Publishing Contracts: How to Get Legal Help

Would you contract with a publisher who made you a book contract offer demanding arbitration, an unfavourable marketing or editing clause in its contract?
.

.

Get Legal Tips from Professionals.
Bestselling author and self-publishing advocate J.A. Konrath wrote once: “The trade publishing system is designed to take advantage of Authors’ naiveté  and lack of legal knowledge and bargaining power, and it uses the promise of publication as a carrot to get them to accept onerous, deeply biased terms.”

Best advice for any author is to know what they get into, to understand the publishing contract and to consult a contract lawyer before signing the papers.  As Copylaw.com advices: “While it is difficult to see how your publishing agreement will play out in the long term, the decisions you make today could have profound, long term consequences.”
.

Before You Meet with a Lawyer, read these Books:

The author Law in Plain English for Writers
Lawyer Leonard DuBoff, was teaching intellectual property law for twenty-five years, and writes really simple and easy to understand.

The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine does not only provide sound advice, but also lists publishers and Vanity Publishers that authors must avoid under all circumstances.

Helen Sedwick, a Californian attorney and novelist, shows in the chapter “Understanding Key Contract Provisions” of her Legal Handbook the clauses of publishers and explains on the other side of the page what these provisions mean for the author.


.

If you are still eager to sign a contract, you should at least know what you get into, and what the contract clauses really mean.  Try to negotiate.  Ask the publisher to add a clause, to ensure that your consent is required for changes – less the editing.

<><><><><>

Meet Tamara Jackson: Author, Fitness & Weight-Loss Coach

 

 .

You might have seen Tamara Jackson on the Dr. Oz TV show, where she shared her heart-wrenching journey from 265 lb. junk food addict to 155 lb. fitness fanatic.  In her book 265 Point, Tamara Jackson, in the meantime a "Certified Group Exercise Instructor" through the American College of Sports Medicine, shows readers they can do it too.
.
265 Point reveals some touching moments where Jackson endured ridicule and prejudice at her high weight of 265 pounds. 

. 

.

Often the Family is the Problem.
Tamara also shares the emotional and environmental challenges often faced in the quest to develop a healthier lifestyle. Women are sometimes sabotaged by their own family and friends who derail their weight loss efforts and criticize their healthier menus. Fueled by a new-found passion for health and fitness, Tamara delivers a realistic plan to reach a healthy weight including a practical food plan and doable exercise regimen.
. 

 .

  

Don't Miss the Before & After Images
Check out Tamara's author page on Amazon A powerful and dynamic seminar leader, public speaker, media health expert and motivational fitness consultant, her website.

www.265point.com invites women worldwide to work one-on-one or in groups to make a final decision to a healthier future.  265 Point, a great guidebook for women who want to be fit, healthy and happy, is available in digital format and in print.on Amazon. 

.
Meet Tamara Jackson here too: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/29167290-tamara-jackson http://www.amazon.com/265-Point-Tamara-Jackson/dp/149446537X/ and certainly on Twitter  @FitnessTamara

<><><><><>

If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites - or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months - or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Pianist in a Bordello - Hilarious and Humorous

What would happen if a politician decided to tell the truth—the whole truth? Richard Youngblood, aspiring Congressman, is about to find out. He’s running on a platform of honesty and transparency—and against the advice of his friends and advisers he’s decided to start with himself.
.
His autobiography will lay his entire life bare before voters just days before the election. And what a life he’s had. Born in a commune and named Richard Milhous Nixon Youngblood as an angry shot at his absent father, Richard grows up in the spotlight, the son of an enigmatic fugitive and the grandson of a Republican senator. He’s kidnapped and rescued, kicked out of college for a prank involving turkeys, arrested in Hawaii while trying to deliver secrets to the CIA…Dick Nixon Youngblood’s ready to tell all. 
.
He’ll even tell his readers about the Amandas—three women who share a name but not much else, and who each have helped shape and define the man he’s become. Are voters really ready for the whole truth? Are you? 

Today, I discovered this book by change, ordered it, 

and read it in one shot - postponed some chores, and sank into this hilarious and humorous book - a great read at the start of the election year.

.
Pianist in a Bordello is a hilarious political romp through the last four decades of American history, from a narrator who is full of surprises.  With an interesting combination of literary tools to keep Erickson's plot constantly moving--opening chapters with sarcastic quotes, alternating between the above mentioned scenes, various plot twists, and closing on a humorous, yet thought-provoking note, Pianist in a Bordello is definitely a fun read for all." - San Francisco Book Review.

