When you haven’t written a book, getting it actually published can seem like a bit of a mountain to climb.
When you do get it published, it can appear like another bigger and harder mountain appears – and that’s to tell people about it and to get them to read it.
In the lull between the editing and publication process, I spent much time meditating and dog walking, allowing ideas and memes to come to me as to how to go about it.
I kicked off four of the ideas this month and already the ‘wave is building and propagating around the world.
Wave #1 : Getting Readers Together
This is beneficial on many levels.
Readers get to meet other like minded souls and the book connects them actually using the intrinsic force of soulwaves. Readers can also connect with me and ask me anything, as can I of them. Hopefully readers will tell other people to become readers and to join the Facebook Group. This builds the ‘wave.
By far and away the best benefit of the group is going to be the moonthly waves that we start together. The first one will be propagating out on the next New Moon, the 23rd Feb.
In the tradition of Jeff Lynne and War of the Worlds, and lesser known but much better Snowgoose by Camel, I am embarking on creating a album of ambient meditative music inspired by my own book, Soulwaves.
I have found a new guitar teacher who is helping me with composition and the first track is really me just getting my head around Abelton.
It covers the first five chapters where our hero descends from the Void to the Density, ending up with him in his mother’s womb.
They will appear first in the private Facebook group, then on Insight Timer on each Full Moon – you can also listen to it here.
Track 1 : Insertion
Wave #3 : Providing Guidance
And around each New Moon, I am releasing a guided meditation which explores how we can strengthen our connection with our soul.
This first track, Being Soul-full, is a gentle introduction and warm up.
Incidentally, it uses the background layer from next month’s ambient track. It warmed my soul when one Insight Timer meditator posed this question.
Meditation 1 : Being Soul-full
Wave #4 : Enlightened Converations
I have found podcasting is by far and away the best way to make soul-to-soul connections, without leaving your home.
My podcast, The Zone Show, was in mothballs while I moved house and finished off Soulwaves last year.
This year it’s back with a splash and my first guest was the amazing Joanna Penn – and I am guest #2 with my new co-host Jackie Roberts. You can watch our conversation in the video below (or catch it on The Zone ShowThe Zone Show).
Just over 10 years ago, I published my first non-fiction book called Blocks. To accompany it, I created a set of meditations. Little did I know then that would lead me down a completely different path.
This month, my meditations reached the 2.3 million listens point on Insight Timer. By gifting them away free, so much abundance has come my way to create a new level of freedom which has taken me to a place beyond my wildest dreams.
This energetic flow is a gift that keeps on giving.
Since creating those first few meditations, I have built up an amazing repository of materials. A small fraction of these materials have found their way on to Insight Timer but, up to now, much of it has been under lock and key behind a username and password which is unlocked by the exchange of money.
From today this all changes. My archive is now freely available to all.
Access my free resources here …
In Other News
One of my most popular meditations on Insight Timer, called Just for Today, has had just short of 600k listens. A meditator asked the other day for an extended version which you can now find here – calledJust a Little Longer. This is also the first ever track where I have composed and created the ambient background music … more of this in 2020.
Also I am honoured to have been chosen by Insight Timer to provide the Daily Insight on Christmas Day. It will be available in 5, 10 and 20 minute versions and is called The Turning Point. If you are ready for a change in the next orbit of the Sun, it’s an example of another gift that will keep on giving.
p.s. The Turning Point got over 4000 people meditating on Xmas Day and is now available in the archive – https://insig.ht/KpYRTiFiI2
Soulwaves available for pre-order
Last, but by no means least, after 15 years and 15 other books, my first novel – Soulwaves – will be published on the first Full Moon of 2020.
The audiobook has been recorded and uploaded but I have no control of publication date – it is though trickling out to a few platforms like Google Play.
Listen to the channelling from Louisa Tanner Munson to find out why it’s being published on the first Full Moon of 2020.
Why was Soulwaves published on the 1st Full Moon of 2020?
