Tuesday, March 5, 2013

A New Author's Guide to Book Publishing

One of the biggest dreams of an author is to get his book published. Finding a publisher that will show immediate interest in your book is an obstacle though. You will have to follow the policies and procedures of a publishing company to have your book considered. However, your hard work and persistence will pay off once you see in your mail or inbox "manuscript accepted". Below are some helpful tips to get you started with book publishing.

Proofread and a good title

Make sure you proofread your book several times. You can ask a friend or a relative to do this for you or you can even hire a professional proofreader to read through your book at least twice. You also have to consider a good title and a good cover. Readers are often attracted to picking up a book from a bookstore through the title and the cover page. They would even look at the headings of each chapter to judge the overall theme of the book. As the saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover" but that's how most book readers do it.

A New Author's Guide to Book Publishing

Rules of the publisher

Policies and procedures of every publisher differ from each other. Get to know the publisher's policies first before submitting your manuscript. With today's technology, it's easier to find out the publisher's rules by visiting their website. You can also give them a call if you want to do it the traditional way. Don't go ahead and submit your manuscript without knowing the policies of the publisher as you will just be wasting your time and end up getting rejected. If you want to be noticed in the publishing world, you must follow the rules.

Personalize your letter/email

When sending emails to letters to publisher make sure you send it to a particular person. You can use "To Whom it May Concern" only when you are making an inquiry. But once your manuscript is already involved, there should be a particular person in charge of it to assure that it will go to the right person. This will save your time and avoid frustrations. If you don't know who to contact, you can always give the publishing company a call first.

Self Publishing

The easiest way to publish your book is through Self Publishing. Most of the time, traditional publishers would only publish a book if you already have a name. But if you are a new author, self publishing your book is your safest bet. You can even get more profit if you self publish. A lot of classic writers went to self publishing and made a name for themselves like Mark Twain, Walt Whitman and James Redfield. Self Publishing companies will also help you market your book, no questions asked. Traditional publishers would promote books if they think it will be a best seller. Anyway, your goal here is to publish your book and make it known to many. Self Publishing will surely get you to your dream.

Patience is a virtue

To become a well known author you must have a great deal of patience. In the professional world, everyone has to start in small, careful steps. There are a few who get lucky and become famous overnight. But not all find that kind of good luck. As Benjamin Franklin said "He that can have patience can have what he will". Everyone has to go through rejection once in a while but you have to keep moving on. If your manuscript gets rejected, then look for another publisher. Wait for them to finish reading your manuscript; they have to read through a lot. You are not the only author out there.

The key to success is to enjoy what you're doing. Just keep on writing and love what you're doing. This will keep your motivation going.

A New Author's Guide to Book Publishing
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

http://www.Bookpal.com.au/ is helping self publishers all around the world to successfully self publish and market their books with cost effective solutions to create bestsellers. The website offers a free book for budding self publishers, and many other free resources.

Terence Tam is the founder of Bookpal, he previously spent 6 years as an academic and was a contributing author for several academic books. Frustrated with the level of service he was getting with traditional publishers, he set up his own self publishing company to help other authors publish and market books with cost effective yet efficient solutions

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success

The process by which one person or a group of persons receive an increment of information which has some value for either sender or receiver either by way of knowledge addition or entertainment or acquisition of energy to act or persuasion to buy or act as required by the sender is the process of communication.

The Process of Communication

The critical part of communication is the information, which is being transferred. Information may be in any form- ranging from hand signals to public speech, from email to detailed contract, from one word greeting to a lengthy letter, from a message on a notice board of a school to a full page advertisement on a daily, from a hint with raised eyebrows to five-minute hug, from a memo from a superior or subordinate to a HR manual and so on. For the transfer of the information or the message, certain vehicle or medium is employed, which loads itself with it and passes it on to the intended receivers. Paper, phone, one-to-one meeting, public meeting, conversation, hoarding, newspaper, words written or spoken, body gestures, smile, books etc are the vehicles or media. The way the vehicles take and transport the information in such a way that the receiver understands it as it should be is the communication process. The medium or the sender or the receiver characteristically distorts the information, which in one way or other contributes fully or partly to the failure of the communication in accomplishing the purpose intended.

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success

Two important stages of communication are a) encoding and b) decoding. The process involved in these two stages is a potential source of communication failure. Encoding is translation or conversion of the idea or intention or message into words or signals so that receiver would reconvert the same as intended by the sender. Decoding is what the receiver does to reconvert the received words or signals into the idea or intention or message as originally intended by the sender. The problems associated with encoding or decoding are due to the fact that words or signals have multiple meanings and thus there is a possibility of either use of wrong words or wrong signals or understanding them in a way different from what is originally intended.

Understanding of the process of communication would facilitate transactions. Else, the there would be no action at all or delayed action if at all there is some action or wrong action or relationships turning bad and so on. For instance, a boss tells his secretary that a meeting with contractors is urgent. But he finds to his surprise that a meeting has been convened quickly the next day morning, but it clashed with another program, which the secretary is not aware. The boss, in this case, while being busy with office routine overlooked the process involved in passing messages and the attendant chances of communication going wrong in many of the stages. He failed to specify the time. But the secretary understood it as next day morning. This illustrates how the process involved in encoding and decoding goes wrong and thus it springs surprises.

All the elements involved in communication which constitute the communication process are a) sender b) receiver c) message c) encoding d) decoding e) channel f) noise g) feedback.

The following brief discussion explains the process of communication.

Sender: The point from where the message originated, here the boss, is the sender. The action intended to happen out of this message is convening of a meeting urgently, but definitely not the next day morning.

Message: Message is the essential content of communication or information intended to be passed. The request for convening of meeting is the message.

Receiver: The person who has to take delivery of message is the receiver. Here the secretary is the receiver whose job is to understand exactly and act on it as intended by the sender.

Encoding: The idea of convening a meeting, in this instance, has been converted into words, probably with facial expressions signaling the urgency of meeting. Such process of converting an idea is words or expressions is encoding.

Channel: The encoded message needs a vehicle or a medium to be transported from sender to receiver. The vehicle may be a paper or a telephone or Internet or meeting or conversation. In the present example, oral communication made by the boss to secretary is the channel.

Decoding: The process of understanding by receiver of the message given by the sender. In this example, the secretary while decoding understood the message given by the sender.

Noise: Noise is the causative factor for the message being miscommunicated or misunderstood due to the problem either in the medium chosen or encoding or decoding or in some stages of the process. In this instance, the message was not properly constructed and hence the secretary did not understand it as intended by the sender. The noise in communication is analogous to the external noise generated by cable or transmission equipment of land line telecommunication while the subscribers talk on land line phones and hence they don't listen or understand the words exchanged.

Feedback: The sender would be communicating back to the sender his or her evaluation or how he or she understood about each part of the message or word before the sender goes further in acting on the message. Here in the present example the secretary did not give her feedback about what she understood and thus the intended message failed.

