Speed Reading: Fact or Fiction?

Julie is running late. It's Monday morning and she can't miss her class. There is no time for her to relax. She rushes to the subway and takes a seat. The other passengers are starring blankly straight ahead. Suddenly, Julie remembers that she was supposed to read the first chapter in her history book. She pulls out her book opens it to the first chapter. She flips a page. Then the second, third, -- page twenty, -- two hundred. Before she realizes it, the subway doors open and she has finished an entire book.Fact or FictionIs this a dream or science fiction? Can someone actually read a book in 30 minutes? First, let's ask where the idea of speed reading originated. A woman named Evelyn Wood turned in an 80 page paper to her college professor expecting him to read and return it the next day. To her surprise he read the entire paper in seconds and graded it immediately. She was stunned. How could anyone read so much so fast? Her professor was one of a select few people at the time. He was a natural speed reader. Evelyn Wood went on to study this phenomena and eventually founded a speed reading institute in Australia. That was 40 years ago. Since then, speed reading has become popular in many countries. However, the technique is almost unknown in the USA.Air Force ResearchA device called a tachistoscope was used during WWII to help fighter pilots identify aircraft silhouettes. The device flashed an image on a projection screen for a fraction of a second. Psychologists and educational specialists working on visual acuity created an experiment where the images were gradually reduced in size and the flash rate was increased. An average person could identify small images of different planes when flashed on the screen for only one-five-hundredth of a second. The U.S. Air Force modified the system by changing the images to single words. Then up to four words flashed simultaneously on the screen at rates of one five-hundredth of a second. The participants were able to recognize and understand the words. This experiment demonstrated that, with some practice, words can be recognized and understood at much higher speeds than normal reading rates. MisconceptionsUnfortunately, the term speed reading received a black eye in the 1990's when a number of unscrupulous companies made outrageous claims about their speed reading products. These were often combined with useless memory enhancement packages and sold by snake oil salesmen that exaggerated the benefits of their systems. Many of the systems promoted completely different methods which often conflicted with each other. These systems relied on pseudo-science claims that were so far out that they make crystal healing look like cutting edge technology. Some unblinkingly claimed the subconscious could extract unnoticed content from the printed page. Confusion and frustration resulted when people tried to follow their bad advice. In spite of these obstacles, speed reading is making a comeback. Today we have a better understanding of how speed reading works in the brain. New and improved teaching techniques and the ability to use computers for training have made speed reading a hot topic again.Before we see what speed reading is, let's look at what speed reading is not. Speed reading is not skimming. Skimming is an inaccurate reading method. Imagine trying to skim the instructions for your new hair-dryer and thinking it said 'use in shower' when it actually said 'do not use in shower'. Missing that all important word, not, changes the entire meaning. Skimming simply does not work. Speed reading is not skimming. A speed reader actually reads every word.Speed reading is not pushing harder. Anyone can push harder to read faster but this only works for a few sentences before falling back to regular speed. Speed reading is a technique that allows you to read an entire magazine or book at speeds two to ten times faster than average reading speed. Some speed reading systems go to great lengths to teach hand motion techniques or eye movement techniques. Research conducted during the development of Speed Reader-X™ has not shown these techniques to work in themselves. Some people find hand motions distracting while others use hand motions to stay focused. The best rule about hand motion is to use it if it helps and forget it otherwise. There is no magic hand motion that will increase your reading speed. Books can spend chapters explaining eye movement patterns. You move your eyes all day every day. It is not something that requires practice. Eye motions will come naturally. Speed ReadersSpeed reading has been part of big business and government for years. It has been taught to executives of many major companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Xerox, and Hewlett Packard. Even presidents have been speed readers including John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter. President Carter took speed reading lessons while at the white house and he read two books per week even with his Presidential duties. Reading SpeedsAccording to SpeedReaderX.com, the average person reads around 250 words per minute. This is the speed of the little voice in your head that pronounces words as you read. Speed readers can read from 600 to 1500 words per minute or faster.It is not uncommon for people to immediately double their reading speed when first learning speed reading techniques. Children eight years and older are the best candidates to learn speed