Realmscapes

The Pursuit of Happiness: Stay the Course

Starting a business--be it online or off--comes with a multitude of battles. It all is similar to the American Revolution, a war that upstart British colonists were not supposed to win. But we did, because our desire to be free and pursue our happiness was greater than all the redcoats King George could put on the field.

Here in the present, my wife and I fight the same battle odds, and it is likely you do as well. Support from family and friends is a great thing when it is available. But what happens when this is non-existent? You have to have the confidence in your skills and abilities to keep moving.

Those who wish to purse their happiness must be come tone deaf to the nay-sayers, especially if one has done their due diligence and research.

Why do we fail to see this support? The reasons aren't important. What is important is that you stay true to the plan you have laid out.

Finish what you start. Quitting is an unbreakable habit once it's started.

Be patient in waiting for results of your labors. A farmer doesn't see the results of his seed planting until 2-6 months after the fact.

Remember that some risk is always necessary when embarking on a course to self-dependence. This isn't to say that uneducated risk is a good thing; always do your research before making a decision. But when the research is sound, you can't be like a deer in headlights. Because one thing is certain: if you don't take the leap, someone else will. And there is no good way to describe the feeling of watching someone else prosper in a way that you could have "if only"... This is true in sports, business, film, publishing...everywhere.

In The Patriot, Benjamin Martin is ready to quit. He's lost nearly all his sons; he has lost his land; he thinks he has lost his will to finish what he has started. But Martin had a friend--a friend that knew him well enough to know that Martin would hate himself even more later on if he was allowed to quit. This friend told him simply: "Stay the course." Martin threw him out...but it was not too long before Martin saw the decrepit flag amongst the belongings of his slain son. Soon thereafter Martin rejoins the men and would go on to rally the men at a critical moment in battle to turn the tide to the colonists.

We all have friends like this. These are the people that we need to surround ourselves with. They are gifts, and they remind us to look around and remember that our quest for self-dependence rarely affects just us. Without these people in our lives, our success is doomed to be one of a different kind of character by name of Ebenezer. Remember that our success is tied to people in our circle directly (employees or team members) or indirectly (church and family). It benefits us greatly on many levels to take an interest in their well-being.

Dreams are only goals that we have voluntarily placed out of our reach. Stay the course.

Josh & Kasandra are the co-owners and founders of Grail Quest Books. They are also passionate about forming a team of motivated people interested in maximizing their pursuit of happiness. Consider the following information from our senior team leader...

Want a Glimpse Inside?

Awesome Update.. Our internet marketing team's senior sponsor is now hosting a live business overview and Q&A webinar every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday @9-10PM (EDT, -5GMT) for a very limited time! It doesn't matter where in the world you are.

This is a very unique opportunity to see for yourself what our team and business model are all about, as well as the kind of people you will be learning directly from. You can see a brief video from our team sponsor on our team website. When you sign up, please be sure to let me know so that we can send you the link to the webinar registration and attend with you.

If you are serious about taking control of your own success, and you are looking for the best way to leverage yourself and the internet to your advantage, then consider attending one of these webinars with us.

We know what it feels like to have amazing talent or a great idea only to be told you have to wait for your chance. We want to help our fellow creators and innovators to learn how to rely on themselves and help others to do the same. Attaining our goals is a great feeling, but helping others just like us feels even better!

So come see for yourself how you can build your own brand as an entrepreneur doing what you want to do...

Major GQB Update and Some Facebook Marketing Tips

What an exciting weekend!

On Friday, we released Episode 1 of our audio drama, Stitched Crosses. Paul Cox did an outstanding piece of art for the promotional poster!! You can listen to the audio drama FOR FREE.

And you can see the poster (which is also available to purchase) at our dA page.

Facebook has been instrumental in our initial "getting the word" work. If you haven't considered using Facebook to promote your work it is really an amazing tool. Consider the following after writing a blog or posting files to your online photo or art account (e.g. Flickr, deviantART, Picasa):

1. Share on Facebook button. This little button makes sharing your latest work quick and simple. Just go to the "My Links" section of your account. On the right side you will see a "Share on Facebook" button. Just drag it to your browser toolbar and your ready to share links to whatever you want, and it posts right to your Fb profile.

2. Share your links with "Everyone". When sharing links to your work, be sure that you click the little padlock icon and select "Everyone". The whole point of promoting yourself is to let the world know you and your work exists!

