Barbara Coombs Lee

Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End

“Editor/project manager Laura E. Kelly read the manuscript at what seemed like its darkest hour and brought it to the light. Or rather, she shone her light of knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm on it, and illuminated the riches that had been buried. From there, she became a true book shepherd on Finish Strong, cheering me on, guiding me in editing, revising and rearranging the chapters, managing a freelance editorial team, conceptualizing the design, and overseeing many other crucial aspects of launching this book.”

Elinor Griffith

The Virtues of Cooking: Recipes & Stories to Uplift Family Through Food

“Everyone needs a wingman in undertaking a book project. Mine was Laura Kelly. A former VP at Reader’s Digest, she offered encouragement and endless ideas, and reminded me of my timetable.”

Edie Jarolim

Getting Naked for Money: An Accidental Travel Writer Reveals All

“Finally, major thanks go to friend, web guru, and all around awesome person Laura Kelly, who helped me with the campaign in every possible way: getting my website ready for launch, enlisting people to contribute, creating badges and banners, and providing moral support.“

Warren Berger

The Purples: A Novel

“Laura is the one person who has seen this project through with me from beginning to end. She brainstormed with me and edited the manuscript in all its various stages. When the writing was done, she tackled the hands-on design work that resulted in the book you are holding. So in the end, this is not my book; it is our book, mine and Laura’s—and together we hope you enjoy it.”

The post Self-publishing wingman appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

Barbara Coombs Lee, President Emerita of Compassion & Choices and author of Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End

“You are a woman of many talents! Editing, typesetting, book promotion, and graphic design, too. You are amazingly prolific and endlessly helpful. I’m very grateful. You are the best partner I could imagine in this struggle to communicate difficult truths. Thank you for being marvelous.”

Kimberly Callinan, Chief Executive Officer, Compassion & Choices

“Just wanted to thank you for your tremendous work on Finish Strong. It’s been wonderful to see the book come to fruition, and you were such a key part in making that happen.”

{See more about my editorial project management work on this project in my post Shepherding a New Book called Finish Strong.}

Joe Tessitore, Dilenschneider Group Inc.

“Laura E. Kelly was our key to offering state-of-the-art social media consultation to our clients, along with one-stop shopping for editing, producing and promoting print-on-demand and e-books.”

Tanis Erdmann, Reader’s Digest

“During her many years working with Reader’s Digest Association, Laura proved to be one of our best editors, skillfully editing and condensing lengthy books into a form and length that works for mass-market readership. She is an excellent communicator and also an expert project manager who can take an idea from conception to launch.”

The post Editorial Project Management testimonials appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

For the past year, I have been the “book shepherd” (a paid step up from my usual “wingman” role) for Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End and its author, Barbara Coombs Lee. Barbara had written most of the book several years ago but her agent and she were unable to strike a deal with a New York publisher. Publishers were interested in some book from her—a thought-leader memoir or a behind-the-scenes policy tract (Barbara’s the president of Compassion & Choices, the end-of-life advocacy org)—but not the one she wanted to write.

Barbara envisioned that her book would be directed at healthcare consumers like us, and not written by the usual medical-book authors (a physician, or a sick patient, or a journalist) but someone who’d been in the healthcare trenches as a former ICU nurse, physician assistant, a lawyer, policymaker, and national advocate. Someone who’s seeing what’s going on in U.S. end-of-life care from countless up-close encounters with patients and our medical system at all levels. Someone who feels passionate about preparing future patients to manage their experience with that medical system.

Sadly, Barbara had to stash her unedited manuscript in a desk drawer, but couldn’t stop thinking about it and all the good information locked away in it.

A few years passed, and self-publishing suddenly seemed like a more viable option. But how does that work? I was brought on board to help Barbara get it published, working with her and her organization. After Barbara completed her manuscript to her satisfaction, she turned it over to me.

The first thing I did was reorganize the order of the chapters, to create a journey from the most accessible topics to the toughest ones. Next, I suggested a book title tweak. Then I added subheads and sidebars to each chapter, as guideposts to readers. Consulted on the cover art. Posed numerous queries on every page (like the readers of the book, I’m not an end-of-life care specialist, so many of my questions were pretty basic such as Can you explain the differences between palliative care and hospice care?) Hired a freelance editorial and design team. Assembled the Endnotes. Wrote the jacket copy. Proofread every page. Designed the ebook. Etc. I once made a list of how many hats I wore on this job and stopped after 40 of ’em. It was both the most difficult and exhilarating “bringing this book into the world” project I’ve ever taken on.

And it continues on, now to the hardest stage, which is trying to promote and raise awareness about a self-published book in a culture that is a) mightily distracted by the shenanigans of Donald Trump, R. Kelly, and Tom Brady, and is b) loathe to confront even the possibility of waning vigor as we age.

On that note, it’s been interesting pitching the book to various target magazines, blogs, and radio shows. I could write an article about how all the advertising-supported baby boomer magazines and blogs view “death talk” as something akin to the third rail, never to be touched. It certainly doesn’t fit their “feisty” or “it’s all good” approach to aging.

But I know, someday, that boomers are going to have questions about our current medical system and its tendency to overtreat, over-intervene, and overmedicate, leaving us in pretty bad shape at the inevitable end. They’re going to wonder how they can craft a better end-of-life experience for themselves, the way they created a pretty good life all along. Basically, boomers are going to want to know how to finish strong. Their magazines won’t tell them, but the books will.

