Corner Cafe Tour Update

It was an exciting week, with our Amazon statistics topping off at #375 and reaching #2 in the Top 100 Short Stories. The book is still free to download today (Sunday 6/10) so load up your Kindle!

We have two nice blog posts about the book today from contributing authors:

Maryann Miller highlights strong women in several of the stories. Click here to read.

Red Tash blogs about the book here. We're right across the hall from The King (see screenshot above)!

Check us out at our Amazon book page, and while you're there, poke around and get to know the authors who submitted stories to this short story collection! Happy Sunday!

Today on day # 4 of the blog book tour, author Mary Montague Sikes visits with Sherry Wachter of Magic Dog Press and they talk about how our personal experiences can evolve into a fictional short story. It's an interesting interview! Have you ever used the "what if" writing prompt in your writing? What if you hadn't found your child after she disappeared around the corner at the art museum? Every parent's nightmare!

Drop in on our pals as they discuss this at the Corner Cafe: http://bit.ly/CCMagic

Don't just eavesdrop - join the conversation!

Click here to buy a copy of The Corner Cafe: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories - It's a Kindle book for 99 cents.

Eventful Day at the Corner Cafe

A most eventful Top 100 List day on Tuesday - we managed to get to #13 on the hot new releases in short stories,and then dropped off that list. This morning we're back at #97. We're still listed in genre fiction urban life, and have moved up to #49. Maybe we need more people to click " like" on our Amazon page? http://www.amzn.to/Cornercafe

As to Amazon ranking, we moved up to #19,118 by this morning. Our benchmark on Monday morning was #100,654, so we've had some nice improvement in the first three days of the blog book tour.

While you're at the Amazon page, take the opportunity to read the first two stories with the Look Inside feature. You'll also notice that all our authors have pictures and links at the bottom of the page, and you can click over to see what else they've written.

Today, I visit Red Tash for day #3 of the blog book tour with a lengthy interview about this project and what I see coming in the publishing world. Come join the conversation and ask me some questions! Of course, you can leave comments and questions here, too.

Exciting Times at the Corner Cafe

It's day 2 of our blog book tour and we're visiting one of the Corner Cafe contributors, Bob Sanchez at his blog. Do run over and leave him a comment or question about the book. Thanks to Stephen Tremp for giving us some ideas for getting out of the comfort zone when writing. We're going to get him into the Corner Cafe project next time so we can promote his stories a bit!

Now here's some interesting information about this project. I told you part of our goal was to track statistics in this somewhat controlled group of writers. Of course, we all want to see sales, but I'm trying to ignore that for right now, except to the extent that sales relate to Amazon ranking and other statistics that indicate discovery and popularity.

We started the blog book tour on Monday morning with an Amazon ranking of 100,654 in Kindle books. This morning, our ranking is 20,344. Quite an improvement!

We got one five-star rating with a glowing review. Love these. Want more!

Most importantly, we've already hit a Kindle Bestseller List! We are #68 in Paid Genre Fiction Urban Life. Not bad for one day of social marketing.

If the book is starting to sound interesting to you, you can find it here and it's only 99 cents. Download it and see what you think. We'd love a few more good reviews from indie readers. Who knew a well-written review would bring such pleasure?

Have questions about this project - please leave them in the comments and we'll be glad to answer.

Worrying About Time

An Excerpt from Creating Time by Marney Makridakis

Try this: Imagine who you would be if you didn’t worry about time. How might your life be different? I surveyed fifty-two people, and the results revealed that 90percent felt “somewhat anxious” to “significantly anxious” about time. What’s even more startling is that these results don’t even seem all that surprising. Anxiety about time is very much a part of most of our lives. Think back to a time when you greeted a casual acquaintance and asked how he was, and he said, “Great! Things are fantastic!” It can be almost jarring when someone responds so positively. Somehow we’re more conditioned to expect to hear people complain that they are tired, or sigh that they are busy.

It’s helpful to dig deeply to figure out what is at the root of our problems with time. Why do we overschedule ourselves? Why do we want to be so busy? Why are we so consumed with time? Why does it seem so “normal” to worry about time so much? Why is it easier to be caught up in a drama about time than it is to be released from it?

In short, what is the payoff for worrying about time?

When I examine this question myself, I can recognize that the more I complain about time, the more I block my ability to accept and express love and connection. Violette Clark shared, “I suppose not having enough time, or the illusion of believing this, makes us feel important. I also realize it keeps me safe. There have been a lot of dreams that I’ve accomplished, including publishing a book, but there have been a lot of balls that I’ve dropped, too, in the name of ‘not having enough time.’ Putting myself out there more fully means more potential for rejection. Sometimes not ‘going for my dreams’ is safer.”

Similarly, artist Peggy Lynn boldly admitted that time complaints are related to ego: “The ‘I’m too busy’ implication does stroke the ego: ‘Oh, look at me — busy, busy, busy!’” A workshop participant shared that her worries about time give her an excuse and an outside source for not following her dreams. She said, “I’ve never been someone who likes to blame, but now I suddenly realize that I’ve actually been blaming time. I don’t have enough time, and so that’s why I don’t go after this dream, or that’s why I haven’t tried this or followed up on that. Then it’s not my fault. This was a big discovery for me!

  Here are some examples of payoffs that people might receive from worrying or complaining about time.

• Time is a good catchall: if I can complain about being busy, then I don’t have to look at other areas in my life.

• Worrying about time gives me something to talk about with other people.

• Worrying about time is a convenient excuse for not following my dreams.

• My schedule is wrapped up with my self-esteem. Being “too busy” means that I’m successful.

• I don’t plan things that I might enjoy because it is too scary — it just feels safer to be bored.

Do any other payoffs come to mind? Which ones resonate as possibly being true for you? For further reflection, refer to the questions in the sidebar “Exploring Your Time Anxiety.”

Once we can identify the payoffs that we get from worrying about time, we can see them for what they are: illusions that keep us from living our true potential. Simply being aware of what we are getting from our time worries allows us to make a different choice. Choice is one of the nine ARTbundance Principles, which are building blocks to self-awareness. Making new choices is one of the best ways we can explore new layers of freedom with time. Dana Sebastian-Duncan, a trainee in the ACT program, put it nicely: “When I really think of the Principle of Choice as it relates to time, it reminds me that I have the freedom to create my life and my own ‘reality.’ My daily choices add up to my life, and that is empowering.”

To learn more, please take a look at the book trailer by clicking here!
To purchase a copy for yourself, click here. 

Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.

Excerpted from the book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life ©2012 by Marney Makridakis.  Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com

Need More Time?

Here's a teaser for our post on Thursday, when you can read an excerpt from this book.

Elements of a Good Blog

A major premise of the blog book tours course is that a good author blog is the foundation of a good blog book tour. Why? Unless the author is a dedicated blogger and has created a great blog for himself, it’s not likely he’ll be able to determine whether a blog host will be an effective tour stop. You must establish a strong comfort level and respect for blogging to engage in a solid blog book tour.

What are the elements of a good blog?

Here is the entire list which students use as a guideline to shape their own blogs:

Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and url cohesive?
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Loading speed?
Follow widget in place?
Hit counter?
Bookmarking in place?
FB and Twitter widgets?
Blogrolls?
Linking effective? Tags/keywords used?
Frequent posting 2-3 x weekly?
Quality of overall posts?
Comments section working?
Blog components arranged in optimum manner?
Too many/too few third-party gadgets?
Pages used effectively?
What's great?
What can be improved?
Is it ready for a blog tour?

Most of the criteria is self-explanatory. You might look at your own blog to determine if some tweaking would help make the blog stronger and more appealing to your readers.