reading. At this age they have a fairly large vocabulary and are familiar with reading. Speed reading becomes more difficult for adults. Just like learning a foreign language comes easy to children, so does speed reading. Adults have been reading the old fashioned way much longer so it takes longer to learn a new reading technique. Adults can still benefit from speed reading. They simply have to put a little more effort into it.Speed reading can provide many benefits. It makes children want to read more. Speed reading fills a child's short attention span by fully immersing them in the material. They actually enjoy reading. This makes children much more likely to read for pleasure. Many studies have shown that children who read perform better in school and to have fewer behavioral problems.ADD/ADHD/DyslexiaChildren with ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia have trouble reading because these conditions make them right brain dominant. Most people are left brain dominant when it comes to reading. Speed reading uses the visual centers of the right side of the brain. This makes learning speed reading easier for these otherwise disadvantaged children.George Stancliffe, founder of The American Speed Reading Project, has reported success in teaching speed reading to students that have ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia.Mr. Stancliffe said, "...many people with ADD or Dyslexia find speed reading easier than normal reading. Their brains take to the new, visual intake of words much more easily." He continued to say, "If you have a child who may have either ADD or Dyslexia, and you want him/her to be a better reader, one of the best things that you could do is to teach him/her to speed read."The SecretNow that we know speed reading reaches all the way to the Whitehouse, how does it work? The whole concept is actually quite simple. We learn to read in the first grade. By the second grade we recognize whole words. We learn more words and some grammar but that is the end of the teaching process. From this point on, we are effectively reading at a first or second grade level for the rest of our lives. The human brain can take in information much faster than this. When you read this page, you are likely seeing one or two words at a time. But when you look at a friends face you do not look at individual features to determine who you are looking at. You see their entire face and you immediately recognize them. The brain processes images much faster than it can process words. When you watch a movie, you take in massive amounts of visual information. When a car zooms by on the big screen, do you say to yourself 'C-A-R, car'? Of course not. You see it and you know what it is. You do not have to sound it out or hear it in your head to know what you are seeing. But, when you see the word 'car', the little voice in your head says 'C-A-R, car'. This sub-vocalization slows reading to a snails pace. To speed read, you must learn to see words as images. You must re-learn to process what you read with the right side of your brain instead of the left side. Speed reading is a technique that allows you to take in the printed word just like you take in images while watching a movie. You learn to change how you view words so they are seen as images by the right side of the brain instead of using the voice in your head with the left side. This completely changes how your brain processes information.Bored BrainsHow many times have you read a page and by the end realized you had no idea what you just read? This happens because the brain becomes bored with the slow reading pace and tunes out that little voice. Your brain wants to go faster than the voice in your head can read. This sub-vocalization is creating a reading speed limit.Simply silencing this voice can dramatically increase reading speed. You are switching the reading responsibility from the left side of your brain to the right side. You must switch from using the reading and cognition centers to visual centers of the brainSub-vocalization is still important in the understanding of complex concepts but, it is not necessary and is undesirable for most of what we read. E-mail, magazine articles, and news articles simply do not require deep comprehension to understand. Subjects like mathematics, philosophy and complex concepts are not suited to speed reading techniques. Speed reading techniques are still useful in covering reviews and summaries of these topics. Novels are read for enjoyment and are usually read in real time as if the events are happening in the reader's head. The voice in your head becomes the narrator. Zooming through lengthy descriptions that would otherwise cause the story to drag makes the overall novel reading experience more enjoyable. The reader can then return to normal reading speeds for the interesting parts of the novel.Speed reading is always a useful tool for any type of reading. It is used when appropriate and gives way to normal reading when deeper understanding is needed.SkepticsThere are some people that are still anti-speed-reading. It is important to be wary of skeptics who claim they have tried some or all speed reading programs and have failed. These people often make claims without going into details or citing methods they have tried. They do not reveal how long they tried the programs or if they followed the recommended practice sessions seriously. They frequently misapply speed reading techniques then claim failure without