Vote on my book covers

Below are 5 sample covers to choose from for my upcoming book “Does this blogsite make my wallet look fat?”.

Click on the covers to get a closer view then vote by filling out a comment below.

CoverA
Cover B
Cover C

     

Cover D
Cover E
 

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33 comments April 22nd, 2008

WordPress book is coming along

I finally finished writing the book Thursday at 3 in the morning. What a great relief it was to complete the first draft and send it to my editor. I was able to finally enjoy a weekend and have a bit of my life back. While I was keeping away from my laptop this past weekend my editor, Linda Dessau, was busy editing my WordPress book. She did a fabulous job. Not only did she correct the usual things an editor does but she also added a few subtitles which were very creative and funny too!

By the end of this week Linda and I hope to have the book completely edited and sent to book architect, Sarah Van Male. Sarah is working on the book cover and has sent me a sample of what the inside of the book will look like design-wise. The sample is phenomenial. If Sarah can make a technology book look fun and friendly, then Sarah can make anything look good!

I finally have a title for the book. But I will keep it a secret for a few more days.

The book will be available at a pre-release price in the next few days. To be notified when the book is available get on VIP list. Simply send a blank email to bookvip[at]aweber.com or fill in the form below:

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Add comment April 15th, 2008

Update on the book

Many people have been asking me “Have you stopped writing the book? I haven’t see you blog about it lately!”. No I haven’t stopped. In fact I’ve been working hard on the book. I usually blog at the end of my day but I keep writing the book until my brain can’t focus anymore and so it’s really hard to blog at that point.

I changed my book topic a few weeks ago to a guide to WordPress for solopreneurs. There are just 3.5 more chapters to write! I hope to get them done today…this is my3rd extended due date for completing the first draft…yikes!

My editor will be taking over this week and cleaning up my writing! My Book Architects are ready to create my book cover and do the interior design of the book as well.

The WordPress book will be available in the next few weeks for a pre-release price. To get on our VIP list and be the first to get it in your hands fill in the form below or send a blank e-mail to bookvip[at]aweber.com

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Add comment April 8th, 2008

Let the games begin!

After writing 2 chapters of my book, I really felt like I was struggling to write it. When I write my blog posts or newsletter articles they just seem to flow. Luckily my fingers can keep up with my brain and I can type something like 70 words per minute. When I sent my 2 chapters to my Coach, she also could see it just wasn’t the right fit. It was a relief actually. I have switched the topic of my book and I’m even more excited to write this new book. The first 2 chapters have been written and there are a few more to go…well more than just a few! I am super excited.

Part of my homework was to go to a bookstore and take a look at some books. The purpose of this task is to get some inspiration, motivation and some ideas for book covers and book titles. Saturday morning I walked to the book store with my coffee in hand. It was a beautiful winter morning in Toronto which made my 30 minute walk very fun! I spent about an hour in the store in the business and the computer sections. I found a few hilarious book titles. I immediately took those books off the shelf and read them, just because I knew they’d be a fun read (this was in the business section, most computer book are borrrrrrrrring!) For every 1 interesting title there were about 45 boring titles. They were simple yet boring, unimaginative and generic. blah. The one book that really caught my eye was a book called “How to create kick ass ideas”. They could have called it “Thinking Creatively” or “How to create ideas”. Instead they chose a funny title and probably raised a few eyebrows!

Sunday I began writing for the new book idea. I played a game to get myself to type like mad. The game was to pretend that the book
was due that evening. So I wrote and wrote and I said “no” to as much non-book-writing things as possible. I still only got 2 chapters written but I will play that game again this weekend. Wouldn’t it be cool to write a book in just 3 days?

photo credit: geishaboy500

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Add comment March 18th, 2008

2nd Chapter Completed

There is nothing like a strong deadline to get me moving!  I work best under pressure and under a deadline that others know about. Knowing that I had to send 2 chapters to my Coach today really helped.  She also emailed me earlier today asking when they were arriving in her inbox!  I just pressed send and it’s arriving in her inbox as I type!  Yeah!  It feels great.  I’m sure there will be a ton of edits and we may actually need to add more or remove things from the chapters but I’m getting closer to getting it all done!  I do want to have the book ready for late April so that they are ready for my 3 speaking gigs in May!  You see how deadlines get me moving?

