A Book Is a Terrible Place to Hide Your Best Ideas Aloha Reader, There’s something I’ve noticed after years of working in the publishing industry: too much pressure is put on books to be the finish line. Authors spend months, or even years, figuring out what they want to say. They refine the stories, organize the ideas, and finally find the language for something they may have spent a career learning. Then the book comes out and everyone celebrates! The author shares the Amazon link with...
8 days ago • 2 min read
He went looking for the mother he'd never known. What he found is the heart of this book. Aloha Reader, I want to tell you about a book, An Orphan’s Journey Home, which we just finished working on in collaboration with a fabulous author, Bill Steen. I haven't been able to stop thinking about his story since we finished it. Bill was orphaned in West Germany in 1955, when he was nine months old. He spent his first years in a children's home, and then an American Army family adopted him, which...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Mandi's book is out to everyone this week (and it's 99 cents) Aloha Reader, Mandi Feely-Swain wrote Origination Boost for every loan originator, but she started with her own team. Some of you have seen the book here before. We wrote about Origination Boost when it first came out, back when the first copies were fresh off the press. Those went to the loan originators inside Mandi's own company, Premier Mortgage Resources. She launched it at her Success Conference, with signed copies handed out...
22 days ago • 1 min read
In a world built to grab your attention, what does it mean to protect it? Aloha Reader, One of the Hawaiian words closest to the heart of how we work at Aloha Publishing is mālama. It means to care for, to tend, to protect. You mālama the land. You mālama your family. You mālama what has been entrusted to you because caring for it well is simply who you are. At Aloha Publishing, we believe that it is important to mālama your readers. If any of you have talked to me about your book, you know...
29 days ago • 2 min read
New Resources: For Organizations Serving Military Members and Spanish-Speaking Communities Reader, Welcome to the first edition of our Monthly Bulk Buyer Newsletter! Whether you're serving a church, military community, nonprofit, school, business, or other organization, we appreciate the opportunity to support your mission. Each month, we'll spotlight a featured book and share practical information about who it's designed for, how it can be used, and any new editions or resources that may...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Meeting a reader where they already are... Aloha Reader, The longer I do this work, the more I notice how specific a reader’s reason usually is for opening a book. Most of us start with what we know and want to share. Readers begin somewhere else. They begin with the worry, or the question, that made them reach for the book in the first place. Answering that particular felt need, before offering anything else, is often what decides whether they keep reading. I’ve seen this up close in a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Reader Have you ever attended a conference and found a book waiting on your chair? Or worked for a company that gave every employee the same book to read? Maybe you've received a book from a consultant after a workshop or as a thank-you gift from a business. At Aloha Publishing, we call this bulk book buying or purchasing books in quantity to educate, inspire, onboard, or thank a specific audience. We've found it to be one of the most effective ways to get meaningful ideas into the hands of...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
What Cycling's Greatest Race Can Teach Every Author Aloha friends, This has been an incredible month for sports, don’t you think? The FIFA Club World Cup brought teams and fans from around the world to the U.S., making the world feel a little smaller. Wimbledon delivered the longest quarterfinal match in history as Novak Djokovic battled for five hours and 15 minutes. And in France, 184 cyclists rolled away from the starting line to begin more than 2,000 miles of racing across 21 stages. As...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Passion is a wonderful reason to start. It's not enough to finish. Aloha Reader, In Hawaii, there's a word for someone who truly belongs to a place: kamaʻāina. It translates, beautifully, as “child of the land.” I was born on the island of Hawaii and was a kamaʻāina (ran barefoot on lava, climbed plumeria trees for flowers, and caught geckos with my hands) . A kamaʻāina isn't a visitor admiring the view, even if they love the place. It is someone who knows where the road floods in a storm,...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read