mentioning the fact they are reading the book upside down. They claim they cannot remember what they read at 2,500 words per minute but, forget to mention they have not developed the skill to read at that speed. They try to use maximum speed techniques on complex material which is contrary to the teachings of modern speed reading methods. Most of these people will be extremely negative towards speed reading and try to convince others it is a fake or a scam. These people often refer to the older snake oil systems from the 90's which provide a rich source for skeptics.Comprehension rates determine how much we understand of what we read. It is easy to have 100% comprehension of one sentence. Longer articles or books may have unfamiliar words or concepts. This results in less than full comprehension by any reading method.Comprehension levels of under 50%* are generally cited by skeptics as a failure in speed reading yet, this level is not uncommon in normal reading tests of high school and junior high children when reading adult level materials. Low comprehension for extremely high reading speeds is often cited as a reason for its failure but, this assertion ignores how modern speed reading works. Reading speed varies depending on the material. Maximum reading speed is not used constantly. This is no different than normal reading. You read faster when you need less comprehension and slower when you need more understanding.Speed reading is a structured process which calls for some materials, such as text books, to be read at high speed, then a lower speed, and then reviewed at a highest possible speed. A 50% comprehension rate when reading 2500 words per minute is excellent. At this reading rate the reader can read an entire book twice in less time than they could read one chapter at a normal rate. On the second reading the comprehension rate can increase to 75% or 90%. A rate of 80% comprehension is common at normal reading speeds. With practice, comprehension at lower speeds, 600 to 1000 words per minute, can meet or exceed regular comprehension rates. Skeptics often target systems that claim 10,000 words per minute. Such outrageous numbers do make easy targets. Those making 10,000 word per minute claims often fail to mention that comprehension at that speed is 0% to 5%, which is no different than skimming. This rate may be perfectly acceptable if you are looking for some specific information in a long report but, not if you want to remember what you are reading. Rates of 600 to 1500 words per minute are more common and provide the best speed/comprehension balance.Retention is important. There would be no point in speed reading if you could not remember what you read. This is where many of the products from the snake oil salesmen fell short. People learned basic speed reading techniques but could not remember what they read. Retention and comprehension are actually improved by speed reading but, only after the reader becomes comfortable with speed reading. It takes practice to reach this level. You can easily recall dialog free action sequences of a movie after the movie is over. This information was taken in visually and very rapidly. Your brain is already trained to take in the information from a movie. After the brain is re-trained to take in written words visually, it actually becomes easier to recall and understand what is being read.Training ProductsNew research has updated speed reading techniques since Evelyn Wood's discovery of speed reading in the 1950's. Computers now make it easier to learn and practice speed reading. The original books or audio programs on speed reading required you to time yourself while reading passages, write down the results, and repeat this process many times. Research during the development of the Speed Reader-X speed reading software showed that most people skipped over these sections which negated the effectiveness of these early speed reading books. With computer training software, the computer takes care of the timing and keeps track of your progress. The computer training programs show charts and statistics of your reading speed so you can see your progress. They also increase the difficulty as you progress and your skills improve. These new techniques and improvements in teaching methods make learning speed reading much easier and more reliable. There are new products that use the latest techniques such as Speed Reader-X speedreaderx.com and Eye-Q eyeq.tv which are among the leaders in the field of computer training software.Mastering the SkillSpeed reading is a skill. It is a skill that takes practice. It is also a skill that can make a profound difference in someone's life. Very few people are natural speed readers but, almost anyone can learn the skills needed. Speed reading may not be for everyone, just as learning a foreign language is not for everyone. Today there are inexpensive software programs that make it easy and fun to practice speed reading. Speed reading results vary from person to person and can depend on many factors, not the least of which is the amount of effort put into it. Children stand to benefit the most, especially those with certain learning disabilities. Adults willing to learn a new skill can also benefit. Speed reading is more than simply reading fast. When proper techniques are ignored or remain unpracticed, the results can be disappointing. When the techniques of modern speed reading are applied and used correctly, the results can be astonishing.

