Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Vote for the Winner of the Summer Writing Contest
Last week, hundreds of writers submitted their stories to the Summer Writing Contest.
I’ve so enjoyed seeing how these stories have developed. Our contest Facebook group was full of lively conversations, writers collaborating to help each other find the best ideas and tell unique, creative stories. They’ve workshopped their stories and given each other great feedback in Becoming Writer.
These writers worked hard to craft their very best stories, and last week, they took that final, scary step: submitting their writing to the judges.
The Judges Are Reading . . . And So Can You
Right now, our panel of judges is reading through each story, looking for the ones that will make it to the winners’ circle. And while they’re hard at work, I have an invitation for you, too.
I’m inviting you to step over to the judges’ side of the submission table. I’m inviting you to try reading like an editor and decide which story you would choose as the winner of the Summer Writing Contest.
And then, I’m inviting you to vote on your favorite to win the Readers’ Choice Award.
Our entrants have put their all into writing stories they love, and we want to help them get their writing into the hands of excited readers.
Not only that, but as you read through the entries and pick your favorite, you’ll get a taste of the editor’s life. Judging this contest yourself will give you perspective on the mindsets of the people who will read your work.
Plus, I think you’ll find more than a few stories you love in this bunch.
How Does It Work?
Here’s how you can step into the judges’ shoes and help select the winner of the Readers’ Choice Award:
All the published stories from the contest can be found here at Short Fiction Break. You don’t have to read all of them; just pick three or five. (You can always read more if you want!)
When you decide on your favorite, let us know using the poll at the bottom of the page.
Then, support your chosen story by sharing it on social media. Let your friends and family know you’ve found a story you think they’d enjoy, and ask them to vote for it, too.
You can even leave a comment on your favorite story to let the author know you enjoyed it. Our entrants are nervously awaiting to hear the results of all their hard work, and I know they’d appreciate your encouragement.
Pick Your Favorite
I’m so proud of everyone who joined us in this contest. All our writers invested time and care into crafting something great, and I’m excited to share their stories with you now.
Come check out their stories, vote for your favorite, and help some amazing writers get the celebration they deserve!
What will you look for in a winning story? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Today, I’m challenging you to think like an editor.
- Read three or more stories from the contest.
- Vote for your favorite by filling out the poll.
- Share your favorite on social media and invite your friends to vote, too.
- Comment on your favorite to let the author know you enjoyed it!
I hope you find some stories you love!
The post Vote for the Winner of the Summer Writing Contest appeared first on The Write Practice.
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Monday, July 30, 2018
Dealing with Back Pain: Treatment and Prevention
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How to Sell Books Without a Publisher
So you’ve decided to independently publish your book rather than pursue a traditional publisher? I know how difficult that decision can be. Publishers know how to sell books. Without their support, how will you reach your readers?
One of the great benefits a traditional publisher brings to the relationship is a network of agents and bookstores designed for the purpose of selling books. Like sailing a small boat into the ocean, without that pre-established network, self-publishing is scary. When we are first drifting into open waters, there is so much we don’t know.
Here is the good news: It is possible to sell books without a publisher.
You just have to learn how to sell books.
How to Sell Books: The Self-Published Author’s 7 Step Guide
There are seven general steps to selling books without a publisher. While the minutia within each step is hotly debated and constantly changing as indie authors innovate new ways to connect with readers, the basic steps an indie author has to take to sell books remain unchanged.
With this post, my hope is to get a good look at the forest of selling books, not to dive in and argue which of the trees is the best tree.
1. Build Your Reader Base
We sell books to people who want to read them. The first step of selling books is to start finding those readers.
This will likely involve you giving some of your work away in exchange for their attention. This may be blog posts you write that establish your voice, short stories that leave readers wanting more, or even free novels that pull them into a series.
The key is to get a way to contact these readers in the future. The most popular currency at the moment is a reader’s email address. Think of this as building a future client list. Services like MailChimp, Book Funnel, and Instafreebie exist for this reason.
It is difficult to give work away for free, so don’t think of it that way. Instead, think of it as using your work to buy a reader’s most precious commodity — their time.
2. Routinely Connect With Your Readers
Building a list of future readers is just the beginning. You need to keep them interested.
Publishing books can be a slow process. If you are only churning out a book or two a year, you need to help the reader base you are building not forget about you.
This means staying in contact with them.
A routinely published blog will do this. Other writers lean heavily on occasional newsletters that remind readers of what you are working on. Whichever method you decide works best for you, it needs to be predictable and often.
3. Write Your Book
Notice I left this for step three. The hardest part of selling books is not writing or publishing the book. Rather, it is earning readers’ attention.
It can be a slow and tedious process, which is why you need to start that before you have finished writing your book. If you wait until your book is finished to start building your reader base, then you are too late.
4. Finish Your Book
Writing a manuscript is a fantastic accomplishment, but it is only the start of having a finished book. Next comes editing. You can get friends and family to help you with this, but if you have money to invest in your work, editing is not a bad place to spend it.
There are multiple other components you will need for your book including a cover and a blurb. Like editing, while you can do these finishing touches on your own, you may want to think about hiring professionals to help you with this.
