I’m heading in a new direction, folks. Yeah, I write all sorts of stuff. You name it, I’ve probably ghostwritten it for a client or two.

But that craziness is coming to an end. Tina is tired of being all things to all people. Tina no likey being pulled in many directions and bent into weird pretzel shapes in order to please the masses.

It’s time to streamline, baby.

So that whole “I’m feeling thankful and all that and I’m going to do an article giveaway on my site” a couple weeks ago? Yeah. I changed my mind.

The upcoming re-vamp of my site will also include a re-vamp of my services.

Ebooks. That’s where it’s at for yours truly. (Well, you can get your book printed instead…because some of my clients decide their book is better suited for print).

Here’s the deal:

It’s a giveaway, contest, whatever you want to call it (I really don’t care).

The prize:

A ghostwritten ebook (max 25 pages…if you need one that’s longer, then we can work something out at a discounted rate) for your business. Any topic. But no adult content. That’s just not my thing. And if it’s crazy scientific or something, then you need to bring some research to the table. I’ve got an MBA. I’ve written on everything from credit to health care to the gloriousness of baby booties. But I’m not here to write your next physics paper or something.

Once you win, I contact you and we go from there. We develop a table of contents and gather the research for the topic (hopefully you have links or something…please!) and then I whip up your custom ebook. It should take about a week. And yes, you’ll get 2 rounds of edits. I do that with all my projects.

If you’re a writer, and don’t really need this prize…okay, why not enter anyway? You can give this freebie away to someone else if you’d like. You can use it as part of a giveaway on your own site, or you can use it in a barter with another professional to get something you really need. I’m flexible.

Prize value:

$500

How it works:

I wanna spread the word, people. I want to write more ebooks. Me likey writing. So here are the rules, guidelines, details, minutiae, whatever you want to call ‘em (again, not really a big deal which word you want to use…just pick one)…

1) The winner will be chosen December 1st. Said winner will have accumulated the most points. If there are several (okay, more than one…) people with the same top point count, then said people will have their names written on low-tech paper and tossed into my baseball cap and one name will be picked out. Seriously.

2) Points must be accumulated by midnight November 30th. (Translation - don’t whip out a tweet on December 1st. It won’t count. By the way, I’m on Mountain Standard Time).

3) Leave a comment here (required) stating why you want/need a ghostwritten ebook = 1 point

4) Post about this contest/giveaway/whatever on your site, linking to this post = 3 points

5) Tweet about this contest/giveaway/whatever, mention @TinaMc giveaway with link to this post = 1 point each (max 5 points)

6) Mention it in a forum. Then come back here to the comments and post the link to your forum comment = 3 points (max 12 points)

The whole point is to spread the word. Yell it to the mountain tops. I figure why wait for the site to have a new look. Might as well spread the word now.

Ebooks, baby.

Scream it!

Tina writes ebooks!!

And some lucky person is gonna get a free one. Pretty cool.

Juggling where we go for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years…trying to avoid family drama…shopping for the right gifts…shipping said gifts to out-of-town family…and more. All while working and doing the daily stuff that needs to get done, regardless of the holidays…

But seriously, I’m not stressing out any more.
  
I am reading and implementing this totally easy program created by the coolest time management and poductivity coach around - Karin Stewart, founder of Daily Mastery. Karin’s program is called ”Holiday Survival to Holiday Delight” and I’m loving it! 

Karin has been conducting this program live for quite some time and participants sing her praises about how their stress has decreased and happiness has increased…their productivity during a typically busy time of the year actually INCREASES!

The Holiday Delight program guides you step by step, using proven techniques that can easily be incorporated into your current everyday life…no need to learn something “new” and something that jacks up your schedule!  

Okay, enough gushing. Just check out the details over at Daily Mastery. That’s where you’ll get more details and find out about the freebies that Karin has added to the program. This is not an affiliate link. I’m not making a dime off this. I just wanted to spread the word about a terrific program that I think is an invaluable and timely tool. But don’t take my word for it - check it out for yourself!!

The WAHM Agent has been reviewed…as a series and as separate ebooks and I am tickled pink!!

So revel in my tickled pink status along with me…here they are:

Review of 1st ebook - The WAHM Agent: Becoming a Work At Home Real Estate Agent - on WAHM Cafe

Review on Blog Talk Radio - The Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio show - (about 11:40 min in…):

 

Review of 1st ebook on Organized Life by Design

Review of 2nd ebook - The WAHM Agent: Working Your Real Estate Business - on WAHM Cafe

By the way…if you’re done reading and ready to start buying…then do it now! The price is going up as of November 15th! You can get the ebooks over at The WAHM Agent now!

