What's your dream? What's your NY resolution?

[ardisdesigns]

My New Years Resolutions are:
To read 2 books a week
To be more mindful
To try and put thing into the world which actively help myself and other people

[Scott]

@sadya Congratulations on getting a book published! I'm sure you will continue to work your way to reaching your bigger goals too.

@kimmyschemy06 A hundred short stories? That's amazing! I'm bet you are a very cool mom.

@karenBailey That is so awesome that you started a charity. Please keep me updated on your exciting goals. I personally have a "World Hunger Blog". Maybe you could writes some posts about your charity and your goal to visit the children for that blog?

@Simran Great resolution! It's not the new year yet, but you made me smile today. <-- virtual smile to match my real one

@tsndoku0729 That's a great motto about always moving forward. It's so cool that you are already living the dream and still working towards new dreams.

@ardisdesigns Those are great resolutions! Have you entered your 2 book a week goal in Bookshelves?

I am so happy to see that almost everyone has as one of their goals, dreams or resolutions to help others or make others happy.


For this almost over year of 2015, one of your last goals can be to see me do the polar plunge (jump in cold water for charity) on video. I have pledged to do it on New Years if Achieve Your Dreams reaches #1 on Amazon. So please hurry and share the Amazon link to the book with your friends by email, Twitter, Facebook or whatever social networking sites you use. Make sure you tell them the book is still completely free.

The free promotion is going to end in another day or two, so please share today. Thank you!

[wordscrafter]

I've learned to not do resolutions. Last year, I decided to work on just one thing: follow through. For the most part, I did okay...about 65/35, which is pretty good considering the year I've had. This year, it's the same. But I want a much better score, so...

If I can do better, then I believe my dream will be well on its way of coming true. Write and finish a really good book!

[Scott]

@wordscrafter thanks for sharing. I'm not sure what the scores are for, but good luck I'm sure you can write and finish your book, and we will be here to encourage you.

[HollyMichelle]

I got the promotion I wanted at work and so now with that I finally am able to set money aside to begin selling my art work. So while I've already started on some new goals like setting up for my business, I hope to achieve a certain amount financially through my Etsy and self publish at least one book this year! It would be amazing if I could find an agent or have my work published my someone other than myself as well! (But that may take a while). I'm still working to build up my portfolio and really just want to get the ball rolling! I have a million smaller goals to keep me organized as well, but since I've been working on implementing little changes at a time, it isn't so scary!

Kudos to those of you who have already started working on your goals!

[ardisdesigns]

@HollyMichelle Good Luck! Taking the first step toward being a self supporting artist/writer is a really exciting (and difficult) challenge. I'd love to hear how Easy works for you -- (I've tried it in the past, and really liked the forum but haven't managed to market myself correctly to make it work for me yet).

[sadya]

I hope to achieve a certain amount financially through my Etsy and self publish at least one book this year! It would be amazing if I could find an agent or have my work published my someone other than myself as well!

I'm not sure if this is something you are looking for, perhaps you have heard about it, but United-PC publishes manuscripts which won't cost anyhing unless you pay for extra services. They publish in paperback and they print on demand. The book becomes available on their website. You have to choose the cover, check and correct the spelling yourself, you have to type the manuscript in the proper format and write the text to market your book. This is the reason they can help people publish for free or for very little money. The books look nice and the quality is allright. This agreement lasts for about three years.

Extra services are available, the prices depend on the services such as having someone else check your manuscript, having it advertised, making book marks available with your book title and so much more. I'm not sure if these include the possibility of your book additionally being available as an e-book or hard cover book.I haven't posted the link here, because I'm not sure if that is allowed. If you google United-PC, you can find out more.

Whatever you do, good luck.

[Scott]

@HollyMichelle You have some great goals. Good luck. The one that sticks out the most is getting a book published. Please keep us updated on your progress!

@ardisdesigns Good question

I'm so glad to see everyone helping each other with our goals.

[HollyMichelle]

ardisdesigns- It is extremely difficult. I have never been one to throw myself out there and make connections with people. I have always much preferred to have a few friends and let that be that. So now I am working to establish a sort of base of connections and really focus on networking so that I have people that actually look at my work and then can be redirected to my shop! I have closed my shop once previously because I had no idea what I was doing and just reopened a few months ago. Now that school is finished I have more time to dedicate to it. I only made three sales in the past year on a couple different items (my shop was never full) because I never really promoted or made goals (small or large). I only ever focused on the big picture and not really what it took to get there. If this helps, sit down and make a list of everything you would search for keyword wise for your shop (if you still have one). There are also a few sites that will do this for you, but you have to pay for those. That is what is going to decide how functional your SEO is. It takes A LOT of time. But with little tweaks here and there I am seeing tiny improvements. That's all I can ask for at once really!

sadya- Thank you so much for your recommendation! I have not actually heard of that method before, but it sounds like a great way to start up and I am definitely going to look into it! I'll have to let you know how it goes when I try it out! Finances are definitely a concern and I don't want to cheat myself, so hopefully they will have something that I will be able to use! (One can only edit so much of their work, lol.) Amazon was another platform I have considered using. As well as LuLu. Have you heard of those?

Scott- I will! I really can't wait to go through with it. I've gotten the actual story written and some concept art complete. I just need to finalize all of my art work and create layouts for it. What an exciting day that will be, getting to hold something I have created and put together in my hands. I'm sure many people on here can relate to that =)

Sorry I can't tag any of you lovely people that replied to me! It won't let me tag anyone (I assume because I have less than ten posts and the at symbol counts as a link?) =(

[sadya]

HollyMichelle, I have heard of Amazon, but not LuLu. I think United PC is definitely worth a try. I hope it'll work out and may you achieve everything you're trying.

[HollyMichelle]

@sadya Thank you for pointing me to them! Good luck on your goals as well, be they resolutions or otherwise! =)

[cmb247]

I resolve to be the best me as always. I will deal with each day and event add they happen. I will let go of what's gone because whatever happened is done even if it's 5 seconds ago; it's over let it go. I will laugh louder and more often. I will Love me first; I only get one me.

[Scott]

@cmb247 Great resolutions!

***

I've been inspired by the number of people who said their goal/dream/resolution is to either write a book or to get a book published. For this reason, just today I have created and am announcing a Free OnlineBookClub.org Publishing Contest. It's completely free to enter. Whoever wins will get an incredible publishing deal.