The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

Maybe you should write a book! This is not as difficult as it sounds. You’re already an expert in a field by virtue of your work experience and/or academic credentials. And even more important, you are enthusiastic about your field and would like to share it.

Fine, but with whom? Decide what specific group of people, such as lawyers or gardeners or teachers or social workers or colleagues, as an audience for your book. What would your audience be most interested in and why? How would your book address that audience’s needs?

Next, make a list of tentative titles for your book and keep adding to it. Words such as “how to” are effective. Find other possibilities by visiting a bookstore and browsing in the stacks of related books. Pay attention to books that you pick up and leaf through and glance at their tables of contents. What material do those books cover and who are their publishers? What aren’t they covering? How could YOU fill in what is missing?

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Suppose he or she wanted a book in your topic, but was unable to locate it in a library or bookstore. What material would he or she be most interested in?

Go back and review your list of titles. Which one(s) would literally grab your attention and why? Show your list to family members and friends and invite them to choose their favorite title. And finally, consider what you have and select one of the tentative titles.

Now you are ready to develop a list of chapters for your book! Each chapter should support your title and “speak” to your intended audience. If your book is about developing great websites, for example, then every chapter should tell your reader how to do just that, from start to finish.

Next, write 2 or 3 sample chapters and while you are at it, check references such as the Writer’s Market for possible publishers. Make a list of ten of these possible publishers for your book and create a letter that describes your book. Such a letter is known as a query letter. In it, mention your book’s tentative title and a few of its highlights. Explain how your book is better than competing books and why you are the best person to write it. Then send that query letter, accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope, to each of the ten editors in your list.

In the meantime, continue writing your chapters.

Editors will probably not respond immediately and when they do, their letters may state their interest in your book, and would you submit two or three sample chapters? On the other hand, quite a few editors may politely decline. Find five or ten more possible publishers to contact about your book.

In a few months from now, you may be busily at work on a book which has been commissioned by a publisher and will likely be published. Don’t worry about rejections. Experienced, published writers get them all of the time, but keep going, nevertheless. That is what you should be doing too. Recognition of your expertise awaits! Happy writing.

Dorothy Zjawin’s writing credits include published articles and a book that are based on her teaching experience. Her website, http://www.profitable-pen.com, is a resource site for all writers and features a free forum.

I became a self-publisher in 1974, when I started the Word
Doctor Publications. In 2001, I turned to Print-on-Demand (POD)
Publishing, better named POD Partnership Publishing.

I have now published four books this way, through iUniverse.com.
I am glad I did so and pleased with the results.

These books include my new biblical novel, “Abraham, The Dreamer
- An Erotic and Sacred Love Story,” new editions of two
self-published books, the retitled, “A Jewish Novel About
Jesus,” a spiritual self-help book, “Sparks of Spirit - How to
Find Love and Meaning in Your Life 24 Hours a Day,” and a
contemporary comedy-drama (screenplay), “The Messiah of Midtown
Park.”

Why did I switch from independent- or self-publishing to
partnership publishing? I have three reasons: occupational
preference, economics, and longevity (book survival).

After 40 years of working for a living, I was free finally to
choose what I wanted to do full-time and how I wanted to do it.

OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE: While I find everything about books
fascinating, I realized that I truly prefer writing to
publishing. I’m a writer. That’s my passion. I decided to
concentrate on writing.

ECONOMICS: The best thing about self-publishing is that it gives
the author total control. But the economics of self- publishing
are something else again. They are not as glowing as they often
sound or as rosy as they are often painted. There is a great
economic squeeze play that cuts deeply into profits. Take a book
that sells for $14.95, for instance. A distributor or wholesaler
requires a 50 percent discount, and more. That leaves you with
$7.50 (rounded off). The printing cost can be anywhere from $2
to $3 a book. That leaves you with $4.50 a book. Out of this you
may have to pay shipping costs (media rate is $1.42, for one
pound or less, USPS). Then there are publicity, promotion and
marketing expenses. You may even have to accept returns of books
that didn’t sell, for credit or refund. It takes skill to
operate a profitable business. I preferred the challenges of
writing to the challenges of business.

LONGEVITY: This is a very personal, subjective matter, an
“author-thing.” Writing, at its deepest level, has to do with
making a statement about life, asserting one’s identity, seeking
immortality. Commercial publishing is about the bottom line: Can
the book make money, preferably big money? If not, it does not
get published. If it does get published, it is given three to
nine months to succeed. If the book does not make it within that
time period, its life is over.

Self-publishing, on the other hand, allows for a book’s
nurturing and longer lifespan . But when a company changes hands
or goes out of business, a book’s life may end.

That is where Print-on-Demand Partnership Publishing provides an
ideal answer. The new digital technology eliminates the need for
costly inventory. A 300-page book can be printed, cover and all,
in less than 30 seconds.

POD printing/publishing allows books to be kept alive virtually
“forever.” -It allows books to be discovered and rediscovered.
-It allows one or many copies to be printed instantly, on
demand. -It allows ongoing profits to be made, by all concerned.
-It allows authors to take control of the writing and marketing
of their books, while the publisher provides the technical
support and services -including printing, online bookstores,
author websites, listings, order fulfillment, sales- and
royalty- reports, and various forms of author support.

Years ago, vanity publishers existed to publish the works of
amateur writers at a high cost, paid for by the writer. Few of
their books were actually printed and even fewer sold. These
books had little if any value and were generally shunned.

Some refer to today’s POD publishing as vanity publishing, or,
more politely, as subsidy publishing. True, the decision to
publish lies with the author, not the publisher. It involves a
nominal fee, which means that anyone can get a book published,
including amateur writers.

However, POD publishing attracts a great many professional
writers, with excellent track records. POD-published books get
picked up by commercial publishers. POD books also generate
significant media attention.