Years ago I gave up on the idea of closure after being dumped. Closure is pretty much BS. You know why? Because you want the last word. But then your last word never ends up being good enough for the last word (if you are even given the opportunity) because you always think of something better later.

That, and the fact is being dumped, even if you were thinking of doing the dumping anyway, is a big ol’ bummer. No one likes to be left. Even if the person leaving is a big fat jerk anyhow.

On Twitter you can get dumped left and right. You look over and see your numbers of followers have dwindled and you wonder “Why? Why have people left me? What was it that I wrote that caused someone to hit the ‘unfollow’ button?”

Yes, I am on Twitter. But honestly, I don’t really care who dumps me or why. I do look at the numbers, but not that closely.

Until now.

A nifty tool was brought to my attention. And that tool will send you an email when you lose a follower. It will tell you who the follower is and what your last post was when they left you in the dust. The tool in question: Qwitter.

It sounds perfect for the person who wants closure. You see who left you and the last thing you wrote. And you can still get in the “last word” with the person by sending them a little nice-gram (”Why? Why did you leave me? I promise I’ll be good.”) or nastygram (”What the heck did I ever do to you to get dumped so unceremoniously? Jerk!”).

No, I will not be contacting the fools nice people who aren’t interested in my witticisms and ramblings. But I thought it might be fun to keep track of for a few days.

 What about you? Do you care who leaves and why? And would you contact the jerk person who dumps you?

**11/6/08 as a follow-up…I’ve had about 4 people qwit me since this post. The first two had their emails wiped out by my evil webmail server problem so it spared my ego. The third person, I can’t remember what my last post was that precipitated the dumping. And this morning I learned I was dumped by someone after a tweet I made on drinking wine. Perhaps this person is anti-alcohol? Not sure. But I do want to point out that even Jesus drank wine…not that I’m comparing myself to Jesus. But come on, if Jesus drank a little wine, then perhaps it’s not so bad for us peeps to indulge a little.

Just sayin’.

Puppy #2

Because I don’t work for free. I can’t afford to work for free. I’ve got two crazy puppies to feed (not to mention an adult dog and an adult hubby).

Puppy #1

But I do have some articles you can use for free…over at ezinearticles.

The catch of course is that you gotta use my byline with the links. Because I need to spread the linkies, baby.

Take a look at my EzineArticles.

Maybe you’ll see something you’ll like and post it on your site (I’d love ya if you did, and if you let me know, I’ll send you some link love, I promise!!).

But wait…want a “free” article? Seriously? A FREE article by yours truly? And want it on a different topic? Something perhaps more suited to your reading audience?

You got it! Because I’m basking in the attitude of gratitude and I wanna show some love to my internet peeps. Check back in a couple weeks, because Tina is gonna cough up some custom articles in November!!

But anyway…back to the title question…Would you let your munchkin wear a Presidential Candidate’s pin?

Because I saw a little girl, about my munchkin’s age (4), wearing one at IKEA and it really took my breath away for a second.

First, it was for the “wrong” candidate. I wanted to kneel down and tell the girl, “Oh honey, your parents have misled you, but it’s sweet that you’re already involved in politics.”

But seriously, I was thinking…did this girl even know what she was wearing? Did she ask to wear the pin, or did Daddy (who she was shopping with) just slap it on the little girl’s shirt because he didn’t have the cahones to wear it himself?

And then I started thinking…would I let my munchkin wear a candidate’s pin during this heated race? Even if he asked?

I would be tempted to give a resounding “No.”

I don’t know about you, but it seems that this Presidential Election has brought out the worst in some American citizens. While everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, that doesn’t mean that said opinion should be thrust upon others with nasty verbalizations. And some are so insanely over the edge that I don’t doubt they would attack little children for wearing the “wrong” pin.

Am I being overprotective? Am I too distrusting of the zealot supporters of either side? I’m not sure. But I don’t think promoting a candidate by pinning a little fashion accessory to my kid’s shirt is worth the possible infliction of mental harm by obsessive freaks.

The next 11 days can’t go by fast enough.

Patrick has taught me plenty on credit and editing his first book (and now his second) was truly eye-opening.

Patrick has been used as an expert by local Phoenix news stations before so being on TV isn’t new to him. But he was on the CBS affiliate recently talking about a new tactic used by the credit card companies. They are slashing credit limits. Yes, on already existing credit card accounts. That $XXXX credit limit you had on that Visa could be slashed in half (or worse).

Don’t think it could happen to you? Think again!

Here’s the clip of Patrick talking on the news about the credit limit slashing info: http://www.kpho.com/video/17711452/index.html

Be patient…it takes some time to load and then you have to obligatory 15 second ad to get thru.

Yes, I have clients who desire perfection. And while they understand that perfection isn’t attainable, they still keep plugging away, unable to help themselves as they strive toward the unattainable.

But how can they make this work for them? How can they make it work for their particular business?

The client I mentioned has a book with a topic in a field that is constantly changing. It’s daunting to put a book into print and then have the content be obsolete before you know it. But there are ways to deal with that and further show your target market that you are indeed an authority in your field and not some hack who just throws outdated information out there for a few bucks.

There are several ways you can handle outdated information in your print book:

1) Update the book regularly and then release updated, revised editions. This can be costly, however. If you are an entrepreneur who has his own book printed to sell online and at teaching and speaking events, then you probably have a garage full of books that are the outdated version. So you obviously want to sell those before you invest in updating your book and have the revised edition printed up.

2) Create workbook updates that you can bundle with the book. Workbook updates can look professional and be printed up with a saddle stitch by a printer and be packaged with the book when you sell online or at events. The workbook can specifically reference pages and topics that have changed since the original book went into print. If the workbook is a free add-on, then the buyer will feel like they are getting more bang for their buck. But it comes with an expense. Workbooks can cost $1-2 a piece. On the other hand, you can also sell them separately if they are written in a way to also be used as stand-alone material.

3) Within your print book, invite your readers to go online and send you an email to receive your newsletter. You are building a list great for promoting your future products and also keeping the lines of communication open. It doesn’t have to be labor intensive. You don’t have to send a weekly newsletter. Once a month with any updates in your field and then perhaps hyping your current speaking events or something else of note and you are getting the word out to your clientele and making sure they are getting the latest in information. Along these lines, AZMike of Niche How popped in to comment on that Curse of Perfection post and provided a very well thought out comment about this that was much appreciated and a good read!

4) Create a blog. You probably already have a website. But do you have a regularly updated site? And better yet, do you have a blog? A blog is a great way to connect personally with your readership. It invites discussion and may just spark ideas for future products. If you already have a website but don’t wish to incorporate a blog into it, then think about buying a separate domain name for the blog that ties to your original site. For example: www.mybusinessnameblog.com. So if I wanted to have a blog for my writing company, Beyond the Pen, but didn’t want to integrate a blog onto the existing site (www.BeyondThePen.com), then I would purchase the domain name www.BeyondThePenBlog.com. Simple enough and you can just add a link on your existing site to your new blog. And you can mention in your book how your readers can find regular updates to changing information on your blog.

Just by doing any one of these things it makes heading into print a little less scary, right? But not only that, you’re adding value to your product. Your offering useful information to your readership. and hopefully, you’re encouraging them to come back to you time and again and thinking of you as an authority and as an important resource.

If perfect means being utterly kissable when you first wake up in the morning and have dragon breath. And you wake up grumpy after a nap and whine about every single little thing. And you cry when the puppy scratches you even though you were the one teasing the puppy in the first place.

Yeah. That kind of perfect.

That’s a cute sort of perfectionism. Which I think most kids have. “Cute perfectionism” is what I’ll call it. Come on, people…let’s create a new buzz phrase!!

Cute Perfectionism - asleep

But there’s a perfectionism that isn’t cute. And it’s called being an unrealistic, anal-retentive freak. And there are some people I know who need to let their A-type shield go and just embrace the mundane like the rest of the free world.

I have a client who is cursed with perfectionism.

It’s okay. He doesn’t read my blog. So it’s not like I’m going to hurt his poor little type-A feelings or tick off his anal-retentive side.

This client won’t let his pursuit of perfectionism go.

And it’s driving me mad.

I edited his book MONTHS ago. And he’s still not finished.

Because he keeps adding.

And adding.

And adding.

Stuff.

Mind you, his field of expertise is a constantly changing animal. It’s scary to put things in print when they just might change within weeks or months and then you have this book, something in print, making you look like a doofus. I get it.

But seriously, this is out of control. His book should have gone to print about 4 months ago. At the worst, with his anal tendencies, 2 months ago. And yet, he is still tweaking it and getting it ready to send back to me.

I have thoughts (and suggestions) for you perfectionist whack jobs out there. But I don’t want them to get lost at the bottom of a long rant, so I’ll just save them for my next post. Because, yes, they are useful tips for perfectionists and how they can get their sanity back and use the changing field to their advantage.

So…are you cursed with the need for perfection?