Books, Mentors, and Infopreneurship

In 2001 I became a protege of Robert G. Allen on the advice of a friend of many years, Jack Canfield (co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series). In March of 2001, along with many fellow proteges, I attended the Book Expo in Chicago where I met Lynn Pierce, a fellow protege who had just completed her first book and was promoting it at the expo.

I had started a book and did not have it ready for the expo.  In the morning of  September 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.  That afternoon I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  I had the cancer removed and devoted the next six years to teaching K-12 students.  My book remained unfinished and my development as an infopreneur didn't move very far.  I completed an additional masters degree and published several research articles concerning education.

I had maintained contact with Lynn Pierce over the years and have been aware of her progress in her infopreneurship business.  I started listening to Lynn's SuccessBlueprintRadio programs and signed-up for her SuccessBuildingSecrets program.

Nine years after the Book Expo in Chicago I am ready to edit my first book for publication.  This blog will be the content and I will begin organizing the posts into chapters based on the tags I have embedded in each post.  I hope to complete the editing soon and will probably publish using my connection with Lightening Source Press.

Blogging--Purpose of this Blog

Someone spoke about my blog this morning and I wanted to think again about its purpose.  One of my goals is to begin publishing books and the discipline of writing a daily blog was intended to be a "baby step" toward publishing--the blog and beyond.

I mention the purpose of this blog in both my first post and in the header that appears with every post (see below).
(Click on the image to see it completely and bigger.  It is the same as the comment appearing at the top of this page.)

 The content of my blog posts is eclectic, reflecting my thoughts, observations, or reflections of the moment.  Overall the focus is on helping readers navigate the world with a few more insights and resources.  I maintain current links in the posts so that people can get back to source information.

It is a business and a personal post in that many of the topics are business related and all are influenced by my personal reflection, experience, and sense of values.  This is post number 224 and I expect to turn the posts into a book soon.  The question is, should I wait for a year of posts or do it earlier?  I also need a way to organize the posts by themes and to make sure that the links remain alive in the electronic version of the book I expect to publish.

What does it take to write and publish a book?

In 2001, a public relations firm in Chicago advised me that they could promote me easily if I published a book.  I've been working on ideas for one or more books since 2001 and still haven't put everything together.  Perhaps I am being too much of a perfectionist--waiting for "just the right" book.

Families Keeping Up with the Speed of Technology

Today my 83-year-old cousin and his wife visited my 94-year-old mother in her retirement complex outside of Chicago.  Mom lives in a gated community and my cousin had not been in this area for more than seven years.  We spoke cell-phone to cell-phone to "guide them in" to the parking lot and up the stairs to Mom's apartment.  

They brought with them a scrapbook of my cousin-in-law's artwork spanning a 30-year career.  During our time together we spoke of an unpublished children's book that my cousin-in-law wrote and illustrated.  I am a registered electronic publisher even though I'm not presently publishing books.  They told me that they still have an electronic version of the book that we can probably bring up-to-date with technology, then submit for electronic publishing.  It would be great to give the public access to a book that has been waiting for publication for more than 20 years.

When they left to drive to their home several hours away, they left an important piece of paper that had been in the scrapbook.  Within 30 minutes of their leaving--long before they will have realized that the piece of paper had been left behind--I had scanned the paper and sent it off to them via e-mail, including links to several of the things we had talked about during the visit.

They'll get the e-mail when they get home, have the links to follow-up on our conversation, and can print a new copy of the important paper before they miss a beat.

The good news is that my 83-year-old cousin is active on e-mail and is staying up with all the technology.  That certainly makes communication at the speed of technology much more achievable.

Facebook is the social networking site used by many of my family members.  It's another way for us to keep in touch.