September '22 Newsletter

Mushrooms?

I’ve been watching a fascinating series of videos called Fantastic Fungi, produced by Louis Schwartzberg.  Fungi have been around far longer than humans, and are everywhere, which is a good thing.  From what I understand, they help transform the carbon in the air to nutrients in the ground, reducing greenhouse gases and enabling trees and plants to thrive.  They also help with the decomposition of dead plants and animals back into the life cycle of the planet.

Certain mushrooms, which are part of the fungi species, have significant health benefits as well.  They can ameliorate cancer, reduce depression and anxiety, enhance the immune system and even regenerate neural networks, giving dementia patients their memories back.  Knowledge about the healing power of mushrooms is not new; ancient cultures, such as the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas and ancient Greeks, used mushrooms in their everyday lives, for healing and for the spiritual effect from ingesting psylocibins.  

The health effects are not just in humans.  For instance, honey bees and butterflies that drink the dew on certain mushrooms are much healthier than those that don’t, and given the significant decline in the honey bee and butterfly populations, that is great news.  Those mushrooms can be planted near orchards and farms to enhance the populations of pollinators.  Without pollinators, fruit trees and vegetable plants would not be able to produce their fruits and vegetables.

On the other hand, by spraying chemicals on orchards and farms, we are killing these and other pollinators, not to mention the toxins that are in the food and water that we are consuming.  These toxins are causing increased cancer rates, autism and other serious diseases.  Is it mere coincidence that some of the same companies that are providing the chemicals being used on farms are the ones providing the medicines for the illnesses that the chemicals are causing?

By destroying forests, and by spraying chemicals, we are damaging the ecosystem of the fungi that are vital to our survival on this planet.  We need to figure out how to balance our immediate needs for more farmland and more pest killing chemicals with our long term needs, so we can have the quality of life and durability that we desire.

Hiatus

I hope you had an opportunity to recharge over the summer.

New Author

Prepare yourself to laugh, cry, get angry, and have visceral reactions to the topics in this book. That’s the point—stretching your comfort level for lasting spiritual change.

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.

She partners with authors to help them get more bang for their book by transforming their bestsellers into profitable online courses that create impact and additional income.  That’s what Parchelle will be addressing in this episode.

In case you missed the episodes in July and August, I’ve repeated the information here:

For over 40 years Marjorie has coached reluctant speakers to create their unique and authentic messages, acquire engaging presentation skills, and overcome their fear of public speaking; so that they can communicate with confidence and skill, reach their professional and income goals, and make the impact they desire to make in the world.  In this episode, Marjorie explains how fear of public speaking prevents people from discovering and using their unique voice, from serving those whom they are meant to serve; from reaching their personal, business and lifestyle goals; and from sharing their gifts with the world. Then she shares strategies for overcoming this fear and deal with the usual nervousness before speaking.

As a professional speechwriter, her rhetoric has competed against presidents and Nobel prize winners to win 6 Cicero awards. When she's not on stage speaking, she's making light of life as a stand-up comedian.   Want to get booked to speak at TEDx?  Wondering if you have a TED-Worthy idea?  Listen to this episode to learn how to find your TED-Worthy idea with Soness--a TED Worldwide and 4-time TEDx speaker who is coach to 140+ TED & TEDx speakers 

If you missed these presentations, you can listen to them by clicking here.

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.

Fill Your Courses & Programs

And they’re all outlined in his ‘Ultimate Workshop Checklist’, that you can download for FREE for a limited time.  

Grab your copy here 

When you download the checklist, you'll get the exact system he uses to create profitable workshops that you can launch in just 2 weeks!

What are you waiting for - download your free copy now

Book Marketing

I want to tell you about a really cool program I use called Mockup Shots.  Mockup Shots contains:

• A complete library of 600+ book mockups

• Transparent mockups for your site or social media pages

• Fun customized GIFs of your book 

• Easy-to-use book editing software

• Video software that puts your book into an attention-grabbing video in only 10 seconds

• And more!

Plus, to help you even more, I’ve convinced my friends over at Adazing to give you a 50%+ discount. So instead of buying the whole program for its regular price of $198…

...you can get it here for only $80: https://bit.ly/3MsKhoV  

 But this special is only available for a short time, so hurry to get your huge discount now!

I think you’ll love all the features of Mockup Shots

In the News

Tip of the Month: Amazon Rules on Book Changes

One of my authors decided to change the subtitle of his book at the same time as he was revising his cover.  I had cautioned him that revising his cover could cause problems, and indeed it did.  It turned out the revising the image on the cover was fine, but changing the subtitle was not allowed.  Amazon’s rules provide that you cannot change your title or subtitle, edition number, language, primary author, digital rights management or more than 10% of the content once your book is published, without making it a new book (which requires a new ISBN, starting over with reviews, etc.).

Another issue arose for me when transferring the book of one of my clients that was initially published in my account, to the client’s own account.  I have transferred books previously without problem, although I always advise clients that transferring a book to a different account results in the loss of all of the book reviews; in fact, I transferred a book only one month prior without problem.  This time, however, Amazon would not allow the transfer unless the book was given a new ISBN.  That meant changing the layout file to delete the old ISBN and insert the new one, as well as changing the cover to delete the old bar code and add the new bar code.  It was more time consuming as well as more expensive. I don’t know why Amazon makes things so difficult for authors.

 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,