Books: a Lifetime of Treasures

I am always surprised and rather saddened when I hear of people who do not read books. Having been an avid book-reader since I learned to read, I find it difficult to imagine what life would be without them. Rather dull and empty, I feel. But as books form a very large part of my life (I’m a writer as well as a reader!) I suppose I’m biased.Yet, I cannot help feeling that anyone’s life could be improved by just a little bit of reading. And I don’t mean gossip magazines or the text your best friend just sent you. I’m talking about the amazing enlightenment, excitement, delight, humour and the whole gamut of emotions to be had from reading a great work of fiction. A colleague in an office once said to me that she never read fiction because she couldn’t see the point of reading something that wasn’t true. What an amazingly sad misunderstanding of the nature of fiction. The stories in fiction may be made up, but any good writer will tell you that a good story is built upon a theme – and that theme is always something that is very true about life. In good fiction, the characters learn things about themselves. They grow as people, and in doing so they face conflicting and difficult situations – sometimes physically dangerous, sometimes emotionally upsetting – but always based on truth, because how else would the reader be able to relate to them? Fiction is, paradoxically, truth. When we read a good work of fiction, we grow and learn along with the characters; we may discover something about ourselves, or about other people; we may draw encouragement from something a character has to go through and overcome; we may be inspired to do something, to be courageous, or loving.Children, in particular, learn so much from books. Let’s take the Harry Potter series. These books are not just about a young magician who goes to magician school and gets into a lot of trouble with his friends and manages to save the day. These books are about courage, friendship, love, and the overcoming of adversity through strength of character, perseverance and honesty. While children are enjoying the stories, these lessons are being learned unconsciously.You may think that The Lord of the Rings was just a fantasy about dwarves and elves and nothing much to do with real life. Think again. Some of Tolkien’s main themes in the book were friendship, comradeship and loyalty. These basic values are interwoven throughout the story – think about the Fellowship of the Ring, Sam’s devoted loyalty to Frodo, the support of Gandalf and the development of the unlikely friendship between an elf and a dwarf. All these are human themes which are actually what help the characters to win against all odds. That’s a strong message about the power of friendship.When you think about the amount of books there are waiting to be read, what an incredible abundance of treasures we have to look into any time we want! Just think, at any time you want, you can be moved, made to laugh, cry or smile, be scared, excited, thrilled, inspired or soothed. And all from the comfort of your own armchair!

What Makes One Book Outsell Another?

You don't have to leap high buildings to get your book selling well, just follow these eleven tips.1. Write a book that people need and want. People want how-to books; they want skills. Notice the demand today for eBooks. It's best to see the need and fill it rather than have an idea—then look for an audience.2. Nonfiction books sell better than fiction. It makes sense to write and market a non-fiction book such as self-help first. Use your profits to finance your fiction project. 3. Short books in any format, like eBooks, guides or special reports are faster, easier, and cheaper to write than full-length books of 150-300 pages. They can be as short as five pages (special reports), to eBooks that can be five to one hundred pages (even longer). Anna Quinlen’s bestseller contained the number of pages that just one chapter does.4. Women buy far more books than men do, about 75%. If your message benefits women, you'll do well in sales. The Chicken Soup for Women series sold 20 million copies out of 68 million for the total series sold. .5. Image is almost everything. Choose your title with care. Your front cover and title have around four seconds to impress your potential buyer. Be clear, use metaphor and make sure your visuals connect to your title. Elicit an emotion through your title words (preferably five to seven words). What solutions and results does your book promise?6. Expand your book into a series. Think of the huge success of the Chicken Soup Series. They have one "brand" everyone recognizes. A series works well for children’s books, self-help, and even fiction7. Create spin-off products that relate to your book. Some people prefer to learn by listening to an audiotape, or downloading a CD-ROM. I recently bought a serial eBook and loved getting two chapters a week—so easy to digest. These formats can actually help you sell more books. Other spin-offs include coaching, consulting, speaking, seminars, columns, or videos.8. Impress your potential buyer within eight seconds with your back cover copy. At the top put your headline. It must hook your readers, stir up their emotions, and hit their desire. Headlines usually include the number one benefit of your book such as “Imagine Thousands of Readers Buying your Book Next Month.” What benefits does your book offer? Include these through your testimonials from decision makers and the man/woman on the street9. Create your written marketing plan before you finish chapter one. This plan covers your first year's launch period and lifetime plan. The biggest mistake new authors make is that they quit marketing after the initial six months. Word of mouth takes a while. Be patient and market your book for up to three years to get the buzz going.. Another mistake is that inexperienced authors wait until publication before they think of marketing, losing a great deal of sales. Your plan could include how many books you want to sell, your 30 second tell and sell, book reviews, news releases, the articles to market your book, the book signings, talks, electronic newsletters, and a book Web site. Without a written plan, an author creates vague results. 10. Put as much time into marketing as you did the writing of your book. Your goal is to have people read and learn from your unique message. Why plant a garden if you don't harvest it? To finish your book project, write down in your organizers one to three High Level Activites you will do. They can include: reading this book, sending a chapter rough draft to an associate for feedback, or contacting a good bookcoach. 11. Include Web marketing to sell more books. While you can sell your books on other peoples' site, such as Amazon.com or Booklocker.com, you will also will want your own. An author without a Web site is like a person without a name. Put useful information up for your Web visitors—articles, a blog, or past ezines. The more interactive it is and the better the ad copy, the more return visits you'll get. The more visits, the more opportunity for sales.Think beyond the box of traditional book selling and incorporate these ideas into your book marketing plan.

