authors newsletter

Dear Authors
We hope you like our newsletter format. In 2006 we hope to bring out a monthly general newsletter, and a quarterly Authors newsletter, that will also be sent to our book representatives and Antonet our marketing person. The hyperlink at the end of each paragraph takes you to the full length in-house newsletter. There is no link from our website, thus maintaining a certain level of privacy.
It is our intent to always keep you updated with what is happening at Kima Global. I will start with September this year. Your books have been seen by many many people without the help of any bookstores!

In September our busiest period was flavoured by Simon Peter fuller's visit to Cape Town. (author of Rising out of Chaos) Peter was invited to be the main guest speaker at the Earth,Water,Fire,Air festival.

Back in May this year this event was well promoted to us by the organisers. It seemed that they were preparing for a global event to be held in Cape Town. The person who was at the helm of this show had purchased the Art of Living festival from Helen Ranger, who took years to build up a well organised and interesting festival held every year in Cape Town. The Power Point presentation of the new owners showed lots of interesting speakers and other creative activities, so we felt Kima Global could not NOT be there. Although we never felt happy about the chosen venue, the Castle, It was repeated often to us why they had chosen that venue. We paid a considerable sum to attend, especially since they paid for Peter Fuller's airfare.
Regretfully it turned out to be a freak show and on the first day Simon Peter Fuller had to resign as a speaker so as to not lose his integrity. We made the best of an unfortunate situation and managed to organise a speaking tour at short notice to PE and Grahamstown.
Peter sold more books and stirred more lives than he ever would otherwise, so once again we learned that we don't always know the bigger plan at play.

Frankfurt 2005 Bookfair

This year we both felt that the regular publishers from all over the world showed a great deal more interest in our titles than the previous years. We feel that this year our attendance has been very successful due to our persistence. Kima Global Publishers titles must be selling! Since we have created a regular presence at the Frankfurt show, we have started to create a level of trust with international publishers. Other publishers told us, during the previous years, that it takes from 5 to 10 years to build up a reputation. We were fully booked with appointments.

Healing Habits: New Zealand, India, Belgium, Brazil and Spain

Heaven's Gift: New Zealand

Meditations on the Language of Light: New Zealand, Belgium, Korea and Spain

The 3D View: India and Spain

Sun & Shadow: India and The Netherlands

Activation for Ascension: Czech Republic

Is God Good?: Egypt and Czech Republic

My Love we are Going Home: Czech Republic

Rules of Creation: Spain and The Netherlands

Jewels from the Heart: Spain

Working with Angels: Spain

Icebergs in Africa: Spain and The Netherlands

Quite a number of the above are from our back list, so it just goes to show that older titles still have a chance. Personally we feel quite pleased to have a book in another language. It gives us a feeling that there is a whole new audience for what you as author have to offer the world, so we ask for your positive affirmations that the above enquiries solidify into actual sales.

The future of books
Recent statistics from Britain tell us that the market for books is becoming increasingly difficult, with higher costs and deeper discounts demanded by the bookshops. The prevailing opinion is that "only the tough will survive". We are finding the same here in SA, where the bookshops only order minimal quantities, two at the most of any one title; and then there is the possibility that one of the two will be returned for credit in due course. We intend to be amongst those that do survive, because our overheads are extremely low and we are working increasingly "smart", getting more and more High Tech in our endeavors.
Interestingly, the average print run in the U.K. (with its population of 59 million) is less than 1000.

Both Robin and I love what we do, but there are times that we get despondent when authors expect immediate results after their new book is in print. We are very aware that most authors have absolutely no idea what it takes to get a new title available around the world, within a relatively short period of time. It is not all in our hands. We take all the right actions, but that does not guarantee results.
Of course we don’t like it as publishers when orders are not filled from BookSurge. We write them an email, complain and ask them to please fill an order as soon as possible and they promise they will. If this still does not happen, we are just as frustrated as the author or customer, except we get the blame for everything by some. Next year we will again try to set up a direct link between title and author in order to make it easy for the author to order their own book at wholesale cost for their own promotional purposes.
We do believe that each new title has to go through some kind of a birthing process even when it is in print. The longer a book is in print, the better it seems to get around. Some of our titles are in print from 1994 and are the best sellers of Kima Global today.
To manifest a good seller will always be our aim, so we will always look for ways to improve.