When the self-publishing movement began in the 1960s and 1970s,
self-publishers were often stigmatized as vanity publishers.
Today, self-publishing is a major, economic force. Estimates
vary as to the actual number of independent publishers, from
25,000 and up, and from one-title firms to firms with 2,500
titles in print.

Why would professional writers go the route of Print-on-Demand
Partnership Publishing? There are several reasons: their book
may have been turned down by their own commercial publisher;
they may not have been able to find an agent or commercial
publisher; or they may not have wanted to wait the nearly two
years it takes to get a book published by a commercial
publisher, when they could get it published within two or three
months through a POD publisher. (My third POD book was in print
within three weeks, from the time of submission!)

Here are some examples, for instance, of professional writers
who have been published through iUniverse:

RIANE EISLER - whose non-fiction book, “The Chalice and the
Blade” sold 600,000 copies world-wide - published “The Gate”
through iUniverse, a fictionalized, dramatic new memoir of her
years growing up in pre-Castro Cuba after a narrow escape from
the Holocaust in Nazi Europe.

COLLIN KELLEY’s poetry book, “Better to Travel,” is currently a
nominee for the Georgia Author of the Year Award.

LAWRENCE BLOCK, author of the iUniverse book, “Random Walk,” is
an award-winning crime fiction writer, whose published works
include 50 novels.

RON CUTLER is an award-winning filmmaker and author of nine
novels, including iUniverse’s “The Firstborn.”

JOYCE MANARD’S iUniverse book, “To Die For,” was originally
published in 1991 and made into an acclaimed film, starring
Nicole Kidman.

Some iUniverse authors, who have had their books picked up by
commercial publishers, include:

LAURIE NOTARO, author of “The Idiot Girl’s Action Adventure
Club” (2000), which was picked up within a year by Random House
and hit the Top Ten on the New York Times Best-Seller List.

MIKE HAWLEY’s first book, “The Double Bluff” (2001), was picked
up by Penguin-Putnam as a mass market paperback under the Onix
imprint. Hawley was given a contract for two more books.

BILL PURCELL’s book, “The Dark One,” was picked up by Wizards of
the Coast, after they had turned it down originally. Purcell was
signed to a four-book deal, with a terrific advance.

POD publishing is here to stay. iUniverse, for instance,
currently has 11,367 authors and 15,515 book titles. It
publishes 400 new titles a month. It received the Editors’
Choice Award from PC Magazine, with a five out of five-star
rating.

There are other POD publishers, so you need to check them out
and evaluate their various services carefully.

There are pros and cons to any of the three publishing models:
1) commercial publishing; 2) independent, self-publishing; and
3) POD partnership publishing. Some I have already mentioned.
Following are others:

With POD partnership publishing, authors are totally responsible
for publicizing, promoting and marketing their books. That’s a
lot of work, if you do it yourself. It takes know-how, time and
money. Or you must hire a book publicist to do this for you.
That costs money.

Yet you’re not much better off with commercial publishers, who
will only do a certain amount of publicity, promotion and
marketing for your book. If you’re not one of their superstars,
your book will just get some basic publicity, promotion and
marketing. You need to supplement what they do, or your book
will fall through the cracks - and disappear quickly.

That’s what almost happened to ANITA DIAMANT, author of “The Red
Tent,” published by St. Martin’s Press. When Picador USA decided
to bring it out as a trade paperback, St. Martin’s announced it
would remainder the hardbacks.

Diamant pleaded with them not to do so but use them for
promotion. She suggested that they be sent out to clergy.
Diamant got the lists and the publisher paid the postage,
provided the books, and mailed them to female rabbis in Reform
Judaism, followed by a mailing to male and female rabbis of
Reconstructionist Judaism.

Diamant also had the publisher send around 200 copies to
Christian women ministers in New England. That made the
difference. The book went on to sell 1 ½ million copies in the
US. and was published in 18 countries.

The other serious problem is media bias against POD partnership
publishing. Some trade and consumer publications actually have a
policy against POD published books - they will not review them.

There are now 150,000 new titles and editions published every
year.

Yet commercial publishing does not guarantee that your book will
get reviewed. The Library Journal, a major trade publication,
receives 40,000 new books published every year. It reviews 6000
of these, representing only four percent of the 150,000 new
books published every year!

Consumer publications review even fewer books. The Los Angeles
Times, a major metropolitan newspaper, only reviews 1500 books a
year, representing one percent of the 150,000 new books
published every year!

What, then, are the chances of getting published commercially?
HarperCollins Publishers, one of the major publishing companies
in the US, reportedly receives 10,000 submissions a year. Of
these, only 75 books, less than one percent submitted, get
published. Even then, the chances of success are slim. While the
figures vary, they indicate that only 1 out of 7 or 1 out of 10
books published commercially make a profit. These are among the
reasons why other publishing models came into being.

Once authors were at the mercy of agents and commercial
publishers. No more. That changed when the independent self-
publishing movement came into being. Today, thanks to digital
technology, POD partnership publishing provides a legitimate,
additional choice.

Authors can now get published. Then, through effort and
resourcefulness, they can find ways to connect with their
readers.

In the final analysis, there are only two kinds of books and
writers: bad books and good books, bad writers and good writers.

WORD COUNT Headline/byline: 8 Words (body): 1678 Resource box:
74 TOTAL 1760

When you plan your lesson for your Language Arts classes, you need to have your curriculum guide by your side. Contrary to what most people think, you should never let the textbook be your guide. The objectives for your lesson come from the curriculum and if there is something in the textbook that fits with that, then good. It makes it much easier to plan.

Let’s take a look at a common objective in Language Arts:
“Students will make personal connections to the text and share their ideas in a variety of ways.”

