Unemployed and Spinning My Wheels

I received this e-mail today after updating my Retirement Quotes Website:

Subject: Spinning My Wheels

Dear Ernie,

Hello from Florida!

I discovered your great book - The Joy of Not Working - just a few weeks ago. What you have written has been encouragement to my heart.

I am unemployed. After 18 years with a company, I resigned after enduring a mandated 24x7 on call (no rotation or compensation time provided) during the past two years; I felt like I was being leased out to my family - exploited. I stressed and simply "burned out". I am 51. My father-in-law took my aside and let me know what a "dumb ass" thing I had done - leaving a job without having another one to go to. I let him know - with tears in my eyes - that if I could have hung in there any longer - I would have. I had been looking for other work, but nothing opened up. This was in the corporate IT infrastructure department. Surprisingly, the unemployment office accepted my reason; they did not receive any feedback from my ex-employer. TODAY I received a letter than my employer is appealing - so I have to participate in a telephone hearing on June 16th to try to continue receiving benefits. If not in my favor, they would attempt to recover the benefits received thus far (about $1000). What a mess. I just feel like crying. I am married and two of my sons Paul (16) and Joseph (19) are here with us at home.

I've been applying for work every day (and night); seriously considering self employment rather than continuing to wait in hopes someone will hire me. Rather make something happen, than wait for someone to maybe, maybe, please, please consider hiring me. I do not want to return to the corporate cube farm. I don't want to react/panic to my present situation and return to the same personal hell I had to leave.

I have a blog:

Nothing fancy. I've tried to monetize. No big hits. I love to write (some people have expressed enjoying my writings) and also to be of service to others. (I'm even taking a two week Certified Nursing Assistant prep course to see if something will open up!)

Please pardon my rambling ... I know you have been there and have received many messages from people just like me. I guess I really needed to reach out to someone who understands.

I enjoy visiting your site and always learn something there or on your facebook post.

I really DO want to follow in your footsteps and experience the Joy of NOT Working. I just feel stuck, spinning my wheels.

God Bless and all the best!

W. B.

This was my reply:

Hello W.B.:

First, I sympathize with your situation as being unemployed can be distressing.

I realize that there are many Americans and Canadians in your situation today.

I can't offer any work to you as I work by myself and usually outsource specific projects such as webdesign on Elance.com.

Regarding self-employment, this is not easy but it can be a great way to make a living for the right people.

But this takes committment and a willingness to live a simple lifestyle for a year to 5 or 10 years - although some people can start making money fairly quickly, particularly on the Internet.

You mention that you started a blog on Facebook and tried to monetize it.

In my opinion, a Facebook blog is not the way to make money.

According to the experts, Wordpress is the best way to start a blog.

There is still as much opportunity - probably more - today as there has ever been to make money on the Internet.

In fact, I am just starting and my goal is to make over one million dollars in the next few years.

But as John Reese, an Internet millionaire, says, "Your goal should first be to make one dollar, then $100, then $500 and so on." The problem with 98 percent of the people is they want to make a lot of money instantly and are not prepared to put in the required effort.

I will send you some e-books on Internet Marketing and writing.

Below is an e-mail that I recently got from a woman and my response to her.

Some of my advice may be helpful to you if you are considering being a writer and self-publishing.



Hello Helen:




First regarding self-publishing, I don't care about the stigma. Most of the people who run down self-publishing are unsuccessful writers who think of themselves as being so cool. But most of them are losers who are broke. I would rather be nerdy and rich than cool and broke.

Remember that my retirement book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free is self-published. This book has already sold over 120,000 copies and has been published in 8 foreign languages since it was released. The book has made over $400,000 in pretax profits for me.

Conduct a search for "retirement" or "retire" on www.Amazon.com and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free appears in the number 1 position. Better still, search for "retirement book" in Google and the Amazon page for How to Retire Happy appears in the number 1 spot — out of over 29 million webpages!

So why does my self-published book beat out all the other retirement books, including retirement books by AARP, the Wall Street Journal, and Ten Speed Press's What Color Is Your Parachute for Retirement? The answer is that my self-published book is better than all the other retirement books done by the major publishers. Results don't lie.

I intend to sell 500,000 copies of this book and I sure wouldn't be able to do this with the thinking patterns, beliefs, and behaviors of the "cool" writers who run down self-publishing.

Interestingly, I just read an article by some expert who claimed that in the near future the major publishers may be eliminated from the chain because authors will deal with the online retailers directly, particularly for e-books.

If you want to pursue self-publishing, check out these articles.

