Reflections from heart and mind

Sunday, September 21, 2025

What Is Book "The Zen of Book Authoring" About?

A Brief Description of The Zen of Book Authoring from Its Author's Voice

Dear Blogspot Community, Happy Sunday, Memoir writing and reading have always been my interests, stimulating my cognitions and emotions. I have written many articles and read many memoir books and stories. I also taught memoir writing as a subject and shared my method in stories like this. Last year, a publisher approached me and inspired me to write my memoirs. The idea was compelling, and I agreed to do that. However, I didn't know how to distill thousands of journal pages, which I turned into a manuscript. Considering my workload and other writing, editing, and publishing commitments, I needed at least four months to achieve this goal. As a good habit, I trained my brain and mind to write expressively every day about my thoughts, feelings, moods, achievements, and progress with ups and downs. This habit has helped me write over 40 books. Expressive writing has been healing and has also made me more creative and productive. The challenge is publishing my self-talks and the inner world to make sense for others, which is a challenging task. Therefore, this new project is taking more time than my other writing projects. I said I can't do it before September 2025, and they said that's fine, honoring my workload. However, the publisher asked me to define the first part of the book and create a description as they wanted to create a preorder for 30 September 2025 and create visibility for it. They believe that many readers are interested in memoirs, and they think I have an interesting background, and my writing memoirs could be helpful to aspiring book authors. I named the book The Zen of Book Authoring. Some alpha (early) readers of the book asked the reason behind this name. They found it a catchy title, and they like the subtitle too. The subtitle is "Write with Purpose, Teach with Clarity, and Earn with Integrity," which explains the purpose of the book at a high level. I told them I named this book The Zen of Book Authoring because writing a meaningful book is not just about words on a page but about cultivating presence, discipline, clarity, and compassion with every sentence. Our books open a window for readers to our inner world, and this requires courage and humility. For decades, I treated writing as both a practice and a spiritual growth path that required inner stillness as much as outward structure, with the power of my technological and scientific background. In this context, Zen does not refer to a religion or a strict philosophy but to a state of mind where distractions fade, focus sharpens, and creativity flows with less resistance from the ego and more performance in a higher self with metacognition. This book reflects my mindset toward authorship-not rushing toward a finish line because of tangible benefits but walking mindfully with purpose, humility, and joy toward intangible benefits in every chapter I draft. I included several characters from my primary school teacher to my doctoral thesis supervisor, neuroscientist Benjamin, who decided to be a mystic. These inspiring characters left a significant impression on my psyche and contributed to my growth as a book author. I also added characters like a Zen Master friend, Brendon, whom I introduced in a story. In his earlier years, as a sales executive, he taught me the marketing and sales aspects of my books, which were my weak points. Ironically, while I move towards marketing, Brendon moved to the spiritual domain. Where to buy the Zen of Book Authoring? It is available in many bookstores. Here is the universal purchasing link to the Zen of Book Authoring by Dr Mehmet Yildiz: https://books2read.com/zenofbookauthoring I also made it available in audio format via Google Play : https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAECqyU-J9M Thank you for reading my perspectives I'd like to share a list of books I added to the Digitalmehmet Discount Bookstore to give you an idea. They include PDF, EPUB, MOBI, or MP3 formats for downloading.

Thank you for reading my post. You can connect with me on my author platform Digitalmehmet Content Ecosystem.

If you are a book author, you can join our book club on Substack and share your book chapters at Illumination Book Chapters on Medium. Here are the links:

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Why I Created My Own Author Platform at Digitalmehmet Content Ecosystem

Insights and Tips for Book Authors and an Introduction to my Discount Bookstore for Avid Readers. After retiring from my 40+ year career in the corporate world, I reflected deeply on this imbalance. For decades, I designed e-commerce systems for global enterprises, helping them sell products and services directly to millions. Writers and book authors spend years crafting meaningful work. Yet most remain underpaid and undervalued, trapped on platforms that prioritize their own growth over the creators’ well-being. My work in enterprise and business architecture serving billion-dollar corporate enterprise solutions as a seasoned technologist was recognized with industry certifications, including the Distinguished Architect title from The Open Group and badges from IBM, including retail specialization presented by Credly. But when I started publishing my own books, I noticed something troubling: most writers still rely on platforms that limit their reach, control their audience data, and take a significant share of their revenue. So I decided to build my own online bookstore as a proof of concept with no ad spend, no paid promotions but just organic reach, quality books for avid readers with professional design. Within 24 hours, my store received nearly 10,000 views. This article explains how I did it and, more importantly, why every serious writer and creator deserves a digital space of their own. One of my services is to help them create their own line shops in a cost-effective manner using state-of-the-art technologies and technological tools. Most writers still depend on borrowed platforms such as marketplaces, social media, and publisher websites to share and sell their work. While these platforms offer visibility, they come with limitations: shifting algorithms, restricted monetization, and little to no control over audience relationships. In my experience, both in enterprise architecture and as an author, the biggest shift in power occurs when creators own the infrastructure where their work is discovered, purchased, and appreciated. Having your own digital store means: You set the terms. No hidden fees, no sudden policy changes, no dependence on third-party gatekeepers. You own the customer relationship. You can reach your readers directly, offer them updates, bonuses, and thank-yous, and build genuine loyalty. You can diversify your offerings. Sell books, courses, services, affiliate products, or exclusive bundles from one place without needing multiple tools. You build long-term equity. Each visitor, each sale, and each returning customer contributes to something you fully control and can grow over time. The biggest myth is that digital stores are too technical or expensive to set up. That may have been true twenty years ago. But today, with tools like WooCommerce on WordPress hosting platform, you can build a professional store with minimal cost and effort, especially when you apply modern design thinking and a bit of strategic insight. This is not just about selling books. It's about building a professional, independent presence that reflects the value of your work. Writers deserve more than exposure. They deserve ownership. Here is a list of books I added to the Digitalmehmet Discount Bookstore to give you an idea. They include PDF, EPUB, MOBI, or MP3 formats for downloading.

