Bio: Ronda Del Boccio is an award-winning author, photographer, artist, and speaker. She is the Queen of BLISS. She lives in rural Missouri with her gorgeous golden retriever guide dog and cat. Her short stories, poems, and articles appear in over two dozen anthologies across five continents. She has authored and co-authored a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction.
She has also won awards for her singing, teaching, cooking, art, photography, writing, and translation of a medieval cookbook. As you can tell, her interests are diverse. Anything she wants to do or experience, she makes happen.
Although she is “legally blind,” which she says means she’s “illegally sighted,” Ronda lives a full and active life. She travels, cooks, and tries new ventures. Nothing stops her!
Ronda is the Amazon #1 bestselling author of several books, including The Story of Impact, Trust Your Heart: Building Relationships that Build Your Business, Mindset Masters: Achieve Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, The Peace Seed: Personal and Global Transformation through Storytelling, and the paranormal/urban fantasy novel They All Died Smiling, amongst others.
Get free stories and event updates from her at MagicalStoriesByRonda.wordpress.com
Highlighted Book Title: The Peace Seed: Personal and Global Transformation through Storytelling
Cover:
Description: Have you ever felt a burning desire to be a peacebringer? Yet you may wonder what one small person can do? You are not alone. Every human being with a desire to make a big difference feels that way sometimes.
Within YOU is an innate seed of greatness. Just as the mightiest tree grows from the smallest seed, big changes begin with one tiny seed – YOU!
There is more to this journey than the book. I invite you to experience the activities in the special online journal environment and on the Peace Seed website, which call you to BE peace through human connection.
In this book, the online activities YOU:
Bridge the human divide forever
Instantly connect with anyone in the world
Keep your cultural and family heritage alive
Bring peace into any situation by listening and sharing stories
Please check out my affiliate links in this article. Any purchase you make using my links will help support Synova Ink Publishing. With your support, I will continue producing high-quality free content for more people like you. Thank you in advance!
I hate it when I put my heart and soul into clients, and they don’t follow through. As a new coach, this really hurt me, and I always thought there was something wrong. Maybe something was missing in my coaching program. So I would add more information. I would add more worksheets. I would add more tips and tricks. But over time, I realized the lack was not within me or my program. The lack was in the client. Something had stifled their ambition.
I have put so much into the Author Biz 101 course that I’ve had some people tell me there’s so much information it’s almost overwhelming. I know it’s not a lack in the course itself. So what could cause this?
That’s when I realized that ambition was a tricky character. While you’re all fired up with a new project, ambition comes easily. When life hits and other things come up, ambition starts to wane. That’s when I encourage my clients to look back at their purpose. Why did they want to write a book in the first place? Who did they want to touch with their writing?
I also found in some cases that the client was subconsciously sabotaging their own efforts. If it were a lack of self-esteem or a feeling of unworthiness, they would find things to self-sabotage their efforts. Then I started encouraging my clients to change their mindsets about what they deserve. If you feel called or led to write a book, I believe there’s a reason and a purpose for it. You are good enough. You are capable. And there are so many tools available. Writing a book has never been easier than it is right now.
I hate dealing with grammar Nazis and those with a limited mindset who discourage new writers from even starting. I had a new writer who was desperate for a critique. I gave him a good critique, but he wanted someone that was a little harsher, so I sent him to a grammar Nazi. I wish I hadn’t. This grammar Nazi put down his work, but he also told the new writer not to get published because there was no money in writing anymore. Unfortunately, this new writer was so insecure that he took this advice even against my own, and I have never heard from him since. It’s a terrible shame because it has been a long time since someone could move me with words as this man did. I only hope he will get the courage to step up and share his work with the world in the near future.
Dealing with people who do not know how to make money with their writing is one of the things I despise about author coaching. Thousands of indie authors make six figures a year or more with their writing. If I had to go back to traditional publishing, I would probably refuse because I make a hundred times more money publishing independently.
They’re still money to be made publishing traditionally, but quite frankly, it’s much easier and quicker to do it on your own. Unfortunately, this grammar Nazi didn’t know how to make money with his writing, and his limited mindset caused another writer to give up. I will never again send someone looking for a critique to a grammar Nazi. When I researched this man, he’s never published anything in his lifetime to make things even worse. He knew so much about grammar but nothing about making money.
What I love about Authur coaching:
I love it when I can inspire a writer to start a new book. I love the excitement. You can feel it in the air as they begin to talk about their new book. I love helping them form the thoughts of their imaginations and helping them bring them out to the world. I love to inspire and motivate and encourage.
I love the feeling I get when I watch a new writer publish their first book. It’s like watching your child receive an award at school. I’m thrilled to be a part of their journey. I enjoy signing their certificate when they complete my course. I love packaging up my golden ink pins to give away to my authors who complete this journey. Unfortunately, I don’t get to do that very often. So many people want to quit halfway through their book and never finish. That’s the part I hate.
So what’s the point? The point is I want to encourage you to finish the projects you start. When you finish a project, there’s a feeling of joy and satisfaction that comes across in a way that you can’t explain unless you complete your task. Writing a book can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be. I’m here to help, but you still have to finish.
What would you like to accomplish in your lifetime? Have you started on the journey only to be distracted by life? I encourage you to start again. Don’t quit. Follow through. You’ll never know how it feels until you finish it.