We say don’t judge a book by its cover, but that is exactly what we do. If you have a bad cover that doesn’t match your book’s genre, it is unlikely you will sell any copies. That’s why hiring a professional to help you can give you a huge boost.
5. Choose Your Distribution Channels
Once your book has been written, you need to choose your distribution channels. Distribution channels are the places you are going to publish your book. Currently, the primary choice most authors struggle with is going “exclusive” to Amazon or going “wide.”
The biggest channel by far is Amazon. To publish your book on Amazon, go to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). You can create both an ebook for Kindles and a paperback book there that will be posted on Amazon for sale.
Amazon would like it if their site was the only place your book was for sale. To incentivize you to go “exclusive,” they offer a program called Kindle Unlimited (KU for short). Readers who subscribe to KU are given KU books to read for free. If a KU reader chooses your book to read, you are paid per page the reader sees.
This deal is only available if your book is exclusive to Amazon. It also works better for some genres than others. It is important you investigate what other indie authors are saying about books in your genre before you make a decision to go exclusive or go wide.
Going “wide” means distributing your book through multiple channels. Other popular distribution channels include:
- Kobo, which can be accessed through Kobo Writing Life
- Barns and Noble, which has their own self-publishing site.
- Draft-to-Digital, which will distribute your book to multiple places at once, including Amazon and Apple.
6. Let Your Readers Know and Market Your Book
Now that your book is finished and you’ve decided where you are going to distribute it, it is time to tell readers your book is in the world and ready to buy.
Remember that reader base you were building? Now is the time to leverage them to purchase your book.
There are also tons of sites that carry their own lists of readers you can pay to advertise your book on.
Additionally, you can invest in PPC ads (Pay Per Click ads) on sites like Amazon or Facebook. These ads are usually purchased in a bidding system. If an author doesn’t know what they are doing, they can lose a lot of money in PPCs and see very little return. This may be another place you want to consider hiring a professional to help you.
7. Write Your Next Book
Here is a hard truth: it is virtually impossible to build a writing career with one book.
The good news is that sales build on each other. If a reader finds one of your books, reads it, and enjoys it, that reader is likely to go and see if you’ve written anything else.
Building a back catalog by writing and publishing multiple books is a great way to sell more books. So after you’ve finished your first book, get started on your next one.
It’s Time to Sell Books
Venturing into the world of publishing can be scary. The good news is, it is possible to sell books without a publisher. Like anything else, selling books is a skill, and you’ll learn how to sell books as you go.
Find your readers and engage them so that when you are ready, they will want to buy your books.
Have you sold books without a publisher? What has worked for you? Give your fellow authors suggestions in the comments.
PRACTICE
Today, your challenge is to draft a short piece that you can give away for free to your readers. Maybe you’ll write a blog post to publish on your website. Maybe you’ll start a short story you can email to your readers or offer as a free download.
Whatever the case, plan from the beginning to give it away.
Take fifteen minutes to get started on your short piece. When your time is up, share your first draft in the comments to receive feedback. Be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers, too!
Once you’re happy with your new writing piece, share it for free to add readers to your reader base.
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Shot Scope Case Study #2: George’s Poor Greenside Play
George is a long-time user of both Shot Scope V1 and now V2. We met George when one of our team members happened to play with George at an event last month. George mentioned his scoring and handicap had climbed from 4 to 6 over the past year and that he couldn’t pinpoint the cause. George hadn’t made any significant swing changes although he did change his wedge set-up.
In 2017, Shot Scope identified poor gapping with his PW, 49°, and 56° wedges. This season, George altered his setup to use a PW, 50°, 54°, and 58°. The Shot Scope team decided to work with George on a case study and see if we could identify a cause for his increased handicap.
George’s Stats
George’s game overview shows he is now a 6 handicap, and his general game is in a good state. George mentioned that he plays 4/5 times a week (he is retired) at different courses and in competitions. He doesn’t hit the ball too far, but with 64% fairway success he is accurate with the Driver. With no obvious red flags, the team decided to look at George’s wedges, since that is the only change he has made.
Avg. Wedge Distances
As you can see from the Shot Scope V2 Data, George’s gapping has improved with the new wedge set-up. When he added the extra club, George removed his 4-iron, which he hardly used since he carries a 23° Hybrid. This was definitely the correct decision for George, and it’s great to see the difference between his 2017 and 2018 distances.
Short Game Performance
When looking into George’s short-game performance data, we found something intriguing. George uses a lot of clubs around the green, playing predominantly at a links course there should be a lot of chip and runs. He has a poor proximity to hole average with his 50°, 54°, 58°, 50°, and 23° hybrid. Those clubs account for 64% of his greenside shots. It’s possible there could be a bias towards using the new wedges at an increased frequency, and the inaccuracy could boil down to a lack of practice with the new lofts. There are obvious reasons to use high-lofted wedges around the greens; e.g., out of bunkers or other situations where obstacles must be carried, but on true links courses like the ones George plays, he could play more chip and runs. There is little reason to use the hybrid as the data suggests that George is not very good with this shot.
