular basis – we just don’t realize it. It is easiest to “hear” what the universe or our higher selves are saying when our mind’s are clear and calm. The best way to calm your mind is to meditate. Personally, I prefer chanting meditations because they engage my brain and I find the sound vibrations to be very soothing and healing.

Lynn: How has writing a book of this nature changed your life?

I have become much more aware of my spiritual side and more focused on its development. Having read my book, I have tried to live by its suggestions, with a particular focus on becoming aware of my thoughts and thinking of others as I would like them think of me. This has shifted my life and brought more peace, harmony, joy and love into my life.

Lynn: Now that you have “transcribed” A New Dawn Awaits, do you have any desires to write a book you haven’t channelled?

No, I have absolutely no desire to write a book by traditional methods. When I channel a writing – be it a blog, article, or book – there is an amazing energy that flows through me. This energy is full of compassion and lightness and forms words. The reader also experiences this amazing energy because it is somehow embedded in and flows from the work.

* * * * *

I hope you enjoyed this interview with E.Dee Conrad and that you’ll check out her book A New Dawn Awaits, which is coming to Amazon on Tuesday September 21, 2010. You can receive a collection of over 30 beautiful personal development gifts when you buy her book on the day of her launch, including one from me: a mini eCourse of my workshop “Making Friends with the Monsters Under Your Bed”.

In addition, E.Dee is hosting a very special FREE telesummit entitled “The Shift. The Message. The Transformation” on September 14^th, 15^th and 16^th with nine of today’s most vibrant authors and speakers on the topic of the consciousness, transformation and the global “shift” occurring on our planet today. If you’d like to attend, all you have to do is request a “launch reminder” about the book, and you’ll receive all the information to attend. If you cannot make the live event, you can download the audio at your convenience.

To find out how to buy E.Dee’s book and receive these gifts,
including the FREE pass to the 3-day online telesummit, go to
http://spiritauthors.com/pages/edee/new-dawn-awaits-by-edee-conrad.html

AND you can read all about the telesummit and the guests at
http://virtualspiritualevents.com

For more insight into what tomorrow might bring in this era of the “great shift”, be sure to follow E.Dee tomorrow when the next stop on her Virtual Blog Tour is Tomar Levine’s blog at http://ht.ly/2uLKI

As usual, please do feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

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Jul

What is a Virtual Blog Tour? How Do You Set One Up?

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (2)

Book promotion coach, campaign manager for #1-selling authors, Lynn Serafinn, explains what a Virtual Blog Tour is, how to create one and the benefits of a VBT.

When I organise a book launch campaign for my author clients, I always include a Virtual Blog Tour. Every time I start a new campaign I am invariably asked, both by my clients and by their Joint Venture Partners (JVPs), “What exactly is a Virtual Blog Tour?” I thought it would be a good idea to write an article explaining what it is, and why it is a great promotional tool when properly organised.

What is a VBT?

A Virtual Blog Tour (VBT) is an online “event” wherein an author “visits” a different blog each day during a specified period of time, generally 2-4 weeks in duration. For instance, if your VBT were 2 weeks long, there would be 14 blogs, and each blogger would be assigned a specific day on the tour. In selecting blogs on which to appear, the author would seek out bloggers who have good traffic aimed at specific target audience(s) congruent with the topic of the book.

Technically, the author doesn’t “visit” these blogs. Rather, on the assigned tour day, the blogger would post a blog about the author’s book. Some blog platforms (such as WordPress) allow you to schedule a post in advance, making it more convenient for the blogger by automating the process.

The content of the blog could be an article about the author, a book review or an interview. When I organise a VBT, I generally prefer to use interviews, which are organised in advance between the blogger and author.

Organising a VBT

The way I organise the interview is to provide a good selection (10-20) of sample topics or story angles on which the author could answer questions. Then, each blogger provides (well in advance) 3 original questions he/she would like to ask the author, aimed at their particular reading audience.

Recently I designed a VBT for a book on the topic of OCD. Here are some of the sample topics I provided my bloggers:

What OCD is and what it is not
What doctors know or don’t know about OCD
What parents need to know about OCD
What teachers need to know about OCD
Being a parent with OCD
OCD in personal relationships
Having OCD in a work environment
OCD and health issues…

And so on.

When I send the sample topics to the VBT bloggers, I ask them to formulate 3 questions based upon a topic (or topics) they feel would be of greatest interest to their readers. The questions are sent to the author several weeks in advance of the tour. The author provides written answers to the bloggers’ questions, and together we assemble the “virtual interview” into a structured format, so the bloggers can more or less copy and paste it into their blogs (of course, they can edit it as they choose).

The format we provide the bloggers goes something like this:

“Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 4 of the Virtual Blog Tour for The Super Duper Book by author Mary Jones. Yesterday, Mary visited John Smith’s blog at [link to John’s blog]. Below is the great interview I did with Mary about how to be super-duper.

[Interview]

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Mary Jones and that you’ll check out The Super Duper Book by Mary Jones coming to Amazon on [date]. You can receive a collection of great gifts when you buy her book on the day of her launch, including one from me: [name of blogger’s gift]. To find out how to buy Mary’s book and receive these gifts, go to [link to author’s sales page].

Be sure to follow Mary tomorrow when the next stop on her Virtual Blog Tour is Charlie Brown’s blog at [link to Charlie’s blog].”

Promoting a VBT

When I organise a VBT, I create a “Tweet” for every stop on the tour, and give them to all bloggers and JVPs well in advance, asking them to post at least one update per blogger. That means, on their designated day on the tour, dozens of people would be sending out updates with a link to Mary’s blog post to potentially hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. (depending upon the size of your campaign team).

Additionally, the author would post the tour calendar, with all the links, on his/her own blog.

Being a blogger on a VBT has many benefits:

It provides bloggers with easy, original content for their readers.
Because an organised team of networkers is sending out updates for each stop on the tour, it has the potential to drive 1000s of new readers to each blog.
It helps increase search engine rankings for the blogs, as the blog is linked to, both forwards and backwards, the other blogs on the tour.
Bloggers on the tour get to connect with new bloggers who share common interests and speak to similar audiences.

Of course, for authors, a VBT is wonderful because:

There is a diversity of content going out about their book during a concentrated period of time.
The content is easy to create.
It expands their network.
They get their book promoted to 1000s of people every day for the duration of the tour.
The content you have created could be reused for other purposes.

And don’t forget, if a blog post is particularly interesting, both the author and the blogger can “reTweet” about it every now and then after the tour.

I hope you found this information useful. Please do feel free to leave your questions or comments below. And if you would like to discuss setting up a book launch or VBT for your book, feel free to contact me via the contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact and tell me about your book project.

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced FOUR #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in 2010 alone. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. Contact Lynn about YOUR book project at at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Coming up over the next few months:

3-day summit on Evolution of Consciousness
3-day summit on Cellular Memory Release
4-day summit on Healing the Corporate World
Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.

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Jul

Facebook Tags – Subtle but Powerful Tools for Your Book Promotion

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (5)

Spiritual author and book promotion coach Lynn Serafinn from Spirit Authors gives top tips on how, when and why to tag people, fan pages and groups on Facebook. As always, your comments and feedback are most welcome below!

I get some of the best ideas for blog posts from questions friends ask me on Facebook. Tonight, my one of my friends asked me how you “tag” people in Facebook. I realised in my written explanation to her that there was actually a lot of detail and subtlety involved, so I thought it would make a great blog post to share with other authors, and people who want to know more about developing their online platform.

“Tagging” is one of the most powerful tools on Facebook. A “tag” is basically a link you create to a person, page or group on Facebook that you place within your wall posts, photos or notes. When you “tag” a person in a wall post Facebook, your post will automatically appear on their wall as well as on your own. If you tag them in a photo or note, it will appear in their updates.

Here are some guidelines of HOW you put tags in a Facebook post:

When you type an “@” sign into a wall post, Facebook recognises that as a signal you want to tag someone. Let’s say you wanted to tag me in your post. My first name is Lynn, so you would type “@Ly” (important: do not put a space after the @ sign) and then WAIT a second or two. Facebook will open up a window with everyone in your friends list whose names have “Ly” in them. When you see my name, CLICK on my picture, and I will be tagged. You will know the tag is activated because my name will turn blue, and it will turn into a link that takes you to my profile page.
You can tag a maximum of 6 names in a single wall post.
You can also tag PAGES or GROUPS. Just follow exactly the same steps as above.
As mentioned above, when you tag a person, page or group in a post, your post will appear on THEIR wall automatically. This is a great way to spread messages virally and it also means that the parties you are talking to or about will see your message without checking their updates.
The other advantage to tagging is that NEW people will see you who might not have seen you before, especially if you are tagging to a page or a group. Anyone who checks out the group or fan page will see your post.
You can also tag people in a note or a photo. There is a section on the right side of the note that lets you create tags exactly the same way as above. You can tag more people in a note or photo than in a wall post (the current limit is 30).
NOTE: You cannot put a tag in a comment. You can, however, put a web link in a comment.

Now here’s the obvious question: WHY would you want to tag someone?

One way to use tagging is to tag people, groups or fan pages to say something nice about them or to help spread some news that would be of interest to the people (or members of the page/group) being tagged. Here are a couple of examples of when you might use tagging to a page or group:

If you want to share some news about the page or group to you profile page (such as a new blog post, event, book, video, radio show or other news item THEY have posted). In this case, you might post the news to your personal Facebook profile, but tag the page/group in the post. That way, it will appear on their wall, and they will see you are helping to spread the word about their good work.
If you see or create a news item, tip, video, event, etc., you think would be of interest to the members of the group or fans of the page, but you also want your own friends to see it, you might post the news to your wall, and then tag the page or group. For instance, if I wanted to bring a post to the attention of Spirit Authors, I might say, “Spirit Authors, you might find this useful” (Spirit Authors would be tagged).

Below is an example of a post I made on Facebook recently about a new page I had found by one of my networking friends. I “shared” the page use the “share” link, and then I wrote this tagged post to accompany it:

Just discovered my good friend Dana Lynn Smith’s new page The Savvy Book Marketer. She is a wealth of information. Spirit Authors and Next Top Author folks, check her out and “Like” her page for great tips. Dana is also a member of the Virtual Faculty at the Spirit Authors membership site, btw. )

Note there are four tags in the post: 1) Dana Lynn Smith’s personal page, 2) Dana’s business page “The Savvy Book Marketer”, 3) the “Spirit Authors” business page and 4) the “Next Top Author” group. That means that, altogether, this single post was (on the day I posted it) visible to over 5000 people, just about all of them authors. I noticed that within a few minutes of posting this, Dana’s fan page increased by 5 members, and if people start “liking” or commenting on the post, it is likely to generate more interest. Not bad for a post that took a few seconds to compose.