This objective leaves the door wide open for a whole host of possibilities. You might have three Grade 1 or Grade 5 classes in the same school and the objective is the same. The expectations are different for each grade level and the three teachers can teach completely different lessons and still achieve that objective.

What part does writing and speaking play in achieving this objective? Let’s start by looking at what writing and speaking actually mean in the classrooms of today. Students are expected to communicate in various ways – through role-play, thinking out loud, small and large group discussion and by writing. Connecting with the text invites the students to give their own interpretation of what they read. They can use small group discussions and speak their minds by discussing the text with a group of classmates. This is often the strategy most teachers use in the higher grades where you have students that tend to be too shy to speak out in class.

Although discussion is common in the Primary classroom, quite often the teacher has to draw out the student responses by asking questions, such as:

How did that story make you feel? Why?

Did you like the main character? Why or why not?

What would you have done differently? Why?

Would you have done the same thing as ……?

This type of questioning helps to invite the children to speak out in class. The teacher accepts all answers and often records them on the board or chart paper. While young children cannot do a lot of writing, they can still express their opinions by drawing a picture related to the text and write a sentence explaining the picture.

Once students are exposed to this type of writing and speaking in Language Arts classes, they know what to expect as they move up through the grades. Open-ended questions are the norm in elementary, junior high and high school classes, as the types of writing and speaking take on a more formal mode. The types of expectations are also varied, so a formal connection does not have to take place with every text. Some examples of connections through writing could include responding to the text as a journal entry or writing a formal essay. Speaking can take the form of just stating an opinion, class discussion or a formal debate.

Using these techniques you can use literature to teach proper conventions in writing and speaking without the drill and practice techniques often used in schools.

Frances Stanford is the owner of F & D Teaching Aids - a publishing company located in Grates Cove, Newfoundland, Canada, specializing in language arts resources and novel study guides. As a retired teacher with 30 years of classroom experience, she has turned her attention to helping other teachers with their lesson planning needs.
http://www.lessonplansandmore.com

What is Color? Color is light. Light is energy and travels in
waves (according to theory) Light waves originate from a source
such as the sun, a light bulb, a fire, etc. In these sources of
light, there are many different wavelengths. Wavelength is
measured from crest to crest in nanometers (billionths of a
meter) or in mill microns (Millionths of a millimeter). The
human visible spectrum of color range is considered to be
between 380 mill microns and 770 mill microns and is part of the
much larger electromagnetic spectrum.

Sir Isaac Newton established that a beam of “colorless” light
passing through a prism is refracted or bent into separate bands
of colors, in the seventeenth century. These are known as the
colors of the visible spectrum. Each color has its own
wavelength. When all the wavelengths are combined “white” light
is produced. All individual and combinations of colors are
inherent in white light. In nature this is seen as a rainbow.

HOW WE SEE COLOR In “white” or “colorless” light all visible
colors are contained. With each perceived color light energy
travels in waves having a dominant wave length which differs
from the wave length of any other perceived color.

Human eyes or vision acts as if it has “color receptors”. One
set of receptors is sensitive to red wave lengths of light, a
second is receptive to green wave lengths, and the third is
sensitive to blue-violet wave lengths. When the red and green
receptors are stimulated we see yellow. The various colors of
the spectrum are seen depending on the strength and mixture of
wave lengths which strike our receptors.

We see colorless or white light when our receptors are
stimulated equally. Color then is a sensation resulting from
light energy impinging on receptors in our eyes which our brain
interprets as being various combinations of red, blue and green.

>From the foreground it can be seen depending upon the quantity
of light and the quality of light available to the viewer.
Without any light there is no visual perception at all, let
alone of color. (It doesn’t take many moments in a pitch black
room to prove this to ourselves, or when we see brilliant colors
fade to a neutral gray and finally disappear as light diminishes
from daylight to dusk to darkness.) Variation in the quality of
light influences our perception of color, too. (Have you ever
bought a suit that appeared to be of one shade under store
lighting but out in the street?)

See illustrations with this article
http://www.weprintcolor.com/color_paper/what_is_color.htm Are
Color and Mood Connected
http://www.weprintcolor.com/moodofcolour.htm Understanding Color
http://www.weprintcolor.com/usingcolour2.htm

“Just give me the basics!”

That’s what this Chinese pronunciation guide is all about.

It’s all that you need to know Chinese pronunciation to get by.

The 80% that’s important.

To speak Mandarin, the first thing to learn is Chinese
pronunciation of words using the system known as pinyin.

Pinyin is the Romanized Chinese phonetic system and is the most
effective aid to learning Mandarin today.

(Romanized means using English alphabets.)

Pinyin was invented in the 1950’s so that anyone, especially
English speaking people, could learn Chinese pronunciation
easily.

Most of the letters in pinyin have the same sounds as letters of
the alphabet - with only a few exceptions.

It’s really a very practical pronunciation system.

Can you imagine an English speaker trying to pronounce Chinese
characters without pinyin?

(By the way, pinyin is less complicated that the other forms of
Romanization for Chinese pronunciation, Wade-Giles and Yale.)

First, “The Four Tones”

Chinese is a tonal language.

Each Chinese character is a syllable with a fixed tone.

A different tone is a different Chinese character and hence a
different meaning.

Chinese pronunciation involves four tones, each indicated by a
tone mark.

The tone marks are placed over the vowels. (If the letter “i”
has a tone mark over it, the dot is removed.”

First Tone: a high, level tone represented by “-” as in mā
妈 “mother”

Second Tone: a rising, questioning tone represented by “/” as in
má 麻 “to have pins and needles”

Third Tone: a drawling tone falling then rising represented by
“v” as in mǎ 马 “horse”

Fourth Tone: a sharp falling tone represented by “” as in mà
骂 “to scold”

Each syllable is written as a combination of consonants and
vowels, plus the tone mark. Some syllables don’t start with
consonants. And the only consonants that come after vowels are
are the nasal “n” or “ng”.