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Short Game Potential
We sent George an example of what his short game could look like if he decided to use specific clubs for short game shots, and how without changing technique, he could improve his scoring. We are aware that there will still be an occasional need to use high-lofted clubs around the green, but most golfers can benefit from lofting down around the green.
Not only could George improve his average proximity to the hole by 2.3 feet, but he could also potentially get up and down 11.5% more often.
Showing George the potential performance of his short game should encourage him to loft down around the greens and ultimately lower his handicap. George may not be able to resist using the higher lofted clubs around the green, but that is the goal.
Recommendation
George should attempt to use his putter, PW, 9i, and 8i more around the greens and not to use the H23 or 50 at all. George should monitor his stats to see if can attain the potential usages per club and maintain the up and down ratios.
GET YOUR SHOT SCOPE GAME EVALUATION
Would you like to take part in a Shot Scope Case Study? If you are a Shot Scope user with over 15 rounds in your account, enter your details below – including handicap, location, and the area of the game you think requires work. Shot Scope will select different users and compile reports.
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Saturday, July 28, 2018
3 popular holiday resorts on the Turquoise Coast in Turkey
Want a relaxing holiday in the sun, with excellent food, good quality accommodation, great beaches, the warm Mediterranean Sea, a fascinating history and something for all ages to enjoy? The Turquoise Coast, also known as the Turkish Riviera, in western Turkey, ticks all the boxes. It’s also very good value for money. A trio of popular holiday resorts, Marmaris, Fethiye, and Dalyan, provide everything a holidaymaker could wish for, from late-night party clubs, luxury villas, yacht marinas, famous name brands and top-class hotels to tiny bistros, hideaway bars, souvenir shops and quirky B&Bs plus some of the best-preserved ancient ruins in Turkey.
The Turquoise Coast
Marmaris
Marmaris Harbour – Photo Mstyslav Chernov
If you’re looking for a lively, fun resort in a beautiful setting with plenty to see and do, Marmaris is the place for you. It’s very popular with younger crowd who enjoy its lively night life and laid-back atmosphere. I enjoyed a quay-side meal of fresh fish grilled on an open BBQ with dolma, stuffed vine leaves, followed by asure, a tasty dried fruit pudding. There are a lot of family hotels and many of the restaurants offer international menus to tempt fussier appetites. The busy marina has more upmarket places to eat and drink but for a more authentic experience search out the little eateries in the back streets and try tasty Turkish mezes. Daily boat trips take tourists to sunbathe and relax in the many tiny coves and islands around Marmaris Bay.
Turkish gullet
There are plenty of charter boats and excursions to explore the impressive coastline; you can even get the hydrofoil to the Greek island of Rhodes and discover the legacy of the Knights of St John. Go inland to Aphrodisias, with its enormous stadium, amphitheatre and temple to Aphrodite, one of the top sites in Turkey. Further on are the famous hot springs of Pamukkale (Cotton Castle), with tiered pools of blue water layered onto white cliffs. Be warned; like ever-popular Ephesus (a day trip away in the NW of the region), this is a very popular place and if you are visiting in high season be prepared to be one of hundreds vying for the perfect photo opportunity.
Fethiye
Fethiye – Photo Astolath
The heart of the Turquoise Coast, Fethiye has changed dramatically in the past fourty years, since tourism started here. I first visited in the early 1980s when there were just a few bars and restaurants. It’s got a venerable history. In ancient times, Old Telmessos became part of Lycia, fell to Alexander the Great and was later ruled by Rome. The modern town was rebuilt after a massive earthquake in the 1950s but walk around and you’ll find many sights left over from its from its past. These include a Turkish Hammamm, a Roman Theatre, an Islamic Mosque and splendidly decorated Lycian Tombs. The quayside is the place to be in the evening, watching the yacht flotillas come back home and the big, wooden gullets tie up in orderly rows.
Oludeniz Beach
The best beach is Ölüdeniz, a wide, sandy pleasure ground backed by many hotels, bars and eateries. However, it’s also one of the busiest beaches on the Turquoise Coast so search out Calis or Hisarönü for a little more peace and quiet.
Dalyan
Lycian Tombs at Dalyan
One of my favourite excursions on the Turquoise Coast was a boat trip to the impressive Lycian Tombs carved in rock, high above the water near the little town of Dalyan. If you want a very muddy spa experience go to the Thermal Baths (VERY muddy) at Ilica. Not far from Dalyan is Iztuzu Beach, breeding ground for the rare loggerhead turtles. I was lucky to see them in the 1980s but they now could be in danger from the huge number of tourists who arrive daily to swim and maybe spot a turtle. History lovers will get their fix at Didyma, an ancient Ionian sanctuary containing the ruins of the enormous Temple of Apollo. Or you could just sit at one of the many open-air restaurants and can watch the river boatmen tout for business whilst sipping thick Turkish coffee ‘black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love’ (Lawrence Durrell).