In the first article, pay particular attention to my comment in the comments section. My comment is the first one.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zetta-elliott/breaking-down-doors-my-se_b_473336.html




http://web.redroom.com/blog/ernie-j-zelinski/foreign-rights-how-i-have-arranged-101-book-deals-without-going-frankfurt-book




How to Get a Distributor for your self-published book

http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/blog/2009/01/12/how-to-get-book-distribution-for-a-self-published-book/



Check out all the articles on self-publishing here:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/CategoryView,category,SelfPublishing.aspx



Here is a recent Writers Digest article relating to Self-Publishing

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/11/25/The3SelfPublishingPathsYouShouldUnderstand.aspx



Here is a great article about book marketing and how a professional looking website (most people don't realize that ugly websites make a lot more money than professional-looking ones) is one of the last things on which you should focus.

http://www.fonerbooks.com/2010/01/what-is-book-marketing-anyway.html



You bring up the issue of e-books. At this time, I not a big fan of e-books. If you check out the competition for my How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free, most retirement books are on Kindle and in many other e-book formats.

The only e-book format that you find for my retirement book is a PDF format of half the book that I give away for free.

I don't think that there are great profit margins in e-books right now.

I just came across an article the other day saying that the top 14 best-selling books for the Kindle on Amazon were the ones that were for free.

Having said that, if you want to put any of your books in e-book format, check out Smashwords at http://www.smashwords.com/.

Smashwords will put your books in all e-book formats including Kindle and you will even get more in Amazon royalties by going through Smashwords than going directly to Amazon.com.

I will forward an e-mail that I just sent to a woman who asked me about the opportunities for writing in this day and age.



So long for now,

Ernie J. Zelinski
The Creativity Guy Too Prosperous to Do Mornings
Best-Selling Author, Innovator, and Content Creator for Retirement Resources
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 120,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 240,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

The Joy of Not Working Can Have a Great Impact on Your Life

I received the following e-mail today:

From: Roslyn H.
To: "success101coach [ at ] yahoo [ dot] com
Sent: Thu, March 4, 2010 3:39:51 PM
Subject: Your Books Made a Great Impact on My Life!!

Hello Ernie,

I have read your books and am compelled to say that they have made such a huge impact on my life. I am an engineer--chemical and environmental--and worked at corporations that made exempt employees work 60+ hours a week.

And that was actually a good week. I was also on-call for a manufacturing fab 24/7 for 3 months straight! It exhausted me, so I quit. I returned to school for a masters because I didn't know what else to do. I found another engineering job in Colorado and after 1 week I knew that it wasn't going to work out for me either. So I went to the local bookstore to find books on improving my resume, and that's when I found your book The Joy of Not Working.

An angel must have placed it there just for me! The title caught my eye and I bought it immediately...never bought the book on improving my resume.

I was very excited to read your book because I couldn't believe someone else in the world felt the same way I did about a 40-hr workweek.

Reading your book was similar to listening to my thoughts but in an organized format without the curse words!

I quit that job and moved, and haven't had a real job since.

I even spent 3 months in Palm Beach, FL, laying around on the beach--my goal was to sit down by the beach and not get up until I Felt Like Getting Up.

I have spent some savings and tapped into other money, but I am ok about it because I am feeling emotionally and physically better than ever. I even look better.

My feelings of depression I was experiencing have gone away and replaced with a sense of well-being and confidence. I have reconnected with family and friends, and I spend more time with them and change my schedule to fit their's so I can see them.

In other words, I have re-developed my personal life!

Some of us don't belong in the corporate structure, but are creative and intelligent and require a venue.

You definitely found yours!

My creative venue is right at my fingertips...I can taste it.

Your books are wonderful and have made a great impact on me.

Keep up the great work!

Respectfully,

Roslyn H
Albuquerque, NM

When I get an e-mail like this, I feel a great deal of satisfaction from having written the book.

But I also think about the people who run down my books and post a negative review on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com where they totally thrash the book as if they knew what was good for everyone else. Of course, these reviews about The Joy of Not Working can sway people from reading the book and consequently deny them Happiness after Midlife

Because the last two Amazon.com reviewers of The Joy of Not Working were not that complimentary, this was my response to Rosalyn hoping to get a great review as I did on this Review of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free:

Hello Roslyn:

Thank you for your e-mail and your great comments about my books.

Even though I have received thousands of letters, phone calls, and e-mails about my books, it is always a pleasure to receive an e-mail like the one that you just sent to me.

I particularly thank you for your kind words about The Joy of Not Working.

If you have a spare moment, it would be a great help if you could post a 5-star review of it on Amazon.com and let other potential readers know why you liked it.

It's not necessary to write a lengthy, formal review — a summary of the comments that you sent to me would be fine (your e-maill is at the bottom of this page).

Here's a direct link to the review form for The Joy of Not Working.

http://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=1580085520

Also, if possible, can you place the review on BarnesandNoble.com.

