Book Marketing for Indies: Is Free Back?

Here's a slideshow from Smashwords for your indie information.

2015 Smashwords Survey - How to Sell More Ebooks from Smashwords, Inc.

Being Busy & T3: Evil or Good? (Mixed Blessings Part 1)

What is T3? It's my name for one of the greatest evils we face these days, and at the same time it can be quite helpful. It's something we engage in daily and most of us don't give it a second thought. What is T3?

It's my shorthand for T to the power of three and it stands for Tips, Tricks and Techniques. What do I mean T3 is evil, and what does it have to do with being busy?

Being overwhelmed with things to do is very much the spirit of this age. It's a subtle attack against us coming alive because it robs us of time with the author of life and the designer of our being. How can you become who you authentically are if you don't spend time with your designer? How can you be redeemed without connecting with the redeemer? 

Being busy also buries your talents. Jesus even told a parable about that issue. We weren't given the ability to do amazing things for any reason short of doing those things as extravagantly as we can.

So being busy is a subtle satanic attack, what's that got to do with T3? Well, the enemy of life counterfeits everything including the solution to the problem. What we call "the world," is really a system of false solutions treating the symptoms of sin (i.e. worldly fairness is everyone gets the same help, kingdom fairness is everyone gets what they need). T3 can be turned into the point and in that way it becomes a false solution and therefore insidious. 

When you're drowning you don't need anyone handing you a cup of water. It's an answer to the problem that makes the problem worse, and in that same vain, T3 is giving a busy person more "stuff." I love this post from Sam on this topic. 

So now that we're convinced T3 is totally evil, how can I defend it? 

Well the issue isn't T3, it's T3 as a solution. See I'm getting ready to launch a series of books on the topic of organization. My intent is help people reframe how they handle their "stuff" so they can free up time to use their God-given talents.  But I keep running into the same concern, over and again. How do I spend that kind of time giving people, what is essentially more T3? Is my T3 somehow not as stinky as other experts stuff?

No. While I hope my stuff is more effective than other peoples stuff, its all stuff and it's as likely to make the problem worse as it is to make it better. 

You see, in this world nothing is really pure and nothing is purely evil. That's a dangerous statement for a Christian to make. The uncomfortable truth is that only one really good thing entered this Earth after the fall of man and He died for your sin. 

Intellectually, we all know that our church pastor is a sinner and somewhere out there some pot smoking hippie is saving a soul no one else can reach. People are fallen and saved by grace, but what about things? What about stuff?

I saw a list of things that were "evil." It gets passed around social media by people who mock Christians because these things make us look like idiots. It included such things as Dungeons and Dragons, and Heavy Metal. (Obviously those stuck in my mind for a reason.) But can stuff like this be evil? Sure. For some people. They can lack "redeeming" qualities, sure. But here's the problem.

When we make faith about what you do and don't do we miss the point. If you think you're more holy because you only play bible charades and listen to Christian choir music then you've fallen for T3! 

Yeah I said it. That's right. Your Christian stuff is just stuff too! It's all stuff here on Earth. The world taints everything. Everything has something good that was tainted. Everything has potential to be a blessing or a curse. This is radical and dangerous I know. So lets jump to the end and get one things straight. God redeems. The bible says even evil serves God (Proverbs 16:4 & Genesis 50:20) See stuff isn't the problem unless you count on it. 

So moving forward, know that any time I point out T3 to help you organize I mean it for good, but I'm powerless to control whether or not you use it for good. Furthermore, you might initially use it for evil and then later on God does something and turns it all to good. He can do stuff like that. He's the redeemer. 

So God bless. Relax and enjoy your day. I'm going to walk in the full weight of who I am and share with you plenty of T3 and I hope you all use it under the guidance of God to free up time for God. 

PS Picture is of sunrise on a day I slept in. 

Fall Home and Garden Show

Come see me and 20+ other local authors at the Portland Fall Home & Garden show this Thu-Sun (Oct 1-4)! Booth 567! http://t.co/9lr3YbIzdr

I'll be there again this year. Can't wait to hang with friends and sell books. Starts today folks. You can get a copy of my latest book, Saber and Science.