Yachts at Fethiye Turkey
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Friday, July 27, 2018
{VIDEO}: Ace’s 350-Yard Driver Fitting
MyGolfSpy is known for the most extensive golf club tests anywhere. We’re thorough as hell, but admittedly we do have a gap in our data. The truth of the matter is we don’t have any testers who can pound it tree-fiddy. So to fill in the holes and round out our data, we flew in YouTube sensation Ace from fried eggs golf.
You might know Fried Eggs from the legendary Turbulators Rap, and Golf Shop videos like TaylorMade P790 Irons, and the Wilson Triton Driver. It’s borderline not safe for work, but you might also want to see what happens when a golfer hit the new PING i500.
When your swing is a sweet as Ace’s and you can bomb the ball 350, it’s hard to improve. Can you really expect better? Hell yes, you can. Watch as the MyGolfSpy team finds Ace an extra 16 yards. I’m talkin’ about tree-six-six, yo!
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Writing Prompt: Give Your Character an Insecurity
I’ve been working through revisions, and last week I found myself discouraged, feeling like I would never be finished. I needed a short, fun writing prompt to get some new words on the page and break up my revision schedule. An overheard conversation inspired this quick flash fiction writing prompt. See if it sparks a new story for you too!
Last week, I overheard a conversation at a neighboring table where a woman said, “He’s always trying to prove himself. It makes him look less competent than he is.” I didn’t know the parties involved, but I grabbed a napkin and jotted it down. When I added it to my notebook, I realized characters with something to prove often undermine their own success.
When Characters Have Something to Prove
Sometimes, a character fails and needs to reestablish himself as trustworthy, such as an accountant who makes a costly mistake or a spouse caught in a compromising position.
In other instances, an immature character needs to prove her ability, so others will take her seriously. In a coming-of-age or quest novel, the path to maturity presents obstacles for the character to prove herself.
Characters with something to prove share one characteristic though, whether they admit it or not: insecurity.
Writing Prompt: Exploit Your Character’s Insecurity
Ready to turn insecurity into a writing prompt? Here’s how.
First, create an insecurity for the main character. It can be physical (such as someone insecure about his appearance) or relational (such as being afraid to trust). Whatever insecurity you choose, it needs to be something the character will actively deny or try to prove isn’t a problem for him.
Then, decide how he will counter this insecurity in the course of the story. He could go over the top with denial or shenanigans which might result in a funny story. She might refuse to face the insecurity and lose a relationship, resulting in a drama.
Make sure their insecurity cannot be ignored without consequences, and see where the story goes.
Our insecurities make us human, and they will help our characters resonate with readers.
What memorable insecurities have you seen in real life or fiction? Share in the comments.
PRACTICE
Take fifteen minutes to write about a character with a glaring insecurity and force them to face it to get what they want. Share your practice in the comments and encourage one another!
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Thursday, July 26, 2018
SuperSpeed Golf & The Neurological Path To Distance
When it comes to training aids, you can safely split them into three categories. The first category we can safely call eye-rollers: even the most casual of golfers can look at these things and think what kind of a chucklehead would spend his money on that? And admit it, we’ve all bought at least one.
The training aids in the second category are, in fact, fairly useful, but a creative golfer could probably figure out how to sorta-kinda-almost make the same thing on his own. The Putting Stick is a prime example – a flat, plastic contraption to help groove your putting stroke. It works very well, and if you crave instruction, bells, whistles, and testimonials, you’d be happy to buy it, and it would probably help you. If you don’t value any of that stuff, a yardstick might get you most of the way there.
The last category is the smallest and the toughest to crack: training aids that actually, you know, work, and have some real science behind them. The DST Compressor is one example, the Orange Whip is another, but very few ever reach this hallowed ground.
SuperSpeed Golf is knocking on the door of this rather exclusive club for two reasons; it works and, more interestingly, as a product, it very likely isn’t what you think it is.
It’s a whole lot more.
What Is SuperSpeed?
Once you take equipment out of the equation (heck, even with equipment in the equation), the only way to hit the ball farther is to swing faster.
Not harder. Faster.
There’s a physical fitness and strength aspect to swinging the club faster, but all things being equal, the key to increasing your swing speed may, in fact, lie right between your ears.
SuperSpeed calls it Overspeed Training, and it involves swinging three weighted shafts as aggressively as you can to prove to your neurological systems that your body can move that fast.
“We first learned of the concept – called overload/underload training – in 2012 at the World Golf Fitness Summit,” says Michael Napoleon, President and Co-founder of SuperSpeed Golf. “A brilliant coach named Tom House talked about the work he was doing with baseball pitchers using overweight and underweight baseballs to help them increase pitching speed.”
What Napoleon is talking about is resetting your neurological wiring and training your brain to understand that you can swing faster.
“You’re actually able to – by swinging underweight and overweight clubs – make the body move significantly faster than it does during the golf swing,” says Kyle Shay, Napoleon’s business partner and the other co-founder of SuperSpeed Golf. “You’re doing a physical thing swinging our clubs, but you’re actually increasing the speed at which your brain signals to your muscles to move during the golf swing.”