If you place this review, I will send you an autographed copy of my best-selling How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free or Career Success Without a Real Job.

Alternatively, I can send you a copy of my second latest book called .
101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting.

In fact, if you place a 5-star review on both Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com, I will send you two copies of my books.

I have attached the free e-books (in PDF format) with parts of the respective books to help you decide.

Once you place the review, send me your address so that I can send you one of my other books.

Many thanks and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Author, Innovator, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)

Best Retirement Jobs
Retirement Gifts for Yourself
10 Reasons to Retire Early
Retirement Income for Unconventional Retirees

****************************************************************************************************************

Note: This is a one-time notification about The Joy of Not Working. Please do not consider it as SPAM.

Our retirement books are designed for corporations so that they can create GOODNESS, COOLNESS, and AWARENESS with clients and customers.

Even more important, our funky retirement books such as How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free help retirees and the soon-to-be retired earn their retirement karma points so that they retire happy, wild, and free.

If you have any objections, please respond and we will not send you further e-mails about our other life-changing books that we intend to release.

*****************************************************************************************************************

The Joy of Not Working in Japan

This is an e-mail that I received from Japan about my book The Joy of Not Working

From: ioicrying24 ( at) jcom.home.ne.jp
Subject: Acknowledgment　from Tokyo
To: "success101coach (at ) yahoo (dot) com
Received: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 2:07 AM

Dear Mr. Zelinski,

My name is Sohei, I am mailing you because your book The Joy of Not Working encouraged my life style so much.

I am a practitioner of "work less, spend less" life style in Tokyo. I have ideas of novel, so I need time for writing development.

In this metropolis, the myth which says money brings glory of the "WINNER" is still dominant. I think happiness is not buyable but which we can make by ourselves. Everytime when I lose self-confidence I open your book The Joy of Not Working. Although I have already read through nearly 10 times there are new discoveries. I have accustomed myself to be ossified for loneliness but I am desire to overcome this and carve a new life eagerly.

I'd like to continue to believe in fellowship of job-free happiness rather than major rule of economic animals. I'm going to make time for reading your other books before too long.

I wish your good health and success.
Sincerely
Sohei Tonouchi

This was my reply:

Hello Sohei:

Thank you for your e-mail and kind words about The Joy of Not Working.

If you send me your address, I will send you an autographed copy of the English edition of my small gift book The Lazy Person's Guide to Happiness (also published in Japanese).

So long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Author, Innovator, Corporate Escape Artist, and Unconventional Career Expert
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 110,000 copies sold and published in 7 foreign languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)


http://twitter.com/CareerSuccess

See:

Business Giveaways by VIP BOOKS

Fun Things to Do in Retirement

Benefits from a Recession

The Joy of Not Working - Retirees Still Don't Have Time to Do the Things That They Would Like to Do

I just received this e-mail about my international bestseller The Joy of Not Working:

----- Original Message -----
From: Liz Hardwick
To: Ernie Zelinski
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 9:32 PM
Subject: Thank You

Just want to say thank you for a great read (The Joy of Not Working) will make sure I tell people about it.

We moved to Canada from England 10 years ago – got tired of the rat race – now live in Horsefly BC and couldn’t be happier, still not got time for all the things we want to do but it sure beats working.

Liz Hardwick

Incidentally, I am presently looking for a U.S. distributor for my two books Career Success Without a Real Job and How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free since Random House purchased Ten Speed Press and terminated the distribution Agreements that I had with Ten Speed Press.

I have indicated to U.S. distributors that I intend to sell 500,000 copies of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free over the next 10 years or so.

I have backed this up by showing the distributors a newspaper article from 1992 in which I was quoted as saying I intended to sell 100,000 copies of The Joy of Not Working.

For the record, The Joy of Not Working has now sold over 225,000 copies.

Go to this webpage for some tell-tale signs that you should be reading Career Success Without a Real Job:

Career Success on Twitter

The Joy of Not Working Steers Another Workaholic in the Right Direction

I recently received this e-mail from Tom S. (last name not given due to nature of e-mail) in California.

----- Original Message -----
From: Tom S.
To: vip-books (at) telus.net
Subject: Re: The Joy of Not Working

Hello Ernie,

I just picked up your book The Joy of Not Working this weekend. The
title sort of grabbed me. I have been out of work since April and
(so far) have found very little joy in it. Then I came to page 50
and fig 4.2 with the two boxes of before and after for a workaholic.
It was me. My marriage had been bad for years and finally ended
earlier this year. In effect I had already crossed off one item in
my box a long time ago. Then my employer decided to help me cross
off the other one. No wonder I felt lost, desperate, alone, and with
no idea where to turn. The only two things that mattered to me were
gone. From that I went through one compulsion after another. First
women (the serial dater), exercise, you name it. None made me happy.
Now I realize it’s not about finding a passion, it’s about finding
all of them. I am going to get to work right now filling up my box.

