Remember to Back Up Your Content!

Photo by Anna Pou

I logged into my WordPress dashboard this morning, and my last 5-6 posts were gone, including paid book reviews.

Can you hear my heart breaking?

Thankfully, after about thirty minutes, they showed up!

My face after deleting my tweets cause I thought the links were dead.
Photo by MART PRODUCTION

Too bad I had already deleted the tweets to what I thought were now dead links. Way to go, Yecheilyah.

A glitch, maybe, but the scare was real!

Chile, I almost cried.

Then I put my big girl panties on and understood today’s message.

ALWAYS back up your content!

Make sure your photographs, graphics, videos, and articles are stored in a folder on your computer or on a USB drive. Before composing your posts in WordPress, it’s simpler to write them in a Word document (or whichever program you prefer) and save them to your computer.

Never depend on ONE social platform to reach your audience

I have never been a fan of putting all my eggs in one basket, and this experience reemphasized the importance. I am all for monogamy, but cheating on your other social media profiles with a backup plan is okay, lol.

It is not a smart idea to rely only on one platform, whether we’re talking about Instagram bugs or if US companies and content creators will no longer be able to use TiKTok. (Are you following the case with them? Back those videos up!)

Keep your options open and stay as informed of all the developments as you can. Even if we disagree with AI, for instance, it would be a bad idea to ignore how it is affecting the book publishing industry and how authors and publishers create and distribute their works.

Email is still useful

If these social media apps change their policies, having an email list can let you stay in touch with your customers, business partners, and author friends. Twitter and Instagram have already started using paid verified badges. Even further, Twitter claims that those who earned their blue checks will soon have to pay to keep them.

Wait, what??
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

It is not farfetched to say that we might one day have to pay to use these apps. If that’s not your flavor, you will want to maintain contact with your people somehow.

Blogs are great alternatives to email lists since subscribing to someone’s blog mean you get an email for every update anyway.

If you simply use your blog, however, always refer back to point one and backup your blog content.

After all, we don’t own WordPress either.

Interested in joining my email list for updates you won’t get here or anywhere else?

Click Here!

If you only want updates on poetry contests, be sure to check poetry contest updates only when you get to the form!

Hang in there guys! Chat soon.

Everyone Can’t Go

Photo by Jose Aragones

I am just getting around to reading Tabitha Brown’s Feeding the Soul, and it is doing just that for me this afternoon.

Lately, I have realized I don’t have much help with all I have going on. People think I have this great big team behind me. Nope. Most of the things I do, I do alone.

This is not a complaint but an assessment of the truth: I need more help but can’t afford to outsource everything.

And if I am being completely honest, I do not always know how to articulate what I need.

This realization had me feeling a bit discouraged.

Queue Tabitha, who may as well be sitting in this office with me. Let’s imagine she’s sitting in the corner chair across from my desk. She’s wearing that pretty blouse from the front cover, with the big Afro and a smile brighter than the sun. She sees my shoulders slump.

T: “Well hello there, you alright?”

E: “Yea, I’m okay,” I respond mentally.

T: “Lean in, baby. Are you leaning?”*

E: (Laughs) “Yes.”

T: “I can sense you not alright, and that’s okay cause that’s your business. But listen real quick, everyone can’t go.”

E: “Huh?”

T: “I said everyone can’t go.”

E: “Okayyy.”

T: “Once you understand that there are some things you’re going to have to do on your own, make peace with that. Don’t allow it to rip you up inside.”*

E: “Aww, thank you. I really needed to hear that!”

T: “Very good. Because if you sit around waiting on somebody to save you, help you, partner with you, walk with you, or hold your hand, you just might miss the blessing that could have only come by the changes and chances that you took while leaping into your destiny.”*

*From Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom by Tabitha Brown, page 37.

Photo by Victor Freitas

I love that this advice forces us to reconsider our previous assumptions. Typically, when we hear “everybody can’t go with you,” we interpret this to mean everyone can’t level up with us.

That may be our ego talking. “Everybody can’t go where I’m going.” Just loud and wrong.

Consider a different point of view: Everybody can’t go can also mean everybody can’t go with you to experience the challenges that come with your calling. Everybody isn’t meant to endure the trials you are taking on because they have a different purpose.

Moral.

Some things are meant for you to complete on your own in order to develop and strengthen something inside of you. Your husband/wife, children, friends, or relatives are unrelated to this. Future you will need to have the strength to handle whatever it is you are intended to do. Yet in order for that to happen, you need to enhance this version of yourself for that task.