It’s an interesting concept, and it’s important to understand it’s more than just swinging a heavy club. Napoleon and Shay are both PGA teaching pros with very different backgrounds, but they share a similar passion for turning complicated concepts into something you and I can get our heads around and actually use.
To get to the root of it all, we have to go back to music school.
The Joy Of Sax
“I’m a golf coach, but all my formal education and degrees are in music performance,” says Napoleon, who holds a doctorate in Saxophone Performance from Arizona State. “We spent a lot of time detailing how people should practice and how people learn. Should they practice in little bursts and take breaks? Should they be going for two-hour blocks? How many days a week should they practice, and how much time each day?”
As a golfer, however, Napoleon found that while his teaching pro knew the game, he wasn’t able to provide a specific practice or drill program that would work for him. That spark led him away from the sax and into the golf world.
An accomplished amateur golfer who eventually burned out, Shay earned his physiology bones working in a rehab center teaching corrective exercise. The two ultimately met up in Chicago and formed a teaching center called Catalyst Golf. Their meeting with House led to testing the overload/underload concept on their students, and the results wound up being life-changing.
“We had 56 or 57 people go through testing,” says Napoleon. “I think we had 98% of them see at least a 3 or 4 miles-per-hour speed gain just after the initial session. As soon as we saw those results, we knew we had something. We didn’t know why it was all happening yet, but we were confident we had something that was going to work for just about anybody that picked it up.”
The Need For Speed
So what, exactly, is SuperSpeed Golf, and how is it any different from swinging a weighted club?
A SuperSpeed Golf set features three gripped shafts with different weights on the end. The lightest is 20% lighter than a standard driver, the next one is 10% lighter than your driver, and the third is 5% heavier. A training session consists of three sets of 10 reps swinging each club as fast as humanly possible, starting with the lightest and working your way up to the heaviest.
“If we start with something 20% lighter than their normal driver, we know their kinematic sequence (legs-torso-pelvis-arm and club) is going to be the same,” says Napoleon. “They’re going to get the same recruitment out of the ground, legs, and pelvis throughout the entire sequence as they do during a normal swing. The brain is thinking that this motion is the same motor pattern as their golf swing, but because of the reduced resistance and reduced weight, it can go a lot faster.”
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Napoleon and Shay say a typical 100 MPH swinger will swing the lightest SuperSpeed club around 118-119 MPH. When they jump to the middle weight club, speed will drop to around 115 MPH. By the time they hit the heaviest club, they’ll still be swinging faster.
“Because we did this neuro-muscular speed reset with the light clubs, we’ll see that player who started at 100 MPH swing the heavier club usually around 110 to 112 MPH, significantly faster than their normal golf swing,” says Napoleon.
“We do like to finish with the lightest club at the end, just to retrigger that neurological system to the faster speeds.”
Standard protocol includes normal swings, step-forward swings (think a high leg kick baseball swing), a Happy Gilmore type swing and opposite side swinging.
“What we’re trying to do with that is develop the deceleration chain of the golf swing,” says Shay. “You can only accelerate as fast as you can decelerate, so in a golf swing when you get past impact into follow-through, you have to stabilize into that left hip/left leg so you can stop the pelvis and stop the swing. The better we can post or stabilize into that lead side, the better we can create clubhead speed.”
Faster vs. Harder
Ever wonder how a shrimpy guy like Justin Thomas can hit the ball as far as he does? Or how a bigger guy like Ernie Els – The Big Easy – hits the ball so far with such an effortless swing?
“They’re swinging in a very efficient sequence,” says Napoleon. “They’re able to stabilize those segments of the swing very well, which adds to the whole fluidity of the motion.”
When we amateurs try to hit the ball farther, we tend to just grip the club tighter and swing the club harder. And more often than not, that throws the whole swing sequence out of whack.
“Once you see that acceleration start in the lower body, the whole kinematic sequence happens in a specific pecking order. The pelvis is going to get to its max speed and then it has to stop. What we found is the faster the segment is able to stabilize in the kinematic sequence, the more energy gets transferred to the next segment in the series – to the torso and then to the arm and club and then, ultimately, to the ball.”
Both Shay and Napoleon shy away from hard when talking about the golf swing, opting instead to use the more descriptive aggressive or fast.
“As a coach, I’m more of a minimalist in all this,” says Napoleon. “I don’t want to explain to the player how to make the club move faster. I want them, from a discovery standpoint, to make three or four swings during the training, see on radar which ones went faster, and then they start to learn what pieces made the club move faster. That’s how you teach complex bio-mechanics to someone without overloading them with a bunch of information they don’t need.”
Speed Racer
So you may be asking, why the heck don’t you just swing a heavier club, or why not just swing a driver upside down to create more speed? Fair questions both and, as it turns out, baseball studies have refuted to the notion that weighted bats, or clubs, do anything to promote swing speed.
“We found that when you get above 5% heavier than your regular driver, you’ll start to see swing speed actually slow down,” says Napoleon. “TPI did a great study on this disproving the ‘donut on a bat’ theory.”
