Update: Natural Remedy Book Almost Done!

I am pleased to announce that I am in the final stages of completing my self-help book about natural remedies, with the current working title Beautiful Inside and Out: 7 Natural Remedies You Should Try Everyday.

The title Inside and Out refers to the fact that I have done tips for your inner well being (Inside) and tips for your outer well being, so anything to make you look better (Outside)!

As I have mentioned on my Books page this has been something I have been working on for the last 2 years, it is something that is really close to my heart, and as corny as this may sound I genuinely want these tips to help you out.

A big reason why I wanted to write this book was the lack of decent evidence backing up the usefulness of the remedies themselves: all the articles I had read would just claim that the ingredient in person was fantastic and had multiple uses, but I would often try and be disappointed with the results. Of course experimentation was half the fun, but I wanted to research for myself what was proven to work, so if I was to recommend anything, I would have something to back up what I said.

And I think that is what makes my book stand out: it is the fruit of my labour and I have carefully picked what I think will prove of some benefit to you in one way or another.

I will post more details about the book when it close to ready with giveaway offers of course J

But I would like to know what you would like to see in the book, please post your comments below!

If you want to read more about the natural remedies book please visit my sister site homeremedyzone.blogspot.com.au :)

How to Remain Motivated-When There is Nothing to Motivate You

This is something that has been particularly relevant for me, having just come back from holiday!

How do you maintain and muster the desire to keep going, even when there is no reward or end in sight? I could very well be writing for myself for the rest of myself and not sell one copy, so why am I bothering to keep writing?

That is a million dollar question and honestly I don’t have the answer for you but after having read several bits of advice online all I can say is this:

If you are only doing something for monetary gain, then you don’t really love it at all.

No, I’m not saying you should just drop your job because you don’t love it, but let’s be honest there is a fine line between doing something you could do all day long and not get paid, and doing something you are good at, can do for a long time, and get paid for. Do you know where I am going with this?

It is hard to find a balance, especially with the current economy. We need money to enjoy a decent lifestyle, and I will be upfront and honest and say that I would rather do a job that I don’t LOVE, but can tolerate so I can pay the bills, rather than risk it all for something I’m not sure will work out.

So what I am trying to say is: if you have a job that pays the bills, STICK TO IT. But, if there is something you enjoy doing, keep doing it when you can! Unless you win the lotto tomorrow, unfortunately you have to suck it up and stick to your day job whilst you work on what you enjoy doing on the side.

Honestly, I enjoy writing but I don’t know if it is at a level where it could sell copies. I am just enjoying it as a hobby at the moment and having no time frame has kept me enjoying it. So my advice to myself, and hopefully this helps you too: I have found that having a job that I know I want to leave one day is what is keeping me motivated. Sure it isn't making me want to write 100 pages a day but it keeps my goals in check. Also, I have learnt to enjoy and appreciate my job as opposed to just hating it and wanting to leave because I have to be honest with myself. I will be working for a long time so I might as well enjoy it. Having a job has allowed me to enjoy weekends and go on holidays etc., and there is still plenty of time after work and on weekends for me to write.

Whilst I have my days (or weeks depending on the workload) where I would much rather stay at home and write to my heart’s content rather than drag my sorry ass to work and do mind-numbing tasks (is it just me but is all I do in my job consist of having to read, reply to and send emails?). But that is life and instead of being negative about it, I have learnt to (or am learning to) get over it and become more efficient with my time.

I like that I have the luxury of having lazy days and still getting paid, instead of having to stress out and work much longer hours to pay the bills. I like being able to have those days where I don’t feel the need to write and can take a break from it when I need to. I have had plenty of times where I suffer writer’s block or lack a creative punch and I can rest assured that I don’t need to write to a time frame.

So all in all, what I’m trying to say is in order for you to stay motivated, you need to remind yourself of what you have already and use that as your inspiration. For me, it’s having a full time job and the dream of not needing to rely on it anymore. For others it could be their children, wanting to provide them a better life, or wanting to provide for their family more. Find a reason, but at the same time stick to whatever means you have of producing a solid and consistent income. There will be days where you will be more than thankful, and you will be glad you have it as a windfall.

My final thoughts are (at least for someone in my situation): don’t think of your job as an impediment to your dreams but more of a catalyst to enable what you want to do more efficiently. Because even though I have faced this ‘dilemma’ several times, I know myself. If I was to quit my job, even though I would be happy to have more free time I wouldn't be any more productive. Instead I would just sleep in, write a few hours a day and spend the rest of it being a couch potato and eating more. I would be so happy with all the extra free time that it would feel like a permanent vacation.