In this post, I am not only helping Dana Lynn by sharing her page and saying something nice about her, but I am also helping the people I have tagged in the post (Spirit Authors page and Next Top Author group), because they are a targeted group of authors, all hungry for new information about book promotion. Furthermore, as I “shared” The Savvy Book Marketer page, people will see the logo and description of the page, which makes the post far more visible and attractive, and makes people far more likely to check it out than if it were a simple link.

But the beauty of this is that I am also gaining from this. How?

Because I am being seen as someone who likes to give value to others. And because of this, people enjoy staying connected to me. Furthermore, because the tags make the post appear on Dana’s pages, new people might see me on either Dana’s personal page or on her business page. If they perceive me as being someone who can offer good value to them, they are likely to seek me out as a connection. They also might see the Spirit Authors link and check that out too. Believe, me, I have more Facebook invitations these days than I can keep up with.

IMPORTANT TAGGING NETIQUETTE:

NEVER abuse tagging to SPAM your Facebook friends or Facebook pages. Spamming means that you just tag people for the sake of them paying attention to a promotion you are doing. Do NOT do this. If you want to invite people to a promotion, create an event, business page or group and invite them to join voluntarily. If you are running a promotion, go ahead and post it in your updates, but don’t tag people in the updates unless they have something to do with the promotion OR you know them very well personally, and they would wish to know what’s happening (e.g., if you are launching your book, and close friends and family would like to be informed).
Don’t be a Facebook “squatter” or “poacher” on other people’s pages. By “squatter” I mean someone who uses tags or hangs out on someone else’s business page ONLY to promote themselves. By “poacher” I mean someone who joins pages solely to find people to invite to their own pages. For instance, if I had gone to Dana Lynn’s page and said, “Hey all you Savvy Book Marketers! I’m the best thing since sliced bread. Come on over to my page,” that would be pretty tacky. Now, if DANA said such a thing about me to her own group, that would be completely different.

What I am showing you here are some of the fundamentals of social networking, and indeed what I call “spirit-based” marketing. Social networking is the cornerstone of my business and of all the promotional platforms I help authors create for their books. But even though it is a powerful tool for your book promotion, always remember that the key to spirit-based social networking is to help others, and to gain a reputation as someone who willingly and joyfully helps others, trusting that there is enough business and prosperity in the world for all of us.

Tags in Facebook are very powerful if you use them correctly. Use them with sincerity, creativity and generosity, and over time you will see your network grow and your business flourish. Besides… I think they’re FUN.

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

Throughout the year, Lynn also hosts large-scale telesummits with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Coming up over the next few months:

3-day summit on Evolution of Consciousness
3-day summit on Cellular Memory Release
4-day summit on Healing the Corporate World
Your subscription to Creative Spirit will ensure you’ll be the first to know how to attend these free events.

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Jun

7 Reasons to Partner on Someone Else’s Book Launch NOW

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (3)

Many of you have probably seen online promotional campaigns where people have partnered up to help launch a new book or product. Perhaps you’ve wondered why people would bother to get involved in another person’s book campaign, and what they could possibly gain from it. It’s easy to understand how a collaborative campaign benefits the author whose book is being launched. While being #1 on Amazon doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be raking in the “big bucks”, the kudos of being a #1 seller is worth many times its weight in cyber-gold when seeking gigs as a public speaker or media guest. Furthermore, if you are a self-published author who later wishes to approach a publisher, being able to prove your ability to promote yourself successfully will be highly influential in their decision of whether or not to pick you up as one of their own.

But when it comes to being a PARTNER on such campaigns, many people ask the question, “What’s in it for me?” They wonder things like:

“By promoting someone else in the same field as mine, am I not just handing a sale over to my competitors? Isn’t that totally against all business logic?”
“Doesn’t promoting someone else take the limelight off me and shine it on the other person, leaving me in the dark?”
“Won’t people be less inclined to buy MY book when it comes out if they have already bought the other author’s book?”
“I’m still writing my book. Shouldn’t I wait until my own book is finished before I consider partnering on someone else’s book campaign?”

The answer to ALL these questions is the same – Absolutely NOT!

Here are 7 good reasons why you should become a partner on someone else’s book launch campaign, and why you should do it NOW rather than later:

List Building. I mention “list building” first only because most people think this is the primary reason why you would join a collaborative campaign. It is indeed true that such campaigns give you the opportunity to grow your mailing list, but your success will be contingent upon how attractive and relevant your message and your bonus offer is to the target audience of the campaign. Be sure you join campaigns that appeal to your target audience and take time to create bonuses that are likely to attract people who will stay with you. And while wanting to build your list is one good reason to join a campaign, it is NOT the primary reason. Read on…
Friendship/business relationships. In my opinion, this is the top reason why you want to join a campaign. When you work on a campaign of this kind, you are not just working with the author; you are also working with the other partners, increasing your network of excellent business associates. I cannot tell you how many creative alliances were made between partners I introduced to each other on my book campaigns. The alliances you form can have a big impact on your business growth in the long term. Remember-if you have enthusiastically and authentically helped someone else succeed, they will remember you and are likely to support you when you go to launch your own book… for no other reason than the fact that they like you.
Visibility and Brand Recognition. The campaigns I design reach hundreds of thousands of people. Even if people do not opt into your list, every time someone goes to the book launch page, they see your face, brand name and product. Think about it: this is free promotion for you. Dozens of other partners on the campaign are helping to get your name out by driving people to the launch page. Even if your own book is only in its early stages, you can (and should) create a bonus that gives a “sneak peek” at who you are and what you are about. State the name of your book and the date it will be coming out (or a close estimate). Start building your brand recognition NOW.
Association in the public eye. When you appear on someone else’s page, people associate you with that person. They assume you have something in common and that you have some sort of personal connection. If you are part of a campaign with people who have high profiles, it can raise your own profile in a very positive way. I had a new partner approach me a few months ago who said, “My list isn’t that big, but I’m a good networker and I just want to ‘play’ with you guys.” In other words, she wanted to be associated with the other partners on the campaign, which is great. I took her on as a partner right away, and she became one of the most reliable partners on my list. Be sure to select a campaign that creates the RIGHT association in the public eye. That way, when your book does come out, people will already associate you with similar books and be inclined to check you out.
Learning the ropes. Being on someone else’s campaign is the BEST way to learn what works and what doesn’t work in a book launch… but you’ve got to study it and pay attention to detail. One of my networking partners recently told me that she had been studying how I ran my campaigns and was going to have her team implement my strategies in her own upcoming book launch. As a result of her highly-organised campaign, her book hit #1 in two Amazon categories in both the US and Canada. Being on the inside of campaign and receiving all the communication from the project manager is the very best way to learn how campaigns work.
Empowerment and satisfaction. When we work together as a team and help a new author reach the #1 rank, there is a genuine feeling of empowerment and satisfaction of having achieved something together. It isn’t about “sales”; it’s about working together to reach people’s hearts. By telling others about this wonderful book, you have spread good will and added value in the world. And knowing you have the ability to inspire others to buy a great book will boost your self-confidence when you get ready to release your own book (or teleseminar, course, workshop, etc.) in the future.
Practicing the Law of Abundance. The old era of marketing was based upon fear, scarcity and competition. Now, we are entering a new era of spiritual marketing is founded upon mutual support, collaboration and a belief in abundance. This new era can only evolve if we come to trust that the Universe has enough for all of us, and that the more we allow energy to flow by giving to others, the more will come to us in return. While our wish to receive should not be our motivation for giving, our faith that we will be taken care of should be at the very foundation of our trust. If you wish to flourish, become a partner on a campaign. It will help you shift from scarcity mentality to a feeling of expansion and abundance.

I hope this article has helped you see the many advantages of partnering on a campaign. Remember: it’s not just about selling books and list building. There is much more to it than that. Every campaign I do gives me a rush!

And if this article has enticed you to expand your networking, and you would like to become a partner on an upcoming book launch, here’s your chance, I am currently seeking partners for several upcoming book launches.

~ JOIN A CAMPAIGN ~

If you would like to be a partner on a book launch, check out the latest campaign I am running HERE:
http://spiritauthors.com/latest-book-launches

I look forward to hearing from you!

Warm wishes,

Lynn

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Be sure to subscribe to this blog for regular book writing and promotion tips (just fill in form at right of your screen).

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May

Self-Published or Publisher? When is the Right Time?

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (8)

Lynn Serafinn shares thoughts on shifting from a being die-hard indie artist to approaching a major publisher.

Some of you who know me and my work might be surprised to find out that it was only a few months ago when I wrote my first full book proposal. It’s true I was a ghost-writer for another author and my work has been (anonymously) published in several books by a prominent New Age publisher. But I never needed to write proposals for those books. And it’s also true I’ve written loads of business and project proposals in my time– especially when I was the head of a college department– so I know what it takes to write a proposal to “land” a contract. But I had never written an actual book proposal for my own writing until this contest.

Why? Because most of my life, I’ve been something of a “die hard indie”. It comes from my background as an independent musician/label owner in the 1990s. Since the 80s, our band had tried to get our recordings heard by major labels, but learned quickly that it was virtually impossible to get a big label to listen to an unsolicited demo. So, we started our own label, and gradually built up a following by getting our titles into major independent distributors in the US and the UK. We reached a level of success when our release entitled the Imagine EP hit #1 on several club charts in 1994.

It was then we had a brief encounter with a major record label-one of the top 3 in the world. The A&R (the person who signs artists to the label) had been given our record as a “buzz” title from the owner of an underground record shop in Boston, and he called us from New York saying he wanted to come down and meet us in Arizona (where we lived at the time), as he was interested in signing us. Had they done so, it would have meant we would have had worldwide distribution, MTV videos and have been sent on tour with some of the biggest names in electronic dance in the world at that time. It was every musician’s dream come true.

Or so we thought.

When we actually met the A&R face-to-face, it became very obvious he had clear intentions of changing our image and sound into something we were not, and we simply didn’t want to become. Our band was an electronic trance group, but he proposed a long list of “improvements” for us, including bringing in big rock drummers and sexy young female vocalists. Being in our late 30s, the A&R more or less said we were “too old” for MTV and we would have to do something to make us “saleable.”

But the truth was, in spite of the A&R thinking we were “too old”, we were actually “too young” as artists to move into the arena of working with a major label. We weren’t used to working to deadlines and were accustomed to having the luxury of taking as long as we wanted to complete projects. We were still finding our “voice” and creating our sound, and bringing in professional producers who would impose their own “spin” on our embryonic sound threatened to stop our creative growth altogether. And from a marketing standpoint, although we had managed to get a #1 club hit, we were still just getting started on building our following and didn’t really know our target audience fully, or how to reach them at a global level. Because we had a very small platform, if the A&R changed our image as he intended, we were likely to lose the audience we already had, and not appeal to the audience to which he would be targeting.

We started to realise we simply weren’t ready for this leap. Believe it or not, I used to wake up at night with panic attacks at the thought of it! After all those years of thinking this was what I wanted, I realised something wasn’t right about it. As a result, our connection to the label just sort of dissolved after a couple of months, and our label continued on with our own independent enterprises.

My experience in the music industry certainly coloured my decision to go self-published when I was getting ready to release my book The Garden of the Soul in 2009. I figured big publishers are probably like big record labels in that you needed to know the right time to approach them. And now that I have been self-published for the past year, and have since created successful marketing campaigns for many other authors, both published and self-published, I do think my reasoning was correct.

In my experience, there are 7 main factors to consider in your decision to approach a publisher:

Discipline. Could you make a commitment to meet writing deadlines if given them? Have you transcended the trap of ONLY being able to write when you are “inspired” or can you sit down and get into the groove when you need to?
Stylistic maturity. Is your writing style “mature” (well past the embryonic stage)? Could others easily talk about your style and your message as compared to other books? Is your style powerful and developed enough that editors would not want to change it significantly?
Emotionally prepared. Are you ready to “show up” as a public image? Are you ready to be seen, and critiqued? Are you ready to speak transparently on a global level? Are you ready to release your vision, unattached to whether people like it or not?
Identity. Do you know who you are as a writer and as a person? Do you have a clear idea of your ‘public image’, i.e, who you are to your readers, fans and audience? Can you stand calmly within the wisdom of your own identity when dealing with a publisher?
Platform. Do you have a well-established platform (i.e., a large fan base of people who know your name and your writing)? This is undoubtedly one of the major factors publishers will consider when you approach them, and something that will make it much less likely for them to try to “reshape” your image.
Marketing. Do you know how to reach your audience? Do you understand principles of marketing? Can you explain how you would market your book to publisher in a way that would make them say, “Hey, this one has some great ideas”?
Time Commitment. Are you ready and able to commit LOTS of time to promoting your book? Is your life free or flexible with regards to family or other work commitments? Could you travel frequently without disrupting the rest of your life?

Speaking for myself, I couldn’t give a 100% “yes” answer to any of these things when I first met the A&R back in 1994. In 2009, when I went to publish The Garden of the Soul, I’d say I had these covered about 75%. But, in my opinion, 75% wasn’t enough for me to approach a publisher at that time. Before I approached a publisher, I wanted to be able to give my full 100%. THEN the time would be right… at least for me.

When I wrote my proposal this year, I felt it to be truly a transformative process. I realised when I was writing it that I had finally reached my “100% Ready” place. I knew who I was. I felt I could write at the drop of a hat. I had a platform. I understood marketing. And most of all, I had already written my book and I completely believed in it.

Being a self-published writer was ABSOLUTELY the best thing for me when I had chosen to do so. The experience helped me develop as a person, as a writer and as a businesswoman. But now I have firmly established my platform, and really know who I am as a writer, I feel confident about making the shift to working with a publisher over the coming year… and at the same time, I also have the confidence that I am able to flourish as a proud indie author, and enjoy the ride on my own as well.

I hope you found these reflections and pointers to be of value in your own journey as an author. Please do leave a comment below to share your own thoughts and experiences.

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and
bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers
that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced several #1-selling book campaigns. She is the founder/creator of Spirit Authors, a virtual learning environment and community that offers training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. As part of her work with spiritual and self-help authors, she also regularly hosts large-scale online virtual events (usually free of charge) with world-class speakers on a range of mind-body-spirit topics. Subscribe to her Spirit Authors blog at http://spiritauthors.com/category/news/ so you can receive more useful tips and news about upcoming online events. While you are there, do check out the excellent and affordable online courses for authors available. If you are an author seeking 1-to-1 support or campaign managment for your upcoming book launch, you are also invited to request a free consultation by filling in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

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May

A Real Spirit Author – Caron Goode’s Book ‘Kids Who See Ghosts’

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Caron Goode, author of Kids Who See Ghosts

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that in addition to providing articles on writing and promoting your book, I also like to highlight mind-body-spirit authors of note who have new books I think would be inspirational and/or helpful to my readers. Today, I have to pleasure of sharing an interview I did with award-winning author (and member of the Virtual Faculty here on Spirit Authors) Dr Caron Goode about her new book ‘Kids Who See Ghosts’, which is coming to Amazon on Tuesday June 8, 2010. To find out how to buy the book ‘Kids Who See Ghosts’and receive free personal development gifts on June 8, 2010, go to: http://www.kidswhoseeghosts.com

This interview is Day 4 of a 2-week Virtual Blog Tour for this unique new title. Check out yesterday’s stop at the ‘Intuitive Parenting’ blog at http://intuitiveparenting.wordpress.com/

Lynn: Hi Caron. My audience are all ‘Spirit Authors’. What’s your personal definition (or definitions) of the word ’spirit’?

Caron: I feel spirit is the loving intelligent energy within and without. In the book Kids Who See Ghosts, we use the term ’spirit walker’ to refer to those ‘persons’ who walk in spirit, as physical walkers refer to those of us still in body.

In the field of spirituality, metaphysics, paranormal, and higher consciousness, people whom I interviewed for the book commented to me that that the term ‘ghosts’ was distasteful to them. Yet the public knows the term through the media that pumps the word into our psyches. So spirit, spirit walker, ghosts all refer to those souls or person in the spirit world.

Lynn: What are the reasons why you wrote Kids Who See Ghosts?

Caron: After I posted a blog article about the television debut of Psychic Kids on the A & E channel in the United States, the web site was flooded with tens of thousands of requests for help and information from parents whose kids were seeing ghosts. Some parents wanted to know how to protect their child, how to handle their kids’ fears, whether or not to seek medical assistance. Others felt their children demonstrated intuitive gifts.. Still others needed information as to appropriate age ranges for having imaginary friends or how to handle teens who still had some “ghostly” acquaintances.

Over time, the questions were the same, and each situation was unique, requiring time to respond and gather information. The next logical step was the book.

The timing was perfect to interview parents, psychologists, skeptics, shamans, and psychics and find out what the temperature was on the topic; and boy, it ranged from icy to sizzling hot.

The most important reason for writing the book was because I couldn’t fathom that a child would be unable to sleep in their bedroom because something so frightened the core of their being. And, if they were afraid of their world as a child, would they still be fearful as an adult.

Lynn: Is this book just about “ghosts”? What other answers will people find in your book?

Caron: Kids Who See Ghosts is a guide to help parents empower their children by moving them through theirs fears and to have success in befriending, helping, conquering, or loving their ghosts.

The true answers as to why children see ghosts, how they experience their world of spirit walkers, and how a shift in brain-wave frequency or perception can open or close that door. What would happen if kids learned to shift their moods and control those images?

Lynn: How does your book Kids Who See Ghosts speak to our innermost spiritual selves?

Caron: What is inside your deepest spiritual self? We know that the human eyes see light, and only a sliver of the entire light spectrum at best. Each human brain, as a transmitter and receiver of energy, determines the images. So why do some eyes see demons and scary figures of death while others’ eyes see angels or light?

Kids Who See Ghosts gives people pause to question the ghost phenomenon, and ask what it portends for our endless curiosity about the extraordinary. Is it a distraction from our spiritual essence, only the doorway for the curious, a trend destined to open the human mind to deeper intuition or involution?

Lynn: From an author’s perspective, what is unique about how you wrote the book?

Caron: Unique for me was not taking a cognitive approach, thinking about the content, the proposal, worrying about the topic being too far out for my field, expertise, and professional reputation. For the two books, Raising Intuitive Children and Kids Who See Ghosts, I felt a strong intuitive pull that the time was now. I sat down immediately to write the Kids Who See Ghosts book proposal, sent it to the agent, and the publisher loved the idea. I followed my intuition as a purposeful guide for how to write, manage and complete this book.

Lynn: What can aspiring authors learn about how you wrote it?

Caron: This was a new experience to interview twenty people, from professionals who work with kids, to parents, and skeptics and psychics, and weave a sellable story of such diverse themes. The themes that eventually emerged was listen to children, do not judge ghost experiences, do not the put down or judge the kids who have them. The caretaking of the children was a theme of all those interviewed, even the skeptic. My motto became, “You don’t have to believe in ghosts, just believe in and respect your children.

I hope you enjoyed this article with author Caron Goode. If you want to hop on the Virtual Blog Tour with us, follow Caron tomorrow on the Kids Who See Ghosts Virtual Blog Tour Day 5 at author Glenn M Smith’s ‘Sensitive Self Help’ blog at http://sensitivesselfhelp.com

AND… be sure to sign up for the book launch reminder so you can buy Kids Who See Ghosts and receive free personal development gifts on June 8, 2010. To register, go to: http://www.kidswhoseeghosts.com (if you are reading this article after that date, you may buy the book directly from that page).

About author Caron Goode

Caron Goode is an award-winning author, health psychologist and medical intuitive. She helps parents and families through her writing, coaching and teaching, and by training parent coaches. She is also the Founder of Academy for Coaching Parents International. Caron is also a member of the Spirit Authors Virtual Faculty and frequently attends our bi-monthly ‘members only’ calls and our member forum. Taking Spirit Authors for a test drive is a great way to get to know Caron and our other Virtual Faculty members.