Updates Galore!

Hello Friends, Family and Fans,

Lots of great changes and as usual the hardest part is trying to find time to update everyone. Kristin and I have successfully bought a house which you might call a fixer-upper. In the process of fixing up I tore my hamstring and spent a week laid up. 

I did still manage to get to the Sept 25th release party for the Paradisi project, which makes me really proud. However, It's time to shift back to non-fiction projects for a while. I'll give you some hints about that below. (Saber and Science)

On the Health/fitness front. I'm excited to announce that I've kept off more than 50lbs of the weight I lost despite utter chaos this summer. I'll be retooling my fitness plan between now and Christmas as part of my non-fiction/organizing efforts. I'll be certain to post updates here as they come out. If you're an early adapter you can go here:  SirBunch.Le-Vel.com and start now. I've also had success with HIIT and something I call ponder walking. More info to come in the next few months.

So am I done with fiction? Right when I have two series awaiting sequels? No! I've simply entered a new stage in life which is very rich in relationship (wife and daughter, new home) and so full that I'm struggling to make progress on anything that isn't urgent. 

I know that's a very common place to be in these days and I believe I've got some ideas to triple my productivity (or anyone's). I just need to focus what little writing time I get on creating that system for the short run. 

Abraham Lincoln once said if he had three hours to chop down a tree he'd spend two hours sharpening his ax. This is me going to sharpen my ax. I'm really excited about this. 

That's most of the news I can share at this time. 

One last thing: I'm looking for one rabid fan. I'm rebuilding a marketing platform (refocused on my non-fiction) and I'll need to build a new street team. I start by finding one rabid fan to spear head marketing efforts. The position is volunteer, but you do get early access to beta versions of potentially life changing material. You'll also get to see how I implement marketing for projects, (which I shelled out money to learn.)

Thanks for being a loyal follower of this blog. (PS I'll be radically improving this blog too.)

Loads of Loot #paradisichronicles

Alright, it's the big day and all my writer friends are going to be promoting like crazy the next wave of books coming out. I'll try to post all the info to free swag here so you can enter to win stuff. (Who doesn't love free stuff?)

Let's start with my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Author Andy Bunch - On how he got involved in the Paradisi Chronicles Pr...

Andy Bunch: What is your Paradisi story's genre?

Driving for Uber

I've been driving for Uber for about a month and I love it. It's not a perfect job but it does check certain boxes for a freelance writer. For one thing its very flexible for when/how much you want to work. For another thing, it's not writing. I love writing, but when you write/edit/publish both your own fiction and paid gigs for other folks, you can spend ten to twelve hours a day on a keyboard and it can get a bit overwhelming.

Driving provides an outlet. A way to make some extra cash where I'm using a very different skill set than I do writing. Yes I'm collecting some stories that may one day be a scene in a book, but mainly I'm looking farther away than my laptop screen.

If you want to drive for Uber they are still paying a bonus for folks who start up this month. Follow the link here and use my code when signing up. 31nxwue

Anyway, the one thing that I feel is missing is a community for drivers to share and support each other. So I've created a facebook page to provide that for drivers in my town, and I'm very soon creating a blog. Look for updates soon.

It's here, the big announcement (Paradisi Chronicles)

I've joined a crazy crew of Indie writers how are all going to release books on the same day in the same open source universe. It's an idea originally blogged about by Hugh Howey and it caught some of our imaginations so we worked to make it happen.

What sets this apart is that once we've launched our initial round of stories, anyone who wants to can write in this universe. The only rule is that you read through the cannon of information so that you don't change the rules of the universe, that you ask permission of any author before using one of there characters, and that you work to cross promote the other authors writing in this universe.

What I'm most astounded by is the level of interweaving that's been accomplished by a group of authors who didn't all know each other, don't write in the same genre, and don't actually live all in the same city. I mean we've got stories coming out where characters in different novels are in the same elevator at the same time. Two scenes in two different books in the exact same setting.

