First, let me thank The Story Behind the Book for the opportunity to share my experiences, as they relate to the writing and publishing of Live Happily, Ever After… Now! 9 Simple Steps to create the life YOU want! I don’t believe I had ever intended to write my own book, although I do remember fantasizing about writing books both fiction and non-fiction. It was in April of 2009, when I was preparing a training introducing others to NLP, that it hit me! You see, when I prepare for trainings or in my work as a life coach and hypnotherapist, I do research into self-help material. I have been researching self-help material for over 5 years now and last April I realized, “Hey, I can write a book better than this!”
Now, I wasn’t being arrogant or at least I don’t think I was. I had enough experience using self-help techniques on myself and others, that I new I could teach them. At that moment I decided, that after my May 15th training, I would start writing my book. When I decided to write Live Happily, Ever After… Now! I decided I wanted to write a self-help book that was informative and practical. In my experience most self-help material spends way more time on one of these areas or the other and I wanted to create a balance between the why, the how and the evidence. As noted on my back cover, the book is filled with professional, personal and historical examples. So, I explain the concepts helping the reader understand how it affects their lives, as well as how it affected mine and then explain how to change this for the better. I use my experiences, client experiences and the experiences of people like Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein to demonstrate how it works!
As for my publishing journey, I decided to self-publish and start my own publishing company. I started Lake House Publishing and its first published book is Live Happily, Ever After… Now! 9 Simple Steps to create the life YOU want! I did this to avoid the hassle and the various rejections associated with getting your first book published! I am very pleased with my decision, as I have my book and I have a publishing company that I am going to start marketing. I want to help others get their books published and have decided I am going to use my knowledge and company to help make this happen. I learned a lot about the self-publishing world and just as I discuss in Live Happily, Ever After… Now! “I spent time and money discovering the simple steps that I have outlined in this book for you! This is okay. My plan was to learn and use my knowledge to help others.”
I truly love helping others and with my healthy belief system, I can always find a way to do this! So, I will be writing, speaking, consulting on how to think positively and get what you want, as well as teaching other writers how to do this. I believe I have found the perfect niche for myself! Thank you and to learn more visit www.livehappilyeverafter-now.com
Terry M. Drake is a Licensed Social Worker, National Board Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Certified Trainer of Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP. He has spent the last 10 years learning about himself and others, through his academic studies resulting in his MSW and his professional studies, as a family therapist, clinical supervisor and vast training and research into hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming, the law of attraction and positive psychology. Terry is now ready to put these skills to use as an author, speaker, consultant and coach. Terry lives in Wellsboro, Pa with his wife and children.
