Fazzles Creative Living Newsletter Archive
 

Creative Living - Home, Business and Family...

Welcome to the 21st Edition of "Creative Living."

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

In this issue we have:

1.) Article: Increase your Books Sales..
2.) Hot Craft Tip: Turn Bad CD's into Coasters
3.) Recipe: 920 American Goulash
4.) On Parenting: -
5.) Home Tool Tips:
6.) Car Tool Tips
7.) Tasteful Joke
8.) Reader's Questions:
9.) Editor's Word Pick
10.) Last Minute Reminders
11.) Inspirational Quote

~~~~~~
Increase Your Book Sales: When a Book for Sale is No Longer
Just a Book for Sale by Author: Catherine Franz

Do you have books sitting in your garage that you haven't
sold yet and looking for ways to move them? Then you will
want to know about these five outrageous ideas that aren't
difficult and can be just plain out fun.

Dede Hall, author of The Starving Student’s Cookbook had
very poor sales for her books. Then one day an outrageously
light bulb moment appeared. She added an inexpensive
skillet with the book and shrink-wrapped them. Then she
took 150 of them to two stores that she thought wouldn't
sell them. Yes, to her surprise, all 150 sold in two days.
Dede stumbled on an outrageous idea and it worked out big
time. She sold over 100,000 copies in a few months. Where
did she sell them? Thought you would never ask. Price
Clubs and Kmarts.

Do you have a book that could be packaged with something
else and create outrageous sales for yourself? It’s
Christmas time and no it isn't too late. But before you
dart off to come up with an outrageous idea for your book,
continue reading so that you can get all the facts.

Another cookbook was repackaged with a scarlet ribbon and
some imported cinnamon sticks and then sold at department
stores in the housewares and gift sections. The book
couldn't sell at $5.95 but flew off the shelves at $10 and
went into second printing in 30 days.

Would your book sell well in a three-ring shrink-wrapped
binder? Why not create and audio or CD version of the
material. Just read directly from the material. You do not
have to be fancy. Add "read by the author" language to the
outside in big letters. Or maybe "F*R*E*E Bonus, Limited
Time Offer, Free Audio read by the author" in big letters.

Another key is to look for an item that makes the package
larger than the book. This requires a larger space and then
bigger visibility.

What about a book on money? Add a mug labeled,
"Millionaire" and watch it fly off the shelf. Do not forget
the second part of the formula -- the place you are going to
sell it. When you add the mug, it is now considered a gift
item. This opens the doors to more stores and places.

Try all the independent gift shops, especially at the
airport. They are always looking for these type of unique
combinations.

Have an exercise book? Add a "walking meter" with it. The
one that measures how many miles you are walking. Have no
clue what they call those things but I have bought three
over the past few years. Again, now it is a gift item. How
about contacting a sports equipment vendor and selling them
copies of your book that would be a freebie for a limited
period with a purchase.

Get the store to add a sign, "limited quality" and watch
them go even faster. What is great about this angle is that
gift stores, department stores and similar stores are much
more open to add things to their shelf. They will work with
you much better than a bookstore.

Now that you brain is going a mile a minute with ideas, best
wishes for selling many more books!

Author: Catherine Franz Word count: 536
(c) Copyright 2003, Catherine Franz. All rights reserved.

~*~*~ RESOURCE BOX ~*~*~*~*~*

Catherine Franz is a marketing industry veteran, a Certified
Business Coach, Certified Teleclass Leader and Trainer,
speaker, author. For daily, weekly, and monthly marketing
nonfiction writing and deliberately creating ezines:
http://www.AbundanceCenter.com. 703-671-5677



********************
Craft Tip:

Get too many CDs from AOL.. use them for a craft project.

http://familycrafts.about.com/library/projects/blcdcoaster2.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy New Year...

The New Year is always exciting. It's the time to make
resolutions and begin self-improvement. It's a time of
reflecting last year's goals and seeing if you reached them.
It's a good time to set new goals or finally get going on
old goals. Don't set yourself up for failure. Set
realistic goals. Set enough to push yourself, but not so
much that you overwhelm yourself.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Recipe:
~~~~~~~~
920 American Goulash
Servings: 6

3 slices of bacon
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound hamburger
1 can red kidney beans
1 quart tomatoes
pinch of salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
regular pepper
sliced carrots
cooked rice

Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp.
Now add the onion and hamburger meat.
Cook until the onion is golden and the meat is brown.
Add the beans and tomatoes; cook for 15 minutes.
You can now add the carrots or rice or both, for variety.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Weight Loss Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Substitute your food choices for better less fattening
food choices. If you want ice cream, eat ice milk or
frozen yogurt. If you want pie, choose pumpkin pie
over a chocolate cream pie (But, not pumpkin pie cheese
cake)

Do more physical things than you did last week, today.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Safety Tip:

Defrost your Turkey in the Refrigerator. Do not leave it
out all night in the kitchen sink.

Rinse the turkey inside before baking.

Do not stuff a turkey the night before cooking.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Parent Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The holidays are over, it's time to wind down. It's a
great time to finish teaching your children about giving.
They got new toys, it's time to go through some old toys
to give to charity. It'll help clear up some clutter, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Household Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Make a "no" shoe in the house rule. It will save on
your carpets.

Remove a broken key from a lock?
Put some super glue on broken off part, insert,
hold for a few seconds and pull.
************************
Car Tip
~~~~~~~~
Drive carefully or don't drive at all as the weather gets down
to freezing. Make sure your windows are defrosted completely
before leaving your driveway. It is not safe to drive with fogged
up windows.
~~~~~~~~
Marriage Tip?
~~~~~~~~~
Make some special time for you and your spouse. Kids are
great, but never forget what began your family. Just the
two of you. Do something together.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Joke
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Signs That You're Broke

At communion you go back for seconds.

You think of a lottery ticket as an investment.

You're formulating a plan to rob the food bank.

Long distance companies don't call you to switch.

You give blood everyday.. just for the orange juice.

McDonald's is the supplier of all your kitchen condiments.

American Express calls and says: "Leave home without it!"

Your idea of a 7-course meal is taking a deep breath
outside a restaurant.

You've rolled so many pennies, you've formed a psychic
bond with Abe Lincoln.


********************
Editor's Word Tip on Commonly Misspelled Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~
recommendation
tomorrow
congratulations (many people put a d where the t is.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inspirational Quote:

"He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does
not ask remains a fool forever."

Chinese Proverb

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for being my reader!

Teresa King

Creative Home Living
is sponsored by
http://www.tipsfortop.com
eBooks and Marketing
and by
http://www.candykit.com/wrap
Personalize Candy Bar Wrappers
for Fun or profit with Ryan Sawyer

Teresa King is the Co-Author
of "Wise Women Win Whatever They Want"
http://www.pro-books.com/wise

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