Episode 15:  Show Notes

In today’s episode, I will be interviewing a special guest, Lauren Wenner and discussing how to stay healthy during a relocation.  In today’s highly mobile society, people don’t tend to stay in one place for the entire adult lives.  And for many people is a very challenging, unsettling, and even unhealthy time of their life.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Lauren Wenner gives us 5 tips as she shares personal stories of how she stayed healthy through several moves.

I had intended to post this podcast about 2 weeks ago but due to a recording problem, the sound quality was horrible and I didn’t want anyone to have to suffer through it.  So, my gracious guest Lauren, was willing to re-record it and this time we have a great audio podcast for you!  So let’s get to it!

Resources

Edge Fitness

Campbell Soup Company

Lauren Wenner @ LinkedIn.com

Pepperidge Farms

Zillow.com

Ways to Connect with Me:

Subscribe, rate, and review “Breaking Thru Health Barriers with Dr. Terri Wenner” in iTunes or your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. Always feel free to drop use the contact form on my website to send me your comments and questions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Episode 14:  Show Notes

In today’s episode, we will be discussing grace and mercy, how to get and receive more of these in your life, and the importance of cutting yourself a break, all in the name of healthy living.  And as always, be sure to keep an ear open for Dr. Terri’s Health Tip & Challenge of the Week.

Grace & Mercy

If you’ve been listening awhile, you know I love to start our discussions with definitions so everyone is clear on what we’re talking about.  So, let’s start with grace.

1. Grace Defined

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary actually lists 8 definitions for grace.  But today we are going to focus just on one.  We’re going to be looking at an aspect of grace that is based in Christianity.  However, no worries if you’re not Christian, I believe that all people can choose to live a life based on grace.  And since there are a lot of Christians around, you may better understand where they are coming from when they use the term grace.

Grace is

a :  unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification

b :  a virtue coming from God

c :  a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine assistance

This definition forces us to look up some other words too.

What is regeneration?

It’s a type of renewal or revival.  Taking something that is in bad shape and making it new or bringing something near death back to life.

Here’s an example that might help you understand this better.  I am not known for having a green thumb and so I frequently find my plants near death.  But, with enough TLC (sometimes at the hands of someone besides myself) nearly dead plants can come back to life.

What is sanctification?

The state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion.  Being sanctified means being free from sin and set apart for a sacred purpose.

So, essentially this means that for Christians, there is a time when God forgives a person’s sin and then sets him or her apart for a very special purpose.

Personal Focus on Grace

My favorite part of all that we have said so far is that grace is unmerited favor.  That means that grace is not a reward for a job well done.  It’s not given like a merit badge for great accomplishments.  The beauty of grace is that we didn’t do anything to earn it or deserve it; nevertheless, it can still be available at certain times in our lives.  We’ll talk more about this in a moment.

Mercy Defined

Before we get too deep into grace, let’s define mercy too.

Merriam-Webster only gives us 3 definitions for mercy so let’s take a look at all of them.

* compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power

* a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion

* compassionate treatment of those in distress

Once again, this definition causes us to look up another word, forbearance.

What is forbearance?

Refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.

Personal Focus on Mercy

In a nutshell, mercy is not giving a person what they deserve.  And I have a great example of this.  One summer I taught a Pharmacology course to nursing students.  It was a tough course and the students had other courses going on at the same time, all in an fast-paced summer format.

I used to provide some blank space for students to write me notes if they wanted me to look at something closer, so that they wouldn’t interrupt the class during the test.

One student wrote a very brief note that said “Please have mercy!”  Oh my gosh, that was one of the best notes I ever got.  This student was admitting that he/she didn’t deserve an awesome grade, but was hopeful that I would not give out what was truly earned.  Honestly, this happened quite a few times during my academic ca...

Episode 13:  Show Notes

In today’s episode, I will be interviewing a special guest, Chaz Parker and discussing how to be prepared for a current or future job search.  In an increasingly competitive job market, it’s important for your overall health and financial well-being that you know what you’re in for and that you put your best foot forward as you search for the perfect fit in an employer-employee relationship.  Chaz offers several tips and tricks on how to tilt the odds in your favor.  So let’s get to it.  The full transcript of this interview is available on YouTube.