"The author combines highly effective Joseph Heller-style political and social satire with some surprisingly touching personal moments... Erickson welds all of these elements together into a hugely enjoyable comic novel. A fast-paced, raucous tour through the last half-century alongside a modern-day Candide."- Kirkus Reviews
"I don't ever bandy around the words "tour de force," but Pianist in a Bordello knocked my socks off. Yes, I too, was reminded of Catch-22 by its glib tone and pacing. I also felt a little Hunter S. Thompson. Maybe some John Kennedy Toole... Every once in a while, I come across someone who is simply outstanding. Bravo, Mr. Erickson."- EM Kaplan, author of Josie Tucker novels
Erickson's writing is exciting, fun, honest, and so well-written that you'll find yourself wondering where his next novel is."-- Red City Reviews

The book is now an award winning novel, Pianist in a Bordello, having garnered a nod by the Northern California Publishers and Authors for third place in General Fiction. It was also awarded two first places in fiction and humor by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association.
In addition, it was recently named as a recipient of the coveted BRAG awards. Publishers Weekly, Red City Reviews and Kirkus Reviews all included it in the top ten percent of Indie books that were submitted. 

Paperback: 286 pages $10.70
Kindle 99c

About the Author
Mike C. Erickson grew up in the idyllic college town of Logan, Utah, but because of a twist of fate he graduated from high school in Honolulu. He left Hawaii brimming with aloha and enrolled at Utah State, where he was awarded two degrees and self-proclaimed minor intellectual status, which was of dubious value when the US Army invited him to vacation in South-East Asia.

Ten days after leaving Vietnam, he began decades of dispensing pearls of wisdom as a high school history teacher, academic decathlon coach, and on occasion, as a community college instructor in the Sacramento area. When not in Hawaii or another exotic locale, he lives in Gold River, California. 

Recipe to Become Rich - Well, NOT from Work

Jeff Hayden, one of my favored "how-to" author at Inc.com wrote another great article: How the Rich Got Rich.  He wrote: "Still, even though we all define and calculate success differently, most of us would like wealth to factor into our equations."

He received a report from his CPA friend, sat down and studied the 400 Individual Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes, an annual report issued by the IRS.  His conclusion: "If you want to get rich, there's interesting data buried in all the charts and tables."

As it takes often years until the IRS finally publish their detailed reports (lists of the names of major taxpayers appear much faster) Jeff Hayden studied the ones from five years ago. 

.
His Findings:

"In 2009 it took $77.4 million in adjusted gross income to make the top 400. That might sound like a lot, but it's down from $109.7 million in 2008 and significantly down from a record high of $138.8 million in 2007."

How these Richest People Made their Income: 

• Wages and salaries:  8.6%
• Interest: 6.6%
• Dividends: 13%
• Partnerships and corporations:  19.9%
• Capital gains: 45.8%

The top 400 averaged $92.6 million in capital gains income...
.

Working for a Salary WILL NEVER Make you Rich.

• Neither will making only safe "income" investments.
• Neither will investing only in large companies.
• Owning a business or businesses, whether in part or partnership, could not only build a solid wealth foundation but could maybe someday... generate a huge financial windfall.
  
  
  Read the whole article with more conclusions by Jeff Hayden:
  http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/how-the-rich-got-rich.html

<><><><><>

Gluten-Free Living - How to Avoid the Traps

Traci Lawrence asks: How well do you know your body?  Are you able to figure out immediately if your mood and health have been affected by your last snack, or meal?  If so, you wouldn’t be alone.  Thankfully, in recent years, consumers have become more educated in health and nutrition.  That’s a huge benefit of the information age.
.
Savvy people are more aware that everything we put into our mouths can affect us.  They know what foods make them tired or sick.  Conversely, such individuals know what foods give them more energy.  One of the most well-known subjects under discussion is gluten. Simply put, this is a protein found mainly in rye, wheat, barley, and their derivatives.
.

Why is Gluten a Concern?
Some people cannot digest gluten well.  It may initiate immediate as well as long-term problems related to their intestinal system.  This condition is called gluten intolerance, or gluten sensitivity.  In addition, most sources agree that foods containing gluten are among the hardest to digest for anyone.  I’ll leave that debate to the experts.  It’s enough for me to know that my body cannot handle the substance.  I have a lifetime of health challenges to prove it.

In the 13 years since I have been diagnosed with the disorder, I have found that many people are unaware of the prevalence of gluten.  Close family friends are still unsure about how to decide what contains gluten.  Therefore, I thought it was time I wrote an article outlining the basics of how to look for it.
.

