Ebook revised, edited and published

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Just a very short blog entry today to state that my ebook 'How To Sell Your Home - What Estate Agents Don't Tell You' is now fully edited, extended and updated and available on the Amazon Kindle store.

How to sell your home: What estate agents don't tell you

I'm pleased with the updates, as it extends the book by approximately 40% and goes into more detail in parts of the book that need attention. I've told the story on here before, so if you're not a regular reader, then the blog below will give you a good idea of the changes-

Photographs, reviews, fiverr and some changes to my ebook

Thinking time whilst on holiday, and not enough action time on my return

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I've now returned from three weeks holiday. A three week break brings lots of thinking time but the return to reality and activity is tougher than I remember.

I've kept physically active whilst away, with a gym and swimming pool on the complex I've been staying on. But a lot of time on the road, by the pool, in the gym and on the beach gives you plenty of time to think about what you are doing and where you want to start going next with everything you do.

I think that it is good (and it was good) to have a period of reflection and contemplation. It gives you a chance to determine whether you think that you're on the right track and to plot the way forward without the everyday distractions of work life. It also enables a little "blue sky thinking" as there exposure to a different routine and a different culture can have you thinking about things in different ways. I have looked at the direction I'm heading in and I broadly think that it's where I want to be going.

It's now thinking about heading out of the break and back into my life that's occupying my mind. I landed and got home in Sunday evening and it was back to work at 7.30am on Monday, so there was no real transition to be had. It was a case of holiday mode as is went to bed and work mode when I got up the next morning. It was just the way it had to be with three weeks off - there was no spare time to be had! So it was straight back into it, which can sometimes be the best way to get on, although I don't really feel like that the the moment! I can just about see the wood from the trees at work now, after a few days of catching up. I just wish I could say the same about everything else I do.

The thinking I've been doing has further develop the direction I've been going in with the writing. I've got the two books ready for final edit, plus the extras of getting the covers done. I think that I should be able to final edit this evening and from there I will produce a glossary of terms that will help readers of both books. This should all be finished this week and then it's time for the launches.

The next book after that will now be one based on "What estate agents can't be bothered to tell you" or a similar title. I'll be looking to set up a blog, some simple You Tube videos and a social media presence. From there it will be a case of editing the blog into a readable book. I think that the social media can feed the You Tube views, then the blog and create an interest for the book. When all are up and running, I expect each to feed the other.

The new book is almost there - editing commences!

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The new book is almost there

It's taken far longer than I thought possible, with extra work commitments and ending up doing a lot more mystery shopping than I thought I'd do, but the second boom is almost complete. Large parts of it have actually been written in the same way I'm writing this - on the park and ride bus on the way to work. I have chapter after chapter saved and stores in different devices and I'm really pleased with the first draft. All that remains is reading through it, editing the text to ensure it flows and makes some sort of sense. I say all that remains, but I know from the experience of writing the first book that this can take some time. The first book was edited up from a series of blogs, so the content was really written without me really noticing the amount of time it took. I then had to re-read, edit and make it sound like a book with chapters, rather than a blog with entries. The cross-references had to work and I wanted to break up the text with blocks of colour.

As I've said in a recent blog, this has been re-edited again, adding a chapter, rewriting parts of other chapters and adding photographs and a newly-designed cover-

http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2015/07/photographs-reviews-fiverr-and-some.html

I want to go through this process in the first instance with my second book. I want to edit it thoroughly and launch it on the Amazon Kindle store in it's finalised form, to make the most of the reviews and sales. After this is launched, the next step will be to write a link between the two books to ensure that they flow and then publish this as a double book. The idea is that you can get the content from both books as a double book for less than the price of buying each book individually.

