Sober Dad is written primarily for dads who are sober alcoholics who are trying to be the best dad they can be, given what they have.
However, it is a great book for any young father, alcoholic or not, to read and learn from.
This book is funny and entertaining while at the same time it provides some good, solid, real-world advice for dads-to-be as well as dads just starting out.
The author, Michael Graubart, is not an “expert” in child rearing. There is no such thing. We know from having to deal with so-called experts that most of them have never had children of their own and only understand the theoretical approach to child raising.
Michael Graubart is down here in the trenches fighting the day-to-day battle that many of us have to face. We are not perfect, but we do the best we can and we love those little rug rats.
We give Sober Dad all five stars on our scale of zero to five stars. So far, Mr. Graubart has not had to deal with an empty nest. Watch the video all the way to the end to see what happens when a father finally makes it to an empty nest.
Now is the time to order your very own copy of Sober Dad. You will be glad you did.
If you would like for me to pray for you, please drop me an e-mail by clicking prayer.
I respond to all approved comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours. Please check back here for a response to your comment. Thank you!
Please be advised that all the information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your views in life. The information provided is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or religious professionals.Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course.
Do you have a frugal recipe? Please e-mail it to me.
Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends. We thank you so much for all your help.
Disclaimer:The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional. Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions. There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Notice: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction. Thank you for your support!
The following is a guest post. This post does not necessarily reflect the views of Suzanne and David E. McClendon, Sr. or Manian Debil Productions.
7 Deadly Mistakes Authors Make — And How to Avoid Them!
by Tanya Hall, CEO of Greenleaf Book Group
Perhaps you have thought of writing a book, or you have the beginning shape of your book outlined in a notebook, or you just know it’s something you want to tackle one day. Writing is a book is challenging, and publishing it is even more so. Most every author I meet looks back upon the process and tells me about something they wish they had known up front.
You can save yourself a few headaches by approaching the process like a writing veteran. Here are seven common mistakes authors make when writing and publishing a book (and how to avoid them):
Writing Without an Audience in Mind
The most successful books build an audience over time through word of mouth recommendations. For your book to reach that status, don’t skip the prep work of defining the specific readers you want to reach. It helps to construct reader profiles with demographic and lifestyle details filled in so you always remember who you’re writing for and remain focused on serving that audience.
Freaking Out About Grammar, Syntax, etc While Writing
Worrying about where to put that comma or when to use “who” or “whom” will pull you out of a writing mood in no time flat. When writing, your job is to get ideas onto paper with a focus on content over execution. There are plenty of editors who will clean up those commas for you so that you stay focused on your best, highest use: delivering your message to your readers. Just get the words down to get started!
Working in a Vacuum
Writing a manuscript is a huge commitment of time and energy. Many authors refuse to share their writing until it is “done-done,” and when they inevitably get constructive feedback on their work after that point, they are frustrated at the notion of picking the pencil back up and reworking sections. It’s more productive to share your work with a qualified editor or book development coach as you go. Doing so will help you avoid the double-work of rewriting sections that lack clarity, flow, or purpose down the road.
Not Hiring Professionals
Many authors will try to save time or money by leaning on friends and family for editorial and design support. Unfortunately, despite their good intentions, people not trained in the specific art of editing and designing books are not the best people to edit and design your book. You’ll probably end up paying to redo it once a publisher or distributor gives feedback on the end product– so invest in quality work the first time to save yourself the headache of redoing any part of your book.
Shotgun Publishing
Writing a book well takes time, and launching it to a retail market requires a fair amount of strategy and collaboration. Sometimes authors rush their books to market without regard for retail buying cycles or publicity lead-time requirements. For multiple reasons, it’s much better to launch correctly the first time than to rush it, make some mistakes, and try to re-launch later. Interview a few publicists, publishing professionals, and/or book distribution experts to better understand the timelines they need to boost your chance of success.
