Ebooks | Perle Champion

How do you stay motivated?

22 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Ebooks, Freelance Writing, Get Published, Journaling

I’ve been obsessed with finally finishing my first ever e-book. I’ve been ‘going to do this’ for some time and seriously started working on it late last year.

Alas, while Procrastion walks beside me, Persistent beckons in the distance. I needed motivation to step up my pace, leave Procrastination in the dust and grab hold of Persistence or I was never going to finish this project. Here are three things I did to help me out.

I dusted off an old motivational quote that always served me in the past and posted it on my vision board above my desk where I do most of my work. I read it everyday and it worked.
I started blogging about it, so I’d have to follow through.
I called a writer friend of mine (thank you Joyce Norman), who was glad to call or message me for progress reports 2 sometimes 3 times a week.

I finished my book and uploaded it to Amazon’s Kindle platform earlier this month. Yay. Moving on to next project.

Question: How do you avoid procrastination, and keep motivated to finish your projects?

How to Get Published from Your Journal

08 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Ebooks, Get Published, How to Journal, NaNoWriMo, Perle Champion

Well, I’ve hit the home stretch on my first eBook: How to Journal and How to publish from your journal.

Aside from my corporate writing, I’ve been publishing my personal writing since around 1990 in newspapers and magazines: Book reviews, Essays, Personal Remembrances, Poetry.

Last year at a writers group I joined for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org), I was asked how I got published.

I explained that most of what I’ve published comes straight from the pages of my Journal. I proceeded to explain how I journal everything and one day noticed that one of those journal entries had the makings of a personal essay/memoir.

I transcribed it into Word, edited it, polished it, rewrote it and submitted it to the Birmingham Arts Journal. It was accepted and published. Yay, found a goldmine of publishable ideas. I went back to my journals to look for more buried treasure, and I started journaling with an eye to what I was putting on the page.

After explaining this, I thought maybe others would like to know how to make then mine their journal for publishable material.

So here it is again, November looms and I find myself again at this year’s NaNoWriMo group. The same question came up about how to get published. This time I could not only tell them how, but that my eBook on the subject would be coming out on Amazon October 11, 2013.

Whew! Ever bite off more than you can chew?

11 Jul 2013 Leave a comment

by Perle Champion in Blogging, Ebooks, Writing

I just realized I haven’t posted since May. Appears I’ve bit off more than I can chew. E-book, painting, queries challenge (Victoria still dragging out decision), blogging, etc. And to be honest, I’m having too much fun being ‘retired’. There’s lots to do in Birmingham and many are free (see below for my list)*, and I’m meeting a whole other group of friends.

The book is in final draft and may yet slide from the July 15 date to September pub date.

I have 8 small paintings in various stages of completion.

It is appears that Blogging was the first to go and I didn’t even notice. After posting every day last year on a dare, I’ve lost my momentum.

Today, I had to stop and address my poor blog.and decide on posts for the next month or so. All the advice out there says find a niche, but I’ve decided that I’m not a niche writer. I go on sprees such as the crazy haiku binge last year and early this. I’ll probably still add poems to my posts, as I met so many great poets out through for my simul-posts on my WordPress Blog.

It started as an experiment. Blogger allows me to advertise on its free service. WordPress does not. However, I garnered far more followers on WordPress and don’t know why. So, I cannot neglect either. I probably won’t post everyday, but try to settle into a schedule of sorts. Suggestions welcome.