(note: from here on, I’m just going to use 1, 2 3, 4 to
represent the four tones)

You can see the importance of getting the tones right to avoid
misunderstandings and comic situations.

A friend of mine just learnt the words for “secretary” “mi4
shu1″ and instead said “mystery book” “mi2 shu1″

I bet you’ve heard stories like that.

It will take some time to get the tones right cause they’re not
“natural” to English speakers.

(English is my first language and I went through the same
process even though I’m an Overseas Chinese.)

Don’t be put off by the tones.

Eventually you’ll get it. But just so you know, you don’t have
to be perfect.

I have American friends living in Shanghai who get by fine with
a flat tone.

Of course, breakdowns in communication arise now and then, but
the Chinese people can see you’re a foreigner learning Chinese
(i.e. their language) and they’ll try hard to make sense of what
you say.

So, they’re doing all the “hard work”!

Get the rules and tips of using pinyin at
http://www.living-chinese-symbols.com/chinese-pronunciation.html

Question:

What was it like as new authors in the publishing world?

Answer:

As free-lance writers of informative articles, we had no prior
experience with book publishers. We did a lot of research and
were aware of some basic contract and publishing procedures, yet
there were many things we were not prepared for. For instance,
there was the book cover design to conceive of - which our good
friend Brian McAndrew created. The back cover text had to be
developed, an author’s bio written, photos to have taken and
lists of nearly 2 hundred contacts to sort out. The marketing
research took weeks to do, but it resulted in a 12-page plan to
ease our way. Then there were formal things like dealing with
the Library of Congress and Copyrighting. For instance, copies
of the book had to be sent to the Library of Congress at our
expense. There are rules to be aware of as well. The rights for
free use (using quotes from other people) is so gray that we
opted out of including this kind of text. Unfortunately, that
meant more editing. We were disappointed because there were some
very good quotes that would have added a great deal to the book.

Question:

What were some publishing experiences or unexpected turn of
events?

Answer:

While Lillian was browsing the Internet looking up information
on other publishers, she came upon Publish America’s website. It
inspired her to send a query in on the spot. Within 3-days we
received a request for a sample manuscript. Now, these
publishers only accept 20% of the thousands of queries that
cross their desks, so we were excited to have such a good
response in a very short time. Unfortunately, we were also
relocating our home from one part of town to another, finishing
a garden year and working as well. Time was short and stress was
high. We got that sample manuscript off in a timely fashion,
however, and we received an acceptance within a few days. The
heady sensation of signing the 7-year contract flew by us in a
blur.

Question:

What time and resources do we put in for promoting the book?

Answer:

Every day we put in 2-6 hours into some aspect of the book. The
Internet has proven to be a powerful tool where an immense
amount of information can be found from newsletters, publishers,
forums and authors. Every on-line communication we have is an
opportunity to plug our book by simply attaching an auto
signature. We developed promotional materials (flyers,
mini-posters, large posters, bookmarks, labels) and, of course,
galleys and sample packages for editors and booksellers. Most
importantly, we had a great website built for us by Brian
McAndrew of Beyond Graphix.

Question:

What did you learn in researching the book?

Answer:

We thought we were committed to the concept of the book in our
lives, but when researching and writing this book we found we
became much more motivated, more committed and more informed
about waste reduction.

Question:

As a writer, what have you learned about staying organized or
motivated?

Answer:

Having a plan of action for every project is vital. Every
project should have an outline starting from the title through
to the end. There should also be a market plan laid out. Who are
you marketing to? How you are going about it? What will you do
first? These are the most important tools of a writer. Most
people think of a writing career being one where you have lots
of leisure time and creating with words. On the contrary, most
of the time is spent marketing and organizing projects. For
instance, we might write an article and query it to a market.
That market may take a few days to get back to us, but it may
also be as long as a year before we hear from them. That article
is idle and we do not get paid until after it is published. A
writer may have hundreds of pieces of their work at various
stages of writing and marketing at one time. They need to know
where it is and its status, at a glance. We use the Excel
program to take care of this. For the book, plans were
indispensable. The market plan alone is a book in itself and
will take us years to complete. That is normal, actually. A
writer must spend much of their time promoting the book for
years after publication in order to keep sales happening.
Unfortunately, promotion and writing time are unpaid hours in
the meantime.

Question:

When do you write?

Answer:

We have to do a bit of juggling to manage our business, day job
and writing career with some kind of balance. Usually, We work
as a team, though we write separately and then conglomerate and
edit the work together. Because we share one computer, this can
be a bit of a juggle. Dave works shift work so when he is at
work or sleeping Lillian will use the computer to research and
promote.

Question:

What is your professional background?

Answer:

Dave and Lillian began their (paid) writing career working as
staff writers at Openminder Newsletter where they experienced
the harried pace of getting several articles and even feature or
interview articles ready for a by-weekly deadline. It was our
start in the writing world and plunged us head-first into the
community, interviewing unique and enterprising people. The
concept of Trash Talk was already developed and this market
snatched up the column immediately. When Openminder closed shop,
we started a free-lance career. Our articles have since appeared
in a variety of magazines including Seeds of Diversity, Country
Connection and ISKRA.

Question:

Have you won any awards or contests?

Answer:

Yes, Dave has recently won first prize in the Nature category of
BC Cottage Magazine’s 2004 Photo contest. Lillian has won
several editorial awards for her poetry and has had her work
published in 5 hardcover anthology books of poetry through
contests.

Question:

What is the most important lesson in your writing career?

Answer:

Research. If you know something is coming up, research it and
make a plan of action well ahead of time. If we did not start
the market plan and develop a plan of action and estimated
schedule soon after finding out the manuscript was accepted, we
would have never been ready for the myriad of work ahead of us,
much of which is time-sensitive. Doing it right is essential -
there is but little chance to make an impression with a
reviewer, reader or publication. Even with the best of
preparation you will be caught off guard or unprepared. Don’t
sweat it too much if you make a mistake. Think of it as a lesson.

