It's ironic that psychologists who spend their lives dedicated to helping others rarely ask for help publicly. To be honest, when I began thinking about writing this post, I was reluctant to ask for my readers' help. Before I do, I'd like to go back to the lecture & one of the lessons that stood out for me.
Since the lecture had to do with the early years of the Beatles, it reminded me of something great hit songwriters always emphasized in workshops I organized for several years. The Beatles first great hits all revolved around personal pronouns: "She Loves You, " "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "And I Love Her," "When I Saw Her Standing There," " Please Please Me (Like I Please You), " & "If I Gave My Heart to You." These songs are lyrical as well as melodic classics. The words may seem simple, however, they are ingenious. Part of the reason for Beatle Mania in the 60's was their abundant use of personal pronouns. When you listen to these songs, it is easy to imagine that the song is addressing you personally. Any song that pulls the audience in in this way, has a chance to become a hit. "I Will Always Love You," "Baby It's You" are just two of many hits by other artists that used this hit formula. The Beatles used it repeatedly early on in their career.
A second lesson I learned from Mr. Frieman, was about the ambitiousness of the Beatles. They chose not to tour America until they had a Number One hit on the Billboard Charts in America. Although they had several hits in the UK before coming to the States, they waited. Once they did, the rest is history & Beatle Mania took over the USA.
You may be wondering what all this has to do with Psychology, my blog & asking for help. As some of you who have been following my blog know, I have reluctantly (see my post: Why We have a Love/Hate Relationship With Free Offers) begun preparing for a "Free" promotion of my e-book version of The Wake Up and Dream Challenge on Amazon.com. By pushing myself to develop a promotion, I have discovered a few things about myself, & the complexities of Amazo.com & the book publishing process. When I 1st published my book, I innocently assumed that although there were 22 versions (one for each of 21 nonprofit organizations that benefit from the book & one that benefits all 21 NPOs), that every sale would impact on the book's overall ranking. I also thought that when someone wrote a review on one version of the book it would appear on all the other 21 versions. I was wrong! In preparing for the promotion, I tried to get Amazon to make that happen with no success till a few days ago.
Given the number of Self Help/Psychology books there are, you may be as surprised as I was to find out that one version of my book had reached the rank of 56 on Amazon Kindle in one category! It was only when I discovered my rank as an author on Amazon that I inadvertently found a way to "link" all of my books. I had been using the wrong language to explain to the people on Amazon that all 22 versions were exactly the same, only how the royalties are shared is different. I am excited to let you know that by calling them "editions" they were able in a couple of days to link all of my books.
Here's where you & my lessons from the Beatles early years come in! I need your HELP! Here's what you can do to help me:
1) If you have read my book, take a moment & go to my book's page on Amazon & write a review. It will no longer be buried & fail to show up on all of my editions pages.
2) If you have not read my book, this might be a good time to follow this blog, either as a follower, by RSS feed (see the bottom of the blog to set it up), or via e-mail (see a prompt on the right). By following the blog, you will know when the free promotion will be starting. It will only run for a few days.
3) When the free promotion starts, please make everyone you know aware of this opportunity. You do not need to own a Kindle, Amazon has a free cloud reader you can download to your computer & grab a copy of the book.
I guess I am not as ambitious as The Beatles were, but with your help, my book can move from #56 to a best selling book on Amazon's Kindle site (Today I don't see that number anymore, but I changed the categories & may need to switch them back!). The more people who read the book & recommend it to their friends, the more people I will be able to help & the more money will be donated to the amazing nonprofit organizations I am helping.
Photo Credits:
Help: http-/www.flickr.com/photos/nomadic_lass/6884433823/.jpg
Heart of hearts: http-/www.flickr.com/photos/zooboing/5443502902/.jpg
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