Author Bio:
Ray’s Higher Purpose and Definition of Success are helping people be happy and successful. He wakes up at 5 am every morning to work on his blogs or books before starting the day with his paying job in advertising. Ray White has been married for 25 years and has 3 wonderful teenagers. He is a C-Level executive with 30 years of business experience helping start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies improve performance and profitability by focusing on developing successful employees. Ray speaks and teaches business classes on Leadership, Happiness, and Success at all levels of the business hierarchy from new employees to C-Level executives. Ray is on the board of Pursuit-of-Happiness.org and the University of North Texas Professional Leadership Program. You can find more information about Ray and Connecting Happiness and Success at ConnectingHappinessandSuccess.com
What inspires you to write?
All around me I see people passing up opportunities to be happy so they can futilely chase success. The result is the never find success, or when they do they are very disappointed because it does not bring them the happiness they thought it would. Few people realize that the foundation for success comes from the habits that will also make them happier. I was inspired to write this book so I could share the scientific research and my 35 years of work experience to help people learn how to develop the habits of happiness so they can be happy and successful every day rather than hoping it will come in the future.
Tell us about your writing process.
I start my process with an outline of what I want to cover. I then fill in the outline with an over abundance of research and information. I usually have 10 times the number of pages I will end with when I finish the research process. Once I feel that I have exhausted my research, I systematically go through and review the research and write my thoughts. I also move things around into different chapters as they information comes to together in a different context then I thought it would. This provides me with a really rough draft that I go through to start the real writing and revealing of the story. I do a final run through build transitions, delete extraneous information, and ensure a readable document. Then I send it to a content editor who helps me cut it down even farther and who catches most of the spelling and grammatical errors. I may do two are three rounds with several different content editors. Once it is down to a reasonable length, I send it to a final editor to double check the grammar, spelling, formatting, etc.
What advice would you give other writers?
Be passionate about your writing. Write because you love it not to get rich or famous. In other words write because it makes you happy not because you think some day it will make you successful.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I would keep all your options open and make sure you don’t fall victim to the traditional publisher hype. A traditional publisher can be good for the right author. But for most authors it is a losing proposition. You lose control, time, and money. You can publish much faster and have more influence over your final product if you publish independently. For most authors you will also make more money. But you will definitely have more headaches and more moments of frustration. Do your research and decide what is best for you.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
It doesn’t make any sense that it takes 6 months and thousands of dollars to publish a book. With today’s technology and printing capabilities, that is just an outdated way of thinking. The publishing industry is old and outdated with a few gatekeepers protecting their incomes and slowly killing the business. Retail bookstores are more of a fad than an industry yet the traditional publishers still manage their business around physical retail distribution.
What do you use?
Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?
non-fiction, self-help, happinness, success
What formats are your books in?
Both eBook and Print
Website(s)
Ray White Home Page Link
Link To Ray White Page On Amazon
Your Social Media Links
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8296661
https://www.facebook.com/connectinghappinessandsuccess
https://twitter.com/ConnectHappines
http://www.pinterest.com/raywhite1/