Any good, positive and uplifting suggestions are always appreciated.

Our visions for 2006

We have great ideas to make Kima Global publishers more accessible to the readers of our topics.

During November we became a member of The Body and Mind forum of Traci French. We will use this forum to promote and advertise any new publication or events.

We want to send out a monthly newsletter for our readers and anyone who has requested to be kept informed of new publications. We hope to include articles from our authors on topics of interest to our readers, including any relevant news and events like radio / TV appearances, workshops with dates and venues, public talks....We hope that all of you will help us to make this newsletter a success and that it will increase our booksales.

Antonet will represent us in Durban at the Body and Mind fair in July 2006.

We hope to add CNA, Cardies, and PNA book stores to our suppliers list in 2006.

We visualise that the right sales are finalised in the coming months and that we will again be at Frankfurt in October 2006.

We hope to add between 4 to 6 more titles to our book list in 2006.

And that our website is visited more and more now that we have added a gift page to our site.

Our new Address
We hope that you all are looking forward to the festive times ahead of us. Some of you might already know that we moved on the 14th of December to Clovelly. From the reception area , our office, and our private residence, we are now looking over False Bay.

You will probably all know what it is like to move house and / or office. Chaos. We are surrounded by boxes and more boxes. The telephone lines have not been installed but our internet line has, so I can at least send this rather late newsletter to you all.
We are trying as hard as we can to carry on with our business as usual, but in between we keep looking for things that are still in boxes. The house is in great need of attention.

As I’m typing this Robin is painting the office walls. We never indented and to move in December, but sometimes our plans have a timing of their own.
From the 24th we are taking a break from Kima Global. Our family from New Zealand and Australia will be with us after Christmas and so we have to treat them to a holiday adventure around Cape Town.
Again our orders for the Christmas shopping spree in bookshops have been very weak. We are nevertheless glad to have our new customers and we have every confidence that the year 2006 will be a prosperous one. We hope that some of you can come to visit us soon.

Yes It is possible!

Some of our authors work full time, (like me) Some of our authors have a 9-5 practice that takes up all their time. Some of our authors offer workshops. Some give regular public talks on their topic, but....
Some authors do almost nothing to promote their book. It’s funny that the authors that do
very little about promoting their book are the ones that seem to think(by their attitude to us) that their job has been done. We often wonder, do they truly think that because we as publishers think they have produced a magnificent book, so the whole world should surely recognize it as well? So it's now up us to make their book a bestseller? Robert Kiyasaki (Rich dad, poor dad) once recommended to a published author that she go on a sales course. "Don't be ridiculous" she said "I'm an author not a salesman." Robert replied "Have you noticed that successful authors are known as 'best selling authors, not best writing authors?"
Sounds true or false?

Unfortunately we have experienced it to be true with three authors in the last five years who managed to sabotage their own creations. We have discontinued two of those titles. These unpleasant experiences have been a learning curve for both of us. It's not even always the author that expresses their unhappiness, it's often a close family member that has a great influence in the life of the author, and therefore if the book does not reach their expectations, we are blamed!

As an author myself I have experienced first hand how difficult it is to stay on the bookshelves with my titles, so I know what it must feel like for all of you when you walk into a bookshop and you don't see your book amongst all the other books. So I know what it is like to have written a book, or several, and the sales are nothing like what your expectations were.
Why did you write your book in the first place?
Robin has not (yet) written a book, so he might not be able to answer that question in the same way, but I feel he still can relate to what I have summed up.

Our world, today more than ever, can be a physical, emotional, mental or spiritual roller coaster ride. Some of us experience difficulties in all four areas of our lives, and some can recognise in which areas they had to learn how to manage their lives. It’s in those areas where most writers found ways and means of rising above the roller coaster syndrome.
These writers were so empowered by it that they wanted to share that life experience with others. They wanted to make a difference to others, so readers would be helped by their insights, skills, or expertise. For many authors, writing about their topic has enriched their lives. We as authors have found our direction in life, which is very fortunate.
The books we publish all have one thing in common, they are meant to inspire, uplift, heal, inform, guide or bring love into the lives of others. It was and still is today Robin, who discovered his Soul purpose while he was in the printing business, the intent to publish bestsellers! Being an avid reader himself and having gone through some difficult roller coaster experiences, he wanted to be of service to the writers whom he felt should be in print.

