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Deception to the Nth Degree

by Mary Taylor
(Lino Lakes, MN, USA)

Deception to the Nth Degree

Deception to the Nth Degree

Writing a book is a very personal, challenging, and rewarding commitment. You may have personal and/or professional reasons why you want to get published. Perhaps it's because you have important information to convey or a compelling story to tell. My book, Deception to the Nth Degree, started out as a journal. One day while re-reading my journal, I got a feeling that this story could help others. Now, the work really began. I converted my hand written journal to a word document. That took several dedicated months typing, any time the urge hit me. Once I completed the Word document I had several editors preview the work. Once completed, I started submission of my book to several publishing companies. The responses I received were from publishing companies that I would have to pay them to publish my book instead of them paying me. Becoming an author with a published book and writing for any publishing house continues to be more of a challenge due to the highly competitive nature of the book publishing business.

I learned through this process about literary agents, book rights, ISBN, print on demand, etc. My next step was to find a literary agent. I found one which required that I have their editor preview my work, of which I did, for a fee. I also assisted in covering the printing cost for my manuscript to be submitted to publishers. After talking to several authors, I was informed that no legitimate agency ask for money up front. I was turned off by that experience and decided to try self-publishing. I guess I was deceived again. I found several sites that are virtually free, if you just want to publish. If you want an ISBN, marketing, and distribution, it'll cost you a little more. A good resource for self-publishers is Self–Publishing for Dummies.

The most expensive part of self-publishing is marketing your book. You may have heard of "free" marketing. I am still in the learning curve on marketing. Well, nothing is absolutely free, if it does not cost you money it will surely cost you time, and my time is valuable.

I have also recently published another book called "Thus Saith the Lord" and I have published articles on the Author Connection website.

Visit Mary's site.



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Deception to the Nth Degree

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Aug 02, 2008
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starstarstarstar 		Taylor and Associates?
by: Steve B.

Mary, hi. Thanks for your post.

I have to say, I just visited your site. I hope you won't mind if I make some constructive comments. On one level, I'm talking about your site. But, on another level, I'm talking about your writing.

I arrive at the home page of Taylor and Associates. I'm told I can put my trust in Taylor and Associates, but I'm not told what I can trust Taylor and Associates to do! (That's information that should be on any site's home page.) Taylor and Associates has a money back guarantee, but what are you guaranteeing?

On the home page I also see that Taylor and Associates is promoting a book. The book, oddly enough, is about deception. Wasn't I supposed to put my trust in Taylor and Associates? What's this about deception?

I dig deeper. I see that Taylor and Associates is a financial firm. Now that word Deception is even more disturbing.

I go back to the home page to learn about your book. I read:

The book Deception to the Nth Degree is a book about how to become victorious over deception.

Freedom:
It is a public acknowledgement of what happened and the forgiving process I had to undergo to forgive myself and the persons involved in the deceptions to become victorious and to take back control ofmy mind.

There's a typo. The word Freedom comes before the word It, so I read, "Freedom is a public acknowledgement of what happened..."

Freedom is an acknowledgement of what happened? That doesn't sound like a definition of freedom that I'm familiar with. And what do you mean, "What happened"? You say that as if everyone to the site knows what happened to you. Yet you're sending me to the site, and I have no idea what happened to you. Just that you felt somehow deceived.

On your Work page, oddly, you post an image of your back book cover. Your grammar, I'm afraid, is somewhat troubled, though you are descriptive. (Know also that the search engines don't "read" images. So the text from your back book cover has no chance of attracting search engine traffic.)

I guess I want to say two things, Mary. The first is that websites should not be asked to serve dual purposes. If you have a life as a financial advisor, as well as one as a writer, you should keep these enterprises separate. Not only will you confuse your visitors, but you'll confuse the search engines.

(Not to mention that you bring religion into the mix on other pages.)

The second is that good writing is very much about precision. It's about being able to step back from your words and put yourself in the role of reader in order to see whether your thoughts are being conveyed clearly and completely.

I have to say that I think you could use a little work on that! I truly believe that if you did hone those skills, you'd benefit not only as a writer but as a businessperson.

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