Logical Expressions Blog

Because we had at least one person who wanted to upgrade her SPOC pass today, but couldn't, we're leaving the registration link and site log-in open through May 31.

The third day of SPOC focused on turning your book into a business with a complete product line. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, and in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads or CDs.

The second day of SPOC was chock full of helpful ideas for promoting your book to the world. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, a preview of what's coming tomorrow, plus, in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads, CDs plus other must-have items for the soon-to-be author.

The first day of SPOC was a whirlwind of information. If you joined us, you listened to some big names in the writing and publishing world. Here are a few gems from what they shared, a preview of what's coming tomorrow on Promotion Day, plus, in case you missed a call, how you can get the audio downloads, CDs plus other must-have items for the soon-to-be author.

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 3, which is all about turning your book into a business. Friday May 14, 2010

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 2 - Promotion Day, which is all about building a relationship with your target market and ideal readership. Thurday May 13, 2010

Here is a short run-down of the agenda for DAY 1 - Writing & Publishing Day, a day dedicated to showing you how to write and produce a finished book from your manuscript. Wednesday May 12, 2010

Happy Cinco de Mayo! We're happy because on today's dog walk through the forest, we found our first morel mushrooms of the season. We plan to invite them to dinner. I'm sending out this newsletter a week early because I may or may not get one out next week. Next Wednesday is the first day of the Self-Publishers Online Conference! As you might imagine, I'm a little nervous about SPOC. I'm quietly hoping everything will go the way it's supposed to and people will love it. But I'll be honest; putting on an event like this...

It's hard to believe, but after all this preparation, the Self-Publishers Online Conference is next week! All the excitement got me thinking about my own book-publishing journey. I like to joke that it only took 10 years to self-publish my first book. Maybe you can relate to this ;-) In 1996, I read a bunch of self-publishing books and became completely overwhelmed. I had piles of notes, no idea how to write the book, even less clue where to get it printed, and zero money for my first print run. A mere 10 years later in 2006,...

The Self-Publishers Online Conference is only a little over a week away. We've had a few people ask us what it is like to attend a virtual conference, so we decided to share the experience of a typical "day in the life" at SPOC 2010. If you want a look at the pages we'll be talking about, please check out the new Behind the Login page on the SPOC Web site. Are you ready? Okay, here we go... [All times Pacific] 7:50 AM The day starts off bright and early with the keynote seminar at...

As you might imagine, we've been busy with preparations for the Self-Publishers Online Conference, which will be held May 12-14. I've been talking with speakers and sending out press releases. It's a ton of fun getting to spend time with such cool "book people." As I've mentioned, you can attend the conference live for free, but if you want recordings or CDs, you need to upgrade your registration to a paid pass. If that's something you're interested in, be aware that our early bird discount ends in 2 days on April 30. On a totally non-work related...

It's only 15 days and counting until the Self-Publishers Online Conference and there's been a lot going on! SPOC Behind the Scenes If this is your first time attending SPOC, I encourage you to check out our new "Behind the Login" page, which shows you how SPOC differs from a typical "telesummit." http://leiurl.com/?spocinside Whether you have opted for a Basic (no charge) pass or upgraded to a paid one, your login gives you access to the private area of the SPOC Web site. There you'll find pages for each seminar, so you can...

We just sent out the first press release about the Self-Publishers Online Conference, which will be held May 12-14, 2010. Like last year, the conference is free to attend live. If you want serious quality self-publisher education, you don’t want to miss it! You can register at the SPOC site at http://www.SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com   Authors and Self-Publishers Learn the Latest in the Business of Book Publishing from 15 Experts at Virtual Conference Online Conference to Be Held May 12-14, 2010 SANDPOINT, Idaho - The second annual Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC) gives entrepreneurial writers,...

Happy Saint Patty's day everyone. It's been a great day here! On a personal note, I'm adopting a fluffy white dog from a rescue group, so I'll be driving out to pick her up. (Road trip!) We are SO excited. And the as-yet-to-be named dog is SO cute! James and I are also fired up about a writing retreat for book authors that we've decided to do this fall. I wrote up some initial information on the event that we've dubbed the Cabin in the Woods Writing Retreat. Check it out here: Cabin in the Woods Writing...

As noted in this week's Publishize newsletter article, I've been distracted from work by life events, but I still have been lining up speakers for the second annual Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC) which will be held May 12-14, 2010. Like last year, there is NO cost to attend the virtual event live, and you can learn from the comfort of your home or office. I haven't gotten to updating the SPOC site yet, but I can report that confirmed speakers include: Dan Poynter – author of the Self Publishing Manual ...

Sometimes you have to write an article to answer a question you get repeatedly. This week’s Publishize newsletter article is one of those. As many of you know, I'm the president of a non-profit organization called the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN), which offers information and resources for people working in publishing. Our members are publishers, authors, designers, or other creative pros. This week's article "Are You Really Self-Publishing or Not?" is based on a lot of rather lively conversations that have been going on in the SPAWN member discussion forum. After trying to explain...

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Great 2010 from All of Us Here at Logical Expressions, Inc. Thank you for reading our Publishize newsletter and this blog. Our regular article-filled newsletters will return the week of January 4th. In the meantime, if you get tired of eating and watching televised sports over the next few weeks, here are a couple of goofy videos for your amusement. "Cami Card Outtakes" - from our many holiday card photo sessions (like the one above): http://leiurl.com/?HCyt ...

When the temperature is in the single digits, the mantra on the daily hound walkie is "no dawdling." We are out there marching through the forest in the freezing cold to get something done, not to sniff random things, wander aimlessly, or goof off. When it's freezing, you gotta get the All Furry Team out there and get back inside as quickly as possible. I touch on this type of single-minded focus in this week's article. To write a book, sometimes you just need to get out there and get it done. Enjoy! How to...

Today is Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and this week, I've been thinking about the many things I'm thankful for that make me happy right now. Sure they're small, but here in no particular order is stuff that made me smile this week. 1. Flannel sheets. After spending 2 weeks in Arizona, crawling into non-flannel sheets the night we returned caused a screech of frozen agony. It was time to switch to flannel in such a big way. 2. James' artisan bread-baking hobby. (Well and James himself too, but that goes without saying.) The smell of baking bread...

November is my least favorite month of the year. It is the time of my "November Pout" which is my cranky way of welcoming (not!) the onset of winter. Although I do enjoy the change of seasons here, I like winter going into spring a lot better than fall going into winter. When it's gray and dreary, I find it more difficult to retain perspective. As this week's article points out, when you have the blues (or in my case a "November Pout") it's a good time to focus on what you have, instead of what you don't...

This week's article is by James Byrd, aka the "logical half" of Logical Expressions, Inc. After avoiding "the ebook thing" for ages, I finally delegated ebook creation to him. As a programmer, James loves researching nerdy stuff and distilling it down to something that actually makes sense. So far he has converted one book to Kindle format and uploaded it to Amazon. It may be available by the time you read this newsletter. We're probably going to hold off on uploading anything other than Kindle for a while because we need more ISBNs. We've read from reliable sources that ISBNs...

We did a survey recently and a large percentage of the respondents said they dream of writing a book, but they haven't. They used phrases like "I've been meaning to for so long" or "I've wanted to for years." It seems like there's a lot of talk and no action among aspiring authors. Why is that? This week's article explores why people don't actually do the things they say they want to do. Enjoy! Why Don't People Do The Things They Say They Want to Do? by Susan C. Daffron Whether you want to...

As noted in the article, I have returned from my latest trip. Never in my life have I done back-to-back traveling like this before. Let me just say that air travel is not as much fun as it used to be. Even though getting there (and back) was not half the fun, my experience at the No More Homeless Pets Conference and the subsequent visit to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary  was incredible. (I'm even in the closing video - http://video.bestfriends.org/media/p/1347.aspx) I realize it has nothing to do with publishing, but if you are an animal lover...

I often wonder if I worry too much. As a consumer myself, I want our customers to be happy purchasing the things we produce. I've had enough buyer's remorse in my life that I don't want to inflict it on anyone else. Obviously, not every client we've ever had loves us, since people don't always get along. However, we do try to represent the products we sell accurately. I think that is why we've only had two product returns in the five years our online storefront has existed. In both cases, people simply didn't read the text explaining what...