Well I've been too busy writing to build excitement for the release of the books which will be this September, but we've officially gone public with the project, launched our website and even received a nod from Hugh. So I wanted to get some information out and links to what other authors have done to announce the launch. More information will follow across this month and next. Look forward to updates via every social media outlet at my disposal. LOL.

Blogs about the project from other authors

Cheri Lasota (as Tristan James)

M. Lousa Locke 

Sarah Woodbury

Roslyn McFarland

My new author website

My facebook author page
Pictures I used to inspire me while writing Saber and Science

Update and potential big announcement

Okay fan's and friends, its been awhile since I've updated. Crazy times around the Bunch household. My wife and I moved in with family in order to save up for a down payment on a house, along with way too many other things to get into right now.

I started driving for Uber and I love it. It's the perfect job for an Indie Author/Freelance writer because you can work as little or as much as you want without any prior arrangements. It's especially good when you have a 15 month old little girl. Pictured left. If you want to give it a try please use my referral code so we both get more money. 31nxwue

My wife and I have spent a little time traveling, which is nice. But the writing front is where the big announcement is and for that you'll have to check out the next post.

from: Andy Bunch

Hi Fun


http://andrewandkelleyswedding.com/angle.php?test=xpmht7q5cmpaw78



sir_bunch@hotmail.com

Sent from my iPhone

Vacation! and other updates...

Life has been busy lately. Very exciting developments. As always thesedays, I'm contractually bound not to talk about half of it. In general, the primary client for my freelance business is talking about expanding and formalizing my role with them. Even as I morn the loss of independence that comes with freelancing I welcome the oportunity to narrow my focus at the day job.

My writing life secret oportunity is moving along. I have to really make up some ground if I'm going to get my revision done by the next deadline (Mid March).

My wife and I are contemplating a move. The area we're living in is getting crowded and we found a nice oportinity to save dough without losing too much square footage. But moves are traumatic with a baby.

Actually a 1 year old. I can't beleive my daughter is a whole year old. My wife and I are celebrating her birthday at my in-laws and taking a mini-working-vacation. Next Saturday we'll have the big birthday party for her.

Since I haven't posted in a while here's a link to some of the most awesome yet practical advice I've run into in a long time.

http://vertexfoods.com/top-7-healthy-snacks-to-eat-at-your-desk/

The ideal office snacks are “well constructed mini-meals” – that means food combos that contains protein, fat and fiber, while also being low in calories. It’s tough to find all those elements in a single snack, but try these 7 options to satisfy your hunger while at work, while boosting your METABOLISM + ENERGY levels!

1. CELERY + HUMMUS: Hummus, made with sesame seeds, contains lots of nutrients and beneficial fibers called lignans that improve blood profiles, normalize blood pressure and enhance vitamin E absorption.
2. STRING CHEESE: High in protein, it offers a bit of fat and has only 80 calories.
3. HARD BOILED EGGS: One egg has around 70 calories and is packed with five to six grams of protein.
4. APPLE WITH PEANUT BUTTER: This snack has the magic combination of fiber, protein and fat.
5. ALMONDS: 1 serving has only 184 calories. Almonds contain omega-9 fatty acid, the fat also found in olive oil that’s associated with good heart health.
6. 1/2 AN AVOCADO: In addition to having a surprisingly high fiber content, this healthy fat will help keep your hunger at bay and energy levels high!
7. TOMATO SLICES WITH LOW FAT CHEESE + OLIVE OIL: This combination contains fat and protein, and tomatoes are packed with antioxidants. In all, it’s a tasty + filling snack that’s also low in calories.

https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chalkboard-3876804/5-stress-busting-herbs-that-will-change-your-4290571602/