While I have been busy creating the Soulwaves book itself, I have consciously done nothing about publishing it, other than to observe what is happening in the industry. So rather than me having to find the way to get it published, I’ve been allowing the paths to publication and marketing to find me.
I had already used Ingram Spark last year for the Big U and am using them again but this time also publishing a hardback version. I wanted something other than just ACX and iTunes for the audiobook though.
Thanks mainly to the wonderful Creative Penn podcast, from the prolific and supremely knowledgeable Joanna Penn, I’m using a new way to distribute the audiobook version.
Findaway Voices not only submit your audiobook to ACX/Audible and iTunes but over 40 other audiobook platforms. Before submitting Soulwaves (at nearly 10 hours long), I tested the system out with the audiobook version of The Germinatrix (at less than 1 hour long).
I had the usual tech issues to fix with ACX, my fault for rushing, but pleased to see the book out on so many places it has never been heard before. Note, I serialised it on Insight Timer over the last two years – well that method worked for Charles Dickens and H.G. Wells!
Also this month, I had a lovely heart-to-heart with wordsmith, Mariëlle Smith …
Proofing the Pudding
Usually initial proof read and recording of audiobook catches 99% of errors. As the first sample print books of Soulwaves arrived this month, it was clear I only caught 95% or so!
Thank goodness for print on demand and setting a pre-order date.
Perhaps as this is so big and expansive in plot – over billions of years of time and 150,000 light years in space – I have learned a novel such as this needs an additional proof read after the recording of the audiobook.
So December will be spent ironing out the wrinkles. You can however safely pre-order the book in all good online bookstores and it will be perfect by the 10th Jan 2020.
This month has been consumed by audiobook production – slotted in around loads of family support.
At 100 chapters and just shy of 100k words, there is no short cut. I am managing 10 chapters a week and am 70 chapters in at the time of this blog.
So it will be finished by mid to late October and the book will be out, at last, well before the end of the year. I can recommend the process to all authors. Not only do you get the audiobook from it but also you find errors not found by any proof reading process and, for a complex plot like this one, inconsistencies that need ironing out.
Enlightened Conversations
In the run up to publication, I’m slowly restarting the Zone Show podcast and also being interviewed myself.
Here’s a couple of conversations from this month.
… more coming soon.
Authentic Living
by Tom Evans chatting to John Siddique
Timeful Reflections
Writing this blog and this whole production process around this novel has caused me to reflect.
Why has this project taken so long when other books have just popped out in weeks or months? This one has taken years.
Is it just because it’s my first novel and I am learning my craft?
Am I still harbouring a fear or imposter syndrome?
Is all driven by some kind of divine timing?
… if you are an intuitive or a channel, please leave any insights below by way of comment.
Several blogs ago I set my stall our to post once a month as a bread crumb trail of what was going on in my life – the original purpose and format for a blog perhaps.
Something happened at the start of this month which means I should break with this tradition and sneak an extra blog in – my meditations on Insight Timer hit the 2 million listens mark, after three years.
What does this mean?
Firstly, what was something I played and experimented with has gone mainstream. People seem to enjoy each new meditation I post.
Secondly, I have hit a groove where there is no limit. I post two to three free pieces of audio a month – a meditation, a podcast and a short story. The sales revenue from Insight Timer courses mean I can relax and release more and more free stuff, which in turn helps with sales. After 15 years of pretty continual content creation, I have found my metier.
Thirdly, it means I can really devote the time my forthcoming novel Soulwaves requires to create a Big Splash.
Eternal thanks to the team at Insight Timer and all those souls who helped me get to this milestone.
The two pillars in the High Priestess card in the Tarot represent Involution and Evolution.
Involution is like a winding down, or curling up, and it leads to evolution when it unfolds again.
Reflecting on this natural cycle, the High Priestess sits on a Cube (more on this coming up over the next few months) and holds the scroll of Tora, which contains all wisdom.
