Word Warriors Public Speaking Club

Publish your Own Book and Reap the Benefits!

2008-10-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Instantpublisher.com may be the best site out there for publishing your own book and saving you money!

I recently spoke with the owner of Instantpublisher.com. I found his site in a Toastmasters Magazine and I checked into the cost and feasibility of publishing my own book. I was astonished at how much you would save to publish your own book and thought that I would share this information with our members.

A friend of mine was in the LAPD, a gang expert and wrote a book through a publishing company. Did you know he only makes $2 to $3 per book that is sold and he can’t book his own speaking engagements? He has to go through his publisher since the publisher owns the rights for his book and any meetings or engagements connected to the sell or use of his book. Let's not forget that the publisher also gets a cut of the money he makes from teaching classes or speaking.

While this may not be typical of most publishing companies, it is scary to think that a company would be getting paid for all of your hard work. For this reason, I thought that I would write a book using instantpublisher.com. I am still in the process of writing my book but when I finish, it will cost me the following amount:

$917 for 100 hardbound books (200 Pages) plus
$69 for shipping
plus
$517 for 100 hardbound books (200 Pages) plus
$69 for shipping
which equals
$1572 total.

The cost to publish per book would be $9.86 per hard back and $5.86 per
Soft back.

The books would be sold for:
$19.95 per hard back and $14.95 per soft back.

The resulting profit per book would be:
$10.09 per hard back and $9.09 per soft back.

The resulting total profit for each type would be:
$1009 per 100 hard backs and $909 per 100 soft backs for a total profit of $1918.

Keep this amazing savings in mind when deciding whether to publish yourself or not!

If you are interested in doing public speaking for a living, writing a book makes you more valuable to the buyer and allows you to ask for more money in return.

Membership Drive Contest

2008-10-14T15:48:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that an organization is only as good as the quality and quantity of its membership. For this reason, we should all try to bring a minimum of 1 person to each meeting starting on October 6th, 2008 and ending on December 1st, 2008. This is the time period for our membership drive contest. The point system was brought up at the first meeting in October and the scorecard will be sent out to all members to keep track of who is winning in this contest.

Our Vice President of Membership, Thomas Moen and our Vice President of Public Relations, Raymond Miller have both been working very hard on putting together this membership drive and hope to make it fun and successful for all involved.
For more information on the membership drive, contact Tom Moen or Ray Miller at the next meeting or Ray Miller at 760-333-6978.

He Did It Again!

2008-10-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ron Shockey does it again!

After beating out 2 other clubs humorists, Ron Shockey took 1st place in the Area D3 Speech Contest for the second time in 2 years.

Those of you that have been lucky enough to hear the wit and humor from Ron Shockey at the club would have been impressed and in awe with his superb performance at the Area D3, D4 and D5 Fall Contest on September 28th, 2008. This contest was held at the Palm Desert Public Library in the city of Palm Desert.

While there were many worthy competitors prior to Ron’s performance, he had his audience eating out of his hand as he pulled them in to his story, “What a Wicked Web We Weave!”

Ron goes on to the Division Contest for Humor at Casino Morongo in Cabazon, California in October. We all wish him the best as he represents our club, The Word Warriors #9681.

In addition, the Toastmaster for the Evaluation contest was our very own club President, Robert Blaisdell. Robert showed the poise, grace and discipline we all know him to have and was well versed in how to command the Evaluation contest.

Robert Blaisdell was presented with a certificate of appreciation for his efforts and won one of the Raffle prizes, a bottle of wine.

Finally, the Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation was presented by our Vice President of Public Relations, Raymond Miller. He performed well and was presented with a certificate of appreciation for his efforts.

He also volunteered to sell raffle tickets for the event to the audience and was very successful in selling the raffle tickets.

This was a good time to meet the other clubs members and to notice the difference in mentality, socioeconomic status and personalities. Congrats, Ron on your second win!

Speaking Can Generate Cash Flow

2008-10-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Get Paid to Speak

What do Napoleon Hill¹, Tim Allen², Peter Coors³, Debbie Fields⁴ and Chris Matthews⁵ have in common? They were all groomed by Toastmasters for their current fields and today they are paid public speakers who get paid up to $50,000 for speaking.

For less than $100 per year, you can train to be a paid public speaker, too. I am Raymond Miller, the Vice President of Public Relations for Toastmasters International’s Word Warriors Club #9681. We are located in Yucca Valley, California and have members from the city of Twentynine Palms all the way down to the city of Desert Hot Springs. Our club belongs to an international nonprofit organization, Toastmasters International.

Who are we?

Toastmasters International was started back in 1924 at a YMCA in Santa Ana, California by Ralph C. Smedley. Since then Toastmasters has grown to approximately 11,700 clubs in 92 countries. Although over 4 million men and women have enjoyed the benefits of Toastmasters membership over the years, there are currently 235,000 active members worldwide.

What do we do?

These 235,000 members know that belonging to Toastmasters International means being a member of the world’s leading organization where members can practice and hone their public speaking and leadership skills. All you need to do is bring a pen and some paper and be ready to conquer your fear of speaking. We will provide the other materials (price included in your membership fees).

In addition, you must also be ready to serve in some leadership roles at each meeting. The leadership roles range from Toastmaster of the meeting (conducts the meeting and ensures it runs smoothly) to other important roles such as the Timer (records times for each speech). These are valuable opportunities to improve your leadership skills for your current occupation.

When and where do we meet?

Our club meets every Monday night at 6pm sharp in the Gates of Spain Clubhouse. The meeting runs until approximately 7:15pm. The Gates of Spain Clubhouse is located at: 7501 Palm Avenue, Yucca Valley, California, 92284.

Why is this organization important for me?

Every occupation requires some level of communication, some more than others. Some people have a fear of speaking in public and this fear is something that you will overcome with practice at each meeting. We can help you with your speech issues and nuances by giving encouraging evaluations after each speech.

We only succeed if you do and our goal is to get every member up to the level where, if called for a paid public speaking engagement, they can accept. Our hope is that you will perform flawlessly and confidently at any event where you are asked to speak.

How do I join?

We have made the process to join Toastmasters so simple that anyone age 18 or older could join. The application with this new member packet explains all the details but I will make it even simpler by breaking the process down for you.

The first thing you need to do is fill out the membership packet, enclose payment or provide your credit card information and then bring it back to the next meeting. We will send it off to Toastmasters and if available, provide you with your books right away, if not, you will receive your books within 10 days, meanwhile you can attend each meeting and participate in speeches and table topics.

How much does it cost?

For less than $75 per year, you can be a member of Toastmasters. You first pay the $20 new member fee and $27 in membership dues for 6 months which is prorated depending on which month you join for a total of $47 and then you pay only $27 every 6 months to continue your membership. The membership fee is even tax-deductible since Toastmasters International is a nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization.

We hope that we answered all your questions with this letter but if we didn’t, please go to: http://wordwarriors.freetoasthost.info or contact Hilary Slotta at (760) 369-3361 or Raymond Miller at (760) 333-6978. We look forward to having you as a member and appreciate the opportunity to provide you with quality training in communications and leadership.

See you at the next meeting!

Raymond A. Miller III

VP Public Relations

Toastmasters International

Word Warriors Club # 9681

¹Napoleon Hill – Best-selling author of "Think and Grow Rich;" presidential advisor

²Tim Allen – Actor, star of television series, "Home Improvement"

³Peter Coors – Chairman of Coors Brewing Company

⁴Debbie Fields – Founder, Mrs. Fields Cookies

⁵Chris Matthews – Author and host on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews”