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Starley Murray How to Write Your POV for OPM Contest

starley murray 01

Starley Murray Image and Branding Strategist Goes Into Detail on How To Write Your Backstory or Point of View for OPM Author / Book Contest

Do you want to enter the competition and don’t know how to answer to contest questions? Starley goes into great detail to help you put together a winning entry.

On Purpose Magazine is known for helping authors promote themselves and since we love authors we want to do more.

OPM Founder JW Najarian and Image and Branding Strategist Starley Murray Audio How to Write Your Backstory ?Right Click and “Save Link As” to Download File?

In the audio above famed image and branding strategist Starley Murray discusses with JW Najarian the tips, tricks and secrets of writing your Point of View (POV) or what is also referred to as the Backstory in your efforts toward winning the OPM Author / Book Competition and using it in your marketing and promotion yourself and your books.

Does Your Image Detract from Your Message? by Top Image Expert Starley MurrayStarley Murray

I choose Celebrity Image Expert Starley Murray to help us build our backstory or Point of View (POV) because Starley has been on TV every single month for the past ten years with nearly 3000 appearances overall.

Specializing in brand development, media training and publicity image she has been in demand with celebrities, Fortune 500 companies, industry experts, and TV stations for the last 20 years. Starley has generated more than $1 Million in sales directly from her TV appearances and media productions.

jw and starley 01She’s called upon by stars from Inside Edition and the E! Channel and many celebrities like Brooke Burke, Tommy Lee Jones, Marie Osmond, and Eva Longoria. Starley’s plugged in to internationally recognized media events like the Academy Awards and has interviewed hundreds of celebrities on the red carpet and leverages her appearances to support Cancer Survivors and Domestic Violence Prevention.

She is proud to be regularly requested for coaching behind the scenes at the American Idol try outs and all while on live television as a media correspondent for a FOX TV news show!

Writing Your Backstory or Point of View for the OPM Contest

The On Purpose Magazine (OPM) Author Book Competition is not based on your book, but rather on your story around the book. OPM wants to help authors promote their books and believe the first thing you need to have is a great package put together to help promote, market and sell you and your book.

OPM has put a contest together to find the most original, compelling and great backstory or author point of view which will be the basis of all your promotional and marketing efforts going forward.

Here are the questions you will be asked to answer for the competition and an explanation of how to answer them to help you build a winning entry.

Even if you do not enter the competition and you should… just check out the prizes; you will end up building a very strong foundation for the rest of your marketing and promotional campaigns going forward so have fun and get creative!

The following is an outline of the lesson on the audio. Use both guide you or not. There is no right way to answer these questions. I am sure many of you will answer from the heart and just blow us away and some of you will step out of the box, the box is in.

OPM Author / Book contest questions

Who Is The Author?

Give Us Your Story, Background, History or something interesting that might tie you to the book.

  1. Share your experiences about your back ground history (often called your back story) to give the reader a way to connect with you.
  2. Concentrate your story on an inspiring and/or exciting experience from your life.
  3. Don’t discount the power of others relating to you if the experience is common and not action packed. Common threads are strong connections.
  4. Develop your backstory and share your emotions to connect to your reader.
  5. Have a short one minute back story as well as a longer version such as a five minute presentation. Likely you will get the most mileage from your short sound bites for media related experiences and the longer versions when you have the opportunity to more deeply connect with your readers/audience.

 What Is This Book About?

What is the theme? Give us a short Description of the Book and the Story.

  1. Your theme or genre to your book is also a form of branding. You may have more than one applicable theme. If so, prioritize your themes and lead with the strongest.
  2. Develop your description of the book in ways to invoke the reader’s senses such as sight, sound, taste or touch. In video and television interviews, strong visuals are strong forms of publicity.
  3. Keep your description short in length of words and impactful in meaning of your words. In the media, the less you say …the more they will listen. It’s how you say it that can be most impactful.
  4. Be purposeful as to the order of words and sentences in your descriptions. The first impression rule still applies and you can set the tone and support the mood of the reader from beginning to end.

 Why Did You Write This Book?

What compelled you to write this book? Why you and not someone else?