About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Lynn Serafinn is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host and bestselling author of the book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She also works as a campaign manager for mind-body-spirit authors and has produced two #1-selling book campaigns, and another #2-selling campaign, in just the past 4 months. She created Spirit Authors to offer training, coaching, business-building and inspiration for mind-body-spirit authors, whether established or aspiring. She’s also in Round 2 of the Next Top Spiritual Author contest! To check out Lynn’s video entry, brand new book proposal and read 80 pages from her book The Garden of the Soul, go to http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=2016. A free gift awaits you when you cast your vote.

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May

Reflections on Next Top Spiritual Author Contest Round 1

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (1)

In a previous post, I told you about the Next Top Spirit Author Contest in which I am a contestant. The contest is open to unpublished or self-published authors. Authors did not need to have completed (or even started) their book to enter. I entered my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, which I self-published just a little over a year ago. My hope is to take it to a much wider audience, and also to get some backing for the follow-up I am currently writing, A Practical Guide to the Garden of the Soul, which contains 80 practical lessons for cultivating the four principles in The Garden of the Soul.

Today (Monday May 3rd) marks the final day of Round 1. Since the contest opened to the public vote on March 29th, tens of thousands of people have voted for their favourites amongst more than 3000 entries. Now the field is going to be narrowed down to 250 who will advance to Round 2, based primarily upon their public vote, as well as a small challenge the authors were given to do.

Round 2 will be a bit different because the 250 Round 2 authors will then construct a book proposal for their book, which will go under the scrutiny of Hampton Roads publishers, who are offering the Grand Prize in the contest– a pretty nifty publishing contract. A portion of the points in Round 2 will once again come from the public vote.

So by Tuesday, thousands of authors and authors-to-be, including myself, will find out whether or not we will advance to the next phase of this competition. I can feel the energy getting really “buzzy” amongst the authors these past few days.

Although this is only Round 1, the contest has already been quite a journey. For many, the very act of creating an audio or video “pitch” was a major achievement. For others, it was the challenge of stepping out of their comfort zone to ask people to vote for them. Speaking for myself, if nothing else happens as a result of having entered this competition, I am grateful for two things: 1) being put under a deadline to make a new book trailer (I am SO pleased with how it turned out and it is getting a lot of hits on YouTube) and 2) meeting dozens of great new authors who are now connected with me on Facebook and Twitter. Both of these are great gifts in their own right.

In some ways, Round 1 has been a bit like being in the auditions for the X-Factor (our UK equivalent of “American Idol”). Behind the scenes, we have a “share” page on the contest site that is sort of our equivalent of “The X-Factor House”, where everyone hangs out together and learns the idiosyncrasies of the others. It’s really interesting to watch and interact with all the fascinating personalities there. And just like The X-Factor, while there is a lot of love and connection amongst the contestants, there is also the underlying knowledge that this is, after all, a competition, and people will be voted off, bit by bit. It could happen to any one of us. That’s the nature of any competition, and it is vital for all of us to know how to “be with” the competitive process, without allowing it to affect our sense of Self and inner determination.

When I was a young musician, I took every defeat in competitive scenarios as a blow against my self-worth. Because I grew to fear judgment and rejection, I became afraid to take risks for many years, and thus I limited my creative growth and personal empowerment for a very long time.

But these days I approach such challenges quite differently. I apply my whole self to the task, and allow myself to take the risk of being “rejected”. These days, I feel the most important thing in life is to have the self-knowledge that I did not hold myself back from applying myself fully, and that I did the absolute best I could at that particular moment.

While taking this approach to a competition (and life in general) does not ensure we will “win” a specific reward, I do believe when we are fully ready to step into both the risks and responsibilities involved in the act of succeeding, we will win the award, the title, the prize, the praise, the gift– or the learning– we are meant to receive. If you do not hold yourself back from the Universe, it will hold nothing back from you.

As far as I am concerned, the fact that everyone in the contest has stepped up to the plate and “pitched” their vision to the world makes them all winners, already on the pathway to their own dreams.

I wish all the spiritual authors in the contest the very best of luck.

If you have voted for me already, I’d like to thank you warmly for your support. And if you haven’t had a chance to yet, it would be great if you took a few minutes to do this before the end of the day today (Monday). Here’s how:

Go to http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=2016 and watch my video entry.
Register to vote; they will send you a confirmation email before you actually can vote.
Check your email for the confirmation email, and click on the confirmation link
Go back to http://www.nexttopauthor.com/profile.cfm?aid=2016 and vote for me (you can also vote for other authors by doing a search).

As my thank you gift to everyone who votes for me, you can pick up 4 audiobook excerpts from the book. That’s over 1 hour of fr*ee audio. You’ll see the link to the gift right after you have voted.

If you are on the social networks, it would be great if you clicked the big Twitter or Facebook buttons on my page and shared them with your friends.

Thanks everyone!
[mlb /]

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May

Interview with Author, Publisher, Vrinda Pendred on New OCD book ‘Check Mates’

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Vrinda Pendred

If you follow my weekly radio show on Blog Talk Radio, you know I open every episode by saying it explores “personal empowerment, life purpose, balance of mind, body and spirit, and how to tap into the inner hero that lies within every human being.” While I believe all of my guests are “heroes” in their own right, never have I been more filled with emotion to introduce the hero of the show I hosted this past Wednesday, April 28.

Why? Because the guest was my own daughter, Vrinda Pendred, author and founding Director/Editor of Conditional Publications, a new independent publisher dedicated solely to publishing the works of authors with neurological conditions. Their first book ‘Check Mates’ comes out on May 11, 2010, and it is nothing short of groundbreaking. What makes Check Mates so special is that it is a collection of short fiction and poetry either about or inspired by the struggle with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, all written by people with OCD. Whether solidly real, allegorical, or completely fictionalised, all the compelling work contained in this collection portrays the true story of this greatly misunderstood condition.

It is also the first ever book of fiction written entirely by OCD authors—including Vrinda herself.

This interview is stop number 6 on Vrinda’s 14-day Virtual Blog Tour to promote the launch of Check Mates. Yesterday Vrinda stopped by the blog of Yvonne Perry from Writers in the Sky. If you happened to miss that stop, just click here.

______

Listen to the interview:

OR if you cannot view the player, CLICK HERE to download the MP3:

In our interview together on April 28, Vrinda started out by describing the struggles she faced as a child growing up with neurological disorders.

She was first diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at age 7, but doctors did little to educate her, her parents or her teachers about the disorder. She describes the frustration of not being able to explain what compelled her to think and do the things she did, and how this impacted her childhood experiences and emotions. For years, she pretty much kept the reality of having Tourette’s hidden from her friends, but she finally had a breakthrough when the topic of Tourette’s came up in a discussion in a science class at school when she was 13 years old. She described how learning more about her condition was a “stunning” revelation, and how it released her from the feeling she needed to hide her condition from the world.

Wanting to understand her condition, Vrinda requested to go back to the doctor to find out more. It was then that a new neurologist finally diagnosed Vrinda with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Vrinda, now 27 years old and extremely knowledgeable about both Tourette’s and OCD, said she finds it “shocking” she was not diagnosed with OCD by the paediatric neurologist when she was 7 years old, as “half the stuff you brought me to the doctor for [at age 7] was actually OCD, and not Tourette’s at all.”

Vrinda explained that OCD, Tourette’s, autism, bipolar disorder and other neurological conditions are genetic in nature, but the way they manifest in a person are “completely founded in your own emotional experiences in life.” Vrinda and I discussed how her diagnosis opened up my own understanding about my own frustrations as a child because my father (Vrinda’s grandfather) had OCD, although it was never diagnosed when he was alive. Vrinda gave some pretty humorous examples of her grandfather’s OCD behaviour in a way that only a fellow OCD person could recognise.

I asked Vrinda about the freedom she has found from learning about her diagnosis. She described how most of her life she had suffered from the terrors of intrusive thoughts, and when she found a name for what she was experiencing, and realised that other people experienced the same thing, she stopped feeling “crazy” and alone. She said, “Once it had a name, it seemed so much smaller. As soon as I could box it and put a name on it I said, ‘Ok, this is the OCD—and I am more than it.”

Vrinda discussed how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy has successfully helped her with many of her obsessions, by enabled her to learn how to allow her anxieties to pass without acting upon them. She said, however, that “intrusive thoughts” were frequently much more difficult to overcome and she is still challenged by many of them.

Vrinda discussed how important it was for parents to “educate” teachers about how OCD impacts the child’s behaviour and performance at school. She gave an example of how helpful it was when one compassionate teacher allowed her to take an exam in his private office so she would not be challenged by her OCD by being in a distracting environment.

Vrinda went on to talk about her book Check Mates. She explained that the title “Check Mates” refers to the tendency for people with OCD to “check” things, and also because it is a collection of stories by people who have now become good friends (“mates”). The 20 authors of this book all met each other on a social network called “OCD Tribe” (http://ocdtribe.com). Vrinda said it was “indescribable” and “life-changing” to find a “tribe” of people who all shared the same condition.

She explained that what makes Check Mates unique amongst other books is that it is not a “self-help” book, but rather a book of fiction by OCD authors. She said she felt fiction was “more powerful” than an autobiography in this case, as readers who do not have OCD would be able to see something of themselves within the stories as well.

She explained how the stories in the book shed light on the wide range of the types of obsessions people with OCD have, such as fear of death, post-partum OCD, pre-occupation with religion, compulsive cleaning, self-harming, hoarding, counting rituals, checking, etc. “We wanted to show that OCD is a very complex thing. When you see it on television, they only ever focus on one or two problems that seem really extreme. They certainly don’t ever talk about the thoughts, or ‘pure obsessional OCD’ (obsessive ruminations), which in my view is the most debilitating problem.”

If you or a family member has OCD, or any neurological condition, you definitely will want to check out Check Mates when it comes out on Tuesday May 11.

You can do this by heading over to: http://conditionalpublications.com/pages/check-mates-launch.html

When you are there, be sure to sign up for a “launch reminder” so you can receive over 30 free personal development gifts when you buy the book on the day of its launch. Amongst the gifts are a free short story on Tourette Syndrome from Vrinda, and a free mini-course from me called “Making Friends with the Monsters Under Your Bed.” Just click HERE to read more about the book and the 30 free gifts (if you are reading this article after that date, you may buy the book directly from that page).

I should also mention that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of every single book goes to OCD charities, so when you buy it, YOU are also making a difference.