Underestimating the Importance of Author Brand and Platform
It’s hard to over-emphasize the competitive landscape authors face when promoting their books. Today’s authors are competing with other book launches as well as a fire hose of media including blogs, podcasts, tv, film, and all of the other content trying to find an audience on any given day. Marketing and publicity support are critical to for a successful book launch, and that often requires heavy involvement from the author. Plan your schedule in such a way that you have enough time and energy to properly promote your book around the time of its release – but also commit to building your audience early and intentionally through your own platform development efforts.
Flawed Expectations
It takes a certain amount of confidence to publish a book; writing your ideas out for the world to critique is an admirable act of vulnerability. But don’t let your confidence get in the way of rational thinking. Some authors expect to sell millions of copies in year one without having done any research on the book market, or worse, without having done anything to build their own author platform from which to promote. Realistic expectations will help you maintain your energy during the launch phase and stay focused on why you wrote the book to begin with. Consult with a publisher or distributor to better understand what “success” might mean by retail standards for your genre. (But it’s fine to have a stretch goal, of course!)
Writing a book certainly involves creativity and artistry, but for it to succeed in retail, the book needs to be treated as a product and developed with the same care, feedback loops, and subject-area partners as any other product being brought to a national market. Invest some time on the front end to ensure that you don’t find yourself trying to unravel one of these common mistakes.
As CEO of Greenleaf Book Group, Tanya Hall drives the company’s growth efforts and fosters a culture built around serving authors. Prior to her current role, Hall worked directly with Greenleaf’s authors to develop publishing strategies (including multiple New York Times bestsellers); spearheaded growth strategies including Greenleaf’s eBook program and the River Grove Books digital-first imprint; and built Greenleaf’s distribution organization, working directly with retailers and wholesalers to develop one of the fastest growing distribution businesses in the industry. She is a columnist forInc.com and regularly speaks at business and publishing conferences. Before joining the publishing industry, Tanya worked in digital media and as a television producer. Learn more about Greenleaf Book Group atwww.greenleafbookgroup.com and connect on Twitter (@GreenleafBookGr & @TanyaHall) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenleaf-Book-Group/).
If you would like for me to pray for you, please drop me an e-mail by clicking prayer.
I respond to all approved comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours. Please check back here for a response to your comment. Thank you!
Please be advised that all the information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your views in life. The information provided is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or religious professionals.Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course.
Do you have a frugal recipe? Please e-mail it to me.
Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends. We thank you so much for all your help.
Disclaimer: The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional. Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions. There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Notice: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction. Thank you for your support!
Hello, and welcome to Manian Debil Productions. Who are we?
We are David and Suzanne McClendon and family. The name Manian Debil Productions come from our sweet angel kitty, Xerxes. When he was healthy, he was a little fireball. He was constantly moving, which reminded us of the Tasmanian Devil on television. We called him a Manian Debil as a cute nickname.
When he died, we named our company Manian Debil Productions. This is sort of the umbrella for all of our endeavors.
P.S. Annie!: P.S. Annie was named for Suzanne’s great-grandma Annie Black Gunter. Her picture is the one on the left side of the banner. Suzanne’s baby picture is on the right side of the banner. P. S. Annie! is sort of a “catch all” blog for Suzanne. She posts most of her posts here. Some things that appear on other blogs of hers are posted here, too. You can find P.S. Annie! at:
How to Manage Your Monkey: How to Manage Your Monkey is meant to help people with personal improvement. We like to call it “Life Recipe”. Many people speak of Life Balance but that phrase makes on think of equal parts of everything. However, we don’t need everything in our lives in the same proportions. Like when making a recipe, we need the right ingredients in the right amounts to be successful.
How to Manage Your Monkey has a course running on it to help people improve themselves. We also run guest posts with articles related to self-improvement. One of our favorite guest post authors is Al Zdenek.
Mr Zdenek is a leading wealth manager. He has befriended us and has written articles that speak to our audience.
Although we live in different worlds, Mr Zdenek can understand where we are coming from. In his world, his friends know the differences in different vintages of wine. In David’s world, people know the difference between Thunderbird with the red label and Thunderbird with the blue label.