What is the true reason we wrote our books?
I had to really ask myself that first, because as an author, I realised the following to be true for me:

If my books reach 10 readers and it made a difference to their lives, I’m more than satisfied.
If my books reach100 people and it made a difference to their lives I’m satisfied. I can go on and on. I love my work. I 'm writing my third novel, which will take far longer since I have a full time job, but I have not lost my focus or my passion to share with others, through fiction, that we as humans are very magnificent, amazing spiritual beings who are temporarily playing a human game.

We both have a passion for what we do together, and we don’t do it for the money or for the fame.

So it is important for us to know what our new authors’ true motives are. Some might not even be aware of it themselves until their book is in print.

Do they feel fulfilled with their effort of writing the book and feel complete with that?

Do they use their book to help their life’s work, promoting it through their website, workshops or public talks?

Do they have very high expectations that their book will make them stacks of money so that they can live from the royalties?

Do they want to be seen as an authority in their field because they have written a book, so that they will become famous?

Do they just want to see their work in print so that they can draw a line under that project and go on from there?

Did they love writing because they learned so much more while doing the research, either through their job, occupation, practice or workshops?

Is this writer hungry for more of that growth experience after their book is in print, enough to plan more books in order to make a difference to others?

Do you recognise any of the above scenarios? Can you truly choose which category you fall into?

As publishers we look for a writer that might have several books in them; writers that love writing regardless of the outcome of the sales; authors who have a positive outlook on life and can, by their daily thoughts bring about a readership following. We look for a person that loves life, has a sense of humour and does not lose their self esteem, or self worth because their expectations were not met, or that it will take a lot longer than they ever imagined.
Our best and most loved authors are genuine caring loving people that not only have compassion for others, but above all for themselves.
We all have to live what we preach each day, so we hope to attract writers that show the qualities we hold dear for ourselves. If we have failed to do so, then we have to look at the reflection of the energy from that author within ourselves, and move on.

You as an author and business partner can be of great help to us if you occasionally ask for your own title in whenever you are in a bookshop and write Robin or myself an email about your experience. Let us know what your thoughts are on our marketing approach. If you have any ideas that can help us as a publisher, share them with us. Remember who you email your requests or advice to.

Robin deals more with the physical side of the publishing world, like printing, packing, shipping, orders, bookkeeping, payments and of course the royalties.

I deal with most of the electronic side of our business. Our newsletters, the website, any promotional flyers,fact sheets for the sales representatives, typesetting our new publications and the ebooks.

With our two agents Colleen (Joburg) and George (Natal) and Antonet, we share and discuss any promotions we might partake in outside our premisses.

Robin and myself both decide about any new titles we publish or distribute.

It is very important that the author works and lives in an environment that is conducive to their life’s work, that they live what they preach and that they strive to gain more knowledge on their chosen agenda. I have written three examples below and you will see and know for yourself how important it is to live in integrity.

An author that has produced a holistic healing modality does not end up becoming a medical representative for a pharmaceutical company. That would not be conducive to their Soul’s passion now would it? That occupation would not be conducive to their direction in life and so their book will not sell!
Instead they must carry on with their research while being a healer, or having a health shop, or working for one, or promoting a product they know to be safe and healthy... That way their healing work will become a 'word of mouth' campaign and their book will slowly create a readership. People will start asking after their book and the bookshops will start to order the book according to the demand.

An author who has written and published a book on how to become self empowered in the business world, would not be seen as a debt collector while promoting their work. That would not be an conducive environment now would it? That occupation would not be conducive to their direction in life, and so their book will not sell!
Instead they help others by becoming a business consultant, or they get involved in their community to help beginners with their self employment efforts. Or they give seminars all over the world thereby helping others to help themselves. That way their business coaching or positive approach to life to do with finance or self worth will become a 'word of mouth' campaign and their book will slowly create a readership.

