Book Excerpt The Productivity Book

Book Excerpt

Quote Laura Stack: What are some of your favorite productivity tips & apps?

Obviously, I love Doodle! I use it to schedule client conference calls and I talk about it in my presentations! Other apps I like: TripIt. I use this for plane, hotel, directions and ground transportation. Simply forward your confirmation emails and TripIt automatically populates your digital itineraries. It also means I can access all my details on my phone as I’m walking through the airport. Evernote. Sync content from the cloud to your desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone. When I see an article I like online, I simply right-click, clip the page, file it in a Notebook and tag it for easy searching. I drag large PDF documents into new Notes to read on upcoming business trips. I use Evernote in conjunction with my Livescribe Smartpen, so my handwritten notes from meetings and conference calls sync through Wi-Fi to my online account. I can listen to recordings right before meetings to refresh my memory. TouchDown. Microsoft Outlook users can sync their data to their phones, which is really handy, except the native apps require them to tap multiple icons to access different modules. Instead, I use the TouchDown ActiveSync Exchange client. This allows me to click ONE icon to access my Email, Calendar, Contacts, Tasks, and Notes, as well as handle Out of Office and Rule settings. Square. My smartphone is a portable credit card processing machine. Using a small scanner that plugs into the earphone jack, I can accept payments for things like book sales and speaking fees. I slide the card through the scanner, enter the dollar amount and ask the buyer to sign with a fingertip. The buyer can enter an email address to receive a receipt.

About the Book

Title: The Productivity Book

Author: Michael Brecht

Genre: Non-Fiction / Time Management

At Doodle, we understand that productivity isn’t how much you’re doing, it’s how much you get done. So, we spoke to 30 productivity and time management experts to figure out just how they do it. The result: The Doodle Productivity Book! It can’t make more hours in the day. But, it will show you how to get the most out of the time you do have, so you can work smarter, and not harder. Filled with personal stories, insightful anecdotes and sound advice, this book is a fresh examination of the habits that shape us—and how others have managed to break free of them.

Author Bio

• Since 02/2014 Doodle AG, Zurich/Berlin
• Since 2009 Founding Partner Tropfenjaeger
  Online WineClub for selected clients in Europe.
• 3 years Founding Partner 52weine Wine Shopping Club
  Exit to strategic Investor Pallhuber in Germany
• 5 years Goodingoo Media, Australia
  Online Media, Marketing & Export Consulting Firm for Australian Businesses working in Asia
• 3 years knowledgeTools, Berlin
  Strategy Consultant and Acquisition of Growth Capital for Founder
• 3 years Founding Partner and CEO of urbia.com
  Leading family portal for the young family in Germany (today part of German Media company Gruner & Jahr)
• 2 years Board Member GE Capital IT Solutions, UK
  Restructuring and Integration of UK subsidiary in European parent company, further growth with two acquisitions in the UK
• 7 years Managing Partner CompuNet, Berlin/Leipzig
  Grew business from 5 to 300 employees in Berlin and former Eastern Germany, Exit to GE Capital subsidiary
• 1984-89 WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management
  Focus on Entrepreneurship, Finance and Marketing
• 1982-84 Trainee at Deutsche Bank AG in Duesseldorf

Links

http://productivity-book.com/

Twitter

http://michaelbrecht.com/

Buy the book on Amazon

Giveaway

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Book Excerpt The Uber Author Planner

 

Book Excerpt

I mentioned briefly earlier, but it bears reiterating, that most publishers now expect aspiring authors and even established authors seeking new contracts to have some form of platform, to have some form of TRIBE. Mentioning in your cover letters than you have several thousand followers on Facebook and/or Twitter goes a long way towards getting your foot in the door. The publisher may not even want to utilise your social media platform, but the very fact that you have one is social proof. You have successfully marketed yourself, and your writing, and enough people have been interested to keep following you online. Blog stats are a great indication of how well you’re actually doing—if you’re pitching an article to someone and are able to tell them you get a few thousand or more unique hits a week, that’s music to their ears. That’s a few thousand or more people who would potentially come over to their site in order to read your article. Social proof has a lot going for it. Don’t underestimate the power of a platform.

Your online platform isn’t all about the number of people on your mailing list, or the number of people who like your Facebook Page. It’s also a marketing machine. If you abuse it, you will lose your followers, but if you use it correctly, you can drive sales and promote your writing and products (books or otherwise) using the power of your platform.

But how do you build a platform, exactly?