Today’s Lesson: This is your soulwork, and no one else’s. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable reality that everyone can’t go. 

Now, pardon me while I get back to enjoying my rest day. Did this advice make you feel better too? Very good!

Yecheilyah’s 6th Annual Poetry Contest 2023

https://www.yecheilyahsannualpoetrycontest.org/

Year Six Baby!!

I cannot believe we’ve been doing this for six years. If it weren’t for Covid, it would be year seven!

We are excited to gear up for year six of the contest. But we need your help to make this year a success.

I am looking for the following:

Sponsors: No books please. Contribution must either be a service our poets can benefit from or a financial investment toward the cash prize. There are four cash prizes worth between $25 and $100 up for grabs. You can donate whatever you like to put toward it, or you can donate toward one of the tiers (for example, first place is $100).

Judges: The last seven poems will be judged by additional authors, poets, editors, or literary experts who will also help select the top four winners. This is the perfect opportunity for those who are versed in poetry.

Before you put your hand in, remember: Previous winners cannot volunteer as judges, and persons wishing to participate in the contest cannot be team members in the background.

Poems will be judged in the following categories:

  • POWER
  • BEAUTY
  • EDUCATION / MESSAGE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • GRAMMATICAL / TECHNICAL
  • RHYME
  • ORIGINALITY
  • OVERALL IMPACT

Social Media Marketers/Promoters: Bloggers, businesses, and professionals willing to use their platform to help promote the contest from the start of the submissions until close.

If you are on board to help with year six, please email the following to yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com as soon as possible.

  • Your name/title as you want it to appear online
  • A professional photo/headshot
  • Your company logo (if available)
  • Social media handle
  • The area you are applying to help with. Sponsor, Judge, or SM Promo

If you know someone who could help, do feel free to share this post with them!

Baby Steps Still Move Us Forward

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano Arenas

I am proud of myself for making it through this week. Since returning from Chicago, I have felt jet lagged because of the time change and have experienced some pain.

For those who don’t know, I live with a steel plate in my right thigh from being hit by a car when I was ten. Occasionally, it causes pain with the weather changes. No worries. It’s not as intense as it used to be. At least now I can predict when it will rain—little ole me, a superhero this whole time.

But as much as I wanted to stay in bed all yesterday, I got my butt up, put something on my stomach, and took my vitamins. I didn’t have it to do my walk so I finished reading a book.

Not only did I finish the book, but I wrote and drafted the review that I am scheduling for next week. (Ya’ll are gonna like this one!)

Next, I edited a video of a podcast I did weeks ago and posted a reel to one of my Instagram pages. I also drafted a post for my second page and drafted this blog post.

After responding to some emails and checking on some clients I closed my laptop, showered, and snuggled up with hubby for a movie.

Moral.

Just because you didn’t do everything on your to-do list or work yourself into an early grave does not mean you are not being productive. All those little things add up.

I fully intended on taking the day off. Instead, I just took baby steps.

Because baby steps still move us forward.

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews – Born this Way by Tammy Ferebee

Title: Born this Way
Author: Tammy Ferebee
Publisher: Tammy Ferebee
Published: January 11, 2018
Page: 135

Young, Black, and gay, Joseph feels rejected by his father, the local pastor of the small, southern town in Tammy Ferebee’s novel Born This Way. Joseph struggles with his self-esteem and worth as he faces judgment from his community after being manipulated into a scandalous relationship with an older white man, Bruce.

Joseph’s father wants nothing to do with him, and his mother is silent, choosing to support her husband. While residing with his aunt, the boy feels alone and battles despair, and abandonment. In light of this, he explores Craigslist and comes across Bruce, a man who serves as both a lover and a father figure.

Bruce uses his cleverness to slither into Joseph’s mind by telling him how wonderful he is and how much he is cherished and adored. Above Joseph’s head, the recognizable red flags flitted about like kites. The boy’s naivete is evident as this superb manipulator and pervert woo him. Bruce is a 56-year-old white man with no business flirting with young Joseph, but the boy’s sense of abandonment from his own family is blinding. For Joseph, Bruce is his first boyfriend.

This is a sad story with heavy topics. For this, I appreciated the light Nikki, Joseph’s best friend, brought to the table. She gave him positive words he could use to boost his self-esteem, told him the truth without sugarcoating, and gave him a safe space to vent. Nikki also makes an appearance in Still Black and befriends Malachi. 