  1. Combine your unique back story with your special interests and skills when sharing the reasons why you wrote your book. Having a unique fusion of inspiration with special skills makes your brand more difficult to copy by others competing for publicity.
  2. Differentiate your writing styles and share why your take on your top is unique.
  3. Reveal something about yourself that is specific only to you as an author or person.
  4. Share your reasons to write this book that may be different from what inspires other authors or readers of your topic.

 Why should someone read this book?

Why should someone read this book and who should read this book? Who will this book entertain, inspire, educate, and help?

  1. List all the reasons your book can help other people and make a difference.
  2. Categorize the reasons that can help readers immediately in their lives, and the ones that can help them long term as well as those reasons that just might make them smile or feel like they are a part of something special that is bigger than them as one person.
  3. Then pick the top three reasons from each of these three areas to support your reason why someone should read your book to answer the questions readers often ask themselves pharmacy no prescription subconsciously. (What’s in it for me)
  4. Determine who your target market is and adjust your language and pinpoint your promotional campaign to reach the groups that have the highest interest in your book.

The Contest

Over 3 Million books come out every year and only a handful of them make any money or get any recognition. In fact 50% of all new books make less than $250 on average in their first year!

This is a startling and amazingly sad fact and it is not because the books are not worthy, solid, or wonderful, but because the marketing efforts behind the books are almost non existent or worse, a lot of money is spent in the wrong direction.

I have interviewed many bestselling and not best selling authors and I always get the same feedback. Marketing and promotions is the hardest part of writing a book.

What is one of the best ways to market and promote? Simple, let people get to know you. Exposure is not enough. You need the right type of exposure. This helps you build credibility and puts you on course to build a community which is one of the best ways to create buzz and sell more books.

button checkout contest

On Purpose Magazine Wants To Help Authors Promote Their Books

On Purpose Magazine is doing something different and very special for the new and not so new author to help them get more of the right type of exposure.

We will not be reading your book! What?? How can you have a Author / Book Competition / Contest without reading the book? Again Simple…

If you write a great book, give it a fantastic title and put a great picture on the front… guess how many people will beat a path to your door to get this book? Generally no one. First people need to know that it is available, but more importantly people need a reason to pick it up to read.

What is the best way to promote my book?

Through my many interviews and working with authors and publicists and public relations executives I have learned that what an author needs beyond a great book, is a well defined, compelling, interesting or relate-able story.

The Author needs to get exposure from many different sources.

  • Radio (Internet, Satellite and Terrestrial)
  • Television (Internet, Local and National)
  • Newspaper
  • Magazines
  • Industry Publications
  • Other Publications
  • Associations
  • Groups
  • Word of Mouth
  • and Many Others

But are you ready for your close up? Do you know what you are going to say or how your going to say it?

Many of the 3 million authors will never get their work exposed and many others will get some type of exposure, but waste it by not knowing what to say and how to present themselves.

What an author needs is a package that is put together and tested. Starting with a headshot, bio and compelling book description. It will also be nice to have a professional interview with a professional publication, completed and on your resume.

This is what this contest will give the author. On Purpose Magazine’s contest is all about what we call the author’s Point of View (POV). The POV is the author’s backstory, reason for writing the book and reason why the reader absolutely needs to have this book or get it for a friend..

OPM’s contest will choose a winner based on the best POV submitted. The winner will receive one of our Gold Premium Promotional Package including a full page story with a full 30 minute professional interview that will be featured in OPM and shared out to thousands and thousands of readers, industry people and is, of course, yours to distribute as you see fit all your promotional needs. There will also be other bonuses from our industry sponsors.

button OPM Promotional Packages

So by the time you are done you will have:

  • A Headshot (you supply the headshot, but you have to have one for the interview and you can take it with your cell phone, but don’t screw yourself. Take a decent one.)
  • A Bio (You must supply this also, but if you complete the contest, believe me you will have a great one.)
  • A Point of View (The basis for all your marketing, promotion, interviews and more)
  • A professional interview published on a recognized web magazine.
  • One great resume entry

For new authors this will be you breaking the ice and getting more and more interviews or speaking engagements. For some of you seasoned authors this will be a chance for you to get more and better exposure and to dust off your old POV and create another, or it may be your chance to get noticed in the new social media.

button checkout contestGive yourself a Chance to be Recognized

On Purpose Magazine is well known and respected by publicists and public relations firms that use the new media to help promote their authors.

On Purpose Magazine is becoming well known around the celebrity community as a place where the celeb can speak and promote their cause.

