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The Lesson of Affirmation
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By Sally Shields, best-selling author of The Daughter-in-Law Rules:
101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Make Friends with) Your Mother-in-Law!
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After I had children, it wasn't feasible to be traveling and performing as the
musician I had always been. But I needed to find a way to make a living, and
provide for my children and their future. I always knew I wanted to write a
book, but it didn't seem feasible from all of the stories I'd heard about how
impossible it was to get a book published. So, I self published!
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One day I found out about a zero-to-low cost strategy for marketing your book
online. When I first signed up for the Amazon.com Bestseller Campaign course,
I created a list of affirmations for myself. I knew that this course would
take months of dedication and hours of concentrated work. Many people said
that it was very difficult to reach the #1 position, and that even so, why
spend so much money on a course that would probably only lead to a few hundred
sales, at best? But I kept affirming to myself, "I am a #1 Amazon.com
bestselling author!"
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So, I kept on collecting bonus gifts, and reaching out to JV partners month
after month, personalizing each and every note, keeping in touch with everyone
regularly to make sure that I established a good relationship with them, and
hopefully ensure that they would come through with their promise of mailing for
me on that dayÑas the secret to an Amazon.com bestseller campaign is to get a
bunch of people to buy your book on a certain day, by offering them an
incentive such as free bonus gifts.
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Finally, the big day came... and the server crashed! I had 101 partners mailing
out to their lists, over a million eyeballs - and the link didn't work! I was
devastated! But due to the dedication and help of a team of amazing technical
support people, I was able to move the campaign over to another server, and by
2:30 p.m. ET the campaign was back up and running. I kept saying my
affirmations.
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I reached #15 that day, in the Family Relationships category. It was a slight
disappointment, because the folks teaching the class almost guaranteed a top
ten spot. I chalked it up to the server crash. But I kept affirming. The next
month, I heard back from Dr. Laura that she had chosen The Daughter-in-Law Rules
to feature on her show as book of the week - and I was overwhelmed when the book
catapulted up to #5! But I had my goals - I know I'm stubborn, but I still
believed that I could make it to the #1 spot! So I kept saying my affirmations,
over and over: "I am a #1 Amazon.com bestselling author!"
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I was poking around Amazon one day, and realized that there was a category
under Home and Garden, called Wedding Showers. I checked it out and it seemed
as if the competition wasn't as steep there, and even more appropriate for my
book! So I wrote to Amazon, and had The DIL Rules switched from Family
Relationships to Wedding Showers. I kept writing to bloggers, asking them if
they would be so kind to post about the DIL Rules. I kept the affirmation going.
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On Monday, November 3, the DIL Rules hit #1 in Wedding Showers on Amazon.com!
I did a little victory dance all day long! This was a yearlong process, and
although I could have given up or quit, I kept on affirming.
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Never give up on your dreams! Keep saying those affirmations and YOU WILL
SUCCEED!
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