January ‘22 Newsletter

It’s a new year, and we have a golden opportunity to do things differently from last year.  If you want to be in a better condition at the end of 2022 than you were in at the end of 2021, what will you do differently this year?  At SkillBites, we are going to focus this year on improving our ability to help our authors get their books done so they can leverage their book, build their list of prospects and grow their business.  If you plan to write a book and want any assistance, let me know.  I’d be delighted to help you with that.

Wishing everyone a joyous, healthy and prosperous New Year.

1. Upcoming Events

I’ve got a lot of great events for you this month.

Coming up next week is my workshop called It’s About Time … To Get Your Book Done.  In this workshop, you’ll create your own game plan for getting your book done despite your busy schedule.  If you’ve found yourself struggling with or procrastinating writing your book, this workshop is for you.  The workshop will be held on January 11.  For more information and to sign up, click here.

On January 18, I am hosting another workshop called Publishing Profits:  Create A Path To Your Book’s Success.  In this workshop, you’ll obtain the guidance to enable you to identify the actions you need to take to achieve the success you want from your book.   Knowing what you want your book to do for you isn’t enough.  Without a plan for achieving the results you want, you’re not likely to reach your goals.  For more information and to sign up for this workshop, click here.

On January 25, I will be co-hosting a clinic with Geoff Affleck.  Geoff has cracked the code on how to optimize your book’s Amazon listing so that it gets discovered by more Amazon shoppers and sells more copies so you can reach more readers and earn more royalties.

In this LIVE hands-on workshop Geoff will show you exactly how to tweak 7 aspects of a book’s listing for an INSTANT IMPACT on its appearance, ranking and sales.  You can even submit your book to Geoff and have him optimize your Amazon listing during the clinic!

Click here for Details & Free Registration

Do you have unpredictable monthly revenue and cash flow?  My friend and colleague Jim Padilla is running a 2 day workshop on January 20-21 that will provide you with a simple proven system to growing your business.  No complicated funnels or the latest hacks, tactics and tools.  Jim has taught this system to hundreds of business owners, some of whom have been able to reach 7-figures with this system.  For more information about this workshop, click here.

Interested in some awesome free resources to help you spread your message?  My friend and colleague Elizabeth Johnston is running a giveaway called Your Message Matters.  You’ll have access to incredible tools such as:

• How to monetize your book and grow your business (from me!)
• How to organize and profit from your own retreats
• How to tap into your power to generate leads
• How to launch your own podcast with ease
• How to build a revolutionary business funnel
• …and so much more!

The giveaway runs through January 23.  You can get Free Access to the Your Message Matters Giveaway HERE!

Another colleague of mine, Matt Travis, is also running a giveaway this month, called the Wholehearted Leaders Book Launch Giveaway.  In this giveaway, you can get some amazing tools, such as:

• The 6 Day Challenge to Unleash the Power of Your Authentic Voice, worth $250
• How to Move Beyond Past Hurts, worth $300
• Marketing Authentically for Revenue on Repeat, worth $399
• The Mind Body Business Transformation, worth $897!

And more, all for free!  This giveaway runs through January 31.  To access this giveaway, click here.

If you’ve ever been in a MasterMind or RoundTable, you know the power of getting the knowledge, guidance, resources and support you need for running your business.  My colleague Phil Doublet is on a mission to support fast growth companies that are experiencing staff stress, turnover and an owner who feels swamped.  He has created a Champion RoundTable which would be exactly what you need to help you reduce the chaos in your business and create a clear path to your business growth.  You can book an intro call with Phil to see if his program would be a good fit for you, by clicking here.

Phil also has a service helping businesses recover their Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC).  If you have employees, you can receive up to $10,000 of “qualified wages” paid from 3/12/20 to 12/31/20.  To find out more about that, click here.

2. Book Writing MasterMind

For those of you who are struggling to get your book written, I’ve developed a program that will provide the knowledge, guidance, support and accountability you need to write your book.  This is a beta program, so you have the opportunity to get in at a substantially reduced price.  I’ll be hosting a MasterMind for 3 months, meeting for an hour twice a month.  The fee will be $750 for the 6 sessions, 50% of what it will be in the future.  The MasterMind is not intended for people writing a novel or children’s book, or for those who have completed their book.  If you are interested, email me or call me so we can have a conversation and make sure you are a good fit.