An author that has written and published a book on how to achieve a healthy loving relationship is not expected to stay and live in an abusive relationships themselves while promoting their book. That would not be conducive to their Souls passion now would it? That kind of relationship would not be conducive to their direction in life and their book will not sell!
Instead they have to moved out of unloving relationships gracefully and start to attract healthy and loving relationships with others while having an occupation in training, counseling or teaching in their field. That way their counseling practice, teaching or public work in their field will become a 'word of mouth' campaign and their book will slowly create a readership.

If your book is not selling it does not mean that it proves to us that you do not live what you preach, on the contrary, we have a firm belief that the writers we have attracted do live in integrity, but we also know from first hand experience what it take to sell a book!

Most authors do not have a clue. I would like to share some tips about internet marketing.
Both Robin and I have learned a great deal about what it takes to get your popularity up. Having a full time job while trying to write my third ascension novel and workbook left me no time for marketing the conventional way so I had to resort to promoting and marketing my work through cyberspace.
Public talks and workshops like I gave earlier in Port Elizabeth and St Francis Bay were no longer possible when I joined Robin and became his partner, sharing the workload of Kima Global Publishers. The environment where I work is very conducive to my favourite topic (writing about our ascension process) but I still have to promote my own work like any other author.
I learned, through gaining a new skill, that Cyberspace is a universe of many opportunities as well as obstacles; just like the conventional ways of promoting and marketing your work. But it works!

Again (as it was when you wrote your book), it takes great effort, or money on your part, to use Cyberspace to promote your work. Not only do you have to have an email address, you need a website these days if only for your readers to know what you are doing, or what your public appearance schedules are, if any.
Just as a published book has become an asset, once your website has been created it becomes an asset that will continue to work for you while you go on with your daily life. If that is combined with a practice or you give workshops, so much the better to have something slowly working for you in Cyberspace.
It takes a great deal of effort and money to make that web site, newsletter or article work for you. It is just as difficult to get known in Cyberspace as it is in the physical arena. We as publishers had to invest a great deal of time and money to get to where we are now, and to keep up our popularity in Cyberspace we have to work at it.

Now that we have a regular monthly newsletter we found it very disheartening that only 5% of our authors look at our newsletter! We realise that when you are on a dial-up system, it might sometimes be a problem to download the newsletter, so if that's the case please let us know - so we can send you our newsletters in text only.

We hope to have all our titles available as a 3D ebook edition in time to come, but it is a time consuming job. We both like the 3D style since it still feels as if you are reading a real book with turning pages. Also this program allows for the book to be in full colour and we can even add music, animations or even flash images to the book.
Some of you might have seen that I have used this 3D page author program as a trial run on our website, but the proper ebook will look almost identical to the printed copy. This ebook program has a security feature built in that prevents the purchaser from printing the ebook or emailing the book to others.

Any author that would like to have their book sold as a 3D ebook through our website and through their own website as an extra opportunity to earn royalties, please do let me know and I will schedule their title on a first come first served basis. So far I have 5 titles lined up so it will take a while before I can start on other titles, but we hope to see at least 10 ebooks for sale at the end of this year.

We are now having to offer a co-operative publishing option to new writers.
We as Publishers can no longer carry all the cost involved in Publishing a new title of an unknown writer, so Robin had to find a way to offer a co-operative publishing option for new authors whose manuscript we have accepted. Thereafter, if the author's title has sold enough copies to cover the printing costs of the first 1000 copies, we will publish their subsequent new titles at our cost, unless the author wants to earn a higher royalty % for their new title.
The way things are in the publishing world, to typeset and create a 3D ebook of any of our Kima Global titles for free, is therefore not an option.

The cost involved for an e-book.

A ebook between 160 - 250 pages will be R 1000.- royalties will be 50% of the price we get (after the 15% )

You will have seen, when you visited our website, that I have created an extra page for our authorswho would like to add articles, (especially any articles they had published in magazines) as a link inside our website. The heading of that article is added to the newsletter section, on Google with the link back to our website. This title heading is automatically sent around the world. This way we can increase our visitors and exposure...