Television or Books

Have you ever put down a good book to watch a TV show? Or did you ever stop watching television to read a good book? Well I never did put down a book for a TV show because I think that a book is way better than a TV show. I do have evidence supporting my statement. A TV and book both affect the viewer or reader physically, academically and mentally which I will be explaining in the upcoming paragraphs. But think about this, there are a people who occasionally blink when they are staring at the television barely inches away from the screen. There are also people who barely even look up when they are reading a book for hours and hours until their neck burn from looking down. Both of these types of people are really into what they are doing, but which one is better and more useful?

Physically, the eye gets damaged when you look at the TV for a longtime. When you look at the TV, you're eyes are straining to catch all the fast motion pictures and send the pictures up to your brain. If you strain too much your vision will start getting blurry Since some TV shows are addicting, it is more likely that you will be staring at the screen for a longer time than you really intended. Above 50% of all people who are wearing contact lenses and glasses are people who watched too much of TV. So your eyes will eventually get damaged if you watch television too much .You will also not be getting enough of fresh air and exercise, because, as I said earlier you will be watching more than you intend to which makes it hard to turn it off and go outside. Things are made even harder when you have to turn off the TV when a good program is going on. If there is not any good program in one channel, it is the other. Unlike TV, when you finish a book, you will most likely close it and go out for the rest of the day and start the next book later. Physical activity is necessary for being healthy, TV makes physical activity less among students making them unhealthy, but books prevent this from occurring. Does books and television just affect the reader or viewer just physically or also academically?

Academically, reading books have a lot of influence in your Language Arts grade. The best part in reading books is that it increases your vocabulary without yourself knowing it. When you read a book you are really into, you will mainly focus on the story more than the structure of sentences, and will eventually start using context clues to figure your way out of the story, which makes your vocabulary grow. Even if you consciously ignore the grammar, your mind will subconsciously take note of it, increasing your proficiency in the language. This happens even when you read leisurely books. Reading informative books help you gain more knowledge than seeing the news on the TV. In the TV the people will just summarize the big idea, just giving you a little knowledge of it, but in books, you can expect it to give you information from head to toe if you know where to look. If you don't get a sentence in a book you can always go back and reread it again, but if you are watching a show in the television, you cannot do that unless you recorded it .You can also never get bored reading a good book again and again but you will eventually get tired of seeing the same episode more than three times. After you finish a good book, you will always wonder if you could also write a book like that. With good proficiency and motivation, it will help you write good essays and short stories with ease. When you look at the television watching the ready-made film, you will not be doing anything, but staring at a screen. A book makes you creative because you are the one imagining the story in your head, but does a book or TV just affect you physically, academically?