3. New Author

SkillBites will soon be publishing the dissertation written by Veena Kasbekar, called Power Over Themselves:  The Literary Controversy about Female Education in England, 1660 – 1820.  The book covers the controversy about female education in England from 1660 to 1820, that is, from the restoration to the throne of Charles II to the end of the reign of George III, as well as from Mary Astell (1666–1731) to Jane Austen (1775–1817). It is an intellectual record of certain aspects of the eighteenth century, largely neglected until the feminist critical revival in the twentieth century: it contains a history of women’s literature and a history of prescribed, as well as proscribed, women’s thinking, education, and professionalism, as well as of their dreams, aspirations, and visions.

Veena wrote her dissertation in 1980 for her Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati.  It was her life-long dream to publish her dissertation, and after hearing me speak about book publishing, she contacted me and her dream will soon be a reality.

4.  The SkillBites Show

Each month, we bring you an expert to help you get your book done, leverage your book, grow your business or improve your life.  The shows are recorded, and you can listen to the recording by clicking here.

On our next SkillBites Show our guest will be Richelle Wiseman, a professional writer, book coach, editor, and ghostwriter. Trained as a journalist, she was in print and then television, and she has written for a range of print and online publications. When she started her own company, Inscape Communications, Richelle shifted into writing marketing content, eBooks, and magazine articles for business clients. She is also a copywriter, and she writes website, blogs, and social media content for business clients. Six years ago, Richelle began to coach clients to write their own books for their businesses, or personal memoirs. She is enthusiastic about helping her clients achieve their dreams of writing a book.

Last month, my guest was Shirlene Reeves.  Shirlene is the four-time Award-Winning, International Best-Selling Author of Selling Through Your Heart, Empowering You to Build Relationships for Financial Freedom.  She has been awarded Top Motivational Speaker and Top Business Coach.  In this episode, Shirlene talked about how to turn your $10 book into $10,000!

If you missed this presentation, you can listen to it by clicking here, or you can read a summary of the show on the SkillBites blog by clicking here.

SAVE THE DATE:  Next month, my guest will be Coach Ted Behr.  Ted works with entrepreneurs and business owners whose businesses are suffering due to their struggle with their productivity – procrastination, disorganization, distraction. He helps them to get the things done that are required for an exceedingly successful business so that they make more money and have a happier life.

Procrastination is a major issue for many business owners people, who lose hours of productivity because of it. For authors in particular, there is nothing like writing a book to put you in the jaws of a procrastination habit.

In addition to loss of productivity, procrastination also causes stress, anxiety, loss of money, health and self-esteem, and so on. In this podcast, Ted will talk about some of the things that cause us to procrastinate and then provide several strategies so you will have some tools for overcoming your procrastination habit.

Do you have expertise that you believe would benefit the SkillBites community of entrepreneurs and authors?  If you would like to be the guest on the monthly SkillBites Show, contact me at judy@skillbites.net or 610-783-4519.

5. Amazon Update

When uploading a book to Amazon’s publishing arm KDP, authors are given the opportunity to include up to 7 keyword phrases.  Just as key words are important for search engine optimization of websites and other online content, the key words or keyword phrases that you include for your book so the book will come up in searches being made for the topic of the book.

KDP used to limit the number of characters in keyword phrases to 25, including spaces.  That is about 3 words.  Now, though, KDP is allowing up to 50 characters, which gives much greater flexibility in choosing the best keywork phrases for authors to include.

One of my authors whose book is about to be published has written about the controversy over women’s education in England in the 18th century.  Some of the keyword phrases that she could use that are under 25 characters include “education history”, “education philosophy” and “education for women”.  With 50 characters, she can use keyword phrases such as “female education 18th century Britain” and “sex and social class 18th century Britain”, which are much more descriptive.

The more of the 50 characters you use, the more likely it is that your book will come up when someone is searching for content that you write about in your book.

6. Earn Commissions For Referrals

Do you know anyone who has been wanting to write a book but has been stalling?  Let them know that SkillBites offers a variety of services to make book writing and publishing easy, quick and convenient.  When you sign up to be a SkillBites affiliate, you can get a commission for each person who signs up to purchase SkillBites services through your unique referral link.  To obtain more information and to sign up for our referral program, click here.

Thanks for supporting SkillBites.  If there is anything you think we ought to be doing better or anything we should be doing that we’re not, please let us know.  We value your input.

Cordially,