Right now, I'm listening to the peaceful sound of canines snoring on the floor next to my chair. Apparently, one dog is having a groovy dream, given all the little woofs and paw wiggles. Today's rainy-day tranquility has only been interrupted by the occasional phone call. I had a great time talking to a client, but other than that, today's calls have been annoying B2B telemarketer calls. So in addition to the writing advice below, I offer you my husband's best writing productivity tip: "Don't answer the phone." Although I have a difficult time not answering...

Fall is definitely here. We shut down the garden, and I've been taking dogs to the veterinarian for their fall checkups. (So far, everything seems fine with the all-furry team!) In the midst of all this activity, we've also been plotting out activities for next year. I'm pleased to report that the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN) will be a sponsor of the Self-Publishers Online Conference in May. Yes, SPOC 2010 is coming! You can keep up with all the details by signing up for SPOC News at: http://www.SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com/ In related news, I also...

Today, I'm thinking about reading. I got a shipment of books from Amazon this afternoon, and now I'm in a hurry to get this done so I can dig into my new cache of books and learn. People underestimate the power of simply reading books. Actually having the patience to sit down and read a book cover-to-cover is a tremendous and often under-appreciated competitive advantage in business. "Read books!" is also the first advice I give to aspiring writers and publishers. Countless written resources about entrepreneurship and publishing are available that cost nothing or next to...

I've been spending a lot of time dealing with email related to the Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN) Web site. As I've mentioned, I'm now the president of the association and I recently rebuilt the Web site at www.spawn.org. Another little piece of the fall-out related to the massive Web site overhaul was discovering problems with the newsletter lists. So I moved them all over to AWeber, which is the email autoresponder service I use for this Publishize newsletter as well. In any case, I've spent a lot of time explaining to people why this switch was...

Today, I'll be brief because I feel icky. I think I'm getting a cold. We've had three sets of houseguests in the last month and one of them infected James with a germ. He, in turn, seems to have infected me. Anyway, since I was not exactly inspired to write, I looked back at an old Publishize survey, which indicated many of you are interested in copywriting. And thus the subject of this week's article was born! Enjoy! How to Write Copy for Your Book Website by Susan C. Daffron A few tips...

Tomorrow I'm doing two free "sneak peak" webinars for Best Friends Animal Society. Mine are called "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Fundraisers" and they are based on information in my book Funds to the Rescue: 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups. You can read more about the Webinars and access links to sign up here: http://network.bestfriends.org/golocal/lasvegas/news.aspx?pID=12876. This webinar and the speaking opportunity at Best Friend's upcoming No More Homeless Pets Conference in October came about because of book marketing activities that I performed literally months ago. The value of marketing consistently over...

Today, I’m writing this later than usual. We had a serious need to can 50 cups worth of veggies before it was too late. We now have 23 pints of food that we'll be eating for months to come. When the garden is in power produce mode, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. This week's article talks about coming up with writing ideas. Enjoy! Finding Topic Ideas for Your Blog, Articles, or Even Your Book by Susan C. Daffron When you are trying to figure out what to write, don't worry about what...

Sometimes you realize that the right time to do something is right NOW. This morning, even though I had about 100 work-related things to do, I realized I couldn't put off harvesting my basil and my garlic. You know fall is approaching when the basil starts to get weird, and you have to just rip out the plants. It was a harvest it, or lose it moment. Many heads of garlic are now hanging in the woodshed curing (drying). I also spent a peaceful half-hour sitting in my garden de-stemming the basil. The leaves spent most of the day...

For those who have been wondering about all my nerdy comments on Facebook lately, at long last I feel comfortable revealing what the "Big Web Site" project is. I'm now the President of the Small Publishers Artists and Writers Network (SPAWN), which you can find online at http://www.spawn.org/. I've been a member for years, and I'm thrilled to be working with such a great group of creative professionals. Redoing the Web site was my first task for SPAWN, and it's mostly done. I haven't quite finished the private member area stuff yet or implemented the new ecommerce store,...

Even though it's only Wednesday as I’m writing, this week has been one of those emotional roller coaster weeks with extreme highs and lows. I started off by committing a serious "reply to all" email faux pas. (Yes, admit it, you've done it too!) Then on Monday, I had not one, not two, but three clients with technical traumas. One person had a "meltdown;" another professed to be "going insane" dealing with a printer. However, I resolved them all, so by Tuesday, I was riding high and feeling like a techno-goddess. That high continued through my NAPRP teleseminar...

Some of you may remember that author Shel Horowitz spoke at our Self-Publishers Online Conference in May. The other day, Shel told me about a great deal he's offering on his book Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. This self-published book is actually the basis of a new book he's working on for a traditional publisher (Wiley) called Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green, which he is co-authoring with Jay Conrad Levinson. The new book will contain quite a bit of information from Principled Profit. Once the new book comes out, Shel is prohibited by contract from selling Principled Profit...

This week, I'm slowly recovering from my 10-day vacation/conference on the East Coast. Everything went incredibly well. The airlines and weather gods cooperated and everything went off without a hitch. (Those of you on Facebook can check out pics of everything from wild horses to the henna tattoo I got at the Ocean City boardwalk.) At the conference, someone who purchased my new book Funds to the Rescue on the first day of the show told me the next day that she'd "stayed up all night" reading it. A couple of people also came up to our booth...

This week, if all goes well, I will be hanging out on a beach somewhere by the time you read this. Through the magic of modern technology, I set the blog up early to post while I'm on vacation. This week's article gives you a few simple tips to avoid ugly documents. The world has too many ugly documents already (many of which I've had to fix), so please don't add to the problem. Enjoy!    - Susan Daffron 5 Document Design "Don'ts" to Avoid by Susan C. Daffron The ultimate goal of...

One of the highlights of my day today was talking to someone about fundraising. Every week, I interview someone from an animal rescue group for my radio show. This week I talked to someone from a small dog rescue in California. After the recording was over, we talked about fundraising for ages. Of course, I had a lot to say since I've just written a book on the subject (Funds to the Rescue). I loved sharing ideas about fun and easy ways she could raise more money for her group. After all, that's exactly why I wrote the book. ...

Well, not yet, but we're getting there. Earlier this week, my wife Susan and I were guests on a teleseminar hosted by Gina Bell of Networking Masters International. The topic was about lessons learned from putting on a virtual event. It was an interesting "round table" call with two other professionals where we all shared the things we did right and the things we'd do differently. I thought I'd share more about the subject here. We have experience in this area because we hosted the Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC 2009) last May using software I developed for the...

This week, I took a drive down south to Spirit Lake for a photo shoot with Cami the Wooly White Dog. If you're on Facebook, "friend" me and then you can check out a few of the pictures from the shoot. Cami has quite an expressive and occasionally hilarious face:  http://www.facebook.com/susandaffron. In other news, James just returned from a bike ride down to the mail box and brought back a package for me from the Apex Awards. It turns out Publishize won an Award of Excellence in the Books & Ebooks category. This award is the second one...

Today on my way into town, I met the UPS man who handed me the proof of my tenth book Funds to the Rescue: 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups. I haven't given it a really thorough once over yet, but it looks good so far. I think tomorrow I can log into Lightning Source, approve the proof, and put the book into production. Yay! I've just about finished the Web site for the book, so by the time it's available on Amazon, the Web site should be ready too. The basics are done, but...

At the moment, we are having a thunderstorm, which means the Big Dog is panting furiously. He really doesn't like storms. I confess that I don't either. Between storms and distractions, it's been one of those low-concentration days for me. I had hoped to send my book off to the printer, but it was not in the cards. As Scarlett O'Hara pointed out, "tomorrow is another day." Along the same lines, this week's newsletter is about meeting deadlines even when you're not having a stellar day. Enjoy! 5 Easy Ways to Jump Start Your...

Today, I drove down to our local organic farm and picked up our first CSA of the season. For those who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. You buy a "share" of a farm's produce. I can report that the yummy food from our CSA is one of the best things about summer. Tonight, I'm lobbying for a salad made from some fine organically-grown leafies to accompany dinner. When you are a member of a CSA, you also learn where your food comes from and how much work it is to produce. It gives you a new...

