New Calves! - Garden is sprouting - Books evolving...
Four calves now. One is entirely black. The new container sprouts delight wife. Books are wanting me to re-write them - but I've got tricks up my sleeve...
Hi,
Rain still comes, but not as frequently. Funny how we had that equinox, then a gully-washing rain, then northern lights in Florida, then more rain. My books still haunting me to to finish them. Ideas on this have boiled down…
Farming News - Up to four calves now. All heifers. #3 is featured.
Writing News - Copywriting research found me re-writing my books in my mind. That won’t do. So it’s Kickstarter to the rescue (and maybe a podcast…)
Expectancy - Writing brings up the point that we all have to have some sort of world-framing model we use to survive everything.
Farming News
Calf Number 3! Another heifer.
No white anywhere but head. Has a little black on the bottom of her eyes. And that notch of black on the top left of her head. (Next week, you’ll see I skipped a tag number.)
And - your suggestions on a name? These are getting tough. A serendipitous challenge for you.
Tagging has gotten simpler. Had a nearly worn through jeans jacket with 6 pockets. Cut the worn sleeves off, then put the tags and their “pliers” into inside pockets. Two yellow, two white (Yellow for heifers, White for bull-calves.)
Moved the cows twice since I got them out of the yard. Then moved them again this morning - back to the Miscanthus.
Remember how I was so happy they were keeping it grazed down? Just a couple inches tall? Now look what happened while they were out grazing our lawns:
It’s up to their bellies in a little under three weeks. Yes, this is a cane that grows 12 feet tall by August. I’m going to see if I can’t get them shut into it completely. They have food and water and shelter there, so maybe all I have to bring down is some salt and minerals…
Oh - when I took the herd back to other pastures, I separated out the two bulls. So they are up at the house and content. We’ll put the Hereford bull back in in late July, which will give us April-May calves again. Mostly.
Tiny Home News
Gardening continues this week.
Just about done. Note the fence all around now - to keep our peacocks out. And look close to see the tomato cages. Potatoes by the back fence. Melons will be the furthest away in this picture, up hill. And carrots are still planned.
All that took a chunk of our budget, but will pay for itself later in abundance. Just have to keep watering everything this summer.
Cows did a number on the elderberry bush - so I tied what survived together and: we’ll see. (I’ve got a lot of elderberry in other places, though.)
Speaking of peacocks…
Writing News
The boiling down of “Talk Like TED” did simply confirm that the core elements in “Made to Stick” and “Contagious” were all there. I’ve got a summary in the book now. That wraps up the Viral Copywriting part of that book.
I found myself re-writing the Writerpreneur book in my mind. And that’s a sign that the book needs to get shipped. I should get the marked-up proof copy back today and start tweaking things.
Now, we mentioned Kickstarting last week. And that turns out to be a completely valid way of having a book launch. I found a writer who had gotten so disappointed with Amazon’s sales that he simply had been selling only on Kickstarter. And making 6-figures a year. But he’s found that he was leaving money on the table. So now he has a podcast which is covering his experiences in shipping them to the online distributors and what he learns. (I”m not one for podcasts, since they take so long, but I found at 1.5x speed, I can still understand them as I listen while out on my pasture walks. Instead of talking to myself.)
Anyway, the idea last week was to do some 18-minute TED talk videos to introduce and sell the books. But I was toying with putting that text into the book - which was both repetitive and wrecked the flow of the book. I’d have to do a re-write. The solution hit me: make that the course, and offer the videos and transcripts as an additional tidbit for a higher sponsor amount. Complimentary to the book, but not replacing it.
These video’s will be produced in six-minute parts, each a week apart. Nine of them. An hour’s worth of video. Teaches the key parts in the book, while promoting the upcoming Kickstarter - one which pays for having a professional editing, proofing, and cover done for the book. It’s tempting to go ahead and publish - but one author on a podcast reminded me that the value of the book release is in having all possible versions available when it’s formally released. Another reason for pre-releases. The Kickstarter edition will go out through Lulu (as dust-jacketed and casewrap hardbacks, and a trade paperback, plus a Large Print edition. If the stretch goals fit, I’ll then also get the audiobook produced. Meanwhile I’ll set up to sell hardbacks and paperbacks (and audiobook) off my own site (for less). Ebooks will be available everywhere. Lots more work than when I was simply cranking out ebooks that wouldn’t sell.
