YOU’RE ON DEATH ROW – WHAT’S YOUR LAST MEAL?

This fun guest post is by Valerie Rind, author of GOLD DIGGERS & DEADBEAT DADS at www.valerierind.com .

Imagine that you’re incarcerated.

BarbedWireXSmall (2)Living your final days in solitary confinement.

The Governor hasn’t called with a last minute pardon and your lawyer gave up long ago. 

You get to order anything you want for your last meal on death row. Any cuisine! What will be on your plate?

I’d order pizza. New York style (is there any other?), with lots of veggies. 

Wait, add the pepperoni!

It’s greasy and fattening, but I don’t need to worry about gaining weight tonight. My orange prison jumpsuit is still baggy.

The prison doctor may weigh me in the morning to calculate how much lethal liquid to inject into my bloodstream.

But something tells me I won’t be worrying about what he or anyone else thinks about my physique.

Do they serve beer or wine with The Last Supper in prison?

A glass or three of a nice Australian shiraz, please.

No alcohol? OK, fresh squeezed lemonade.  And not that instant powdery stuff.

My dessert has to be Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.  Either Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch or Pistachio Pistachio.

Or both. I’m not picky.

And I get to have a pre-execution snack, right? Twizzler’s red licorice, of course.

What would you order for the last meal of your life?

Why wait? Have it tonight.

It won’t kill you.

*   *   *

Val2Valerie Rind is a friend who’s authored a tremendous financial advice book titled Golddiggers and Deadbeat Dads. Get it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Diggers-Deadbeat-Dads-Financial-ebook/dp/B00QO4U3P8 . Here’s a bio from Valerie.

During a hiatus from my career as a corporate attorney, I worked for a local housing authority, where I created its pilot personal finance program for 300 low-income individuals. Well, that sure was a change of pace …

Val1I founded VSJ Enterprises, LLC, a company that provided budget counseling for private clients. It’s now a publishing company with a grand total of one title and is a proud member of the Independent Book Publishers Association. For fun, I served as one of the founding volunteer moderators for the myFICO community forum. My resume is a checkerboard with gigs like sailing on Caribbean yachts, running the office of a TV/film casting company, and negotiating megabucks contracts for a Fortune 200 technology company. Irrelevant credentials: BA in Russian Language & Literature from Duke University. LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Sydney. Yes, in Australia. I currently live in the Washington, DC area.

Not interested in coffee. Fueled by red Twizzlers!

Valerie Rind is the author of GOLD DIGGERS & DEADBEAT DADS. Visit her website at www.valerierind.com  Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ValerieRind

I highly recommend Valerie’s book. It should be mandatory reading in the library of life.

 

 

HOW TO MARKET A BOOK

Who is Joanna Penn and what does she know about marketing books?

Joanna PennI’ve never met Joanna in person, but I consider her a good friend. An internet friend. A modern day version of the old Penn-Pal, only without stamps.

Joanna is the reason I can brag about being an Amazon Top 10 BestSelling writer. I wrote a good book, which is job #1 for all authors, but it was Joanna who taught me how to market it. And without good marketing, my good book would never have made the good list.

Creative PennJoanna is the London, England, based creator of www.TheCreativePenn.com; consistently rated a Top 10 internet site for writers. For five years she’s led the pack in giving back her hard-earned knowledge to the international writing community and she’s got one hell of a loyal following.

How To Market Book #!Joanna is also one hell of a good thriller writer and I’m honored to work with her as a technical resource and Beta-Reader, but what I really want to brag about is her new release… How To Market A Book.

So what is ‘Marketing’ – Really?

Joanna says “Marketing is about sharing what you love with people who truly value hearing about it.”

So how do you go about doing that?

Well, How To Market A Book covers an extensive range of marketing principles, strategies, and tactics:

Part 1: Marketing Principles

Handshake WorldIncludes myths, how to balance your time, ‘co-opetition’, and generosity.

Part 2: Prerequisites for Success

Understand yourself and your target market, professional editing and cover design, your book page on the retailer websites, pricing, and the use of free.

Part 3: No Platform Needed – Short-term Marketing

Book ReviewsHow to get book reviews, paid advertising, using traditional media and tips for TV, radio, and press releases.

Part 4: The Author Platform – Long-term Marketing

What ‘platform’ is and why it’s a good thing, author branding, your  website, list-building and email marketing, content marketing and blogging, audio and podcasting, video and book trailers, social networking, professional speaking, and becoming an author-entrepreneur.

Part 5: Launching Your Book

Book LaunchHow launching has changed with the digital revolution; soft launches, launch spikes, post launch and relaunch, as well as lessons learned from some major book launches.

There are some short-term tactics for those who want to kick up immediate sales, but the focus of the book is more about instilling values and marketing principles that will help your long-term career as a writer.

Joanna SpeakingJoanna goes beyond selling books. The methods in this guide will take you from being an author into professional speaking, making money from other products, and creating opportunities that you can’t even imagine yet.

How To Market A Book is just that – a How-To on what works… and what doesn’t…  in social media, presentations, audio & podcasts, brand-building, and on-line relationship building. She tells you exactly what algorithms, keywords, metadata, and SEOs are, and she has a particularly juicy part ‘Meat, Hook & Format – What Really Baits a Reader’.

Joanna GunI’m a big Joanna Penn fan and I love bragging about the effect she’s had on me. Her on-line mentoring and personal generosity helped my debut novel open in the Top 10 on Amazon and I’ve steadily built my blogsite and social media contacts based on her teachings.

How To Market Book #!It’s working for me. It’ll work for you. I can’t say enough about the benefits you’ll get from How To Market A Book.

http://www.amazon.com/How-To-Market-Book-ebook/dp/B00DO9HJF8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1373040391&sr=1-1&keywords=how+to+market+a+book+joanna+penn

Think about marketing the next time you pick up a Penn.