Agnes Padmini Thambynayagam

There is nothing I enjoy more than reading a book that is described by the publisher and critics as “controversial” or “provocative.”  “The Gentiles: A History of Sri Lanka 1498-1833,” a carefully researched and well-written book by Agnes Padmini Thambynayagam is such a book.  As you may have guessed by her name, Ms. Thambynayagam was born in Sri Lanka and spent her growing up years there.

Sri Lanka, which was formerly called Ceylon, is a relatively small island with an area of approximately 25,000 square miles, located just south of India.  These days its population of approximately twenty-million people consists of a rich melting pot mainly classified as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, and Burghers.  This population came about due to the occupation and settlement by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, and other Europeans between 1505 and 1832.  In fact, Ms. Thambynayagam asserts that, “the consequence of such an evolution over three hundred years has resulted in not only much variation in appearance and skin colour, but in the language, religion and culture of those now living in Sri Lanka.”  This assertion runs contrary of all norms of traditional teachings and beliefs on the subject which is why the book will be considered controversial by many.

At this point an explanation about the word “Gentile” in the book’s title may be in order; because I suspect I am not the only reader that associates that word only as a definition of a non-Jewish person.  In the context of this book, the Gentiles were Christians who settled in India and Sri Lanka from countries surrounding the Mediterranean and Red Sea before the sixteenth century.  From a sales and marketing point of view, it is unfortunate that the word is used prominently in the book’s title.  Searching for the book on Amazon using variations of the word Gentile, for example, could present the reader with well over six-hundred titles (I stopped counting at 600) to sort through depending on the books positioning.  I point that out because I want the book to succeed; so when you search for the book, by all means use the full title or the author’s last name.

“The Gentiles: A History of Sri Lanka 1498-1833” by Agnes Padmini Thambynayagam is not only an excellent read, but a first-rate piece of academic research as well.  It is meticulously documented with footnotes and bibliographies; and contains a treasure trove of maps, drawings and photographs -- many of the latter of friends and family of the author.  Reading this book will take you on a fascinating journey through a charming and exotic country hitherto mostly unknown save for news coverage of a civil conflict that appears to now be resolved.

Topics of conversation:

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Sandy Nathan grew up in the hard-driving, competitive culture of the early Silicon Valley. “I’ve known people like those in my books since I was a child,” she says. Sandy holds master’s degrees in economics and counseling and was a student in the doctoral program at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She has been an economist, negotiation coach, and businesswoman. The visionary part of her writing flows from her meditation practice and spiritual experience. A lifelong horsewoman, Sandy is a wife and mother of three grown children. She lives on their California horse ranch.

Vilasa Press (2008)
ISBN 9780976280927
Purchase Numenon

Synopsis:  "Bill Gates meets Don Juan." Will Duane had it all. Head of Numenon, the vast, multi-national corporation he founded, Will was the richest man on the planet and made more money with every breath.

But a force he could not identify pursued Will Duane. The stalker.

Trying to win back the love of a woman, Will takes his top executives to a Native American spiritual retreat lead by a great shaman. As his caravan of RVs makes its way across the New Mexico desert wilderness to the retreat site, they become lost. All hell breaks loose.

When the caravan becomes stalled, the stalker strikes. Out of a horrifying attack, a new possibility is born ... And evil takes a new form.

Hold on. Did you really just make $20.00? Are you really going to have extra income from your book sales? 

Maybe in time, but first, let’s look at reality. Being a successful author is going to require doing some basic math and understanding about supply and demand. 

Let’s start out modest. You didn’t have a lot of money to publish your book, but you decided to give it a try. For the sake of example, we’ll say you spent $700 to layout the book, and you printed 500 copies at a unit cost of $10 each (including having the books shipped to you). Hopefully, you hired an editor, and you probably also had a cover designer, but for simplicity sake, we’ll say you’re a genius with a Ph.D. from Harvard in English and a graphics artist besides so you did those parts yourself. You decided to price the book at $19.95 (In the examples below, we’ll round to $20 to make the math easier). 