This image below helps me put everything into perspective lol

So when you go to bed tonight, don’t look at going to work like it’s the worst thing in the world, instead be grateful to have a good income, and use it to motivate you to work harder when you get home! I'm not trying to be obnoxious here and tell you to love your job - because I certainly don't - but I have learnt to enjoy it as much as I can, and I am so thankful that I have an avenue that allows me to write in my free time :)

What motivates you? Do you agree or disagree with my post?

Post your comments below!

How to Start Building Your Author Brand-Starting From The Bottom

This is something that I am learning as I go along but if you are like me, and just love writing, does the thought of actually promoting yourself scare you?

It certainly scares me-yes I am using present tense because it is something that does make me nervous.

I used to make so many excuses for myself:

-I will eventually sell lots of books, just need to worry about writing a good story first

-The sales will follow, and I won’t need to promote myself: if the story is good, people will jump on it and word of mouth is all I need

-I’m too busy to learn about how to promote and market myself-I have a book to write!

I had to go back to reality and tell myself that if I want to go down the self-publishing route, I have to start promoting myself RIGHT NOW.

But where do I start? As someone completely new to internet marketing and what not, how do you go about promoting yourself? I always hear that with the advent of social media, people are becoming narcissistic and that all they do is take photos of themselves etc., and that’s why they would never use social media etc.

But guess what, for us wanna-be self-published authors we have to get over that mentality, in fact we need to embrace the need for self-promotion.

No you don’t have to take a photo of what you eat every day, no you don’t need to take a photo of yourself in a bikini (as if I would!)

I’m sure that at one point or another, you may have Googled for help on how to promote your books, how to sell more books and Google being Google, there are thousands, if not millions of articles out there.

That’s what I thought when I wanted to first start researching, and I was more than overwhelmed when I started reading them.

‘You need to start a blog, and create a mailing list’

‘You need to actively promote yourself on social media-Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc’

‘You need to customise your website and update with content consistently’

I got so confused that I almost wanted to STOP writing altogether, I’m serious!

I didn’t know where to start, which was the best way to go in terms of getting my name out there, it seemed like I had to do about 10 things at a time to promote myself. And obviously different things work for different people so I read a lot of contrasting advice:

-You need to start blogging and promote yourself to promote the launch of your debut novel.

As opposed to

-You need to have written several books BEFORE you start promoting your novel.

And what about someone with various book projects, in different genres and facets like myself? In one of my previous posts I shared the most insightful advice from Kim @ Your Writer Platform, about how to structure your website/blog and how to plan how to publish your content. If you are in that category of not knowing needing some guidance on that first step please check that link out.

But this post is for those that are starting out, that have felt a bit overwhelmed with all the ‘things and stuff’ you need to do to be a credible author.

I have copied in the most simple and profound advice from a best-selling author Tom Carson-Knowles who simplified it for me, giving me the clarity I needed:

This was my question:

Hi Tom,
Firstly I just want to say thanks for putting out great content, I am really glad I came across your course!

I am currently in the midst of writing several books in different genres: one novel, one self help book about networking, and one on natural remedies.
I am quite lost on how to get started as these books are all quite different, I thought the best way to promote them whilst creating a following was to create a website/blog dedicated to my journey as a self-published author, and feature all the books there.
Do you think that is a good idea or do I need to do something more specific?
Regards,
Maggie 

His response, although it was short, was to the point and exactly the guidance I needed.

His response:

I'm all about simplicity, so I'd rather have one website and one blog and one Facebook page, etc. to promote all my work on. It takes A LOT less time to manage one website vs. 3 or more for each market you write for. And as they say, time is money :) When you're just starting out, the key is just to get started. Whatever mistakes you make, you can correct along the way. That's just my personal preference - there's no right or wrong way to do it. Hope that helps!

 

His advice really gave me clarity and direction, and I have kept his response in a little journal for me to refer to whenever I am lost. There is no right time to start doing anything, you just have to start now and work with it, because the sooner you start the sooner you will start learning how to improve.

As a result I have decided to join Twitter: I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, and I’m still getting acquainted with it as I write this post-I mean what is the point of hashtags?

But you know what, only 2 weeks in and I have a 100 followers, all within my target market: aspiring authors, publishers, support groups and such. I even got a few bestselling authors to start following me! My point is, if I had started being active at the beginning of the year who knows how many more followers I could have gotten by now, and I would have a much better leverage to start promoting my book? (FYI I am no expert on Twitter and I am a complete noob, but if I get better at it I will share any insights I learn!)

Now that I have thrown myself into using Twitter, I feel more confident about updating this blog, because I am getting more traffic as a result from using Twitter, I don’t feel as nervous or as scared anymore. I try and take little ‘wins’ as something to be excited and proud of!

What are your thoughts, do you agree?

Lastly, follow me on Twitter @ MaggieintheWay lol :p (thought I would throw that one in there haha)

Happy writing everyone!