There are many different aspects to an online platform, and you can use all of them or just a select few. You might decide your blog is all you want. You might decide you want a full website, which includes a blog. You might flesh this out a little by adding a Facebook Page or a Twitter account. You might do both. You might (as I did recently) decide that you will soon be having a lot of visual content and set up an Instagram account. If you write books, Goodreads is a great place to be, as is Amazon—although this isn’t technically a social media site, you can gain a good following through an author page and/or regularly posting reviews. Mix your blog up occasionally and do Vlogs as well. Start your own YouTube channel. Launch a Podcast. Really, the possibilities are endless, it’s all about finding what suits you. Personally, I’m a Facebook girl. I love my Facebook Pages. But I also like to blog, and I’ve begun to build a presence on other sites too. Experiment. Find what works for you, then stick to it. Consistency really is key in platform building. Post regularly. That doesn’t mean you have to post constantly, just regularly. If you want to blog once a week, make it the same day each week.

 

About the Book

Title: The Uber Author Planner

Author: Hazel Butler

Genre: Non-Fiction

The Uber Author Planner is the ULTIMATE tool for Authors, Writers, and Bloggers.

Created by an author, freelance writer, and blogger, this planner is specially designed to keep everything writing-related in one place, making you super organised and super productive.

Far more than a simple planner, this book includes a guide for authors, writers, and bloggers, covering many aspects of life as a writer in the modern world, including:

• Top Tips
• Writing Targets
• How To Write An Author Page
• 5 Steps To Get On The Huffington Post
• Blogging
• Growing Your Tribe Of Dedicated Readers
• Building Your Email List
• Creating Awesome Content and Freebies
• 50 Different Blog Templates
• Novel Planner
• Story Planner
• Non-Fiction Planner
• Project Budget Planner
• Word Count Tracker
• Character Outlines
• Chapter Outlines
• Scene Outlines
• AND The Name Game

The Uber Author Planner will help you raise your writing profile, build your online platform, write more, publish more, and achieve your writing dreams. Coming with a double daily spread, plus weekly blog, newsletter, and social media planners, weekly and daily target setting, word count tracking, and stacks of extra writing and blogging aids, this planner has everything you need. As if that wasn’t enough, there is also a bonus section including The 30 Day Novel Planner.

The planner’s flexible weekly system allows you to start it on any day of the year and still use it for a full 12 months. You will also get exclusive access to easily downloadable versions of all planners, and blogging and writing templates, so you can print out as many as you like once the ones in the book have been filled! Standing at just under 1200 pages, hardbound for durability throughout the year, and beautifully illustrated in full colour, this is an EPIC resource for all authors, writers, and bloggers!

Author Bio

Hazel is an author, artist and archaeologist from Cheshire, England. She is the founder and owner of The Bookshine Bandit, a business dedicated to helping authors, writers, bloggers, and those looking to self-publish achieve their dreams and maximise their writing potential.

Since 2010 she has been working on a series of Gothic Literary novels, the first of which, Chasing Azrael, was released in April 2014. The Deathly Insanity series are a set of Urban Fantasy novels with overlapping character and plot-lines. Hazel’s other published works include Bleizgeist, and ‘Grave’, a short Dark Fantasy story. She has also published an additional novella and short story under a pen name.

While her primary interests are in Gothic and Fantasy art and fiction, Hazel reads a wide range of subjects and enjoys most forms of art. In addition to this, she runs The Bipolar Bear, a blog on bipolar disorder, and loves of dogs. Her King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, Dexter (yes, after the serial killer), is her near-constant companion.

Hazel is currently in the final year of her PhD, which focuses on Gender Dynamics in Late Iron Age and Early Medieval Britain. She studied at The University of Manchester for her Undergraduate degree, then Bangor University for her MA and PhD, spending the two years between her MA and PhD doing corporate archaeology and research excavations, both in Britain and in Austria. She has two papers published in international journals.

Links

Buy It Direct: http://bit.ly/UberAuthorPlanner

Get it on Kindle:              http://bit.ly/MiniAuthorPlanner
Goodreads:                       https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27923285-the-uber-author-planner

The Bookshine Bandit

www.bookshinebandit.com

www.facebook.com/bookshinebandit

www.twitter.com/bookshinebandit

www.pinterest.com/bookshinebandit

Hazel Butler

www.hazel-butler.com

www.facebook.com/HazelJaneButler

www.twitter.com/Hazel_Butler

www.pinterest.com/HazelHerself

Giveaway 

The first giveaway runs for the duration of the blog tour. Prizes for this giveaway include FIVE copies of the HARDBACK version of the planner, FIVE exclusive NINJA USB Drives loaded with all the electronic versions of the planners and templates, and as the SPECIAL TOP PRIZE 25% Off one of The Bookshine Bandit’s editorial Book Bundles.