While what was described in the preceding paragraphs is a general understanding of the concept of communication process, a brief study of various theories propounded till date would facilitate a fairly in-depth understanding of the communication process. The same has been attempted in the following paragraphs.

Aristotle Theory of One Way Communication: Aristotle proposed that communication has three components- sender, receiver and message. It is a simple and basic model, which, nevertheless, laid base for the rest of the theories to come up. Aristotle, at such an early period of evolution of social science, posited that communication is a one way process. It connotes that sender is responsible for good persuasive communication to happen. Neither the concept of noise nor the necessity of feedback in communication crossed his mind.

Lasswell Model of Communication: Lasswell extended the communication theory of Aristotle to include another element, channel. Three important elements or components in this theory are a) Sender b) Message c) Channel. His theory posits that it is the responsibility of the sender to see that receiver understands the message, by choosing a proper channel. It is also a one-way direction of communication as that of Aristotle.

Shannon-Weaver Model: CE Shannon and W Weaver, the engineers' duo, proposed this theory in 1949. This theory was based on a mechanistic view of communication. This is the first theory, which recognizes that the message received is not the same as the message sent. This distortion is due to the noise present in the system.

They introduced feedback as a corrective measure for noise. But, they did not integrate the feedback into the model. They proposed that feedback would start another cycle of communication process. The theory essentially posits that real communication takes place only when the message received and message sent are one and the same without any difference, which may be true for an engineering model. But the communication that takes place between individuals, which mostly happens without any machines, cannot be as perfect as assumed in the theory, since the filters in the individuals operate while both listening and sending. Filters are the attitudes, perceptions, experiences and evaluations that operate much before the actual communication starts. The action that takes place as intended is the proof of success of communication.

The elements in this model are a) Information source b) Encoding c) Channel d) Decoding e) Destination f) Noise g) Feedback.

Schramm Model of Communication: Wilburn Schramm proposed this model in 1955, which was considered to be the best of all the theories since it is evolved and comprehensive. It was proposed in three stages with some improvement in each successive stage over the previous one. These stages are also referred to as three distinct models.

In the first stage, it emphasized on encoding process and source like that of Aristotle without any recognition for noise. It too was a one-way direction of communication flow.

In the second stage, the emphasis shifted to the shared domain of experience of sender and receiver. The sender has to take into consideration, according to this theory, the needs and abilities of the receiver, which he must be aware of due to shared experience, and thus the selects the right channel and at the same time encodes the message in the way that can be understood by the receiver. Here the communication process is understood to be a two-way flow.

In the third stage, the feedback was thought to be an essential element of communication system. In this stage of Schramm's theory, the communication process encompasses sender, receiver, good channel, proper encoding, proper decoding, and feedback. The flow which ends with feedback starts immediately again to make a circular process.

The Inferential Model of Communication: Prof.Mathukutty Monippally proposes a new theory called 'Inferential Model of Communication' emphasizing on symbols displayed and the construction of meaning inadequately from such symbols. The model assumes that there is no adequate and proper way to send a message, and nevertheless we send message through some chosen symbols, which again are not properly understood.

Prof. Mathukutty (2001) explains, " The inferential model assumes that we cannot communicate, that we cannot communicate, that we cannot share our message with anyone, that we cannot it in the minds of and hearts of others. And yet we want to communicate. There is no code that can capture our message faithfully and then be cracked clean by others. So we resort to displaying symbols....This procedure is generally satisfactory. Of course, we can go wrong; and occasionally we go terribly wrong. But this is the only means available." ( Mathukutty M Monippally, Business Communication Strategies,2001, New Delhi, Tata Mcgrawhill Publishing Company Limited, pp 6-9)

An Overview of Some More Models of Communication

Another model of Katz -Lazarfeld is the one related to mass communication, which states that the sender has to encode the message and transmit the same through mass media to an opinion leader. The opinion leader in turn transmits the same to the target audience, the public. This is also constructed as a one-way direction of information flow.

Another model, which has taken a different path, is that of Westley - Maclean. It emphasizes on interpersonal communication. In this, the carefully encoded message is sent to the receiver who in turn sends it to either the sender or other individual with some changes. The model lays stress on sender, receiver and feedback, which make this model a circular one.

One more one- way model is that of Berlo, which recognizes perception as an important element of communication. According to this model, any discrepancy in the reception of message due to influence of perceptions of intermediaries would lead to miscommunication. The important building blocks of this model are the source, the receiver, the meaning intended and the process of sending and receiving the message.

Watlaw- Beavin-Jackobson, proposed a model of two-way communication with emphasis on the behavior of participants and the relationships existing among them to achieve communication success.

Rogers-Kincaid proposed that for the communication to be successful, the individuals should be connected through social networks and sharing of information.

Conclusion

Understanding communication process is very critical to the managers of the organization. They should understand that communication is rarely understood as it should be. The distortion of the message can happen at any of the stages in communication process-sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, channel, message and feedback.

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Prof.Appalayya Meesala is a Professor of Management in Deccan School of Management, an affiliated college of Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. Students can contact him for guidance on projects, dessertations and theses. He can be contacted at : appalayya22@yahoo.com or ameesala@yahoo.com or on his mobile:98485-14-011

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success

The process by which one person or a group of persons receive an increment of information which has some value for either sender or receiver either by way of knowledge addition or entertainment or acquisition of energy to act or persuasion to buy or act as required by the sender is the process of communication.

The Process of Communication

The critical part of communication is the information, which is being transferred. Information may be in any form- ranging from hand signals to public speech, from email to detailed contract, from one word greeting to a lengthy letter, from a message on a notice board of a school to a full page advertisement on a daily, from a hint with raised eyebrows to five-minute hug, from a memo from a superior or subordinate to a HR manual and so on. For the transfer of the information or the message, certain vehicle or medium is employed, which loads itself with it and passes it on to the intended receivers. Paper, phone, one-to-one meeting, public meeting, conversation, hoarding, newspaper, words written or spoken, body gestures, smile, books etc are the vehicles or media. The way the vehicles take and transport the information in such a way that the receiver understands it as it should be is the communication process. The medium or the sender or the receiver characteristically distorts the information, which in one way or other contributes fully or partly to the failure of the communication in accomplishing the purpose intended.

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success

Two important stages of communication are a) encoding and b) decoding. The process involved in these two stages is a potential source of communication failure. Encoding is translation or conversion of the idea or intention or message into words or signals so that receiver would reconvert the same as intended by the sender. Decoding is what the receiver does to reconvert the received words or signals into the idea or intention or message as originally intended by the sender. The problems associated with encoding or decoding are due to the fact that words or signals have multiple meanings and thus there is a possibility of either use of wrong words or wrong signals or understanding them in a way different from what is originally intended.

