Whenever our work gets recognition, we often wonder why increasing sales don’t follow.

Welcome to the intersection of Expectations Avenue and Reality Drive. Just ask award-winning author Camille Matthews. Before releasing the first book in her Quincy the Horse picture book series in 2009, she had been a psychotherapist for 25 years.

In becoming an award-winner, Camille realized that her experience as a counselor was invaluable and had parallels for her work as an author. Understanding one’s own feelings, expectations, and strengths is crucial to navigating today’s choppy waters of book publishing and marketing.

Thanks to Camille, we have added You’ve Won An Award, Now What? to our MCA Academy portfolio. This is a result-oriented Webinar to help you understand – and bridge -the gap created by expectations that fall short of reality.

UPDATED July 1, 2013 to show new class date!

Building a Plan for Increasing Sales

I had a chance to talk with Camille about our class while we were in New York for Book Expo America. As you’ll see in our video chat, Camille has an action-based agenda that includes very specific suggestions, that include tools like checklists. Here is our outline.

     * Analyze your expectations
     * Identify and play to your strengths
     * Set goals and avoid the “Whack a mole” trap
     * Assess what you can do and what you need to delegate.

Camille will answer all your questions in class AND provide some takeaway tools to get you started down the road to more sales.

With summer here, we thought it was an excellent time to launch this class. By attending our webinar NOW, you’ll have a chance to build a plan to help you get the sales you’re looking for this fall, when the holiday shopping season arrives.

This class is $20 and open to the public. MCA Honorees can attend the class for $10 – a 50% discount. You MUST email academy [at] momschoiceawards [dot] com to receive the Coupon Code to use at registration.

Class size is limited to 10 people so that we can answer any and all questions. Registration is easy. You can visit the MCA Academy page on our website, or click the links for our class dates listed below.

•  Thursday, June 27, 2013 @ 2:00 pm EDT
• Wednesday, July 3, 2013 @ 1:30 pm EDT
• Thursday, July 11, 2013 @ 3:00 pm EDT NEW DATE: July 18, 2013 @ 3:00pm EDT

 Once you register, you will receive an email with instructions on how to attend the class. We use AnyMeeting.com, which is a web-based platform with NO software to download. One click and you’re in class. 

Got some specific questions already? Be sure to add them in our Comment Box below and we’ll be sure to answer them for you in class!

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR CAMILLE MATTHEWS

Camille Matthews is a licensed clinical social worker and author of the Quincy the Horse Books for children ages Pre K-4 Grade. She notes that most children have empathy for animals and identify with Quincy and his adventures which involve every day challenges that children face such as loss and change, a family move, confronting  a bully and sibling rivalry.

Matthews was born in Lexington, KY, an area considered by many the horse capital of the world. She loved to read and treasured her horse books. She was an only child and her favorite activity was visiting her grandfather’s farm where she learned to ride. As an adult she has been an avid equestrian. In 2002, she became certified in the relatively new field of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and established the Pathfinder Program, one of the first equine assisted mental health programs in New Mexico providing EAP to children and teens.

In 2008 she had the idea for a series of children’s horse books inspired by real events in the life of one of her horses. She teamed with Michelle Black, a horse trainer and artist in Farmington, New Mexico, to create the Quincy the Horse Books. Their first book, Quincy Finds A New Home was published in 2009 and awarded a Mom’s Choice Gold in 2010. The sequel, Quincy Moves to the Desert, released in August 2011, is a recipient of Mom’s Choice Gold and Tillywig Toy awards for 2011.

Matthews and the real Quincy, who is now a 20 years old, relocated from New Mexico to the Reading, Pennsylvania area in 2010. Matthews attends events at equestrian venues around the country.  Her current project is a book on Equine Assisted Psychotherapy for mental health professionals. She believes there is a need for a book that addresses not only the “nuts and bolts” of how to utilize EAP as a modality in practice but also explores in depth the qualities of horses that make them so effective in healing attachment disorders and trauma.