Friday, February 8, 2013

You Only Have You




Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice. Wayne Dyer

Recent events have brought me to the following conclusion, you only have yourself to blame if you aren't getting out there. I now know that if I want to sell my book and want to make things happen for me then I can depend on myself to get it out there.

Originally this blog was simply for inspiration, but I want to document my journey. I think this is a good place to start. I will follow my progress with Long Road Full Speed Ahead. My self-publishing journey has just begun. I am going back to the tactics that led to writing my SEO marketing book. I know how to get exposure and I know how to do it without spamming or annoying others. I will share what works and what doesn't with you for free, because I think it is important to share the resources we find with one another.

I have one book coming out with GMTA in March, Zombified so I will document how that will be going as well on my Lyra Mcken site. Sometimes the two blogs might cross paths as I deal with being a self-published and traditionally published author. I will also be querying and submitting to different publishing houses so that will be another side of the information that will be on this blog. I am also working two jobs and going to Grad school. Needless to say I have a full plate, so if I can do this, anyone can!! How's that for inspiring?

The first steps I have taken to getting Long Road Full Speed Ahead out there are to give away tons of review copies, and guest post on some lovely blogs. I plan to give away more and I plan on finding more Book Blogs to go on in the near future, as well as review sites. I also have created a web page specifically for Long Road and it will soon have the Prologue and the first chapter available for anyone who would like to read it.

I will also be researching a few new places to advertise for free, as well as using some that I already use. When I create my next post about my journey I will have a lot of information for those of you looking for affordable promotion.

You are going to get the good, the bad, and the ugly. The days I am pulling my hair out to write one sentence, to that dreaded bad review. I also cleaned up my websites today and added a calendar so there is some random information you didn’t need! In the meantime, you will get another post that is simply to stimulate your mind or give you a push.

Thank you for signing on to follow my journey. It should be a wild ride!!

 Emily

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Stop Saying I Can't


As a writer I find myself trying to pump myself up about my writing. I would like to say that the words I can't never enter my mind, but it isn't true. I can't write that right now, I can't work on this; I can't get past this chapter. I am always saying I can't and that has to stop. You should try not to say I can't no matter what you are doing because it takes away your motivation, your power, and your desire to do things. 



When you say I can't, have you even tried yet? You should think about the real reason behind it. If you say, I can't write the next chapter, look at the reasons you can't. If it is because it's 'too hard' then you should reevaluate your definition of hard. Try replacing every, I can't, with I choose to. You will see that you are making a choice not to do something. Turning I can't into I can is not impossible. You never know until you try.


Erase I can't from your vocabulary and just try. If you say I can't write this chapter then think about it and jot down notes. Think of possible scenarios that could happen in the chapter. Once you get your mind out of thinking something is impossible then you will be able to accomplish it.





“To succeed, we must first believe that we can.”
- Michael Korda