So your costs so far are $5,000 for printing and $700 for layout to total $5,700. You also had a website made and paid for a domain and service for a year. We’ll say that cost you $300 so you are now at $6,000 in costs. It doesn’t make that first $20 from Mom that exciting does it, even when she generously declared, “Keep the change!” 

Do you live in a state with sales tax? Let’s say since it’s easy, your sales tax is 5%. You better tell Mom, “Hold up; you actually owe me $20.95.” Mom looks irritated, but since you’re her famous author child and she’s already been down at the senior center bragging about how Oprah will call you any day now, she gives you another dollar and still doesn’t ask for her nickel back. Another dollar. Good, right? Wrong. 

That dollar in sales tax you need to report on your taxes. Starting now, any book you sell within your state you need to charge sales tax for, and you need to keep records of how much sales tax you take in so you can pay it out at the end of the year. Never spend that money. 

So you’re back to $20 and 499 books left to sell by hand, in bookstores, and over the Internet. The bookstore wants 40% so you’re only going to get $12 a copy for each book it sells ($2 profit). The Internet bookstore wants 20% so you’ll only get $16. The ones you sell yourself you can keep the full $20. You decide to sell some at an art show that has a $200 fee to participate. You figure you only need to sell ten to break even. Wrong. You paid $10 each for those ten books, so you need to sell 20 to break even. 

Are you starting to think you better eat in tonight rather than spending the money from your first book sale? 

We’ll say a few months have gone by. Roughly 98% of all books never sell 500 copies, but we want to be positive, so we’ll say you’re likely to be one of the lucky ones. You published your book in May. It’s now November and you’ve been smart and haven’t spent any of the money from the book sales except the $200 to go to the craft sale, which was worth it because you sold 50 books there. Your sales have brought in income as follows. 

100 copies sold at bookstores at $12 (40% discount)                           =          $1,200

200 copies sold in person at full price of $20 each                                 =          $4,000

100 copies sold at online bookstore at $16 (20% discount)                  =          $1,600

Cost to attend art show                                                                         =          -  $200

Total earned:                                                                                                      $6,600

You’ve almost broken even with the $7,000 you initially invested and you still have 100 books, but it’s November and you’ve heard most books are sold at Christmas time. You’re afraid you’ll run out before the Christmas season is over. At the same time, you initially thought you’d have sold 5,000 books by now and you only sold 400. You’ve seen reality and you consider you may be close to having sold to everyone who might want a copy. 

Do you take a gamble and order another 500 books, or just 100? You decide to go the middle road and order 250 at $10 each like you paid before. That’s $2,500 taken from your profit. Now you’ve only earned back $4,100 of your initial $7,000 investment. 

If you keep working at it, finding new places to sell and more ways to market your book, next year you’ll probably break even, and while you’ll still have expenses, you’ll start to see slow profit. Your sales might peak the second year though and then start a steady decline. That said, while many people might dismiss it as a waste of time to sell books when you only make $2 a copy at the bookstore, consider that since you invested $10 in each copy, that’s a 20% return. Sure beats your odds in the stock market. 

You’ve learned the hard way you can’t just spend the money from your book sales. You’ll need it to reorder books and pay for more tables at shows or to order a publicity package to promote your book. You realize now you can only spend that money for real business expenses—your pay for all the work you’re doing will have to wait until year two or three of publication. 

Many authors never see profit because they give up easily. Others see profit only after a few years of hard labor. If anything, you have to watch your money more carefully than ever and make smart decisions with it. Not spending your earnings but investing them in your book is the start to that process. In the long run, you can still come out ahead. 

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Arturo B. Condell

From his beginnings as a young boy in Cuba to the successful man he is today, Arturo B. Condell has never stopped striving for success. Young Arturo learned this from his father Issac.  Issac was never plagued with doubt of defeat; he was always a positive thinker, hard worker and a kind and generous man. Arturo retained these values while he continued to seek his fortune. He headed off to America in hopes of becoming a lawyer. He eventually found his way to New York. While in New York, Arturo encountered many different people and many adventures on the road to his goal. All these encounters add to his well-rounded education and eventually with all his hard work, he is accepted into law school and graduates as a lawyer.