“They had collegiate and high-level professionals do their normal donut bat routine while on the on-deck circle and tested to see if that increased or decreased bat speed. On average they’d see a 30% drop in bat speed, and it would take them three or four swings to get back to normal. You have to be careful when swinging something heavy for too many reps.” Michael Napoleon, SuperSpeed Golf
Going too light is a problem, as well, such as when you swing an alignment rod or turn a driver upside down.
“You’ll start to see the sequencing change quite a bit,” says Napoleon. “You’ll see arm and hand speed increase, but there’s not enough weight on the end for your brain to go ‘okay, I need to use my lower body and my torso to go faster, too.'”
“We tested to see how light you could go without being too light, and how heavy you could go without being too heavy so you could maintain an increase in speed without altering the kinematic sequence.”
Using a fan or a parachute to increase resistance are just other ways to make the club heavy without adding any actual weight to it. Napoleon says anytime you try to swing something heavier than your normal club, the extra inertia is going to make it harder to make the club change direction, accelerate or even move.
“Your body can’t do it as quickly,” says Napoleon. “You may go pick up your regular club and it’s going to feel lighter, but neurologically your body actually remembers the speed it was going with that heavy club, and it will actually swing slower.”
Yeah, But Does It Work?
Another fair question. SuperSpeed Golf is finding its way into the bags of dozens of Tour pros, including Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell, Xander Schauffele and Kevin Na, as well as dozens of Champions, Web.com, LPGA and Symetra Tour players.
SuperSpeed’s baseball training has made it to the major leagues, with 8 teams using it from the low minors to the big leagues, including the reigning World Series Champion Houston Astros.
“A lot of guys get so much more joy out of playing golf,” says Shay. “They’re not struggling, they’re hitting it past their buddies. It’s gratifying to see guys that have lost some club speed over the years, your 50+ golfer, getting some of that speed back. Now it’s two clubs less into greens, or they’re not hitting hybrids into every par 4, or they don’t have to move up a tee box. We hear it all the time.”
One recent testimonial came from a customer in Boston who had just won a fight with cancer.
“He was just getting to the point where he could go back out and play,” says Napoleon. “He played with the same group of guys he’d played with for 20 years, and he wasn’t able to hit the ball far enough to even play from the forward tees. He got our stuff and worked with it for four or five months, and he was finally able to get back to where he could play golf again.”
“That could have been a guy that would’ve quit playing the game because he lost too much distance. Now he’s back to playing golf and having fun with his friends every week.”
Everyone wants to hit it farther – it’s the rock upon which the equipment industry is built. SuperSpeed Golf isn’t going to promise you 20 or 30 more yards, but they do say that if you follow the program, you will see an immediate and – if you follow the training protocols they provide – permanent increase in swing speed.
“That’s the really cool thing,” says Napoleon. “Just about everybody gets a gain along the way because most people have never done any kind of purely neurological speed training, especially in golf. It’s like if you’ve never gone to the gym and then started lifting dumbbells – you’ll start seeing results right off the bat.”
“There’s a lot going on under the surface that makes this very complex,” adds Shay. “But we’ve tried to make it as simple as possible. Can you do eight minutes three times a week and just follow a few simple steps?”
My own experience with SuperSpeed Golf falls into the so far, so good category and I am noticing drives getting a bit longer as the season wears on. But I’m also getting some odd looks at the driving range, which I presume are related to SuperSpeed protocols.
“I bet half those people will start researching online,” says Napoleon. “If you’re doing that while warming up and then go blast it past your buddies, I bet they’ll all be doing it within a week.”
For more information, videos, and testamonials, visit SuperSpeedGolf.com.
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Need Help to Focus on Writing? Try This Tip
Do you sit down to write and it seems like a million thoughts are dancing in your head? You know, they’re just there having a loud obnoxious party. With all those bouncing thoughts, it’s hard to focus on writing.
There are lots of distractions to keep writers from writing. A busy mind can really put damper on your creativity and focus. If you’re like me, you’re being pulled in a thousand different directions, and trying to sit down in the middle of all that and write is, well, a challenge.
The Distracted Writer
I like to write first thing in the morning. It’s the most distraction-free time of the day for me. I’m up before everyone else so there are no requests from me to cook, find something, fix something, or play taxi to my children.
But sometimes even the quiet of morning isn’t enough to keep my mind focused on my story. I usually wake up and a million little things start running through my mind: the crazy dream I had, what do I want to make for dinner, that crazy looking bug I found in my garden that I need to look up, and the list goes on.
Those little niggling thoughts push me off course. The next thing I know, I’m busy with my day. Then I go to bed disappointed that I didn’t get my word count in for the day.
Before I know it, one missed day of writing turns into two, then four. Then the guilt of not writing really puts a damper on things, and it becomes even harder to focus on writing.
Ray Bradbury’s Distraction Solution
One day while I was reading about Ray Bradbury and how he wrote, I stumbled across something he did every morning. You know Ray Bradbury, right? He wrote a lot of books, one of the most notable among them being Farenheit 451. Yeah, that guy.
He had a morning routine that he stuck to no matter what. It was such a simple thing that he did, so simple that I didn’t think it would work for me, so I dismissed the idea. For almost a year.