Understanding of the process of communication would facilitate transactions. Else, the there would be no action at all or delayed action if at all there is some action or wrong action or relationships turning bad and so on. For instance, a boss tells his secretary that a meeting with contractors is urgent. But he finds to his surprise that a meeting has been convened quickly the next day morning, but it clashed with another program, which the secretary is not aware. The boss, in this case, while being busy with office routine overlooked the process involved in passing messages and the attendant chances of communication going wrong in many of the stages. He failed to specify the time. But the secretary understood it as next day morning. This illustrates how the process involved in encoding and decoding goes wrong and thus it springs surprises.

All the elements involved in communication which constitute the communication process are a) sender b) receiver c) message c) encoding d) decoding e) channel f) noise g) feedback.

The following brief discussion explains the process of communication.

Sender: The point from where the message originated, here the boss, is the sender. The action intended to happen out of this message is convening of a meeting urgently, but definitely not the next day morning.

Message: Message is the essential content of communication or information intended to be passed. The request for convening of meeting is the message.

Receiver: The person who has to take delivery of message is the receiver. Here the secretary is the receiver whose job is to understand exactly and act on it as intended by the sender.

Encoding: The idea of convening a meeting, in this instance, has been converted into words, probably with facial expressions signaling the urgency of meeting. Such process of converting an idea is words or expressions is encoding.

Channel: The encoded message needs a vehicle or a medium to be transported from sender to receiver. The vehicle may be a paper or a telephone or Internet or meeting or conversation. In the present example, oral communication made by the boss to secretary is the channel.

Decoding: The process of understanding by receiver of the message given by the sender. In this example, the secretary while decoding understood the message given by the sender.

Noise: Noise is the causative factor for the message being miscommunicated or misunderstood due to the problem either in the medium chosen or encoding or decoding or in some stages of the process. In this instance, the message was not properly constructed and hence the secretary did not understand it as intended by the sender. The noise in communication is analogous to the external noise generated by cable or transmission equipment of land line telecommunication while the subscribers talk on land line phones and hence they don't listen or understand the words exchanged.

Feedback: The sender would be communicating back to the sender his or her evaluation or how he or she understood about each part of the message or word before the sender goes further in acting on the message. Here in the present example the secretary did not give her feedback about what she understood and thus the intended message failed.

While what was described in the preceding paragraphs is a general understanding of the concept of communication process, a brief study of various theories propounded till date would facilitate a fairly in-depth understanding of the communication process. The same has been attempted in the following paragraphs.

Aristotle Theory of One Way Communication: Aristotle proposed that communication has three components- sender, receiver and message. It is a simple and basic model, which, nevertheless, laid base for the rest of the theories to come up. Aristotle, at such an early period of evolution of social science, posited that communication is a one way process. It connotes that sender is responsible for good persuasive communication to happen. Neither the concept of noise nor the necessity of feedback in communication crossed his mind.

Lasswell Model of Communication: Lasswell extended the communication theory of Aristotle to include another element, channel. Three important elements or components in this theory are a) Sender b) Message c) Channel. His theory posits that it is the responsibility of the sender to see that receiver understands the message, by choosing a proper channel. It is also a one-way direction of communication as that of Aristotle.

Shannon-Weaver Model: CE Shannon and W Weaver, the engineers' duo, proposed this theory in 1949. This theory was based on a mechanistic view of communication. This is the first theory, which recognizes that the message received is not the same as the message sent. This distortion is due to the noise present in the system.

They introduced feedback as a corrective measure for noise. But, they did not integrate the feedback into the model. They proposed that feedback would start another cycle of communication process. The theory essentially posits that real communication takes place only when the message received and message sent are one and the same without any difference, which may be true for an engineering model. But the communication that takes place between individuals, which mostly happens without any machines, cannot be as perfect as assumed in the theory, since the filters in the individuals operate while both listening and sending. Filters are the attitudes, perceptions, experiences and evaluations that operate much before the actual communication starts. The action that takes place as intended is the proof of success of communication.

The elements in this model are a) Information source b) Encoding c) Channel d) Decoding e) Destination f) Noise g) Feedback.

Schramm Model of Communication: Wilburn Schramm proposed this model in 1955, which was considered to be the best of all the theories since it is evolved and comprehensive. It was proposed in three stages with some improvement in each successive stage over the previous one. These stages are also referred to as three distinct models.

In the first stage, it emphasized on encoding process and source like that of Aristotle without any recognition for noise. It too was a one-way direction of communication flow.

In the second stage, the emphasis shifted to the shared domain of experience of sender and receiver. The sender has to take into consideration, according to this theory, the needs and abilities of the receiver, which he must be aware of due to shared experience, and thus the selects the right channel and at the same time encodes the message in the way that can be understood by the receiver. Here the communication process is understood to be a two-way flow.

In the third stage, the feedback was thought to be an essential element of communication system. In this stage of Schramm's theory, the communication process encompasses sender, receiver, good channel, proper encoding, proper decoding, and feedback. The flow which ends with feedback starts immediately again to make a circular process.

The Inferential Model of Communication: Prof.Mathukutty Monippally proposes a new theory called 'Inferential Model of Communication' emphasizing on symbols displayed and the construction of meaning inadequately from such symbols. The model assumes that there is no adequate and proper way to send a message, and nevertheless we send message through some chosen symbols, which again are not properly understood.

Prof. Mathukutty (2001) explains, " The inferential model assumes that we cannot communicate, that we cannot communicate, that we cannot share our message with anyone, that we cannot it in the minds of and hearts of others. And yet we want to communicate. There is no code that can capture our message faithfully and then be cracked clean by others. So we resort to displaying symbols....This procedure is generally satisfactory. Of course, we can go wrong; and occasionally we go terribly wrong. But this is the only means available." ( Mathukutty M Monippally, Business Communication Strategies,2001, New Delhi, Tata Mcgrawhill Publishing Company Limited, pp 6-9)

An Overview of Some More Models of Communication

Another model of Katz -Lazarfeld is the one related to mass communication, which states that the sender has to encode the message and transmit the same through mass media to an opinion leader. The opinion leader in turn transmits the same to the target audience, the public. This is also constructed as a one-way direction of information flow.

Another model, which has taken a different path, is that of Westley - Maclean. It emphasizes on interpersonal communication. In this, the carefully encoded message is sent to the receiver who in turn sends it to either the sender or other individual with some changes. The model lays stress on sender, receiver and feedback, which make this model a circular one.

One more one- way model is that of Berlo, which recognizes perception as an important element of communication. According to this model, any discrepancy in the reception of message due to influence of perceptions of intermediaries would lead to miscommunication. The important building blocks of this model are the source, the receiver, the meaning intended and the process of sending and receiving the message.

Watlaw- Beavin-Jackobson, proposed a model of two-way communication with emphasis on the behavior of participants and the relationships existing among them to achieve communication success.

Rogers-Kincaid proposed that for the communication to be successful, the individuals should be connected through social networks and sharing of information.

Conclusion

Understanding communication process is very critical to the managers of the organization. They should understand that communication is rarely understood as it should be. The distortion of the message can happen at any of the stages in communication process-sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, channel, message and feedback.

Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Prof.Appalayya Meesala is a Professor of Management in Deccan School of Management, an affiliated college of Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. Students can contact him for guidance on projects, dessertations and theses. He can be contacted at : appalayya22@yahoo.com or ameesala@yahoo.com or on his mobile:98485-14-011

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Does He Want You to Be His Girlfriend? 4 Sure Ways to Find Out If He Wants to Be More Than Friends

Do you know how to tell if a guy wants you to be his girlfriend? Have you been disappointed before because of your false assumptions regarding a potential boyfriend? Are you in a current situation where you want to know if a guy wants to have a relationship with you? Reading a guy is something that many women wish to master. If only you can interpret his actions and uncover his true intentions, imagine how much time and heartbreak you can save yourself! If you want to know if this guy wants you to be his girlfriend then read on for the signs.

Flirting fun

Flirting is one of the tell-tale signs that a guy may be looking to make you his one-and-only. Is he looking for chances to touch you when you talk? Is he smiling at you often and sometimes for no apparent reason? Do you catch him looking at you? Does he intensely hold your gaze when you are talking? Does he brush the hair off your face or put his arm around you when you two cross the street? Does he talk to you and you alone when you are in a group of people? These are some of the common methods that guys use to flirt.

Does He Want You to Be His Girlfriend? 4 Sure Ways to Find Out If He Wants to Be More Than Friends

Quality time

If he is looking for opportunities to spend more time with you then chances are he wants you to be his girlfriend. For instance, is he regularly asking you out on dates even though you sometimes turn him down? Does he go to parties or other events simply to accompany you and enjoy your company? If a guy makes effort to spend as much time with you as possible then you are definitely in.

Making the first move

In all the dates you have gone on and in all the times that you have spent together, it's important to remember who made the first move. Guys will not waste time when it comes to asking out a girl they like. If he is always the first one to call you or talk to you, then this clearly means he is after you.

Getting to know you

If a guy asks your friends about you, then this is already a clear sign that he wants you to be his girlfriend and is looking to get to know you better.

Does He Want You to Be His Girlfriend? 4 Sure Ways to Find Out If He Wants to Be More Than Friends
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

If you are looking for a system to make every man adore you, chase you, love you, and commit to you, click Unforgettable Woman Dating Advice. If you're ready for a highly effective method that's different from what every else is teaching, click 77 Secrets to Attract and Keep Him Now. You don't want to miss this!

This article is contributed by Tina Jones. Tina is part of the Unforgettable Woman Publishing Team. She works together with founder Alexandra Fox and writes dating/relationship articles for women who want to understand male psychology, how to attract men, and find true love. You can find more about Unforgettable Woman Publishing by visiting their website.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Cost Of Publishing a Book - Evaluating the Costs Associated With Book Publishing

Many aspiring authors don't understand the real cost of publishing a book. Most people think you can just write your novel, get someone to edit it for a few dollars, and get it published through a self-publishing company. The truth is that there are many other costs associated with book publishing that you need to calculate if you want to have a successful launch.

In today's digital age, there are many new ways to promote your products. The first cost associated with printing your own book is the time associated with writing the book. How much time do you want to spend writing everything? What is your opportunity cost? If you write a book and have a business, will your business lose money while you are away writing it? Do you have time to write your book? It is very difficult to write this when you are working 60 hours a week and have young children at home. Don't neglect your family time while you are writing your book. When you are determining the cost of publishing a book, you will need to calculate the costs of designing a front cover for your new book. Most authors are not graphic designers, so this is a cost that you should calculate in your publishing expenses. They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, but the truth is that people will judge it by the cover. The front cover is the first impression people get when they see your book. A great front cover could increase sales of your book. A bad cover implies your book is cheap or not worth reading.

The upfront cost of publishing a book is also influenced by many smaller factors. You should definitely pay a professional editor to review your book. No one is going to take your book seriously if there are lots of spelling and grammar errors in your work. Good editors are going to cost you money, but a great editor is worth every penny.

Cost Of Publishing a Book - Evaluating the Costs Associated With Book Publishing

The cost of publishing a book is often underestimated when it comes to marketing. You should spend a lot of time and money in marketing your book. Do not assume people are just going to buy it. If you are not someone who is already well known, you need to consider spending money on advertising costs.

There are many ways to advertise your book. If you are writing a Christian book, you could publish it through a Christian self-publishing company. Self-publishing companies have the expertise to advertise your book in places where you can get the most exposure. They can advertise it on various online websites, and they have the clout to get your book in traditional bookstores too. You could advertise your work on various online niche forums that are related to your book. If you have written a novel, there are various websites where you can share your novel with other readers. Most people never sell many copies of their book because they don't understand the power of advertising. The largest cost of publishing a book should be your advertising and marketing expenses.

Cost Of Publishing a Book - Evaluating the Costs Associated With Book Publishing
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Learn more about the cost of publishing a book!
Check out one of the best self-publishing companies

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Success in Life and How to Achieve It

First things first. What is YOUR definition of "success"? What determines whether or not someone is successful in your eyes? For some people it is having a lot of money, for others it may be having the time freedom to play golf once a week, and for others it may be raising their children to be "good people" or having a large group of close friends. For every one of us, there is a different definition of what success is for others, and what success is for ourselves in our own lives. The more important of the two is how we measure success for ourselves, not for others. In order to have success in our own lives we must first define, within ourselves, what it IS to be successful and then set our hearts and minds on achieving it. The basic foundation to attaining success is setting goals and when you achieve those goals, you have success.

The goals that we set for ourselves can come in all shapes and sizes. Some may seem small and some may seem outrageously ambitious in the eyes and minds of others. Whatever the size of the goal or whatever the goal is, when we accomplish it, it will equate to success no matter how big or small. If you feel that making tiny little steps is more of your nature, then set small goals for yourself in your life. A bucket full of small incremental successes is just as valid as reaching a long-term goal in larger steps. As a matter of fact, every long-term goal requires smaller short-term goals for them to ultimately come to fruition. That's just the way it works. We've all heard of the concept of the "overnight success", right?

Well, I will guarantee that each one of those overnight successes have been achieving other quieter, less public, subtler successes along the way before "getting their big break". Nobody becomes an overnight success overnight. The bottom line is that in order to succeed in life we must have goals, whether big or small. You can still be a big thinker and a very successful person by accomplishing bite-sized goals and succeeding at them one at a time. The journey towards your ultimate goals is an exciting one when we have incremental successes along the way. And when we achieve those successes along the way, it's important to celebrate them and to be inspired by them, so that we are motivated to achieve the ultimate goals in our lives as well.

