Latest NEWS from The Book Shepherd this week / Check out Boomerang for Gmail users

Today is my every-other-year photo shoot with the awesome eyes and lens of Ashlee Bratton. The location? St. Maarten in the Caribbean on our ship, the Symphony of the Seas.

We’ve now had two days of awesome classes. Today and tomorrow are play days for all. For me, I’m meeting one-on-one with many of them for book brainstorming … and writing time for Appetizers for Judith.

I distributed a new press release for my Cooking with Judith—so fun to see it picked up by many areas—the TalkWalker.com service has alerted me that papers from Hawaii, to South Carolina to Idaho have picked it up. Bloggers and podcasters from Los Angeles have emailed me—can I have you on my show … oh yes, yes, yes!

AND it’s official … Fire Horse boldness and chaos ... it's happening this year … kick off is this week and my podcasts being taped for next month are all about boldness. It’s my personal sign … we are known to be a tad disruptive … are you ready???

The Fire Horse is a rare and powerful combination in the Chinese zodiac, occurring only once every 60 years (the last was 1966, the next is 2026), symbolizing intense passion, independence, transformation, and dynamic energy that breaks norms, often leading to significant cultural shifts, rebellion, and accelerated progress, with a strong association with powerful, unconventional women.

What a TOTALLY fun afternoon last Thursday when Birthday Month continued, this time celebrating with Rebecca Finkel and Ashley Bratton at Tea for Babes in Denver. Hats, of course, delicious teas and bites, and so much laughter and talk. Perfecto!

Meanwhile … woot, the Publishing at Sea cruise is happening now, which brings me to ask: What’s on your list to Becoming an Author on Fire? Tis my theme for the year … and for me, it means lots of changes fast changes, some dramatic, some long overdue. Flipping some of the things that I do … adding new items to my consulting and marketing mix. Becoming an Author on Fire brings "thriving" into your radar. What say you? Are you ready to drop what’s not working? Ready to step into something new?

Once again, the Colorado Authors Hall of Fame will award up to five $2,000 plus Mentorship scholarships. Total value to an aspiring, unpublished author is $17,000. Do you know someone who is an unpublished author who desires to be? Get them to submit their applications NOW.

On Monday, I had two calls from exciting writers and looked forward to submitting for scholarship consideration. They are in … and I know of two more. The more the merrier … only five scholarships will be granted.

1. February 15-22 Publishing at Sea workshops

2. February 19 Podcast … Book Reviews

3. February 26 Podcast ... Bring the Thrive Factor to Your Writing

4. March 1 Barnes & Noble Denver West-Lakewood Judith Briles and Joseph Caldara

5. March 20 Ask Judith anything about Bookmarketing and Publishing

6. April 1 Amazon Bestseller workshop #1

7. April 8 Amazon Bestseller workshop #2

8. April 11 Barnes & Noble BookFair Denver West-Lakewood

9. April 15 Amazon Bestseller workshop #3

10. April 22 Amazon Bestseller workshop #4

11. April 25 Barnes & Noble BookFair, Fort Collins

12. April 26 Barnes & Noble BookFair, Colorado Blvd

13. May 2 BN Book Fair, Southlands

14. May 9 BN Book Fair, Loveland

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BlueInk Review, LLC – Patti Thorn or Patricia Moosbrugger

eMail: PT@BlueInkReview.com or PM@BlueInkReview.com

Website: www.BlueInkReview.com

Services: Serious reviews of self-published books.

BlueInk Review offers honest, objective book reviews of self-published titles. Founded by Patti Thorn, former book review editor of the Rocky Mountain News, and Patricia Moosbrugger, an internationally known literary agent, BlueInk offers reviews penned by professional critics and writers whose bylines have appeared in major newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune and senior level editors from major New York publishing houses such as Viking and Crown. Completed reviews run on the BlueInk website, which has special features designed to help publishers and literary agents find promising new material and to help librarians and booksellers discover titles their patrons will be interested in, such as those written by local authors or set in their regions.

AuthorYOU members get a discount to BlueInk.

Judith Briles is YOURS for 60 minutes on Friday, February 27 at 3 pm MT to ask any question you have about book publishing, book marketing, writing a book … or just getting a "little juice" to start your engines after the Holiday rush from the past few weeks.

Post your questions as soon as you come on … Judith will come to you LIVE and bring you on the mic to respond to YOU and possibly ask additional questions.

It’s 60 minutes to start smoke ‘em your Author Success … and why not? Grab your favorite beverage; just listen in … or ASK, ASK, ASK! It’s time to re-juice and rekindle your author energy!

Join Zoom Meeting – click on it or copy/paste
https://zoom.us/j/95000476418?pwd=SH5vWqz0SkvVIZIgnC95lHCmCAi2km.1

Password: authors

Add to Your Calendar: Friday, February 27 at 3 pm MT (2 PT, 5 CT, 5 ET)

You can always listen in via our website: www.AuthorYOU.org (click on the On the Air image on the Home page—wait for it to upload. Or www.TheBookShepherd.com (click on the Resources tab).

Listen in at: http://bit.ly/BookPublishingPodcast or via YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JudithBrilesBS

February 5 Book and Writing Contests … C. Hope Clark
February 12 Online Fraud … Charles Breakfield
February 19 Book Reviews … Patti Thorn
February 26 Bring the Thrive Factor to Your Writing … Laura Beltsen

Answer: With a plan … that would be Plan A. Within the plan will be details for how you will support the marketing of your book. If it’s nonfiction, you will need a proposal detailing the book if it’s not already written. If fiction, the completed book. You should have some kind of a timeline—as in, "I’ll give it six months to be picked up. If not, it’s Plan B."

Plan B is non-traditional. Will you self-publish? Go with a pay-to-publish company? Create your own independent publishing company? Go with a hybrid publisher? What?

Ideally, Plan B runs parallel with Plan A. You need to be ready to GO!

This is how each call starts: I share a few strategies, tips, and tools that attendees can immediately start to use. All share … and ask plenty of questions. They get answers. Definitely an excellent way to start a Friday. Those of you who aren’t participating, you are making a mistake. I love the variety of books and authors who have chosen to participate. What’s also fun, is the energy that can be felt with what everyone is working on. Love it!

Here’s the link to take advantage of it and subscribe: http://bit.ly/JudithCoaching

About Judith Briles, The Book Shepherd ™

Book Publishing expert Judith Briles, aka The Book Shepherd, has shepherded more than 1,000 authors and created 500 best-sellers and award-winning books. She knows publishing inside and out from both the traditional and independent sides. Judith is an advocate for authors within her blogs, podcasts and speaking engagements. What’s her pet peeve? Two words: publishing predators.

She hosts the podcast AuthorU-Your Guide to Book Publishing which generates over 250,000 downloads a month. Her website is www.TheBookShepherd, email: JudithBriles.com and phone: 303-885-2207.