We both visited the first Cape Town Book Fair last month. It so reminded us of Frankfurt. It had the same look and the same layout, but of course a great deal smaller (and more expensive to exhibit to boot!).
We saw quite a few familiar local faces we also see at Frankfurt. In the two days that we went as trade visitors we picked up some business and made some connections that might help in our further marketing, but we both were glad not to have spent our money on a booth....

What we learned by being there was, that Frankfurt is still a must for us so that we can keep trying to sell our English titles into other languages. The Cape Town Book Fair was not about that at all, but rather a showcase for local publishers.
It was nevertheless very well attended and we were pleased that so many people showed an interest in the world of books. Many of the publishing houses exhibiting were sponsored, either by the government when their topics are connected with tourism or by business. Some publishing houses have an ongoing bread-and-butter line of school books. Some Trade Publishers were heavily promoting bestsellers from overseas. One publishing house had many decorative cushions on display. We were confused what they were about, until we saw that the cushions were silkscreen painted with their title book covers. Original, but when it came to the actual books, they were hidden behind a wall. I asked the representative what their reason was for attending the Cape Town Book Fair. Her reply was to make the public aware of them as publishers. They were doing direct sales. So did other larger bookstores like Exclusive. You don't see that in Frankfurt. Only on the last day are you allowed to sell your display books, and many publishers give them away.

Do our readers really want to know who are the publishers of a book?

I don't think so. Who the author is, yes, maybe, and then the publishing house might be taken note of, but generally even the bookshop managers do not know the difference between publishers and distribution houses.
Most of the books that were heavily promoted on the Cape Town Book Fair, will not be around in 5 years time. Why are we prophesying that?...
Most of these books deal with an illusion! We both feel that in about 5 years more and more people will wake up to the fact that we are living in a holographic universe perpetuately kept alive by our own minds. So who would want to read about stuff that is not real anyway? These are of course our perceptions, and I'm a good example of being addicted to a good read, fiction or nonfiction.

I must say, our titles deal with the real stuff. Most people (publishers and other writers) on the Book Fair will still think that we deal in airy fairy stuff, (I could clearly read their body language, or minds when they responded to Robin, as he introduced himself) I made sure that I stayed in my own observer mode while watching how people in a corporate world socialise...Ugh they are all acting.
Our message is...NOW is the time to keep your focus. Never for one moment let thoughts of doubt, lack of self worth about your work, or feelings of disappointment for not reaching the best sellers list yet, creep into your minds. Those thoughts come from egos that are fighting for survival. That was the message I got as an author at the show.

What is on our agenda concerning our Trade Fair season

Publishing is rewarding, but often not financially, true or false?

It was a difficult first half of the year for us. But....with the minimal compensation that other publishers in the enormous book market manage to secure, we are still around. We still struggle to be heard by the bookshops, amongst the clamour of new titles that seem to promise bigger profits. Last year more than 200,000 new titles were published in the U.S.A alone. We can almost not imagine being a Bookshop Buyer in these circumstances. How can anyone possibly know their product with that many new ones flowing across their desk in a constant stream?...

Look, it's not a complaint, but we see that the only way forward is to seek out and offer serious and quality MSS. As you know, we select what we call Life Questions each month in our newsletter and offer relevant selections from the body of your published work. That way readers can see that what we (you the author and us the publisher) offer is both relevant, considered and meaningful.
That is why we both remain totally impressed by the quality of what you have written and will continue to do our best to get it to the attention of the public.
We are both well rewarded by spending each day doing what we like, reading what interests us, and meeting peple who want to make a difference. Therefore we know that we will have the staying power to stay financially afloat - no matter what. We must stress that your hard working team, US, cannot do it alone. We need your help, or at the very least to have confidence in your book. Love it, nurture it, recommend it, chivvy your local bookshop.... go the extra mile to see that it survives and thrives

Every time I typeset a new book, I'm learning and appreciate the work and dedication each author has put into their work. That I'm sure will pay off one way or another.
I've learned from being with Robin for the last 5 years that every book has a birth, a long or short lifetime, and sometimes an abrupt ending, or a rebirth! All these stages are seldom known at the time when the book was first published.
The work you did years ago might only now reach its right timing. Believe me when I say that. Titles that Robin published more that 7 years ago are now suddenly being ordered by a large oversees distributor in the UK!....
We have no idea how they got hold of us, but it has given us hope for the future. That is also why we are going ahead with the ebooks...We have a feeling that it was our first e-book that brought more and more visitors to our website. Why?