This week, the weather has been beautiful. I love this time of year. The last two weekends we've taken our kayaks out on the "big lake" (Lake Pend Oreille), and it's been great fun paddling around, watching wildlife, and soaking up lots of sun. When it's this nice, I confess it is really challenging to sit down and write much of anything. Even now, I'd rather be sitting on the back screened-in deck sipping a cold drink and listening to forest sounds. In fact, that sounds so good, I think I'll just go do that after sending this out. ...

There was a small delay in writing this week's newsletter, since I just completed the canine "neat feet" program. For those who don't have hairy dogs, breeds like golden retrievers and Samoyeds have huge tufts of fur that grow out of the bottom of their feet. At this time of year, all that footie fur collects sticky cottonwood seed pods and pine tree pitch. Obviously, walking around with forest junk attached to your feet is uncomfortable for the dogs, so they spend a lot of time chewing on their feet. This afternoon, I decided it was time...

This week, we have been doing things related to the end of the Self-Publishers Online Conference. I've sent out many emails and am getting the artwork and audios together for the fulfillment house for those who purchased CDs. If you were able to attend, you know it was an amazing 3-day publishing education. If you were there, I'd appreciate it if you could fill out our quick survey when you get a chance. We'd like to know what you thought, since we do plan to run the conference again next year. In other news, on Friday I...

This week, both James and I have been preparing for the Self-Publishers Online Conference (http://www.SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com/). By the time you read this, we will have already gone through the first day of speakers. I'm crossing my fingers that everything turns out okay. Today, we had a hailstorm and I can report that it's a wee bit stressful conducting a teleseminar when you think you might lose your Internet connection (at best) or your electricity at worst. It would be nice if the North Idaho spring weather would calm down a bit for the conference. Speaking of stress, for many...

Today, I'm working on a lot of stuff for the Self-Publishers Online Conference, which is next week. I've been busily setting up pages for the Exhibit Hall, testing conference call providers, and telling other people about it. I'll be honest, I'm really tired and I've had a sinus headache all day. Bleh. We all have bad days sometimes. Acknowledging that sometimes work and being in business can be difficult happens to be the subject of this week's article. Enjoy! Key to Success #10: Don't Give Up! by Susan C. Daffron Accept the fact that...

Today I spent much of the day gathering head shots and updating the SPOC Web site pages with the line up of speakers. I don't think James has worked his magic on it and updated the live site yet, but in the next day or so if you visit... http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/ ...you'll find that along with Dan Poynter, Sandra Beckwith, Shel Horowitz, and Brian Jud, we've now also signed up Peter Bowerman, Matthew Bennett, Debi Flora, Melanie Jordan, Jill Lublin, Michael Port, Penny Sansevieri, Jacqueline Church Simonds, Patrick Snow, and Carol White to speak. If you are...

Today's newsletter topic is rather timely since I just returned from a trip. In addition to attending a business conference, I also spent some quality time with my sister and father. We had a lot of fun. I even got carded at the Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. (It was kind of dark I guess.) In honor of my sister's birthday, I also baked her a Boston Cream Pie (which I assume she is still enjoying, since it was rather a large cake). More proof that life is about a lot more than business. I encourage you...

I'm getting ready to fly off to Baltimore tomorrow for the Bliss Factor conference. One of the downsides of rural life is that we are 1.5 hours from the airport. So I have to leave here at 3:30 am to catch my morning flight out of Spokane. I'm thinking traffic will be light at least. In other news, we've uploaded new pages to the  Self Publishers Online Conference site with information about speakers we've lined up so far. After I get back we need to go through more speaker proposals, but I can tell you right now, it's going...

This week's big news is that registration for the Self-Publishers Online Conference is now open. So a big nerdy yay to James for making it happen! Check it out at: http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/ As you can see, the conference is free to attend. (There are paid options too if you want downloads and other goodies like bling from vendors.) We already have 5 speakers lined up for sure and have a few "maybes" out there too. We also have been talking to a lot of businesses in the publishing industry about exhibiting--everyone from printers to book designers. It's exciting! ...

This week, once again I'm watching the snow fall. I told James that the big April Fool's joke here in Idaho is that it is spring. I'm still harboring hope that I really will see my garden again someday. In much better news, last week I found out that I will be leaving the snow at least for a few days in April. I won (yes, WON!) a contest to attend the Bliss Factor conference that will be held in Baltimore, Maryland. The conference focuses on how you can craft a business that helps you live a life...

Once again it is snowing. I have to say that at the end of March, I'm kind of done with snow. By April, I will have totally and completely lost my sense of humor about snow. In much better news, last week we finished the Web site for the Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC), which will be happening in May. We're recruiting speakers, so if there is someone you would like to hear, please let us know. You can read more about the conference and sign up for the SPOC newsletter here: http://www.selfpublishersonlineconference.com/ Today's article answers another question...

Today, I'm not feeling well, so I'll be brief. I'm having one of those days where everything seems extra difficult, particularly writing, so typos are undoubtedly inevitable. My apologies. However, tomorrow after I've had a good night's sleep, I'll be ready for our first Publishize Teleseminar, which is called "How to Set Up a Book Launch Campaign for Your Book." This topic was the one most requested by all of you in our mini-survey. To get notification of our Teleseminars, sign up for the free Logical Expressions newsletter at http://newsletter.logicalexpressions.com. If you've got questions on what's...

I was just finishing up my notes for a teleseminar I'm doing with Linda Joy Myers today at the National Association for Memoir Writers (NAMW). Linda Joy's specialty is helping people become healed and transformed through creativity, art, and writing. I love the work she does and I'm thrilled that I've had the opportunity to get to know her. My NAMW teleseminar is called "Understanding Your Publishing Choices". Business and life are full of choices and almost invariably they relate to your goals. If you want to publish a book that will be in every bricks and mortar Barnes...

A big "thank you" to everyone who answered last week's 2-question survey. The teleseminar topic winner is "How to Set Up a Book Launch Campaign for Your Book." The teleseminar will be held on Thursday March 19 at 10 am Pacific time, so mark your calendar. (We'll send out call in information before the call.) We also got some great feedback from Publishize readers on other topics that are troubling them. Since we're only going to do one teleseminar a month, I thought I'd address some of the topics as articles too. A couple of people had comments...

Over the weekend, James and I did what we call "big picture thinking." We talked about a number of ways we can better serve our clients. One thing we decided is to start doing free monthly teleseminars just for readers of this newsletter. Publishing is a lot of work and people learn in different ways. So for those of you who like to listen and ask questions, here's your big chance to talk to us. The first teleseminar is on Thursday March 19 at 10 am Pacific time, so mark your calendar. (We'll send out call in information before the...

During the winter, it's incredibly quiet outside because most of the birds fly south or go into hiding. Whatever they do, they stop making noise. Over the last couple of days, even though it's been dreary and gray, I've been starting to think that the worst of winter may be behind us. The avian forest dwellers are starting to tweet and chirp again. When the birdies are happy, it makes me happy. This week's article is more about business than publishing, but something I'm constantly trying to explain to aspiring self-publishers is that publishing is not all about...

In addition to never having to worry about being laid off, a cool thing about working for yourself is that you can declare your birthday a corporate holiday. So tomorrow, Logical Expressions is closed because we're celebrating. (Regarding being laid off, this morning James quipped, "why would I lay off myself?) Tomorrow will probably be a completely computer-free day. James has talked of maybe making homemade bagels. We'll see. All I know is that it will be a day of doing pretty much whatever I want, which is as it should be. (Hey, if you can't do whatever you...

I heard from my editor that she will be done copyediting my next book in the next couple of days. Somehow, in between various client projects, I need to fit in layout and cover design for my own book (number 10). With help from the very cool folks participating in the 90 Day Book Challenge, I have finalized the title. It will be called Funds to the Rescue: 101 Fundraising Ideas for Humane and Animal Rescue Groups. Speaking of the 90 Day Book Challenge, we had a few people ask if they could sign up late. The answer is...

Here in the backwoods, it's been cold. I know it's January and it's supposed to be cold, but I have to say that the ice situation on our driveway is getting me down. Yesterday, I drove down to the mailbox (which is about 1/2 mile away) because it was busy blizzarding. On my way back, I almost got stuck halfway up our driveway. How embarrassing. Our driveway is not steep or long. My car is all-wheel drive, so normally it can get through almost anything. However, yesterday about 4 inches of snow was sitting on top of a...