It’s no coincidence that this last month has seen much involution as the next phase of evolution is about to arrive.
Just for Today
After nearly four years of writing them, and two years of having them illustrated by the wonderful Siri Stiklestad Opli, the last Just for Today will be posted today. Is that the end of them though? No way! They begat from a meditation and every month going forward I’ll be publishing a new meditation based using the words “just for today” as the seed.
This is the meditation that started them off – eponymously called Just for Today …
You can listen to the others for free on Insight Timer
and just sharing my favourite illustrated JFT again here (must get that T-shirt done!)
Non-fiction to fiction author
Soulwaves will be back from the editor today and I’ll be spending the next three months getting it ready for publication. This will involve incorporating the edits, updating the science (thanks brother John) and narrating the audiobook as the final process of the edit. If I can’t say it “out loud”, readers won’t be able to experience it “in loud”.
I’ve also been learning about how to get a book made into film or TV. This book would need a serious rewrite so I’m looking at either an adaptation, or a new series of sequels/prequels written for telly using the principles of soulwaves as a seed. Black Mirror is my muse!
Surrey to Wiltshire
After over 20 years in our wonderful house in Surrey, this month it came under offer and we’ll (hopefully) be permanently moving to the new ‘passive’ and eco-friendly house in Wiltshire in July. This passing represents a huge transition too, from living in a 100 year old energy inefficient house to one which virtually runs itself and in Summer sends energy to the grid.
With much less energy drain, finances free up too. In addition, my latest courses on Insight Timer are now providing a decent sleeping income. All of which means, I will be free to write 24×7 (ideas come in dreams too).
What goes around, comes around … listen to this podcast for a summary of the journey so far.
NEXT MONTH : How cogs whir when pebbles are dropped in the pod … and you keep a quiet mind to allow the ripples to come back.
This month I did something I have been meaning to do for ages, I had some new photography done for my site.
The wonderful Maria O’Brien of Haiga Photography popped over to my house on a glorious pre-spring day. You’ll find my mugshot on all main pages of the site now, as opposed to me hiding away down somewhere deep.
I am so pleased at what she did and am wondering why I spent so long just hiding behind my voice on meditations, audiobooks and my podcast. Time to be seen, as well as heard.
Now the first draft of Soulwaves, the novel, is in the can – more on that in the next blog – I dusted off The Zone Show podcast this month and started it up again.
In this episode, I chat to Jelena Adzic about her transition from meditator to meditation guide on Insight Timer.
You will hear from Jelena again in the next episode when she turns the tables on me when we talk about said novel … and the next page I am turning.
A Meditator’s Journey
by Tom Evans chatting to Jelena Adzic
Being Heard Even More
I’m thrilled that my new 30 day course, Mindfulness for Busy People, is now live on Insight Timer.
The new course format has allowed me to collate meditations from many sources of mine into the app into one cohesive container. The course contains a mix of remastered existing meditations along with brand new ones that link the whole 30 day narrative together.
This month saw the unexpected passing of my mother-in-law. She has been in a care home for 8 years and wasn’t ill (for once). She had had a happy day, laughing and joking and was chatting to my father-in-law watching TV early evening. She was alive one second and gone the next. We had just moved them to their 3rd care home as my father-in-law had had a stroke and needed more care.
It was peaceful and painless for her and we were lucky to get a funeral slot just before Xmas. We are now left with a bereft person who doesn’t want to be around.
It makes you reflect and realise about the cycles of life. We have been in elderly care mode for at least the last 10 years and this gave me the impetus (and opportunity) to write at least 10 books and create hours of meditative visualisations and resources
Efforts Redoubled
So now our care and attention will increase, as father-in-law will need company, before the end of this year, next year is mapping itself out. When we encounter death, it is natural that we think about our own mortality. The fear of death left me many years ago but I do have a desire to leave behind a legacy of what I have learned for others (and possibly a future incarnation of myself/my soul). So this puts a focus on the next orbit of the Sun.
