Voting with your dollars

We often talk about politics only in the realm of voting and running for office, but there are so many ways to participate in politics and use your voice to make our world a better place. One of the best ways to make your voice heard is to be a better consumer – vote with your dollars.  Choose which businesses match your values before making your purchases.

Spend money with companies that represent your values. It’s a bonus if those companies also have great products.  One great example is Penzeys Spices. Penzeys are amazing products that I love to use in my kitchen, but what makes them even more special is knowing that my consumer dollars are going to a company that represents my values. Penzeys provided free pins to everyone who participated in the Women’s March last year.  They actively take a stand against the negative policies of the current administration.   I love to stock up on my Penzeys spices and my children often tease me about my obsession.

Another company that I love to support is my local independent bookstore Changing Hands.  This company not only supports local Indie authors but they have actively taken a stand against the racist policies of the president.  It is easy to just order a book on Amazon, but I try to make an effort to go and shop at Changing Hands where I can to show my appreciation in a tangible way.  If I say that I believe in supporting small business the best way is to actually give them some of my consumer dollars.

Voting with my dollars also means choosing businesses that I will not shop at.  As a woman I am frustrated and disappointed at the decision of the Hobby Lobby owners to deny coverage of contraceptives for their female employees. Their rationale is based on their religious belief, yet the vast majority of their products are made in China, a country that provides state sponsored abortions.  There are many other places where I can get craft supplies and home decorations. Choosing not to shop at Hobby Lobby is another way of voting with my consumer dollars.

For me this is a way to live out my values in a real and tangible way.  I don’t want to support the owner of Jimmy John’s and his love of big game trophy hunting so I choose to buy sandwiches elsewhere.  I love how the CEO of Costco believes that his employees should earn a livable wage with benefits, so I will choose to go there instead of Sam’s Club.  I love that Target has a formal policy supporting nursing mothers so I make the choice to go to Target when I need something. 

I admit it does take extra effort and I am not always successful in choosing only companies that reflect my values, but I do try.  As consumers we have a lot more power than most people realize, so the next time you are running out to the store or stopping to grab a bite to eat, think about the choices you are making and ask yourself what you are voting for with your dollars.    

Thankful

As the New Year starts I want to share a fun tradition from our house that reminds us to be thankful, our thankfulness jar. I saw this idea online and decided to adopt it as a tradition in our house. Anytime something good happens, something we are thankful for, we write a note and put it in the jar. We make a special time on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day to look back at our past year and all of the things we are thankful for.

We had so much fun reminiscing about the great events and activities of the past year.  My hubby and I took turns reading each of the notes and we spent time talking about each one.  It was such a positive way to end one year and begin the new one.  

The biggest challenge is to remember to stop and write the notes.  I made sure to put our jar in a prominent and easy to reach location. Our jar is in the family room right in the middle of the shelf so we can see it each time we sit down to eat or watch TV.  I have a pen right next to the jar as well.  It only takes a minute to jot down a quick note.  It's so exciting to see our jar fill up, and as the notes go in the jar it helps to reinforce the many wonderful things we have to be thankful for each day. 

What are you thankful for as we begin 2018?  Grab a jar and start collecting your thankful notes too, and I know you will be glad you did.  

Is self-publishing your resolution for the New Year?

My friend recently contacted me because she knew that I had self-published several books.  She was interested in doing some writing herself and asked for some tips on how and where to get started.  After sending her a lengthy message detailing some of the basics about book publishing it occurred to me that others might want this info too, so I am happy to share what I told her:  

Happy New Year to you too and what a fun goal for a new year; to learn about publishing a book J  I would be happy to share what I know about book publishing.  I pretty much started by trial and error and did it all by myself with occasional help from Peter (my husband). 

I had decided to do some blogging and I kept writing funny blog posts about all the crazy challenges I was going through with my health.  Peter kept encouraging me to write a book so I pulled together all of the blog posts I had written, created an outline and then started writing.  Once I had it finished I had (family & friends) read it for me to get feedback and then I paid for an editor.  The price varies by editor but I think getting a good editor is extremely important.  I just used Linkedin and some writer groups on Facebook to find someone.  I paid for a graphic artist to create a cover for me and it wasn’t too expensive (less than $100 – I think it was $65?)  Once I had the book edited I created the word document how I wanted it to look and played around on the Amazon KDP website until it looked right and then I hit publish. (https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US)  There is no cost to publish a digital book, all you have to do is set up an account and put your bank info in for all of those royalties to come pouring in.