On Purpose Magazine gets great Google, Alexa and SEO rankings form all the major search engines so we already have the built in traffic and tools to help new and seasoned authors promote their work.

Your interview with be shown and featured alongside well known, bestselling authors, Hollywood Celebrities, Business Leaders and Teachers and more.

If you do not want to try and win a spot in the magazine there are a limited amount of spots available at a reasonable rate. OPM wants to make it affordable for authors to get themselves interviewed professionally, but since OPM does everything the old fashioned way… from scatch, OPM cannot do more than a few of these interviews. We will be offering them on a first come, first served basis.

Submit your Point of View today…. We have put together a course in how to put together a great POV which was taken from a $1500 course, but will be made available to our entrants at no charge…. This is worth the price of admission alone.

All entrants will get mentioned in the magazine with a coveted link to their book and site. This is worth the entry fee also….

button checkout contest

cONTEST nOTE

This is our first contest so there will be glitches and screw ups. Try and follow the directions as best as possible and if you still have problems drop me a line with your phone number so we can help you through it.

EMail Me

We expect issues, but will work hard to make sure they are as painless as possible… Thanks…

On Purpose Magazine Announces First Ever Author / Book Contest / Competition

banner OPM Author Book Contest02That’s Right!

First Ever Author Book Contest

On Purpose Magazine is known for helping authors promote themselves and since we love authors we want to do more.

OPM Founder JW Najarian and Image and Branding Consultant Starley Murray Audio to Introduce OPM Author / Book Competition ►Right Click and “Save Link As” to Download File◄

starley murray 01

In the audio above famed image and branding expert Starley Murray discusses with JW Najarian the importance of the OPM contest and the authors Point of View (POV) or what is also referred to as the Backstory in their efforts toward marketing and promotion of themselves and their books.

Over 3 Million books come out every year and only a handful of them make any money or get any recognition. In fact 50% of all new books make less than $250 on average in their first year!

This is a startling and amazingly sad fact and it is not because the books are not worthy, solid, or wonderful, but because the marketing efforts behind the books are almost non existent or worse, a lot of money is spent in the wrong direction.

I have interviewed many bestselling and not best selling authors and I always get the same feedback. Marketing and promotions is the hardest part of writing a book.

What is one of the best ways to market and promote? Simple, let people get to know you. Exposure is not enough. You need the right type of exposure. This helps you build credibility and puts you on course to build a community which is one of the best ways to create buzz and sell more books.

button checkout contest

On Purpose Magazine Wants To Help Authors Promote Their Books

On Purpose Magazine is doing something different and very special for the new and not so new author to help them get more of the right type of exposure.

We will not be reading your book! What?? How can you have a Author / Book Competition / Contest without reading the book? Again Simple…

If you write a great book, give it a fantastic title and put a great picture on the front… guess how many people will beat a path to your door to get this book? Generally no one. First people need to know that it is available, but more importantly people need a reason to pick it up to read.

What is the best way to promote my book?

Through my many interviews and working with authors and publicists and public relations executives I have learned that what an author needs beyond a great book, is a well defined, compelling, interesting or relate-able story.

The Author needs to get exposure from many different sources.

  • Radio (Internet, Satellite and Terrestrial)
  • Television (Internet, Local and National)
  • Newspaper
  • Magazines
  • Industry Publications
  • Other Publications
  • Associations
  • Groups
  • Word of Mouth
  • and Many Others

But are you ready for your close up? Do you know what you are going to say or how your going to say it?

Many of the 3 million authors will never get their work exposed and many others will get some type of exposure, but waste it by not knowing what to say and how to present themselves.

What an author needs is a package that is put together and tested. Starting with a headshot, bio and compelling book description. It will also be nice to have a professional interview with a professional publication, completed and on your resume.

This is what this contest will give the author. On Purpose Magazine’s contest is all about what we call the author’s Point of View (POV). The POV is the author’s backstory, reason for writing the book and reason why the reader absolutely needs to have this book or get it for a friend..

