All posts by Celeste Heiter

advice, Marketing yourself, social networking

She was a pushy dame with an appetite for the limelight…

SpillaneAs a freelancer, I wear two hats: one as a writer, the other as a publication layout artist. The season for my publication layout work runs from August through February, which leaves about five months of unscheduled time to pursue my own projects. Some years I get assigned to write a book, others I go scrounging for piece-work. Last year, I had neither to fill the gap, so I set several of my own ideas in motion: a series of Kindle cookbooks, a line of spice blends, an apron design, a collection of short stories, and a self-published children’s book that had been shelved and forgotten for nearly twenty years.

In the spring and summer of 2012, I managed to lay the foundations, to begin production on all of these projects, and to design a website for each one. But that’s as far as I was able to progress before it was time for the publication layout season to begin again. And now that I’m finished with this year’s edition, I’m once again presented with another five months of unscheduled time to pick up where I left off last August.

The first thing I realized is that I now have to find the most effective way to market what I’ve created. And I know I’m not alone when I say that marketing has never been my forte. I’m sure there are lots of ‘creatives’ out there who would much rather spend their time writing a novel, creating a work of art, composing a song, or in my case…developing a new recipe and photographing the finished dish!

But market I must.

On my very first day of freelancing freedom, while pondering the possibilities for introducing my creations to the world, as if manna from heaven, I happened upon a quote from steamy, noir detective novelist Mickey Spillane, who said: “Wherever I go everybody knows me, but here’s why … I’m a merchandiser, I’m not just a writer. I stay in every avenue you can think of.”

His career spanned more than sixty years, from his early stories in DC Comics and the publication of his first novel, I, the Jury, in 1947, to his death in 2006. He appeared in every medium, from comic books, magazines, and pulp fiction, to movies and television. Several of his novels have been published posthumously, and he now has a presence on the Internet that yields more than 700,000 search results.

Mickey Spillane’s words lit a fuse that sparked fireworks in my imagination, and over the course of a single week, I have explored the promotion of my products via Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Vimeo, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, Goodreads, Twitter, Google, and Groupon, not to mention the thousands of bloggers who write about the very things that I’ve created. Suddenly there aren’t enough hours in a day, a week, or even five months to pursue them all…but I’m gonna give it my best shot.

 

CelesteHeiterFZBioCeleste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine, the creator of the LoveBites Cookbook Series for Kindle Fire, and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children. She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press; and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema .

Visit her website, and her Amazon Author Page.

 

advice, Marketing yourself

Manifesting My Freelancing Destiny

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creationYears ago, at a time when I was at a crossroads in my career, I came upon a quote by San Francisco Bay Area psychologist Geri Weitzman, PhD. She said, “Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of.” I was so inspired by this jewel of wisdom that I taped it to my refrigerator door, where it stayed for several years as a reminder of the creative potential that lives within us all.

Having had only minimal success submitting stories and articles to a small, local publication for seniors, I first applied Dr. Weitzman’s approach when I decided to try my hand at publishing my own magazine. Home PC’s and the Internet had become household commodities, and as a result, the desktop publishing industry was burgeoning as well.

At that time, I had been recently diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, and having found no relief for my condition through practitioners of mainstream medicine, I began seeking alternative treatment with great success. So…using a desktop PC set up on my kitchen table, I created and published a little magazine called Pathways to Health, aimed at opening a dialogue between doctors of mainstream surgical and pharmaceutical medicine, and practitioners of alternative health care therapies such as acupuncture, massage, and reflexology. Pathways to Health was a modest success that lasted a little over two years, but never reaped a sustainable profit. Nevertheless, for me it was a crash course in the nuts and bolts of the publishing industry, and it opened doors to business relationships that still fuel my freelancing career to this day.

Fast-forward five years, to the day I sold my first travel tale, The Fox and the Foreigner, to ThingsAsian.com. Upon its publication, the site owner asked me to write a series of four articles about my experience teaching English in Japan; and it was those four articles that later became the core of my first published book, Ganbatte Means Go for It. I went on to write several more Japan-related books for ThingsAsian Press, but what I really wanted was to explore Asian culture through food and film.

So, when the site owner of ThingsAsian offered me my own weblog, there was no need to deliberate over what the theme would be: I created a daily blog called Chopstick Cinema; and for eight years, I had the pleasure of experimenting with hundreds of dishes from every cuisine throughout Asia, while enjoying the best that Asian cinema has to offer (with the added bonus that I have become a competent food photographer in the process).

With the current global economy, I am once again at a crossroads in my career. I’ve developed a skill set that qualifies me for an array of options in the publishing industry, but I’ve been freelancing for so long that I’m practically feral. So the idea of a punch-the-clock job is out of the question. Meanwhile, the food-blogging industry has reached critical mass, and print publishing is rapidly yielding to digital media. So once again, I find myself invoking the wisdom of Dr. Geri Weitzman: Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of.

CelesteHeiterFZBioCeleste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine, the creator of the LoveBites Cookbook Series for Kindle Fire, and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children. She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press; and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema .

Visit her website, and her Amazon Author Page.

advice

Fall Down Seven Times…Stand Up Eight

january1Did you wake up on New Year’s Day with a resolute promise to take action or make meaningful changes in your freelancing career; vowing to yourself to embark on an intensive self-marketing plan, to start research on that hot-topic cover story, or to get down to work on the manuscript for your best-seller?

How are you doing so far? Are those query letters and outreach e-mails still unwritten or unsent? Are the leads for your cover story languishing in your to-do folder? Is your best-selling novel gathering dust on your hard drive?

If so, you are most assuredly not alone.  Countless thousands of individuals with the very best of intentions embark upon a course of action or change, only to give up at the first signs of failure.  Others  manage to talk themselves out of trying before they’ve even begun.  However, achieving your goal of taking action and making effective changes may not be as elusive or as impossible as you think.

The Pitfalls of Change

Often, we can be our own worst enemies in the process of change.  Negative thoughts and self-inflicted criticism undermine our best efforts.  Thoughts can be so quick, we’ve thought the thought and our mood is starting to change before we’re even aware that we’re doing it.  We visualize some sort of negative outcome without even realizing it.

Another means of self-sabotage is setting unrealistic goals, which almost always go unmet, resulting again in negative thinking and self-criticism.

Attempting major life changes without a source of support is another common pitfall.  For some individuals, simply asking a friend to support them may be all they need. For others, professional help is often essential.

Obstacles to change may also be found in the way we arrange our lives and our environments.  What can be done in your environment to increase your likelihood of succeeding and to decrease the likelihood of backsliding?

It is also important to look at all the tasks you do in your life.  Are you doing mostly what you feel you ‘should’ do, rather than what you truly want to do? How can you prioritize time amid the demands of the day to invest in your dreams?

Nine Effective Ways to Meet Your Goals:

1.  Be as specific and realistic as possible in setting goals for change.

2.  Try to accomplish the easiest tasks first.

4.  Arrange your environment and your schedule to increase your likelihood of success.

5.  Enlist the help and support of family, friends and professionals.  Consider joining a group or seeking professional coaching.

6.  Identify negative thinking and self-criticism.  Learn to catch yourself negatively distorting reality and learn to talk to yourself in more constructive, supportive ways.

7.  Be forgiving of yourself and accept that temporary setbacks are part of the process.

8.  Make  well-defined plans ahead of time for sticking with your goals and bouncing back after failure.

9.  Remember that the most meaningful changes often happen slowly, over time.

CelesteHeiterFZBioCeleste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine, the creator of the LoveBites Cookbook Series for Kindle Fire, and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children. She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press; and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema .

Visit her website, and her Amazon Author Page.

advice, blogging

Goal Setting and the Daruma Doll

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DarumaDollIt’s hard to believe it was nearly twenty-five years ago that I took the plunge and moved to Tokyo to teach English: a decision that has shaped my life in immeasurable ways. Among the many Japanese traditions that have since become a part of my personal ethos is the dedication of a daruma doll whenever I set an important and meaningful goal for myself.

A daruma doll is a traditional Japanese icon modeled after a legendary Buddhist monk who spent nine years in devout meditation. A typical daruma doll is made of wood or papier-mâché, and has no arms or legs…only an ovoid torso and head, and a face with blank eyes. To dedicate a daruma doll, the left eye is filled in to signify one’s devotion to the resolution. When the task is complete or the goal achieved, the right eye is filled in to celebrate the accomplishment. Many Japanese people celebrate the New Year or commemorate significant resolutions with the dedication of daruma dolls, and each year, soon after the New Year celebration, festivals called Dondo Yaki are held throughout Japan, during which bonfires are kindled with cast off New Year decorations and fulfilled daruma dolls.

Goal-setting plays a major role in my everyday life; so much so that I begin each day with a list of goals, both miniscule and monumental, that I vow to complete before I lay my head on my pillow at day’s end. My list of daily goals might include something as simple as sewing on a missing button, or something as significant as booking my next vacation. But when it comes to major goals, I always dedicate a daruma doll to the cause and place it on my desk. There’s nothing quite so compelling as a daruma doll, staring at me day after day with that one good eye, reminding me to stay the course; and nothing quite so fulfilling as coloring in the other one to celebrate a triumphant fait accompli.

This year, I’m dedicating three: one for my career and financial goals, one for my health and fitness goals, and one for that dream house with the ocean view!

Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!

CelesteHeiterFZBioCeleste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine, the creator of the LoveBites Cookbook Series for Kindle Fire, and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children. She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press; and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema .

Visit her website, and her Amazon Author Page.

Uncategorized

Success by the Inch

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DontWorryMakeMoneyAs a dedicated freelancer and creature of habit, I typically begin each workday at my desk. Regardless of whether I have a project or an assignment, I can always find something constructive to do. However, last spring, after a routine physical and a few lab tests, my doctor informed me that I was woefully deficient in Vitamin D. Wary of taking the 50,000 unit megadose he prescribed, I decided instead to begin each morning sunning myself for an hour on my balcony overlooking a creek that runs through a shady ravine.

