This story is even better than Cinderella, and it's true! Amazing! Thank you so much for sharing Kathleen.

Amazing!

Wow, what great information. You're such an inspiration.

I would love to hear more about EWI. Mind telling us about your involvment with them? You reference them a bit in the book and also have quotes from many of their members. I'd love to hear more...

Thank you Kathleen...you are an inspiration to me!
Hard times, self-help, a personal call to action, positive friendships, continual education...the way to a purposeful life is an endless equation with many variables. An important variable is your willingness to share...thanks again...I'll be tuning in for more.

Dotsie,

EWI is Executive Women International. Here is some of what was in the book about EWI.

EWI was established in 1938 to provide businesswomen from diverse industries a forum for promoting their firms, enhancing their personal and professional development and engaging in community activities. Today, EWI has 75 chapters and 3,000 members across the United States, Canada, and Europe who remain committed to bringing value to its firms, to benefiting the careers of its representatives and to providing service to EWI communities.

Both Lori Giovannoni and I have been featured presenters at the annual Leadership Conferences that EWI Hosts. Also, the Spring Conferences.

We have had a great partnership with EWI for years so it made perfect sense to create a win/win opportunity with the book.

Since 1992, EWI has been committed to promoting literacy through annual Reading Rallies hosted by EWI Chapters throughout the organization.

EWI’s signature event, conducted with community groups, schools, and national associations, promotes reading to children. Chapters host a variety of programs that range from community read-ins and book donations to major events involving celebrities, story characters, and the creation of reading rooms. More than 700 EWI volunteers work with approximately 20,000 children at schools, crisis centers, hospitals, and community organizations during Reading Rally events each year.

To learn more about the Reading Rally and find out what is happening in your local area visit executivewomen.org.

Our commitment to EWI and the Reading Rally was to donate $1 per book we sell to the Reading Rally. So far we have donated several thousand dollars and would love to donate lots more.

Let me know if you would like more information.

Kathleen

Thank you for sharing Kathleen,
You are an inspiration!
"The harder I work, the luckier I get."
Makes sense to me.

A big change in my own life was getting out of my own way. And realizing there is a power greater than myself at work in my life.

Kathleen

Kathleen,

Is there a difference in Law of Achievement and Law of Attraction?

I was hoping, too, that you could/would expound a bit on the difference of LOA and LOA. Seems they have lots in common (I have your book out now) but I assume that their are some basic focus differences?

There was a question posed a couple days ago about starting a publishing company. If you have ever started a business, any type of business, the process may be similar.

Because of the power of outsourcing, online resources, etc., one can literally set up a business in a matter of days. Whether or not that business will be successful is another issue. I will cover that in other postings.

Again, starting the business is the easy part; keeping it going - wellllll.

To set a point of reference for this discussion; most books never make money. There are tens of thousands of books published each year. I recently read some stats on how many books sell on average and it is under 500 per title. This means that most people will lose money at the game of writing and publishing.

Because of the way I approach writing, publishing and marketing my books, I have never lost money and have made money on every single title. There have been some days I have made thousands of dollars from book sales, other days, not.

Because of my books, I have had other opportunities present themselves that I otherwise would not have had. However, I didn’t rest on my laurels and hope for something to happen. I am proactive in my approach to writing, publishing, marketing, sales, and backend business opportunities.

Mind you, there is some writing I do that is not done for the sake of making money. Some writing I do simply for the love of writing. Other writing I do for the love of writing and because it is my business.

I do not say this to impress anyone, but to impress upon you that there are strategies for success when you have your own publishing company. One is, if you are going to make money at writing you must treat this like a business.

Many writers and self-published authors have a belief that someone else will market their book for them. In most cases, this is not true. Secondly, many people think if a publisher picks up their title, the publisher will do all the marketing. Again, in most cases, not at all true.

If anyone is interested in my strategies on marketing books, I will be happy to share some insights. Just ask the questions and I share what I have done to not only make money, but take my last book, The Law of Achievement, to best seller status on Amaozon.com.

Back to a publishing company…..You do not need a physical building to have a publishing company. However, it does help to have enough storage area in your home to keep the boxes of books you will want to keep in stock. The beauty of POD - Print on demand is that you can do very low runs and keep your inventory low, thus not investing a lot of your own money. You can keep a very healthy cash flow going as you grow your business.

How large you grow is based on your own personal goals. Personally, I like the freedom of working from home. A few years ago, after running a career development company for a period of time, having a staff of 25 and loving the whole team energy, I considered buying a building and growing my company in that fashion. However, I find that for me, I enjoy the way things are at this point and don't see great benefit for working outside of my home. Other people may have different goals, so you must decide for you what is most appropriate.

You may also want to consider a shipping area in your home unless you outsource. One author I have worked with uses a company to store her books and do all fulfillments. I prefer to keep stock on hand and ship out as needed. However, when I do larger campaigns I have used Amazon to save time and effort of shipping out.

The first thing to look at is if you have the stamina to keep your business going. There will be ups and downs that many people are not willing to deal with.

There are the pros and cons to setting up your own publishing business compared to going with a traditional publisher.

Traditional Publisher (pros and cons)
-You do not have control over many of the decisions
-Before you can sell copies you have to buy them from the publisher.
-You don’t often get a better price than a book store would get.
-Publishing house picks up initial costs
-Little, if any out of pocket expense
-You may get an advance, and yet, if the books don’t sell you might have to refund some of the advance.
-Short shelf life – often only a matter of weeks.
-Slow turnaround time for acceptance of manuscript - often as much as 2 or 3 years
-Lots of rejection
-You have to have good marketing potential in many cases
-You have to market

Self Publishing (pros and cons)
-You have control and make all the key decisions
-Fast turnaround
-Higher profit margin
-You can target very unique markets
-More investment costs on your part.
-You have to market
-Many mainstream houses are looking for excellent self published books to make their own
-You retain all rights
-You can test market with a low run
-You have to store the books


Establishing a publishing business

-DBA
-Licenses within your city
-Business plan
-Separate phone and fax line
-Bookkeeper or accountant
-Web site URL
-Location
-Merchant account
-Tax ID number
-Bank account
-Stationary
-Business cards

Develop a business plan

-Business name
-Executive summary
-Business idea and description
-Market analysis
-Financial position and forecast
-Marketing
-Future books
-Complementary marketing strategies

Well, I hope this helps a bit. More to follow. Feel free to ask any questions you might have. I will be happy to answer based on my own experience and what I can tell you in working with other authors.

Kathleen