Question:

Have you any advice for new writers?

Answer:

We hate to sound redundant, but again, do your research. Join
forums and research the previous messages for several months
ago. You will find many novice questions are thoroughly answered
with many different people contributing ideas and opinions.
Always research your market and query them in a professional
manner before sending a finished product.

Practice attaching words to feelings requires time to do.
Without a system that helps you monitor that time, the minutes
or hours could feel unproductive. With the right exercise, you
can then use that time wisely, as well as save you time and
frustration.

Learning to apply the right words to our six senses is a top
ingredient to the mixture of writing. Its language brings the
reader into the story. All of us easily know how we feel, or
what we’re seeing (okay, most of the time), what we’re hearing,
smelling, tasting, and sensing, and can usually explain it in 50
words if pushed to do it. But, how do you describe it in one or
two words without the pushing?

Also, by beginning with good material, the remaining part of the
writing process becomes easier. This exercise will help you
improve your beginning.

This is a simple exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime, in
a space of minutes or longer. You can practice Monday mornings
in the garden, the doctor’s waiting room, or in the lunchroom.
It can last as long as a television commercial (oops those
aren’t short any longer), or you more aggressively with a
devoted 30-minutes a day. Whatever length of time or place you
have, it will always improve your skill.

You will want to sit while completing this exercise.

Okay, let’s start with the most difficult spot, your supplies –
paper and your writing instruments. Landscape, portrait, small,
or regular size sheet of paper doesn’t matter. I define what
paper size to use by the amount of time available and my
location. If I’m mobile, I use my small journal. If I’m at my
desk or at home, I use a regular size paper. Sometimes lines,
sometimes not. Sometimes the exercise flows over to two or three
sheets. Don’t limit the experience by paper size. Have fun with
the recording tools as well. Experimentation is the key to our
curiosity. And, curiosity is the foundation of a writer.

Draw a circle on the page and place your name in the center.
Large, small, in color, black, or blue, again it doesn’t matter.
Use whatever flips your pancakes at that moment. In other words,
whatever feels good at the time.

Your objective is to describe your five senses, six if you have
that gift, with words. Write the words that express that sense
in the space inside the circle randomly around your name.

Here is how you would use this exercise to increase environment
awareness and description. Write your words in the location on
the paper relevant to the direction it appears. For example: I’m
sitting outside my office on a 9th floor balcony at the moment,
I hear a heavy humming from the tires on the wet pavement below
and birds chirping above me to the right. I would place the
words for the tires on the bottom left and the chirping on the
upper right on my page.

Here are nine prompts to help you expand your experience. *
Write words describing your atmosphere–the quality of air. *
What are the clouds doing? Can you see animals in their shapes?
* The temperature of your location. * The source of light and
its quality. * Where are people standing or sitting? * Shadows,
are they’re any? Where and how do they fall? * Predominant
colors, wall colors, wallpaper, molding, chair railing, textured
ceiling. * What do you smell? Using comparisons are a great way
to relate to your reader. The air feels like just getting out of
the fogged shower stall. * Are there other people around you?
How do they smell, their clothes, their shoes? Guess at what
they might do for a living. Are they dressed like someone on
their way to work, doesn’t work, a mom, dad, baker, or what?

After you are comfortable describing your environment, spice the
exercise up another notch. Compare your descriptive words to
something else. For example: The room you are sitting in feels
like a sauna with my clothes on.

Continue spicing up the exercise to increase your awareness and
descriptive powers–use people and objects. Since you are most
familiar with yourself, begin there.

After practicing on the most familiar subject, yourself, create
a list of other familiar people in your life. Then sort the list
from most familiar to least. Continue down the list. Somewhere
during these lists and practice sessions, you will begin to feel
comfortable with your skill.

You can continue taking the exercise to another level. This time
you are ready to expand your awareness and adaptation to words.
Visit the local mall; sit in the food court for smorgasbord of
new enriching thoughts-to-words experiences.

Here are 11 prompts to help you expand your levels: * Describe
what you are wearing. * How does your body feel? * What are your
hands doing? * How does your throat feel? * How are you holding
your mouth? * Eye movement * Breathing * How do you feel in
general, in detail? * Name your mood. Does it have a flavor and
color? * Describe your feelings with reference to music. A
certain song or type of music. * How does your hair smell,
clothes, the chair you’re sitting on, the book you’re reading?

Be patient with yourself while practicing. This exercise isn’t
the easiest to complete, however, it is the most effective. Even
if you aren’t a writer, this exercise will help you triple your
awareness skills in a short time period1. This exercise also
helps police officers, speakers, judges, attorneys, or anyone
else that uses their awareness skills to see and put it into
words. This is also a NLP–neurolinguistics programming
skill–for those aware of this process.

Software piracy accounted for over $24 BILLION dollars in lost revenue over the last two years*. Some of that was your money! Continue doing nothing and you’ll lose more money this year.

Why do Clickbank merchants put up with this? Their products are being stolen instead of bought. When Clickbank merchants sell their downloadable products, even when they use some download protection script ool, the end product itself is being easily and freely distributed. This confirms that people want the software, they just don’t want to pay for it if they don’t have to. 70% of them won’t if they can get it for free*.

Here’s the scenario virtually all Clickbank merchants are in right now. The Clickbank system requires every merchant to upload their digital products (e-books or software) to their web server and create a download page, or “Thank-You” page in order to automate the entire order process. Merchants then set up a sales link to sell access to download their products. The customer places an order via the sales link then is sent through Clickbank to the download page automatically. This download page has the link to download the actual product. That’s what’s supposed to happen. But what is really happening?

