Breaking Even

Interview With Internet Book Promoter Alexis James

I 'met' Alexis online as someone promoting books on behalf of authors. My question was "Wow, you can actually make money helping authors promote books online?" Alexis agreed to elaborate for me and here are some of her answers about how she makes it work.

Promoting a book anytime soon, or wonder how social media types make money online? Read on.

1. Do you work for a company or do you work for yourself?
I work for myself (well, for my clients!) part-time (through my company, www.10thFloorPR.com), and I work for an author/public speaker/counselor/life coach part time (www.maryannelive.com). Though I guess I'm technically still self-employed because I still pay all my taxes myself :-)

2. Do you promote books full time or is that just part of your job?
I do web-based publicity and marketing - or social media strategy, whatever you want to call it! - which includes pretty much anything and everything you can think of. i publicize books, grow social media networks, facilitate blog exchanges, develop contact lists, market events through social media channels, integrate video clips, podcasts, blogs, articles, etc. etc. through multiple online venues, and pursue any number of web-based publicity opportunities to gain exposure.

Beyond that, I do a couple random things here and there: I am a content editor for a start-up travel site (www.valueweekly.com), I blog and write articles for several websites, and I (attempt to) maintain my own blog :-) (www.alexisinthecity.com).

3. How is promoting books online different then promoting other things?
I've been working with authors and promoting books for almost as long as I've been in the web publicity game, so I'm not sure how thoroughly I can answer that!

What I can say is that I've found that the ideal situation with book promotion online is to have an amazing "brand" to go along with it. Some people who aren't as tuned in to the web 2.0 world want you to do that all for them, along with promoting the book! It can be done, but it's much more difficult, with much less dazzling results - and it takes a lot longer! An author doesn't have to have an established, highly frequented online presence - that's what i'm here for! - but when the foundation is already in place it makes things a lot easier.

4. Let's say I've written a book and want to hire someone like you to promote it. What's one piece of advice you'd give me?
Find someone who actually cares about your message. I may be shooting myself in the foot by saying this - because - I'll be honest - I've had clients I've taken on just for the money! - But both people will get so much more out of a partnership where there's an understanding of the underlying work and message of the book/author/persona, etc. I can say that from experience :-)

And ... don't expect results RIGHT AWAY. I've had people start out on a shoestring budget and then cut me out altogether because they weren't selling books. Of course, as an author, the goal is to sell books, but you can't sell books without building a presence and that just takes time - in the online world and in the offline world! If you don't have the time/money/patience to invest in a long-term social media strategy, you're probably better off either saving that money or putting it toward another type of publicity.

5. How did you get started doing this?
I always tell people - what I do now wasn't even a "thing" when I was in college (and it hasn't been THAT LONG since I was in college :-). The online world has blow up FAST and I guess I was in the right place at the right time.

My degree is in journalism, my background is in TV, specifically as a news producer. I started out at network affiliates (ABC, CBS, etc), and when it was clear that industry was dying, I moved over to internet/cable TV (current.com). When that wasn't super stimulating, I went to work for myself, not really sure what I was doing, where I was going, how I wanted things to pan out - only that I was tired of having a "real job," and didnt want to punch a clock any more.

I started out taking any type of relatively related consulting work I could get. I did a lot of article writing, blogging, ghost blogging, website publicity, brand evangelizing, content management, and website content writing etc.

It just so happened I knew a guy who had a small, independent publishing company - and he also did traditional marketing - and was looking for someone to help out on the web side of things. I began working with him and his clients developing their online marketing and publicity strategy (he's one of the people I still work with!), and that helped give me the experience to land the job with Maryanne (the author whose book she is currently promoting).

Plus - I live in silicon valley and have always been pretty plugged into to web 2.0 trends - so I like to think that gives me a bit of an edge :-)

Mr. Fooster, Traveling on a Whim

When I first moved to my current apartment, my friend Sarah sent me a small package. Included in the package was a book called "Mr. Fooster, Traveling on a Whim". I called to thank her but I'll admit that I was not in a great state of mind to read and enjoy this book. So it sat on my dresser for two months. I finally picked up one night and read the whole thing cover to cover. I stayed up way past my bedtime but it was worth it.

It's one of those "new life lesson every time you read it" type of books but here's a few things that I got out of it so far (don't worry, I won't spoil the book):

1. Mr. Fooster walks through life in a general direction but is open to whatever he comes across whether it is a smiling katydid or a large stinky bug. It is this way of looking at life that makes him content.

2. At one point, he gets stuck in his life (though to be fair he remains observant and gets what he can out of it). After a time, symbolically he realizes that he can get himself out.

3. Then faced with difficulty or danger, Mr. Fooster doesn't worry or overreact. A solution eventually appears, sometimes in an unlikely place that gets him out of a sticky situation.

Any of this sound familiar? Exactly.

"Mr. Fooster, Traveling on a Whim" is an excellent gift book and one which I refer to often, if only to remind myself of those semi-simple important lessons that I seem to have to relearn over and over.

If you check out the Mr. Forster website www.mrfooster.com, you can have the book read to you the chapter by chapter by author Tom Corwin. With the audio are the illustrations that appear in the book in a Flash format (the book is illustrated by Craig Frazier). It is quite an excellent presentation, even when taken seperately from the book.

Chili mambo to you!

Wednesday Writer's Spotlight: Tom Walsh

For the next few Wednesdays, I'll be featuring writers I like and how they hone their craft, use the internet, get writing ideas from life, and rake in the dough.

During a journalism career that has spanned 40 years, Tom Walsh has worked as a front-lines reporter for newspapers and magazines in Chicago, New York, Dallas, Washington D.C. and, most recently, rural Maine. As an educator, he has taught journalism to both undergraduate and graduate students at colleges and universities in the United States and in Ireland, where he earned a master’s degree in science communications from Dublin City University in 2002. He's won numerous awards (34 actually) including some for his Ellsworth American investigative report series "Hard Look".
 
A native of the Midwest, Tom Wash now lives on the Maine seacoast, where he pursues his interests in astronomy, photography, sailing, kayaking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing, cooking and fiction writing.
 
 
You've been a journalist, a freelance writer, and now a communications person at a nonprofit. If people are considering any of these three careers (and the differences between them), what are the perfect traits/experiences of the kind of person who can work happily in these jobs?
 
All three fields require the basic skills of a journalist, including an ability to write clearly, concisely and correctly. These “three Cs” are the gold standard by which your work will be judged in any of these fields.
 
Front-lines community journalism requires two very different skills, and the best reporters do both of them well. First, you need to know how and where to collect information, which may involve research, interviews with knowledgeable sources, or, more typically, both. The second involves knowing what to do with the information once you have it, which includes mastery of grammar, spelling, punctuation and syntax (Can you name the parts of speech? Hint: there are eight.).

All three of these career fields also require you to work under deadlines, sometimes very short deadlines. The best reporters do their best work under time pressure. A freelancer won’t get another assignment if s/he fails to meet an editor’s deadline (I always submitted my freelance assignments weeks or months before they were due). A public information officer at a non-profit often has to work to meet a reporter’s deadline.

All three career paths require the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously. What appeals to me most about the work I do is that no two days are alike. As a news reporter, there are days (and nights) when no two hours are alike, as events (a plane crash, a drowning, a school board meeting) often dictate what you write and when you write it.
 
We're talked before about freelancing not being a steady job. How were you able to ride the waves of varying income?
 
Freelancing is a tough gig until you’ve endeared yourself as a writer to a few clients with deep pockets and an endless supply of assignments. I would suggest that, in getting started, you work a “real” job part-time and freelance part-time. Or, work a “real” job full-time and freelance as you can find the time before or after work.

As you build a client base, you can jettison your “real” job and freelance full-time, which I did for about three years, mostly writing health and travel pieces for a number of different magazines that paid very well -- $1,000/story. T

he key to getting assignments is having great story ideas and presenting those ideas in queries that reflect your enthusiasm for the topic and your understanding of the publication’s needs (Don’t suggest a feature on growing roses if that topic was covered in last month’s magazine). Queries are bait, and, if the editor bites, you need to agree to an editorial approach that meets his or her needs.

Once you get buy-in, get to work. Do not write one word without reaching this consensus and agreeing to a deadline and the amount of compensation you can expect. Ultimately, the key to getting subsequent assignments is writing great stories and delivering them on time. As for the income roller coaster, it can be a scary ride. One year I made $18,000. The next year I made $135,000, which included $31,000 for one major project that required 250 hours of research an writing.

If $125 an hour sounds like a lot, it’s not. The U.S. income tax system does not provide any incentives to be self-employed (as most freelancers are). In fact, it penalizes the self-employed. Your basic federal income tax rate goes up by 15 percent, as you, not an employer, are required to make quarterly Social Security payments. When prospective clients would balk at my hourly rate, I would explain that only half of that money winds up in my wallet. The other half is consumed by federal and state income taxes.
 
What's the craziest thing you've ever done to get a story right?
 
Not only was it crazy, it was illegal. I did a five-year stint as a bureau chief for a daily newspaper in a college town. The University of Iowa in Iowa City was deeply involved in space physics research and had been since the early 1950s. When the space shuttle Columbia was brand new, this team of UI scientists built a payload that would be flown into orbit by Columbia. 

I wrote quite a few stories about their work with NASA, and they invited me to tag along for the launch and the real-time data collection they would be doing at Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The paper agreed to foot the bill, and I flew to Houston the morning of the afternoon launch. I stashed my bags at a nearby hotel, grabbed a camera and my notebook and arrived at Mission Control within an hour of the scheduled launch.