As some of you know, I've been doing a lot of teleseminars in these first few weeks of January. We did ones called: Get Your Book Done (with Donna Kozik) Sneak Peek into Book Coaching (with Lisa Manyon) Why Becoming a Book Author Can Change Your Life (with Gina Bell) All of them talk about our 90 Day Book Challenge which starts on Monday. If you are thinking about writing a book, this course is a great opportunity to make it happen. (If you have questions, don't be shy...ask me)...

Hi everyone... I wanted to let you know about a call I'm doing with Gina Bell today at 1 pm (Pacific time). You can sign up here:   http://www.logicalexpressions.com/Teleseminar_gina.htm Why Becoming a Book Author Can Change Your Life: Susan Daffron talks to Gina Bell about the many ways becoming a book author can have a huge impact on your business and your life. Susan is the author of 10 books, 9 of which she self-published over the past three years. Gina and Susan...

Right now, I am happily uploading a 9MB audio file. I am thrilled to be able to do this ostensibly boring task because for the last 3 weeks or so our satellite Internet has had a BIG problem. It has been somewhat agonizing to do things like send this newsletter on our backup 26.4 dial-up connection. Today, James installed a new transmitter on our satellite dish and it seems to have solved the problem. (Or at least helped a whole lot - cross your fingers!) In other news, I'm doing a call with Lisa Manyon on Friday. If you've...

I hope you all had a great holiday season. We mostly watched it snow. In fact, it has pretty much snowed non-stop for several weeks. Fortunately for us, we're snuggled up in our nice warm house which has a very pointy roof, so it won't collapse under the snow load. (The recent rain on top of the snow has caused a number of buildings to collapse in this area.) Since we haven't exactly been getting out much (except to snowshoe on our forest trails with our dogs), we've been busy plotting out plans for 2009. One of them...

Some things require a bit of patience... Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Great 2009 from All of Us Here at Logical Expressions, Inc. and the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals Here's hoping you and yours enjoy a wonderful holiday season. See you in 2009 ;-)    ~ Susan Daffron and James Byrd Technorati Tags: daffron,logical expressions,james h. byrd,cami,happy hound,holiday,christmas,antlers

Thanks to everyone who participated in the book launch for Publishize last week. We sold a bunch of books! In fact, we sold WAY more autographed copies that I was expecting, so I actually ran out of books here and had to wait for another order to arrive from the printer. Fortunately, people were incredibly nice when I wrote them and said their book might not make it to them by Christmas. I just mailed out a bunch today and am out again. So I'm waiting for yet another book order to arrive from Lightning Source (our printer)....

This week's article is about how we are doing the Publishize book launch. FYI, today is the big day. I'll be blogging later with more information, but basically, we'll be offering free shipping on the book and a slew of bonuses from many people in the publishing and business world. I've collected audio and print bonuses from Marcia Yudkin, Shel Horowitz, Fern Reiss, Sheri McConnell, and a bunch of other people. Check out http://www.publishize.com/ today December 11 and you'll see the incredible list of freebies folks are offering for people who buy the book. I'd like to say a huge...

While I was at the PubWest publishing show in November, I was interviewed by Chris Kenneally about my book writing process, IdeaWeaver, and of course, our new book Publishize: How to Quickly and Affordably Self-Publish a Book That Promotes Your Expertise. You can listen here: BTB #73: Advice for Accidental Authors Susan Daffron shares "provocative and insightful advice on what it takes to make a publisher out of an author during at break at the annual PubWest Conference. Technorati Tags: susan daffron,pubwest,ideaweaver,publishize,book publishing,self-publishing,authors,logical expressions

Today, we had a great preview call with our friend Donna Kozik for a new program we're offering together called "Promote a Book in a Weekend" on December 13 and 14. In one weekend, participants will get our help in creating a custom Web site for their book (or upcoming book), which they can later modify themselves, just like a blog. The "virtual" event combines our Self-Publisher Book Web Site with a lot of copywriting help, advice, and moral support, so people get the site DONE. Although we'll be talking books on the weekend of the...

James and I will be participating in a free teleseminar with Donna Kozik, where we will explain the information you MUST include on your book's Web site. Ideally, you should put up a Web site before you have even finished your book. In fact, our Publishize site was up for at least 6 months before we released the book. In fact, almost as soon as I got the domain name, I put up a site. Even a simple site with basic information is better than nothing because you can link to it and give the search engines time...

On Monday, I mailed out copies of Publishize to all the great people who provided endorsements for the book, and of course, family and friends who get copies of all our books. (Yes, Dad, it's in the mail!) It was a big postal event, and it's a good thing a nice man held the door open for me as I lumbered in with my heavy bags full of books. In other news, I just found out that an Associated Press story that mentions our weird 1996 Thanksgiving is online. Here's a link from one of the papers that picked...

As I mentioned last week, I went to the PubWest publishing conference in Portland. On the first day, the keynote speaker was John Ingram. As many of you know, Ingram is the largest book wholesaler in the world, and John is the Vice Chairman of Ingram Industries Inc. and serves as Chairman of Ingram Book Group, Lightning Source Inc., and Ingram Digital Group. Anyway, Lightning Source (aka LSI) is the printer I use. LSI is also John Ingram's "baby." In the early days, he says LSI was referred to as "John's Cute Idea." Of course, now many years and...

Today I'm headed down to the PubWest publishing conference which is being held in Portland, Oregon. I'll also get to see two of my cousins, which is great because they are extremely cool women. Of course, I'll have some of the very first copies of my new Publishize book on hand too ;-) At this point, I'm really looking forward to driving far far away from my computer, because yesterday, I spent an extraordinary amount of time dealing with problem Word documents for a client. Let's just say that today's article is extremely appropriate for these folks. Big...

The proof has arrived. I just need to log into Lightning Source and approve it, since the book looks great. All my agonizing and reviewing printouts has paid off. I'm thrilled ;-) Sagittarius, we has arrived... (Extra credit points for anyone who knows what song that is from. Other than James that is.) Technorati Tags: publishize,book,publishing,daffron,logical expressions,self-publishing

Today, I was hoping to receive the proof copy of my Publishize book, but it turns out it's somewhere between here and La Vergne, Tennessee. Big sigh. They say patience is a virtue, right? Anyway, the good news is that apparently my files worked perfectly, so all is well with the printer. We like that!  Although I generally hate working on the weekend, I did spend quite a bit of my Sunday dealing with final printouts and changes to the book so I can attest to the fact that really getting a book out the door requires focus.  ...

At long last, it appears I have moved into the necessary Zen mental indexing space and am rapidly cruising along furiously adding index entries to my Publishize book. Because I'm taking it to a publishing conference in mid-November, the book has to go to the printer this week. I have received some really great endorsements for the book and I just finalized the cover. It's all looking really good. Speaking of the book, this week's article expands on a section toward the end that I wrote recently. If you would like to read the article, please use this link:...

Sometimes people are so rude, you sort of don't know what to make of it. Today, someone bought one of our Timesaver Templates. We've sold tons of these over the last several years. Each one is a simple Word template without any graphics. You get a document framework with styles set up, so you can put in your own text. The pages in the shopping cart explain exactly what files you receive. The description even says, "Although the template includes styles and the overall framework, it does not include graphics. You need to provide your own photos and...

This week, amidst quite a bit of client work, I've also been finishing the last pieces of the Publishize book puzzle. I wrote the back cover copy and spent a ton of time fiddling with the cover artwork. I made some strides, but sometimes the creative gods are not willing. It was time to just close the file and try again tomorrow. The good news is that the text of the book is complete and currently in final spousal review. It's headed to Lightning Source next week, and as you authors out there might imagine, I'm really excited....

I've been so busy working on the Publishize BOOK, that I haven't had time to post here about some of the recent articles that have appeared in the Publishize newsletter. Here's the latest with lots of good information for all you self-publishers out there: Do a Blog Tour or Virtual Author Tour - Unlike a traditional book signing, which is generally used to increase sales, a virtual blog tour is about increasing online "buzz" about your book Enhance Your Book's Listing on Amazon - Get your book listing correct on Amazon and take advantage of the extra tools...