To pass the time, I began reading the books that have been patiently waiting on my bookshelves for years while I worked diligently away, growing more Vitamin D deficient with each passing day. At first, I experienced pangs of guilt as my mind strayed toward my vacant desk. But it wasn’t long before I found myself craving that sunny hour on my balcony each morning, indulging in the long-forgotten luxury of reading purely for pleasure.

My summer reading list began with a folksy Southern cookbook called Screen Doors and Sweet Tea (a Christmas gift from my brother Nolan); followed by Inspector Saito’s Small Satori, a collection of Japanese detective stories. Next came the classic tale of Zorba the Greek, and believe it or not…all 564 pages of Alain Danielou’s Complete Kama Sutra.

And then along came Don’t Worry, Make Money by Richard Carlson, a boutique-sized book comprised of 100 little essays on various business-related tips, many of which are based on social pleasantries and old-fashioned common sense. One in particular however, an idea described in Essay Number 22, has since become one of the most effective productivity tools in my repertoire. It’s called: The Critical Inch.

The concept behind this technique is to step back from the big picture and focus instead on the minutiae. As with any goal or project, it’s often the small things that eventually add up to its completion; and at any given moment, there’s usually one piece of the puzzle causing a log jam in the flow of productivity. Whether it’s making a crucial phone call you’ve been procrastinating, running an errand to buy supplies and sundries, or even something as simple as tidying up your workspace, there’s always one small step, that Critical Inch, which is, in reality, a giant leap toward achieving your goal.

On the day that I read Richard Carlson’s Essay Number 22, once my sun-drenched reading hour was up, I marched straight into my office and began making lists of all the tasks, both big and small, that would get me to the finish line of each of the projects I had in development. As a result, I’m pleased to say that, thanks to Critical Inch thinking, I’m now on the threshold of launching a line of boutique spice blends, and finally publishing a children’s book that has been 20 years in the making.

CelesteHeiterFZBioCeleste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine, the creator of the LoveBites Cookbook Series for Kindle Fire, and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children. She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press; and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema .

Visit her website, and her Amazon Author Page.

advice, Business, lifestyle

Multi-Tasking with MS Outlook

FZOutlookI tend to multi-task. And since I work from a home office, this often means that while I’m writing a book or working on a large publication layout project, I’m also doing laundry, prepping meals, and tending to the everyday needs of my freelance clients. How is this possible?…Microsoft Outlook.

While many of you probably think of Outlook primarily as an e-mail client, I use it as a task manager and the hub of both my freelance work and household activities. In addition to its function as an e-mail program, Outlook has several nifty little features, including a calendar, pop-up reminders, and a task manager, which help me run my blended business and household like a Swiss watch.

I use the calendar to schedule appointments and deadlines, as well as recurring events such as holidays, daylight savings time, birthdays, and anniversaries. I also use it to schedule smaller events, such as taking vitamins and medications, recording television programs, watering plants, and keeping up with my son’s academic and social schedule. Each time I schedule an event, I create a pop-up reminder that can be customized to notify me anywhere from one minute, to days or weeks in advance. There’s even a *snooze* function that allows me to postpone or procrastinate if needed.

My favorite Outlook feature is its To-Do Bar. This customizable list-making device sits just to the right of my e-mail window; its width can be sized according to the screen space; and it’s divided into six sections: Today…Tomorrow…This Week…Next Week…Next Month…and Later. On it I can jot down a quick note to make a phone call, create a small errand/shopping list, schedule a recreational outing, or make a list of goals for the day. And much like the calendar, I can also note future tasks or events. Tasks may be color-coded for organizing and prioritizing; and the drag-and-drop feature allows me reshuffle the tasks on the list, or move leftover tasks forward to another day. Best of all, Outlook’s To-Do Bar has almost eliminated my need for Post-It Notes.

Outlook has become such an integral part of my daily life that I also use it to compose drafts of all my writing. To begin a blog, article, or even a book, I open up a new e-mail document and use it like a word processing program. If I need to take a break, I can close the document and store it in my Inbox or in a separate e-mail folder for that specific project. I create all my research notes, outlines, timelines, and drafts as e-mails in Outlook, and I send myself a copy of the e-mail to leave on the server for safekeeping. Once I’m done with the project, I create a permanent document in MS Word and save it to my hard drive and back-up drive.

No doubt, there is an array of similar programs out there for both PC and Mac that will function in much the same way, but for my purposes, Outlook has everything I need in one facile suite. It’s the first program I open in the morning…and the last one I shut down at night. I’d be lost without it.

Celeste Heiter is the author of Turn Your PC into a Lean Mean Freelancing Machine (http://www.amazon.com/Turn-Your-Freelancing-Machine-ebook/dp/B008LOX1MQ), the creator of the LoveBites cookbook series for Kindle Fire (http://lovebitescookbooks.com), and the author of Potty Pals , a potty-training book for children (http://pottypalsbook.com). She has also written ten books published by ThingsAsian Press (http://thingsasianpress.com); and spent eight years posting her recipes, food photographs, and film reviews on ChopstickCinema (http://chopstickcinema.thingsasian.com)

Visit her website (http://celesteheiter.com), and her Amazon Author Page (http://www.amazon.com/Celeste-Heiter/e/B002OXU6S2)