When I decided to attend the Mega Book Marketing  event two weeks ago, it seemed like a great idea. I had no idea how far off I was. It was so much more than a great idea that I don’t even have words to describe it. It was the best seminar event I’ve ever attended! This was the first time Elaine and I were in a marketing arena together and we confirmed what a great partnership we have. Our concept for Promise Power evolved as we realized that the tagline must be “Creating success one promise at a time.”

We won the lottery! Only a few people were lucky enough to present a pitch to a publishing agent, and we were two of them. Over the three days, we talked personally with luminaries in the self-help industry, Mark Victor Hansen being the most luminous! Even though he was the event’s brilliant conceptualist, we are scheduled to have a private conference with him in the near future. Mark and his partner, Jack Canfield, have sold 145,000,000 (yes, that’s one hundred and forty-five million) copies of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. They are amazing marketers and incredibly generous spirits.

We got wonderful information from the presenters, who are people with high integrity, open hearts, and incredible skill. These generous men and women gave us so much free information, I’ll probably still be implementing it when summer fades. All 15 presenters encouraged the 650 authors and would-be authors to move from wherever we are to wherever we need to be to make a difference in the world with what we write.

What did I learn from these three days? I learned to trust my instincts. Last week, I wrote about feeling lit up when I decided to write a book rather than create a website. I didn’t really know what that was all about except that it felt absolutely right. Now I know that having a book (rather than a website) meant that I would consider going to this book marketing event. It wasn’t so much about the book but all of the products that will come after the book and the validation about our Promise Bracelet idea. Many people literally lit up when we told them about using this symbol to remind them of their dream and to provide a book with the tools for making their dreams come true, even if they didn’t have a clue where to start. Men kept asking, “What do we get?” Patience, that comes next. Professional women are our first target market.

It would have been easy to think, “That seminar is too expensive, too long, and too far away.” I could have thought that I didn’t deserve to be there. Instead I thought, “I want to be there, I am worth it, and I will learn how to be a better writer, especially how to be a writer who has sold all of her books rather than being a writer with 400 copies of her last book sitting in her office. I learned to believe in myself, and that was certainly worth the price of admission!

Remember, dream big and believe in yourself.

© 2007, Jacqueline Hale