Over the years, I have saved many of the emails we receive through the contact forms on our various Web sites. In addition to our main Logical Expressions site, all of our article sites (The Publishize Newsletter, Computor Companion magazine, Logical Tips, Pet Tails etc., have comment forms that appear on the article pages. I receive contact form emails from at least one of our sites almost every day. Most of them are from happy people who have solved a problem thanks to one of our articles. If there's such a thing as karma, we have points...

by James Byrd The title makes it sound like this is going to be a complicated posting, doesn't it? Not to worry: the subjects of this post are about making things easier, not harder. The "logical half" of Logical Expressions (that's me) has been busy with a couple of side-projects that came to fruition this week. I wrote articles about each of them on my Nerdy Musings site. The Logical Expressions Redirector The PayPal Button Converter for ASP.NET The LE Redirector is essentially TinyUrl on steroids. If you aren't...

This week, I discovered that the online version of the Redbook article (with me and my photo in it) has appeared online. You can check it out here: http://www.redbookmag.com/your/letting-intuition-guide-you The article is called "Trust Your Gut. Change Your Life." The description is: "Tap into the power of your intuition to make your dreams happen. Learn how these five women used theirs to change their lives." My story is on page 2 of the online version: "Listening to her gut led to...A life-changing move" The article goes on to describe how 14 years ago, James and...

I'm back from my journey to Washington, D.C. Along with going to the beach, exhibiting at the Taking Action for Animals conference, and seeing my family, I got to endure the reality of air travel. Here are a few photo highlights from my trip: My sister and I walked from Fenwick Island to Bethany Beach, Delaware (and back), which according to MapQuest is 12.44 miles. These are beach umbrellas at the Sea Colony. We were able to get off the beach via the Colony, but the snotty old bat at the kiosk wouldn't let us back...

This week's big news is that when I went to the mailbox the other day, I found the August issue of Redbook magazine in there. This issue is mighty exciting to me because it has an article about how and why we started Logical Expressions. (Our version of the story is here.) If you're a Redbook subscriber, check out page 138. The title of the article is called "Trust Your Gut. Change Your Life." You'll see a huge 2-page spread with my picture. Let me just say right now that the photographer Erika Larsen is extremely talented. I don't...

If you tried to communicate with me in the last day or so, you might have had a problem. Our hosting company is located in Eastern Washington, which had a huge series of thunderstorms yesterday. Something related to the storm caused our dedicated server to take a dive. When you have as many Web sites as we do, putting them all back online takes some time. Sadly, this is not the first time James has had to rebuild our server after a crash. It's just as unpleasant the second time around. However, once again, we did have backups and...

On Friday, I mentioned that I updated the special reports that you get when you subscribe to our Publishize newsletter. You now get two reports "The Nine Lives of Content: How to Turn Just One Idea into Multiple Products That Promote Your Expertise" and "7 Steps to Self Publishing Success: Create a Print Book that Establishes Your Credibility and Positions You as an Expert (But Doesn't Cost You a Fortune!)" One thing I forgot to mention is that I also finally compiled a complete list of all the things we give away on all our various sites. It's...

In a great flurry of writing activity this week, I finally wrote down the basics of our Publishize Book publishing system. The result is: "7 Steps to Self Publishing Success: Create a Print Book that Establishes Your Credibility and Positions You as an Expert (But Doesn't Cost You a Fortune!)" This report explains the seven steps you need to take to self-publish a print book. It's the same process we went through to produce 8 books in less than 18 months. I also updated our other special report: "The 9 Lives of Content: How to Turn Just One...

I have been sort of lax in my blogging efforts lately, but I wanted to point out that we've written a bunch of nifty Publishize articles late. Plus, my husband James Byrd has been contributing, which is great. He is the co-author of two of our books (Vegan Success and Web Business Success) and brings a different voice and perspective to the whole book writing process. Evaluating Your Print Options for Your Book Project by Susan Daffron Whether you plan to lay out the book yourself or hire out the task, take the...

Last week, we selected the winner of our Dazzling Dogs Writing Contest. Maureen Lee won a license for IdeaWeaver for her story called "Scouting for Bashful," which involved Girl Scouts and a dog named Bashful. In the story, the 13-year old protagonist gets a lot more than just a box of Thin Mints; she got a new furry friend. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough stories that we loved to compile into a book (we need a minimum of 20). But we plan to run the contest again another time in the hopes that we can inspire more...

I just found out that my new radio show Take Me Home is featured this week on iTunes. The show is all about pet adoption and pet rescue. Every week on "Take Me Home," I talk to guests from animal shelters and rescue groups about pets that may have been overlooked for one reason or another, but still need a loving "forever home." Here's the link on the Pet Life Radio site: Take Me Home Radio Show If you go to the podcast section, in iTunes, you'll see the Take Me Home is featured this week!...

Once again, I'm a little late in mentioning this, but the new issue of Computor Companion magazine is online. (We were on vacation, so blogging wasn't really on my "to do" list.) Anyway, the new issue has these articles: Demystifying Nerd Words (all about misused and confusing terminology) How to Create a Postcard in Photoshop (based on my experiences creating promotional postcards for our books) Digital Photos 101 (Dian Chapman gets graphic-y) How to Set Your Retail Pricing to Meet Your Financial Goals (complete with cool online calculating tool) Q&A on a Weird Excel...

After putting off redoing our Logical Expressions corporate site for quite a while, we finally bit the bullet, gutted it, and started over. The new version is online here: Logical Expressions, Inc. Corporate Site In addition to changing the design and clarifying our message, with information for people who want to: write a book, publish a book, or promote a book, the new site also has a number of new pages that better showcase all the stuff we do. Now we have pages...

All of you folks who have been busily downloading IdeaWeaver so you can enter our writing contest have just FIVE days left to get your contest entries to us. You can read more about the contest and submit your entry here: Dazzling Dogs Contest Entry Form We've gotten some cool entries already, which is ample proof that I'm not the only one likes to tell tales about my goofy dogs. It's FREE, after all. And you might just get published too   ;-) Technorati Tags: ideaweaver,writing contest,dogs,writing software,pets,logicalexpressions

As usual, we've been busy writing articles. Here are the latest ones from the Publishize newsletter. Anatomy of a Book Layout As a self-publisher, you should learn a few conventions before you lay out your book Six Key Elements of a Book Web Site To market a book online, the first thing you must have is a Web site Which Tasks Should Self-Publishers Outsource? Sometimes the best person for the job is not you, so save your sanity by outsourcing tasks you don't like or...

Mary White over at HubPages let me know that she wrote a review of our cookbook Vegan Success. Check it out: Cookbook Review: Vegan Success She says, "this book is sure to be a great addition to your collection of cookbooks." It's certainly an addition to our collection; we use it all the time. In fact, I made Tempeh Stroganoff again the other night, which is one of the recipes in the cookbook. I noticed that the page is, ahem, a bit food stained. (Gotta love those 'shrooms!) Technorati Tags: vegan success,cookbook,vegan cooking,vegan recipes,logical expressions,daffron,publishing

I did an interview on why people should consider adopting cats from animal shelters and humane societies. In the interview I talk about concerns people may have, adopting kittens versus adult cats, tips for good adoptions, and selecting a shelter. Of course, I also mention Happy Tabby and the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals too ;-) Plus, I explain how I got involved with all this critter stuff and share a dopey story about me, my cat Troi (the cover model for Happy Tabby), and a very intrepid local rodent. Check it out at the...

We've been getting a lot of subscribes to our Publishize newsletter lately. I'm finally writing down a lot of the stuff that has been in my head for the last few years about book publishing, and our Publishize readers benefit from all this hard-won knowledge. Plus, the price is right, since hey, it's a free newsletter ;-) In the last month, I've written these articles: Recycle Your Book into Multiple Products Once you have gone through the effort to develop enough knowledge and expertise to actually write a book, think about how you can reuse...

We did another sort of mini-blog tour in the vegan realm last week. I wrote a couple of guest posts about our book Vegan Success. Check out: The Easy Vegan blog - Susan Daffron's Recipe for Vegan Success World Vegetarian and Vegan News blog - Guest Blogger Susan Daffron Thanks to both Kelly and Tony for letting me expound on the joys of vegan eating! Given the massive beef recall recently, vegan eating doesn't seem like such a bad idea now does it? Frankly, I'm really glad I don't have to worry when...