The uploaded product is easily downloaded for free by potential customers that have found a “back door”. A “back door” either by locating the download page without paying, or getting a copy of the product from elsewhere via email, newsgroups, forums, eBay, whatever. For every ten e-books downloaded, 4 of those are stolen *. These are lost sales and income forgone. And merchants have no idea who is downloading their product, or what happens after it’s downloaded. They lose total control of its distribution. Some thieves even go so far as to sell stolen software and e-books as their own for a greatly reduced price.

Getting free software from Clickbank merchants is not very hard to do at all. All thieves have to do is find someone that has a copy of the merchant’s product and get them to provide the download location. Or, simply get them to right-click, copy, and paste the file in an email. Bing bang boom - software piracy. Then that friend sends copies to his friends, who sends copies to his family, who share it with their friends…BIG PROBLEM. The more popular the product the more it is being stolen.

But this is only the first big problem for Clickbank merchants when it comes to protecting their product. Something many people don’t know about Clickbank is that they promptly and without hesitation honor each and every refund request, no questions asked. EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT OFFERED IN THE CLICKBANK MARKETPLACE CAN BE DOWNLOADED ABSOLUTELY FREE OF CHARGE. How? By simply paying for any product and sending an email to Clickbank for a refund. There’s no need to explain anything, just that you’d like a refund. You’ll get your refund right away and guess what, you get to keep the product, for free. There is no requirement to return the product like with a traditional refund, since there’s no way to be sure the product was really deleted. Imagine the absolute uproar brick-and-mortar merchants would be in if customers were allowed 100% unconditional refunds on request, and the customer gets to keep the shirt, pants, DVD , or whatever? They wouldn’t be in business very long, that’s for sure.

So how are Clickbank merchants supposed to stay afloat? The only reason they are able to is because some people don’t know how easy it is to get online products for free, so these people actually pay for the product. Within this system it’s pure luck that anyone actually pays for the product.

Some conscientious merchants claim, “I’m safe, I protect my download location with a third-party tool that creates my download location on the fly.” This is a false sense of security. Basically this protection method simply hides the download location, but the product is still just as susceptible to being freely distributed after the download. And it can still be kept if a refund is issued. This is equivalent to the banks simply hiding all the money instead of putting it in the bank vault.

The only real way to stop thieves and freebie-seekers is to protect the product itself with unique identifiers and access codes for each customer. Until more merchants become wise to this one simple truth rampant software piracy will continue to plague Clickbank merchants and the rest of the software community.

*average 40% worldwide software piracy rate for 2001 & 2002, and dollar losses totalling $24.05 billion, based on intensive studies by the Business Software Alliance http://www.bsa.org .

About the Author

Shawn Pringle is the owner of two essential products for the entire Clickbank community. He can be reached via his web site, www.CBProtect.com or through email at shawn@cbprotect.com .

PROJECT PURPOSE: To write and publish articles about people and institutions whose lives and missions are dedicated to a bold and inspired purpose or vision.

I created Project Purpose in the spring of 1995 after realizing, that in ten-plus years of writing for national publications, the articles I most enjoyed writing, from start to finish, were about people making a difference in the world, especially those of the “unsung hero” category. At the time, I’d only worked on a handful of these articles, but they were the ones I remembered most fondly. Before Project Purpose, editors knew me as a former small animal veterinarian turned freelance writer who specialized in writing about animals, health and related topics. Today, most of my editors know me as a writer of profiles, interviews and essays about people who are changing the world.

IS WRITING ABOUT SOCIAL CHANGE FOR YOU?

Although one of the most often quoted rules of writing is, “write about what you know,” I think it’s much more important to write about what interests you, what you’re passionate about, what you find fascinating and worthwhile. While this may include topics you know a lot about, there are many subjects I’ve written about that I was far from an expert on, but which piqued my curiosity. So, if social issues quicken your pulse, write about the ones that interest you.

Within a couple months of starting Project Purpose, I received my first assignment from New Age Journal to write a feature profile on Bo Lozoff, founder and director of The Human Kindness Foundation in my home state of North Carolina. I knew I had stumbled upon my niche when I enjoyed researching the piece as much as writing it and even the revision process was relatively painless. When the check arrived, twice as much as I’d ever received before, it was like a delicious cherry sitting atop an already scrumptious sundae. I knew I’d found my specialty.

WHY WRITE ABOUT SOCIAL ISSUES?

There’s an old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” which is one of the best reasons to write about social change. Since things are changing all the time, you always have new topics to pitch to a wide assortment of magazines. If you’re interested in women’s issues, such as the glass ceiling of the corporate world, pitch your ideas to the women’s magazines. If you’re more interested in male issues, focus your attention on men’s magazines. Perhaps your interests lie in specialized areas like healthcare or spirituality. There’s a wide assortment of magazines that would be interested.

One of the best reasons to write about social change is the opportunity for your words to make a difference with other people, often in large numbers. I’ve written numerous articles on “voluntary simplicity,” a cultural trend my family has participated in for 15 years. When one of these articles appeared as the cover story for Yoga Journal, I received over a hundred letters and phone calls asking for more information on how to get started on a path to a simpler life.

BREAKING IN

One of the key steps to becoming known as a writer who specializes in social issues is market research, which is a fancy name for finding and studying the types of magazines that publish articles about social issues. Although there are a number of good resource books that give a good overview of magazines, such as Writer’s Marketplace, these are only starting points. It’s important to study at least 2-3 back issues of the magazines for which you want to write. Whenever I’m in a new city, even if it’s only a quick layover in the airport, I make it a point to drop into a bookstore or newsstand to look over their magazine selection. If I find a new magazine with the types of stories I write, I’ll invest a few bucks in the latest issue, or at least jot down the name of the magazine, the editor’s name and address or email. I’ll then request additional information from them including a copy of their writer’s guidelines and an editorial calendar.