I went up to the security desk and told the armed guard there that I was a reporter who needed to link up with the University of Iowa team. Not a chance, he said. Reporters are not allowed within Mission Control, he said, pointing on a map where the press center was located. I was pissed. I had just flown 1,000 miles to be with these Iowa scientists and report on their reactions to the launch and the performance of their instrument, and I couldn’t do that from a half-mile away. I also couldn’t call my editor and say “Guess what? I don’t have a story. They wouldn’t let me in.” With about 10 minutes until liftoff, I went into the men’s room, took off my dress shirt and went back to the same security area in a T-shirt, this time wearing sunglasses. “Hi,” I said to the same guard. “I’m with the University of Iowa team. Can you point me in their direction?” Amazingly, he did.

I arrived in their pod within two minutes of the launch. I had, in effect, snuck into one of the most sensitive government buildings in America under false pretenses. Wrote some great stories, too.
 
You've had quite a rich work experience. What life experience has most enriched your ability to write well? 
 
Two things, really. I suffer from a chronic mental illness that I call “terminal curiosity,” which is essential to being a journalist. Everything interests me (except math). And I’m a voracious reader of all things non-fiction. Over time, journalists and other writers become generalists; they know a little bit about a lot of things. The trick is knowing enough not to be dangerous, in terms of writing pieces that are shallow or, worse yet, down-right wrong.

The other experience involved a very solid grounding in two of the three R’s (I don’t do ‘rithmatic). I attended an elementary school that was language-centric. I spent years diagramming sentences and learning the endless nuances of the English language. Like golf or tennis or playing the piano (I do none of those things, by the way), writing is one of those skills that gets easier over time. The longer you do it, the better you get. As they say, there’s only one way to get to Carnegie Hall. Practice. Practice. Practice.
 
At one point in your career, you taught journalism in Dublin. Out of everywhere you could have gone, why did you choose Ireland? 
 
Ireland chose me, in effect. I was over there researching a historical novel in old dusty courthouses and library archives in Northern Ireland and stopped in Colraine to visit an old college friend who taught graphic design at a university there. He and I later took the train to Dublin, where he introduced me to a friend of his who, at the time, was the only PhD journalist in Ireland. He ran a journalism school at a new university, Dublin City University. We had a few pints at his local pub and compared career notes.

Before I left Dublin, he asked me if I would be interested in a teaching position. I had taught journalism at the University of Iowa some years earlier, as adjunct faculty, and really enjoyed teaching students how to write. It took a while to work out the logistics, but I taught at DCU for a semester, teaching  an introduction to journalistic writing course to freshmen and sophomores and a news writing course to graduate students. When the term was over, I was offered a tenured position on the faculty, but turned it down.

Dublin has its many charms, but it’s a city of more than 1 million souls. It’s crowded, noisy, polluted, expensive and hard to get around – all the things big cities can be. By then, I had lived and worked in Chicago, Dallas, New York and Washington, D.C. I had had my fill of cities. I subsequently spent two years earning a master’s degree in communications from DCU on a full-tuition scholarship – 30 years after receiving my bachelor’s degree.
 
I know you've been working on a historical novel for a while. Do you see it being published in the future?
 
No, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. I naively thought writing this book would be the hard part, not getting it into print. Wrong. Researching and writing it wound up being the fun part. Getting published proved to be the impossible part. There seems to be a Catch 22 in publishing: You can’t publish a novel unless you’ve published a novel.

I’ve learned that it’s very much a who-you-know network, even to hook up with a skilled literary agent, much less an enthused publishing house. I had an agent for a while, but he turned out to be an idiot. I haven’t given up, but the book’s been gathering dust now 12 years now. I’ll get back to it eventually. I’ve invested too much time and effort to just walk away from it.
 
Got any advice for the people out there who want to be writers but don't know how or where to start?
 
Get grounded in language. Read and re-read the writers whose work you admire. Take courses that require you to do a lot of writing, either in college or adult education. Ask the editor of your local newspaper (if you have one) if there’s anything you can do for him/her, and mention that the first one’s free.
 
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Mark Laflamme...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Melanie Brooks...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Carrie Jones...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Rhea Cote-Robbins...

Wednesday Writer's Spotlight: Rhea Côté-Robbins

For the next few Wednesdays, I'll be featuring writers I like and how they hone their craft, use the internet, get writing ideas from life, and rake in the dough.

Rhea Côté-Robbins is a Maine author and Franco-American activist. Her first book, Wednesday's Child, chronicles the life of a young woman growing up in a mill town. She has since edited an anthology of early Franco-American women writers' translations, Canuck and Other Stories, and written a sequel to Wednesday's Child titled, 'down the Plains. Cote Robbins is a professor at the University of Maine in Franco-American Women's, Maine and University Studies. She's the Founder and Executive Director of the Franco-American Women's Institute and publishes the Franco-American News and Events blog (to which I occasionally contribute).

Your first book Wednesday's Child is a creative nonfiction memoir about what it was like growing up in a milltown. How does this straddle the divide of fiction and nonfiction? It seems like this would be a challenging first book to write in many ways.
 
I believe that there exists a Franco-American women's literary tradition, and whether we, as Franco-American women, know this or not, I believe that we participate in this written tradition. My own book, Wednesday's Child, came out of an event which happened in my girl days, 1969 to be exact, and at the moment of insight I decided to write my story so that others could understand what it was like growing up in the South End of Waterville. I was sixteen at the time and I knew that the story I wanted to tell was an important one and that the story deserved to be told. Now, many years passed before I did write the story, but the story only got better as a result of the wait. Like any art form, whatever life happens in the between times becomes a part of the ongoing, creative process.
 
The book was challenging because there is a myth that there is not a Franco-American literary tradition, and as a result, each and every Franco-American begins at square one. We are always having to re-tell the story, each and every one of us, of how we were discriminated against, and the story stays stuck there for many people. My idea is to create a literary movement so that more and more Franco-Americans come out of their writing/writer's closet and proclaim their independence to be artists in their own right/write.
 
The classic scenario is to isolate and create a feeling of the writer being all alone in their art. When, in reality, the opposite is the true state of affairs. If anything is difficult, I find getting past the barriers created by the myth of Maine that the only literature happening here is based in "yankee" ingenuity. Well, I believe there is so much more to the whole story than that, and I would like to see the story expanded and enlarged to encompass the Franco-American literary voices--which includes mine.
 
Wednesday's Child is taught at several universities and colleges as well as read in the community. I think this is an indication that the story remains important, alive and vital to the larger story plane of the continent.
 
How did you decide that the Franco-American female experience was the most powerful thing you could write about and ultimately dedicate your life to? I'm sure you could have written about a number of things.
 
The Franco-American culture workers over the past century and more have done much to contribute to our treasure trove of life experiences--something like an Everything in the Whole Wide World of Franco-American Interpretation Center...I was going to say museum, but museum connotes past tense. The Franco-Americans are not past tense. We do need interpretation, although. My thought on writing about the Franco-American female experience has to do with going deep into the meaning of the culture and what is usually hidden, kept from the public eye, secret, or overlooked is the definition of what does it mean to be Franco-American and female and living in the state of Maine. That, in fact, was my working question for my book. The working question kept me focused on what I wanted to examine in depth and write about. I am absolutely enthralled with the common, everyday aspects of our lives as Franco-American women. I take some of my inspiration of Laura Thatcher Ulrich and her examination of ordinary women's lives. She has studied the life of a dish towel--from growing flax to its final weaving and use, which takes over a year to make a dish towel from scratch by the way, and then she writes about this. I find that inspiring and fascinating. What I want told as an art form, not simply as stories about the good old days, and told in such a way that elevates the Franco-American story to the level of great literature. I think what it takes is attitude. And a good computer. And an agent. And a publisher. And book sales. And major prizes won. I want that for myself and for the Franco-American story about Franco-American women telling her own story.
 
You've had the Franco-American News and Events blog since before blogging got really big. How has the blogosphere and your audience changed over time?
 
Sometimes blogging feels like you are suspended in outer space talking out loud to yourself...you feel deliciously alone. And then, someone leaves a comment. Or, sends you an email suggesting a story I might have missed. And then they send more suggestions. And then they send links and stories. You realize someone is reading the material. Oh, oh, I'm not alone. I was hoping I was the stealth blogger and that no one was paying attention.
 
Jacques Boudreau who blogs/blogues from QC on the FA News and Events blog, was one of those folks who took notice of this little event happening in the blogosphere. So, I invited Jacques to go ahead and join the blogue and put up the pieces he was finding. He wanted to know, what about French articles? Sounds good to me. What happens is that the blogs capture the attention of folks from all over the world. So, lots of people have lots of time on their hands, I'm thinking, or, they resist
 other temptations by cruising the internet blogs.
 
My first blog happened in March of 2003. A friend put me onto blogging. I think I suffer from a condition knows as loquaciousness; I have a surfeit of words and if I don't let them out somehow, I combust internally. My maman used to call me "the talking machine." I used to really bother people back in the day when letter writing was the way to chat and send them 10-page letters. It was very embarrassing. So, I found the joy of journaling and I am on my 130th+ volume; write everyday, and
 that does not count the emails, blogs, etc. I don't watch much TV, although. But I do read many books in the course of a month. I think I am a word addict. Blogs are the proof that there are many like me out there; they may or may not know from what they suffer, but they are practicing their addictions with fervor and a writer's religion.
 
 Blogs, to me, are proof that we are all story makers.
 
Does your teaching inform your writing? Another UMO professor I interviewed has said that teaching has not necessarily helped her writing but has really helped her editing.
 
