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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Can You Read While Doing Other things?

What of my favorite things about having reading as a hobby is that it can be done while doing other things, without being counterproductive. For example - most fitness equipment like treadmills and elipitcals are totally conducive to reading while using. Although I suppose trying to read on one of the rowing machines could get a little hairy. But you can also read while waiting at the DMV or the doctor's office. You can read while sitting at your child's sports, music, dance or whatever kind of practice. 
The trick to being able to read while doing other things is that you have to be able to hold your place on a page - look up, engage in something else, and get back to the same spot without having to reread the same sentence fifteen times. This is a skill that not ever reader - regardless of how experienced - has. From talking to many friends that are avid readers I have come to the conclusion that you either got it or don't. So do you have it? 


Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Have You Ever Written an eBook?

Does anyone know anything about writing an eBook? I know that lots of you read them, I read them often, but have anyone of you ever actually written  and published one for distribution? And more importantly have you ever written a “How To” book, not a novel?

You are probably wondering why I am asking this, well I am considering writing an eBook. As of late I have spent a lot of my time teaching classes about couponing - you know teaching people about how to take advantage of all the coupons and deals that are out there. I have created a collection of handouts that I use in my classes so I have a lot of the information written out already. It would certainly have to be molded into a different format, but the core concepts already exist. What I am wondering is if anyone knows how to go about writing an eBook? Do you have a suggestion on what program to use, or how to market it? 

Couponing has become a way of life for me and I have a marked level of success when it comes to turning my meager budget into a stockpile for my family of six. I especially love to use arts and crafts coupons and deals. I have trained both my husband and my three sons to no longer ask "Can we get this?" and instead ask "Do you have a coupon for this?” It has changed our lives for the better. We are more quickly climbing out of the debt our "misspent" youth years incurred for us. 

I have had the great opportunity to share my couponing methods with many local families, but I think I am ready to branch out of my local town into a more national venue. I know that my family and friends that don’t live near me are interested in learning my methods, so I think it’s safe to think that others would be interested as well. I have considered creating a webinar, but I really think an eBook is the place to start, so that it could be used in conjunction with the webinar.

So have any of you ever published an eBook? If you have, how did you distribute it? How did you decide how much it would cost, what format it would be? Any information I can get would be greatly appreciated. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

What's Your Favorite Title Right Now?

So I finally loaded up a few books on to my kindle in hopes of getting some reading in during the times that I am just sitting, but now home. You know - at basketball practice or waiting for school to get out or in the doctor's office waiting for that appointment that you were asked to be at least fifteen minutes early to and it has now been more than thirty minutes pass and you are still sitting in the waiting room (no personal frustration with that or anything :). 
But one thing that I have noticed about my kindle is that the more books I have currently loaded, the slower it is not to mention the shorter the battery life. I did get a car charger but that only works for while I am driving from one place to the next - my car doesn't charge items if it's not running. What I really need to get is a USB power bank or something, so that I can charge anywhere. 
But what I really want to know is what is your favorite book right now? 


Friday, February 3, 2012

Step in the Right Direction

Contribution by Saul Martin
I travel a great deal for work. Most weeks I am out of town Monday until Thursday or Friday. Leaving my wife and kids has always made me nervous. Nothing has happened to make me overly concerned; I’ve never even had something stolen out of my car. I guess it’s just all the news coverage you see about break-ins and thefts that have me concern as well as the crime statistics I’ve read. To ease my mind, we had adt chicago come set up a home alarm system a couple of weeks ago. I sleep better at night knowing there is an extra layer of protection there for my family. My wife says she loves coming home and deactivating the alarm. She can tell no one has been in or is in the house. The kids fight over who gets to press the code to deactivate it or set it before they go to bed at night. I think it was a step in the right direction to keeping my family out of harm’s way!