If I run into needing updates, then these will probably go out through Draft2Digital as a 2.0 version. That arrangement hedges my bets and keeps me from getting blindsided by any single basket dropping all my eggs.
And so, I evolve my book marketing. Once I get through these tests, then the resulting write-ups will later (year or so from now) make a sequel to the original book - released in another Kickstarter.
If I can get these five books out this year, then next year will be filled with re-releases. Because my research continues to refine what I’d learned earlier.
Or - I can now re-release all my earlier books into “boxed” sets along with the courses and audiobook, all versions of print. This then brings us right back to the core message of Writerpreneur OS - to deliver in all formats and versions to gain the widest audience, and additional sales.
Our Writing Mission
In these five books is a mission to bring out a series of books which cover the real working basics needed by a Writerpreneur. First is the working basics, based on what still works after 15 years of publishing. Second is to extract the core principles and devices of copywriting. Then we go through what looks to be three books which revive the W. S. Campbell materials - from his ultra-successful writer-training course of the 1940’s
For me, I’m improving my craft. And leaving a trail to follow.
This samples my own dog-food, by testing everything I recommend, and coming out with all possible versions right out of the gate, and leveraging everything I produce through Kickstarter release through to retail distributors with POD publishing.
The whole point is to reveal your heart song to the world, and invite people to come along on the journey - which has been my usual operation. This time, I’m enabling Kickstarter to help people contribute to the production and become part of my mission and form a movement.
Just wanted to let you know.
The Recurring Special Offer:
MEANWHILE, the beta-readers version of Writerpreneur OS is still available. The proofing just wrapped up yesterday, so I’ll start incorporating these tweaks as I research more into running Kickstarters.
The last updated beta-version is there now. (So you can download the new and improved edition if you already have it from earlier.)
Here’s the link: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/WOS01-beta-readers
Find the oopsies. Leave comments, reviews. Ask questions. Be one of the first anywhere.
Between 250 and 300 pages, depending on format. Available are epub and PDF. No charge. (Free download, in other words.)
Nearly 20 years of writing-publishing-entrepreneuring - all rolled into a single book. And updated. Condensed.
AN ASK: if you’ve downloaded it, please give some feedback. Leave it in the comments, send me an email. Something, anything. Like it, could be better.
Expectancy Revealed
I was listening to a couple of authors on their podcast go on about how they had to get their own “feelings” out of the way in order to write. And one was explaining to the other about how the brain did this and that, but the underlying problem was irrational fear.
One was taking anti-depressants to solve it. But the pharma folks have sold us on the idea that the brain is the mind, so suppressing the chemistry of the brain then helps you “think” better. Technically, the mind doesn’t exist physically in the body. And Napoleon Hill held that the brain was simply a sending-and-receiving antenna. What’s “bothering” you more likely goes back to Levenson’s releasing points - approval, security, control, belonging. And all these fueled by fear, particularly Fear of Death. Once you can get down to resolving that one, then the rest dissolve - but most have to release a lot of those top “wants” first.
Natural solutions work best with no chemical side-effects. Follow your feelings back to your core issues, then you’ll be able to resolve what is really bothering you. Then you hit that “Zen” point, that “being in the Zone” feeling. And can reproduce that particular level of awareness any time you want. It’s also called “grace” and the “peace that passes all understanding”.
I can only recommend that you get a mental model that has God in it. All the best self-help “guru’s” I’ve followed did exactly that: Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, Lester Levenson, Jose Silva. And there are others. But when a person leaves God out of the equation in favor of mechanical (and chemical) solutions, those add a veneer of complexity. And the more complex something is, the easier it breaks. Been there, done that.
Underlying any successful mental model is the same elements we all use, couched in simple phrases such as: We become what we think about, We expect is what we’ll receive, and The way you treat others teaches them how to treat you.
Now you have the extreme shorthand for all I’ve found successful over my six decades of living.
Thanks for being there, opening this.
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Leave a comment if something strikes your fancy.
I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)
Robert
PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.
PPS. Again, do upgrade to the paid newsletter version. That helps me keep the lights on - so I can keep all this coming to you. As much or little as you want…
PPPS. I’m considering putting my entire library up (digital versions) for the Patron (Founding Member) level. I’ve done that before in parts, as many of you know. Do let me know what you think about that idea. Reply to this email, or leave a comment on my Substack page for this.
(Meanwhile, I’ve put my archived newsletters and articles all available as free, instead of behind a paywall.)