Teaching and writing are like editing and writing, for me. Two different worlds. And anything that is not me writing, or my writing, frankly, interferes with my writing. Keeps me from the act of writing. Now, above I said that all things feed into the act of creativity. But, at some point, you have to sit down and do the deed. I also find I don't necessarily want my student's writing voice in my head. Nor, do I want to be in the position to point out grammar errors. But that is part of the job and I do it, but I am very aware that I am not doing my own writing when I am teaching. I believe that time off from the teaching is a time when I don't want anyone else's voice in my head. I think because I am so "slayed in the soul" from someone else's work, that I take on their voice, etc. I don't just read a book; I live the book I'm reading. Comes from being a shy child perhaps?
 
What do you think most people misunderstand about Franco-Americans? How do you try to change this view with your writing and teaching?
 
Oh, boy. Big questions. One, I don't think Franco-Americans are dead, gone anywhere too far, nor out of touch with their culture. I think, if asked, or pushed, the surface scratched, the living blood proof of Franco-American is alive and present.
 
Two, I don't think Franco-Americans speak a bad French. They don't speak slang French. They don't speak a dialect. The Franco-Americans speak French. Just French without any adjectives. Trying to erase that myth might take a word bomb of sizable proportions. Some cataclysmic event equal to tip the linguistic universe on its ear to create a space for Franco-American French as a living language of a living people. To hear some folks say that they never hear French spoken in towns in
 Maine must mean they have their ipods on or something. I hear French everywhere.
 
Three, Franco-Americans don't know their own stories, histories, writers, etc. They need to be more self-aware of the power of their stories.
 
Four, Franco-Americans love their priests and their nuns--religious and otherwise. They are used to being led and told what to do. I would like to see them aware of their "follower" status and change it to refusing to be led, especially when it comes to non-Francos telling Francos who the Francos are. Sounds harsh, but I think there needs to be a reckoning of the days when Franco-Americans could not speak for themselves, were spoken for, and we need to lose that habit fast. Especially the women. It is good to have the validation, we all need to support one another, but I do think that non-Francos could listen more to Francos instead of talk for them.
 
Five, since this is wish list time, to go with the above, Franco-American artists creating till we all fall down from the sheer weight of the outcome. And in some kind of concerted act of committing political act on behalf of all Franco-Americans.

I think the arts are the answer to what does it mean to be Franco-American because the arts are a language that many can understand.

Want to be a part of this series? If you get paid to write, you qualify! Email me and we'll talk!

Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Mark Laflamme...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Melanie Brooks...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Carrie Jones...

Wednesday Writer Spotlight: Carrie Jones

For the next few Wednesdays, I'll be featuring writers I like and how they hone their craft, use the internet, get writing ideas from life, and rake in the dough.

Carrie Jones is an adolescent novelist based in Ellsworth Maine. She grew up in Bedford New Hampshire and was a political science major at Bates College (where I also attended). She graduated from Vermont College’s MFA program for writing. She has edited newspapers and poetry journals and has recently won awards from the Maine Press Association and also been awarded the Martin Dibner Fellowship as well as a Maine Literary Award.

Her first book, Tips on Having A Gay (ex)Boyfriend came out out in 2007. Her second novel Love and Other Uses For Duct Tape appeared 2008 along with Girl, Hero. Her latest book is Need. In addition to writing books, she's also a blogger.

You write adolescent fiction, which seems to me like the toughest audience out there. How do you channel your inner 13 year old?

I talk about hot guys a lot and giggle at any jokes that have to do with bodily functions.
No. Seriously? My inner 13-year-old is really close to the surface. I'm one of those horrible people whose emotions are right there on the surface and I still believe in so many things that teens believe in. I think we all go through those adolescent struggles to find ourselves, our identity, our place in the world. It's easy to tap into that energy when you don't suppress it. I'm not good at suppressing things so it's an easy shift for me.

Plus, you know, adolescents are just people... no more, no less. I think a lot of adults forget that kids have emotions and needs and struggles and joys and ideas and wants just like we do. We need to acknowledge and rejoice in that.

When that doesn't work, I watch MTV and PROJECT RUNWAY.

Could you describe the process of getting your first book published? I've always wondered whether the manuscript comes first or the publisher...

For most people the manuscript comes first. There are some people like my friend Micol Ostow who started off as an editor in New York and she only works for hire. She never writes anything on spec.

I was in my first year at Vermont College of Fine Arts getting a Master's Degree in Writing when I wrote my first book, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (Ex) BOYFRIEND. I hadn't shown it to any professors because I was working on other things. I sent it in on a total lark. I hadn't even revised it. A week later this happened:

Sweet Editor Man called me within a week of me mailing the manuscript. Seriously. It was wild.
The 30th, 2006

Okay. Here’s the big question of the day: Why am I so stupid?

I will work on the self esteem exercises tomorrow… but today! Today! Today I am allowed to realize the full extent of my idiotness.

Here’s why.

I get a phone call from a real live editor who says, “Um, is this C.C. Jones?”

“Yes,” I say while pouring out cat food.

He then proceeds to tell me he got my query, wants to see more of my manuscript, but his email requesting it bounced back.

“Really?” I say. “That’s weird.”

“Let me tell you the address,” he says. “cjonese at…”

“Oh,” I say. “Oh. Oh. Oh.”

“What?” he says.

“There’s no e on the end of Jones.”

“I didn’t think so,” he says.

I then apologize and berate myself for not even being able to spell my own last name! What an idiot.
 
He gives me an email address. I send him the rest of the manuscript.

Yeah, that baby’s going somewhere. Not.

Although, he was kind and he did say, “It’s the manuscript I care about, not your inability to spell your own name.”

What a nice man. Even when he rejects the manuscript. He’s still a darn nice guy.

So, despite the fact that I can’t spell, the nice editor man called me back a few days later and talked to me for 40 minutes and told me all the good stuff about my book and what he thinks could get better. It was like talking to a Vermont College mentor. It was really cool. He was brilliant and really, really nice.

And he’s starting the book through the acquisitions process at his imprint, which is really cool… But, I’m not getting my hopes up about it, until papers are signed.

Still, he had the best insight on the piece and I am so excited about working on it. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go work on it. He only wants another 10,000 words. Geesh. Piece of cake. Ha.

A few days later, sweet editor man sent me an email, which I can not quote verbatim, because it’s somehow infringing on copyright. HOWEVER, he said that he wanted to let me know what’s going on, that the piece is heading to the acquisitions committee on Thursday and he’ll call me when they’re done.

On a positive note, I wrote 15,000 more words on it this week and I’m really happy with it. It’s done the Sarah A. rubbing thing, where the characters work off each other. I’ve put more setting in, which is good because I’m weak with setting. I’ve also changed the ending and added a couple of conflict scenes.

Days later, Sweet Editor man called and he continues to be Sweet Editor Man.
He talked to the acquisitions committee today and wanted to call me about it before he battled the snowstorm and drove home. He said they were all “very enthusiastic about it.” They liked the writing, especially the details and he said even the people who don’t like YA were hooked.
YIPPPEEEE!!!!

So, he’s calling me in the morning to give me contract details, etc… which is great except I know absolutely nothing about contracts because I never thought I’d get offered one. Oh, the stupidity of me continues….

A few days after this conversation, the JOHN WAYNE LETTERS (This became GIRL, HERO)- passed an acquisitions committee and is now officially wanted with an offer on the table. (Also Tips On Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend also gets accepted.)

To what extent do you draw inspiration from your real life to create fictional characters and situations? Your daughter Emily (who is in middle school) must be really helpful in this whether she means to be or not.

Real life inspires me a lot. In all my books there are Ellsworth and Trenton landmarks and some familiar faces. TIPS was inspired by a hate crime I had heard about. Friends from high school can see some of their traits in characters in my books.

Em is really helpful when it comes to the language and issues that local teens are facing. Plus, she's a TOUGH critic. Seriously, that girl is mean. She's been known to rip books in half before. NOT MINE! I swear!

Writing full time must be a solitary profession. How do you get in those valuable social interactions?

I don't! I am terribly TERRIBLY lonely. I actually miss being a reporter and newspaper editor because it would get me out and about and learning new things.  I miss that constant interaction with people.
It's a really different lifestyle than sitting at a table with my laptop and my imaginary characters.

So, what do I do? I blog. I talk to other writers. I go out with friends for lunch. I try to be involved in things.

What is the craziest thing you've ever had to do to get a story right? (To give you an idea, my friend Mel joined a superconservative church for a year).

I don't know if any of these count as crazy, but here goes:
1. Get an MFA degree
2. Ride around with police officers in their squad cars (This is way too much fun)
3. Go white water rafting (This is also way too much fun)
4. I hope to hike the AT someday for a story, but... yeah... the family keeps vetoing that one.
5. Gone to a karaoke bar. This is crazy if you know me. I mean... it is seriously crazy. I tend to hunker down into a little ball whenever I go into a bar.

If someone were thinking about writing adolescent fiction for a living, what advice would you give them? (Maybe something you wish someone had told you going in)

I hate giving advice because everyone is different, especially when it comes to the craft of writing.

So instead of saying WRITE EVERY DAY or WRITE LIKE YOUR FINGERS ARE ON FIRE or USE ADVERBS SPARINGLY I'm going to say this: Respect your readers. Kids know when you're going all preachy. They know when you are just shoveling horse poop at them. They know when your heart isn't into your story. Give them the best story you can possibly give them because they deserve it. Kids deserve good stories.

You've recently finished a really tight race for political office which took a lot of your time. What's your next big project?

Um. Trying to forget that I ran for political office???

No, just kidding.

I'm trying to figure out some ways to bring some more opportunities to kids in the Ellsworth area - things that aren't sports related.

