Focus on 1 Thing

To be successful at anything there is one common thread among successful people. Now, preparer your mind for this concept. Are you ready?????? Here it is.  Focus On 1 Thing. When you focus on one significant thing in your life nine times out of ten it will eliminate other things . Here's an example. 

When you take 60 minutes out of the day to focus only on exercise, nine times out of ten it will eliminate the need for medication such as high blood pressure, cholesterol or other medical issues excess weight cause.

Let's look at writing. You have a deadline for a story. Take a seat, focus on your story and write for a designated timeframe. When you do, nine times out of ten, you will end up with a story by your deadline. That will eliminate the stress of that date creeping up on you, along with the long hours into the night, or days of a quick snack or junk food to fuel the extra hours you trying to take your body through. Not to mention eliminating the guilt you will feel for messing up the 60 minutes you spent on exercising earlier in the day. 

If you want to expand your reader base, take 60 minutes a day to focus on just that. Research your audience. Focus on what they do? Where they do it? Then find a way to go to them to introduce your work. Expand your reader base by one or ten, it doesn't matter how many. This will eliminate some the anxiety or inner turmoil you feel on release day. 

Focus on sleep at night. Put a timer on the television, or radio. Close your eyes. Sleep. A good night rest relieves stress and tension. It rejuvenates your body and your mind and eliminates the dragging feeling you have sometimes in the morning.  

There are a lot of people who brag on multitasking and that's okay. Successful people concentrate on 1 thing at a time. Have you ever hear the saying "Jack of all trades, master at none"? Become the master at one---YOU. 

There are 24 hours in a day. Break it down to accomplish what you want out of life. You want to lose weight. Take 30-60 minutes each day and focus on exercising. You want to expand your readers base, spend an hour focus on nothing but promotions, or finding your readers. You want to write a book. Set aside a timeframe when you will focus on nothing but that story. You want the energy to do it all again the next day? For eight hours focus on nothing but sleep. 

Focus on 1 thing. 

Just a few thoughts from Inside The Heart. 

As always you can find me at: www.irisbolling.net or www.siriaustin.com 

Until the next time

Iris 

Quality vs. Quantity

Message to Self-Published Authors

What is the first thing you think when you read an author has produced twenty books in a twelve month time span? WOW! That author is bringing in the big bucks. It’s a logical assumption. You want a piece of the action, don’t you? LOL! We all do. But, at what cost?

This is going to be short and sweet.

If you put out twenty books and only two out of the twenty were good reads, how many more of your books do you think readers will purchase? Probably none. Here’s a little something to remember. Quality will bring you a bigger bang for your money than quantity will in the long run. How, you ask? Well, let’s look at the economics of book sales. You sold one hundred books at $5.00. You made $500.00 dollars. Not bad. You put out another twenty. This time you only sold two, you made $10.00. What happened? The readers choose not to try you again. Eighteen out of the first twenty they purchased were not good. And here’s the thing, you knew it before you put the book on the market. But you put them out there anyway for the quick buck. Now, you really have a problem—negative name recognition. You have to win the faith of the readers you lost back.

Let’s take a look at another scenario. You wrote one book. You sold 100 at $5.00. You made $500.00. Not bad. In fact readers are talking about your book to others and you find you have to reprint more or your eBook sales are jumping. When you release your second book, you sell 200 on the first day. $1,000.00 in one day! This is a real WOW! You have double your sales on the first book, all from word of mouth. The readers talked about how good that first book was to their friends, bookclub members, on review sites and other readers listened. Not only did you retain you first group of readers, you have added more. Why? Quality.

The quality of your story is what will keep the readers faithful to you as an author. They will remember the characters, what they did, how they did it and who they did it to. Readers will begin to quote some of your words. But most important, the readers will share your work with other readers. Give them a piece of crap and they will not even remember the name of the book. Or worse, when they hear your name the will smirk, “Don’t waste your money.”

Quality vs. Quantity…..Quality wins hands down, every time. When writing your novels, but your big toe in it the mix. It will pay off in the long run.