Interested readers should read Born this Way before Still Black since it has a twist that is disclosed in this book’s ending.

Ratings:

Plot Movement / Strength: 4/5
Entertainment Factor: 4/5
Characterization: 5/5
Authenticity / Believable: 5/5
Thought Provoking: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/ 5 stars

Grab It From Amazon Here.

To have your book reviewed on this blog apply here. The registry is open for a limited time.

Stay tuned for our next dope read. Dark fiction fans hold onto your seats!

Yecheilyah’s Book Reviews is a reputable review service that features writers from all over the world, both traditionally and independently published. We are listed on Kindlepreneur as a top-tier book review blog and Reedsy as one of their vetted active book blogs that provide insightful, excellent book reviews.

*Books are read in the order they are received.

 

Avoiding Plagiarism

There is a reason why you cannot edit your own book, even if you are an editor. This is because quality editing involves more than fixing spelling and grammar mistakes.

These days, there’s an AI for that.

Professional editors also help you to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism – to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source; to commit literary theft: present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

Most people don’t purposefully copy others works. They do not intend to use another person’s ideas or words as their own.

But this is exactly what occurs without mentioning the source of your material.

You are in danger of plagiarism anytime you present an idea, words, or quotes you got from someone else without citing them.

Suppose your work becomes popular—what we all hope for—and someone discovers that you have purposefully or carelessly used their words without their consent or crediting them. In that case, you could be subject to legal action, ruining your image as a writer.

A professional editor protects against this by noting where a citation is needed in your work.

On social media, this frequently occurs and without repercussion. However, if you do this in your book and then publish it, you can suffer grave consequences.

Solutions

  • Use end notes or footnotes to guide the reader to the back of the book, where you would have a notes section. In this notes section are your sources.
  • Remember that some sources require you to get permission before you print them. If you cannot get permission, consider removing the source altogether.
  • Also remember that nonfiction books intended to teach are not about personal opinion. It is about facts, proving and supporting those facts.

Just because self-publishing makes book publication quicker than traditional publishing, it does not absolve the self-publisher from the penalties associated with committing such literary violations.

Be sure to employ a qualified editor to prevent you from publishing a work rife with typographical, grammatical, and plagiarism errors.

Check Out More Indie Author Basics Here

Indie Author Basics streamlines and simplifies self-publishing so you can publish high-quality books without pulling out your hair.

Rest Fuels Creativity

Novella Tolbert, my late Dad’s mom, aka my 100-year-old Granny!

Last week, I went home to Chicago and saw my dad’s side of the family for the first time in fifteen years. We extravagantly celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday in classic Tolbert fashion. I planned to bring my laptop but left it at home. Instead of squeezing in work, I played with babies and reminisced on memories.

Successful entrepreneurs travel a lot, but that travel is usually associated with the business. There is even a thing called work-cation, where you work while on vacation.

That’s all fine and dandy, but it is also not real rest.

Photo by Ihsan Adityawarman

It has been proven that taking frequent short breaks throughout the day improves productivity – but they need to be real breaks.

For example, not posting to social media while taking a social media break also includes not mindlessly scrolling or opening apps.

You must entirely disengage from whatever you are doing for a break to be truly rejuvenating.

Creative moments occur when the mind is relaxed rather than actively working since this is when the brain’s creative centers are most active.

I noticed that while in Chicago, I did not worry about my manuscript or work, even as orders poured in for book reviews.

Much of that has to do with a promise I made to myself at the end of 2022 that 2023 wouldn’t be a year of fatigue and exhaustion. I vowed not to rush the process or take on too much.

Rather than take my laptop and edit, I spent most of the time eating, laughing, sleeping, and basking in my family’s love.

Janiyah (12), and Jamie (4)

I learned that my 12-year-old niece didn’t know who Emmett Till was, so we took her and baby girl with us to the DuSable Museum.

Things are coming to me effortlessly as a result of letting things be. Yesterday, I found out that I am Soul (which is now at 71 reviews on Amazon!) and TWWBE are nearly sold out at Medu (again), identified a location for a future project, and established the groundwork for an event to celebrate National Poetry Month in April.

Have a restful weekend good people!

As the cool air whistles in from my back door, which is open, and the birds chirp their favorite afternoon tunes, I will continue to allow things to flow smoothly as I become a better version of myself.