Sleeping or anxiety problems?

Are you having problems sleeping or problems with anxiety? Do you like hot herbal tea? Here's what you can do:

Go ahead and buy a bag of valerian root tea at your local health store. It will cost you about $11. You'll also need one of those metal teaball strainers.

Put a half teaspoon of valerian root tea in a teaball. Place it in one cup of boiling water and let it boil 2-3 minutes. Afterwards, let it steep 5 minutes. It makes a great, natural antidepressant.

Read a bedtime devotional to give you peace and fall asleep praying for the members of your family, your church, your co-workers, etc.

Try it. Hope it works for you. if needed, add a calming, candlelit bubble bath and soothing music before bedtime.

For more help, I recommend reading Alternative Cures: The Most Effective Natural Home Remedies for 160 Health Problems, written by Bill Gottlieb, the former senior vice president and editor in chief of Rodale Books.

Turning lemons into lemonade

Got to do a personal connect with a customer today. Turned a frustrating circumstance into a positive opportunity and, in the process, got to meet one of the finest 19-year-olds on the planet—a really heartwarming experience!

The girl had used her smartphone to place an order and had mistakenly hit a wrong number in the zip code, causing the shipment to be return, undeliverable. I could have easily let myself get pretty upset over it but, instead, determined to turn this into a positive experience.

I noticed it was homeschooling materials that were ordered so I asked her to tell me about her child(ren). Come to find out, the customer wasn't the mother, as I'd assumed—it was the oldest daughter, a sibling of 13 homeschooled children.

What really warmed my heart was to see the beautiful attitude of this young lady. For one, she was so happy for the opportunity to personally connect with me but, most of all, she is already discipling her younger siblings and making plans to disciple others God brings across her path. She told me how she's been busy building a library of what she calls her "discipleship books." She's also invested in a children's library of character-building storybooks.

What she wrote next really made my day:

I am excited about what the Lord is already doing in my life as well as in the lives of my wonderful sisters, just by letting me personally make the investment, but also opening some opportunities to recommend these books to others who have no clue where to start for this kind of influence, input, instruction, guidance, and examples.

Character building resources | Discount home education resources

Tell me how you turned a lemon into lemonade today. I'm eager to hear.

Add My Book to Your Store

Please do not call me! Often I receive requests from authors, wanting me to add their book to our store, eager to learn ways to promote their book. The last thing an author wants is a garage full of their books! To save time answering one author at a time, I have spent a great deal of time collecting a list of resources that I pray would be a help and encouragement to you as an author.

Our store is supplied by 40+ distribution warehouses so the chances are you will find your book already listed in our store. If you see your book in our store, please check the description for accuracy. If you don't see an author bio, please send us one and we'll be happy to add it to your book listing. If your book cover is blurry, please supply me with a good photo and I will upload it to your book listing. Be sure to mention the ISBN number so I can easily find your book.

If you don't see your book listed in our store, number one, go back and make sure it's tagged as a "Christian" book, because we are a Christian bookstore, not a secular one. Contact your publisher if you don't know how to fix that label yourself. Mailing a copy of your book to me will not help, because we are not a brick and mortar store but strictly an online store.

To have your book added to our network of stores, it needs to be added to one of our distribution channels. Below are our three biggest ones. Find their contact page and get in touch to see what you need to do to have your book added.

Anchor Distributors
STL Distribution
Ingram Distribution

As an author, you need to educate yourself. Here are some great resources to help you learn how to get your book marketed:

365 Ways to Market Your Christian Book. Specific People, Places, Procedures by Bette E Filley

Christian Writers Market Guide 2012 by Jerry B. Jenkins

Faith-Based Marketing: The Guide to Reaching 140 Million Christian Customers by Bob Hutchins and Greg Stielstra

Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt (formerly CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers)

You Can Market Your Book: All the Tools You Need To Sell Your Published Book by Carmen Leal

Your Guide to Marketing Books in the Christian Marketplace, Second Edition by Sarah Bolme

Below are websites you should find of great help:

* Excellent tips on how to promote your book
* 12 Tasks Every Author Should Tackle Before Publishing a Book
* How to select the right publisher
* 25 Things You Need to Know About Self-Publishing a Book

Our parent company, DeeperCalling Media is now giving away free online stores to charities, authors, churches, ministries, broadcasters, and CBA bookstores. If you would like to have an online store to sell your books, CDs and more, then visit our parent company's website here and ask for details. I do not personally have that information.

Hope this helps! Please let me know if you would like to receive an occasional newsletter from us so we can stay in touch.

Helping you make a difference,
Barbara Haas

Redirecting the buying power of the Christian community back into the Kingdom of Christ!
www.swissvalleydiscount.com
440-941-1008 Mon.-Sat. 10am-10pm Eastern (Wed. 10am-5pm)
barbara@swissvalleydiscount.com - Available 24/7
Join us on Twitter @swissvalley
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Cat Problems with Your Christmas Tree?

Want to keep your cat away from those delicate ornaments on the Christmas tree? Make a skirt of aluminum foil. Then sit back and let the fun begin! It's hilarious, yet effective. Try it and let me know how it works for you.

On the light side, here are my two favorite cat videos:

Surprised Kitty

How to Stop a Nightmare

Okay. Since I'm on the subject, let me give you a handy link to 139 incredible cat resources. Enjoy!

God's Wonderful Promise!

"And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed." —Deuteronomy 31:8

Time-Saving Bible Finder

Have you ever gone into a bookstore, hoping to buy a Bible? Then you know it can be a very confusing and very long process. Plus, bookstores are limited in the number of Bibles they can display so your choices are really narrowed.

Here at Swiss Valley Christian Bookstore, we offer you over 4,000 choices. We invite you to try our unique, time-saving Bible Finder tool. It will help you to quickly and easily find the exact Bible you want.

First, select a translation. Then click the NEXT button at the bottom of the Bible Finder window. There you can choose what options you would like—red lettering, an indexed Bible or a Bible with a concordance. You can also select the color of the binding. Pick a font type size that's comfortable for your eyes. When you click NEXT, it will instantly show you every Bible in the stock which meets your specifications.

Try it now!

First-Time Shoppers

To help guide you through the purchasing process, we have created step-by-step instructions, suitable for domestic and international purchases. We currently ship to all countries outside the African continent. We encourage you to print this page and keep it beside you, especially if this is a first-time purchase.