Dr. Terri’s Heath Tip & Challenge of the Week

Now for the health tip & challenge of the week.

Where are you right now when it comes to your career?

* Are you currently searching?

* Are you employed but expecting to change in the near future?

* Or are you satisfied but still cautious about how fast things can change?

Regardless of where you are or where you hope to be in 1, 5, or 10 years – the time to get started is today!

So the challenge is open up your LinkedIn account today.  It’s not only for you, but you can endorse the skills of your colleagues and friends.  You can write recommendations for others.  You can join groups of people who share similar career interests.  And start to network with others! And if you already have an account, work on upgrading and improving what you have already posted.

Links to LinkedIn and Chaz’s LInkedIn account are listed in the show notes.  And while you’re there, try searching for Teresa Wenner, my given name, which I use in my LinkedIn account!

Resources

Chaz Parker @ LinkedIn.com.

Create your LinkedIn Account Here!

Glassdoor.com

Salary.com

Job Search Resources

CareerBuilder.com

Indeed.com

Monster.com

Ways to Connect with Me:

Subscribe, rate, and review “Breaking Thru Health Barriers with Dr. Terri Wenner” in iTunes or your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. Always feel free to drop use the contact form on my website to send me your comments and questions.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Episode 12:  Show Notes

In today’s episode we will be discussing mentoring from a health perspective, the health benefits of having a non-emergency mindset, and dealing with trust issues.

Part 1: A Look at Mentoring from a Health Perspective

Definition

Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or more knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgeable person. The mentor may be older or younger than the person being mentored, but she or he must have a certain area of expertise. It is a learning and development partnership between someone with vast experience and someone who wants to learn. (Wikipedia)

Environments

A good question would be where can mentoring occur?  We frequently see mentoring in the business setting, or other types of career focused environments.  But, it is not limited to those settings.  Some workplaces may refer to it with slightly different language.  It may be called an apprenticeship, preceptorship, or it may just happen and not be called anything at all.

Personal Experience

On a personal level, I have been both the giver and the receiver of mentoring.  At times, it has been a formal arrangement and at times it has been more spontaneous.  At times, mentors were provided for me while others I searched out on my own.  Some I have worked with face-to-face, some virtually, and some I never met.  That probably sounds a bit confusing, so let’s dig into this section a little deeper and I’ll give you some examples that may help you understand things better.

Mentoring Others

I have been a Registered Nurse for over 25 years now.  But, I have had many different types of jobs within the nursing field over the course of those years.  In each of those phases, I came in as the novice, in need of learning and growing.  But, as time went on (usually about 2 years had to pass) I became highly proficient in those areas and eventually an expert.

In most of those experiences, I have been called upon to mentor nurses that were new to the type of nursing we were doing, or at least the facility where we were working.  Most recently, I worked as a university professor for about 10 years.  Often, I have adjunct instructors under my supervision that were hired for one semester.  Most semesters I mentored one or more instructors that were either new to teaching or new to the university.

What I Did As A Mentor

Aubrey, Bob & Cohen (1995) speak of the five common techniques used in mentoring and I think you’ll agree that they make a great deal of sense.

* Accompanying – making a care based commitment to walking alongside a learner as they learn and grow.

* Sowing– planting seeds of knowledge early in the process.  At this point the learner may not understand or accepted by the learner.  But it will be needed at a later stage in the process.

* Catalyzing- when it’s time to give the learning a boost and speed it up.  When the learner is ready to make significant changes in thinking or behavior.

* Showing– this is a technique used to make something more understandable.  It can involve giving an example, demonstrating, or showing someone what you are talking about.

* Harvesting- this last technique is more reflective and involves asking the learner what they have learned.  In a sense, it’s like collecting the ripe fruit.

I’m also an educator, so I do want to point out that although teaching is similar to mentoring, it is not the same.  Teaching often involves a group of students, is limited to times when class is in session, and ends at the end of the semester.  Whereas, mentoring does not have those same restrictions, and may go on for many years.

Non-Career Mentoring Opportunities

There are many organizations that allow mentoring relationships too. A few include Big brothers, big sisters,

Episode 11:   Show Notes

In today’s 3-part episode we will be discussing the types of tea that are available and how they benefit our health, randomized controlled trials, and the importance of scheduling routine checkups.