In the whole writing world, I'm working on a sequel to NEED, my book that just came out. I'm also working on a contemporary young adult novel about drinking, and a nonfiction picture book about Emma Edmonds, a woman who posed as a man during the Civil War and became as spy. Oh! I'm also collaborating with an author on a young adult novel that's about possession. Possession creeps me out more than anything else -- the whole concept of losing yourself to something evil and having no control... Yeah. Sorry, I'm already shuddering.

Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Mark Laflamme...
Wednesday Writer Spotlight with Melanie Brooks...

How To Get Things Done Fast

I was talking to my friend Randy yesterday and he mentioned this book he was reading about being super productive. "What's it called?" I asked. "How To Get Things Done Fast." I would have never picked out a book like this in a million years; I'd rather get things done well then fast plus the whole thing sounds really gimicky, at least at first glance.

The basic idea is that initially (usually in a few seperate sessions) you write down everything that is preoccupying you and eventually empty your brain. After having things down on paper, you divide things logically into tasks and projects. Things that take less then two minutes, you do right away and you organize everything else in order of importance.

Randy realized that all the ideas he had been thinking of over and over that seemed really kind of random and unrelated were actually all working towards the larger goal of making money back to pay his student loans.

The idea of emptying your mind and working everyday with a clean slate allows you to (apparently) be superproductive. And organizing ideas as they happen takes discipline but keeps you from mentally spinning your wheels about the same old stuff.

I have a sticky note on my Google homepage for those exact thoughts during the day (library books due January 27, pay cell phone bill) but I think a great cleaning out of my brain and an organizing of these thoughts would be pretty fantastic. Despite seeming organized and carefree, I actually spend a lot of time spinning my wheels mentally about money and other matters as I keep revisiting thoughts.

So the book is "How To Get Things Done Fast" by David Allen if you are interested but if you want to dip your toe into the pond of this organizational system before diving in:

Visit David Allen's website...
Do some David Allen brain cleaning out exercises...

Wednesday Writer Spotlight: Mark LaFlamme

So I have several great friends who happen to make extra money writing. Not only that but they're good at it!

I was trying to figure out how I could get information from them as far as how they make it work and feature them on the blog.

For the next few Wednesdays, I'll be featuring writers I like and how they hone their craft, use the internet, get writing ideas from life, and rake in the dough.

I just finished Mark's latest novel Dirt by going to bed way past my bedtime for about a week straight. In addition Mark's blog The Screaming Room is not just about newspapers and writing but life. He does the funnest things with material on the police scanner (I wish I could get an editor to do a blog like this!). Mark is edgy, interesting, and good at his job.
 
Now you are a newspaper reporter and author. What percentage of your time do each of these things take up? What about income percentages?
 
I'm a reporter pretty much full time. By that I mean, I'm officially on-duty between the hours of 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. But unofficially, I'm always on the job. Always waiting for a news tip, scrounging for information, hanging out with sources. That's the way it's got to be for me. If I wanted a job where I simply punch a clock, do my duties and go home, I'd be in a different field. Grave digging, perhaps. Or proctology.
 
At the same time, when I go about being an author, I'm in a different zone. I do the bulk of my writing after midnight, when the news deadline has passed and most of the world is sleeping. That's make-believe time and I have no problem separating it from news time. In an odd way, it's like having multiple personalities. There's Mark who sticks to the facts and Mark who breaks off into fancy of all varieties.
 
As for income, it breaks down like this: the newspaper gives me a check every two weeks and its largely the same each time. Royalties from the book trickle in once a month. Some of the checks are decent, some are puny, still others are pleasantly surprising. The way I see it, income from book sales always has the potential to explode where income from the news business always remains static. Consistency and uncertainty. I like that balance, except for those times that I'm penniless and starving.
 
Both of your jobs seem related to writing. How do you keep things separate? Do you keep things separate?
 
I'm walking down a dark street near the mills next to the Lewiston canal. One eye is scanning the landscape for potential news. A criminal in the act of his crime, a homeless man with a story to tell, a band of thugs planning evil deeds.

From the other eye, I'm looking over the great, abandon mills and imagining them filled with government scientists at work on mind control experiments, or possibly alien autopsies. That's the author eye, co-existing with the reporter eye. Occasionally the two blend and something from the news realm will creep into the realm of fiction. More than occasionally, I think. I can always pilfer from the real world for my fiction. The other way doesn't work so well.
 
You are all over the place social networking wise: Twitter, Facebook, commenting on other blogs. How do you find that helps you as an editor and/or as a writer?
 
I got into those networks because book promotion experts will tell an author that they will perish without them. I haven't decided if they are right or now. It's clear, however, that a novelist can bring attention to his work to vast clumps of people that way. To not do it seems insane. I've run into people through Facebook and Myspace who have read and enjoyed my books. We become friends and suddenly, all their friends are my friends. If you do the math, it's frightening. Thousands of people who would otherwise never hear of you are suddenly exposed to your book covers and various pitches on your profile pages. I've garnered new friends and new readers that way, though there's no honest way of estimating how many.

From a news standpoint, the social networks are a great way of cultivating sources. Need information on something quick? Put a query up in your Facebook status and you'll get hits, I guarantee it. More and more reporters are taking advantage of this all the time.
 
Why do you think Lewiston/Auburn area has such consistently interesting news? (blobs in the sewer, criminals on the run, etc.)
 
For Lewiston, it's reputation precedes it. When something happens here, people give it an extra long look because so many bizarre things have happened here in the past. We don't have as many murders as say, Portland. But when people are killed here, there are almost always twist. The last murder I covered involved a young man accused of strangling his mother. As it turns out, he had been having sex with his mother who was also involved in a sexual relationship with her son's wife. To me, that's Lewiston flavor, dark and twisted.

Before that it was a man who shot his father through the window of his home, killing the old man dead at the head of the table where he was the focus of a birthday party. A sniper form of patricide. As the story unfolded, it was revealed that the shooter had been sexually abused by his dad all his life and now, all grown up, was exacting his revenge.

Before that, the bodies of two men were uncovered in a wooded area next to the railroad tracks. The killers had gone to a supply store for shovels and went through all of this work to cover up the crime, and then left the foot of one of the victims sticking out of the ground, where it was spotted by a hunter.

All of these things are unfortunate, but from a news standpoint, they are just tasty as hell. I don't know why Lewiston is such a great news down. There is an abundance of substance abuse and mental illness here, but it's more than that. In Stephen King's "It," the people of Derry had been submersed in the oddities of their town for so long, they no longer seemed like oddities. Lewiston feels that way a lot of the time.
 
Is all this doom and gloom about newspapers getting to you?
 
No. I'm as sensitive to the suffering others as anybody. More so, maybe. But I'm clinical about things as I'm going about reporting them. I'm there to gather facts for the reader and I try to gather as much as I can. I'm not ghoulish. My motto at work is "I don't want bad things to happen. I just want to be there when they do."

I've been at it 15 years now. Maybe it will all catch up with me one day – all the bodies and screams, blood and suffering – and I'll become a gibbering idiot. But then, who'd notice?
 
How do you think newspapers need to change to sell more papers? 
 
Admitting the problem is the first step. Those that don't recognize that they are in trouble are dying or already dead. Those that accept the explosion of technology as a friend rather than a threat might be okay. The Sun Journal has gone multi-media. We use the Web to get our news to readers. We post video and sound clips. We have a Twitter account which provides news updates. I consider it steering into the skid rather than just locking up the brakes and waiting to crash.
 
How do you find inspiration for your fiction? Your latest novel Dirt is dark and indicates research related to the physical and psychological nature of what happens during and after death. 
 
For one reason or another, a lot of my fiction focuses on that theme. My first novel "The Pink Room" was about a grieving man trying to use the science of string theory to bring his wife back from the dead. "Dirt," of course is about a man so unwilling to accept the loss of his bride, he digs her up and goes about his life. I have dozens of short stories on the same topic. If I ever find myself on a therapist's couch, maybe he or she can figure it out. In the meantime, I don't think about it too much.
Story ideas are everywhere. They come to me all the time. It's like being in a snow globe with ideas falling instead of little plastic flakes. It drives me crazy sometimes. I have notebooks filled with these concepts for short stories or novels and I know I'll never be able to get to them all.

Some of these ideas come out of nowhere, when I'm driving around or just sitting back and watching TV. Many of them – hell, most of them – come in the form of dreams; either full on dreams or the weird, semi-delirious things that happen in the mind at the edge of sleep. "The Pink Room" came from that gray place between sleeping and consciousness. So did "Dirt," so dig "Worumbo," which hasn't been published yet.

I think inspiration comes on the best when you are not actively seeking it. It's astounding how many ideas for a new work or for advancing a current one have come while I'm in the shower. I really should shower more often, as everybody knows.
 
What has been the best investment of your time and money, PR-wise, to sell more copies of your book?

None of the predictable things. Advertising in local papers? Not worth it. Better off seeking out talks or book signings and getting news coverage for free. Virtual book tours? My publisher paid for such a service. The company sends out press releases and gets your title reviewed on a handful of blogs. That's the kind of thing you can do on your own without forking over a fistful of dough. Not worth it.
Sending out review copies has worked well for me. Giving talks at libraries and schools has been helpful, though I despise public speaking. Book signings, always. It's not the number of books you sell, it's the exposure your book gets through store advertising, signs hanging in the bookstores, etc.
I like to have bookmarks printed for each new book I publish. I can leave stacks of them at bookstores, scatter them around airports, pin them up on bulletin boards everywhere I go. Very small investment – I think I paid $139 to have 5,000 bookmarks printed – very versatile use.
 
Do you do freelance work? If so, how do you seek out jobs? 
 