a Rafflecopter giveaway The second giveaway will run until the 1^st July 2016, and one lucky winner will receive a £50 AMAZON VOUCHER! This giveaway is aimed at encouraging reviews, and there are multiple opportunities to enter and gain lots of points to maximise your chances of winning, by posting reviews across different sites, Tweeting about the book as often as you like during competition time, and sharing videos of your review, your planner, and how you’re getting along with it. a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Book Excerpt We Never Left You

 

Book Excerpt

Beth:

What about us?  We’d lost our kids four months earlier and we had been generous enough to lend money to Rick’s sister and to give Kris a couch.  We were the ones who needed to heal and for Ginny to assume that everything was fine and dandy for us after four months and one weekend workshop was ludicrous and insulting.  She was a professional counselor.  We were paying her to help me and all she was doing was making me feel worse.

My head was bursting when I told Rick, “I can’t stop the voices in my head.  I keep hearing your sisters and Ginny telling me what we’re doing wrong and how we’re supposed to help them.  But how can I help anybody else when I can't even help myself?  We try to do good, it’s our money and we’re trying to help and now, we’re the bad ones.  All these voices are in my head, they're really loud, and I can't make them stop.  What am I supposed to do?”

I felt like I was going insane.  My children were dead, I was still replaying the accident over and over, and the voices in my head wouldn't stop fighting with each other.  I was on a roller coaster of emotions, people were chattering in my brain, and I couldn’t stop them.  I simply couldn't control my mind.  I was fighting with God and all I could think about was wanting to die and be with my children.  I wanted to leave this earth where the people who were supposed to help me were hurting me.  It was much too painful.  But how would I do it? 

I turned to Rick and said, “I can't stop the voices in my head and I want to die.  I'm going to go for a long walk into a snow bank and freeze to death.  I just can't do this any more.”  I looked down at my wrists.  “I don’t know how people slit their wrists.  They call it being weak but I think it’s strong.  I can't go on.  There’s no ‘off’ switch.  God should have given me a little toggle switch but I don't have one.”

Rick exhaled deeply and was silent for a while.  Finally he said, “Beth, If that’s what you have to do, if you need to leave this earth, I can’t stop you.  I don’t really have that right.  I don't want you to do it.  We already lost the rest of our family.  You and I are all that’s left and we're about to have a new baby.  But if you can't be happy and that’s what you have to do, I would understand.”

I looked at Rick.  He really thought I might do it and in essence, he was giving me permission.  But when I got home, I got out of the car and thought about the snow.  I could take off walking right now, find a deep snow bank, bury myself in it and freeze to death –– but I had to go to the bathroom and I hated the cold.  I went into the house, went to the bathroom and picked up the phone to call my mother.  I wanted her permission to take my life but of course, she wouldn't give it to me. 

 

About the Book

Title: We Never Left You

Authors: Beth and Rick Olsen

Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir / Inspirational

After unspeakable tragedy, one couple must forge their own path to healing in the bittersweet true story, We Never Left You.

One moment, Beth and Rick Olsen were enjoying an ordinary life filled with all the joys and frustrations of raising their two children, Jessica and Joshua. The next moment, a drunk driver plowed through a red light at eighty miles per hour, hitting their van and changing everything.

The death of both their children launched Beth and Rick down a long and winding path toward simple survival—and eventual healing. As shock gave way to the cruel reality of their loss, they began receiving messages that proved the existence of life after death—a welcome sign that aided them in moving forward.

The Olsens soon attempted traditional healing methods but quickly found that counseling did nothing to help them get a grasp on their monumental loss. They then turned to nontraditional approaches—a decision that led them to Peru. It was there they finally began to undergo the immense physical, mental, and emotional changes that allowed them to understand everything—including the accident—happens for a reason.

Author Bio

Beth and Rick Olsen

Happily married since 1987, Rick and Beth Olsen survived the death of their two children from a drunk driver in 1999. Now, in 2015, they have written their first book about their experiences in an attempt to help other people undergoing the same kind of tragedy. Beth and Rick live in Glenbeulah, Wisconsin with their three children.

Andrea Cagan

Andrea Cagan has been writing, ghost writing, collaborating and editing for over two decades, with more than a dozen books appearing on the best seller lists, including four #1 NY Times and LA Times best sellers. She focuses on topics of social value, and has worked with such celebrities as Magic Johnson, Marianne Williamson, Grace Slick and many more.

Links

Book website www.weneverleftyou.com

Twitter @wnly99

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/wnly99

Pinterest  https://www.pinterest.com/weneverleftyou/

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