144 thoughts on “Contact Barbara”

1. Just a “thank you” for your anger management tips. The silent scream works wonders. Our writing group met today, and I was able to say what I had to without being emotionally tied up.
   We decided that the person reading his/her work should say whether he/she wants critique or not, and I think everyone was satisfied. Best of all, the group was fun, we laughed a lot, and some of the work we read was REALLY good.

   Right now, I feel that good kind of tired that you get after two hours at the gym – or four hours dancing, which ever floats your boat.

   Thank you.

2. Welcome back, Helen. Glad to hear your health has improved. If you log in and look at your Member Profile (in the column on the right side of the Hanging Out page), you will find links to the full year’s messages. If you would like to receive emails again, just tell me which one to start with — the first or one of the later ones.

3. Hello, Barbara. Could you tell me how to find/join a success team? And you suggested Meetups for idea teams: any other suggestions? Thank you so much.

   • Barbara is on the road today, Natalya, but I can tell you. Just visit http://shersuccessteams.com/findateam.htm to find a team in your area or by phone. For Idea Parties, a small poster with tear-off contact info placed in book shops, libraries, coffee shops, and food stores specializing in healthy food works for me. I charge a small fee (in addition to bringing some food to share) and offer to waive it for both people if they bring a friend who’s not on my mailing list.

4. I have sent you information by email, James.

5. I am having the same issue as Jim about this afternoon’s resistance workshop. have paid through Paypal and I am looking forward to participating on the resistance workshop; however I have not received any information on how to access the teleclass tomorrow. Please help me.

   • I have just sent you the info by email, Sally.

6. I just wanted to say that way back in the 80’s when I was a young man in my 20’s, a very successful and fascinating woman introduced me to your Wishcraft book. I think you know this woman, her first name is Ellen and her last name is very unusual and feminist.

   I took the book with me to Argentina and as a result, I was able to publish my first two books (in Spanish) I came home in the late ’80’s, and spent a wonderful life as a stay-at-home dad raising my (and my community’s) children.

   Now I’m in my 50’s, am showing signs of Empty Nest Syndrome. My great American novel didn’t sell (apparently I’m more successful in Spanish) and the book I managed to publish did not make me enough to impress publishing companies to make another go at it.

   Since you are in my pantheon, along with Che Guevara, Attila the Hun, Dolly Parton, Benjamin Franklin and Eva Peron, but you are the only one answering your emails these days, I just wanted to declare to you that I’m pushing off from shore once again. It sucks, the world is unfair and my boat is very leaky, there’s never enough money and everyone will despise me.

   So off I go. Please wish me luck. It’s your fault I’m out at sea, your book is my oar.

7. Hello, I was lucky enough to receive scholarship to Hanging Out last year and have enjoyed it immensely. I would very much like to continue being a member however, my financial situation hasn’t improved as yet. Thank you very much for the gift of this past years connection. I live in isolation and I can attest that connecting with HO definitely makes it harder to just give up. Thanks again, will miss you all. -Marji

8. how come no-one else seems to be doing the same sessions as me, when i get access to each lesson.. all the other comments are about 6 months old… I thought there was going to be others to talk to in year 2 or some other feedback?

   • It seems a lot of people start falling behind at some point, Peter. Then, when they go to play catch-up, they don’t see recent comments, so they assume no one else is reading, but I can see there are plenty of people reading each of the messages daily.

     The trick is to leave a comment that invites a response. Everyone who reads the post after you will see it, and almost everyone who left a comment earlier will receive your comment by email. As soon as one person responds to another, conversation starts up again. (I have never understood why zero comments is so much more inviting than a gap in comment dates, but it seems to be the case.)

     I know it is also an issue for you to attend the telephone Get-Togethers because your time zone is so far off from Barbara’s, but I hope you are enjoying the recordings of them. You can leave notes for the various callers on the Get-Togethers page. Most of them will reply to questions, helpful feedback, or new ideas.

     Other than reaching your fellow members, are you enjoying the content in Year Two, Peter? It takes a subtle turn from what Barbara offered us in Year One and keeps slowly and gently prodding us in the directions of our dreams.

     • loving the content, just feeling left out of the discussion. how do I access the “get togethers” page?

       • I will email you the address, Peter, as this is a public-facing page and that is a members-only page. But you can find a list of all the pages by choosing Hanging Out in the menu while you are logged in.

         • I am a member of the year 2 HOWB group and I have not heard about the get togethers. Is there a place to check on where they are?