Part 1:  Health Benefits of Tea

When I began to watch the amount of calories I ate and drank throughout the day, one thing I did was to eliminate the majority of calories from beverages.  This opened my eyes to the world of tea drinking.  I don’t add sugar, milk or any type of sweeteners but instead enjoy the calorie free taste of the plain tea.

In addition to enjoying my tea, I have been reading a lot of information about the health benefits of tea too.  So, I thought this would be a good thing for us to explore together.

The Dangers of Free Radicals

According to WebMD, free radicals are atoms or molecules that have at least one unpaired electron.  This makes them more prone to react with certain chemicals and can cause cells unable to function normally.  Some experts who study older adult health believe in the Free Radical Theory of Aging, that states free radical damage is a factor in some age-related health conditions.  And as we get older, free radical damage in the body may increase.

How We Are Exposed to Free Radicals

There are many ways we can be exposed to free radicals and we can’t always avoid them.

* By-products of normal processes like digestion.

* When the body breaks down certain medications.

* Through pollutants such as heavy metal and smoke.

Fighting Free Radical Damage

Even though we can’t prevent being exposed to free radicals, we don’t have to sit by silently and do nothing.  Molecules called antioxidants can stabilize free radicals.  Antioxidants occur naturally in fruits and vegetables and they are available as supplements.  But, here’s the good news – they are also found in many teas!

General Benefits of Tea

According to the Tea Association of the USA. Inc, daily tea drinkers is over 158 million, about half the US population.  That’s a heck of a lot of tea drinkers!

Some of the general benefits of tea according to Registered Dietician, Neva Cochran drinking include:

* Ability to soothe

* Restores & refreshes

* Heart health

* Cancer prevention

* Promotes healthy teeth

* Aids weight loss

* Often less caffeine than coffee

Types of Tea – Specific Benefits

I’ve always been curious about what different teas do for us.  We might have a tendency to like the taste of certain teas, but for health reasons are some choices better than other choices?  The Berkeley Wellness website posted a wonderful infographic spelling out some of the major benefits for us.  I’m going to share a few of the highlights with everyone today.

White

Least processed, least caffeine.  Thought to protect us against cancer.

Green

Negligible amount of caffeine and a high concentration of antioxidants (fight against the free radicals).  This tea is thought to protect against many things including:

* Cancer

* Tooth decay

* Diabetes

* Heart disease

* Stroke

* Osteoporosis

* Burning fat & promotes weight loss

* Improving cholesterol levels

Although this one sounds great, I do want to throw in a word of caution.  Even though the caffeine in green tea is minimal, it does still have caffeine.  So certain diseases or disorders can be aggravated when drinking it, such as anxiety and hypertension.

Episode 10:   Show Notes

In today’s 3-part episode we will be discussing how hobbies play a part in your health, the health benefits of behaving like an adult, and the vegetables!

Part 1:  Interview with Russ Wenner

Russ Wenner, the husband of Dr. Terri Wenner is the very first guest on Breaking Thru Health Barriers.  He is speaking about the importance of having hobbies and enjoying life in order to be healthy.  The full transcript of this interview is available on YouTube.

Dr. Terri’s Heath Tip & Challenge of the Week

According to several resources, most of us should be eating more vegetables.  Several show listeners and myself are participating in the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) Supertracker  MyPlate Challenge for the first 5 weeks of 2017.  This government resource states that daily vegetable consumption varies depending on your age, sex, and activity level.

My recommendation, according to a chart provided on their website is between 2 and 2 1/2 cups per day.  The problem is, I rarely manage to meet this recommendation and instead of eat more foods from other categories than I need.

So, I do encourage you to check out this website to determine how much vegetables you should be eating per day.  And then join me in this week’s challenge.

Find 3 new vegetable recipes that you would like to give a try.  Try to make healthy choices, not things that are swimming in butter or overflowing with cheese.  Just find some new things to try.  Part of the problem is get bored with the same old, same old thing and we don’t want to eat it.