See, gluten is like sugar or salt; it’s in more foods and beverages than we realize.  Yet, so many people don’t check nutrition labels on packages, and they aren’t aware of the process of cooking certain foods.   They just buy the most inexpensive products, which are often the least healthy.  This is not a good trend.

Isn’t your health worth a little bit more money?  You can even keep the cost of eating gluten free down by not buying gourmet, or frozen, gluten-free prepared foods.  You can also make your own baked goods, including bread. Frankly, I still haven’t found a tasty bread mix.
.

Products That Contain Gluten.
One of the main ingredients in flour is wheat.  Flour and/or wheat are found in some, or all, of the following:

•         Noodles
•         Pastries
•         Breads
•         Baking mixes
•         Sauces, seasonings, soups, and gravies
•         Cereals
•         Drinks (beer)
•         Snacks (cookies, candy, crackers, and chips)
•         Desserts (pies, ice cream, cakes)
•         Breaded/coated meat, fish, and vegetables
•         Hot dogs

.
Foods that Don’t Have Gluten.
Lately, consumers can find gluten-free processed foods at almost any store that sells food.  This includes a wide range from the list above. It’s important to check the package for the “gluten free” label. It signifies that the product contains less than 2% of gluten.  Of course, there are plenty of unprocessed foods without gluten. These include:

•         Grilled or roasted meat and fish
•         Fruits and vegetables
•         Beans
•         Rice and many other grains
•         Dairy products
•         Nuts

Please note: Dairy products contain lactose. People who cannot tolerate gluten often cannot digest lactose well, either.  However, some sufferers can eat lactose if they take a pill to help them digest it.

Here’s another point to ponder: All non-gluten flour and baking mixes are not made the same.  Ingredients differ widely because of the variety of gluten-free flours.  You’ll have more luck if you stick with well-known brands.  Others may include mixes of flour that leave an unappetizing aftertaste according to some people.  For example, I don’t like the taste of garbanzo-bean flour.  Please beware: the products may also contain a high amount of sugar.

The unusual taste applies to processed foods, too, but it’s more evident in the baking mixes.  Many of the processed products are made with rice flour, which has no unusual aftertaste.
.

How to Read Nutrition Labels.
Concerned shoppers can save themselves time if they stay away from most of the products listed in the “Products That Contain Gluten” section above.  They won’t even have to bother reading the labels.  However, please don’t avoid entire aisles just because gluten is so widely used.

Many stores mix at least some of their gluten-free products in with foods containing gluten. For instance, pasta products labeled as “gluten-free” are likely to be mixed in with the regular pasta. Just look for those exact words on the box.

It’s a little more complicated to read the actual nutrition labels on the sides of products containing gluten. Not all of them will use the word “gluten”.  The most prevalent labeling, in bold lettering, is “wheat”, or “may contain wheat”. 

That means you must use your own knowledge to determine if the chosen product includes a derivative of rye or barley, even if it doesn’t contain wheat. For instance, malt comes from barley. Malt is in malted milk balls (the candy), beer, and the malt flavoring we add to ice cream shakes to make them into “malts”.
.
More Red-Flags:
Two other possible red flags are “soup stock” or “soup base”, and “modified food starch”. Soup base, including dried bouillon cubes or powder, are usually made with flour because flour (i.e. wheat flour) is the standard thickener.  Gluten-free bouillon is also available in most stores. By the same token, modified food starch may contain gluten-based starch.

Here’s a good rule to buy groceries: if a gluten ingredient is listed as one of the top ingredients on a food label, don’t buy it. Ingredients are always listed in the order of most to least content.
.

How to Choose Gluten-Free at Restaurants.
Luckily, quite a few restaurants have gluten-free options. For those that do not, you’re usually safe sticking with these dishes:

• Roasted or grilled meats, eggs and vegetables (unless the meat has been ground up and processed with wheat), 
• Wild and shell fish such as salmon, black cod, grouper, herring, trout, sardines, shrimp, crab, lobster, mussels, clams, oysters
• Fowl, poultry, pork, beef, lamb, liver, bison, chicken, turkey, duck, ostrich, veal, wild game
• Potatoes with a gluten-free sauce / seasoning
• Fruit of all kinds and at all seasons
• Rice, or another gluten-free grain, such as amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa

Avoid any sauces and breading!

.
You’d be surprised what wonders a skilled cook and the right seasoning can do with the right ingredients!  Gluten-free cooking seems overwhelming, distasteful, and extremely limiting to outsiders.  However, it is really quite liberating and confidence-building.  So many unhealthy choices are cut out right from the beginning. There’s no inner debate. Doesn’t our confidence soar every time we must commit to difficult decisions as well?  