Hi, this is James, VP of Logical Expressions. Are you working on a book project and having trouble getting it organized? Or maybe you are having problems getting started because, well, you don't know where to start. Using Microsoft Word to write a book can be an exercise in frustration. It is an excellent word processor, but while you are in the creative phase of crafting your book, layout and formatting concerns just get in the way. What if you were able to just pour out your ideas as you think of them, knowing...

In honor of Freelance Writers week (which is this week), we are running our first writing contest! If you love dogs and love to write, this is your chance to tell us your best dog story. I know I love writing about my dogs, so I figure other people have great stories to tell too ;-) There is no entry fee; the only stipulation is that you have to use IdeaWeaver for your entry. Because the IdeaWeaver site has a free 30-day trial copy available, the cost to enter the contest is exactly $0. The winning essays will...

I just found out I was quoted as a dog expert on MSN's Dog Central site: Dogs Do the Darnedest Things: Here are some explanations why My dog Tika approves of my answer on digging; she LOVES to dig. With all the snow we have now, it's just a canine digging party  ;-)

After a whole lot of planning and work, on February 1, we launched a brand new association called the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals. We just finished the Web site, and you can find it here: http://www.naprp.com Basically, we are setting ourselves up as a resource for rescue groups with lots of information, tips, tools, and documents they can use to help save more critters. The member part of the site with all the documents, forms, templates, forum, and other goodies will be available on March 20. (But...

This winter we have received more than 14 feet of snow. Clearly winter is here. And so is the winter issue of Computor Companion magazine. This issue features these articles: Customize Word 2007 Document Themes Lay Out Your Book in Microsoft Word Create a Photo Calendar in Publisher Banish Bullets from a PowerPoint Presentation Understanding Disk Partitioning Which Blogging Tool Should I Choose and more... We've also decided to open up advertising to outside advertisers. This press release describes it... Award-Winning Content Web Sites Now Accepting Outside Advertising ...but basically,...

I read today that the governor declared a state of emergency for the northern counties of Idaho. That would be us. For those who may wonder how much snow is "a lot," here is a glimpse from around our house (click for slightly larger versions). This is the view out our front door (note that we have stairs up to the front of our house): This is the wall of snow, I see out my office window, which is underneath our back deck: This is my nemesis the "tractor garage." I...

We had our first mini pet blog tour last week. I was featured as a "guest" poster on three cool pet blogs and talked about how our books Happy Hound and Happy Tabby can be used as fundraising and educational tools by animal shelters and other humane and rescue groups. You can see Happy Hound and Happy Tabby on tour at: For the Love of Animals Blog Paw Path Litter Mat Cool Dog Hall of Fame A big thank you to those who participated and for your commitment to helping animals!

We've developed a lot of Web sites for small businesses over the years, and we've heard many stories of confusion and horror related to setting up a domain name for a business Web site. The confusion occurs at the beginning when the business owners are getting ready to set up their first Web site, and they are trying to figure what domain name to register and how to register it once they pick one. Some people put off this task for a surprising length of time in fear of making a mistake. Everyone seems to intuitively understand how important...

I forgot to post this last week, but this week's issue of the Publishize newsletter and podcast is on ISBNs, which seem to be a tremendous source of confusion and angst for publishers. What is an ISBN and Why Do I Need One for My Book? Enjoy ;-) Technorati Tags: publishize,publishing,isbns,isbn number,business,daffron,logical expressions

There's an interview with me on the Virtual Woman's Day blog, which is owned by the Women's eCommerce Association (WECAI). The blog's tagline is "Where Women Connect Virtually to Share Their Stories, Promote Their Products and Make New Friends." You can read the interview with me at this link: eMonday Woman Interview with Susan Daffron (Among other things, you'll find out why we moved to Idaho and about the inordinate number of books I have sitting on my nightstand!) Technorati Tags: web business success,online business,business,daffron,marketing,idaho,logical expressions,ecommerce,wecai

I was interviewed by Nan Russell for her Work Matters Internet radio show on WebTalkRadio.net. I am the second person on the interview, which was about how we managed to escape the city, move to the wilds of Northern Idaho, and make our business actually work from out here in the middle of nowhere. Nan is a great interviewer and I had fun talking to her. Check it out at: Work Matters Week 3 Show This link may change, but you should still be able to get to it using the Podcast link on this...

Today we packed up all the Logical Tips books that people bought during our pre-order sale and took them off to the post office. (In fact, the response was sort of overwhelming; we actually almost sold out of all the books we ordered!) Anyway, the packing and shipping process was the source of great excitement among the canine team. Our golden retriever Tika thinks these books should go in a flat-rate box. These books seem to pass the sniff test. All that packing is hard work! ...

I had the opportunity to be a "guinea pig" for a new program Marcia Yudkin is running. She has revamped her Marketing for More site and now is offering members the opportunity for marketing help via "Feedback Feasts." I was the "feastee" for the first call. The topic was how to position our book Happy Hound, without using typical copywriting "scare tactics" to encourage people to buy it. Since my goal with the book is to promote adopting pets from animal shelters, the last thing I wanted to do was write a bunch of negative copy that...

With the release of our new Logical Tips books, we have now published eight book ourselves (the four Logical Tips books, Happy Hound, Happy Tabby, Web Business Success, and Vegan Success.) This week's article in the Publishize newsletter offers a few reasons why we have opted to take the self-publishing route, after going about it the "traditional" way: A Few Good Reasons to Self Publish Your Book Enjoy!   Technorati Tags: web business,web business success,vegan success,vegan,pets,happy hound,happy tabby,publishize,logical tips,daffron,writing,dogs,cats,cookbook

I sent out a notification to our Logical Tips list last week with a special pre-order price on our new books, since I thought they wouldn't be available on Amazon for a while. It turns out I was wrong; the Logical Tips books are already on Amazon too! They don't have cover graphics yet, but if you do a search on my name, you see they are all listed: Amazon Search for Susan C. Daffron I discovered this because I looked at our sales report and a couple have already sold. Egad. The other ultra cool...

I forgot to post about last week's Publishize article. Last week, we had a huge snowstorm, and on Monday we woke up to a power outage. Then it rained, so the 3 feet of snow we had on the ground turned into 1 foot of heavy, slushy mush. Now we have ice. Anyway, it wasn't the greatest week for getting big work done, which is why my article was so timely. We sold products while we were shoveling snow and digging out  ;-) Earn Passive Income with Information Products To subscribe to the newsletter or the podcast, check out...

This week, we got our first snow, and the canines are totally and completely thrilled. Watching them bound joyfully through the snow is good for the soul. Another thing that makes you feel good is donating old clothes to charity. This week in the Publishize newsletter and podcast, I ponder cleaning, evaluating, and recycling and how it all relates to marketing. If you'd like to read the article online, please use this link: http://newsletter.logicalexpressions.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=144 Enjoy!Technorati tags: publishize, dogs, daffron

After a bit of a delay, the Logical Tips books are headed to the printer this week. After feedback from a number of long-time loyal Logical Tips newsletter subscribers, I finally figured out a way to get the words "Logical Tips" into the title. Today, I sent the titles off to the Library of Congress to get my LCCN numbers, so they are official. The 4 books are: Logical Tips for Mastering Your Computer: Quick Shortcuts, Tips, Tricks, and Techniques to Help You Use Your Computer More Effectively Logical Tips for Mastering the Internet:...

Periodically, we get email from someone who downloads the free trial of IdeaWeaver and really "gets it." The other day I got not one but TWO emails from a fan. (He sent through two different contact forms, just to be sure.) He said, "Wow! I've tried probably every outliner that previously existed and currently exists. What you have created is not just a variant of a standard outliner but a remarkable new way to approach writing. Additionally, you have designed it so that it is very user friendly. My kudos to the person(s) who came up with the idea and those...

Like a lot of people, I have some articles posted on the Ezine Articles site. Unlike most of my articles, these ones are free for anyone to use in their newsletters or on their Web sites as long as they include my bio at the end. This week, I had to redo all my articles and resubmit them because my bio reflected newsletters I no longer do. (Now they all direct people to the Publishize newsletter and podcast.) Anyway, all my articles are back online. I'm an "Expert Author" again ;-) You can see them all using this link: Susan Daffron - Expert AuthorTechnorati...