Despite the media’s reluctance to dwell on unpleasant things like medical overtreament or life’s end, the word is getting out about the book, as seen in this excellent review of Finish Strong in the ChangingAging.com blog.

In closing, clients who know me know I love to make book trailers. Here’s the short one I made for Finish Strong, while wearing Hat #39 (my favorite hat)!

The post Shepherding a new book called “Finish Strong” appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

So, keep your eyes open for The Book of Beautiful Questions (or BBQ as we call it around here) in bookstores and online come October 30.

Read my related post “Self-Publishing Wingman.”

The post My role as a book shepherd appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

My article didn’t offer many good solutions for the distribution and visibility problems I’d found with audiobooks, but at least it made people feel they weren’t alone.

Since that experience, I haven’t ventured again into the audiobook wilds. But in April 2018, an author friend of mine, Deborah L. Jacobs, published a journalistic, financially sophisticated article called “The Dollars and Sense of Audiobooks: What Indie Publishers Need to Know.” Deborah’s deep dive into how independent authors can (perhaps) make some money in the exploding audiobook market is a must-read for any indie publisher.

Her article covers how to:

• Maximize sales channels. 
• Be realistic about royalties.
• Plan strategically. 
• Maintain your independence. 
• Expect downward pressure on prices.

Check it out at https://deborahjacobs.com/2018/04/03/audiobooks-audible-acx-amazon/

And if you’re either wondering about estate planning and all that it entails OR dreaming about whether you could use Airbnb to rent out your home and travel the world, check out Deborah’s two excellent books on those topics (featured on her website). A former Forbes columnist, Deborah knows all the questions you might have and she has the answers! I’ve read both books and adorned them with lots of yellow PostIts since there’s so much useful info in them.

The post How to Make Money (Perhaps) from Audiobooks in 2018 appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

Turns out Deborah has been a longtime freelance writer for places like Forbes and The New York Times, writing on topics like personal finance, estate planning, and travel. Now that Deborah has self-published Four Seasons in a Day, she has turned her talents to relaunching her blog, which will feature writing on work, family, travel, finance, aging, and history. Her debut article is called How to Find Purpose and Meaning Without a Job and it profiles 6 women of various ages who have left corporate life and constructed their own jobs—and I’m one of those 6 women!

I learned a new phrase from Deborah in the writing of this: human capital. Deborah writes, “I use the term ‘human capital’ to describe the skills and experiences – both positive and negative – that we accumulate during life and are capable of applying to our work. When we move away from the familiar, possibilities that we might never have even imagined start to emerge.” Some of these women are doing very interesting things, making it clear that the possibilities are endless, if you follow your interests and your heart.

Related site: https://deborahjacobs.com/

The post How to find purpose and meaning without a job appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

My first story was on some “flightseeing” in Alaska and the Grand Canyon that I enjoyed in 2016. You can see a link list of all my travel writing for GOT at http://gettingontravel.com/author/laurakelly/.

The post My new travel-writing gig appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

» Here is the link to the digital guide (which I recommend since it has a lot of other links).

» And here’s the link to the pdf of it.

Here’s one small sample from the guide:

Common Productivity Myths

Here’s the truth behind common misconceptions about working smart.

Myth: People who are good multitaskers get more done.

Fact: Multitasking is an illusion. Research shows that people get more done if they concentrate on one task at a time. Switching frequently between tasks – or believing that you are actually doing more than one thing at once – will actually slow you down.

Myth: It’s important to have zero emails in your inbox by the end of the day.

Fact: The goal of “inbox zero” works for some people but not for others. The key to managing email is to designate specific times of the day for reading and responding to it, to differentiate between emails that can be handled quickly and those that require more time, and to learn how to use all of your email software’s features (folders, filters and archives) in ways that work best for you.

Myth: It’s best to stand while you work.

Fact: It’s better to change your position throughout the day, in a regular cycle of sitting, standing and moving around. Among other things, this variety helps bring more blood to your brain, improving your cognition and therefore your productivity.

Myth: The more hours you work, the more you get done.

Fact: It is important to take breaks throughout the workday. Even a five-minute walk around the office can boost your mood with no impact on your ability to focus. Getting enough rest and sleep can serve you better than working longer hours. Walking away from your work for a longer period – overnight, over the weekend or on vacation – gives your ideas a chance to marinate in your subconscious mind, allowing for new bursts of productivity when you return.

Myth: The secret to improving productivity is to find the right system and stick with it.

Fact: Every person and every workday is different. While we may be able to develop new strategies and habits that work for us most of the time, our jobs and lives will always throw us curve balls that lead to less-than-perfect results. We need to accept this imperfect reality, forgive ourselves and try again tomorrow.

Good luck putting some of the tips from this guide into action when tackling your next creative project!

The post Looking to up your productivity? Here are some great tips appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End

“You are a woman of many talents! Editing, typesetting and graphic design, too. You are amazingly prolific and endlessly helpful. I’m very grateful. You are the best partner I could imagine in this struggle to communicate difficult truths. Thank you for being marvelous.”

See more about my editorial project management work in my post Shepherding a New Book called Finish Strong.

•

Kimberly Callinan, Chief Executive Officer, Compassion & Choices

Finish Strong: Putting Your Priorities First at Life’s End

“Just wanted to thank you for your tremendous work on Finish Strong. It’s been wonderful to see the book come to fruition, and you were such a key part in making that happen.

I hope that you are doing well and you have found yourself some other exciting projects to devote your time and talents to.”

The post “You are the best partner I could imagine in this struggle to communicate difficult truths.” appeared first on Laura E. Kelly.

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