Being Vrinda’s mom makes me understand what they mean by the term “pride and joy.”
[mlb /]

______

Be sure to follow Vrinda to her next Virtual Blog Tour stop on Sunday May 2nd, hosted by Geoff Laughton at http://geofflaughton.com/gltc/blog/.

AND… don’t forget to sign up for the book launch reminder so you can buy ‘Check Mates’ and over 30 free personal development gifts on May 11, 2010. Just go to http://conditionalpublications.com/pages/check-mates-launch.html

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Apr

A Rising New Star in the Spirit Author Universe

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (1)

Patrick Ryan’s New Book Number-1 in Spirituality

Recently I’ve been telling you about a new book called Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance by my friend and colleague Patrick Ryan. Well the book had its official Amazon launch yesterday, and I simply had to write to you to tell you that within the first few hours, Awakened Wisdom became a bestseller in spirituality in both the US and Canada.

Most impressively, the book reached an amazing rank of 29^th in overall books, out of many millions, and took the Number-1 slot in Canadian spirituality sales (click to see a screen shot), and the #3 slot in self-help, sharing the very same page on Amazon with top-selling spirituality titles such as Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four Agreements, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. At one point, Patrick and Eckhart were dancing back and forth in the top 5 spots on the Canadian list, which is interesting because so many people have compared these two writers even before the book was released.

In the US, where the competition is even steeper, the book reached the Number-2 rank in Kindle spiritual self-help titles, and the paperback was the 18^th most popular spiritual title yesterday. I have high hopes that today, that figure will soar up later today, as news of the success of the book starts to spread.

Not too shabby for a first day, don’t you think?

Born in the Canadian prairies, and surviving a near-death experience in his youth, Patrick Ryan has been a life-long spiritual seeker. He spent some time as a Buddhist monk in Burma, and has studied the world over with healers, shamans and other indigenous wise people. The culmination of his multifaceted experiences, from the home-spun to the esoteric, is to be found within his unique, and inimitably down-to-earth, system of spiritual development he calls “Awakened Wisdom”, which he has taught in workshops throughout the world for several years. The essence of those teachings, along with practical exercises for cultivating them in your life, may now be found within the pages of his newly bestselling book.

I should also mention that I consider Patrick to be one of my personal mentors. I studied with him for nearly a year on the Co-Active Leadership programme, and I also took his internationally acclaimed Awakened Wisdom course. I can say without any reservation that my life would not be where it is today had our paths not crossed. I was my great delight and pleasure to be able to give something back to him by acting as his campaign manager for this thrilling Amazon book launch.

BOOK: Awakened Wisdom The Awakened Wisdom launch continues today and tomorrow, and in celebration of its official release, Patrick Ryan and a group of his colleauges, including authors, coaches, entrepreneurs and spiritual teachers are giving away over 40 exceptional personal development and spiritual growth gifts when you purchase a copy the book during the launch.

One of these gifts is an unprecedented 2-session “Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience”, in which author Patrick Ryan will take participants on a journey through the “8 States of an Awakened Life” via webcast in May. This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from a world-renowned spiritual teacher—and now top-selling spirituality author.

I myself am offering four never-before-offered audio meditations from my Garden of the Soul Workshop, on the Four Principles of Give, Receive, Become and Be.

To pick up your copy of the Awakened Wisdom, get all those free gifts, and sign up for this very special event, which is open ONLY to those who purchase the book this week, go to:

http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/BookLaunch/index.cfm

Make sure you do this as soon as possible, as the launch ends this Friday, April 23 (extended from April 22). And if you are reading this AFTER that date, you can still find out how to buy the book by clicking the link above.

Thanks for your support in helping this rising new star in the spiritul author universe shine so brightly! I wish ALL of you Spirit Authors reading this a future where YOU are shining even more brightly.

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Apr

Rare Chance to Learn from World-Class Spiritual Author via Web

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Inspiration I might not know you, but my guess is that you probably have two things in common with everyone else who is reading this blog:

1. You hold personal spirituality to be amongst your top priorities in life AND
2. You love to write and/or read great spiritual books

Well, knowing that about you, I am writing to you to suggest you mark your diary for THIS TUESDAY APRIL 20TH. That’s the BIG day for the launch of Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance.

What’s the big deal?

The big deal is that everyone who buys this important book on the DAY of the launch (this Tuesday, April 20th) can sign up to attend a 2-session “Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience” with Patrick himself, where he PERSONALLY will guide you through the “8 States of an Awakened Life”, which are the cornerstone of all his world-famous work.

Oooh… I should mention that I will be hosting that event! How lucky am I, huh?

The Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience will be on May 5-6, via webcast. That means you can attend EITHER via the web or via telephone. There’ll also be some opportunity to ask Patrick your questions about his teachings.

If you can’t make the live event, don’t worry. The audio will be available for download BUT only to those who register for the VIP pass.

In addition to the Virtual Experience, there are over 30 of us who are giving away some FABULOUS free spiritual gifts to you when you buy Patrick’s book. I’m giving away 4 audio meditations from my Garden of the Soul Workshop. I have NEVER offered these before (in fact, I just finished recording them tonight!).

I URGE you to go over to Awakened Wisdom Book Launch Page tonight and sign up for a “launch reminder”. That way, on Tuesday morning, when the gifts are ready, we’ll send you a “go and get them” reminder, so you can buy the book and get all the cool gifts, including the VIP Pass to the Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience.

Patrick Ryan Patrick is one of my personal mentors AND he is also my client, as I am the campaign manager for his book launch. Let me tell you, I am DETERMINED to get his book to the number-1 spirituality slot on Amazon on Tuesday. Why? Because I think he totally deserves it! First of all, his work is surely world-class, and I want to see his message spread all over the planet. Secondly, I studied with Patrick for over a year, and now that I’ve also had the great pleasure to work with him at a professional level as well, I can assure you he’s not only an amazingly spiritual teacher, but also a truly down-to-earth human being.

Thanks everyone! Hope to “see” you at the Awakened Wisdom Virtual Experience on May 5 – 6.

Warm wishes,
Lynn

P.S.: On a slightly different note, if you haven’t had a chance yet to vote for me in the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest, it would mean SO much to me if you would. The voting for Round 1 goes only for another 2 weeks. Right now I’m in the top 5%, but anything can happen with the public vote. Please remember that you can vote for as many authors as you like in the competition, but you can only vote ONCE for an author per round. It would be great if you checked out my video and cast you vote. There’s also a free gift there for you: 4 audio excerpts from my book, The Garden of the Soul (not the same audio as I am offering with Patrick’s book). Hope you enjoy them! The link to my profile page in the contest is http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=2016, Thanks so much!

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Apr

Author, Heretic, Leader, Tribe

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Outcast or Innovator?

Click to download pdf of this article
Play Podcast of Lynn reading this article:

Author, Heretic, Leader, Tribe [ 6:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’ve been sick all week with a REALLY nasty respiratory infection, so haven’t been as active on my social networks this past week. But as I felt a bit better today, I logged on to Facebook to find that my Spirit Authors Fan Page, which is only a little over 100 days old, now has well over 900 enlightened beings in its ranks.

Who are all these people? Well, simply what the name says: Spirit Authors. They are all people who like to write from the place of spirit, whatever that might mean to them.

Apparently, there is great power in the name. I could feel it when I first thought the name up…. correction: when I first “heard” the name in my ear. It is a name that allows the listener to bring his or her own deeper levels of meaning into it. It embraces an ideology, an ethos, a culture, that transcends simple definition.

We are, in a word, a “tribe”.

Perhaps you hadn’t thought of it as such, but it’s true. Our rapidly growing number is simple enough proof that there is a common resonance in the air drawing us together. People want this— need this— kind of identity now.

In my own work, I am continually amazed at how more and more people come to me every week— every DAY— asking me to help them write their mind-body-spirit books, or to teach them the art of book promotion while maintaining their personal spirit-based values.

And that is precisely why I think all these Spirit Authors have come together, right here, right now. It’s simple:

We are ALL being “called” to write.

To write what we hear.

To write what we see.

To write what we feel and experience.

That’s all.

Our calling is no longer about writing about what we “know” (intellectually).

It’s about writing about what we LIVE on a daily basis.

And that is the difference between a Spirit Author and those who have not yet stepped into their own inner Author (with a capital “A”).

And to do that, in the face of a society that has reared us from birth to work from the operating system of “mind over matter” (as if mind could ever be made completely separate from matter) is, quite simply, a radical act.

To DARE to write from a place of knowing that is beyond intellect, beyond logic and beyond reason, is sheer heresy.

Yes, we Spirit Authors are heretics!!

In his book Tribes, Seth Godin says that all leaders are heretics. They have to be. If someone did not go against the grain of the system, the system would never evolve. The leader is the mutant. The outcast. The oddball.

But the heretic leader is also the next strain of what is to come.

Spirit Authors have always existed. From the beginning of time, they have always been on Earth. The difference between the past and now is simple. In the past, we were disconnected from each other, living separately in our cities, towns and villages. We felt only that we were the wierdos, the blacksheep, the ones nobody ever quite “got”. We were the heretics. Our feelings of separation from our peers made us want either to overturn the system or to become invisible in order to be accepted. But overturning the system is exhausting when you are alone, so most of us heretics learned to disappear. We judged ourselves (and others), coming to the conclusion that we didn’t, and would never, fit.

But now, at this time in history, in this amazing era of global communications, we have at last found each other. Wow! A global network of cyber-heretics!

Make no mistake. It is no “coincidence” that the current evolution in consciousness is occurring at the exact same time as global networking has become possible. Technology IS the tool, the vehicle, that brings us together, for the purpose of facilitating our collective evolution as a society of heretics holding a common set of values.

And what is so amazing is that now suddenly we realise we ARE understood. We DO fit. We DO belong.

Because we are a tribe.
You.
Me.
All of us.
We are the tribe of humanity.

And with this realisation comes the awesome responsibility to “unlearn” all we had once learned in the past. To unlearn the need to fit in, and to relish our own “blacksheepiness.” To unlearn the need to hide, and to delight in feeling exposed. To unlearn the need to pretend we are something or someone we are not, and to speak the Truth we have always known.

And why must we unlearn these things? “To set ourselves free,” you might say. And yes, yes, yes, I would agree with you, but this is not enough. It is not enough to set ourselves free.

Because if leaders are heretics, then understand this:

If you are a heretic, you must therefore also be a LEADER.