• ASHWAGANDA
  The easer of anxiety, depression and sleep issues. Ashwaganda has immuno-modulating effects that boost and regulate the immune system and lower cortisol levels. You can take Ashwaganda is supplement form, I recommend Organic India Ashwaganda.
• ASTRALAGUS
  Increases the amount of anti-stress compounds our bodies use to prevent and repair stress-related damage. By reducing the ability of stress hormones like cortisol to bind to receptors, astralagus boosts immunity and shields the body from the effects of stress. I recommend adding 20-30 drops of Astralagus Root Extract to your morning juices or smoothies.
• CORDYCEP MUSHROOM
  Funguses with antioxidant properties include Reishi, Shiitake, and Maitake mushrooms. Each have adaptogenic, anti-tumor, and immune enhancing properties.  You can easily add a scoop of Cordycep powder to smoothies. I like Mushroom Matrix Organic Cordyceps.
• HOLY BASIL (TULSI)
  Referred to as the “elixir of anti-aging,” holy basil helps fight fatigue and stress, boosts the immune system, and regulates blood sugar, blood pressure, and hormone levels. My favorite way to enjoy Holy Basil is in a warm cup of Tulsi Tea by Organic India.
• RHODIOLA (GOLDEN ROOT)
  Contains the phytochemical salisdroside which helps resist anxiety and aging. Other benefits include suppression of the production of cortisol, increased levels of stress-resistant proteins, restoration of normal patterns of eating and sleeping after stress, resistance to mental and physical fatigue, and protection against oxidative stress, heat stress, radiation and toxic chemicals. Additional research has shown this adaptogen can protect the heart and liver, increase use of oxygen, improve memory and longevity, as well as aid in weight loss.  One of the easiest ways to take is in supplement form – I suggest Gaia HerbsRhodiola.

Hack to Eat Better

From MyFitnessPal.com

Keep it simple. Instead of following some fad diet with lots of rules, keep your healthy eating routine simple. Eat real food that’s mostly plants with lots of color and variety. Balance every meal with high-quality proteins like lean meat, fish, tofu or beans and complex carbs like brown rice, potatoes, quinoa, and healthy fats like avocado, nuts, seeds and olive oil. Make half of your plate fruits and vegetables to meet your daily fiber needs while keeping calories in check.

Don’t bring junk into the house. If you’re easily swayed to nosh on chips, cookies and ice cream, keep the processed snacks out of the house. This simple trick makes healthy eating easy. Out of sight, out of mind.

Eat more fat. Yes, you read that right. People who snack on healthy fats like a handful of almonds eat fewer calories over the course of the day because they feel more satisfied. So don’t skimp on fat; it keeps you fuller for longer so you will, in turn, eat less. Try these 6 high-fat foods that are good for you.

Make lunch the night before. Stop telling yourself you’ll have time to pack a lunch on your way out the door in the morning. While you’re cleaning up from dinner, put together your lunch for the next day. Whether it be leftovers from dinner or a mason jar salad, planning ahead makes it easy to walk out the door with a healthy lunch.

Use Pinterest with a purpose. Make a board of “Must-Make Meals” filled with weeknight go-tos so that when you’re planning and prepping your meals you know right where to turn (or scroll to). Take it a step further and organize recipes by category like “chicken,” “fish,” “vegetarian,” to get more variety in your diet.

Carry a water bottle. Because hydration is a vital part of being healthy, make it a priority to carry a water bottle around with you and refill it throughout the day. The Institute of Medicine recommends men that drink 120 ounces and women 90 ounces of fluid per day. If you’re active, you will need to replace what you lost through sweat as well. Here are some more great tips to stay hydrated!

Eat on a schedule. A person who eats 2,000 calories throughout the day will often have more energy and tend to lose more weight than the person who eats the same amount of calories all at one meal. By skipping meals or ignoring our hunger cues, we force our bodies to run off of fumes. Listen to your body when it says it’s hungry and you will find that it’s easier to resist the temptation of overeating later at night.

Make breakfast in 90 seconds. Breakfast doesn’t need to be a large production; keep it simple for mornings when you have to be out of the house fast. Homemade breakfast burritos are a fast, simple way to grab a meal in the morning using only a microwave. Place one 6-inch tortilla in a cereal bowl and crack an egg onto the tortilla. Add toppings like green chilies, a sprinkle of cheese, onions and leftover roasted veggies from the night before. Microwave for 90 seconds or until the egg is cooked. Top with salsa and voila: breakfast in 90 seconds.