But the seed was planted, and the idea kept niggling at the back of my mind.
One morning I woke up and decided I wasn’t going to spend another day not writing. I had missed enough opportunities.
I sat down at my computer and opened my word processor. I found a timer online and set it for fifteen minutes.
Then I did what Ray Bradbury did, just to try it on for size. Just for a week, you know, to see if what worked for Mr. Bradbury would work for me.
I was sceptical, to say the least, but decided that there was no harm in trying it. If I didn’t see any results, I only wasted a week of my life. No biggie (insert sarcasm here).
Bradbury’s Secret: Write Aimlessly for Fifteen Minutes
Wait. What? That’s it? That’s the tip? Yup.
Simple, and yet it seems so counterintuitive. You’re probably saying, “Writing aimlessly isn’t going to help me focus on my writing.”
It can and it will. Work with me here, writing comrades.
When you sit down to write, set a timer for fifteen minutes. Then let your fingers fly across that keyboard with reckless abandon and dump anything in that miraculous brain of yours onto the page.
Don’t worry about grammar, sentence structure, or spelling. Don’t look for any connection in what you write. Just write.
I call this my “morning storm writing.” It’s a brain dump, just getting all that noisy crap out of your head. Write and don’t stop until you hear that timer go off.
After you do that, save your work.
Save it?
Yes, save it. It may seem like random nonsense now, but trust me on this.
Go back and read your morning storms every so often and you’ll find the most wonderful ideas for stories hiding in those pages, just waiting to be turned into books!
From Nonsense to Stories
I’ve been doing this for a year now and half of the short stories I’ve written have come from these storm sessions I do each morning.
That crazy dream you had? Write it. Your crazy in-law who works your last nerve? Write it. The sea of toe nails you find under your son’s bed? Yup, write that too. Get it all out of your system.
Once you’ve done that, go work on your short story or novel or blog post. I promise you will be so much more focused. That fifteen minute exercise is like stretching for your brain.
Sometimes I do these storm sessions when I am stuck on a short story I’m writing. I’m always amazed at the ideas that pop up when I do that.
Two Story Ideas
One day I took a drive and stumbled upon a house that was for sale. It was in the middle of a neighborhood and was on two acres. All the other homes around it were on only a half acre. That was curious to me.
When I woke up the next morning, the house was still on my mind. I wrote about it in my morning dump session. I came up with my own reasons why this one particular house had so much land.
Guess what happened?
That turned into a short story about a former plantation home haunted by the ghost of a slave. I shared it with a very honest friend of mine who said it needed to be a full novel and The House on Horace Street was born.
I had no idea writing about that house would turn into my first novel, now in the process of publication.
Another morning, I woke up from a dream that took me back to my childhood. There were a lot of emotions swimming through my head.
I couldn’t shake them, so I folded them into a short story about a little girl whose parents moved her to a new school. She had trouble adjusting because she was the only Black girl there.
Inspiration in Your Gibberish
Still skeptical? I was too, until I tried it. Now, my morning storm writing is an integral part of my writing routine.
If you’ve ever gotten distracted when you just wanted to focus on your writing (and let’s face it, who hasn’t?), give Ray Bradbury’s tip a try. Put all your random thoughts down on paper for fifteen minutes before you start your “official” writing.
And who knows? Your next great story idea might just be hiding in those pages!
Do you have a free writing habit? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
Right now, take fifteen minutes to write down anything and everything that’s on your mind. Don’t censor yourself or go back to fix anything. Just write.
When your time is up, read through everything you’ve just written. Does anything stick out as the seed of a story?
Share a portion of your free writing and any story ideas you find in the comments below. And be sure to leave feedback for your fellow writers — do you see story ideas in anyone else’s free writing?
Bonus: Keep up the habit and do this every day for a week. Before you work on any of your writing projects, do fifteen minutes of morning storming. Be sure to save each session so you can go back and read all the wonderful, zany things are in that brain of yours!
The post Need Help to Focus on Writing? Try This Tip appeared first on The Write Practice.
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Wednesday, July 25, 2018
How to Sell Books Using Email Marketing
As writers, we’re constantly trying to get our names out there, to get someone other than our parents to read our stories. We like to say we’re just in it to entertain or amuse people, which is all well and good, but what we really want to know is how to sell books.
The #1 Way to Sell Books
Self-publishing is on the rise, but places like Amazon aren’t marketing platforms; they’re sales platforms. You can’t just upload your book and think it’ll sell. You have to do the heavy lifting to get the word out.
Email marketing is the number one way to connect with your audience, which means it’s the number one way to sell books.
With the constantly changing algorithms of social media, you can’t guarantee your mom will see a new release announcement from you, let alone someone you don’t personally know.
(You need to have a website set up before you can get moving on that email list. For tips on how to do that, check this out.)
How to Sell Books Using Email Marketing
It’s all well and good to say that email marketing sells books. But how? What emails should you send, and when should you send them?
Here’s an email marketing plan to get you started selling books (yes, even if you haven’t written a book yet!).
Welcome email
Great, you have a handful of subscribers. Now what?