3. Play Facebook games. You read that right! You see, games like CastleAge, Farmville, Kingdoms of Camelot all have features that let you add fellow gamers to your friends list. The best time to do this is after you have posted a link to your latest creative activity. That way it is right at the top of your profile page when your new friends check out what you're all about. You also will have a larger list of people to send invites to when promoting your business's Facebook 'fan' page. (Just be sure not to spam them with invites.)

4. Artists & Photographers: Post your art and photos to your photo albums. You would be surprised how many people don't do this outside of their community network sites. Afterall, thousands of would-be fans are not part of the same communities they are. Sometimes you will even get more feedback on art posted on Facebook than you do on the art and photo sites.

5. Post the public link to your blog, photo account, or other community profile on your Facebook profile page. Most of us have the Info tab covered, but not everyone realizes that you can post links in the box just beneath your profile picture. And don't forget to make sure your blog and public page (and your personal website, if you have one) are listed in the information box; also that at least that part of your info tab is also on your profile page. You can never post a website too much.. you never know how fast people scroll down your page.

I couldn't possibly fit all the other ways our Internet marketing team helps each other out and keep this post read-able. If you want to know more about how you can learn to be a better Internet marketer AND create ways to earn money while you learn (which is pretty much all the time... for both), check out our team website for more. There isn't a better time to come on board.

RE: Stars and Gripes: Tea Party Protests Captain America Comic (NYTimes)

In issue No. 602 of Captain America, the hero and his ally the Falcon find themselves at a rally where protesters hold signs that read “Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You!” and “Stop the Socialists!” Captain America remarks that the assembly appears to be an “anti-tax thing,” and the Falcon, who is black, says he probably would not fit in with “a bunch of angry white folks.”

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

Joe Quesada apologized (of course), calling it "a stupid mistake", and promised all reprints would remove the Tea Party-related slogans.

Regardless of your political ideological choice, it is never right to slander the opposition just because you do not agree with them. Either that or MARVEL is admitting that neither The Falcon (a character I actually like very much)--nor themselves--are up to speed on what the Tea Party movement is about (being that "anti-tax thing" Cap remarked about).

This is a great lesson for all writers to learn. It is absolutely your right to script a story as you see fit. But Freedom of Speech employed in a fashion that blatantly mis-characterizes a person or group in a way that is obvious will NOT lead to a large readership.

Due your diligence through research, make informed opinions about the people you do not agree with, and you will find respect truly is a two-way street. From there you will also increase the capital on your reputation, and reap the dividends down the road later as a person of honor and to be trusted.

It's all about "You, INC."

Josh and I started Grail Quest Books because we were tired of waiting for other people to tell us we were "good enough" or that we had to wait for a spot to open for us. I am sure that many of you feel the same way.

Anyone can just decide to start a business or put up a website promoting themselves. It's quite another to get traffic and commissions and all that. So how does one go from one in a crowd of many thousands to one on a pedestal?

It's called branding--building up "You, INC." Grail Quest Books (GQB) started just like all the other small publishers, but we knew we had to approach things differently than so many of them. It isn't that they have bad stories or no talent. It's that they thought that people would somehow just start magically streaming through the doors. Another part of it is that many thought, "Well, I'd be happy being read by only 500 people." Really? REALLY?!

We creators do what we do because we want our art to make an impact, to pull on emotions... to be enjoyed by thousands. Much of this is true for any entrepreneur. If you dream small your results will be smaller. And you can't be afraid to put yourself out there. You can't be afraid of criticism or competition. Both should be channeled as motivators to excel. That way if a critic doesn't like your stuff you can smile as the thousands line up to buy your work.

So anyway, GQB is really starting to get a lot of traction. For an upcoming soundtrack related to one of our comic projects, we have teamed up with a great new rock band (JPT) marked for great things by its music genre. And we have the opportunity to get some other awesome singers as well--some you may even recognize.

How did we get to this point where our brand is now being built up by association with other brands? It's because we branded ourselves as professionals who were passionate and committed to our success AND those we team up with. There is a large amount of "no compromise" in there too.

Understand we had NO start-up funding beyond the time we and the rest of our team were willing to commit to seeing this company succeed.

You don't have to start up a whole company like we have. There are many very successful artists out there who market themselves as "Them, INC.". You just have to have a commitment to the time it will take to market yourself.

We already knew that places like deviantART, Facebook, and Twitter are great self-marketing tools towards creating a niche. But there is so much more to the internet than most people realize. Learning to harness the internet so that it works for you is where the real power lies in creating "You, INC.".

We joined a team to help develop our knowledge on growing "You, INC.". Now we want to build our own team of dedicated responsible people who want to learn how to leverage the internet for their success, and then put it into action immediately--or even build their own teams! Even if you don't have the knowledge of internet and social marketing, you are still more than welcome to consider joining our team. Afterall, this is an education you are investing in--a very real and applicable education that you won't learn in any classroom, that's for sure, and I should know.

Angels & Demons (2009)

Having read the book, I was really looking forward to the film adaptation and how they would handle certain plotlines.

The first thing I can confirm is that the Vatican's knee-jerk reaction to the film, based on its deeply critical view of the authour, was entirely unwarranted and allowed the whole production the opportunity to be on the "high road" of the debate. In many ways the film is much tamer than Dan Brown was in the book--even *gasp* sympathetic--and yet the film still gets across its primary commentary on the "Faith VS Science". I won't get into that debate here since I address it rather completely in the above book review.

What disappointed me was how much the antagonist was stripped of a lot of the baggage that really made the character so intriguing (and tragic) in the book. I am aware that not everything of a character's book backstory can make its way into the film version, but there was some excellent material for that character that was left unrevealed and should have been included in the extended version (which sadly is mostly just extra violent material that was cut so that the film could keep its PG13 rating).

Also taking a major hit was the assassin, who in the book is a descendant of the Hashshashin, a Shia Muslim sect that became legendary for their deadly skills during the Crusades. Clearly the filmmakers were trying to be political correct, which I can't understand since I would think that the terrorists would like a character that goes around killing Catholic priests. But by being linguine-spined and scrapping any development of the character, the audience was robbed of a great fight confrontation between he and Langdon at the end. *shrug*

In principle, though, it annoys me. The idea that maybe if we don't address the Muslim/Christian confrontation, from a standpoint where the Muslim side loses, so that maybe they will stop blowing things up is ludicrous. JK Rowling addresses this kind of egregious societal decision spot-on in the Harry Potter series; it is also very well articulated in the Star Wars: New Jedi Order series chronicling the Yuuzhan Vong invasion of the "galaxy far far away".

Overall, I was very happy with the effort and pleasantly surprised at the above-average respect the film showed for the Christian faith in general. In fact, I like the film's ending much better than the book's (which made sure to give the victory to science). And I fully agree with the film's premise: that science and faith need not be at war since both are gifts to us from our Creator.

GRADES (based on a 32" Dynex HDTV & a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-ray player):

Film: A-
Blu-ray: A+ (video), A (audio), A- (extras)

Amazon/Macmillan Flap Shows Why Self-Marketing is Vital

The recent disagreement over pricing that landed Macmillan books into the vacuum is indicative of the trials that have long plagued the publishing industry (especially the relationship between authour and publisher); it is a harbinger of coming changes that the realm of the internet, digital information, and mobile devices are bringing to the print industry--be it books, film, comics...whatever.

Creators, or writers in this most recent case, are going to be the casualties in this change since down-sizing companies are less likely to cut staff and more likely to cut authours that don't sell a higher threshold of books. A best-selling authour recently observed:

The simple fact is that none of us, no writer, is entitled to a career. We are all a single sales disaster away from working with the phrase, “Would you like fries with that?” Whether it is the downturn in the economy, your editor leaving your publisher, your publisher cutting the division that publishes your books, a retailer (for whatever reason) deciding not to carry your book, no writer should ever have the expectation of a career.

We have never been in control of our own fate.

Until now.

...

Are digital sales to the point where they can supplant traditional publishing income? For some authors they are. Digital readers are proliferating, and the J. K. Rowling demographic is very comfortable with reading off a screen. They’re reading more. And if your work is not available digitally, you don’t exist to them.

It’s time for writers to stop lamenting how the inefficiencies of the old system treat them badly, and to embrace the future. If writers don’t take control of their future, they doom themselves to the obscurity that will swallow the current business model whole.

This scribe's words ring true for many people right now, not just writers. When an economy or a corporate system fails, it is the employee or the contractor that ultimately takes the hit. This cycle will continue so long as people continue to rely on bosses and co-workers for their financial well-being.

So what happens when the axe finally falls? If you're a writer chances are you want to keep writing. (I'm a writer and I know I wouldn't want to abandon my calling just because someone's else's system failed me.) If you're a corporate or retail worker...then what? Unemployment is between 9% and 10%, with some states even worse.

Ultimately everyone turns to the internet to search for an opportunity. And why not? It's the world at our fingertips. And chances are very good that there are others just like us who are tired of playing the game of relying on other people and governments tinkering with economies. For us writers we have stories to tell and we want to make a living off of that if possible. That means finding our niche audience and connecting with them.

So what's the answer?

The answer is in marketing one's self. The answer is finding something that you love to do or create and building a customer base. The answer is setting your own value. Leverage yourself so that the only person you need to rely on when it comes to your financial well-being is you and those others that you decide share your exact same passion for success.

Kas and I have joined an internet marketing team that is building on the knowledge we already had, and helping us to harness the power of the internet even more so that we will never again have to worry about tying our finances to anyone other than our own abilities. Even if you don't have the knowledge of internet marketing, you are still welcome to consider joining our team where you can learn that knowledge and empower yourself to write your own paycheck from the comfort of your home doing whatever it is that you love to do, be it writing books, editing them, selling them...or something completely different.

Facebook as a Tool for Entrepreneur Success

As someone who owes much of his current success in publishing, it is more than disheartening to see so many Facebook users using the social networking tool as little more than a place to make a statement. There are groups and fan pages for everything, from "Bet there are a 1,000,000 [fill in the blank]" to "Fan of Pushing the Little Buttons on Soda Cup Lids".

This is cool and all, but do people realise how much valuable networking time they are wasting just playing "Farmville" or throwing dice in "Farkle"? These games offer an opportunity to become freinds with people that enjoy the same things you do.

For awhile I played two games: "Imperial Galaxy" and "Highlander" (based on the TV show and films). These games were built upon friend-ing fellow players for the purpose of building navies or alliances. I friend-ed as many people as could. Why? So that when it came time to promote Grail Quest Books I had nearly 200 friends to promote to (I'm including the 60 or so friends and family in this number).

Lo and behold, when I sent out invites to the GQB fan page at least a dozen of them accepted. The fan page aside, every time I write a note or post a link from this weblog or share news from the GQB fan page, not only does everyone see this in their news feed, but I am also providing a link to said fan page.

A social networking site is an amazing tool for promoting one's business and a great place to find potential customers that are interested in your services or products you are creating. All from the comfort of your home. And this is just the free side of Facebook; I haven't even gotten into Fb's valuable paid advertising services, which let you target specific people based on their interests.

Entrepreneurs are CREATED, not born...and the internet is where serious 21st century Entrepreneurs will be based. Learn about the community of Achievers I am proud to be a part of, and join a Team dedicated to helping each other live The Dream every day.

Internet Marketing: The New Frontier for Financial Freedom

In 2005, my wife and I started our own publishing business intended to not only produce our own projects, but a select number of others that shared our passion for second-to-none storytelling.

We also share a deep passion for internet marketing and entrepreneurialism. All of the opportunities that laid the groundwork for Grail Quest Books came by way of networking and marketing on the internet. And all of the success we have had with GQB is because of internet marketing and networking.

Kas and I both believe that the internet is a vastly untapped commodity by many Entrepreneurs or those that aspire to be so. The internet is the world at your fingertips.

• Is financial freedom on your mind often?
• Do you have a great idea for an online business but no idea how to market it properly?
• Do you want to have a life that is truly fulfilling without the mental grind of going to a job that is not your calling?

My wife and I thought of these things constantly over the last years. Our calling was entertainment.. a calling that we could not endeavour to succeed in IF we waited around for producers and agents and publishers to decide that we were "good enough". We knew what we had and there were others that were in the same boat as us that wanted to take the journey with us. We also know that the internet is changing the world of publishing from digital presses to the ability to work with talent in any zip code or country. But how does one harness the realm of the internet for one's own success?

There is an answer to all this:

• Learn how to rely on yourself for your own financial stability instead of a boss or co-workers that just don't "get it".
• Learn how to market anything, to anyone, anywhere in the world.
• Learn the secrets of Internet marketing not taught anywhere else.

America was built upon the Individual and Freedom. In our founding documents they articulated God-given, "unalienable Rights" specifically Life...Liberty...the Pursuit of Happiness.

Entrepreneurs are CREATED, not born...and the internet is where the successful 21st century Entrepreneurs will be based.

If you are interested in an opportunity for a REAL education and not some kind of get-rich-quick scheme...
If you want to join a community of successful Internet Entrepreneurs who share your passion for FINANCIAL FREEDOM and want to teach you their success...
If you are ready to take control of your life and do all the things that YOU want to do...

Click the banner below to learn more about the system that will teach you how to run a successful online business from home, and which will empower you to become a serious Entrepreneur and Team Leader of the 21st century. A wealth of Knowledge is waiting for you...