Success in Life and How to Achieve It
Success in Life and How to Achieve It
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Carolyn Quan is an Entrepreneur, internationally-collected Fine Artist and Mentor to artists. She is based in Emeryville, California which is in the San Francisco Bay Area and works from her artist's loft when she is not traveling the world on business and for art shows. Her professional experience includes working as a graphic designer in television in Toronto; working as an Art Director in the music industry in New York City (designing album covers for Grateful Dead, Carly Simon, Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin amongst others); and publishing a full-color multicultural magazine that was distributed at Borders, Barnes and Noble and Chapters in Canada. Prior to her move to California, she was the owner of The Quan Galleries in both Lahaina, Maui and Waikiki. Her fine art is also held in the permanent art collection of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction in Bloomington, Indiana and has been shown in Rio de Janeiro; New York City; Los Angeles; Taos, New Mexico; Riviera Maya, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; and throughout the Hawaiian islands. Carolyn Quan is living her dreams and is passionate about sharing her experiences and knowledge with others in business, personal development and in fine art, so that they, too, can be living the life of their dreams.

http://www.LiveYourDreams.us.com

Saturday, January 26, 2013

eBook Publishing Guide - How to Make Money Writing eBooks

Do you know that you can quickly learn and master how to make money writing eBooks online in a day or two? I am sure that this summarized eBook publishing guide will give you the general low-down of what is involved to become a successful writer selling eBooks. Also, there are many free and paid eBook writing courses out there that will give you a head start without breaking the bank.

Publishing an electronic book on any subject of your interest for a target market can be a source of passive income to you if you know how to research eBook ideas and write about it. It is a simple and straightforward system that you can follow and make money online, no matter what your calling is. The good news about eBook publishing business is that you can start and finish it yourself without going through the hoops of traditional book publishers.

Let's look at a typical example of how much money you can probably make writing eBooks on the internet. Let's assume that you have written and compiled an in-demand electronic book to sell for per eBook download. If your eBook marketing plan is done right, you will be sure of selling 2-3 copies a day with ease.

eBook Publishing Guide - How to Make Money Writing eBooks

In financial terms, that will translate to about to passive income per day from the sale of your eBook copies. In a month, you will earn between ,620 and ,430 from one time effort of writing an eBook. And your net profit from this money making secret is as high as 90-100% of that gross income!

Now, let's take it a step further and assume that you are a very ambitious, versatile and vast writer. You should be able to complete one eBook on any specific subject in every quarter of the year. That will come to four (4) eBooks in a year added to your eBooks publishing business portfolio. Conservatively speaking, in a year's time you will be making between ,760 and 6,640 per annum from selling eBooks on the internet.

In short, this is just one of the best ways to make money online aside affiliate marketing, flipping websites, CPA marketing, flipping domain names, contextual advertising like Google AdSense, offering web services such as website design or graphic design, article writing, selling PLR products, and so on. The sky is really your limit if you are able to make eBook authoring business an integral part of your online sources of passive income.

The question is, "How do you go about writing eBooks for money?" The answer is in the steps I have outlined below for you.

1. Select a niche market with desperate buyers and you have affinity with.

2. Research and select eBook idea or topic with wide areas of interest for your target audience.

3. Create an eBook outline to include every imaginable subject that you think will be of interest to your readers.

4. Write an eBook on the topic that you have selected using the outline as your guide.

5. Edit and proofread your electronic book in order to dot the i's and cross the t's.

6. Compose, compile and secure the digital product for sale and download page.

7. Write the sales letter and highlight the benefits of the eBook to your potential buyers. Emphasize on what is in the electronic book for them in the sales letter.

8. Register a domain name (exact match domain is preferred) and take out a reliable web hosting service to sell your digital product.

9. Since you now have a domain name and a web hosting server, you can build a website and/or blog, create eBook cover, optimize the website for on-page SEO.

10. If you can, immediately integrate autoresponder system to start building a targeted mailing list while giving away free sample chapters of your eBook.

11. Integrate a "Buy Now" button from any of the preferred electronic payment systems or gateways available on the internet. There are many of them that I cannot count but it is better for you to choose the most popular e-payment system which has moderate fees per transaction they process on your behalf.

12. Promote, advertise, market and sell your eBook in various ways and means. eBook marketing tips is a continuous education that you should learn and master with passion.

It will either make or mar your writing career or efforts in no small way. If you want to go far and keep yourself motivated, master the art and science of eBook marketing that you can lay your hands on.

The above 12-point agenda of writing eBooks for money is a synopsis of a complete eBook publishing guide. Follow the above steps outlined to a Tee and you will start making money writing eBooks.

eBook Publishing Guide - How to Make Money Writing eBooks
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Meanwhile, you can download a free eBook writing guide by subscribing to our free internet marketing training course at make passive income online website and blog. You will be glad you did!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Impact of the French Revolution on 18th Century Europe and Relevance to Contemporary Christianity

INTRODUCTION

Events of 1789 formed the catalyst that exploded the powder keg of accumulated grievances in France. Indeed "the French Revolution began when Louis XVI called the States-General to provide money for his bankrupt government" (The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.7, 1991, p.450). The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 produced intense hostility to Christianity because "the Roman church was identified by the people with the earlier government of France and suffered greatly" (Harman and Renwick, 1999, p.170). Lefebvre (1947) observed that in a total population of probably twenty three million, there were certainly not more than one hundred thousand priests, monks and nuns, and four hundred thousand nobles. The rest constituted the Third Estate. This secular event shows the contemporary Church the peril that awaits a nation that rejects God. The point of the observation is that although the French Revolution negatively affected Christianity, the attempt at deChristianization was unable to blot the 'faith of our fathers living still'.

RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND TO THE CONFLICT

Impact of the French Revolution on 18th Century Europe and Relevance to Contemporary Christianity

According to Noll (2000), "a number of long-festering conditions had prepared the way for this attack on Christianity" (p.247). Paradoxically, some of these were of Christian origin. Centuries earlier, Augustine had declared that man should not have dominion over man, for he is a rational creature made in the image of God. Bellarmine, the Jesuit Cardinal opined that it depended on the consent of the people whether kings, consuls or other magistrates were to be established in authority over them. He further observed that the people should change a kingdom into an aristocracy if there was legitimate cause. Latourette (1953) therefore referred to the French Revolution as "a secularized version of the heavenly city as perceived by Christians" (p.1007).
Before the outbreak of the revolution in France, bad economic, political, social and legal conditions, the successful example of the English Revolution of 1689 and the American Revolution of 1776 were fused by the development of an ideology that rationalized the right of popular revolution against Louis XVI. This ideology was the result of the teachings of the philosophes. While Rousseau and Montesquieu provided the political atmosphere for revolution, Voltaire criticized the church. Cairns (1981) admitted that there were grounds for criticism of the Roman Catholic Church in France. It owned much land and was as responsible as the secular state in the dealings with the people. The public resented various tithes imposed by the church, rigorous repression of religious dissenters, and the non-productive monkish orders. Nichols (1932) suspected that "the greatest cause of the hostility of the church was its enormous wealth and the selfish use made of it" (p.96) since the masses were ruined by cruel taxation at the expense of higher clergy who were generally lazy, luxurious and immoral.