TYPES OF ARTICLES ON SOCIAL CHANGE

Articles on social change can take several different forms. Since I’m particularly interested in focusing on the people who are changing the world, many of my articles are either profiles or question and answer interviews. Since most magazine articles run in the 1500 to 3000 word range, a profile may give a short overview or summary of a person’s life, but must then take a tight focus. The same is true of a Q and A interview. While it’s not unusual for me to spend a couple hours interviewing a subject for a Q and A, which could result in as much as a 20,000 word transcription, the final piece will need to be condensed to 1500 to 5000 words, depending on the assignment.

Other forms that articles on social issues may take include essays, roundups, straight journalism pieces or some combination. For example, the simple living piece that appeared in Yoga Journal was a combination of essay about my family’s experiences as we simplified our life and straight journalism as I interviewed other voluntary simplicity experts. An example of a round-up piece would be an article highlighting 3-5 different people working on a similar social issue, but with their own perspective on the problem.

THE PEN IS STILL MIGHTY

Even today, with our wide assortment of media, the written word still has the power to stop people in their tracks, to provoke their thinking, to awaken them to new ideas and new possibilities. There’s something special about knowing that thousands, perhaps millions of people will read one of my Project Purpose profiles and that it might touch and inspire them. There’s nothing like getting a letter or phone call from someone that’s read one of my articles thanking me for the piece or asking for more information. I feel I’m changing the world for the better, word by word.

Brad Swift is the founder and chief visionary officer of Life On Purpose Institute, and has written hundreds of articles for such publications as Utne, Hope, Yoga Journal, Body & Soul and others. He can be reached at
brad@lifeonpurpose.com

©2005 Brad Swift of Life On Purpose Institute, Inc.
This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box are included.

Dr. Brad Swift founded Life On Purpose Institute in 1996 with the vision of creating a World On Purpose by assisting people like yourself to clarify their life purpose & live true to it. Determine how on or off purpose your life is with the fun & insightful Self Test at:
http://lifeonpurpose.com/_forms/self-test.php?source=ezart
Inspire yourself with a fr.ee subscription to Purposeful Pondering Ezine:
http://lifeonpurpose.com/index.php?dir=_ezines&task=view-ezines

Dignity Beyond Persecution, Honorable Roger Toussaint, Rebirth
Of Marcus Garvey

In this format of a communists Society; Toussaint a man who is
persecuted for protesting against slave wages, in the
principalities of life, and dictated and gagged by the order, he
shall not speak, to be summoned in the words of blind justice,
that he shall not go against the laws made by the dictators, he
may not speak; In this life one must sometimes loose to win
stripped of his rights to defend his cause, in the prosperity of
a subtonic Presentation of summary in the oppositions, To do are
to dye, to dye are to live, Evaluations of power that sanctions
the rights of dignity, beyond persecution, Mastery of Self. Man
of integrity the minister of spirit. Finding of principal, might
of power, in a order of thieves that set before the table, A
black man under all odds stood tall, and the warriors of
principals that stood before him, a thief has no loyalty to
color, only by his on proclamation of order, nevertheless man
feels that what dose not effect him , will not effect another,
but in the rules of life, a thief only has loyalty to self, the
poor shall be the one to suffer, Bluntly called thieves, in the
media of persecution, A black man who stood again before the
cross of persecution, who speaks for the soldiers, who stand for
freedom of life, when the dictators presented his fate jail him,
he has over stepped his mean, to tell the dictators, I am a man
which is due to all men. Meekness, simple laws of loving self;
the hero or the coward saving self; The soul that dies a
thousand times, when the soul of will would die once. Wave the
Flag Black man, Wave the Flag, Black and White stand together,
Brothers and Sisters hand and hand; I thought once how my
ancestors Sing the sweet songs, of love The souls that march
upon the clouds, And the sound of the ancient drums, Humble the
elders that carry the cross to carry the crown to place upon the
warriors heads. The soldiers begins to beat the drums And the
spirits rise upon the clouds, as I sing the Nubian anthem the
ancestors who brought me cross.

Through the struggles of a diversity, the constitution
Blackness was won, nevertheless the scars Continue to bond after
the glory was won. In this mean less area of time, the image has
stood the abomination of heroic bureaucracy the soldier who
waved the banner, the battle of a lost generalized consumption
of spineless association that brittles the thoughts of unity.

But while the image has stood the test of time, soldiery of
confinement the soul has no strength of its own, what dose it
takes for the image of a king, to stand up and claim his
rightful place? Crying that the soul is governed by another, who
has know power only if the mind allows, the glory came, and the
definition of warrior has declined, the politics that led to
that moment has been cast aside by cowardly conformity, if man
who lives through another mans eyes of a hopeless survival, and
the brother the savior who has given his life, that his brothers
should walk the red carpet, the king that lied upon the cross,
to give a devil greater power that has know control only if the
mind gives it freely, Assassins of the abomination, and the
treason of the glory, confinements of genocide amnesia;
particularly known, as wisdom and spirituality, the by laws of
God, the rainbow reflects the cries of the soul, the dead roots
which continues to dye slowly, Helpless when the water sits upon
the door, Roots that refuse to save self.