Hopefully this will all get finished before a near-three-week holiday starting soon, and I'm hoping that the writing creativity continues to flow. I'm thinking about/hoping that I can get another book written during this holiday. It will be a fiction book that describes the beautiful landscape of where I'm going on holiday mixed with thoughts and feelings about certain aspects of my life so far. I'm inspired by the inner monologue of the writings of Phillip Roth and I want to tap into feelings I have the echo and come to the forefront when reading Mickey Sabbath or Swede Levov in Roth's writing. Obviously I'm not comparing myself to Roth or trying to be a Roth-lite but I find the writing crisp, energetic and witty. I hope to capture at least the first two in my writing, but I'm very aware that this will be quite a slow process and the drafting, redrafting and editing process is something I expect to take up a lot of my spare time. I'll look to self-publish it again, but the main idea behind it is a sort of line-in-the-sand moment where I can move on to other things. It's quite personal, and I'll get my wife to read the drafts first and help me with the content editing process. The writing and rewriting will all come down to me, though.

Photographs, reviews, fiverr and some serious editing are improving my Kindle book

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I've been looking to increase the income from my first Kindle ebook by improving it in several ways.

How to sell your house: What estate agents don't tell you by Steven Thompson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I5HOJAM/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_etaRvb3QK3CFG

These changes are coming before I finish my second ebook on the related topic of and then a combined book of The income I receive from this has been modest but steady, and I want to extend this to help when I eventually open my estate agency and have to rely on other income for a short while.

I've looked at the book and the changes I think were needed and the details are below-

Addition of photographs

The book itself flowed quite well in the way it was written but the newer version, to be released soon, will have some stock photos added to the text to break up the words and provide a link between the chapters. They are simple stock images that provide visual clues to the text and make it more easily readable.

Top tips boxes

I found that throughout the text I was highlighting really good ideas of how to make the most out of the process of selling your home. The ideas tended to get lost in the text as there were over 5,000 words. I came across the idea of adding boxes marked with the heading "TOP TIP." This enables the reader to spot the things to make the big changes. In short, it really highlights the really good ideas.

Reviews

I've started the process of emsing people a copy if the book so that they can give me a review. The Amazon reviews help potential buyers to make their decision in terms of whether to buy something. I've started to contact the top reviewers on Amazon with a copy of the book with a request to read and review. Hopefully this will add to the interest in the book and some reviews (hopefully positive) will tempt people to buy or borrow.

A new cover

I decided that the original cover that I designed myself on Microsoft Publisher didn't really stand up to the competition. It looked homemade. During one of my serendipity trips on the internet I found a website called fiverr.com. (See blog - http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2015/06/stumbling-across-ideas-and-answers-when.html .) The website brings together designers and people who need quick basic designs - all for the princely sum of $5.

My designer came up with the following design first-

Obviously with a website that crosses large parts of the world, there can be small issues with communication. With fiverr, the designers have rules they post in the site when you instruct them to produce work for you. My designer allows one alteration to the design and if you're still not happy after that they refund your money. I asked for a revision to change the notes at the bottom of the picture to UK sterling pound notes as the book is mainly aimed at the UK market.

And this is the final design. The new design is uploaded to the book's profile on the Amazon page. The new design shows another change, albeit sort-term. There are many books called 'How To Sell Your House' on Amazon already, so I've decided initially to make this Kindle book titled 'How To Sell Your Home' to differentiate. The next step will be, however, to order another Kindle book cover and add the title the second time, so it's listed under both 'house' and 'home' on the Amazon website. I hope that this will enable me to reach both search terms.

Recurring problem with my back

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I've got some problem with my back that started yesterday morning. I've had back issues for over a decade, so this isn't an unusual occurrence. However, it usually happens when I'm overweight or unfit. I've lost 8 pounds in the last 4 weeks and I've started running again (twice a week) so in theory, I shouldn't be having these problems.

But I've got them and it's time to look at how I deal with them. In the past I'd always go into my shell and lie on the settee until it got better. I'd never take pain killers because "I want to know what I'm doing that's causing me pain." Then, after a referral to a physio from my GP after a particular episode with my back, everything changed. I was self-employed at the time and I was invited to a 'back class' for 5 days, where I went into a classroom for the morning of everything day of one week to listen and discuss the things that affect your back. The class ranged from the physiology of the back, diet, weight loss, exercise, sleeping and pain relief. From there, I started to look at things from a different angle.