If the 17th century was the age of orthodoxy, the eighteenth was the age of nationalism, a result of cold orthodoxy and scientific developments. The deadly result was that "revelation tended to take the back seat to reason and knowledge gained by sense perception" (Vos, 1960, p.99). When scientists investigated the form of the universe, they formed the idea of a clockwise universe - God's world was seen as gigantic, well-ordained giant clock.

IMPLICATIONS FOR 18TH CENTURY EUROPE

The French Revolution is viewed as a turning point because it was seen as an important stage in a succession of movements that later spread across the globe to ultimately affect the life of mankind.

It is observed that the effects were especially serious for Christianity since they brought actions which struck at the privileges and status of the Roman Catholic Church. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on August 26 1789 held that "the source of all sovereignty is located in the nation; no body, no individual can exercise authority which does not emanate from it expressly" (Noll, 2000, p.247). The peasants were relieved of a burden which had taken about a twentieth of their produce when tithes were abolished. Consequently, the church was deprived of one of its chief sources of revenue. Church land, which comprised about a fifth of the area of France was confiscated and became the property of the state. In July 1790, the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was enacted by the National Assembly. Among other things, bishops were to be elected by the voters who chose the civil officials and the pope was merely to be notified of their choice. Payment of the clergy by the state was no blessing in disguise since the former was to take an oath of allegiance to the latter. [It must be observed that Spener criticized caesaropapism (doctrine of state control over the church) in his significant publication way back in 1675]. The pope's power was reduced to that of stating the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed "churchmen felt this new act meant secularization of the church and they were violently opposed to it" (Cairns, 1981, p.390).

Unlike the situation in the United States, separation of church and state by the French Revolution and later in the Soviet Union and its sphere of influence was an attempt to totally exterminate the church and to replace it with nationalism. The Roman Catholic Church and the French state were completely separated during the reign of terror of 1793 and 1794 when so many were executed for counter revolutionary activities.

The programme of deChristianization gained momentum when the convention decreed that a commune had the right to renounce the Catholic form of worship. The calendar adopted on October 3 1793 made every tenth day rather than Sunday a day of rest. On November 7, 1793, the Archbishop of Paris appeared before the Convention and "solemnly resigned his Episcopal functions" (Encyclopaedia Britiannica, vol.15, 1989, p.498). A certain Mademoiselle Maillard, an opera dancer, wearing the three colours of the new republic on November 10, 1793 was enthroned as the goddess of Reason upon the high altar of Notre Dame, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Paris, and there she received the homage of the revolutionists. Notre Dame was rechristened the Temple of Reason. Another step adopted by the Convention was the ordering of churches and parsonages to be used as school houses and poor houses thus effectively preventing public and official worship. The Feasts of Reason both at Paris and elsewhere soon "degenerated into mere orgies, disreputable women playing the part of goddesses and enacting bacchanals in the churches" (Martin, 1877, p.552). The precarious situation during the Reign of Terror forced many Christians to renounce their trust in God. Assessing the situation, Kuiper (1964) pointed out that "it is not possible to say how many Protestants as well as Catholics renounced their faith at this time, but the number was large" (p.310). Although the Convention passed a decree reaffirming the principle of the freedom of worship, the Directory and its regime were basically anti-Christian. The interests of Christianity and European civilization were no longer regarded as two expressions of the same reality. In other words, there was a signal of the demise of Christendom.

Kings initially viewed themselves as God's representatives on earth and considered all disobedience and rebellion to be sinful. A dangerous feeling of infallibility, considerable serenity and moderation therefore gained control of monarchs. The French Revolution completely repudiated this divine right of kings and "asserted the doctrine that the right to rule came from the people" (The World Book Encyclopedia, vol.5, 1971, p.199). Although Napoleon eventually recognized the Roman Catholic religion as the religion of the great majority of French citizens, he did not make it the established religion. The clergy were to be paid by the state but the property taken from the Roman Church in 1790 was not to be returned to it. In fact, Latourette (1953) observed with brutal truth that Napoleon "regarded the church as an institution which must be recognized and used for his purposes" (p.1011).

The French Revolution and Napoleon brought grave embarrassment to missions. The direct result was a sharp decline of the faith in some geographic frontiers. Few missionaries were sent from Europe and it was difficult to render aid to those already in the field. The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris was compelled to seek headquarters outside of France. The Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, the bureau through which the Papacy supervised missions abroad, was driven out of Rome. This led to a marked falling off in numbers and morale of the Roman Catholic community in India. Adverse domestic conditions coupled with the handicaps in Europe threatened the extinction of the church in China. The occupation of Spain by Napoleonic armies and the attack on Portugal greatly affected missions in Latin America. Conditions in Russia were also adverse. Parishes lost the right of electing their clergy, a privilege enjoyed since the era of Peter the Great. In a brilliant summary, Noll (2000) commented that "turmoil from the French Revolution and then the wave of national liberation movements fostered by Napoleon further diminished European concern for cross-cultural Christian expansion" (p.274). The revolution greatly affected Lutherans in the German states. War and suffering revealed that skepticism and infidelity were not sufficient to meet the needs of the human spirit and multitudes turned again to religious faith. The old Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, stimulating the strengthening of independent states like Austria and Prussia. Later in the century, this contributed to the unification of the German people under the leadership of Prussia. Calvinism in Europe also felt the shock of the French Revolution. Skepticism had already weakened this group in France, Switzerland, the German states and the Low Countries. According to Baker (1959), the "political conditions that continued through the Congress of Vienna in 1815 brought disorganization and uncertainty to continental Calvinism" (p.321).

Beyond the dark clouds were shades of silver lining, which several scholars tend to overlook. Perhaps a positive view was that "society was being directed toward the good of the whole community instead of toward the benefit of a tiny elite of kings, nobles and bishops" (Noll, 2000, p.248). Grievous as were the losses suffered by Christianity, "there was ample evidence that the faith was by no means moribund" (Latourette, 1953, p.1012). Indications of vitality (old and new) were evident. These could be found among the Roman Catholics of the eastern churches and in Protestantism. If anything, "secularization of the west was not going to blot out the faith" (Noll, 2000, p.260). Liberal, sectarian and traditionalist responses to the marginalization of European Christendom all had notable vigor though at varying degrees. European thought was skillfully sifted in a new world in order to preserve an intellectually vigorous Christian faith. Groups like the Oxford Movement applied lessons of the early church of the perils of the present. In his stimulating Church History lectures at West Africa Theological Seminary, Lagos, Nigeria, Dr. William Faupel observed that secularization is not inherently evil and argued that there must be a positive interaction, that is, taking the gospel in the mindset of the people.