Well we learned that by offering other website owners (by becoming our affiliate) an opportunity to earn 15% on the sales of our ebooks, we suddenly created a lot more traffic to our website...
We have not yet sold an ebook as yet, but the amount of emails we have received from other websites that want to sell our product has been amazing. Inside the ebook I have promoted other titles, with their links to the direct page, and that is now starting to pay off. Being our own webmaster, there are ways and means of seeing who is visiting our website and why. So we are electronicly moving ahead.

We had hoped to have at least three 3D e-book titles on offer by the time you get this newsletter, but the suppliers of the software have had technical difficulties. As so often happens these days we bought a product with great promise only to find that we had bought the Beta Version. They are still trying to fix the bugs in what is after all a very sophisticated program. Once again we are going for the absolute best we can find in an attempt to rise above the throng.

We have just learned that a Virtual Book Fair will shortly offer more than 300,000 free e-book titles (some of them free for a period only). We will soon look into the option of adding our ebooks to their list. We are also now are starting to make our titles available to a print on demand printing business in the UK, so any orders from the UK can be filled within 48 hours.

We found that BookSurge.com has not been able to deliver our printed books in time outside of the USA, so we are now looking into each continent for a print on demand setup that will faze out our shipping nightmares. Frankfurt will be the place where we can find these new contacts.

One of our recent authors was delighted with his/her book and got off to a good start, sending through repeat orders, and getting favourable reviews, but after three months suddenly decided to trash her/his book. S/he may have been disappointed at not being able to book a Round The World Cruise on the royalties!
Speaking of which, all the royalty cheques will shortly be sent off. They won't buy you a trip overseas, but I am sure every bit helps!

We proudly welcome 3 new authors to our Kima Global family.
Rose Dugmore from PE with: Human Predators - Deal with your danger zones.
Belinda Joubert from Pretoria with: AngelSense and
Carole Knight from Cape Town with: Miracles of Hope: surviving and thriving in the 21st Century.
We are also proud to add a second book to our list from Magdel Schackleton titled, Spiritual Schizophrenia

I cannot do more about our website for the moment, as I have far too much other work to attend to. I barely skimmed the surface of all the new emails I received in the past 2 weeks in connection with my attempt to add ebooks to our site and the monthly newsletters, but our work in the garden during the weekends keeps us both grounded! It's then that we are both trying to catch some good moments in the wonderful nature we have around us here in Clovelly. Hopefully you are able to do likewise wherever you are.
L ots of love from

Robin and Nadine

Summary of the year 2006

This author's newsletter is the last job I'm doing for Kima Global this year. I'm taking a break to devote time to my own writing. It's hard to write a short summary of what this year has been like overall; so much has happened in 2006. It's only five weeks to the year 2007. I'm sure that you, like Robin and myself, are aware of the state of our planet and its environment. Our planet is very ill and humanity as a unity is likewise dis-eased. This is an observation coming from the heart, not the head. The immense suffering and grief that we see almost daily in our media does have an effect on everyone with an activated heart chakra. That is why as publishers of books that deal with Esoteric and planetary topics, we feel very responsible in publishing books that have the content to uplift readers GLOBALLY, and not just for individual upliftment.

We both are very aware of how difficult it is for some of our authors to have their individual interests stand in the way of their intent to benefit the whole. We know that by their reactions to the following:

We as authors may get criticism from individuals about the cover of our book, our writing style, the layout or Kima Global as publisher (who is after all our main sponsor). These well meaning but nevertheless judgmental people often reveal a streak of envy, or they might not be satisfied with their own lives or work.

You can never ever please everyone all of the time, and why should we? If we ourselves as authors don't believe in ourselves, then it can happen that if another's opinion is hurtful, the energy we as the writers have given to our book can be shattered.

If that happens we as publishers are then often the first people to be blamed.