Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Time flies when creating a website!

Hello world! I feel as if I have been away from real life for the past five weeks, as I work on the things that will make my book successful. What "things" make a book successful?  I would love to have you guess, but who has time for that? You may think "getting the book published" is a success? Not necessarily. It turns out that it takes more than a well written, useful, non-fiction book to be successful as a writer. 

 Publishers now look for authors that have a strong social media presence and a large number of "followers" that are with you because of what you are writing about, as well as other offerings you have available on your website. Not just a catchy business name and a website that lists the services you offer and products you sell. OH NO! Your website is your own name, so even though I named my current business "Custom Solutions," to encompass all of the many things I offer to potential clients, that name is not even listed on my website. Only the state sales tax people and the IRS know my business name to be honest. My NEWLY LAUNCHED website is www.lesliefunk.com and when you go there you will notice it is focused on Chronic Pain, the topic of my book. Specifically, the book is "Relief From Chronic Pain: Learn how to reduce your pain and increase the joy in your life." You will also find information about my crochet art, my Etsy store for all the stuff I make, my recipes for healthy food that tastes good, lots of science and my blog too! I still have a ton of stuff to complete and post on my website, yet I decided to launch it anyway last week, because otherwise I might have continued to work on it for years and never actually get it up on the Internet! I am proud of myself, proud of the site that I created all on my own (I used Go Daddy, they ROCK!), and really proud of my upcoming book that will be submitted for publication review in September to Hay House Publishing, Inc. You know them, they publish this guy, Wayne Dyer?

You might wonder, why does an author need a website anyway? Turns out, it translates into a bigger concept called your "Platform." When I attended the Hay House Writer's Workshop in March of this year I learned a lot about how to develop a platform, and what it really means as an author writing her first nonfiction book. As I listened to the speakers at the workshop explain the concept of creating a "Platform" I also observed the other 399 writers in the room. I watched their faces, body language and listened to the questions they asked of the workshop presenters. One primary emotion permeated the room; fear. It was followed by skepticism, deep sighs of overwhelmed humans and the snorts of the non-believers. I was instantly aware of the fact that most authors and would-be-authors are not really all that into social media and self promotion. 
 
TruVisability


So the idea of building a website then using social media to direct traffic to the website to promote their expertise and ultimately their new book  is about as exciting to this room full of authors as finding out that they need to have a colonoscopy, a few fillings in their teeth and and file taxes in the same week. Those same would-be authors may still be soothing themselves with pints of Ben & Jerry's each night, as they contemplate how they will build a so-called "Platform" when they are still feeling like they don't know how to go about "twittering" (ah, that isn't the verb you want folks, you are "tweeting") much less finding their domain name and building a place to live on the web.

 Yeah, for many of us who went to college in the 80's the word "domain" recalls a episode of Seinfeld and "The Contest." Although at least if you build a website you can be named Webmaster and in effect you are mastering your own domain (name). I had to do it, I come from a family that adores this type of humor and yes, it was often painful to sit through a dinner at the home of my adolescent years. Thank God my brother can do Eddie Murphy skits, word-for-word, on demand! I will have to do a post or two on my family in the future, complete with content warnings and possibly an actual rating. Wait, scratch that, I might have to make it "fiction" and change the names, to protect those that have a professional career now and may not want to share the relatives with their boss or co-workers. Sorry for the teaser, you will be directed elsewhere for the above mentioned content in the future. 

So now is the time, please, pretty please, go to my website and sign up for my email list. If you prefer, just send me an email with any questions your may have, suggestions, referrals to your website or other sites you really love and of course you can just send me a "Hi, what's up?" email, I love those too! I promise to answer your email, so what more could you ask?

Saturday, July 5, 2014

It is now July 5th!

It is 1:09am. On Saturday. It is now Saturday, July 5th! Can someone please tell my downtown San Jose, California neighborhood? Perhaps then they will STOP firing off M-80's and bottle rockets? Sigh...somehow I doubt it. 

I am awake and quite productive right now! I have spent the last three hours working on my website, www.lesliefunk.com, which will soon be up! The website is a way for me to put all of the things I do for work, pleasure and to cope with chronic pain in one spot. I am very excited for this site to finally come together! The last time I built and launched a website was way back in 2001, for my company, "Wellness by Design." I was opening the new location, which was so much larger I was able to offer many more classes, workshops and services than before. This meant creating a new web presence, so that my current clients and new clients could find out everything from hours of operation to the latest class offerings at Wellness by Design. I remember that it was relatively simple to set up my website, import pictures, information and a map to my new location. Did I mention the key term "simple"? Well that is no longer the case!


My hosting company is Go Daddy, and their Website Builder product is amazing, there are so many choices and options as I design pages and link up my existing information from Blogger, Facebook, and Etsy. I can even put in my Twitter info, when I have some to add...very soon! (I big thank you to my personal Twitter coach, Kami Funk). The problem for me is that I see the potential of just how fabulous my new website can be, which is very different than what it needs to be to launch it. I find myself happily planning for the future as I create pages and forgetting that I need to launch it! I started in April, now it is July 5th!!!! So I will set my goal and tell it to you and everyone out there in cyberspace; I will launch this site BEFORE the end of next week! My deadline is July 11th at midnight! 

Why the hurry you ask? Because I am writing a non-fiction book and I want to reach as many people as I can. The book is "Relief From Chronic Pain: Learn new ways to decrease the pain and increase the joy in your life!" I realize that is a long title, however I have been told repeatedly that the title of the book is guaranteed to be changed by the publisher, so just pick something! I am submitting the book proposal to Hay House, Inc. and I believe they will select it to publish because so many people need help coping with chronic pain and chronic illness. My journey has been difficult and intense, yet I have learned so much about myself, pain and healing. Pain killers and drugs are not an option for me (they don't work on me, go figure). I have been blessed with doctors who found a pain management program for me and worked hard to get me enrolled. So last year, towards the end of February I began the program that would ultimately teach me multiple tools, skills and practices to relieve the pain I suffered with for so many years, as well as pain that had developed more recently. On a more technical level, the program helped me to develop new neural pathways to relieve pain, capitalizing on the plasticity of the brain. With a new paths to follow, my brain no longer had limited options, so it decreased the use of those old, worn pain loops. I hope that over time my brain has begun the process of pruning off the old neural pathways that I am no longer using on a regular basis and continuing to build new neural paths that allow me flexibility in how I approach the presence of chronic pain in my body.

Wow! It is 1:44am and it is silent outside! Goodnight now...more to come soon!