RELEVANCE TO CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY

Many biblical scholars agreed that the punctuation of papal power in France was a fulfillment of prophecies of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13, which they believed predicted the demise of Roman Catholicism. In this light, Faupel (1996) observed that "the French Revolution became the Rosetta Stone by which all scriptural prophecy could be correlated with the events of human history" (p.92). The lessons for contemporary Christianity are significant.

Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is indeed a reproach to any people. Even today, the Wesleys are credited with saving England from a bloody, political revolution such as befell France. While the common people were as oppressed and deprived as the French, the English people could cope with their oppression because of their faith in God and their adherence to Christian principles. The English revival caused the people to look to God for hope whereas the French had only politicians and atheistic philosophers. The lesson is that God can avert destruction in a nation that acknowledges Him as Saviour. The situation in Sierra Leone in May 2000 is a case in point. God miraculously saved the nation at a time when destruction loomed large. The nation responded to the call to shout 'Jesus' at 5:00 p.m. on Monday May 9 2000. God honoured this demonstration of faith and reliance on Him as the only hope. The peaceful elections in May 2002 and August/September 2007 could also be attributed to the redeeming work of God in a land where He is exalted. In like manner, Horton (1993) firmly believed that "God brought about a peaceful change in the protestant land of England, in contrast to the turmoil of the Roman Catholic France" (p.72).

Secondly, the church in any nation should not fraternize with the state to oppress masses since the latter could rebel with frenzied violence. In France, the revolutionists demonstrated that "they could break down barriers if they were driven to desperation" (Rowe, 1931, p.420). Furthermore, ideas that glorify man and sentence God to temporary or permanent exile could be dangerous to any nation. The French Revolution shocked Europe and awakened people to the power of ideas and forces that had become part of western culture. For many, "those ideas and forces connoted the disruptions and destruction that could be expected from unrestrained rationalism" (Manschreck, 1974, 298).

From the study, the researcher realizes that pagan religions and ideas could penetrate areas once dominated by Christianity as a result of the state of the church. During his lectures, Dr. Faupel lamented that an impending doom could await the church in North America because of inherent weakness including racist Christian policies. As Rodney observed (1972), "racism...[was] a set of generalizations and assumptions, which had no scientific bias, but...rationalized in every sphere from theology to biology" (p.99). Contemporary Christianity should realize that it should not be the cold impotent ash (like the church in France before the revolution) but a vibrant church fulfilling the Great Commission. Sumrall (1980) caustically dismissed refusal to spread the gospel as "reckless spiritual homicide" (p.8). The contemporary church must be willing to sacrifice like Christ and the saints of old if the earth should be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Houghton (1980) hoped that the contemporary church would be mindful of the fact that "when the church goes astray, denying Him who had bought His people with His precious blood, the Lord [sends] trials and afflictions to correct His unfaithful children" (p.34).

CONCLUSION

The above notwithstanding, the blood of a martyr is seed for the church. After the French Revolution, Christianity, probably to the dismay of the revolutionaries, did not die. Truth (Jesus) was in the grave for three days but eventually resurrected. Persecution, in the history of Christianity, could be regarded as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block. Fire did not beget cold and impotent ash. After the French Revolution, the church became much more involved in speaking on relevant issues of the day. Christianity was viewed from a different perspective. Evangelism was given a thoughtful consideration. In spite of all the negative effects of the French Revolution, the brand of Christianity that emerged transformed itself by positively interacting with the philosophical mindset of the day.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Baker, Robert A. 1959. A survey of Christian history. Nashville: Broadman Press.

Cairns, Earle E. 1981. Christianity through the centuries: a history of the Christian Church. 2nd ed.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: The Zondervan Corporation.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1989 ed., s.v. "French Revolution".

Faupel, William. 1996. The everlasting gospel: the significance of eschatology in the development of Pentecostal thought. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

Harman, A.M. and A.M. Renwick. 1999. The story of the church. 3rd ed. Leicester: Varsity Press.

Horton, Beka. 1993. 1980. Sketches from church history. Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth.

Kuiper, B.K. 1964. The church in history. Michigan: The National Union of Christian Schools.

Latourette, Kenneth S. 1953. A history of Christianity. New York: Harper and Row Publishers.

Lefebvre, George. 1947. The coming of the French Revolution. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Lewis, C.S. 1970. God in the dock: essays on theology and ethics. Michigan: William E. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Manschreck, Clyde L. 1974. A history of Christianity in the world: from persecution to uncertainty.
New York: Prentice Hall.

Martin, Henri. 1877. A popular history of France from the first revolution to the present time, Vol.1.

Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.

Noll, Mark A. 2000. Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity. 2nd ed.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic.

Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle L'Ouverture Publications.

Rowe, Henri K. 1931. History of the Christian people. New York: The Macmillan Company.

Sumrall, Lester. 1980. Where was God when pagan religions began? Indiana: LeSEA Publishing Co.

Vos, Howard F. 1960. Highlights of church history. Nebraska: Back to the Bible Publishers.

The World Book Encyclopaedia, 1971 ed., s.v. "Divine rights of kings".

The World Bank Encyclopaedia, 1971 e.d., s.v. "French Revolution".

Impact of the French Revolution on 18th Century Europe and Relevance to Contemporary Christianity
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

AUTHOR SIGNATURE

Oliver L.T. Harding, who obtained his GCE O & A Levels from the Sierra Leone Grammar School and the Albert Academy respectively, is currently Senior & Acting Librarian of Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He is a part time lecturer at the Institute of Library, Information & Communication Studies (INSLICS), Fourah Bay College and the Extension Programme at the Evangelical College of Theology (T.E.C.T) at Hall Street, Brookfields; Vice President of the Sierra Leone Association of Archivists, Librarians & Information Scientists (SLAALIS); a member of the American Theological Library Association (ATLA) and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). His certificates, secular and sacred, include: a certificate and diploma from the Freetown Bible Training Centre; an upper second class B.A. Hons. Degree in Modern History (F.B.C.); a post-graduate diploma from the Institute of Library Studies (INSLIBS, F.B.C) a masters degree from the Institute of Library, Information & Communication Studies (INSLICS, F.B.C.) and a masters degree in Biblical Studies from West Africa Theological Seminary, affiliate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he won the prize for academic excellence as the Best Graduating Student in 2005. Oliver, a writer, musician and theologian, is married (to Francess) with two children (Olivia & Francis).

Email: oltharding@yahoo.com

Mobile: 232-2233-460-330

Monday, January 21, 2013

What is the Best Exercise For Weight Loss?

It is a common misconception that aerobic exercise tones and firms muscles. Actually it accomplishes very little toning and firming. Resistance exercise (weight training) is where real toning and firming of muscles occurs.

Doing both aerobics and weight training is the optimal way to lose more fat and gain more muscle. If you are trying to lose weight, studies show that weight loss increases by 56 percent with aerobic and strength exercises combined.

Muscle may weigh more, but when you increase your muscle composition, the body is able to burn more fat, even when you are resting, because your metabolism is higher. A pound of muscle will use 350 to 500 calories per week to survive, while a pound of fat only needs about 14 calories per week. New studies have shown that building muscle helps your body fight disease better, too.