OPM’s contest will choose a winner based on the best POV submitted. The winner will receive one of our Gold Premium Promotional Package including a full page story with a full 30 minute professional interview that will be featured in OPM and shared out to thousands and thousands of readers, industry people and is, of course, yours to distribute as you see fit all your promotional needs. There will also be other bonuses from our industry sponsors.

button OPM Promotional Packages

So by the time you are done you will have:

  • A Headshot (you supply the headshot, but you have to have one for the interview and you can take it with your cell phone, but don’t screw yourself. Take a decent one.)
  • A Bio (You must supply this also, but if you complete the contest, believe me you will have a great one.)
  • A Point of View (The basis for all your marketing, promotion, interviews and more)
  • A professional interview published on a recognized web magazine.
  • One great resume entry

For new authors this will be you breaking the ice and getting more and more interviews or speaking engagements. For some of you seasoned authors this will be a chance for you to get more and better exposure and to dust off your old POV and create another, or it may be your chance to get noticed in the new social media.

button checkout contestGive yourself a Chance to be Recognized

On Purpose Magazine is well known and respected by publicists and public relations firms that use the new media to help promote their authors.

On Purpose Magazine is becoming well known around the celebrity community as a place where the celeb can speak and promote their cause.

On Purpose Magazine gets great Google, Alexa and SEO rankings form all the major search engines so we already have the built in traffic and tools to help new and seasoned authors promote their work.

Your interview with be shown and featured alongside well known, bestselling authors, Hollywood Celebrities, Business Leaders and Teachers and more.

If you do not want to try and win a spot in the magazine there are a limited amount of spots available at a reasonable rate. OPM wants to make it affordable for authors to get themselves interviewed professionally, but since OPM does everything the old fashioned way… from scatch, OPM cannot do more than a few of these interviews. We will be offering them on a first come, first served basis.

Submit your Point of View today…. We have put together a course in how to put together a great POV which was taken from a $1500 course, but will be made available to our entrants at no charge…. This is worth the price of admission alone.

All entrants will get mentioned in the magazine with a coveted link to their book and site. This is worth the entry fee also….

button checkout contest

cONTEST nOTE

This is our first contest so there will be glitches and screw ups. Try and follow the directions as best as possible and if you still have problems drop me a line with your phone number so we can help you through it.

EMail Me

We expect issues, but will work hard to make sure they are as painless as possible… Thanks…

It is Snowing at On Purpose Magazine

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdhx7ivcE91rl4tbmo1_1280.jpg

In the spirit of the holidays, it will be Snowing at the  On Purpose Magazine website till January 4th.

Come and check it out and all the wonderful stories and our first ever Author / Book contest / competition.

I grew up around snow…. My father was in the Air Force and it seems that we were stationed in many cold weather places where I got to see snow as a young kid, such as Plattsburgh, NY and Carterton, in West Oxfordshire in the U.K. and eventually my mother and my brother and sister settled in Lake Tahoe, CA and NV.

Snow was what winter and the holidays were about and when I first spend a Christmas away from home it was soooo depressing. I was stationed, while in the U.S. Navy, in San Diego, CA and though it was a wonderfully sunny Christmas Day, it lacked everything I thought I knew about Christmas.’

I now live in Los Angeles and have had rainy Christmases and wonderfully sunny Christmases, but never a snowy one. Yes we have had snow in Los Angeles a couple of times, but never on Christmas.

The point is that I love snow for the holidays and do miss it, but I have learned not to be depressed due to incredibly great weather.

I also have to admit that if reminded, going to school, work or important events can really suck in the snow and sliding off the road is not fun, or putting on chains when your hands are frozen, or slipping and falling or shoveling the walk or going out to carry in firewood and….. well you get the picture.

So at On Purpose Magazine we will make it snow 24/7 for your enjoyment, without any of the hassles. Make sure you stay on the page a second as it starts out very subtle and then it picks up the longer you stay.

Come take a peek and while your their listen or watch one of our great videos or podcasts. We try and put in tons of helpful content that you can use now and share throughout the year.

Happy Holidays to you and yours… – JW

I Want To Be Me Movie – Interview with the Producer

I Want To Be Me Banner

I Want To Be Me

A Touching New Film at the Possible Futures Film Contest – Has Won The Peoples Choice Award in the Human Fullfillment Catagory!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/25164794 w=500&h=285]

Watch it Now

“I Want To Be Me”, is a short film, less than 3 minutes long, written and directed by Lauren Selman and produced by Pina De Rosa, and is about amplifying the voice of our children and reminding us that the future depends on being ourselves and following our dreams. You know it’s up to you, what do you want to be?