From that point, it's all become about managing my back whilst trying to carry in with my routine as much as possible. The course kept referring back to the days of cavemen - the caveman that laid down and stopped hunting didn't eat and eventually died. I now take pain relief if I need it, I go to work rather than having a day off and I feel much better for it. And my recovery happens a lot sooner. I find that rather than waiting for my back to get better, I'm proactively doing things that allow it to get better. Movement is better than forcing myself to stay still, pain relief is better than being in pain and exercise is strengthening my back for the long term, rather than testing it in the short term. The immediate goal is to get rid of the pain and to manage my movement to ensure that the back gets better this week. It's then onwards with the weight loss as I'd like to lose another 6 pounds before the middle of August. This will help by taking some pressure and strain off my back. Mix in some exercise and I'm hoping that the worst of the problems are behind me.

All in all in much happier with this current solution and I'll continue to use this method of recuperation.

Mystery shop feedback - small update!

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A short addition to the blog on my new mystery shopping experience from Friday.

http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2015/07/new-experiences-bring-few-nerves.html

I've received the feedback and it states-

• Your report was a pleasure to read
• Excellent feedback

So I'm very happy with that!!

New experiences bring a few nerves

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It sounds really strange after over four years of mystery shopping for ten different companies that I an nervous about the mystery shop I'm due to complete tonight. I haven't kept an exact count that I can easily lay my hands right now but I estimate that I've completed around 1,000 mystery shops and this is the first one since the very early days that I've felt apprehensive and pressured to get things absolutely exact. That's not to say I'm usually imprecise but many of the mystery shop companies I use ask for general ideas -

*was the floor clean?

*were you served quickly?

*was the server well presented?

Now, of course, there is a degree of personal judgement in answering these questions.

The reason for today's apprehension is that I'm shopping for a new company. As part of the terms and conditions of any mystery shopping exercise, I can't publish details anywhere - including blogs and social media. So I won't go into much detail but I can say that I've signed up with this mystery shopping company and I'm undertaking a new assignment with a new client.

One of the main differences is that this new mystery shop company operates a different reporting system. Just about all of the reports I've filed need an online form completed and 90% of it is tick boxes - yes/no answers to questions along the lines of those I've stated above. This new company is looking for a narrative version of the visit. I'm not afraid of narrative itself, as it is along the lines of what I'm typing right now, but its a clear narrative of the visit stating only the facts that I need to create.

I find it helpful when I'm apprehensive about something, to talk or type it through and just the typing of today's blog has helped me a little. The unknown can be a little daunting but it's just a case of reading through the instructions thoroughly and being as prepared as I can. And there are lessons here for when I start the business. Conducting my first market appraisal for myself or agreeing my first sale on my own will be exciting and nervy experiences but being prepared will get me through it. I've always worked well from a script or structure and I'll make sure that I have this set up for when I start operating as an estate agent.

Stumbling across ideas and answers when looking for something else

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I've just been listening to an episode of The Infinite Monkey Cage about serendipity and one of the themes struck me as rather useful-

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-infinite-monkey-cage/id343580439?mt=2#episodeGuid=http%3A%2F%2Fdownloads.bbc.co.uk%2Fpodcasts%2Fradio4%2Ftimc%2Ftimc_20150223-1700.mp3

It was regarding the fact that the research departments of some major companies were afforded 15% of their work time to pursue whatever projects their interest desired. And from this, many great discoveries were made that produced massive financial windfalls for their companies.

I was listening to this podcast as I was running (yes, it's started again) and this always gives me time to think about what I'm listening to. I related it back to my own experiences recently with setting up the business. I can chastise myself when I set out to do something, particularly on the internet, and end up going off at many tangents. But these tangents have brought mystery shopping and cashback sites to supplement my income.

And I'm sure that linked to the business launch there will be many more tangents into areas that just start out as something interesting I see and end up with previous finds.

My blog on estate agency matters - http://eaboost.blogspot.com - often starts out this way. I'm just looking or reading and I see an article or idea that I explore and run with. The finished article doesn't always enter my mind until I've typed in the page - and the ideas can come back to me as I type and think about it.

So I think that I'll be less hard onysf every time I wander through the internet and end up finding something other than where I started. Because you just don't know where it could lead…