The Perfect Gift To Give

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I’m not one for gift giving.

I don’t give many gifts and I never accept any either.

Many years ago, I used to be part of the gift-giving hoard, but then one day I wised up and cut Christmas out of my life. It was one of the best things I did.

I still bought gifts for my own children, but not for anyone else. And I didn’t put up decorations, send cards, or attend any obligated get-togethers.

I just said, “I don’t do Christmas.”

It made the holiday period so much easier. It was a huge relief.

I always call Christmas my day off. It’s a day when I do absolutely nothing. I just do whatever I want. I don’t even cook.

Eventually, I cut out birthday gift-giving to adults. It’s always so difficult to choose things for other people, and I rarely received something I wanted, so I stopped giving gifts to adults.

It was also something I’ve never regretted doing.

The only people I still buy birthday gifts for are my grandchildren, but even they know that once they turn 18, they’re cut off.

But all through my time of giving gifts to everyone, and even now that it’s only the grandkids, my go-to gifts are always books.

I find that if you give someone a book, they’ll eventually read it. So it’s never wasted.

Books are good because they’re educational as well as entertaining. Even a novel can teach us things we didn’t know while entertaining us at the same time.

When the kids were young, I bought them sticker books, colouring books, puzzle books, and Dr Seuss Books. I bought them toys as well, but they always received books too.

For adults I buy novels, if I know the types of things they like, and I usually do because I ask people what types of books they read. I reckon you can tell a lot about a person by looking at the types of books they read.

And I know I’m not the only person who buys books as gifts. My book sales always go up around Christmas time, especially print books.

My most popular book around this time of year is “How Ton Quit Smoking Without Giving Up Cigarettes.” That tells me that there are a lot of unhappy smokers out there.

So if you’re struggling with what to buy someone, give them a book. You won’t regret it and either will they.

How To Quit Smoking

Without Giving Up Cigarettes

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/HQS.html

Stop Procrastinating and Take Back Control of Your Life

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Do you procrastinate? Do you know you have to do something but you just don't do it?

And do you find that when you put off doing something it gnaws at your mind? 

Avoiding doing what needs to be done, makes you feel bad.  It's on your mind and not in a small way. You feel like it's only bothering you a bit, but that prolonged niggling, can bring you down.

Yet still you procrastinate.

The annoying thing about procrastinating is that you know you're doing it. It's not an unconscious habit that you're not aware of. When you procrastinate you're completely conscious of what you're doing and you're aware of your behaviour.

So why do you do it? Why do you put off doing things you know you should be doing?

Is it laziness?

No.

Is it because you don't have enough will power and discipline? 

Not really. These things can help, but they can only take you so far.

So what can you do about it?

You start by understanding what is procrastination.

It's an avoidance tactic.

Next you need to understand what you're avoiding and why. 

What's causing you to procrastinate?

Wouldn't you love it if you could take back control of your life and be a productive person?

Productive people are happy people. They feel good because they get things done.

No one likes a quitter, especially if it's yourself.

So stop letting yourself down.

And don't think that to stop procrastinating means to do more.

It means to do more of what matters and stop wasting your time doing things that don't matter just so you can avoid doing what you'd really rather be doing.

I'm going to be talking about this a lot more soon because I have a new book coming out next week called, Stop Procrastinating and Take Back Control of Your Life.

I can't wait for you to read it.

I'll tell you more about it soon.

UPDATE: My new books is now available.

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/sp.html

My Hassle With Staff At Office Works

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A couple of years ago, I bought a PDF eBook and I wanted a printed copy.  

The eBook came with printing permissions, so I uploaded it to Office Works, set up how I wanted it printing and binding, paid the cost, and waited for an email to tell me when it was printed and ready to pick up, which came through the next day.

Easy.

A few weeks later, I had another PDF eBook I wanted to print, so I set it up on the Office Works website again.

The next day I received a call from a woman who said she was a manager at my local Office Works store, and she said my eBook couldn’t be printed because it was copyrighted to the Author.

I explained that the eBook had permission for printing, and I asked her if she’d looked at the permissions of the eBook.

She said it didn’t matter what the permissions were, they couldn’t print it.

It was clear that she had no idea about copyright or printing permissions.

I tried to explain it to her, but she insisted that because of copyright, only I could print it, not them, but if I came to the store and printed it, they would put a cover on it and bind it for me.

So, I said, “So you’re saying that the only difference between you printing it and me printing it, is who pushes the start button on the printer?”

She was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Yes. That’s exactly what copyright means.”

I said, “How do you know? You’re not a copyright expert. You’re a shop assistant.”

With that, she hung up. I contacted Office Works online and asked for a refund.

I no longer use them for my large-volume printing needs. It seemed ridiculous that one person at the company, who clearly knew nothing about copyright, could dictate who pushes the start button on the printing machine.

The whole conversation with her, plus my time spent setting up the print job, getting a refund, and getting it printed elsewhere, was a waste of my time. I usually protect my time because, as a writer, it’s extremely important to me. My wasted time with Office Works could have been spent writing a chapter of a book or a few online articles.

Which is why I prefer working alone.

Many people feel that being a writer is like subjecting yourself to a life of solitary confinement.

But I disagree.

Being a writer does mean spending a lot of time alone, and spending hours every day speaking to no-one, but that’s the way I prefer it.

Being a writer is my mission in life, which is why I’m always happy to go home and work on my writing mission.

And I don’t have to let others into my writing time.

Except when I have to deal with ignorant staff at Office Works.

Mission Critical For Life

Start Living Life On Your Terms By Pursuing Your True Life Mission

https://cheritonhousepublishing.com/books/MCFL.html

The Easiest Way To Write And Publish Books

When it comes to book writing and publishing, it doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned writer, or a newbie writer. If you want to SELL lots of books, then you need to WRITE lots of books. You also need to publish lots of books, and you don’t need to do a lot or know a lot to be able to do it.

You just need to keep it simple.

And the way to do that is through e-Publishing, because you don’t need fancy formatting, or a complicated cover, and your books don’t have to be huge tomes.

Just write short to medium books and publish them through Amazon’s KDP Publishing.

You can upload your manuscript as a simple Word document. Or if you prefer, MAC computers have eBook creation software built right into the system for free.

eBooks don’t need a complicated cover, only a flat cover image, and KDP has free templates and free images that you can use.

All you need is your manuscript as a simple document including a copyright page and any other pages you want to add, a flat cover image, and upload it all for free and set a price you want to sell it for.

Author John Locke began this way. He uploaded his novels, sold them as eBooks, and sold over a million copies in less than a year.

I’m not saying that you’ll have as much success as he did (very few writers do), but you won’t sell any books unless you start.

And you can start as easy as K-D-P.

If you want to learn more about publishing, you can do it along the way.

Mastering Book Publishing
Discover How To Make Money Publishing Books On Amazon