First, there should be a welcome email when they confirm their subscription. You can set this up with your email service to automatically send as soon as someone signs up. No muss, no fuss.
There are a couple options for your welcome email. You could go with a standard introduction, where you describe what you’ll be sending them, or you could send them a free story, excerpt, etc. Or a combination of both.
After the welcome
You’ve sent the welcome email, but you can’t just leave your potential customers out in the cold after that. You have to keep up the line of communication. Here are a couple ways you can communicate with them:
1. Send scheduled emails
What you do here depends on what your goal is.
If you haven’t released a book yet, or you’re a short story writer with multiple releases a month, or you blog consistently, I recommend doing a “roundup” email. You can do this weekly or monthly. What this normally looks like is a list of posts and/or news releases that give a taste of what is in the article, then asks you to click to continue reading.
If you have released a book, or several, I recommend setting up a series of emails for new subscribers. This would be automatic after a certain time frame.
For example, say I signed up to your site. I first get the welcome email, then a second email maybe a week later announcing your book, and maybe a third in another week.
The benefit of this is all your subscribers get the same emails and no one misses what you really want them to see: your book!
Both of these options can be set up to be automatic and scheduled in advance. They allow you to build a steady relationship with your audience and allow them to get used to seeing your name in their inbox.
2. Send unscheduled emails
These are announcements and are sent whenever you need to speak straight to your fans. These are a great way to announce releases and events or offer freebies and giveaways.
Remember, new subscribers won’t get announcement emails you’ve sent in the past, as they go out simultaneously to the subscribers you have at that time.
If you feel like you don’t have enough announcements to send these emails on a regular basis, this may not be the way to go for you. Your subscribers are less likely to open your emails if they haven’t heard from you in months.
What to Write to Sell Books
The most important thing to remember when selling anything, especially books, is that your customers must feel invested in the product. It needs to feel personal to them.
With books, people become attached to characters. But you haven’t sold them any books yet, remember? So if they can’t be attached to your characters, who should they be attached to?
YOU.
You need to build a rapport with your audience. You need to give them something and in return, you’ll sell books.
If you’re anything like me, you kind of loathe the idea of doing any of this emailing stuff. It takes time and what do you really have to say anyway?
But the thing is, if you want to sell books, you need to actually get out there and sell them.
Here are a few ideas for things to send that will help you to connect with your readers and get them to buy your books:
News about your writing
This would be the bulk of the email. Start a countdown to release day, announce new releases, give details about book signings or appearances, etc. Anything you want them to know, really.
Sneak peeks
You have a million notes on character development, side stories you’ve cut from the book, and other random scribblings that may be of interest to fans. Polish those things up and offer them for free in your emails.
This is like a teaser trailer (by the way, you can make one of those for your book and send it along, as well), not only getting your readers hooked, but allowing them to begin to form a connection with your characters.
Giveaways and incentives
Everyone loves a giveaway. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what’s being given away; if it’s free, people want it.
Some of the more obvious giveaways include a signed copy of your book, a free copy of your book or short story, access to exclusive content, an invitation to your next event, a chance to interview you for their blog … the list goes on. Get creative.
Giveaways are one of the best ways to not only nab your audience’s attention, but also to get them to interact and share your work.
Final Notes for Email Marketing Mastery
Make sure your emails are professional and edited. You’re supposed to be selling books and no one is going to buy them if you have typos in your emails.
You’ll also want to focus on staying “on brand” when you email. In other words, make sure the look and tone of every email matches what you’ve sent so far. If you want to get fancy with the design of your emails, I recommend designing an email header that will be used in each email, taking time to write a compelling signature, and making sure your colors, fonts, etc. always match. You want consistency so people will recognize you.
Finally, find some other writers and hop on their email lists! Not only does this open up a line of communication in the writing community, but you can also get ideas for your own emails from what others are putting out there. Remember, though: As with anything, turn old ideas into new ones. Don’t steal outright.
Have any other ideas of what to email to your readers? Let me know in the comments!
PRACTICE
For your fifteen-minute practice today, you’re going to write an email to your subscriber list — yes, even if you don’t have a subscriber list yet.
If you don’t have a list yet, write a welcome email. What’s the first thing you want to say to your potential readers when they sign up to hear from you? Do you have any stories you can send them for free?
If you do have an email list, and have been emailing for some time, write your next email. What announcements and updates will you share with your readers? How will you connect with them and stay “on brand”?
When you’re done, share your email in the comments. Don’t forget to give feedback!
The post How to Sell Books Using Email Marketing appeared first on The Write Practice.
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{VIDEO}: The Top 5 Mallet Putters of 2018 (Beyond the Data)
At the conclusion of every Most Wanted Test, we publish our results. We share the data we collect and rank the winners. It’s simple and straightforward, but some of you have asked for a bit more insight. We hear you.
In this video, the MyGolfSpy Staff goes beyond the data. Adam, Sam, and Harry discuss how we test putters, tackle some of the myths surrounding the importance of how a putter looks, and give you an overview of why we think the Top 5 finishers in the mallet category performed as well as they did.
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