How to Publish and Market Your First Kindle Book – Review

Ally Nathaniel’s first book, a children’s cookbook, was rejected by a hundred publishers. In desperation, she turned to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). After many trials and tribulations, she published her first Kindle e-book and sold over 30,000 copies within five months. Since then, she has published eight children’s books and sold over 50,000 copies. Now, she has published The Ultimate e-Publishing Guide to share her expertise with other writers who want to publish on Amazon KDP but don’t know how.

In her book, Ally has broken down her system into a series of easy-to-follow steps:

Preliminary steps before writing your book

Before you sit down to write your e-book, Ally advises you to define the purpose and topic of your book and its target audience. You also need to analyze your competition, which will help you to position your book.

Writing your book

In this stage, Ally describes how she writes

Superstition can be a Good Thing

Superstition doesn’t just have to do with black cats crossing our paths or our walking under ladders. For many of us, there are superstitious thoughts and feelings that we have and hold onto on a daily basis. In other words, we may develop certain ways of saying and doing things that we’ve been accustomed to doing for many years and have come to be dependent on in order to function to our capacities.

I remember while I was coaching 6-8 year olds in hockey or baseball. It was not unusual that the teams were not as proficient as others who would beat their pants off on a regular basis. My concern was not with winning. Moreover, it was with regard to the emotional well-being of my players who, naturally, would become very disenchanted about the game and their personal and team’s esteem went down the tubes. With the hockey teams, I

What’s Your Lenten Story?

Mine, is not a story, but a confession. And you? Do you have any such story to tell for this season of Lent? That is, if you are a Christian, either Roman Catholic or Anglican, and more.

In Christendom, Lent is the season of repentance, confession of sins to the Almighty, forgiveness, charity and all. It is a 40-day period of fasting and prayers. The season is used to commemorate the 40 days of fasting of our Lord Jesus in the desert before He was tempted by the devil.

Observing Lent is an annual personal spiritual exercise; between you and your creator. There is always a story tell about your participation. So what is my 2014 Lenten story as a Catholic? Rather shameful, I must confess. I have confessed all my sins to God, (those I can remember).

But can you believe that I am still nursing un-forgiveness and resentment against people who

Five Benefits of Daily Mindfulness Meditation

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

—Leonardo da Vinci

Mindfulness meditation is a simple and effective way to develop positive qualities such as increased awareness, focus, emotional resilience, creativity, and empathy. Research in the past decade has confirmed that regular mindfulness meditation for a few minutes every day causes significant benefits and improvement in the quality of life.

The five most important benefits of daily mindfulness practice are:

1. Increased awareness and equanimity

A few minutes of practice every day gives you the opportunity to review events in the recent past. This helps you to correct any mistakes you may have done and to avoid such mistakes in future. Thus, daily mindfulness practice gradually and progressively improves the quality of your thoughts, words, and actions.

2. Interdependence of mindfulness and daily life

During daily mindfulness practice, you start to realize how your recent thoughts, words, and deeds affect your

The Impact of Mindfulness

From meditation, wisdom arises;
Without meditation, wisdom wanes.
Knowing this twofold path of gain and loss,
Let one conduct oneself so that wisdom increases.
—The Buddha (Dhammapada 282)

Numerous research studies in the past ten years, especially in the field of neuroscience, have confirmed the positive impact of mindfulness. Many of these research findings are based on advances in brain imaging, such as functional MRI (fMRI), which is used to monitor brain activity during meditation.

One of the most exciting discoveries in neuroscience is that of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to physically reorganize itself by developing new neural connections, even in the elderly. This means that actual physical changes in brain structure may underlie some of the benefits of mindfulness meditation. According to Richard Davidson, Director at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, University of Winconsin-Madison, “The brain is an organ which is designed to change in response to experience and training.”

Missing Plane…Ode to Malaysia

Malaysia must remain resolute in searching for this missing plane. She must find it and the occupants.

All over the world, loving thoughts of citizens of other nations are with the people of Malaysia and Asia in this search.

Look for this plane Malaysia, find it and the occupants, passengers and crew, whether dead or alive.

As you do so, be assured that other nations of the world and their citizens are with you in this difficult time.

You must understand that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Malaysia, please find this plane. This is an exhortation, not a command.

So Malaysia, you must show the world with the search for this missing plane that you are a country of tough citizens who never give up.

In spirit and brotherly love, Nigerians are with the families of Malaysians and citizens of other countries whose loved ones were on board this missing plane.

All is well

‘Just the Writer’: Five Things NEVER To Say to a Writer

Having been in the publishing industry for more than ten years, I’ve come across and worked with many people. Some have said things to me that I could never in a thousand years come up with in fiction. A common one, though, is that I am ‘just the writer’. I’ve learnt to laugh when people say this. However, if you are someone who doesn’t want to join the legions of terrible clients that writers have to work with (and sometimes work for), here are five things you should never say or do to a writer.

1. Don’t treat writers as though they’re dumb

“Are you OK?” I asked the man seated across from me. We had agreed to meet for coffee. He looked preoccupied and I was concerned for his welfare.
He took a deep breath and said, “I’m OK now. I’ve come back to my equibilirium.”
I struggled to keep a

The Corporate Dilemma

The dictionary defines a corporation as “an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. Inherent in this definition is the clear suggestion that a corporation is a self-sustaining entity with all but “sacred” powers that are greater than the powers of the individuals who may govern or operate its functions. This, of course, places people in a very secondary position if not further down the scale of importance. Of late, the term oftentimes coined of the larger, conglomerate corporations with many smaller businesses associated with it is “too big to fail.” When they are troubled by certain kinds of issues that threaten their existence, the Federal Government can throw money at them as a bailout measure to insure that they continue to function. Of course this

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