Those who read our Publishize Newsletter via email know that this last week was filled with technological challenges. My satellite Internet went belly up and I spent a lot of time troubleshooting an email problem my assistant was having. (Yes, I DID finally figure it out!) Anyway, the fact that my computing biorhythms were clearly at a low ebb, makes it all the more amazing that this week we also launched the Publishize Your Way to Success podcast. In addition to sending out the newsletter via email, now we also have entered the realm of audio. Check out the site: Publishize Your...

As usual I am delinquent in mentioning that we put up a new issue of Computor Companion magazine last week. This issue has a lot of helpful articles. Check them out: Back Up Your Computer Regularly and Reliably   Use Word Bookmarks   Add an Index to Your Book with InDesign   Consider PowerPoint for Digital Scrapbooks   Customize Your QuickBooks Invoices   Q and A: How to Open Docx Files Here Comes the Bride-zilla   No TV? No Problem! As always, a big "thank you" to all of our authors, some of whom have been contributing to CC since the very beginning way back in 1999. We love...

A couple weeks ago, Ryan over at VegBlog wrote a review of our Vegan Success cookbook. Triple Cookbook Review In general, he seemed to like the recipes. The only troubling thing is that he wrote that making our Blender Hummus recipe actually broke his food processor. I can't quite imagine how cooked, canned chickpeas could break a food processor. But I felt kinda bad. The good news is that it gave Ryan an excuse to buy a new "14-cup behemoth" to replace it. Realistically, for recipes like Blender Hummus we always use our Vita-Mix. For those who don't know a Vita-Mix is...

...and we've got the press release to prove it! New Book Shares Tips for Raising a Happy and Healthy Shelter-Adopted Cat or Kitten We have books here and the web site is done too. As I noted before, the book is also available on Amazon.com. If you are a pet journalist or cat lover and would like a copy of the book for review, please contact us. As a pet-adoption advocate, I'm also available for interviews about humane education or pet care. As with Happy Hound, we also are offering this book at a substantial discount to shelters and rescue groups who would like...

We just got back from vacation in McCall, Idaho. The aspens were in full color and it was an incredibly relaxing week. We did some hiking along with a lot of eating, reading, and general goofing off. Before we left, we went to the library and filled an entire suitcase with books. I read a powerful quantity of junk novels. It was great. In any case, we're back and now having blazed through my less serious reading material, I'm trying to get back into gear by reading a few business books. This week's article in the Publishize newsletter was inspired...

Over the weekend, I was quoted in New York Newsday. I found the article online. I'm quoted on: Page 2 of the Technobabble Battle Basically, the article is about dealing with "geek speak." As usual, I <ahem> have an opinion and suggest that people avoid endless jargon. Here's what I said: "Use simple language that people can understand, says Susan Daffron, president of Logical Expressions Inc., a book and software publishing company in Sandpoint, Idaho. "Grandpa Joe wants to put photos or videos of his grandkids online so everyone can see them," she wrote in an e-mail. "He doesn't want to hear about jpeg...

Although I haven't finished the Happy Tabby web site yet, the book is already available for sale on Amazon.com. If you click the link below, you'll see our cat Troi sitting smugly on the cover. (What a face!) Happy Tabby: Develop a Great Relationship with Your Adopted Cat or Kitten As with Happy Hound, our Happy Tabby book is specifically for those who have adopted from animal shelters. It's all about the special needs of living with a "cat with a past." It also has various stories about our own tabbies Alia and Troi. Both of whom are currently snoring on a...

Like a lot of people, I have a Google Alert set up on my name. (If you are wondering how to set up an alert, check out this page for more information.) With an alert, I often know when people are quoting me somewhere on the Internet. For example, I was quoted as the author Happy Hound on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel site in the Animal Megnetism blog. Check it out: What's In a Name? I always get a little thrill when I see my name in print. This week I also was interviewed for an article that may run in a major...

This week we added some new articles to our newsletter site. James wrote one called: Why Prioritizing is a Waste of Time ...which is based on his years working as the Internet Development Manager in charge of a $100M ecommerce site. Basically he asserts that when it comes to setting priorities, the only thing that matters is what you are going to do next. I wrote an article called How to Write When You Feel Like You Can't ...which is based on my years of wrestling with the various permutations of writer's block. The key is to figure out exactly WHAT is keeping you...

This week we sent out the first issue of our new Publishize Newsletter. The tagline is "Transform Your Words Into Dollars" and its designed for people who want to make money from their writing. The first issue has an article titled: Why Should You (or I) Write a Nonfiction Book? which answers a question I get a lot. I've now written quite a few books and I have good reasons for doing so. But writing a book is definitely not for everybody. We also put together the newsletter archive site and pulled in a bunch of relevant articles from some of our other sites. There...

I love my cats, but this news article came as no surprise to me: Feline Memories Found to Be Fleeting A new study measured how long cats can remember information. The answer is 10 minutes. Case in point: yesterday, my cat Troi was sitting staring at the baseboard that runs along the bottom of our living room wall. Apparently a bug had run under there at some point. She did seem to remember why she was there for a while and was looking quite attentive. Until she started falling asleep that is. I guess it's easy to forget stuff, when you have to...

Last Friday, I sent out the last regular issue of our Logical Tips newsletter. I got a lot of really nice emails from readers thanking me for all the tips over the years. Since it's summertime and lots of people are on vacation, I thought I'd also post a note here to let subscribers know that you won't be getting a Logical Tips email in your inbox today. This page explains the change and future plans. However as I said, we are starting up a new newsletter in September. So if you want to keep hearing from us, please check out our...

The new issue of Computor Companion is online. In the new issue, you find out how to: Create Books and Long Documents in InDesign Use Photoshop to Remove Red Eye Send ECards Safely Measure the Success of Your Email Campaign Get Up and Running with Microsoft Vista Share Your Presentations online and more... Check out all the articles at the Computor Companion magazine web site.Technorati tags: computor companion, daffron

As some people know I have been writing our Logical Tips newsletter for about 6 or 7 years. Recently, I decided that it's time to compile all those tips into books. Of course, technology changes over the years and some tips are now sort of old. So I enlisted some help in testing the tips. She is reading them over first, so I can then go in and update them all to Windows XP and Office 2003. (Note that I'm not going to delve into the land of Windows Vista or Office 2007.) Anyway, today my tip tester said, "I absolutely love...

I just found out that I was quoted in a News Factor Network article. The article is on shopping cart abandonment. What to Do About Runaway E-Shoppers I'm quoted on Page 3 in this section: Ease of Use "Navigation that 'is really cool' to a designer or Web programmer is often incomprehensible for online shoppers," said Susan Daffron, co-author of Web Business Success. "Avoid the temptation to include overly flashy, bandwidth-hogging bells and whistles. Some people may be using slow connections and even those on broadband often cite slow response time as a prime reason for 'bailing out' of...

There's an old proverb that the cobbler is so busy making shoes for all his customers that he doesn't have time for his own. Sometimes I feel that way about the Logical Expressions web site. When you time working on Web sites for others, it's all too easy to neglect your own site. Plus, after our enormous site update a few months ago, I didn't want to look at it again for a while. However, this week I finally did add a few updates. For one thing, I added in the Web site articles that I've been writing for a local...

Although James and I had a radio show for a while, and I was a DJ in college, today I did my first radio call in as a promotion for one of our books. I talked to Steve Dale about his article on "designer dogs" such as cockapoos and labradoodles. The article contends that shelters are a much better (not to mention less expensive) way to get these dog, which after all actually are simply mixed-breed mutts. In the article, he points out that he has a "King Daley Shepherd" named Ethel. I like the idea of giving my shelter/rescue dogs...