Freelance jobs have a way of finding me. Magazine publishers need writers and know of me through my journalism work. Same with business profiles and big shots who need a speech written. I don't seek the work much. I did try advertising myself as a sort of literary gun-for-hire on Craigslist, but I got mostly offers of a sexual nature in response.
 
Do you have a set routine or time of day where you do your writing?
 
Sort of. Somewhat. Not really. I get up at noon and squint at e-mail and other correspondence. After a half pot of coffee, I might bang out a column for the paper or a post for the blog. I go to work and take care of the quick and dirty stories I've been assigned. I cover news as it breaks and usually have to write fast to meet deadlines. News usually stops breaking in accordance with press time at about midnight.

I spend an hour or so with my wife after work and then come to my weird writing room. If I'm working on a novel, I'll go at it until three or four in the morning. My minimum is 2,000 words a night. If I fall short of that – if say, I come up with 1992 – I'll go add eight words just to keep the discipline. "The severed head was found six blocks away" is a fine phrase if you need to make up eight words on the fly.
 
You seem to produce so much content for your blog, write books, work a full-time job, and have friends and family. How are you not writing constantly?
 
I'd like to ask you the same question, frankly. I'm always snapped out of a relative dry spell by yet another reminder through my feed reader that a new post is available at Breaking Even.

I am writing constantly, by choice rather than necessity. When I go long periods without producing anything, I get antsy. My feelings of self-worth plummet. I do odd things and tend to get into trouble.

 Writing is always a distraction and that, maybe, is what the people who become writers need more than anything else. I think there's a lot of psychology there and probably a good thesis paper to be produced on the topic. I don't need to write scholastic papers, however, and so I don't explore it much. Although, now that you mention it, maybe I'll go write a blog on it. I mean, if I don't do something, I'm just going to get into trouble, right?

To see Mark's blog, order a book, or learn more, check out www.marklaflamme.com.

Book Review: Money For Nothing

To be honest, I would have never picked up Edward Ugel's book if I wasn't a personal finance blogger. But after finishing it, I'm glad I didn't make the mistake of passig it up.

I was at the library for some entertainment books (I seem to have lots of reading time these days). I took this book home with the stack as "homework", thinking it may be kind of boring. The dark side of the lum sum business would be perfect to read just before bed for deep sleep. Or so I thought.

What I didn't expect was getting to bed late every night last week reading it. Last night, I just had to cut myself off, difficult since I was 20ish pages from finishing. (I woke up early this morning and finished it over breakfast.)

First of all, the guy is hilarious. His style reminds me of J. at BudgetsAreSexy and Mark LaFlamme at the Screaming Room; the guy gives you the info in a fun way with some great characters and presonal stories. In short, this book is one written by your wacky fun friend. 

But being hilarious is not the only thing that kept me up nights. I found there was interesting information to glean on many levels.

First off, I never buy lottery tickets for the simple reason that I've always thought there was some kind of catch. There is, of course. High taxes and annuitized payments that decrease in value year after year. (Because do you really think the $200,000 yearly check will seem nearly as impressive 20 years from now? Of course not. And it's not like the government is nice enough to pay you interest for that money either.)

Also, looking at the bigger picture, the lottery isn't the great fundraiser for a state it claims to be. For example, if let's say the lottery goes toward education and the state budget allows for $150 million for education. If during the year the lottery raises $50 million, you'd think education would get $200 million, right? Nope. The $50 million from the lottery means the state contribution is cut back. A little misleading I'd say.

And whether or not you have any interest in the lottery, there is other interesting stuff in this book. As a salesman, Ugel is good and has some useable advice for salespeople. (And if you think of it, we all "sell" something, right?) I think it may help me close a deal or two someday anyway.

In the end, I thought I'd close the book with some definite conclusion like "Wow The Firm is evil" or "Gee, the lottery isn't that bad" but I don't feel strongly one way or the other. The whole thing felt like a pretty balanced look. Ugel does equal justice to portraying himself, not the best at everything but you see he certainly isn't a bad person either. The last few pages contain a good summary behind the idea of the book, whether you look at it from the point of view of the lottery winners, the lum-sum salespeople, or just an average person:

"I have a theory. If on the day they won, lottery winners were told that they had to somehow earn their lottery check, rather then simply wait for it by the mailbox, lottery winners as we've come to know them would be the exception rather than the rule. Of you were handed a thousand dollars, if you won it right out of the blue, what would you do with it? No lying. Yeah, I'd blow it, too. Now, if you were made to dig a ditch or paint a house, or do any job for a day or two in order to recieve that same money, what would you do with it then? Exactly. Me too. Bills are bills."

I highly recommend this book and am excited to see that Edward Ugel is publishing another book in the spring of 2010 called "I'm With Fatty" about his journey to weight loss ("50 pounds in 50 miserable weeks" to be exact). I'll definitely put this one on the fun reading pile because now I know that Ugel's writing doesn't feel like homework.

Check out Ed Ugel's website (with blog)...
Another review of the book at Almost Somewhat Positive...

Book Review: So Many Books, So Little Time

My lack of Internet has made me surprisingly productive these last few weeks. Among my accomplishments, I've 1) completely unpacked and settled into my new apartment, 2) reduced my wardrobe to one closet, 3) tried several new recipes, 4) hung shelves, 5) went to the gym four times a week and 6) did a ton of reading.

The last distraction has been the easiest to do. Sneaking in time while cooking and before bed, I've read four books in two weeks, pretty good for me. One book I just finished today (while waiting for the Internet hookup guy) is called "So Many Books, So Little Time".

I came across the accompanying blog a few months before stumbling upon the book at the library. This seemed rather serendipitous so I checked it out.

Basic synopsis: The author decides to read a book week for year and chronicle the whole experience to see how and if reading affects her life (and vice versa). You can use this book as a list of recommendations or a commentary on American life. Sara Nelson is clearly an intelligent woman with a lot of interesting things to say. It also helps that she reminds me of a combination of a couple of my good friends.

What I keep thinking about though is the fact that Sara owns most of the books she read, which are part of a collection of about 3000 books in her New York apartment. As someone who's organized the library with 10,000 books, I can understand how much space 3000 books takes up and how much money they cost.

I've grown up with the philosophy “never throw out a book” but increasingly I wonder about the importance of keeping every single book I've read or what to read. Last year, I started randomly sending books to people that I thought they'd enjoy and I also started swapping books at www.swaptree.com. And with resources like public libraries and audio books subscription services, I wonder if I need to own all my book possibilities.

I'm guilty of certain behaviors talked about in this book: displaying certain books that visitors would happen upon in my house (the intellectual, interesting discussion stuff) and hiding the self-help, I'm-secretly-crazy books. I've publicly read to give people an impression of me. Books are not only recreation in our culture but as a status symbol, like clothing.

This book has made me realize how many great books I have to look forward to and also that I don’t need to go to the bookstore and buy every single one of them. This isn't just because I don't have pretty cherry wood bookcases to put them on like Sara Nelson but also because, as she reminded me, I'm not going to fall love with most of the books I read. And I'm going to save my money and precious shelf space for the great loves.

If you’re looking for some new books to read or want to think about how books play a role in your life, check this one out...of your local library!

Book Review: The Tightwad Gazette

My friends S and S have mentioned the Tightwad Gazette before. I've even seen Amy Dacyczyn (pronouced like "decision" in case you are curious), TWG's creater and writer, mentioned on other blogs and websites. What I didn't know until this past weekend was that Amy is a fellow Mainer!

Figuring this out was the equivalent of finding out I was just sitting next to a celebrity in a restaurant: at first, there was some denial and then excitement. I just wanted to tell everyone about it.
 
Amy started a newsletter called the Tightwad Gazette in the 1990s and it's slowly grown to this following. The newsletter includes reader submitted tips as well as well researched articles by Amy. She contacts experts in whatever field of frugality she is tackling and does these impressive painstaking calculations (3 cents a minute to run a microwave, the cheapest appliance to run in her list). Reading her stuff is like having a really good friend whose writing you can always learn something from. (My goal is for this blog is like that for people who read it.)

I've most appreciated her articles about concepts like raising her kids to appreciate a frugal lifestyle. She's an activist but not in a preachy way, taking on an overly consumptive culture and our environmental problems as one person or one household. It makes you feel like there is a lot you can do.

I agree with others who have said the random organization of the newsletter allows them to read about topic they wouldn't normally read about (I now know how to clean stinky cloth diapers and the benefits of synthetic motor oilfor example). Headings make you skim but having everything sort of pasted together makes it much more likely that you run into information you aren't necessarily looking for.  

The Tightwad Gazette isn't a blog but you can a) subscribe to the newsletter for $12 a year or b) buy/borrow one of the books. (I happened across the book at my local library.)

I hope someday to cross paths with Amy in real life but until then, I'm a Tightwad Gazette convert!

Read an essay by Amy about how and why she is a great saver of money...
The Simple Dollar's Review of the book Complete Tightwad Gazette...

Book Review: How To Read A French Fry

I received this book last summer as a gift and I really enjoy the premise. Written by Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times' food editor, the science behind food preparation is explained in a lively narrative.

Okay, I know that sounds really boring but it isn't. Let me give you an example.

When you cut an onion, you cut through the onion's vacuoles and their contents combine to form sulfonic acids (as in sulfur). This is what makes you cry when you're chopping an onion. Sweet onions like the Vidalia onions contain the same amount of vacuoles as regular onions but much less of the sulfuric compounds. You can make onions further sweeter by soaking them in water or rinsing them in vinegar (as they do in Mexico) to get rid of even more sulfuric compounds. And that's just two paragraphs of this book.

Other topics tackled include (of course) frying (using a little "old" oil gives food that golden look), gluten (the differing factor in many bread products), ripening (that fruit you bought is definitely still alive long after it's picked), and marinades (oily marinades and water-filled meat do not mix).