Project 1 : Soulwave : The Novel : I’ve now decided not to pressure myself on this and just to get the 1st draft written by my next birthday in March. Then to produce the audiobook by the 21st June, which will double as the the best proof read and edit you can get. And then to make the publication date, the 21st September.
Project 2 : Just for Today : These daily nuggets of mindfulness have been going out for well over two years now, latterly illustrated. In the New Year, Siri and I will be taking them to a new place where community involvement sits at the core.
Project 3 : Meditations : My free meditations are already on Insight Timer and more will be coming. One short story (from the Germinatrix) and one new free meditation will be published a month. Plus a new 30 day course will appear Q1 of 2019 which will replace three of my existing standalone courses.
Project 4 : The Big Awakening : While all of my creative output has been finding its way to the world, a massive amount of esoteric wisdom has yet to see general release. Some 1-2-1 mentoring clients have seen and experienced small snippets. I am giving no shape to how it gets out there but I know, with publication of The Big Ü, a channel now exists. Watch this space and it will be revealed – and all I know is that projects 1 to 3 above are the foundations.
This month I reached a milestone which was not in my wildest of wild dreams and not on any To Do List, or set of goals. My meditations and podcasts on mindfulness have been listened to over 1 million times.
When we hit milestones like this, it’s a good idea to reflect back on how it was achieved and what unexpected events happened along the way.
It also pays dividends to say thanks, so big thanks to Insight Timer for making it happen and thanks to all the 280,000 meditators who listened in. This means many of them tuned in multiple times.
How it happened
The reflections are nicely captured in this podcast with fellow Insight Timer meditation guides, Louisa Tanner Munson and Carl Munson.
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The unexpected events
#1 : I made a transition from an author who had some meditations as accessories to his books to becoming a popular meditation guide who happens to be an author.
#2 : This directly lead to a new career as a keynote speaker and trainer in practical applications of mindfulness.
#3 : I was commissioned to create seven meditations to help with weight management directly as a result of a meditator, and his 3 year old son, listening. The composer of the ambient background music is Eternell, found through the app.
#4 : The popularity of Just for Today, my most listened to meditation, lead me to creating a series of daily nuggets of mindfulness of the same name. They attracted the illustrator, Siri Stiklestad Opli, and ended up in a book I didn’t plan to write and the formation of a contribution currency initiative on Patreon.
#5 : my new found status has lead to co-authoring a new book called The Big Ü and the creation of an advanced personal development programme called The Biggest Ü. It has been immensely useful in giving credibility and authority to this initiative.
#6 : a steady stream of new clients for my more esoteric self-study courses and 1-2-1 mentoring.
#7 : giving me confidence at the grand old age of 60 to finally put my head fully above the parapet.
Above all it has been the most enjoyable journey and gives me such pleasure to know that 3000 or so people each day are calmer, more relaxed and hopefully a little more enlightened.
All because Maddy Gerrard reached out in August 2016 to ask if I’d like to upload a meditation.
“It only takes one domino to make many others fall down …”
Big thanks to Maddy, Chris, Nico, Bayley, the rest of the team and the generous benefactors who make the impossible possible. Thanks also to the 4 million and more meditators and all my fellow meditation guides for making the best by far free app on the planet.
The two pillars in the High Priestess card in the Tarot represent Involution and Evolution.
Soulwaves will be back from the editor today and I’ll be spending the next three months getting it ready for publication. This will involve incorporating the edits, updating the science (thanks brother John) and narrating the audiobook as the final process of the edit. If I can’t say it “out loud”, readers won’t be able to experience it “in loud”.
After over 20 years in our wonderful house in Surrey, this month it came under offer and we’ll (hopefully) be permanently moving to the new ‘passive’ and eco-friendly house in Wiltshire in July. This passing represents a huge transition too, from living in a 100 year old energy inefficient house to one which virtually runs itself and in Summer sends energy to the grid.