Sometimes TV and books also affects you mentally and change the way you think. A book with information on a subject will change your idea on the subject when you finish the book; gaining full knowledge of that subject, but this is not the same with the TV. You may say that you can also learn from the television by watching discovery channel or animal planet, but actually it gives you very less information compared to a book or mostly makes you more confused. A book that you read for hours will be crammed into a half hour show with breaks. How much do you think you will learn? Not much and also, these channels approach a subject with a very fast introduction, which makes it very difficult for the viewer to understand leaving them with wrong information about the subject. TV also sometimes provides viewers with unwanted information in some Ads which maybe inappropriate for children. As I have told you TV is addicting and can sometimes leave the viewer excited, which everyone may have experienced, but if that keeps going on without control, the person who is watching may become uncontrollably addicted to it, and will start concentrating on it more than his or her surrounding. This leads the child getting diverted from his/her academic field to the TV, and the child will only concentrate on that TV show. Because of this TV, the child's test scores will go down, start ignoring homework and the presence of mind of his/her surroundings will go down. If the addiction still goes on, it will make them more miserable by the reasons I stated above. A book does not leave the child like this.

As you see a book is way better than TV and it does not have any negative side affects. Addiction to TV is bad and gives you problems but addiction to books is good because it helps with your academics. Just because books helps you in academics doesn't make it boring, because there are many good books out there if you know what to choose. So books are better than television.

Teaching your Child to Love to Read

Raising a child who loves books can be easy, if you have a plan. However, you must keep in mind that no matter how well you prepare to foster a love of books in your child, other influences may keep her from being a reader. All you can do as a parent is provide the encouragement, but the rest is up to your child. One thing you can do to encourage a love of books is to read to your child from infancy on. This teaches her that reading involves special time with mom and dad. She will associate books with affection, which encourages a sense of security and a love for books as objects that bring security to her. As your child matures and is able to play with toys on her own, provide books that she can touch, chew, and bang around. Even if she ends up destroying them, she will begin to associate books with having fun.Sometimes small children want the same book read repeatedly in the same sitting. As an adult, this may feel like a tedious chore. Do it anyway. Repetitive reading is one of the best ways children learn new words. Do not force your child to listen to a book if she is giving you signals that she would rather do something else. When children are young, reading must be a pleasant experience.As your child begins to read, give her a special place in the house that is her reading corner. It could be a beanbag pillow in her bedroom or a special child-sized rocking chair in the living room. While reading doesn’t have to be done only in this corner, having that special place set aside for reading will make it feel like a special event in her day. Let her choose the reading chair in a special shopping trip with mom or dad.Once your child begins learning how to read, you should still read to her. This will improve her vocabulary as you introduce her to words she has never heard or seen before. Take turns reading paragraphs or sentences to make reading a group effort.If you find that your child does not like to read, you may be tempted to bribe her to read. Avoid this if you can. Bribery does not cultivate a love of books. It teaches your child that reading is something to be endured for a reward. Instead, try to figure out why she doesn’t like to read. Are the books you have offered her boring to her? Does she have a reading disability that needs to be addressed? Does she need glasses? Try to find books that appeal to her, even if they are not topics you are interested in, and read those books with her.Finally, model good reading behavior whenever you can. Your children should see you reading a wide variety of materials. You should read books, magazines, newspapers, and even advertisements. Your child will learn from your example that reading is something to be enjoyed every day of her life.

Self Help Books - Do They Help?

I recall seeing a study somewhere that suggested self help books don't really help. I believe it looked at financial self help books. If I remember correctly, three or ten years after reading various "get rich quick" and other money-related books, the readers were generally making more money, but so was everyone else (on average) that didn't read the books. The conclusion was that the books didn't help.Now that is jumping to conclusions! Consider the assumption implicit in it. Researchers assumed those who didn't read books did nothing special. This seems unlikely, to say the least. From what we see of people, we might wonder if most really want to work on general self development, but we also can see that almost everyone regularly tries to better their financial situation.In other words, people in the control group were doing things other than reading self help books, and those efforts got them further ahead also. Think about this for a moment. How does this show that the books didn't help? It's like "proving" that a car can't get you across the city because walking and biking and taking a bus can also get you there. They are just different ways to the same goal!In other words, the books may have helped (on average), just like the other things people tried. Perhaps people choose the things that work best for them. Based on this hypothesis, a better test might be to have one group choose their self help methods while another is forced to use methods chosen by the researchers. If the first group shows more improvement, it suggests that many methods work, and that each person intuitively knows which will be more helpful.It might show the opposite too. It is difficult to design such research. It is also difficult to have a proper "control," and to start with the best hypothesis. One lesson from this is to be skeptical of research where things are hard to define and measure.Self Help Books Clearly Can HelpThere are those of us who don't need research to prove that a good book can help. We clearly recall a book that changed the course of our lives, or that obviously helped us in our relationships, or even boosted our income. Yes, of course self help books can help us.Now, there is the question of why they don't always help. You may have a friend who has told you all about a great new self help book or theory, yet doesn't seem to be much affected by it in the end. You may have read some books yourself that got you excited, but didn't seem to "stick" in our mind or change your subsequent behavior or life.One reason for this apparent ineffectiveness may be that you need to read each book more than once, and that self help books in general help most if they are read regularly. (It is also possible that the effects of such books can be powerful, yet too subtle to notice right away.)This reminds me of some research on eating I read about once. Researchers had people eat a meal. They then concluded that eating didn't increase the odds of survival, since everyone died of starvation two months later. Okay, I made that up, but do you see the point? Just like you have to eat regularly to get the maximum survival benefit, perhaps you need to get those self help books out again and feed your mind from time to time to get the most out of them.

WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE AN E-BOOK

The buzz in writing circles these days is all about self-publishing e-Books. They hear that e-Books are giving authors that added income in between getting their print books published, but they have lots of questions before taking that first step."How do I make one?""What do I write about?""Does anyone even buy e-Books?"Actually, putting together an e-Book is simple. You write about something you are familiar, put it in a .PDF or .exe file and voila, instant e-Book that you can sell off your website and make a few dollars, or even thousands of dollars depending on your promotional efforts, and you're all set. Or go to www.make-your-ebook-sell.comAuthors and entrepreneurs are doing this all the time and there's no reason why you can't either.The first step is determining what you want to write about, of course, and what your goal is for writing your e-Book.In 2004, I became published in print format for the first time. It was for an anthology of soul mate stories. The main reason I wanted to put this book together was because I had a goal in mind. I wanted to show people who have given up on soul mates that they did indeed exist.After it was published, I started a marketing campaign. I had heard that e-Books were all the rage and that you could make some pretty decent money off of them, so I gave it a try.I started on another book on relationships, but while waiting on this book to be finished (which was taking an incredible amount of time due to research), I decided to try my hand at writing an e-Book and selling it off of my website for added income while I waited on my print book projects to be finished.This e-Book was also centered on the soul mate relationship, which I felt would add to my expertise and would help sell my print books.It worked.Even though I only had the e-Book up on my website and just a few online storefronts, the orders were coming in. You can log on www.ebook-secrets-revealed.com However, I became disillusioned because I didn't just want to sell a few copies; I wanted to sell hundreds or perhaps more.I developed a plan.Not only did I list it with any website that would announce my book, write up press releases and send them to every free press release service out there, and a myriad of other places, but I decided I'd write another e-Book and give it away free to all those who bought my paying e-Book.This e-Book was shorter, but to the point.After I became successful using this promotional device to sell my paying e-Book, I found this experience very rewarding and learned quite a few things in the process: 1.) you do not need a publisher to publish your book.2.) Self-published e-Books DO sell and create that added income while you're waiting for your print books to sell.3.) Writing e-Books help give you expert status.4.) Your e-Books are 100% profit.5.) The more you promote and make you and your e-Book visible, the more income you will make.Writing e-Books and selling them yourself without the middleman - the publisher - is a great way to make money. Turn that "starving writer" moniker into "successful writer" and start cranking out those e-Books. Once you start, you'll wonder why you never thought of this great way of bringing added income into your household before!