Clearly you can't sit down and read to this whole book without your brain exploding but reading parts of it will no doubt improve your food preparation techniques. A college professor of mine always said that chemists were the best cooks, organic chemists in particular. I think there is certainly something to be said for that.

But this book isn't just for the nerdy people who want to know what's happening to their food on a microscopic level. At the end of each chapter is a bulleted list of things to keep in mind when preparing certain kinds of food. (The book is divided into chapters by food type and/or preparation technique.) One step further than the helpful hints are the recipes at the end of each chapter. The recipes reflect the ideas of combining certain foods/flavors and certain preparation techniques to showcase the best aspects of the food, which most people don't know about, myself included.

So whether you enjoy a good narrative, some science and history knowledge, practical techniques to use in your kitchen, or good recipe, you will get something out of this book. I've been reading bits of it while standing by the kitchen counter, preparing dinner. (Apparently there's a lot of standing around waiting in my kitchen!) I think this book would make a great gift, for the holidays or even just a "thanks for cooking me Thanksgiving dinner" hostess gift.

Bon appétit!

Image: If this book fits in my kitchen, It can fit anywhere!

Women's Week: The Boss of You Book Review

Welcome to my week-long women's series. It's no secret that one issue that I'm passionate about is female empowerment. I used to answer a domestic violence hotline, coach cheerleading, lead a girls technology club in my local middle school, and meet with a monthly girls book club. I'm currently on the board of our county's domestic violence program and doing some writing for the Maine Women's Fund. My point is it's certainly been a common thread in my life no matter where I am or what I'm doing.

So this week, it's about the ladies, and of course money (as usual). Enjoy!

I was drawn to this book at my local library while looking for something new to read. "The Boss of You: What Every Woman Needs To Know To Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business" definitely caught my eye with it's fun, sensible cover and complete title. As a woman trying to run my own part-time business, I thought this might me some great professional development information.

I find books like this tend to be one of two things: 1) a little scatterbrained with lots of tips and tricks but a lack of cohesiveness or 2) dense with information and a little on the boring side.

This book was a good balance of case studies of other female run businesses (tips and tricks) but was also well outlined with cohesion throughout.

Sure you can get lots of books about how to write a business plan but there is lots of information in here that works whether you are before or after the BP stage. I enjoyed the exercises where you figure out what you're good at and how that translates to your business as well as the you-can't-do-everything-and-that's-ok attitude.

Emira and Lauren (the authors) are the kind of smart women you want to be friends with and their advice is clearly from the trenches. I know most business people who'd write a book like this would use it to talk about everything they did right but it's more helpful (not to mention realistic) to hear the not-so-ideal parts too. And if I had a business for years, I could still see myself getting something out of the book.

Since the librarians won't speak to me if I renew this one more time, I guess I'll have to surrender this copy next week and ask for my own copy for Christmas to keep as a reference. Oh and if you're more the abbreviated info type, check out the back index full of useable resources (with websites, yay for authors who get the 21st century).

Anyway if you're a woman wanting to start your own business who refuses to buy a book that implies that she's a "dummy" (a little personal bias there), this one is fabulous. I even took it on vacation which means it was worth lugging on a plane in my carry-on.

So learn and enjoy! I continue to myself.

Check out Lauren and Emira's blog here, where you can also order the book.
A good article about self employment taxes from Moolanomy.
Some helpful links for women starting their own businesses via USA Today 

Travel Tip: A Free Guide For Your Opinion

My friend Bailey brought some Las Vegas guide books when she flew in and we've used them a lot of the week. I had heard of and used Zagats a little before but nothing to this extent. (Examples: Best rated campy attractions helped me figure out which tourist stuff to skip and I'm using some recommendations for good solo dining restaurants)

Did you know you can get a free guide for doing a review? It can be as simple as giving an amount of stars to a cafe. Here's the page where you can do just that.

Getting something free and useful for giving my opinion? I'm down with that!

Leaves of Grass, Ten Years Later

A dear friend's father passed away about a week ago. The funeral was today and like quite a few days in this past year, I began driving north from my current central Maine home. I had coffee in hand early this morning, driving on a road I've driven a million times during the day and one awful time in the middle of the night.

Since it was a large funeral and involved someone very implicated in the education system, the wake was held in my old high school cafeteria. Robby, Laura, and I wandered the halls like we did years ago. Interestingly not much has changed, except some cosmetic stuff. Kind of like us really.

We were all in the same junior year English class (at least, I think we were). One of our assigned books and the bane of my existence was Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass". We had to write a letter to Whitman as an end-of-unit project and I wrote a thoughtful letter about how boring I thought it was and why.

I got this poem sent to me last week in an email from a friend. I scrolled to read it and liked it, and then I saw it was from "Leaves of Grass"! I guess some things do change, or at least are appreciated later in life anyway.

So I take the day and night off today to spend time with family and friends, and to be content. And I hope you can too.

I exist as I am, that is enough.
If no other in the world be
aware I sit content,
and if each and all be aware I sit content.
One world is aware and by
far the largest to me, and that is myself.
And whether I come to my own today or in
ten thousand or ten million years,
I can cheerfully take it now,
or with equal cheerfulness,
I can wait. 
                                                          
               - Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Book Review: Fired!

I took this book out of the library last week in part because of its bright almost obnoxiously yellow cover. Also who isn't a rejection junkie? (When it comes to other people, that is.)

Fired! Tales of the Canned, Canceled, Downsized, and Dismissed is a collection of stories of people getting fired. Getting fired is not something in general most people talk about but when asked, there is a sort of cathartic release in telling the story of a tramatic situation like this. I only wish I had a story; I actually have never been fired. (Though as mentioned in the book there are two kinds of people: those who have been fired and those who haven't been fired yet.)

What's fun about this book is you hear some juicy stories, some from people you don't know but many from people you do. Famous actors, comedians, and others in the enterainment industry (which is particularly known for rejection) share their stories. 

The stories are short, allowing you to sneak in "just one more".

The author Annabelle Gurwich was inspired to compile this book when she was fired by her idol, Woody Allen. I went to her website and thought she looked kind of familiar...

Annabelle used to host TBS's Dinner and A Movie, a favorite Friday tradition of my friend Laura and I. TBS would show a movie and hosts Paul and Annabelle would comment on the movie while cooking a dish very loosely related to said movie. Fake example: Dirty Dancing would be played while making Don't back baby into a corner ribs with watermelon salad. If you haven't figured out before, I am quite a corny person so this show appealed to me on a number of levels. Anyway, Annabelle compiled this book! And it was this fact I was excited by as much as reading how Sarah Silverman and some guy at a beta tape video store got canned (by fax and security cameras, respectively). 

So if you want some light breezy reading about rejection (or want to know how to better deal with this rejection yourself) check out the Fired! book or the upcoming movie.

Check out the Fired!/Annabelle's website....
Share your story at Fired the Movie website...

Book Review: Here If You Need Me

I heard about this book via an interview with the author on NPR. I wrote down the title then a few weeks later, I found out my mom was reading it on the suggestion of a friend. I read most of my mom's borrowed copy on a visit to Fort Kent a couple weeks ago and checked it out of the library here in Ellsworth to finish it off. It's a fast read being less then 200 pages and broken into short chapters.

The premise of the book: Experiences of Kate Braestrup, a Uniterian Universalist minister who serves as a chaplain for the Maine Warden's Service. Why does the Maine Warden's Service need a chaplain? Because when you are waiting for a lost loved one to be found or when you're hearing heartbreaking news, it helps to have someone there for counsel on spiritual or psychological levels.

My family and I feel a particular connection to the Maine Warden's Service. They were the agency that found my father's body almost a year ago. They not only  search for missing people in out-of-the-way and sometimes dangerous places but they also break bad news. It's a hard job. In my family's case, they even showed up to pay respects and the funeral. I don't know if it was the uniform or seeing the compassion in them but I found myself throwing my arms around them and sobbing, mostly out of gratitude.

I didn't meet Kate through our experience but she seems to be someone I can relate to. She struggles with faith and fundamental questions (Why do bad things happen to good people? Is there something after this life?) but is clearly an empathetic person who understands the human condition. Anyone can learn how to deal with tragedies a little better in reading how she deals with cases she's been on. And trust me, if we can all better deal with death, most everything else feels easy.

Kate has had her own struggles with death of a loved one. Her husband died in an accident and she became a single mother of four young children years ago. It was after this that she decided to become a minister, which was something her husband was going to do.

A biography, a self help book, a short story collection, and a spiritual tutorial, "Here If You Need Me" is a great book I'd recommend to anyone but especially to someone who has experienced the effects of an accidental death or knows someone who has and wants to better understand their feelings.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. ~Leonardo Da Vinci

Read or listen to an excerpt from the book here...

Book Review: Financial Infidelity

A few months ago, I was contacted by the PR person for a new book that had just come out. Could she send me a copy for me to review? It was my first request and since it made me feel kind of important and also involved a free gift, I agreed.

That being said, you know the kinds of self help books you may read secretly but would never want anyone to catch you reading? A few examples. I have secretly read "He's Just Not That Into You" and passed it onto a friend as soon as I was done, as much to help her as to get the book off my shelf. I also secretly read "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" when I was 15. I publicly said it was a load of crap but then used the information on my future boyfriends with quite effective results.

I can almost tell what some of you are thinking: "But you just seem so together! Why do you need a self help book?" In truth, we'd all like to think that we don't need to read books, get therapy, or join programs/groups to navigate our lives. But I think a lot of us buy these books in hurried exchanges at our local bookstore (or even more anonomously order them online) because it is very human to want to be better people. And knowing more is helpful because we can't all go to school forever to become doctors, therapists, personal trainers, financial consultants, or life coaches. We do have time though to read a 250 page book over the course of a couple months.

