Meeting Planners Are People Too

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Greetings from Pam Farrel  of Love-Wise: In our Simple Skills for Success books (for men and women) we share a quote we have said hundreds of times to our own children as well as everyone we have lead or mentored: Quality attracts quality. Be a quality person and you will  attract quality people. This principle is also true in relationships between author and audience, and speaker and meeting planner. I have sat on both sides of an event desk: 1) as the Pastor’s wife and Director of Women’s Ministry hosting an event and 2) as the Guest Communicator speaking at…

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Knowing Your Competition

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Cheri Cowell here— When authors are asked about their book’s competition, sometimes they are hesitant to respond. They might be fearful of sounding critical of others or too highly of themselves. But, knowing your competition and how you are positioned with them is critical not only to completing that pesky part of the proposal, but also in selling your book. You want to learn the competition dance. The first step in the dance is reading the books similar to yours in genre, subject matter, and theme. You should have read the top five, if not more. As you read, note…

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Tips from the Pros: Twila Belk

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Almost six years ago, I had the privilege of meeting the wonderful Twila Belk and her partner in crime, Cecil Murphey, at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) in Orlando. Since then, I've come to count both Twila and Cec as good friends. That's why I'm delighted to introduce Cec's much-maligned sidekick to you today. Not only does Twila serve as Cec's manager, protector, and as Cec would say, "mother," but she is a talented speaker, writer, and the “GottaTellSomebody Gal.”  She was also brave enough to invite me to teach at my first writer's conference in 2009. So without…

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