If I must go down; a warrior of strength, Toussaint stands tall,
he walk with dignity as he face the media of a lynch man rope,
don’t be the one to pull, when the marksman steal your freedom,
and laughs behind the back door, in title the submissive slave,
In my observation of warrior, his words cry from the eyes of a
true soldier, the rebirth of the warriors of freedom, freedom is
not free, and a warrior will not bow down, honor my brother of
the Caribbean land, A true Soldier is not a man unless he
shedder of his blood, he walks with dignity, and the spirit of
his souls speaks, let not my hierology speak of weakness, I will
walk on the battlefield alone, as a man if I must, what is life
if you can’t subside under the lynch men rope, He stands tall my
black brother shall not go out In a cowardly conformity, he
stood tall and took the burning bullet that man set before him,
I shall die with dignity; Let not my horology speak of weakness
I shall walk on the battlefield as a man what is life if I can’t
die like a man. Every man must die, so If I; I choose it as a
man. A coward dies a thousand times but a brave man dies once. I
shall not go out in a cowardly conformity; I shall stand tall if
I must. Take the burning bullet, which sets before my death. No
one recognize the warriors, because many have never fought a
war, only wisdom brings calm to the pain, nevertheless the dead
soul has know compassion only to self, Oh what a bitter taste of
brim, but the spirit of God walks I have fought for a cause;
lies upon the dark; the inner man shall not awaken from the
dark, the bite of the bullet is much to hot, the valley is
closing in as I take a deep breath, the warrior is not a
warrior; until he has shredded blood, words are a hopeless
survival if the unite is divided, we shall all fall at once,
under the emancipation of slaves, who continue to use the black
race through the fire.

I shall dye nobly as my brother Jesus who lay upon the cross, if
we must die, I shall take your hand; And we shall look upon the
skies, as you my brother, As I ; we shall go at one time. Let
not thee suffer, take the last breath, that I Shall march
through the skies; There shall be no tears, I the soldier of
God, Their shall be no pleading, I shall carry the cross; as my
brother upon the skies, so I shall give back to thy brother who
died for me. Grave that lies upon my trust; I shall not die, as
the murders that stand Before me, when you speak of my death,
you shall never remember a beginning plea; My body is just a
carcass; but my spirit shall fly free life, beware of the
walking dead, I shall not bow over.

But the tears that shall flow from my mothers eyes, It’s not the
coldness of my brother, Who kill me because he feels that he
can, Dark as the night that the blood runs From the leaded
bullets upon my chest. Know man knows the battle of war until he
has bit the bullet of death; It is not the horror that sets
before me, However, the image a King you may believe in hope he
has died, in those terrifying screams of death around us that
remind me; another tribe castrated through the mind has passed
on. Plunge in a black body bag, another one out the way; The
hidden darkness that surface the face of a snake, Never
realizing death for death, nevertheless one might Live upon the
earth, and one whom moved on to a better place. The wind, the
storm, the sun, waves fare well, it is not the satisfied look in
my brothers eyes, he have Killed his brother in degradation of
racial hate, no sympathy that he express, The devils children
have struck again, oh what a bitter Spaceman of a dead mind, who
cannot control, the Leaded bullet of death, which rises upon the
mid night Horror that lye upon my chest, the screams of thy
mother They have killed my son. The rose have cuddled in a fetal
position I shall never forget, the pain of thy birth, She have
know position her self to the same event those steady and
merciless black fingers, Oh but the devils who planed my death,
there is a greater power than he, I will meet you on the other
side when you feel that you have castrated me of my manhood, be
still serpent of Satan, the lord will speak, and when he do, you
will see the power you thought you had.

Oh the hand on the trigger, know mercy, upon the beaded eyes of
death, holding the darkness, that seeks my death; hell gaze me
in the eyes, as the assassins plan my death, I have moved on,
but unto I shall leave, I shall return. I shall live within the
mind of; The assassins who stood before my death, If thy take
thy life, thy take ones own, for and Eye, tooth for a tooth, I
shall return, I take my journey on the Black train who slowly
drives upon my Space, the black smoke that spreads upon your
house of shame, I walk as a black man, speak as a black, and I
shall rule as a black man on the other side of my fathers house.

The people has no say, children stolen and sold, without
freedom of defense, every child worth 500,000 in grants, 18, 000
children in foster care, freedom taken away from the parents in
control of their young, parents locked up when the child refuse
to go to school, nevertheless parents are sanctions when they
discipline their young, Children are told to call authorities on
the parents who give them life, to do or to dye, to dye are to
live, wake up people, today the Blackman tomorrow the multi
color rainbow, freedom know longer stands in this place call the
land of the free.

Remarks By Roger Toussaint

With a $1 billion surplus, this contract between the M.T.A. and
the Transport Workers Union should have been a no-brainer.
Sadly, that has not been the case. Our contract expired on
Thursday at midnight. In an attempt to save mass transit, and in
deference to our riders, we postponed our deadline and attempted
to continue talking to the M.T.A. From the beginning, the M.T.A.
approached these negotiations in bad faith, demanding
arbitration even before trying to resolve the contract. Hours
before the contract expiration, the M.T.A. got rid of its $1
billion surplus — a surplus which we believe continues to be
understated by some $100 million. The M.T.A. knew that
attempting to reduce health and pension standards at the
authority would be unacceptable to our union. They also knew
that there was no good economic reason for their hard line on
this issue — not with a $1 billion surplus — but they went
ahead anyway. And they did this supported by the Bloomberg
administration, which wants to overrun the municipal labor
unions and all city workers and impose down-press wages and
gutted health benefits and pension plans. This has been combined
with attempts by the M.T.A., joined by the mayor and the
governor, to intimidate and threaten our members and their
families.

The Local 100 executive board has voted overwhelmingly to extend
strike action to all M.T.A. properties immediately. All Local
100 representatives and shop stewards are directed to report to
their assigned strike locations, picket lines or assigned
locations nearest you immediately. To our riders, we ask for
your understanding and forbearance. We stood with you to keep
token booths open, to keep conductors on the trains, to oppose
fare hikes. We now ask that you stand with us. We did not want a
strike, but evidently the M.T.A., the governor and the mayor
did. We call on all good-willed New Yorkers, the labor
community, and all working people to recognize that our strike
is their fight and to rally in our support with activities and
events in solidarity, and to show the M.T.A. the T.W.U. does not
stand alone.