Catch some ZZZs. Getting enough shut eye at night goes a long way to protecting your body. Because hormones are regulated while you sleep, people who get quality sleep on a daily basis tend to make better food choices and have slimmer waistlines.

Update #??

Okay so it's been a while since I updated. Argh. Life went sideways for a bit. I think its important to be candid about life's setbacks as well as the goals and successes, but I don't want to devote too much time/attention to the mistakes. So let me recap here.

My big/awesome whale contract ended and it took three weeks to replace it. That's always a busy time for me. I am back to work but at half time and that's cramping my style a bit.

My wife and I spent some tax return on a beach trip but our ten month old sucked any sort of relaxation out of the experience leaving us stressed from trying to prep for the week and recover from the trip.

We immediately started car shopping to replace my wife's tiny yet loved car with one that fits our baby's car seat. That turned into a mess, but ultimately we triumphed, so it ends well.

I managed to get my scifi secret project drafted off to the editors about a day early so that I could try to relax at the beach. Best laid plans, right? Anyway that's another win. Not sounding too bad, right?

Well I haven't updated my project hopper in about two months and that leaves me a bit stressed. You see I try to go through quarterly with a big review which keeps me on track and my end of year/new year review is vital to my peace of mind. More than just the annoyance of working budget files and plans that say 2014 not doing a review is an indication that I haven't taken the "me" time defrag my brain. It's hard to explain but if you read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen there's a good explanation of my situation under the term Open Loops. (In short: things we unconsciously feel obligated to do that we don't have any plan to accomplish.)

So I started asking myself, "am I doing an other avoiding behaviors?" Yes, I was being intolerant of other humans when they did very human things. Then I asked myself, "what am I avoiding?"

The truth, after much reflection, is that I'm waiting on a few big projects, and job opportunities that are long over due and I'm feeling like God is holding out on me. I let that unconsciously keep me from moving closer to God in my spiritual life. Items in my project hopper would have made plain that I was neglecting some of the important things in my life.

I read a brief article by Mike Pink that talked about spending deliberate time honoring God. My prayer life hadn't gone down hill all this time, but I wasn't setting aside time to meditate on how big and how generous God is. Even though I accepted that it was true, when I tried out Pink's suggestion I could feel myself realign from inside out. It's embarrassing because one of my works in process is a book on living from inside out. Yet here I was taking my self worth from my circumstances instead of being who I am uniquely in those circumstances.

When we take our identity from our relationship with God, when we remember we're built in His image and restored to perfection by his work, that's when stress goes down and we start impacting the environment around us, instead of being transformed by our environment.

For more on this topic, read my book "On Becoming a Man."

Spiritual Post and Life Update

Matt. 5:13 – 14

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

So what does it mean to be the light and the salt? I’ve been on a long quest to discover what that means for me, and I want to hand you this chunk of wisdom in the hopes that you get some mileage out of it. Then I want to give a fast update that’s closely related to this topic.

To be salt is to be grounded in the covenant God has with you. There is two parts to the covenant 1) the part that applies to every believer and 2) the part that is unique to you. The second part leads directly to the topic of light.

1)      The covenant refers to the Hebrews 9:15. Christ, who never sinned or disappointed the Father, wrote a will that in the event of his death we should inherit everything due to him. We live under the full favor of God toward his only son.

2)      Because God knew us before he made the world and we are made in his image, we know that God intended something unique and special when he designed us, and that’s what we are restored to in that inheritance. So part of this covenant—the life we’ve inherited—is restoration to something. (I know we’re usually told we just get to escape death, but that’s just Mercy, we also get Grace.)

Being the light refers to living in the truth. That also comes in two forms. 1) You can’t live in light if you aren’t being authentic to who you are. 2) Our woundedness is meant to be shared with a fellowship.

1)      So it’s important that we seek out the person inside that reflects who God see us as. Or put another way, its important that we live not only as a redeemed person, but as the unique version of redeemed person that God intended before sin entered the world.