The name of my newest secretly-consumed self-help book: Financial Infidelity: Seven Steps to Conquering the #1 Relationship Wrecker. The bright blue cover (with the heart graphic made up of dollar signs) made this unreadable in public without a paper bag cover. So I read most of it sprawled on my back deck in my little bikini, safe from the eyes of judgement (on multiple levels :^)).

So a few numbers: 40% of adults lie to their partners about spending habits. 82% hide purchases from their partners. (Harris Poll) 47% of couples do not discuss money before getting married. 51% of people said when they do talk about money, they end up in power struggles.

The book sets up the reasons why people are financially unfaithful and gives steps (including sample dialogues and exercises) that couples can do to communicate better about money. There are case studies punctuated with facts and figures and it is broken up into readable chunks.

This book allowed Sean and I to have some honest conversations about money. He has seen my retirement account statements, I know how his morgage works. I think we both hesitated to "combine" our money because we aren't married yet but in not talking about it at all, we weren't setting ourselves up for success. Example from our life: A few months ago when I had been wondering why we hadn't been going out lately, he had just spent a few thousand dollars for his morgage paperwork to be reworked so he'd be paying a lower interest rate.

So all in all, a great book with great information (though it's taken me months to read it because it is a little dense). What's the negative?

Well the title can put your partner on the defensive. "What's that?" Sean asked when he saw my hardcover book with the word "infidelity" on the front. When I told him I was reviewing it for the blog, he visibly relaxed. For better or for worse, the title is a little striking.

I also with there was a way to get men to read these kind of books more often. I don't know what Sean would say if I asked him to read this book but since I still haven't even read Flatland yet (his favorite book which he gave me a copy of over a year ago), I shouldn't expect him to eagerly devour this one.

But even having it on the coffee table has made this book worth having if only because it serves as a reason for discussion. And having at least one person read it is helpful, just like my having read "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" helped my dialogue with high school boys way back when.

I think of a whole secret population reading self-help books with the simple take home messages of "Assume best intentions" and "Take the time to communicate". And if this book can help you think that way about your existing or potential romantic relationship in even the smallest of ways, it will have done its job.

Book Review: All Your Worth

My friend Sarah sent me this book a few months ago. I saw the cover and thought the whole thing was a little cheezy (no offense Sarah!). But the way I figured it, books don't become New York Times Bestsellers by being terrible (if they are, at least there is probably a good steamy scene or two in them). Based on the book jacket photo though, I knew that Elizabeth Warren or Amelia Warren Tyagi (mother-daughter team) would not be getting down and dirty in this book. The content had to be solid.

Since I had lots of time to stroll around HospitalTown last week, I thought I would finish the book once and for all (among a few other things) while Sean napped. (A bulk of this was read in the ER and the fact that I still got a lot out of it is testament to how good the book is.)

So the basic idea is a simple formula: 50% of your money should go towards your needs (food, shelter, insurance, and transportation), 20% should be spent on savings, and 30% should be spent on all your wants. Sounds easy, but it does involve doing a little math initially.

I'm a sucker for a book with exercises in it so while Sean watched baseball, I did some math with the included worksheets to see if my spending was in balance. My prediction was that I spent most of my income on my needs. I'm not an extravagant person yet I seem to be saving very little compared to what I want to be. The money must be going to things beyond my control...

I was quite surprised when my needs came out at 50%, even with my increased gas budget and factoring in a regular copayment for doctors visits. I've been saving 9% of my income, which doing the math means I'm spending 41% on my wants. Yikes! Where is it going? (The book has you calculate your needs and savings and subtract them to determine what you're spending on wants. Talk about making you fess up!)

A few things to consider. Technically, my dog is  a want for example, though sometimes I wonder about that. Gifts are also wants. But when I started listing my inevitable wants, I began to understand how much power over these funds I did have.

I see that my current budget with all its small categories makes it easier for me to lose track of small amounts of money. (Though I will say keeping an exact budget for six months helped me really understand my incoming versus outgoing funds in an amount of detail that was really helpful.) Now that I know how much things cost (in terms of dollars and in percent of my income) this simpler 50/20/30 method makes things much easier.

According to my calculations, I have $400 a month to freely spend on my wants. That sounds like a lot. So if I take out $100 a week from the bank and only spend that, I am on track. It may mean that Sadie gets the cheaper dog food once in awhile, and it may mean that I use $80 this week to get a massage. I like the freedom this money allows me and the accountability of the cash in my wallet.

Don't think you can cut anything from your budget? These ladies have an answer for every excuse I could think of. They've empowered me to shop for the best auto insurance rate and negotiate my medical bill. They give you the tools to succeed and punctuate the sometimes not-so-entralling text  with actual case studies of people they've worked with.

I highly recommend this book to anyone and because of it, I'm throwing out my detailed budget I've kept monthly for an entire year. While my budget has really allowed me to show growth but I don't need it anymore. I've got my typical expenses then $100 for everything unexpected that comes my way in a given week. Maybe I will book that massage after all...

Don't believe me about the fabulousness of this book? Here are some other reviews:
Get Rich Slowly
It's Your Money
The Simple Dollar
Out And About

Book Review: A Million Bucks By Thirty

I entered a contest to win the book "A Million Bucks By Thirty" a few weeks ago. When I didn't win (and had totally forgotten about it), the author of the book contacted me, asking if I'd like a copy to review. Free books? I'm down with that!

This is the second book I've been asked to review (the first one I'm still going through, heavier topic and thicker book). I recieved this book in the mail on Friday and began reading it Friday night. I was gone all day Saturday but woke up early this morning to finish it. Yup, it was that good.

At first, when I saw the cover with its catchy title and smooth looking dude on the front, I thought "Oh come on." But when I started reading, it felt like I was sitting around talking to one of my best guy buddies and passively learning about money at the same time.

So it's a quick read but you can learn a lot from Alan Corey (for starters, he lives off $15,000ish a year... in New York City. And he does this for multiple years without killing anyone.) The guy shows that being driven, flexible, and willing to learn will get you pretty far. He gets to a million dollar net worth well before his thirtieth birthday (not to spoil the end or anything) by saving, investing, working, and real estating.

A few things I learned (or in some cases relearned):

1) Keeping your money in an inaccessible spot makes it harder to spend.
2) You must reward yourself (though not necessarily extravagantly) every step of the way.
3) Real estate isn't just for old people or rich people.
4) You have to take some calculated risks if you're going to get anywhere.

The overall idea I had when I closed the book was not only does this book tell you how to save money but it gives you ideas for why you should. Yes there is this abstract concept of getting older but Alan's want of his own bar (for example) was a much more powerful image for me. We all have our own "bar", our own seemingly ridiculous dream. Sometimes I think in our attempts to save money for our emergency funds, our retirements, etc. we can lose sight of a fun, seemingly peripheral goal that would actually add to our net worth if we took the time to think about it and learn about it.

Also a complete side note, Alan has been on reality television. You may or may not know my secret dream of being on America's Next Top Model but Alan has been Queer Eyed and Restauranted and even Change of Hearted. I must admit this somewhat fascinates me and, ok, makes me a little jealous. You can tell not only from his television appearances but from the way he writes that he's a fun guy and a smart guy, a good combination for an author.

So this book is good in both the money knowledge sense and the getting to know an interesting person sense. A quick read for even a slow reader like me, it is definitely a good book to take on vacation or even to read if you feel like taking a mental vacation. Alan has inspired me to work my savings and he could probably inspire you, too.

You can learn more about the book and Alan Corey at www.alancorey.com.  

Book Review: Nickeled And Dimed

"That's the kind of book that old people read." -12 year old girl I know

I finished Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America in a record time of five days. It was less then 250 pages and a remarkably quick read for the subject it was about: "case studies" of poverty in America.

When one of the middle school girls I work with saw my book, she immediately could not believe I was reading it. Maybe I seem too young and hip (my words, not hers) to be reading something that seems so boring. But to be honest, it was quite interesting. Heck, they even made this book into a play.

The premise is Barbara who spends a year trying to live on minimum wage jobs (or close to) in different parts of the US. I bought the book even before I knew part of it took place in Portland, Maine (she becomes a maid with an agency similar to Merry Maids). Her detailed accounts reminded me of people I know and made me look about the people who wash my dishes, serve my food, and cash me out at the grocery store in a different way.

The evaluation stopped me dead in my tracks. A study shows that the minimum wage to pay for a basic standard of living with a home, a reliable used car, childcare at a liscenced day care, etc. should be $14 an hour. And she was using numbers from 1998-2000. Those making $10 an hour or under are part of the "working poor". My salary translates to about $10 an hour, and it's 2008.

Now until this moment, I didn't think of myself as poor. I have three college degrees and work experience that would put me in the "professional" category. This book made me a little sad and a little inspired at the same time. And more importantly (and beyond looking at my own situation), it made me see the world in a different way then I was seeing it: as a bunch of hardworking people who will one day get to the point where they can't take it anymore and do something about it.

Just a reminder that I'm giving this book away as a prize to the winner of the June Blood Drive. So check out that page for details to enter (it's easy!).

Image from http://www.hoardedordinaries.wordpress.com.

June Blood Drive

You may remember a few months ago that I gave blood at the Red Cross and thought the whole thing was a pretty good use of my time. This month alone, I've gotten two phone calls and one postcard from the Red Cross asking for another donation.

I remember my Dad getting a lot of phone calls for blood donations because he was AB negative, which is fairly rare. But I do know the Red Cross needs blood of all types all the time. In light of recent events and due to the drop in blood donations during the critical summer months, I thought I'd launch a challenge with this blog: The June Blood Drive.