What is the Best Exercise For Weight Loss?

Strength training benefits everyone, no matter what age or sex, and is becoming recognized as an important component of fitness. Research is indicating that the muscle loss found in elderly people doesn't come from age, but lack of activity. Even a young person who doesn't get enough exercise can lose muscle mass and strength. Strength training, such as lifting weights or performing weight-resistance exercises, as little as twice a week can help maintain or increase muscle mass.

Strength training involving several sets of multiple repetitions using moderate weights will not result in huge muscles. Instead it builds bone mass and increases the metabolism, as well as toning and firming the muscles, giving a leaner look.

It is very important to do both aerobics and strength exercises. The aerobic exercises help your heart and lungs get stronger and help your body utilize oxygen more efficiently, which in turn helps with strength training and overall fitness. The strength exercise helps develop muscle, reduce body fat and maintain bone mass.

Aerobic Exercise is a type of exercise that elevates the heart rate and breathing for a continuous sustained period. This overloads the heart and lungs and causes them to work harder than at rest.

There are many options to choose from today. Bicycling, aerobic dance, swimming, walking, and stepping are all examples of aerobic exercise. Which ones to chose depends on your physical condition, your history, your interests and your goals. Many experts believe it is better to alternate between 2 or more types, to get a better workout.

There are two main types of aerobics- high impact and low impact. It is better to alternate between high impact aerobics (which are harder on the body and may cause more damage) and low impact aerobics, such as walking and swimming. This is called cross-training, and helps reduce the chance or injury and overuse of certain muscles.

You will want to perform aerobic exercises at least 20 minutes a day for at least 3 to 4 days a week. If you are trying to lose body fat, or your physical condition is very good, then you may want to work longer at it. Try exercising up to 40 to 60 minutes 5 to 6 days a week.

Remember there is no real need to go overboard. Moderate intensity is almost always better, and is more enjoyable. Low to moderate intensity is an especially good idea when starting out after a layoff or recovery from illness or injury, or if you are significantly overweight.

Warm-up and cool down is important to reduce discomfort and the chance of injury. Warm up by starting slow and gradually build up to your top speed. Then slow down again at the end of your workout.

The whole idea behind aerobic exercise is to get up and get moving! Find something you enjoy doing that keeps your heart rate elevated for a continuous time period and get moving to a healthier life.

What is the Best Exercise For Weight Loss?
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Dianne's FREE ebook reveals the secrets of people who are losing weight and getting healthier with coconut oil at http://Coconut-Oil-Diet.com Check it out today!

Dianne Ronnow is an expert online business & marketing coach in the Network Marketing industry. She teaches entrepreneurs how to use the internet & marketing systems to generate more leads and make more money... FAST! http://DianneRonnow.com

By Dianne Ronnow © 2005-8 Mohave Publishing. All rights reserved. This article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and this resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Publishing Made Easy - Tips on How to Get Your Manuscript Published

Publishing is an extremely competitive business. There are three main ways to go about getting your manuscript published; through an agent, directly through a publishing company, or by taking the increasingly popular self-publishing option.

The best way to improve your chances of getting your book published by a traditional publisher is to find an agent who will 'take you under their wing' and add you to their list of clients. Publishing companies very rarely read or pay any attention to unsolicited manuscripts (i.e. a manuscript submitted by an author NOT by an agent). Therefore, you are in a much more likely to get your manuscript published if you have an agent.

Unfortunately, getting an agent to agree to take you on as a client is almost as hard as it is to get a publisher to read your work. Agents give your work approximately 20 seconds of time before making a decision to either pursue you or reject you.., and 90-99% get rejected. It is tough!

Publishing Made Easy - Tips on How to Get Your Manuscript Published

So getting an agent...

- There are hundreds of Literary Agents in the UK. You need to target those agencies that handle the kind of writing that you do. So, get a copy of the 'Writers Market UK 2008', or the 'Writers and Artists Yearbook 2008'. These list literary agents, telling you what genre of writing each agency deals with.

- You can contact the Association of Author's Agents (www.agentsassoc.co.uk) or the Society of Authors (www.societyofauthors.net) who should be able to point you in the right direction, and provide a list of suggested agencies that would suit your novel.

- Call or email the appropriate agencies to enquire about their procedure for submitting manuscripts. If you don't follow procedure you will automatically be rejected.

- Write a well-written, succinct letter, briefly outlining your work and include a synopsis, together with three polished chapters and a brief CV. Make sure each letter is tailored to each individual agency - do not send generic covering letters, and make sure you address them to an appropriate individual at the agency, not a 'Dear Sir / Madam'

- Submit and wait. If the agency is interested they will make contact with you and ask for more information. If they aren't interested you will either receive a rejection letter / email, or unfortunately you won't hear back from them.

Getting a publisher without an agent...

If you are unsuccessful in securing an agent, or you want to try targeting the publishers direct, without using an agent, the process is basically exactly the same as it is for trying to ascertain an agent;

- You need to target publishers that handle the kind of writing that you do. So, get a copy of the 'Writers Market UK 2008', or the 'Writers and Artists Yearbook 2008'. These list publishing companies, telling you what genre of writing each publisher deals with.

- Call or email the appropriate publishers to enquire about their procedure for submitting manuscripts. If you don't follow procedure you will automatically be rejected.

- Write a well-written, succinct letter, briefly outlining your work and include a synopsis, together with three polished chapters and a brief CV. Make sure each letter is tailored to each individual publishing company - do not send generic covering letters, and make sure you address them to an appropriate individual at the agency, not a 'Dear Sir / Madam'

- Submit and wait. If the publisher is interested they will make contact with you and ask for more information. If they aren't interested you will either receive a rejection letter / email, or unfortunately you won't hear back from them.

It is really very hard to get published nowadays because agencies and publishers will only ever give your submission a 20 second read before making a decision on its worth. Furthermore, most agencies and publishers' client lists are already full, so they aren't looking to take on new writers. On the other hand, without writers, agencies and publishing companies wouldn't exist - so they do need fresh new talent to keep their businesses alive!

Self Publishing

If you find that you aren't getting anywhere with securing an agent or a traditional publishing company, you can try 'Self-Publishing'. This is where you pay a publishing company to publish and print your book for you. They can register it for an ISBN and will often make it available for purchase over the internet.

Self publishing companies have a range of products, ranging from a single publish and print package, to a distribution, cover design and marketing packages. Different packages and different self-publishing agencies will have different pricing schemes; but as a guide price you can expect a standard, high quality self-publishing option to cost between £600 - £1000.

Publishing Made Easy - Tips on How to Get Your Manuscript Published
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Want to know how to get your manuscript noticed? Copy editing is essential to polish your work or publishers will just bin it! So visit Words Worth Reading now for Manuscript proofreading and appraisal