May 20th

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I got to sleep in a little this morning because Dani’s school is doing mandatory Biology testing, and since Dani isn’t in Biology class, she gets to go in three hours later than usual. Next year, she won’t be so lucky.

Like a dummy though, instead of getting right to my blog when I woke up, I puttered around the internet, read some articles on book marketing and promotion, read old posts on a new writing group I joined, and read reviews about one book mentioned in one of the articles.

The book was called “The 4 Hour Work Week”. The title itself brought up a red flag for me, but I was curious as to why it would have been referenced in the article, so I checked it out. After reading the first five star review, which I thought was a load of bunk, I went directly to the one star reviews.

I’m getting pretty good at weeding out the Troll comments, and went right to the meatier reviews, the ones with specifics and debunks. The title for me screamed, “This is another get rich quick scam”, and after reading the reviews, I think my first impression was spot on.

Think about it logically, a book telling you how to cut corners, outsource your actual “work”, and advise you to manage your time and your money better without actually telling you HOW to manage your time and your money better, is a snake oil book. Wake up consumers, the author is making a butt load of money from book sales, off all the lazy folks who are looking for an easy way out.

Plus, the author isn’t even practicing what he preaches. There is no way ANY author could only work four hours a week. Marketing, promotion, creating, signings, heck even reading emails takes more time than four hours a week; his definition of “work” is extremely narrow if he doesn’t consider all that is required.

News flash, if you want something good, something worthwhile, you have to put forth effort and work hard. There are no short cuts. I feel bad for all the folks who fall for things like this.

There won’t be a writing challenge today, because since I didn’t get to “work” first thing this morning, I ran out of time. I promised Dani I would take her out for breakfast this morning and then drop her off at school; so I need to hop in the shower now, and then I’m working today.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!