If you would like help with your book, check out my author coaching courses. I also have some one-on-one coaching options available through Patreon.
Whether you are planning to publish traditionally or independently, you must edit your work. Some writers hire an editor to look over every social media post, book, and article they write. But what if you don’t have a full-time editor on your staff? Here are a few tips to help you clean up your work before you submit it.
Read it aloud:
Try reading your piece out loud, and then you will notice places where you may stammer or trip over incorrect grammar or word choice. While this is a helpful tool to check your work, it isn’t perfect. Since you are the author, sometimes our minds read what we meant to say instead of reading it verbatim. If you can get someone else to read it out loud, it works even better.
Avoid Cliches:
We’ve all heard them, and it makes your work a little sloppy if you cannot come up with your own word choice.
Avoid being too clever:
While we all know we shouldn’t use cliches, sometimes authors try to be too clever with their word choices, and the readers are left to stumble through. As an author, we must remember that the reader has a thousand distractions at any given moment. While you are busy trying to sound smart, the reader has to decide if he or she wants to keep reading.
Don’t edit as you write:
If you try to edit as you write your first draft, you’ll find it nearly impossible to complete. Instead, let the words flow as they come to you. Then set the piece aside and let it cool for a bit before you jump right in and start editing.
Print it out:
If you’re a child of the ’80s, you might find it easier to edit your work if you have a printed copy in front of you. While this works for a lot of people, it is only a suggestion. The important thing is to find what works for you.
Start in the chaos:
You always want to start your book with a powerful hook to hold the reader’s interest. For fiction writers, I suggest you start in the chaos and then fill in the back story later on in the book. Non-fiction writers need to find a way to hook the readers in their first paragraph. To give you an example from my career, I will tell you how I started Unorganized Crime. This book was about an ex-gangster from Chicago. Instead of starting the book when he was born and letting it read like a textbook, I chose to start the story when Sidney was 17-years-old and breaking out of prison. I then went back and added bits of his childhood throughout the book.
Point of View:
Should you use only one? Should you use more than one? The answer will depend on who you ask. I suggest if you choose to use more than one point of view to at least keep each chapter in one POV. If you switch back and forth too much, it frustrates the reader, and a frustrated reader will not finish your book.
Don’t be afraid to cut out your favorite part:
When editing your work, you must be willing to cut your favorite character for the good of the story if need be.
Once you have your manuscript as clean as possible, then it’s time to consider finding an editing app and a professional editor to finish the job. I personally use Grammarly.com to clean up my work before sending it off to my editor.
Subscribe to Synova’s Simply Biz Author Coaching Newsletter and get Synova’s Simple Guide To Overcoming Writer’s Block
Have you always wanted to write a book, but it seems overwhelming and impossible?
Get Your Book Done Now is a step-by-step guide to help you achieve your dreams of becoming a published author. This course guides you from idea to publication. Synova starts with the limiting beliefs that hold you back from success and follows through with motivation and business plans to propel the aspiring writer from insecurities to confidence.
Synova’s Get Your Book Done Now course will give you the confidence you need to become a best-selling author!
Now you can get your book written with the help of Synova’s Simply Biz Coaching Service. Synova has personally designed this course to lead you through the pitfalls of the publishing world.
What’s included:
Synova starts at the heart of the problem; your mindset. If you do not have a success mindset in place all the schemes, business plans, and marketing in the world won’t help you.
Synova dives into the purpose of your writing. Why do you want to write and who do you want to write for?
That leads right to finding your target audience and having them in mind WHILE you write your book.
How to research your book (YES, Fiction books require some research too!)
Introduction into how to set up an author platform so when your book is ready, your marketing trampoline will be too.
Editing tips
Publishing options: Traditional and Indie Publishing
Intro into author marketing
Basic PACKAGE INCLUDES:
8 course modules, videos, worksheets, and mp3 downloads
FREE download of Synova’s ebook: How To Sell More Books without Driving Everyone Insane! (This offer expires 2/14/2021)
Have you ever wondered where Indie authors find all of the beautiful pictures for their book cover designs? There are many places online that charge you for stock photography, but there are also a few free options. A lot of them claim to be free, but they also require a paid subscription. So be careful when you look for these sites and watch the fine print. Today I’m going to give you a list of a few that I use regularly.
Pixabay.com Pixabay offers photos, videos, and music all for free. They do not require you to attribute the author, but it’s much appreciated. I use Pixabay the most. Pixabay also has an app that you can download on your Android device, making it handy if you are looking for pictures on the go.
Pexels.com Pexels is a lot like Pixabay but is not as large. They do offer photos and videos but no music. Like Pixabay, they are free, but they do ask you to attribute the photographer if possible. Both of these options allow you to use their photos for commercial purposes.
Unsplash.com Unsplash.com offers many visually stunning photos, but they do not provide videos, music, or vectors. Vector images are the ones that have no background and can be easily laid over another image. Vectors are used a lot in logo creation.
Openclipart.org Openclipart is a great place to find clipart of all sorts. Their website boasts of over 163,000 images for you to choose from for your various projects. While these four sites are not the only free stock photography sites on the internet, these are the four that I use the most. There are also paid sites like AdobeStock.com and Dreamstime.com, but if you’re designing projects on a bootstrap budget, I would suggest the four I have mentioned.