2)      We can’t be vulnerable with everyone, or even most people, but there should be some people with whom we can let it all hang out. We need to humbly receive the input of that fellowship as part of the promised transformation from glory to glory.

So when we put all this together, being the salt and the light is about living in what Christ did for you, as the unique person God intended, in vulnerability with a fellowship. But it’s important to bring it full circle and say that the good work Christ began in you he will be faithful to complete it (Phil. 1:6). This transformation is not entirely our responsibility (Romans 4). The promise (covenant) to Abraham was given before his circumcision (obedience to the law).

So obviously there’s a lot to be explored there and it really doesn’t work to just give it all in one multi-vitamin. All of this is another approach to the concept of Glory and Calling. God meant something unique when he designed us, and it’s vital that we explore what that is. It’s equally important that we not take on responsibility for manifesting that new person. If we do that, we begin to strive, which only leads to pursuing the worldly (outword) reality of our glory. That path leads to frustration and takes our eyes off the source and example—Christ.

The inside person is more important to God and we’ve no perspective from which judge our inner progress. Even while we progress toward completeness we need to understand that we’ll never make it in this life, which is why Christ makes us complete.

I KNOW! Very confusing, but a vital concept. Even while we are learning to walk in completeness (and our unique glory) we depend on Christ’s mercy and must accept that we’ll not achieve it.

The reason I’m on about this is because I’m sick of all the focus going to mercy. As long as we frame the work of Christ in our life as a death on the cross to let us off the hook for being wicked sinners, we are missing the entire concept of Glory. Mercy is ever important, but it’s the insurance policy. LIFE comes from walking with Christ and a fellowship of believers in the inheritance of God’s favor and restoration of God’s plan for your life.

What gets the attention in most churches today, is how wicked we were and how good God is to kill Jesus instead of us. I want to shine a light onto the inheritance Christ died to give us.

So…Update

I’ve got some amazing opportunities coming in the next three to four months, and I’ve been knocking myself out to bring them about. I’ve been making some uncomfortable sacrifices too, and that’s often okay for a season. The challenge comes when things get pushed off or don’t come off as planned. Simple delays cause me to think, “just work a bit harder to catch up.” Of course anther delay follows, and another. Then interruptions happen and other plans become impacted. The next thing you know I’ve robbed time from my other values for too long and everything I’ve built evaporates.

This never used to be an issue for me. I had plenty of other challenges, but vainly chasing the American dream wasn’t one of them. It’s traditionally not been my heart of heart, but now that I have a wife and child my desires have changed. Now they look pretty middle-class American to the casual observer. So I’ve been dealing with a double whammy—pursuing things the world says I ought to want for what in my mind is somewhat nobler motives, and pursuing goals that don’t feed the man inside as directly as my former pursuits.

The journey/battle of merging my heart’s desires, old and new, has been rough. I confess to experiencing enormous stress, and I should know better. The reality is that I will receive what God has in store for me, and my limited attention span is best invested on things that feed and grow the inner man. So for weeks I’ve been probing the most authentic things that God and I discovered together. I’d be lying if I didn’t confess to near constant distractions by “real world” stuff, but I’ve been hugely blessed also.

The conclusion here is that I’m deciding not to stress about what I get accomplished or not. I’m not going to pressure myself to make things come about at all costs. I believe God is aware of my needs and my desires and will manifest the right things. I can still work toward goals, but I’m done striving. I can still practice doing things in the most efficient manner, but I’m done feeling bad when I end the day with more to do than I started the day with.

Also, I’m going to rebrand with all this in mind. I’m going to spend some time on the projects that feed the inner man so that I have more energy and focus for the “real world” stuff.

What that means for this blog, and those who follow it, is that I’ll be expanding and rebranding onto another platform and this blog will continue, but in a more focused roll.

God bless, and have a great day.

See also

Ephesians 5:8, 11

Colossians 4:6

Luke 14:34-35

Luke 15:1

John 8:12

Mark 16:15

Mark 9:35-50

1 Cor. 1:26

Romans 1:18-20