I can tell you that, even after all these years, I feel so proud of myself when I bypass yummy baked goods.  My eyes are still in love with them, but my intestinal system knows they’re toxic—like a bad relationship.  That’s not true love, is it?
.
Is Restricting Your Diet Worth It?
Either we want to stay healthy, or we don’t.  It’s that simple.  During my lifetime, I have spent a fortune in time and money trying to stop the mess that gluten made in my body (although I didn’t know the cause until 13 years ago).  I can tell you from experience that you do want to stay healthy in order to have the quality of life you deserve.  Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

.
About the Author:
Traci Lawrence is a teacher, author, blogger, and freelance editor.  Traci lives in the southern area of the United States with her family.  She considers it her mission to spread positivity and self-empowerment through her writing.  Please visit her uplifting website at www.tracisworld.com and view her book, Accept No Trash Talk: Overcoming the Odds

<><><><><>

THE RIVER - a new Thriller - is FREE Dec 29 - 31

Bestselling author Patrick Jones – read also an interview with him – launched his latest book last month: THE RIVER  – Fishing will never be the same again…

In rural Missouri, Crawford County has had more than its share of wildlife problems. Not even a year earlier the woods were home to a vicious killer brought back from extinction. Something is haunting the rivers in Crawford County. The Missouri State Water Patrol must solve the deaths of several residents who died in the river but can they stop this menace before more people are killed?

THE RIVER #Kindle ebook is #FREE from December 29 - December 31, 2015 

in celebration of the new live audiobook of THE RIVER

You can even get THE RIVER in audiobook form for free 
via Amazon's 30-day-free-trial on Audible:

How to Choose A Bestselling Title

.

Oxfordwriters published a great article: How to Choose a Bestselling Title and they give examples how, by only changing the title, the author's book sales numbers skyrocketed.  They asked: “What if you could sell ten times more books just by changing your title?"  OK, that's believable.  "What if you could sell nearly a million more books just by changing your title?”
.
“This is exactly what happened to author, Bob Morrison, when he self-published his book.  When it first went on sale as “The Entrepreneurs’ Manual” it sold only 12 copies.  Disillusioned by these sales, and thinking the title needed an overhaul, he renamed it  "Why S.O.B.'s Succeed and Nice Guys Fail in Business".  The book has since sold over 800,000 copies!”
.

Amazing Results
“In a world where we are bombarded with information, an attention-grabbing title can make all the difference between success and failure.  If you are still having doubts, here is a handful of other manuscripts that have been successfully re-titled:
.

"The Squash Book"was tested as a title versus "The Zucchini Cookbook". The first title sold just 1,500 copies. The second sold 300,000 because it was more specific.
.

John Gray didn’t get much attention with his book "What Your Mother Couldn’t Tell You and What Your Father Didn’t Know".  He shortened it to "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus". The rest, as they say, is history…”
.

How to Choose a Bestselling Title:
Oxford Writers advice:  “Top titles create anticipation, excitement and enthusiasm. They express the passion of your message.  They connect emotionally with your reader.  This is what you are aiming for.”

.
Get eleven tips how to find the most intriguing title for your book. Top titles create anticipation, excitement and enthusiasm. They express the passion of your message. They connect emotionally with your reader. This is what you are aiming for…  Read the whole article and get lots of tips.

.

<><><><><>

Christmas at the Beach in South Carolina

... Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA, to be precise.
Temperatures around 78F, Dec 25, 2015, lots of sunshine, just a bit mist at the beach. 

 .

.

Snowman hides behind the Palm tree

.

.

My dog Bentley always enjoys the beach

.

.

I met this friendly couple in Christmas mood at the Beach

.

Not sure what these fishing rods are for...

.

Walking through a residential area next to the beach ...

.

I discovered this beautiful old truck

<><><><><>

Important Shipping Deadlines for Online Orders

Amazon Shipping Deadlines for Christmas 2015

FREE Shipping  -  Wednesday Dec 16
Restrictions apply (varies by item).



Standard Shipping  -  Friday Dec 18
Or get FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon PRIME.



Two-Day Shipping  -  Tuesday Dec 22
Or get FREE Two-Day Shipping with Amazon PRIME.



One-Day Shipping  -  Wednesday Dec 23
As low as $2.99 per item with Amazon PRIME (varies by item size and weight).

Same-Day Delivery  -  Thursday Dec 24
Available in 16 metro areas, on over a million items. Or FREE on qualifying orders over $35 with Amazon PRIME.

Last-Minute Gift Ideas  -  Friday Dec 25
Give the gift of PRIME. or an email a gift card.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL