Starting PeaceCause.org

Why I'm starting PeaceCause.org. - A message sent to the Fading Toward Enlightenment fans on the day of the London Bombings. Click Here.

The Stillness Within

Ironically, the key to lasting inner peace is to STOP believing in yourself.

The 04/04/2005 Newsletter. Click Here to view it.

Quit my job.

Well, I've quit my day job to promote Fading Toward Enlightenment full time. I figured since I've given my all to writing it, I should give my all to promoting it too. It was a tough decision, but the deciding factor was when I realized that 10 years from now, if I failed at this, I don't want to have any excuses like: "I was too busy working to sell the book properly."

Picked up 3000 copies last week. Sold my first copy while I was unloading the truck. I took that as a good sign.

You can order signed copies at FadingTowardEnlightenment.com as well as signed & numbered frame-able covers (only 300 covers will ever be signed). Follow this link to go directly to the purchase page.

Suicidal Decision?

I have made a possibly suicidal decision in my marketing plan for Fading Toward Enlightenment. I've decided to give away the equivalent of 25% of the profits on all books sold through my online website (FadingTowardEnlightenment.com). It may very well mean I'm going to be stuck working for the Man for a while longer, but this whole publishing project has made me too Solid and I need to loosen up a bit.
Basically, for every book sold though FadingTowardEnlightenment.com, I'm going to give five dollars to the charity of the customer's choice. See the Afterword to Fading Toward Enlightenment for the reasons behind this idea (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
In the meantime, I'm asking my readers to submit suggestions for charitable organizations. I want to list about 5-10 different organizations that support various areas of need - medical, ecological, children, the poor, the oppressed, etc. Purchasers of the book can then select the charity they like and at the end of the month, I'll sum up the sales attached to that charity and write them a check. 1000 sales under a charity means $5000 dollars worth of help and that’s no small amount of help.

Deciding on a Book Manufacturer

If all goes right, I should have copies of Fading Toward Enlightenment in my hands sometime in February. I have been working with Sandy Dolan at Health Communications Inc (the publishers of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series), and she has alleviated many of my concerns about the image quality of the photographs that are spread throughout the book. HCI is a bit more expensive than some of the other book manufacturers that I have been investigating, but Sandy's patience and assistance has been invaluable and that holds more weight with me than mere money.