And leaders LEAD.

They do not stand outside the crowd; they stand in front of it.

AND if they are the black sheep, it is only so others might be able to find them more easily.

We, Spirit Authors, are here to set the hearts of the world free…

to sing…

to dance…

to be.

Well, anyway, that’s why I’m here.

What about YOU?

Lynn Serafinn
April 9, 2010
Bedford, England

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC, is a transformation coach, book promotion coach, radio host, and author of the bestselling spirituality book, The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self. She is also the creator of Spirit Authors Virtual Coaching and Learning Experience, which offers training, business-building and community for mind-body-spirit authors at http://spiritauthors.com. Her key message is, “You are already the hero of your own life.” To find out more about Lynn’s journey, view her compelling video entry for the Next Top Spiritual Author competition at http://www.NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=2016, or contact her at http://spiritauthors.com/contact.

PERMISSION TO USE THIS ARTICLE

Spirit Authors members, friends and fans DO have my permission to quote this article or use the audio, either in whole or in part, in your blogs, newsletters, radio shows, podcasts, etc., BUT as a courtesy, I ask that you:

1) Kindly let me know in advance what you will be using, along with the date you will use it, and the link to the page where it will appear. Please send this information via the contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact

2) Kindly cite me as the author, in exactly the same format as appears in the block of text above, including all bio information and all 3 links. Please do not make any changes without my prior permission.

3) If you wish to quote me in part, and express your own opinion, that’s fine of course. But please do not paraphrase or change any words you specifically cite as having been said by me. Thanks!

Ok… so enuf with the high philosophical stuff!

As I mentioned “tribes” to you, I thought you would enjoy this FABULOUS video a friend shared with me. A first glance, it might look really silly, but if you watch it twice and really take in the words, and think about it metaphorically, I hope you’ll find it to be a fun and ever-so-true explanation of how “movements” begin.

If you are receiving this via email and/or cannot see the above video on your screen click this link to watch it on YouTube (DO watch! You’ll love it. Very wierd and wonderful):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

But the real reason why I am sharing it with you is because it should give you all much encouragement when you go to write your books, and perhaps struggle to get people to buy them or even to understand them. As you can see from this video, it’s takes a while for the “masses” to catch on to a good thing.

As the saying goes, “Just Believe.”

And have fun, too.

Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

P.S.: Many thanks to all of you who have voted for me so far in the Next Top Spiritual Author Contest. I found out today that I am currently in Top 5% of the 3000 hopefuls (they don’t get any more specific than that). If you haven’t seen my video entry yet (I put a lot of HEART into it!), you can view it, and cast your vote for Round 1 any time before May 3, 2010, at http://NextTopAuthor.com/?aid=2016.

[mlb /]

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Apr

Meet Patrick Ryan – author, coach and Chief Waker Upper

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Patrick Ryan

Today is stop number 3 on the Virtual Blog Tour for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom – A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, which is coming to Amazon on Tuesday April 20. Yesterday, Patrick stopped at Schall Adam’s Girlfriend Mentors Site. For more awakened wisdom, be sure you check out Schall’s interview at http://www.mygirlfriendmentors.com/blog

“As students, we see our teachers come and go. After we leave, rarely do we get the chance to come back to tell them how they have impacted our lives. It is difficult to explain how the act of telling a teacher he changed your life can make you feel complete. What greater privilege can there be than to be able to tell someone, ‘You are the person who awakened my soul from its slumber; you were the vessel whence I found my voice.’”

This is a passage from my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self wherein I describe the feeling I had when I was reunited with a particularly influential teacher from my past after 33 years. It is a wonderful thing to be able to glorify and give back something to our teachers and mentors, no matter how old we are. That is why, with great delight, I wish to share with you the highlights of a recent interview I conducted with one of my personal mentors, Patrick Ryan.

Patrick Ryan is an executive coach, leadership trainer, spiritual teacher and author. He was one of two leaders (the other is the wonderful Mary Butler) who trained, held and watched me evolve when I was on the 10-month Co-Active Leadership programme in 2007-2008 in Spain. Patrick and Mary’s expert training transformed my life in the most profound way and I can say without reservation that I seriously doubt I would be doing what I am doing today had I not crossed paths with them. After the course was over, I also had the great pleasure of talking Patrick’s workshop Awakened Wisdom when he delivered it in London (a rare treat). It was on that 3-day course that I stood up in front of a room of people and declared boldly that I was finally stepping into the (somewhat scary) call to become an internationally known author and spiritual teacher, no longer hiding from my own Essence. And the rest, as they say, is history… and the future is still unfolding, minute by minute.

Awakened Wisdom Book So of course, when Patrick asked me to be the manager for the launch of his book Awakened Wisdom – A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, which was the long awaited book version of the teaching he had been transmitting through his workshop for many years, it was a no-brainer. What an opportunity to be able to give something back to one of the people who shaped my life so profoundly. In a nutshell, I simply want other people to enjoy and bask in the simple wisdom of his teachings. I also want Patrick to enjoy what he deserves by seeing his book reach thousands—perhaps millions—of people.

As part of the promotion for his book release, I had the great pleasure to interview Patrick on my radio show Lynn Serafinn’s Garden of the Soul on March 24^th. It was a wonderful interview, and I thought as part of the Virtual Blog Tour, it would be perfect to share the highlights from that interview with you. You can hear or download the complete interview in the player below:

If the player does not appear correctly on your screen, you can grab it online at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lynn-serafinn/2010/03/24/ep-58-living-an-awakened-life

Here are some of the highlights of that interview:

Wisdom Gained From a Near-Death Experience

When Patrick was in his late teens, he “died”, his body being kept alive only from CPR. During that time, he “met the Divine,” which he describes as “that wisdom that is of this Universe and that this Universe is of”. He said this meeting, “Woke me up in a most profound way to the mystery and the ultimate nature of this world we are living in.”

He said, “That experience allowed me to see that there is a profound Wisdom holding this Universe. It enabled me to trust that that Wisdom ‘just is’, but at the same time it provided me no answers. So, I still had to go and figure it out. And that really is the journey all of us are on: ‘figuring it out’. And I think the thing we’re figuring out, at the core of it, is ‘who is the one that is walking the walk of this life?’ And, at the end of the path, when you keep dropping the veils, and move further and further into the Essence of that answer, you find there is no distinction between you and your neighbours, no distinction between you and the animals and the forest, or even the organisation you work for, and that we are just this one entity, this one Being that reflects back and forth who we are to each other.”

Reflections on Hearing and Answering Our “Call”

Patrick was leading a life on an entrepreneur, but was always interested in what makes people behave the way they do. He said he woke up one day curious about what else was “out there.” He felt “called”.

“But like with any call,” he says, “you usually cannot see the path ahead with much clarity. So it requires you to take a leap and just enter onto that path.”

I asked him, “What are some clues that people are hearing ‘a call’ in their life?”

He said, “For me, and also for a lot of people I was spoken with, some of the common factors include a ‘stirring within’, a sense of dissatisfaction with life as it is today, and a desire to touch into a deeper meaning or purpose. There’s a wanting to get more fulfilment or more congruency between our moving through every day and the higher levels of values we know exist, even if we don’t understand what they are.”

“I had always dreamed about going on a walkabout,” he continued. “That dream had never left me. And that’s something people should pay attention to. What’s the recurring, nagging, dream that won’t leave you alone? First it knocks gently, and then it shakes you harder, and at some point, if it’s important enough, it’s probably going to create something in your life much more dramatic until you ‘get it’.”

Experience as a Monk in Burma

Patrick told his story of how he became a monk in a monastery in Burma in the mid 90s, even though he had no such prior intention, nor did the monastery have a policy of taking on western disciples (he goes into this story in greater detail in his first book The Eagle’s Call).

He gave us a little taste about the essence of the teachings he received during his time as a monk, as well as a student of many shamans and other masters around the world. He said, “At the end of the day, I’m a very practical guy, and as much is it is easy to become seduced by the mysticism and big words around spirituality, it’s very important to me to be able to ground it to my daily life in such a way that makes sense. That’s why I created the ‘Eight States of an Awakened Life’ that my book Awakened Wisdom is based upon.”

Distorted Self, Divine Essence and the Observer

Patrick went on to explain the three-part aspects of our nature: the “Observer”, the “Distorted self” and our “Divine Essence”. He said it’s important to know “who’s in your shoes” at any particular moment in life.

He describes the “Distorted self” and the voice in us that “wants to take us out of the game” and “hold us in a zone of safety and comfort” and “whispers messages to us like ‘you’re not ready for that yet, if you do that people won’t like you, etc.” He said that it is interesting how the body will so often respond to this by getting ill on the very day you are meant to do something you fear, etc. He said, the more the “Distorted self” takes over the decision making in our lives, the more isolated we become and the more ‘self’ there is in us.

“On the other side, we have that part of us that is infinitely wise, that moves with the wisdom of what we acquired in this life, and also that goes beyond what can be explained by what we received in this life. This is the one in us that does not get caught in fear—the one that is about creating beauty in the world, about bringing life-giving energy into the world and transmitting it outward. It’s the one that can go into an organisation and sit in a meeting and speak the truth about what’s really going on, in a way that makes everyone go ‘Wow, you just nailed it. That’s exactly what we needed to hear.’ That aspect of us, I call the ‘Divine Essence’ because the more connect you get to this aspect, the less ‘self” there is in it.”

He said that our “Observer” is that other part of ourselves that is able to report the facts in life clearly and without judgment. Both Divine Essence and Distorted self are receiving the report from the Observer and “we get to choose who we’re going to put in charge.”

The Eight States of an Awakened Life

In the last part of our interview, Patrick named and described his “Eight States of an Awakened Life”.

1. A Good State of Intention
2. A Good State of Words
3. A Good State of Being
4. A Good State of Purpose
5. A Good State of Effort
6. A Good State of Practice
7. A Good State of Doing
8. A Good State of Understanding

He then offered a few REALLY simple and very profound practical example of how to apply the principles. If you wish to hear more, please listen to the audio.

Book coming to Amazon Tuesday April 20, 2010

I also strongly encourage you to buy Patrick’s book Awakened Wisdom – A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance. Dozens of leaders in the mind-body-spirit field have joined together to support Patrick in celebration of the coming of this book, and are offering over 40 free gifts to everyone who purchases it on the day of its Amazon launch on Tuesday April 20^th.

