Interview with Author Shmaya David
Author Shmaya David describes himself as an obsessed man; obsessed with having the best possible, the most fulfilling and loving relationships anyone could ever have.
Shmaya is a certified Master Executive and Life coach with over two decades of experience, an internet marketer, and the author of eight books on various aspects of business and coaching. Shmaya has a B.Sc. in Chemistry Engineering and spent the first half of his professional life holding management positions in various industries.
Tell me more about your latest book
I was married for 29 years to an amazing woman, Limor. We had a great life together. We never lost our romance and passion for each other. We grew together as individuals and as a couple, and we were extremely happy despite the inevitable difficulties that everybody faces. We used to joke that if we could only extract and bottle what we had between us, we could sell it and become rich. But I didn’t know that what we had between us had universal value, and so we never did anything about it.
And then, five years ago, I lost her to cancer. Taking care of her during her illness was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Losing her was devastating. Yet I refused to give up on my life. I vowed that I will be happy again, that I will love again. And I have. I recently celebrated my third anniversary with Marina, and despite her being a hugely different person than Limor, our life together is no less happy or fulfilling.
This success convinced me that I have something to teach the world about the making of a good relationship. I also realized that my success in my relationships is based upon the same principles that governs success in any human endeavour, i.e. clarity of purpose, leadership, proactivity etc.
In “Love, Simplified. Practical Habit for Creating Your Ultimate Loving Relationship” I translate these principles and my insights into ten simple ‘love habits’ that anyone can adopt, and are guaranteed to transform any relationship into a loving, fulfilling and happy one.
Did you ever have a rough patch in writing?
Not really. Long ago I bought into a saying of one of Israel’s better known writers – “Muse is for the lazy. Writing is work”. But I must confess that I always had a knack for expressing myself in words. Also, after writing several books I developed a method to pre-plan a book in such a way that makes writing it a simple exercise. I never have to sit around waiting for a muse to come. I even teach this method to other authors.
What is your normal procedure to get your books published?
I always chose to self publish. It is not just that I make much more money from every sale, but rather that this enables me to create and maintain a direct dialogue with my readers. Subsequently, much of my business is done with people who read one of my books.
Do you view writing as a kind of spiritual practice?
I am a rather realistic, down-to-earth person. For me, writing is a creative outlet, an aesthetically pleasing endeavour, and a very practical way to spread ideas, reach distant people and widen my influence.
When I write, it is a very intellectual thing. It is an exercise in precision. How can I phrase this to make the reader understand and feel what I wish to convey? If I succeed, when you read my words, you will understand my point of view. You will feel what I want you to feel. Not as an intrusive command, but as a friendly suggestion that you may accept or reject as is consistent with your personality and believes. I enjoy doing it. I immerse myself in it. However, if there is any divinity involved in the process, it hides itself so well that I don’t feel its presence.
How many books have you written so far?
My first book was “ISO 9000 for the Small Business: A Guide to Certification”, published in 1995. It was a particularly good technical book. Ye it failed miserably because back then I knew nothing of marketing.
“1-Day Executive Coaching: A Practical Guide to Executives and Coaches” was published in 2010 in Israel, and 2011 on Amazon. It took a long time to write, but it did well for me and is still in print.
Then came:
- “15 Minutes Coaching: A ‘Quick & Dirty’ way to solve any problem”
- “Your Own Personal Superpower, and How to Use It to Succeed In Everything You Do”,
- “The Secret Apps That Will Grow Your Business and How to Get The, Dirt Cheap”
- “The Missing Corner” (A children’s book based upon stories I told my kids when they were young)
- “The Book That Will Brand You Expert: How to plan, write and Launch the nonfiction book that will pull you out of obscurity and into a leading position in your field” (This one was published only in Hebrew)
- “Love, Simplified. Practical Habit for Creating Your Ultimate Loving Relationship”
I am just about to finish a new book, my ninth, called “Find and Keep”, about finding love.
What’s the best way to market your books?
The best way I found to date is to drive traffic from Facebook ads to an article about the book, from there to an offer to get the first three chapters of the book for free, and then to continue marketing to the people who signed to get the free chapters. This funnel is sells 20-25 copies per day with a positive ROI even accounting for all printing and shipping costs, while building me a mailing list eight-times larger than the number of books I sell directly.
You don’t have to be a writer in order to be an author – how true is that?
I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, you don’t even need to be able to write at all. What you need is to have something useful and interesting to say. The rest is technical stuff that you can learn to do or delegate.
What is your advice for aspiring writers?
Don’t dare write one word before you figured out at least the following things:
- Who is the intended reader? And do not say everybody. Even the bible is not read by everybody, so if God could not make it, you won’t. Get as narrow and as precise as you can. And don’t worry – others will buy it as well, if you write well enough to attract your core audience.
- Why should they care enough to buy and read your book? Many err in writing the book they want to write instead of the book the audience will want to read. Many failures and heartbreaks were caused by this mistake.
- How are you going to make money form this book? It is almost impossible to make money on book sales alone. So you need to plan in advance how to finance this. Even if you don’t care about profits and only want to benefit the world with your wisdom – you will still need to make enough money to be able to continue printing the books, shipping them out, and advertising so people will hear about them. Don’t neglect this part, or your book will fail.
Visit Author Shmaya David book links:-
You can get “Love Simplified” on Amazon here – https://www.amazon.com/Love-Simplified-Practical-Creating-Relationship-ebook/dp/B085F2Y63Y
Read more about me in my Author page on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Shmaya-David/e/B009MIMBBC
Follow my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/lovesimplified/
Or look me up on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/shmayad/
To contact Shmaya Please email [email protected]
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