Once you find your 3 recipes, I invite you to share them with me or our fellow listeners, either in the comment section on my website or emailing me directly at [email protected]

Part 2: Adult Behavior

Over the past several weeks I have witnessed an overwhelming amount of poor behavior here in the USA. Honestly, I am embarrassed at the negative things people are saying about other human being over their political choices.  Apparently, I am not the only one frustrated by this atrocious behavior, listen to one of my FB friends Melissa had to say.

“I can’t wait for the day I can stop hearing about this election. I’ve moved on with my life, it is just that simple people. There are times in life that we are not going to like/love/or want the outcome we get, it’s called life. Time to show the next generation and your children how adults handle real life, if not you have failed as role models and parents, rant over!” ~ Melissa

Sowing & Reaping

You may not have heard it before, but there is both an earthly and biblical principle here that comes to mind.  The principle of Sowing & Reaping.  Essentially it means that you will reap what you sow.  What are we sowing?  Seeds of hatred, seeds of distrust, seeds of anger, seeds of verbal spewing of garbage!  So, what do you think we’re going to get when we’re ready to reap?

* Hatred

* Anger

* Distrust

* Garbage

I don’t know about you, I don’t need any more of those things.  I need and want more love, trust, caring, cooperation, teamwork.

Not to mention, some of the things being said clearly imply that American citizens didn’t want a vote (one of the rights that we have because others fought and died for that right).  They didn’t want a vote, they just wanted more blind obedience.  I sure as heck don’t want blind obedience.  I want thinking, intelligent people to do their very best to vote for the best candidate always!

Of course that means there will be times when we disagree.  There will be times when you will lose, no matter what side you are on.  That’s part of freedom.  We are free to vote our conscience.

Episode 9:   Show Notes

In today’s episode we will be discussing New Year’s resolutions, the benefits of avoiding known problems, and we are going to revisit the topic of vaping that we discussed earlier this year in episodes 1 & 2.

Part 1:  New Year’s Resolutions

Here we are on December 31, 2016 and New Year’s resolutions are on everyone’s minds.  Some people avoid them at all costs, figuring they are nothing more than a setup for failure.  Other people crave the opportunity for a clean slate, and the New Year represents the opportunity to wipe the slate and start anew.  So the first question that comes to my mind is “Are New Year’s Resolutions worthwhile?  Should we bother with them?”

From my perspective the answer is yes, they are worthwhile.  They provide guidance and help us pinpoint where we want to end up one year later.  Look at it like traveling.  If you want to go on a vacation you need to do some planning.  Here’s a list of 10 things you may need to do in preparation.

Top Vacation Planning Tips

* Choose a location.

* Pick a date.

* Request the time off from work.

* Book a hotel/motel room or find a place to stay.

* Might need to get plane tickets or reserve a spot on a cruise ship.

* May need to save some money to pay for the trip.

* If you’re leaving behind children, pets, elderly parents you may need to find caregivers.

* Arrange someone to take care of things at home.  Mail, water your plants, watch your home etc.

* If you don’t want to miss anything, you may need to plan excursions.

* Buy & pack the right kind of clothes & accessories.

So, we have to do all that and maybe even more just to go on a relaxing vacation.  How do you think you’re going to achieve a challenging goal?  You need to have a plan.  And the beginning of the year is a great time to get started.  But it’s not the only time you can start, you can start anytime.  You can at the first of any month, any Monday morning, any tomorrow morning, or the beginning of any next hour.  There are no limitations to when we can start or should start.  There are no limitations to when we can or should re-start.  So if you’re not listening to this before the New Year – no worries, no problems.  Plan your own start or time.

Second Question

The next question to consider is what should we resolve to do?  There are no right or wrong answers to this question.  But I do have some guidelines to get you started. Many of these topics are covered in my first 4 YouTube videos, if you haven’t checked them out yet, I invite you to take a look.  The link will be included in the Show Notes too.  Dr. Terri Wenner’s YouTube Channel.

Resolution Guidelines

* Choose a reasonable amount of goals.  I recommend limiting it to 3.  If you meet all 3 goals early in the year, you can always start some new ones. Spreading yourself too thin is a setup for failure.

* Choose reasonable goals.  If you resolve to become president in 2017 – that’s totally unrealistic.  But, if you want to learn more about or become more involved in politics you could do that.

*  Make them measurable. Saying you want to lose weight sounds great.  But how will you know if you succeeded?  Is one ounce of weight loss good enough?  How about 1 pound?  Probably not.  Look at your ideal weight, decide what is reasonable for one year & settle on a number.

* Right motivation. You will only be successful if your motivation is from within.  Sometimes it may start outwardly but it has to become internal to work.  If your spouse or significant other tells you to lose weight, but you can’t say no to your daily dose of sweet treats, you’re likely to fail.

Episode 8:   Show Notes

In today’s episode we will be discussing emotional intelligence, how to find credible health-related websites, and the sleep-weight connection.

Part 1:  Emotional Intelligence

Let’s get started with a discussion on emotional intelligence.  It wasn’t until about 4-5 years ago that I even heard of this subject.  Since then I keep seeing it pop up everywhere I look.  A good place to start is to define this term.

Definition

A Psychology Today report states that

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others.  It is generally said to include three skills:

1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;

2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;

3. The ability to manage emotions.  This includes the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.

It is sometimes also called emotional quotient (EQ), similar to the intelligence quotient or IQ.

Merrian Webster defines IQ as a number used to express the apparent relative intelligence of a person.

We’re all born with varying levels of intelligence.  Likewise, we each have a different degree of emotional intelligence too.

Measuring EQ

You may be wondering if we can measure a person’s EQ, like we measure a person’s IQ and the answer is YES!

There is a book called Emotional Intelligence 2.0 written by Travis Bradberry, and Jean Greaves that presents an explanation of Emotional Intelligence, offers you the opportunity to take an online test to determine your personal score.  Then the book goes into several sections that provide strategies for improving your EQ.  Yes, that means you can get better in this area, you’re not just left the way that God made you in this area, improvement is possible.

EQ Improvement Strategies

Emotional intelligence is commonly defined by four attributes.  And each of these areas has potential for improvement.  And you can find information in books and online (and certainly with professional counselors too) that will help you become stronger in these areas.

* Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self-confidence.

* Self-management – You’re able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

* Social awareness – You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

* Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

Improvement Example

Let’s look at an example of a low relationship management score.  Our nonverbal communication influences our relationships.  When I get irritated about something that being said that is upsetting or incorrect, I get a feeling like I need to get out of my skin.  My upper body and shoulders start to twitch and I frequently need to adjust them.

If someone sees me start to move around like this, they may start to become uncomfortable too.  They may start to sense that they are bothering me. It certainly is not likely to create a sense of peace and calm.

Episode 7:  Show Notes

In today’s episode, I will be sharing about my personal experience with overcoming depression and discussing some treatment options that can be helpful to everyone who struggles with this disorder.  We will also be discussing the importance of avoiding drinking your calories.  Lastly, I’m going to tell you about some of the benefits of using Pinterest for health reasons.

Part 1: My Fight & Victory over Depression

I’ve been very blessed in life.  I’ve never gone hungry, or had to unintentionally sleep in the cold (camping is a story for another day!)  My basic needs have always been met.  I have been in relatively good health all my life.  My parents (both over 70) are still living and in fairly good health as well.  I have been married for 25 years to a wonderful man (Russ) and I have two healthy grown children.  I learn easily and have had multiple opportunities to gain knowledge through education.  I’m one of those oddball people who crave self-help books and always try to improve myself, regardless of the pain involved.  But, one battle that nearly broke me was my battle with depression over 20 years today.

Problems in Paradise

I found that no matter what I achieved in life, I always felt that something was missing.  I had great difficulty finding contentment and happiness in my daily existence.  When I went to work, I stayed busy saving lives in a local hospital, and I escaped my pain and emptiness for a little while.  But in the quiet of my home, when everyone else went to bed, and the chores were done for the day, I would often cry and be saddened by the fact that this was all there was in life.  I became very hopeless and started to think life was worthless.  At one point I was on the verge of being suicidal, wondering if the world would be better off without me in it as I desperately sought an end to my pain.

If you’ve met me in the last 10 years or so, you would never believe that I could have gotten so low and fallen so deeply into the pit of despair. I’ve always been a high achiever, somewhat Energizer Bunny-like, and ready to take on the next challenge.  But truthfully, during those years there were some days I had no desire to get out of bed and only did so because of my obligations and my inability to intentionally let others down.