Here is an excerpt from the congratulations letter sent to Pina:

How the audience received the film. In the words of the Project Manager:

“This evening, at the 2011 Possible Futures Film Contest Awards Ceremony it was announced on stage followed by a second screening of your wonderfully meaningful film, that I Want To Be Me was the winner of the People Choice Award in your submitting category of Human Fulfillment !! (and btw  – Jon Love announced this category and your film winning) There was such joy in the air as your film completed its dual screening this evening in front of a fully packed theatre. It was amazing to see this truly human connection about living a live of individuality on the large screen. (I’ve been screening it on my laptop – and I really smiled from ear to ear this evening for you) Nice work!

It has been an honor to watch people enjoy your work on film. Thank you for holding the world so preciously in this tale. It was wonderful having your film be a part of the first annual Contest and hope you will consider submitting in 2012.”

I recently met Pina De Rosa through a good friend. I got a chance to spend a little time with her and hear her story and some of the projects she had done and others she was working on.

Lauren Selman and Pina De Rosa

Lauren Selman and Pina De Rosa

I was amazed at her accomplishments, her I can do it attitude and then I got to see some of her work, as you can by going to www.IWantToBeMeTheMovie.com or by clicking on the Vote Graphic above. But, you be the judge and let me know by commenting below, what you thought. (The Voting is over and the film Won!)

You will get a chance to watch the short movie before voting, but I think you will have no problem voting for this cute and funny little movie that really made me sit back and think a bit.

If you are like me you spend your time doing the day to day and sometimes you forget to ask yourself simple, yet important questions.
Even if you do not want to vote, go watch the it. – JW

Check out the Audio tramadol Interview above, as I took the chance, before she left on a to Africa, to call Pina and ask her some questions about the movie and the contest.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

possible futures film contestA new global film contest to reveal visions of a positive future

The Possible Futures Film Contest is a bold new film event challenging storytellers of the world to create a new vision for the future of humanity — one that will become defined by our relationships to human justice, environmental sustainability, peace and individual fulfillment.

These stories on film, from citizens of the world, have the potential to highlight and envision change that benefits people, the planet and its ecosystems. We strive, in open-hearted consideration of one another, to bring forth a new path for the world — one of harmony, peace and love.

Creating your story is simple, and there is no entry fee. Everyone is encouraged to participate, at any skill level. Five world-class judges will select the top two Awards as viewers select five People’s Choice Awards.

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Gratitude InternationalGratitude International is Pina De Rosa and I did a separate interview coming out soon about what she calls Quantum Communications (sometimes referred to as Ninja Communications). Cool stuff. Here is some background on Gratitude International and Pina De Rosa

pina de rosa

Pina De Rosa - President / CEO of Gratitude International.

Pina Anna-Grace De Rosa, award-winning producer and high performance results coach, was christened Giuseppina in Italy, her country of birth. When she turned 11, Pina’s family moved from Naples to Lausanne – making this the first journey in a lifetime of travel that has taken her around the world.

Pina worked in film production in her 20s, then started working in the personal development field and merged both her passions for media and transformation, making movies that make a difference.

Having coached thousands of people (one on one and from the platform) today she is an award winning Film Producer, a Master Results Coach and NLP Trainer, President/CEO of Gratitude International LLC, a company with a worldwide client base committed to empowering people to living their fullest potential — visions and dreams fulfilled. She loves it! She is extremely passionate about paradigm shifting, the power of making a difference, especially through film.

As an international speaker & high performance trainer, Pina De Rosa has been designing and leading live workshops, teleclasses and webinars for over 10 years now. She has been nominated as Los Angeles Business Journal Woman Making A Difference Award, 2 years in a row: in 2010 and 2011.

Besides keynote speaking and leading her own events, Pina has shared the stage with Barbara De Angelis, Loral Langemeier, Chris Howard, Alison Armstrong, Lisa Sasevich, Debbie Allen, Jill Lublin, Dr. Joanna Martin, Kerwin Rae, James Schramko, Lisa Haisha, Shellie Hunt, Chris Wise, Scott Martineau, Johnnie Cass, Sean Harris, Clinton Swaine, Benjamin Harvey, Todd Newton, Dave Vanhoose, Daven Michaels, Sean Bell, Larry Loik and Kelly O’Neil to name a few.