After graduation, Arturo went back to Jamaica where he passed the Bar exam and was going to work there as a Barrister. But first he had to fine tune his education by going to England for more schooling on the English Jurist system. Passing with flying colors, he decides to head to New York instead of heading home to Jamaica. Artyri goes back to New York and revisits some of the people and other places in the United States where he originally spent time, while on his quest to become a lawyer. Whilst on the road, in his many travels, he is inspired to put his efforts into becoming a motivational speaker rather than just a lawyer. Arturo is advised by so many that he would serve the people much better if he took this path.

Arturo decides to follow his heart and pursue this new undertaking. He sets up in New York City and begins to minister to all sorts of groups and gatherings. His unique personality and charisma is immediately embraced by all that attend his lectures and he becomes a motivating force for all underprivileged people.

“Live Your Purpose and Be Happy,” by Arturo B. Condell, is a very well written and nicely presented, motivational autobiography. It has the intrigue of a mystery novel, the passages of a Bible with the captivation of true adventure. I gave it a B and would recommend this general audience book to young adults as well as those that have already succeeded in life.

If your child interacts with an invisible playmate, he or she is not alone or crazy. By the age of seven more than 60 percent of children have had at least one imaginary friend. Although not seen by grownups, the friend may be personified in a doll or stuffed animal. Some of these friends may reside constantly with your child while others simply drop by once in a while for a visit.

Sometimes an imaginary friend gets blamed for things that the child did. For example, my son’s imaginary friend named Peter got blamed for not picking up his wet towel and swimsuit after a visit to my mom’s pool one summer. It was actually my son who didn’t pick up his towel and swimsuit. Peter somehow missed getting in our car when we left Mom’s that day. I must have said something to discourage my son because when I refused to go back and pick up Peter, my son never mentioned his friend again. If I had it to do over, I would have turned around and drove back to Mom’s to get my son’s friend. When he was about five years old, my son’s son, Sidney, had sword battles with a group of playmates he called the Onks.

Is the invisible playmate contrived in the child’s mind or is having an imaginary friend a trait of a child who is interacting with the spirit realm? I’m inclined to believe that it is a sign that the child is in touch with his or her inner guidance.

When I was a child I had a little yellow duck. My duck sat next to me at the table, took rides on my bike, listened to all my secrets, and went  everywhere I went. I left the duck in my grandmother’s lap when I was about five or six years old. I forgot about him until I was 40 years old. When I was going through a very difficult time in 1999, I dreamed of my little yellow duck. In the dream, my duck asked me if he could come back and I said yes. The next time I saw my grandmother I asked her if she still had my duck. I expected that she might have completely forgotten about him, but to my surprise she said, “Yes, I still have him. I’ve been waiting for you to come back to get him.” I thought she was just playing along with me as she pretended to transfer him to me, but things in my life changed after that incident. I found that the voice of my internal guidance was turned up a notch. I began hearing wise and logical advice in my head that led me to make decisions that were remarkably healing for me. Looking back on my imaginary friend, I now realize that my yellow duck was one of my spirit guides.

Some children speak in an unknown language with their imaginary friends. My step-granddaughter had an Asian-sounding language that she used before she learned to speak English. She called me Ho-Ho, and while I wasn’t sure whether she was equating me with Santa, I sensed that she and I had been together in a past life in which we shared this language.

If your child has an imaginary friend, there is no reason to be upset. Whether or not your child’s playmate is a spirit guide, it is a natural and positive experience for your child to enjoy these invisible friendships.  They give a child confidence when in a frightening or unfamiliar situation, such as the first day of kindergarten. As Sidney demonstrates in “You Can Be” and “A Powerful Potion” (stories in The Sid Series), children try out different roles of authority with their imaginary friend and may become the teacher, mother, father, doctor, or zoo keeper!

It’s fun to observe a child interacting with an imaginary friend. Listen to their conversations. They may be telling you something about themselves or working out a problem or stressful situation. Always encourage your child’s developing imagination and never discount the possibility that your child may be receiving inner guidance that will serve him well all his life.

Yvonne Perry is a freelance writer and editor, award-winning Amazon.com bestselling author, podcast host, blogger extraordinaire, newsletter publisher, Internet marketing guru, and an outstanding keynote speaker. She is a graduate of American Institute of Holistic Theology where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Metaphysics. She is the author of The Sid Series ~ A Collection of Holistic Stories for Children http://TheSidSeries.com.   

Topics of conversation:

• Life of a comic strip writer, the transition to novel writing, Marie's own life experience that prompted Hey Diddle Diddle.
• How cartoonists are just writers disguised behind a drawing table.
• The healing power of humor, the need for comedy in life.
• Marie reads passages from her book, talks about a few of the whimsical characters, humorous excerpts and tender moments.
• The importance of supporting women, locally and internationally to Marie's life and work, advocacy for GBLT community.

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Internationally published in five languages, award-winning syndicated cartoonist Marie Davis has broken free of the comic strip and is now writing novels. Her first novel, an audio book entitled Hey Diddle Diddle--A Naughty Delight for Lesbians and Other Grownups,  is a fanciful, over-the-top tale of sex and obsession.

Purchase Hey Diddle Diddle: A naughty delight for lesbians and other grownups (Audio CD)
Marie Davis
Motes Books (2008)
ISBN 9781934894095

Synopsis: Meet Elsa.  She's a lactose-intolerant cow.  Really.  Elsa's a good friend to Lil, her handywoman neighbor.  Plus, Elsa's got a secret unrequited crush...a big one.  Lil, meanwhile, has a curiously fascinating love life of her own.  Their world is populated with a mean little dog, a virtuoso cat, a yummy dish (of course), a chorus of lusty kitchen implements, a grumpy wishing star, and an aging silver spoon with a consuming desire of its own.  Therein lies the funniest, most fanciful, over-the-top tale of sex and obsession you will ever have the pleasure of hearing. 

St. Paul’s Church of the Cagayan Valley has been protecting its people throughout 300 years of the history of the Philippines. Today it lies in near ruins. In “The Silent Sentinel” Cleland sets forth justification for a complete renovation of St. Paul the Apostle as a landmark church. He reveals how the church has impacted the formation of the Philippine nation. He pays tribute to the architectural design and originality of the Spanish friars and Filipino craftsman. He points out the impact and influence of the clergy on government and the people of the Philippines during the colonial period.

This is the remarkable story of how St. Paul’s Church has survived droughts, earthquakes, vicious typhoons, a war for independence, and the occupation of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Myths, legends, and religious traditions still abound among the congregants of St. Paul’s.

In the midst of poverty the people of the Cagayan Valley have begun the process of rebuilding their church, one of the largest, oldest and most significant churches influential in establishing Catholicism in the Philippines and other countries of Asia.

This restoration project is being directed by a handful of devoted priests, parishioners, and interested friends from neighboring provinces, and concerned contributor throughout the world.

Helpful appendixes, end notes, bibliography, various lists which include the help of nearly forty resource assistants, dozens of interviews, several unpublished manuscripts, numerous books, websites and articles give evidence of the extensive research that has gone into the preparation of the monumental task of writing this important book.

The site photography for St Paul’s and examples of parallels of American restoration projects provide the reader with an appreciation of the proposed magnitude of the reconstruction project.

Cleland’s writing is highly readable, interesting, informative, and inspirational. “The Silent Sentinel” will be of keen interest to historians, to students of architecture, to seminarians, and to concerned lay Christians who want to be a part of preserving their heritage.

Purchase The Silent Sentinel
James Edward Cleland
AuthorHouse (2008)
ISBN 9781434359681
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views

Guest post by Dave Young

If you're going to be on Twitter, it's important to choose a strategy.  There are engagement strategies and fan strategies.  Most businesses need engagement strategies. Rockstars and gurus most often need a fan strategy.

For "gurus" who get overwhelmed with loads of emails, twitter offers an easy solution. Fans want access. They want responses. They want to feel as if they've "connected" to the object of their fandom. 

Twitter gives fans the perceived access they desire. They can ask a question or make a comment. The guru doesn't have to agonize over the composition of a lengthy response to a fan's question because of the 140 character limit. The guru can also include a link to content where the she has already answered the same question elsewhere. This helps ALL the fans because they get to see the conversation. 

She can also simply ignore the question, letting it fade into the background noise, or allow other fans to answer. 

Most gurus don't follow many other people. They use Twitter primarily as an outbound tool to feed their fans, choosing carefully (or randomly) which fans or messages to engage. They will typically only "follow" or befriend those whom they want to have private conversations with (Direct Messages in Twitter).  

Another twist on the Guru or Fan strategy is to use Twitter almost exclusively for outbound marketing messages. This strategy works best for companies who have customers clamoring for information…food vendors (mobile kitchens on wheels) use twitter to announce their location. Restaurants and bars can use twitter to announce daily specials. Radio stations can use it for contests and requests, to enable nearly live interaction with listeners. 

It can be a great strategy for any business that needs an "in-the-moment" mode of communication. A busy salon, spa or chiropractor could tweet about cancellations to see if anyone wants their hair cut at 2:30 this afternoon. Just like opt-in emails, you need to offer people a good reason or benefit to engage, and then don't break your own rules. 

This strategy can also annoy people. If you are employing an outbound strategy when you should be engaging with your followers, you are likely to be marginalized by many of the same people that you could be helping. 

Just follow a bunch of multi-level marketers, SEO "experts" or people offering "business opportunities" and you'll get a quick taste of an outbound strategy gone wrong. You won't follow them for long, or pay attention to them for the same reason you don't invite them into your living room. It's always about them. 

So…what is an "engagement" strategy? Simple. Use Twitter to find out where your interests/questions/business/books intersect with conversations that are already taking place. Follow the people doing the talking. Then, engage with them. I didn't say sell to them, I said engage. Answer questions. Retweet their smart thoughts. Retweet their content. 

Engagement isn't easy. It requires you to read, think and respond thoughtfully. It will take more time. 

An engagement strategy is about giving more than you get. In the end, you'll get a lot more than you ever thought you would because you'll have an army of friends who want to do business with you.

Dave Young helps business owners with their marketing efforts. His specialty is that fuzzy place where on line and off line marketing intersect. His clients are scattered among the English-speaking countries of the world. You can learn read Dave's blog at BrandingBlog.com and learn more about his services at PersuasionPro.com. 

Doug and his good buddy Ed ventured out from their home town in Pennsylvania and headed straight to the Canadian border. They made it into Canada and now were well on their way to the coast. The Ontario highway that they were on was a treacherous road. They soon found out how dangerous it can be when Doug’s friend Ed was blown off the road by a big truck. It caused him to fall off the shoulder of the road and he was pretty badly scraped up.

As they continued through Canada and were going through Manitoba, they were privileged to be exposed to some Canadian hospitality. A nice family invited them to dinner and for the first time since the beginning of their journey; they had a nice, wholesome, sit-down meal.

Once they were through British Columbia they headed south and crossed over into the good ole USA. Stopping at a visitor’s center in Washington, they encountered a woman that read them the law about bicycles and highways and told them they wouldn’t get past the first weigh station.
As luck would have it, they managed to travel a good distance down the highway before a State Trooper stopped them and made them toss their bikes over the fence and off the highway. He told them what roads to take and was nice enough not to give them a ticket.

Leaving Brookings, Oregon they were astonished to see a car weaving down the road headed right at them. Clinging to the hood was a screaming teenager and as the car came closer, it straightened out and kept going. It was nothing out of the ordinary; after all, they were in California. Now they only had 400 miles to go till they arrived in San Francisco. That’s where Ed’s Aunt lived and they would be taking a few days off when they got there. Once in San Francisco, Ed’s bike gets stolen and he tells Doug that he is no longer going to continue the trip back with him. He tells Doug that he has decided to stay a few days and was not about to go back on a bike. So then Doug has no choice but to strike out on his own for the rest of the trip back home.

Leaving California, Doug has some memorable moments in Arizona. His ride down the winding mountain road with the forceful wind pushing at him, made him go much faster than he should have. Then there were the two-foot high ant hills that the Fire Ants had made. He had to watch out for them when he made camp. But the most frightening thing was in New Mexico when he went against his own rule of not accepting a ride and jumped in a pickup truck with a stranger.

The adventure continues through many more states and for many more days. If I did my job then you will be curious enough to want to buy the book and find out if Doug ever made it back home.

This very fast-moving book is 577 pages of exciting reading -- not your typical cross-country travel journal that’s for sure. I gave it an A because it is a very good, general audience book that the whole family can enjoy. "Summer of 1977: A North American Bicycling Odyssey" by Doug Freedline is well written and the story will keep you glued to the pages.

Purchase Summer of 1977
Doug Freedline
iUniverse (2009)
ISBN 9781440100208
Reviewed by William Phenn for Reader Views

For starters, make sure from the beginning you do the essential things:

• Have a website.
• Make sure your book is in stores, including online. 

Then, in talking to people and carrying out your marketing plans, always remember:

• Be approachable, friendly, and professional to everyone.
• Say yes to every opportunity or invitation you receive if it is possible and reasonable. If you can’t say, “Yes” politely say “No.”
• Do not spend money without a fair idea that the results will be worthwhile.
• Have fun and believe in your book. Enthusiasm sells books. 

Now brainstorm for marketing ideas compatible with your book’s audience and your personality. Make a list of everything possible from passing out business cards to hiring a plane to skywrite your book’s title. Don’t let any idea slip away no matter how cheesy or outlandish it might seem. Write ideas down until you have fifty or more. If you get stuck, plenty of marketing books exist to help you come up with ideas. 

Prioritize your ideas from easiest to most difficult. In defining “easy” and “difficult,” consider: 

• How comfortable do I feel doing this activity? For example, if you own a plane, skywriting may not seem as difficult as speaking in front of an audience. I give you permission to do what feels comfortable to you. You can’t do everything so get your feet wet doing what you will enjoy doing, then you can stretch your boundaries slowly.
• How much time is required for this activity and do I have that kind of time? For example, if you work 9-5, you may not be able to do activities that require your presence during the business day so put those toward the bottom of the list and focus on activities you can do in the evening, on weekends, and at your convenience.
• How expensive will this activity be and does it fit into my marketing budget? If something will cost you $500 and you only have $1,000 for your marketing budget, you might not want to spend half your budget on one activity—similar to not putting all your eggs in one basket. At the same time, if the results seem to be worthwhile, spending money to get those results is always permissible and encouraged.
• How will I know if this activity is successful? Consider using SMART goals to decide whether an activity is worthwhile. Will this way of marketing your book have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Sensitive) results? 

Once you have created a priority list of marketing ideas, time-management becomes important. You may only want to start with the first five or ten on your list and figure out how you will accomplish them. We all have limited time. If you have a day job, a family, other activities and obligations, make yourself a time-schedule for marketing. For example, you know Monday evenings you will be tired from working and the kids have soccer, so maybe you decide not to do any marketing on that day, but then you promise yourself that Tuesday and Thursday you will mail out at least five postcards to bookstores, libraries or other places that will help you sell books. On Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings you will focus on marketing your book on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook. On Sunday afternoon, you will do another activity that works for you. Of course, life will intervene and try to get you away from your schedule, but having a schedule will make you more inclined to stick to it. 

Reassess your progress monthly. If you only reassess every six months or once a year, you’ll forget to reassess. If something is paying off for you, keep doing it, and consider doing more of it. If something isn’t paying off, then quit doing it, or do less of it. 

Consider how things that are working can be done more efficiently. Maybe you started off making your own brochures on your ink-jet printer, but it’s time-consuming to print and fold them by hand and fight with the printer smearing or running out of ink. You know the brochures are helping you to sell books, so keep using them, but budget your money so you can afford to have someone else print them for you. That way they will still work for you, and the money you spend will be made up for because you have more time to work on driving traffic to your website or writing a speech for an event. In short, use your time wisely. 

As you sell more books, you’ll find out what works and doesn’t work for you. Just keep at it. Don’t get discouraged. Try new things. Remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and thinking you’ll get different results, but at the same time, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.