We spent a lot of time picking morels. I wrote about it here: Foraging Fun They're gone now, but it was fun while it lasted!Technorati tags: daffron, vegan

Because of a server problem, our Web sites were down for a while. However, thanks to good backups, almost everything has been restored, including the LEI blog. This post is a test to see if our blog software is working correctly. Cross your fingers... YAY! It works ;-)Technorati tags: daffron, online business

Check out the new issue: Computor Companion magazine - Spring 2007 Articles include information on: How to Excel in Your Job Search Use Word to Create Promotional Bookmarks Manage Your Life in Outlook Pivot Tables Charts in PowerPoint Social Networking Enjoy!Technorati tags: daffron, computor companion

This week has been monumentally work filled. I spent a whole lot of time staring at HTML. However, the good news is that at long last  the Logical Expressions site is now updated: http://www.logicalexpressions.com We have an entire new line of products and services, so I added a bunch of pages and removed a lot of out of date stuff. In some ways, it's sort of a relief to have actually touched every page on the site again. It's about 270 pages, so updating it is not a trivial task. Plus, with that many pages, it's kind of hard to keep track...

Our book Happy Hound was written up in an Indiana newspaper! It was a fun interview actually, since the author and I are both dog lovers. We talked for ages about the thrills and chills of living with many very goofy canines  ;-) Check out the article... "A Happy Hound - Having problems with your new dog or puppy?" by Jean Starr, March 3, 2007, The Times of Northwest Indiana " Any lasting relationship requires knowledge of the other being and plenty of introspection. The same is true with making...

I finally got our videos uploaded to YouTube. They've been available on their respective Web sites for a while, but now they are available to a (much) wider audience. Here are the links: Samoyed Songs of Joy (from Happy Hound) Vegans Go Hunting (from Vegan Success) If you are into YouTube, please share them with all your video-phile type friends  ;-)Technorati tags: daffron, vegan, vegan success, happy hound, dogs, puppies, adopted pets

As some people may have noticed, a few of our Web sites now look different than they did a few weeks ago. As you can see... Logical Tips Pet Tails Sandpoint Insider ...now are organized by topic. This organization is different than it was before. When we set them up, the sites were arranged by issue (much like our Computor Companion magazine site is now). With the ezine sites, however, because there are only 2 articles in an issue, the table of contents looked kind of small. Plus, given the comments we were getting, it was obvious that people were not finding the many hundreds...

Clearly I have not been good about adding updates to this blog. However, things should change because we finally got all the Web sites switched over and have figured out how to send updates out via RSS. This change is a big deal in my world; I'll explain it in the next post. But first, without further ado, I must announce that the new Winter issue of Computor Companion is online. Ta da! http://www.computorcompanion.com The new issue has these articles: Use Excel to Get Dates           Fun with Xara Xtreme Pro        ...

All of our books are available and shipping either from our ecommerce sites or Amazon.com. Vegan Success: Scrumptious, Healthy Vegan Recipes for Busy People is a cookbook filled simple recipes anyone can make. This book is available from http://www.VeganSuccess.com or Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0974924512). At the Vegan Success site, visitors can sign up for  free tips for getting a vegan dinner on the table fast or watch a tongue-in-cheek video called Vegans Go Hunting. Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites that Work is designed to explain the often confusing and hype-filled world of online business in plain English with no "geek...

We posted our first foray into video on the Vegan Success site: http://www.VeganSuccess.com It's called "Vegans Go Hunting" and it shows what happens when vegans are hungry and there's nothing to eat. (It's kind of a large Flash file, so it's only fun if you're on broadband.) Anyway, it has music, narration and features Tika, the Squash Dog. As you can see, she had a really, really good time making the video ;-) - SusanTechnorati tags: daffron, vegan, vegan success

I just got an email that the first delivery of our new book Happy Hound: Develop a Great Relationship with Your Adopted Dog or Puppy has shipped. That means my books are somewhere between Tennessee and here. In the meantime, you can read about it on the Web site: http://www.happyhoundbook.com Plus, you can watch a video of our cover model Cami "singing." She's a Samoyed mix and when she has something to say, she utters a Mighty Woo! - SusanTechnorati tags: daffron, dogs, happy hound, puppies, adopted pets

Oops, forgot to mention this too. The fall issue of Computor Companion is online. Check it out at: http://www.computorcompanion.com We went on vacation and I forgot to mention it. It was a good vacation though ;-) - SusanTechnorati tags: daffron, computor companion

Okay, so I haven't posted for a while. We've been busy. And here's proof. At long last, Web Business Success: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Web Sites That Work is available. Check out the brand, spanky new site at: http://www.logicalebiz.com Unlike its predecessor, this is a real print book. Soon, like Vegan Success, it will be available on Amazon.com. Technically, it's in there, since it's been updated from the Ingram database, but it's not showing as available yet. Stay tuned ;-) Susan Daffron Co-author Vegan Success AND Web Business Success Technorati tags: daffron, web business success, web business, online business

For those who may be curious, we have moved our blog from WordPress to Subtext, which is a fork off the .Text blogging system. It's a .NET based blogging system, and so far, I like it a LOT better. I mean a LOT.Technorati tags: daffron

Our very own Computor Companion was mentioned by the BBC this week. Kate Russell has a list of sites in her Favorites folder and we’re among them. BBC World BBC News As a result, Logical Tips subscribes are way up. We’re delighted to welcome all the new subscribers from “across the pond.” Technorati tags: daffron, computor companion

In the continuing effort to promote IdeaWeaver, our creative writing tool for authors, we really wanted to get the product listed on the Windows Marketplace. If you aren’t familiar with it, the Windows Marketplace is where you land when you click your Windows XP Start menu and select “Windows Catalog.” I guess they changed the name somewhere along the way. We were hoping that we could get IdeaWeaver into the marketplace as a side-effect of it being Windows Platform Certified, but it turns out that there is no relationship or requirement there. Any Windows software can be listed on the Windows...

The new Summer 2006 issue of Computor Companion is now online. This issue of CC has a number of cool articles, including info on the upcoming Office 2007, ripping music CDs, and my method for labeling a whole lot of file folders using Word’s mail merge feature.In other big news, we have passed all the criteria and are now official Microsoft Certified Partners with an ISV Software Solutions Competency. ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor and technically, it means we have earned enough points from “tested products” (our IdeaWeaver software in this case) and customer references to become a certified partner. Because...

As I wrote here, A Book Journey  we have a new book coming out. For all you vegans, vegetarians, and wanna be veggies, I plan to approve the proof and order the first batch of Vegan Success tomorrow. Yeah, I’ve been kinda busy. That’s also why I’ve ignored this blog for a while. (Well, that and pouting about Word Press being sort of a pain to work with.) Technorati tags: daffron, vegan, cookbook, vegan success

This week we found out that our IdeaWeaver software passed independent platform testing at Veritest for Windows Client Software and Microsoft Office. (VeriTest is the testing service of Lionbridge Technologies and performs the Microsoft Platform Test for ISV Solutions.) Passing the software certfication is also our first step toward becoming Microsoft Certified Partners. Note that if anyone has questions on IdeaWeaver, we do have a forum set up for it here: IdeaWeaver Forum Meanwhile, I just put a book into IdeaWeaver that I’m updating. So far, it seems to be working great. Technorati tags: daffron, ideaweaver, writing, writers, publishing

We’ve been working for quite a while on a new software product and last week, we told the world. Yes, IdeaWeaver is now available for free download at: IdeaWeaverSoftware.com We’ve been using it for a while and if you do a lot of writing (or even a little) it’s extremely helpful, especially if you’ve ever been stuck staring at the page wondering what to say. With IdeaWeaver, you can just start entering ideas as they float into your brain and organize them later. So you don’t have to fret about your “topic sentence” or structure, until you’re ready. You can set up topics and...

In the lastest edition of Logical Tips, my non-nerdy musings included a survey on whether or not people like LT the way it is or would like some changes. The response was overwhelming. I promised to answer everybody and I have, but let’s just say I’ve been answering a LOT of email. Technorati tags: daffron, logical tips

It’s up!  http://www.computorcompanion.com Technorati tags: daffron, computor companion

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a couple days. As I wrote in this weeks’ Sandpoint Insider, Sylvie White of TerraPen Geographics let us post some of her maps that show where the U.S. Forest Service parcels are that Bush wants to sell off. This page has the maps: http://www.sandpointinsider.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=300 If there weren’t enough reasons to dispise our illustrious President, here’s one more. I keep reading more and more references to impeachment. Although I doubt it would really happen, no lying, cheating, thief of a politician deserves it more. Technorati tags: daffron, sandpoint