The goal is 50 pints of blood for the Red Cross by the end of June. Can you give a pint? 

To let me know you've donated, comment on the blog or email nicole @breakingeveninc.com and let me know that you have. If you want to take a picture of your "I Donated Blood" sticker or you showing Oreos in your mouth moments afterward to prove your story, go for it. I could always use cool blog art! I trust in your honesty because what sick person would lie about a blood donation?

The prize is a book I picked up in Boston, pre-windshield incident. "Nickeled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America". It's a fascinating read (I'm half way through in two days) and interesting from both a personal finance and anthropological perspective.

Ready, set, give! Contest ends June 30.

Book Review: Eat, Pray, Love (Well, So Far)

You Too Can Petition The Universe

I really dragged out attempting to read "Eat, Pray, Love". Sarah sent it to me when she sent "Helping Me Help Myself" but I could get psyched up for it. 1) New York Times Bestseller means it's too popular. I mean, do I only read things because other people say it's good? 2) Author photo, pretty and blonde, what is this "everything" she needs to search for in life? and 3) The title, the minimalist cover, the spiritual journey, all felt too Oprah to me. (And by too Oprah, I mean in a kind of preachy, commercially spiritual kind of way. I don't actively dislike Oprah but she's not exactly my favorite, probably in part because she's insanely popular).

It was either read or do yard work this afternoon so I picked up "Eat, Pray, Love" and an hour later, I already love it.

First of all, painful divorce then torrid affair that ends in heart break. I can kind of relate. Throwing up every morning because something in your life isn't right? I've been there. And her little stories, funny, warm, and completely relatable. And since I've been passively seeking to improve my spiritual life for the last few months, and since the book is seeming to start with the "pray" part, I feel something translatable to my life. 

One part I wanted to share was where our author is in a car traveling with a friend. She is wishing she could write a petition to God for something specific to happen in her life (here: her husband signing the divorce papers so she doesn't have to spend a year in court). She says she feels like she can't do this because she feels she should just have faith in God that it all works out.

"Where did you get the idea you aren't allowed to petition the universe with prayer? You are part of this universe, Liz. You're a constituent- you have every entitlement to participate in the actions of the universe, and to let your feelings be known. So put your opinion out there. Make your case. Believe me- it will at least be taken into consideration."

"Really?" All this was news to me.

So she writes her petition. Dear God, please do this, here are some reasons you should, thanks.

I read it to Iva, and she nodded her approval.

"I would sign that," she said.

I handed the petition over to her with a pen but she was too busy driving so she said, "No let's say that I did just sign it. I signed it with my heart."

"Thank you, Iva. I appreciate your support."

"No, who else would sign it?" she asked.

"My family. My mother and father. My sister."

"OK, they just did. Consider their names added. I actually felt them sign it. They're on the list now. OK- who else would sign it? Start naming names."

So they go on to list people who would sign it. People living and dead who hate conflict, friends, relatives, movie stars, politicians, historical figures. They come up with quite a list.

It makes you realize your desires not only effect you but many other people as well. (Your desires, attitude, financial state can also be thought of this way.) Prayer doesn't have to be this passive activity but something you can actively feel you are doing by defining what you want as well as why you want it to the universe. You can also think of who would support you and why. As someone who does not like to feel like I'm letting too many things happen to me, this kind of prayer feels oddly empowering.

So petition away. Maybe God can help you reach a spiritual, emotional, or even financial goal if you petition him.  And if spirituality is something that interests you, give "Eat, Pray, Love" a try.

Want New Books And Movies?

We All Do— But A Swap Website May Make More Sense

Who doesn't love the feeling of a fresh new book? It's pretty tempting to pay $8.95 for that shiny new paperback you won't get around to reading for awhile, isn't it? Or listening to that new CD at the store makes you want to buy it on the spot, right?

It really can be convincing to buy new media to consume. This weekend while we were shopping, my sister paused at the books in a store. "Do we need any books?" she asked and we all paused before saying "no", even though books were not on our lists.

In addition to temptation for new media, you've probably been doing some spring cleaning and have found books, CDs, etc. to get rid of, making it even more ridiculous to buy new. May I suggest the win-win situation of a swap website?

At PaperBackSwap, an email address and valid USPS address will get you registered and when you put ten books on the swap, the website gives you two free credits to order other books. I searched for five books (a few obscure, a few more popular paperbacks) and only one that I wanted were available. Like any used book store, this site may or may not have what you want but at over 2 million books alone (they also have a CD and DVD swap) it's worth a shot.

Free From Broke posted a review of Swaptree last week, which sounds very similar to PaperBackSwap only you can also trade video games as well. (Use the link off Free From Broke to get free shipping on your first trade!) Swaptree is a smaller site, though I haven't learned the cultures of either site enough to know what kind of books, CDs, etc. they tend to have. If it's like any garage sale I've been to, there's probably a bunch of romance novels and a George Michael CD or two at the very least.

Both sites are searchable by multiple fields (title of book or ISBN number for example) and both include printable labels so all you have to do is stick the package in the mailbox.

These sites are free but you do have to pay postage, which is usually a lower rate if you go with the USPS's media mail rate. (I sent my sister a book awhile back for about $1.50, though Swaptree promises a maximum of $2.50 for anything.) You can buy envelopes or cleverly wrap things in layers of scrap paper and packaging tape. Not that I've ever done that of course...

If you've used either of these sites before, do comment below. Because there's nothing I love more then free things I like and a way to get rid of things I don't without throwing them away. Happy Swapping!

Image from: community.bates.edu  

Book Review: Emily Post's Etiquette

When my mother bought me an etiquette book four years ago the Christmas after I graduated from college, I couldn't have been more insulted. Raised in a family where thank you notes had to be written and us kids always left a note on the counter if we were going somewhere, why did I need a book to tell me to be nice to people?

I took out Emily Post's Etiquette a few days ago in an effort to figure out support group etiquette (I'll make a long story short: there is none). I then began perusing the book, looking for money-related manners. There was no one section on the subject but tips about handling money matters (who pays on dates, how much to spend on a wedding gift) were peppered throughout the book, with a very comprehensive index so you can find them all.

In short, the Golden Rule of Money (my wording) from this book is that finances are never to be discussed outside of very close family. (Maybe that's why there is quite a powerful group of personal finance bloggers online; it's almost voyeuristic to be reading about someone else's money!) I must have read the Golden Rule of Money awhile ago because if you've met me in a social situation the last few years, my initial question is not what you do for work but something along the lines of "So what do you do for fun around here?" or "Are you originally from this area?" Often what people do for work will tell you little interesting about them anyway.

So what about the book in general? To be honest, I think more people could stand to skim through it. It's pretty thick but does cover a lot of ground. I think in general many younger people (my age group included) need to learn a little more about cell phone etiquette in particular. I have mentally written off people for taking calls while out with me or talking loudly in line at the grocery store. But that's not to say I don't have my faults. Everytime I pick up the book, I learn something new, too. I actually use it as a reference more than I thought I would. If I recieved it as a gift now, I would be much more grateful.

Knowing manners allows you to place value on thoughtful actions and gestures and not necessarily throw money at a problem. (Inappropriately expensive gifts, for example, are a liability in the manners world, not your ticket to the top.) I may not exude fine breeding but I can be thrown in with fancy people (or very unfancy people) and feel confident of my actions. Who knows how many connections simple manners can get you, how many jobs or raises or other compensation will eventually come your way because you exude politeness? I can say with confidence that it's gotten me places.

Speaking of money, the book itself is fairly thrifty. At at less than $30, it makes an appropriate gift for mostly anyone.    

Book Review: Helping Me Help Myself by Beth Lisick

Beth Lisick's Self Help Analysis Helpful, Fun

I have a great friend named Sarah who works at a San Fran bookstore and just sent me a couple books. The one I was most tempted to start (and finished quickly) was "Helping Me Help Myself" by Beth Lisick. It came out in early January and but Sarah had gotten the proof copy earlier. (So that's how those book store types have already read the book when it has just come out!)

First of all, I am one of those people people on a constant quest for self improvement. I don't usually seek help; I often reasearch things a little on my own and mostly go it alone. Beth has summarized all those books I've been meaning to read including "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". I have actually read myself "Organizing From The Inside Out" and "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus". In other words, I understand why Beth would undertake this. It is a similar reason to why I've done this blog: to learn more about money and entertain others in the process.

I skipped (of course) to the financial chapter (Chapter 8) where she consults Suze Ozman, a financial planner who has her own show, column, and is Oprah's buddy. I'm working on a post about Suze Ozman so I'm not going to talk too much about her now.

The single most valuable thing that Beth got out of her book (and you can too) is to advocating for herself. She called her credit card company, who had put her interest rates through the roof (over 20%). She pointed out she was a loyal customer who could take her business elsewhere and they brought down her rate a bit. She insisted on zero percent and she got it. "In under five minutes' time, I just saved myself about $80 a month." she writes, only wishing she had made the call earlier. I think this is a great illustration about sticking up for yourself.

I think in the areas of our lives that we are least confident in, we are afraid to advocate for what we want. Or maybe we don't know what to advocate for. Which is why we need to make it our business to know at least a little and then become the squeaky wheel with our credit card companies, banks, insurance companies, and anyone else who isn't giving us a fair shake.   

I have since read the rest of the book (the Richard Simmons part ended up being my favorite) and it's great. If you're looking for a good read from a funny lady, this is it. And I now understand a few little tricks gleaned from some of the most popular books of all time.

See Beth's YouTube video...
Hear the NPR piece about the book...