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1 comment March 10th, 2008

“What are you doing that you shouldn’t be doing?”

All day long I could hear Paul Copcutt‘s voice asking me “What are you doing that I shouldn’t be doing?”

All day long I kept doing things that I shouldn’t have been doing. I didn’t leave the computer (that’s not unusual) but I did search a ton of things on the internet. It was ridiculous.

I was “stuck”. I couldn’t find the right words or information in my brain to finish my 2nd chapter. I owe 2 completed chapters to my coach tomorrow. I told her that if she didn’t get them she could give me a verbal kick in the pants…or I’d fly over to her and she could really kick me in the pants! I think what I need is a break. 1 day of writing, 1 day of no writing, repeat.

I must finish this chapter tomorrow…wish me luck!

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2 comments March 9th, 2008

1 chapter down 7 more to go

The book is moving along. I finally completed a chapter. It’s taken months for me to finally sit down and get it done. It feels amazing.

Sure this chapter is only a few pages long but it’s a start. I was told the key to start writing is to write the easiest chapter first, and so I did. It feels good and it was a nice way to ease into writing. It removed the overwhelm of writing a whole book.

I’ve been at my desk all day and although I haven’t moved I have seen some interesting things through my window. Toronto is being covered by yet another snow storm. There are not many people on the roads and those that are driving either drive slowly and cautiously or fast and recklessly. Across the street I have seen 4 cars get stuck in the same driveway. They try their hardest to speed out of the stuck position (they press the gas pedal all the way down to the floor….smart eh?). It never works but it’s the driver’s ego getting in the way of being smart about the situation. They get frustrated and when they finally calm down or get cooled off by the falling snow, they finally put their ego away and get out of the stuck position with a bit of strategy. It’s kind of like writing a book…if you make it hard for yourself, if you try to find a short cut with no strategy and if you let your ego get in the way of being smart, you will get no where (hence my 5 months of “thinking” about the book).

I have started writing the next chapter but it’s 1 in the morning and I just can’t seem to find the words to finish the chapter.

What is getting in your way today?

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Add comment March 9th, 2008

Figures, Book Covers and Headlines

I started my book writing an hour ago. Slept in because my football/soccer practise ended at 1am (and because it IS saturday!) and woke up with a bad headache. I think it’s because I crashed into another player while trying to grab the ball from him. But I’m on track…my brain doesn’t work in the mornings anyway.

So far …
-I put in a few projected sales figures and profits for April – June. Seeing those numbers really put into prospective that writing the book is not a waste of time and that although I see no money from it now it will be a great source of revenue this year
- I am writing my back cover and working on powerful headlines for it right now. This is harder than I expected but it is really making it clear to me what the book is about and what I want my message to be.

Is it enough? Not yet, but it is really motivating and driving me.

I told my mastermind group on friday to send me a few “butt kicking” emails throughout the weekend to keep me in line as I wrote. Paul Copcutt asked me a truly powerful question in one email “What are you doing that I shouldn’t be doing?”. My answer to him was “replying to emails….well I am only replying to kick butt emails as later I will copy and paste them to put in my blog. Talk about recycling material!”

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Add comment March 7th, 2008

The first steps of writing my book

I finally got a chance to sit down and think about my book today. Well I did more than just think. I created a rough outline for my book which makes me happy because now I feel like I have a structure to work with. Although the outline suggests a book of 20 chapters, I really hope I don’t make the book that long. It’s got to be a fun and quick read you know?

I also began thinking about ways in which I want to promote the book and even thought of a cool contest I’d like to run.

I may even begin a podcast/internet radio show related to the book!

So what is the book about? I’ll keep that for another post but I bet you can guess that it has something to do with technology and something to do with coaching!

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1 comment February 4th, 2008

Week 4 day 1: Writing my book…finally!

This week is the week that I concentrate on creating products and finishing projects, I call it the “Week of Products”!

This week I am focusing on writing my book, creating a few training videos for a joint venture project, editing audio for another joint venture project and working on my upcoming guide “The Coach’s guide to WordPress”.

Today I worked on my book. I have been thinking about my book since October and I finally sat myself down and wrote out the outline for my book! I’m excited that it’s been done. I’m blogging about my struggles and successes of writing the book, so if you’d like to see what I’m upto visit http://techcoachforcoaches.com/category/writing-my-book/ frequently!

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Add comment February 4th, 2008