9. If I said anything that you think usable, by all means, go for it!

10. Do you remember your post “Practice Goals are Good”? My practice goal was to write a book from the point of view of my dog. It’s almost finished, and I’d like to publish it. This book has nothing controversial in it. It’s just funny. I want to include a couple of comments from “Hanging Out” and one comment from “Barbara’s Boards.” I have already asked and received permission from the people who wrote the comments. I’d like your permission to include these comments. I indicated in the book that the quotes came from “Hanging Out”. I’ll also footnote the quotes from “BarbaraSher.com”.

    I’ll have a copy of the book available on my website http://www.temporaryaddress-jody.blogspot.com in about two weeks (January 17th.) for your review.

    If I need to do anything besides sending you this e-mail, please let me know.

    Thanks for your help, in this and in everything else,

    Elaine Glimme

    • This is wonderful, Elaine! I think we’ve finally demonstrated that, with a little help from our friends and some social media, we can help dreamers raise money to make their dreams come true: from Eileen’s snow tires & brake repair so she can continue to do her bit to protect wildlife, to Mary Ann’s dream of going home again (with a job to support her once she’s there).
      The next thing I wanted to do in any event was to pick one of our writers (naturally we’d choose from among those who participate most in the Comments section – partly because we don’t know who else is a writer who has a book that needs some promotion, and partly because you, Elaine, have always stepped forward to help your fellow Hanging Outers.

      So, 1) of course you have my permission to use what you asked to use, and thanks for doing it in an exemplary manner so others can learn from it, and 2) I think it’s time we all stepped forward and tried to get Elaine on the best-seller list of eBooks in her category on amazon.com.

      You’ve done your part, Elaine, (and I’m impressed that you have written a second book!)now let me ask the others who are reading this comment:

      What do you know about how to help an eBook get a high number on amazon’s eBook list.

      I’ll start by asking Elaine what the selling price is. I carefully went through a few eBooks on the subject and one of the first things mentioned was how important it is to keep the first round of pricing at a pathetically low 99c.

      Anyone else? What do you know about how we can do this?

      • First of all, thanks, and Molly thanks you too.

        Do you remember the post “Practice Goals are Good”? That’s my second book -“The Molly Chronicles”. It’s a practice goal. That’s why I could finish it in about 7 months. (It’s not completely finished yet, but it’s very close.) The one I really care about is “Temporary Address”.

        I haven’t looked at pricing “The Molly Chronicles” yet. I THINK I can price the e-books for 99 cents. The paperbacks will probably be pricey because almost every page has color photographs on it.

        I also haven’t tried doing the publishing yet. It will be a challenge to get the photographs to line up correctly. I set the margins very wide as I typed it, so that each page on my computer hopefully matches a page in a book.

        I still don’t care about the money, and if I actually make any, I could donate some to the crowdfunding projects. And I’d happily donate some books to the crowdfunding projects. I just don’t want to lose a lot of money.

        The two books are very different. “Temporary Address” is serious, and “The Molly Chronicles” is a description of life from the point of view of a border collie with an over-active imagination. It was a blast to write.

        Anyway, I’ll try and get it finished soon, and post it on my blog.

        Again, thanks.

    • Take a look at this, Elaine. (I just spend 1/2 hour on it, and I’m busy today!) I’ll send you my rewrite of John Locke’s eBook soon. I excerpted his best ideas and plugged in stuff that people like us are more likely to find useful. (I’ll be happy to send a copy of the email to anyone who pitches in to help Elaine with her book, or buys it for 99c once it’s up.

      The guy below is really good, talks about different things, things you’re more accustomed to hearing but intelligently. He’s honest and intelligent. But he doesn’t cover some of the useful ideas Locke does. You really should look at him. Link below.

      http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/07/how-to-self-publish-a-bestseller-publishing-3-0/

      He’s a good writer, and he lays out all the steps in this blog entry for free. (He also has a book on the subject, but he doesn’t seem to withhold much in his blog.

      Best of all, the comments and questions under this blog entry of his are really good too, and he gives good answers.

      I’m looking at a few of the things myself.

      After reading, point out to us what you’d love to do but don’t have the time (or don’t have the something) so that everyone here can – if they want to learn about this, or get points for when they want help with their own project – help you with!

      How to ask for help is an important subject here. Doing unto others – that is, helping you make your book an amazone eBook bestseller – might be one of the ways.

      As mentioned, getting your book in a special category of eBooks on amazon and charging 99c is a good idea because than we can buy it (which will help make it #10 or something) and when it’s up there, it will attract a lot of attention; people look for bestsellers and, at 99c, often buy them.

      The general discussion of the paragraph above is now open:

    • This website sounds interesting. http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/07/how-to-self-publish-a-bestseller-publishing-3-0/

      He must be quite the go-getter. But if his books, the earlier ones were. not successful, what is his day job? He sure knows how wo work social media. A weak point for me. I did have a blog once for four years, but it never had more than say 150 visitors.