I myself am offering four audio meditations from my transformation workshop The Garden of the Soul, to cultivate the four spiritual principles of Giving, Receiving, Becoming and Being. To be sure you receive this gift, along with all the others, just go to http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/BookLaunch/index.cfm and sign up for launch reminder so you remember to buy the book on April 20th.

I hope you enjoyed this interview with Patrick Ryan, which was stop number 3 on the Virtual Blog Tour for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom – A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance.

Tomorrow, Thursday April 8, Patrick stops at Caron Goode’s “Intuitive Parenting” site. It should be really interesting. Check it out at http://intuitiveparenting.wordpress.com

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Apr

7 Keys to Writing Great Ezine Copy for Your Book Launch

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Campaign manager Lynn Serafinn shares a simple formula to give power to your words

If you are planning an Amazon campaign for your book launch, you will need the help of a great network of personal and professional friends to help you. But something you might not have thought about is the fact that you will need to provide some “ezine copy” for them to use to help promote your book. That’s right: YOU will have to provide the article or articles your “joint venture partners” (JVPs) will send out to their lists.

The reason for this is two-fold. First of all, your JVPs are probably pretty busy, and if you ask them to write an article for you, it is less likely they will have it ready in time to meet your timetable. Secondly, YOU are the person who knows best what you want to say about your book. Those are the two most important reasons why you should write the “copy” (article) for your JVPs’ newsletters when they offer to promote you. And you’ll need to write several over the course of the campaign, in order to speak to the different audiences your partners represent.

I know this might sound a little daunting to some of you, especially those of you who don’t like the idea of “selling” (which covers just about 99.9% of the mind-body-spirit authors I know), so I thought I would give you a little formula to get you started, so you could see it is not so much about selling at all, as it is about connecting and inspiring the reader. It’s a stripped-down part of a lesson I teach in Module 4 (Your Book Campaign – Designing and Delivering) on the Spirit Authors site.

When you write your copy, make sure it meets the following criteria:

It is between 400-700 words.
It is written casually in the 3^rd person as if the JVP is writing about you.
It arouses curiosity in the title and opening line.
It inspires the reader by sharing something meaningful about you and your book.
It has a specific place where the JVP can (and should) personalise it.
It’s NOT a sales letter but…
It has a short, clear call to action at the end (i.e., it tells people when, where and why to get your book).

How to keep it real

The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (yes, I thought you’d be happy to know that!).

The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing the article. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure your partners can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means that you need to send copies of your book to your partners, do so (or at least a pdf version of it). It will help them say (nice) things about you in a much more authentic way.

And most of all, don’t make your ezine copy just about the book. Make it about YOU. Audiences like to know the person behind the book. Talk about how the book came to be. Bring the reader on a personal journey. Let them into your world. If you only talk about the book, a vital human connection will be missing.

I hope you found this article useful as you prepare for your book launch. If you have any questions or comments, I would be happy to reply to them below.

The key thing to remember when you create your copy is that the primary purpose of it is to arouse curiosity, and not to “sell” your book (I thought you’d be happy to know that!). The other thing to remember is to write it in the third person about you, as if your JVPs were writing it. There is tremendous power in your partners’ saying, “I found this book to be inspiring.” Make sure they can personalise it at key points in the article to make it more their own. And if “keeping it real” means you need to give advance copies of your book to your partners, BE GENEROUS and do so. At the very least, send them a pdf of the galley print.

See an example of this in action

If you want to see an example of this in action, have a look at the article I wrote called “How to Have a Life Well Lived” on my “Cosmic Universe” blog. I was the campaign manager for Patrick Ryan’s book campaign, so I made this copy (and several others) for the JVPs on his Amazon campaign. If you analyse it carefully, you will see 7 key elements I mention above.

It must have worked, because his book went to #1 in spirituality in Canada and #2 in the US on the day of his launch in April 2010.

Want to learn more?

Come along to Spirit Authors and take a 14-day “Test Drive” for only $1. You can test drive Module 4 (about Amazon launch campaigns) or another learning module to suit your needs on your writing journey. To find out which module is the “write” one for you, go to http://spiritauthors.com and answer the short self-assessment on that page.

AND… if you are seeking a manager for your mind-body-spirit campaign, fill in a contact form at http://spiritauthors.com/contact and tell me about your book project. Please note I only accept a limited amount of clients per year. Please allot 4-6 months for your launch.

Warm wishes,

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC

Transformation Coach, Book Promotion Coach, Author, radio host

Creator of Spirit Authors

Web/blogs

http://spiritauthors.com

http://lynnserafinn.com

Social Networks

http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn

http://twitter.com/SpiritAuthors

http://facebook.com/LynnSerafinn

http://facebook.com/SpiritAuthors

http://linkedin/in/lynn-serafinn

Radio

http://blogtalkradio.com/Lynn-Serafinn

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Mar

Vote for Lynn Serafinn Next TOP Spiritual Author

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (0)

Please check out the video I made as my “pitch” for the “Next Top Spiritual Author” contest. I have entered my book The Garden of the Soul: lessons from four flowers that unearth the Self, which as many of you know, is currently self-published.

The grand prize is a book contract from Hampton Roads Publishing, one of the top Body-Mind-Spirit publishers in the world, along with a promotional package worth over $50,000.

There are 3 rounds of voting. The first round starts MONDAY March 29, 2010, and ends April 25, 2010. I could REALLY use your vote to help me advance to Round 2.

Here’s the video podcast I made for my contest entry. I poured my heart and soul into it!

Lynn Serafinn Next Top Spiritual Author Contest Video Play Now | Play in Popup | Direct Link

And here’s the same video as it appears on YouTube. I’m putting both versions because sometimes people have trouble viewing certain video formats. If you cannot see EITHER of these videos on your screen (or you wish to see it in a LARGER window), view it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8P92UVYwCQ.

If you think The Garden of the Soul deserves to go to a wider audience, please help me by:

1) Watching this video to help you decide whether you think I deserve to win the title Next Top Spiritual Author AND THEN
2) Voting for me at http://tinyurl.com/TopAuthorLynn between March 29 – May 3 (the page will not be live before the 29th).

And there is NO pressure to choose only one author to win this contest! There are hundreds of great authors for you to consider, and you can vote for as many authors as you like (but you can only vote ONCE for each author per round).

I you can help me advance to Round 2 of this exciting competition, I will be EXTREMELY grateful!

My motivation is fuelled by your encouragement and comments. I’d love to hear what you have to say about the video, my book and whatever else, in the comments box below.

Thank you everyone!

Warm wishes,
Lynn Serafinn

P.S.: If YOU are a spiritual author, EVEN IF you are just in the very beginning of wanting to START your book project, YOU should enter this wonderful contest. Unpublished and self-published authors are invited AND they give you lots of help to develop your “pitch” if you don’t know how to do it yourself. Check out the Next Top Spiritual Contest and ENTER NOW at http://www.nexttopauthor.com/index.cfm. It’s going to be a fabulous journey, and I hope will take advantage of it.

[mlb /]

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Mar

5 Steps to Create an Amazon Bestselling Book Campaign

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (3)

Many people hire me to create and manage their Amazon book campaigns, or to support them as a book promotion coach/consultant. In either case, I have noticed many of my clients experience a steep learning curve at the beginning of their campaigns, as they try to get their heads around all the components and how they work together.

For that reason, I thought it might be a good idea to write a short article giving an overview of the initial steps I use when I put together an Amazon campaign, so you can become an Amazon bestseller like my clients.

The basic concept of an Amazon book campaign is to drive people to a special page you will create that tells them about your book, and to get them to return to that page to buy your book on the specified day of your launch. The reason why you want them to come on a specified day is to drive up your Amazon sales rank. The reason why people will want to return to your page (as opposed to just going to Amazon to buy your book) is that after they buy your book, they can come back to your page to claim some great bonus gifts.

Who is offering the gifts? A group of “JVPs”, or “Joint Venture Partners” you have brought together. Finding and choosing JVPs is a topic I cover in the first week of Module 4 at Spirit Authors. For now, let’s assume you already have a good selection of JVPs who have confirmed their participation in your launch, and let’s move on to our 5 steps to get your campaign going.

Step 1: Design the Timeline and Components of Your Campaign
First off, you will need to choose the components of your campaign, and construct a timeline showing when all these components will occur. Here are a few examples of components that go into a typical Amazon campaign:

Bonus gift offers from JVPs
Email/ezine blasts
Twitter campaign
A Contest
Virtual Blog Tour

There are different strategies, technical aspects and creative elements to each of these components, which would take too long to discuss here. For now, let’s say that you decided you were going to utilise all of them in some way.

Step 2: Coordinate Your JVP Materials
Assuming you have already determined the level of commitment promised from your JVPs, your next step would be to gather relevant materials from them, such as headshot, bio, and bonus material information, including a link to the opt in page where people will sign up to receive their gift.

A word of advice: It is highly likely you will need to guide many of your JVPs as to what is an appropriate bonus gift. A good bonus gift should be a downloadable entry-level gift. A not-so-good gift is one that requires the customer to buy something else to receive it, or requires them to travel to specific geographic location. The bonus should also not be an offer of free or discounted coaching or consultation, because if they have a high number of requests, they might find it impossible to honour them all. You, as the manager of your campaign, need to guide your JVPs to choosing the right kind of gift.

As you collect this information from your JVPs, make sure you use some sort of tracking system to cross check you have received all the info. I use an Excel spreadsheet for tracking.

Step 3: Creating Your Pre-Launch Page and Follow-Ups
Next, you will need to assemble all your JVP information, along with key info about you and your book, onto a webpage we are going to call your “pre-launch page.” On this page, people will find out about you, your book, the date of the launch, and the bonus gift offerings. Make sure you standardise the format in which you will publish the JVP content on the web, so everyone’s entry looks similar.

Apart from the JVP information, the key ingredient on this page is a sign up form, where they will sign up to receive a reminder about the book launch. This sign up form should be connected to an auto-responder that sends them a follow up message saying something to the effect of, “Thanks for your interest in my book. I’ll be sending you a reminder the day before it comes out so you can get those great bonus gifts you read about. Be sure to mark your diary.”

Step 4: Create Promo Copy
The next thing you will need to do is create some great promotional copy for your JVPs to use for your campaign. There are basically 3 types of promo copy you will prepare for your JVPs:

Newsletter/ezine articles
“Tweets” (for Twitter)
“Virtual interviews” (if you are planning to do a Virtual Blog Tour)

I usually make two contrasting pieces of ezine copy for my JVPs per month, to give them diversity and choice (they are likely to send only one per month).

I usually make 50-100 Tweets for my JVPs—and I try to make them 120 characters or less. It’s really not as complex as it might sound, and it can make your campaign vibrant, fun and very effective.

A “Virtual Interview” is when your blog tour hosts send you a few questions in advance before the date of their “stop” on your tour.

I cover the details of how to create all these types of copy on Module 4 at Spirit Authors. In fact, I dedicate an entire week to EACH of these types of copy.

Step 5: Create Clear Instructions for Your JVPs
The last step to getting your campaign off the ground is to create a set of clear, written instructions for your JVPs. I always include a timeline, a description of the components, and a break down of how everything will run. I write it in such a way that it is visually easy to read, and convert it into a PDF document. I give them tips on how to use the materials, and how to increase traffic to their bonus.

Follow a Real Live Launch
As I am currently the project leader for the upcoming Amazon campaign for Patrick Ryan’s book Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, the easiest thing you can do to understand the things I have been describing would be to look at the page we have put together for that launch at http://www.awakenedwisdom.com/Public/Amazon/booklaunch/index.cfm. As of this writing, we are still finalising some details on it (and there are a few more JVPs coming along). Of course, I also hope you’ll check out Patrick’s book and sign up for a launch reminder while you’re on that page (I made the video, by the way. Do you like it?).

And if you are on Twitter, follow me at http://twitter.com/LynnSerafinn and you can see some of the Tweets I’m sending out about the book. Hopefully they will give you ideas of how to make your own. Most everything I have learned about online promotion is the result of watching others who know what they are doing, so now it’s my pleasure to invite you to do the same (hopefully I know what I’m doing!).

This article has been a very brief overview of the 5 steps needed to put together your Amazon book campaign. If you’d like to know more about creating, running and benefiting from an Amazon book campaign for your upcoming book, have a look at my 8-week course on the Spirit Authors website: Module 4: Your Book Launch – Designing and Delivering. For a limited time, you can take a 14-day test drive for only $1, and receive some special bonus gifts that are yours to keep just for trying it out.

If you feel you need a more personal touch, fill in a contact form on the Spirit Authors site to request a 1-to-1 consultation. Please be aware that I only take on a limited amount of book launch clients throughout the year, and that we will require 4-6 months to work on your launch, depending upon the strength of your online platform.

I hope you found this whistle-stop tour useful. Drop me a comment below to let me know what you think.
[mlb /]

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Mar

How Twitter Changed My Life

Posted by: Lynn Serafinn | Comments (16)

Ok, now you are probably going to think I’ve lost the plot.

Twitter changed my life. Let me tell you how.

AND I am going to attempt to tell this story in lines of 140 characters or less.

It all started when I launched my book “The Garden of the Soul” in April 2009.

After a year of mastering this “thing” called social networking, I created an Amazon book campaign.

I found many JVPs (joint venture partners), mainly from Twitter.

Some who helped were @InspiredSheila @SuzieCheel @KSchulweis @BrendaAdelman @RuthHegarty @JoeRumbolo @LolaFayemi (see next)

AND @HeidiRichards @AwakenedWisdom @LindaClairePuig @jenngivler @audaciouseditor @GailSussMill @Gloreebe @jessicamcgj @SpiritCoach #ff

Also ran a Virtual Blog Tour with peeps like @MoonPoppy @DuncanBrodie and many others.

Also ran a Twitter contest. @JulieAnnTurner won a signed copy of my book.

Anyway…

Long story short, my self-published book became an Amazon bestseller in #spirituality #mind-body-spirit and #self-help.

When “The Garden of the Soul” made bestseller, Tweets and RTs went viral. #gots

I think it was June when @SouthsideBroadc contacted me to be on their radio show. I soon became a regular guest.

Thru @SouthsideBroadc I met @SpiritusShelagh who has since become one of my closest friends.

July 2009: blogger/editor @BookEditorLM wrote me on Twitter wanting to do a blog piece on me: http://bit.ly/c8hbCa

Aug 2009: @BookEditorLM asked @tonyeldridge if he would repost that article. He asked me to write a new one.

Oct 2009: @tonyeldridge published my new article “Pre-Natal Care for Your Book” http://bit.ly/bWCmQA

Same month @AllisonMaslan (whom I didn’t know) read that article. Sent me DM asking me to coach her 4 Amazon launch.

I put together Amazon campaign for @AllisonMaslan ‘s new #book #BlastOff!

Nov 2009: I asked @writersinthesky (whom I had met on Ning) to come and help us put the campaign together.

We put together another great team of JVPs.

If I named all the Tweeple who helped us on #BlastOff! I think I’d need another day to write this.

Meanwhile lots of people were asking me for book advice. I decided to start a new site called Spirit Authors. http://spiritauthors.com

Dec 20 2009: I set up Twitter profile @SpiritAuthors and Facebook fan page. http://facebook.com/SpiritAuthors

Started Twitter/FB campaign to drive people to fan page. By Christmas day there were 100 fans.

Jan 2010: Did another campaign to get 500 fans by my 55th birthday end of Jan. I got 600+

Jan 19, 2010: Allison’s book launched. Twitter & FB went viral. “Blast Off” reached #1 in US/Canada. http://bit.ly/RXpQu

RT @AllisonMaslan’s “Blast Off” reached #1 in US/Canada. http://bit.ly/RXpQu

Jan 21, 2010: Success of launch attracted attention of @AllisonMaslan ’s literary agent @wgtwelve. He’s also @EckhartTolle ‘s agent

As an author, I am now represented by @wgtwelve.

More and more #mind-body-spirit #authors come to me to create campaigns for them.

New Amazon campaigns: @AwakenedWisdom (April 20), @NeuroBooks (May 11) and @wgtwelve (Nov).

From Twitter contacts, I quickly assembled team of 18 VIP experts for Spirit Authors Grand Opening http://bit.ly/9pfpJV

VIPS: @wordywoman @BookMarketer @CaronGoode @DayaDeviDoolin @inspiredwriter @docmarion @AlanSeale plus many already mentioned.

Nearly 500 people registered 4 the #Spirit #Authors Grand Opening http://bit.ly/9pfpJV

My good friend @SpiritusShelagh was my co-host for the event. What a source of strength she is.

Oz Tweep @charlyjl was a wellspring of technical support in getting the site ready. Couldn’t have done it without her.

April 20, 2010: @AwakenedWisdom ALSO becomes #1 #spirituality #book thx 2 Twitter! #AWEbook

GR8 expectations 4 @NeuroBooks May 11. #OCDbook

1000+ peeps on Facebook page. http://facebook.com/SpiritAuthors

NOW: @SpiritAuthors open and I have long waiting list of #book campaign clients. On #Spirit #Authors I teach new authors how to set use #Twitter to build a promotional platform and #Amazon launch… as well as many other things (Oops! That’s more than 140 characters!)

Ok… enough with the Twitterspeak!!!

I am quite serious when I say Twitter has changed my life. Yes, my own book would never have become a bestseller without Twitter. Yes, I could never have helped Allison become a number-1 seller. Yes, I would not have gotten some fab new clients and an amazing literary agent. And yes, I would never have thought to create Spirit Authors and now have a blossoming new business as a result.

But it isn’t REALLY about business at all.

Have a look at all the Twitter links above. These are not just links. These are all REAL people whom I have come to know, respect and care about over the past year. Even though some of us are separated by tens of thousands of miles, we have all shared many a heart-felt conversation over the phone, and have been there for each other through the highs and lows.

And really, there are just so many other wonderful people I have met from Twitter (as well as Facebook, Ning and LinkedIn, in that order), I cannot count them.

When many people first come to Twitter, they don’t “get it”. How can you possibly communicate in 140 characters? How can you possibly make friends with people? How can you possibly build a business from it? WHY would you WANT to do this????

And I’m telling you now—it’s because of the PEOPLE!

I have made more close friends from networking on Twitter than any other form of networking I have ever tried… even more than “live” networks in my home town! While I do love Facebook as well, there is nothing (yet) that can beat Twitter for ideas going viral, and for meeting lots of people who share your interests within a very short period of time.

But as I said, it’s not just about the business. The friends I have met through Twitter are some of the most inspiring, supportive, positive and powerful light-workers I have ever met. That is why I have linked to EVERY one of them above.

So, if you are on Twitter, you should follow them. These are wonderful, beautiful people—get to KNOW them.

As always, your comments below are MOST welcome!

Warm wishes,

Lynn Serafinn

@LynnSerafinn

@SpiritAuthors

P. S.: This article was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had a new friend on Twitter @WendyMWarden. Many thanks, Wendy. This was fun to write!

P. P. S.: Knowing HOW to make Twitter (and social networking in general) work for you, both on a business level and on a deeply fulfilling personal level, is something of an art form. This is why I teach it on the Spirit Authors course:

In Module 2, I teach the fundamental principles of spirit-based promotion so you can create a fertile promotional platform for selling your book online using social networking.
In Module 4, I teach the “how to’s” of creating an Amazon Book Launch.
And, of course, there are 3 other modules on starting and writing your book, preparing for publication, and creating a brand and sustainable business from your book.

It’s my hope that by teaching authors (and authors-to-be) the techno-art of Twitter, they will not only find professional fulfilment, but they will also expand their world by connecting to others who understand them and wish to help them grow.

If this sounds like something you would like to explore, I offer a 7-day “Test Drive” on any Spirit Authors learning module for only $1. Visit the site at http://spiritauthors.com and check out the introductory audios and module overviews to see if there is something at Spirit Authors that can help you achieve your writing goals. And if you have any questions, please just fill out a contact form on the site and I promise I will reply personally.

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About Lynn Serafinn, Creator of Spirit Authors

Module 2: Pre-Publication Marketing Musts

Week 10: Tricks for Staying Sane, Saving Time and Keeping it Real

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Patrick Ryan’s New Book Number-1 in Spirituality

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Wisdom Gained From a Near-Death Experience

Reflections on Hearing and Answering Our “Call”

Experience as a Monk in Burma

Distorted Self, Divine Essence and the Observer

The Eight States of an Awakened Life

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