Time for a Decision

The saga of going through the motions, feeling horrible inside, but keeping my pain bottled inside went on for several years.  There were moments of joy (like seeing my children take their first steps, or say their first words).  But, the feelings of doom and gloom always returned.  Finally, my husband helped me setup an appointment with our family physician to at least discuss the issue.  He referred me to a psychologist and suggested I start regular counseling.  There were problems setting up an appointment.  I got the insurance run-around and depressed people are not likely to fight for their rights, they’re more likely to just forget ii and so I did for several more months.

Ok, enough already.  If there was a way out of the hole, I wanted to find it.  I felt like a bad mother and my poor children were stuck with what they got.  My husband never knew what kind of a mood I might be in, whether there would dinner when he got home or not.  Our marriage started to suffer, literally, everything started to suffer.  So, I finally got the nerve to call again and try to schedule an appointment and did this time.

Help Arrived

Almost immediately, I began to feel better.  I started regular counseling sessions.  I was started on a medication designed to increase my serotonin levels.  And I also began seeking spiritual guidance as well.  I needed physical, emotional, and spiritual help.  The ironic thing is that to an outsider, you may not even realize I had a problem at all.

Beyond all the honest to goodness treatment I was rece...

Episode 6:  Show Notes

This three-part episode focuses primarily on our intellectual health.  First, we will take a look at the explosion of e-books and how we can use them wisely.  Second, we will be discussing organic food choices (and whether or not they’re worth your money).  Third, we will be exploring the importance of continuing education and how you can keep learning in a way that meets your personal needs.

Part 1: The E-Book Explosion

Many of you are already familiar with e-books and may be using them regularly.  But in case anyone could use a little explanation, let’s start by discussing what e-books are and how they are used.

E-books are electronic books.  They are a digital format of a text-based publication that previously you would have only been able to find in a hardcover or paperback version.  E-books are able to be read on an e-reader.  Common e-readers are the Kindle, Nook, various tablets or a personal computer.  In addition to text, e-books may contain images or graphics but are usually mostly text-based. I’ve included a link in the show notes where you can read more about the history of e-books if you want to know more.

Benefits of E-Books

Whether you are a die-hard print book lover or someone who embraces the digital versions of books, it’s OK.  You are entitled to read whatever type of book you prefer.  At this point in my life, I read both digital and print versions depending on which I have access to at a reasonable price.  Because we have seen such an explosion of electronic books, I think it’s important for us to first consider the benefits of using them.  Then we will discuss how to choose your books wisely and not end up a load of digital garbage!  I’m including a link in the show notes to a list of 30 benefits of e-books from E publishers weekly.  I’m going to focus on the 5 that jumped out the most for me.

*

Faster to Produce than Paper Books.

That means current topics can get into book format faster.  Get books into the readers hands faster.

*

Cheaper to Buy.

I’m most familiar with the Amazon Kindle reader.  So I’m going to use them as my example.  Policies change all the time, but these were the guidelines on Nov 18, 2016 when I took a look.  When an author publishes an e-book to Amazon Kindle, they have a choice of getting either a 35% royalty or a 70% royalty.  A royalty is the sum of money the author receives for each book sale.  Naturally, most people would want the 70% royalty.  But, here’s the catch.  In order to get the 70%, you have to price your book between $2.99 & 9.99.  Financially speaking, 70% of lots of books sold, could end up being much more money than 35% of higher priced books that only a few people buy.

Those authors who choose the 35% royalty option are somewhat guided by the size of the e-book.  For books under 3 megabytes you can charge as little as 99 cents but can also go as high as $200.  The advantage of 99-cent books is to get your information out there and to get your name known.  It’s not about making a profit, it’s about information dissemination and name recognition.  On the other hand, if you have a much longer book and already are well known, you can charge more and improve your profits.  Ultimately, you can find some really great information out there for under $10.

*

E-Books are Portable.

This one is great for vacation and other trips you might take.  Some people like to start and finish one book at a time.  Others, like me, read about a dozen at a time and often continue to use books for reference after I’m done reading them.  On my e-reader, I can bring tons of books with me and not be limited to what I can fit in my suitcase or carry-on bag.

*

Easy to Search.

This one is very cool.  Say, you remember reading something about using vinegar for more th...