Thanks for steering me in the right direction. I’ll take it from
here.
Tom

Sonoma, CA

There are many more reasons to read The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked. For the record, this international bestselling book has now sold over 225,000 copies and has been published in 17 languages - soon 18 (Bulgarian this time).

More Japanese Interest in The Joy of Not Working

Cover of Japanese Edition of The Joy of Not Working

I just received this e-mail from a Literary Agency in Japan:

----- Original Message -----
From: Owl's Kohei
To: vip-book ( at ) telus.net
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 7:30 PM
Subject: Request: THE JOY OF NOT WORKING


Dear Ernie Zelinski,

How do you do. I am writing to you for the first time.
Please forgive me to introduce myself: My name is
Kohei Hattori, and I am a literary agent working at
Owls Agency located in Tokyo.

I am very keen on handling the Japanese translation
rights of your book THE JOY OF NOT WORKING"

If such rights are still free, I appreciate it a lot, if you could let me
try to sell the rights, and send me one reading copy at your earliest
opportunity.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you in advance, and I look forward to hearing
from you soon!

Best wishes,

KOHEI HATTORI
OWLS AGENCY, INC.
kohei - 1 (at) owlsagency.com

1-7 Ganshodo, Kanda-Jimbocho,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0051 JAPAN

This was my response:

Hello Kohei:

Thanks for your interest in the Japanese rights to The Joy of Not Working.

Actually, this book was first published in Japanese by Kodansha.

After Kodansha let it go out of print, the book was again published in Japanese by Voice Inc. (arranged through the Tuttle Mori Agency).

Perhaps you can interest some Japanese publisher in either of the following two books of mine:




• 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting


• Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations




For your convenience, I have attached the PDFs with the complete book for both titles.

These are the foreign editions published so far for 101 Really Important Things You Already Know, But Keep Forgetting:





• Published in Spanish by Amat Editorial, Barcelona


• Published in Russian by Gayatri Publishing, Moscow


• Published in French by Stanké International, Montreal


• Published in Chinese by Yuan-Liou Publishing, Taipei


• Published in Chinese simplified characters by CITIC Publishing House, Beijing


• Published in Korean by Mulpure Publishing, Seoul


• Published in English in Malaysia by TrueWealth Publishing, Kelana Jaya


• Published in English for the Indian subcontinent by Macmillan India, New Delhi, India




These are the foreign editions so far for Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations:






• Published in Spanish for Spain and Latin America by Amat Editorial, Barcelona, Spain


• Published in Russian by Gayatri/Livebook Publishing, Moscow, Russia


• Published in English for the sub-continent of India by Macmillan India, New Delhi, India
  



Note that Career Success Without a Real Job was first published in September 2007 with the title and subtitle Real Success Without a Real Job: There Is No Life Like It. It is being released by Ten Speed Press in March 2009 with the new title and subtitle Career Success Without a Real Job: The Career Book for People Too Smart to Work in Corporations:

I can send you a hard copy of the English edition of each of the books if you would like keeping in mind that I will have to send you a copy of the first edition of Career Success Without a Real Job.

For your information, I also have two other books not published in Japanese. The books are:






• Life's Secret Handbook for Having Great Friends


• Look Ma; Life's Easy: An Inspirational Fable
  



These two books have been published by foreign publishers but not in English. So, I can only send you PDFs of these two books.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best regards and so long for now,

Ernie Zelinski
Author of the Bestseller How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free
(Over 100,000 copies sold and published in 7 foreign languages)
and the International Bestseller The Joy of Not Working
(Over 225,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages)



Check out these resources:


25 Websites and Blogs about Money That Will Make You Smarter and Richer!

How to Become a Millionaire Instantly

Why You Should Seldom — If Ever — Lend Money to Friends

The Joy of Not Working Is Leisure Literature

Here is an e-mail that I just received about The Joy of Not Working:

----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:52 AM
Subject: Forward To Mr. Zelinski


Dear Author of The Joy of Not Working

I, as of many, have just read your latest masterpiece. Words cannot dictate the relevance of your "leisure literature". I for one will not sit idlely by as the world turns by, or will I? I just would like to add a minor saying I thought of while absorbing your "work"; "if it is not-doing then don't do it!" Thanks for your odaciousness?, and optimism? (sorry, it just fits!)
Your friend,
Nathan O. Stevens
Victoria, Canada (well...now)
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Here is one of my recent blogs on my Red Room Webpage: Reasons You Gotta Love a Recession ,