Okay so maybe you won’t make millions but I still manage a few sales each month and earn some royalties.  Of course I do continue to promote on a regular basis to try and keep sales going. 

If you want to do print copies of your book you can do print-on-demand with a company through Amazon called CreateSpace.  (https://www.createspace.com) Formatting for this can be a little trickier but Peter and I managed to figure it out.  There are folks who will do the formatting for you for a fee so I guess it just depends on how confident you are with technology.

Eventually I invested in a cool computer program for writing called Scrivener and it actually does all the formatting for you, but of course you have to learn how to use the scrivener program.  Thank goodness for YouTube videos.

Once you do actually manage to write, edit and then publish your book you will need to consider how to market your book so readers will find it.  Surprisingly this may be the hardest to accomplish.  The most important part of promotion is getting people to read and review your book.  Most folks won’t buy a book unless it has some good reviews so you need to ask friends to write a review and you find other folks willing to read and review the book for you.  I wrote a blog post about book promotion that might be helpful. http://lookingonthesunnyside.blogspot.com/2014/08/okay-i-wrote-my-book-now-what.html 

There are loads of articles online that can help too.  I basically just use social media to market my books and I rarely if ever spend any money on advertising.  I created an author page on Facebook that I use to help promote. https://www.facebook.com/LaurieWJN  I post short ads for my books on Twitter, Google+ and on various book related Facebook groups designed for promotion. 

I have decided to list my books on the Amazon KDP which means readers can borrow them from Amazon or read them free on the Kindle Unlimited service, but I do get a small fee based on how many pages people actually read of my books each month.  I personally think that for a small indie author it is the best way to get your books out there, but there is a trade off, you have to be willing to exclusively sell your online version of your books on Amazon. Since they are the largest online bookseller by far it seemed like a reasonable tradeoff to me.  There are some other places you can sell your books online that some people use, a really popular one is Smashwords.  Here is an article that lists a few of them.

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/how-to-self-publish-an-ebook/

Here are some more articles about self-publishing dos and don’ts:

http://mashable.com/2009/03/01/publish-book/#2dd1kWsJFOqg

https://www.cnet.com/news/self-publishing-a-book-25-things-you-need-to-know/

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224621

I feel like that is a ton of info to start with, but feel free to ask if you have any specific questions as you go along and good luck with your writing. 

Its that time again……

Its December 31^st and once again friends and family are discussing their goals for the upcoming year.  Yup – all the pressure that comes with the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.

To be honest I really don’t like resolutions.  I am a big fan of setting goals in life, but resolutions almost always fail because they have no real plan for success.  Setting goals without taking the time to really identify actionable steps to get you there are almost always going to fail.  Some resolutions are successful when people are willing to seriously commit the time and effort to achieve them. 

With all that said here is what I hope to accomplish in 2018

·      Drink more water – I have never been one of those people who drink lots of water.  I know water is essential for good health and for losing weight so I have gotten some new water bottles that I am trying to keep filled and with me at all times.  I also just ordered some cool new flavored water to try called ‘Hint’. I CAN do this.  If you see me tell me to drink more water.

·      Walking at least 3-5X per week – I admit I have allowed myself to get very out of shape, from someone who completed a half marathon to someone who is now overweight and badly out of shape.  I can give lots of reasons or excuses about breaking my ankle – twice, but the truth is I just need to get my butt in gear.  I know that if I start by walking I can increase my fitness level and be on the way to improved health. My new job at the Desert Botanical Gardens will really help me to accomplish this goal. I will also drag my old fitbit out of retirement to help me hold myself accountable.

·      Travel to one new place I haven’t been before – this is an ongoing goal and I am already scouring travel websites to look for good deals.  Last year I made it to Iceland and had a wonderful time.  There are so many places that I want to go.  This goal is easy because I am so motivated to get it done.

·      Finish one of my current works-in-progress – I have several partially completed books and book ideas, and I really want to do more writing this year with the goal of editing and publishing at least one of the novels I have started.  I have all the tools I need, but I have to make sure to set myself up for success by building specific writing time into my schedule and setting weekly/monthly writing goals. 

·      Read at least one book per week  - I will once again join the Goodreads Book Challenge to help me keep track of my reading and set my goal for reading 52 books in 2018.  I will also allow myself to stop reading any book that I get bored with.  I know that sometimes I get stuck reading a boring book and I feel guilty if I don’t finish, but life is too short to read bad books, especially when there are so many good books out there that I want to read. 

That’s my list for 2018.  I think I can do it, but it will take hard work and commitment.