Big Al, as David calls him because his signature line has a graphic of his first name that is larger than the rest of the email print, is the author of that wonderful book Master Your Cash Flow.
Big Al has suggested that we start a podcast of How to Manage Your Monkey. We have figured out the how to do it; now, we just need to find the money to host it.
David also has Redneck MBA. There is no question that David is a redneck. Back in 2012, he earned his MBA from the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and he has done work towards a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration).
On the Redneck MBA blog, David seeks to break business terms down into terms “so simple even a redneck can understand them”.
He also runs reviews of business-related books, as well as guest posts written about various business topics.
Random Thoughts and Observations: David also hosts Random Thoughts and Observations. This is sort of a “catch all” blog for David.
He posts almost everything that he posts on the other blogs here. He also posts things like memes here. Every Tuesday, at least up to January of 2018 there are posts called Tuesday’s with Gindy. This is some story, true or not, told by David, A. K. A. Gindy.
We review many books and other products here at Manian Debil Productions. Our review policy is simple. We ask authors and publicists not to send us anything that has God’s Name used in vain. We also ask that there be no explicit sex in the book and that any videos or still images not have any immodestly dressed people.
If they do send anything that violates that policy, it will get marked down. It will normally be marked down to zero stars. People still send us things like that. When we post the reviews on Amazon, we get hammered by negative comments and “Not Helpful” votes.
But, like our U.S. History teacher Anna Dean Pennington, at Crescent High School back in South Carolina, used to say, “Eyes calls ‘em likes eyes sees ‘em.” Don’t send it if it contains these things.
We don’t know why Christians won’t stand with us on these reviews and give us “Helpful” votes on Amazon. But we stand by what we believe.
We also have our YouTube Channel. We have videos on a wide range of subjects. We have lessons in business, just plain stories and jokes, and we have product reviews. In order to get a product/book review on our YouTube channel, the product has to rate all five stars.
One reason for this is that when David’s computer died, he had only backed up the five star graphic Suzanne had made to the thumb drive. He is too lazy to look for the other graphics.
The real reason is that we feel we should not waste our watchers’ time by having videos about something we are not 100% behind.
Recently, we have added C. Moore Hamlet to the end of many of our videos. C. Moore Hamlet is a plastic skull that our daughter left in the studio when she went back to the University of Houston.
Hamlet's Best
David started playing around with him and he developed a personality of his own. Some people actually watch all the videos to the end and are often treated with about a minute of Hamlet. It has been suggested that Hamlet get his own blog. We are working on that idea. If you have any suggestions, send them directly to Hammie at c.moore.hamlet@gmail.com .
Also, you can support these blogs by clicking on the ads and making purchases, by watching the ads that appear before the videos all the way through, and/or by donating using the PayPal links that appear in the sidebars of many of our blogs. Thank you.
I respond to all approved comments on this blog, ideally within 24 hours. Please check back here for a response to your comment. Thank you!
Please be advised that all the information in this course is provided to educate, enlighten, and broaden your views in life. The information provided is not a substitute for medical, legal, dietary, financial/accounting, or religious professionals.Always consult a professional before you act on any of the information you find in this course.
Do you have a frugal recipe? Please e-mail it to me.
Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends. We thank you so much for all your help.
Disclaimer:The opinions or advice listed in this blog or website should be used as a place to start only. It is not a substitute for the use of a professional. Please be sure to consult your attorney, accountant, and/or other professionals with any specific questions. There is no one right answer to any business question that will cover all circumstances.
Notice: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may financially benefit from your transaction. Thank you for your support!
Sober Dad is written primarily for dads who are sober alcoholics who are trying to be the best dad they can be, given what they have. 
We published our three books; 
All of the above blogs are hosted by Suzanne. 
How to Manage Your Monkey has a course running on it to help people improve themselves. We also run guest posts with articles related to self-improvement. One of our favorite guest post authors is 
Although we live in different worlds,