Thank you for reading my post. You can connect with me on my author platform Digitalmehmet Content Ecosystem.

If you are a book author, you can join our book club on Substack and share your book chapters at Illumination Book Chapters on Medium. Here are the links:

Friday, August 9, 2019

Powerful Life Changing Hacks That Truly Transformed My Life: Using simple yet effective hacks to transform physical, mental and emotional health rapidly and sustainably

In this post, I'd like to introduce one of my recent books reflecting my transformational development.

It is titled "Powerful Life Changing Hacks That Truly Transformed My Life: Using simple yet effective hacks to transform physical, mental and emotional health rapidly and sustainably"

This is a biographical book depicting my transformational changes, based on bio-hacks and alternative ways to overcome my limitations in my life, improve my health, increase my performance and reinvent myself to desired versions multiple times.

I share what I learned and practiced transforming myself from multiple angles. The emphasis in this book is on the small changes which turned into tipping points and made big impacts on my journey.

The main mechanism was to understand the points, try them on myself, validate and verify their effectiveness and document the findings in a biographical format.

Even though some techniques and approaches are well known and accepted by many, some of the points are controversial in nature and can even shock some audiences; hence they become interesting experiences to read, validate and re-use as related.

Refraining from any advice or recommendations, I provides a simple narration of practical changes using the unique style of first-person narration in a conversational tone rather than using a formal style. I deliberately did not provide any citations to keep the book uncluttered and simple to read and comprehend. Any terms, tools, supplements, approaches, methods, and concepts provided in this book can easily be Googled and relevant articles can easily be accessed from PubMed and other prominent scientific information sources.

The books is available in Kindle format and Paperback format in Amazon.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Today's big PEACEFUL social networking protest

Let's start in this big online protest line, bring your placards and attach them to this blog or here!

Here are some placards for you; feel free to use them

NO to shortcuts and quick wins!
When? Now!

NO to procrastination and laziness!
When? Now!

YES, to action and hard work!
When? Now!

NO to self deception!
When? Now!

YES to self awareness and self respect!
When? Now!

NO to unnecessary competition!
When? Now!

YES to collaboration!
When? Now!

NO to meaningless networking!
when? Now!

BEWARE of self promoted social network gurus!
When? Now!

NO to blame games!
When? Now!

YES to taking personal responsibility!
When? Now!

NO to war and fights!
When? Now!

YES to peace!
When? Now!

NO to discrimination!
When? Now!

YES to diversity!
When? Now!

NO to wasting this beautiful life!
When? Now!

Yes to enjoy a meaningful life!
When? Now!

------End of my placards, feel free to add yours here-----

Friday, October 15, 2010

Whatever doesn't kill us can make us stronger

Until now, the "whatever doesn't kill us can make us stronger" was an adage. However, a new national multi-year longitudinal study of the effects of adverse life events on mental health has found that adverse experiences do, in fact, appear to foster subsequent adaptability and resilience, with resulting advantages for mental health and well being.

They admit that these data cannot establish causation but the evidence is consistent with the proposition that in moderation, experiencing lifetime adversity can contribute to the development of resilience. The media release from Buffalo University is titled "Study Confirms: Whatever Doesn't Kill Us Can Make Us Stronger"

I don't know you but the result of this study makes me feel good. I am more grateful to make some investment on improving my AQ (adversity quotient) with the inspiration of Dr. Paul Stoltz for a number of years which cost me considerable amount of time and energy. Sometimes we know something is right through our guts even before a useful piece of research like this proves it so.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Is importance of UGC (User Generated Content) nebelous?

Thank god it is Saturday, the sun is shining in a windy winter lunch time! I have some much desired breathing space in this mission [im]possible phase of my life to take things off my chest in writing from yesterday's lunch with Helen and et al.

If there is one thing in my life that I'd like to keep despite any challenges at any levels, it would be serendipity itself. Based on this strong feeling of serendipity concept and its mechanism reflected in my day to day thoughts and activities, I conducted a study on technical aspect of UGC (User Generated Content) in my field with the assistance of Associate Professor Tuncay Ercan, which was published last week in the The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, Volume 6, Issue 4, pp.179-188 titled "Issues in User Generated Content Process and a Proposed Model to Solve them"

Yesterday on our traditional Friday lunch (with Helen, her dad Bruce, her research mate Despina and a few members from Helen's show crew), we discussed UGC from various angles. It was interesting to see Helen being totally disagree on my views related to UGC. She said "anyone can say anything even with no context which could be so harmful at times and consequences may be very heavy and unbearable". Well, I said to Helen it could be true but anything sometimes could create something. Saying things could be better than leaving them unsaid which could have tremendous impact on our lives. My points appear to be supported by Professor David Green of Monash whom I have high respect and admiration in his studies on serendipity published in 2004 which has been a true inspiration to me since then.

Despina believed that my technical focus and my co-author Tuncay's literature search on the topic is timely and well balanced to complete the picture in a sense whilst Bruce was raising one of his eye brows with lack of the emphasis from anthropological aspect which I purposefully had hidden in the methodology section itself. However the most interesting review comment came from a CoP (Community of Practice) participant of the study who said that until we conducted this study, he even was not aware that he has been producing content which empowered his communication and maintained his connectedness in his field. For him the importance of the study was the study itself and shedding lights on this controversial and exponentially growing topic from at least one angle creating a kind of awareness. All feedback pros or cons of this study was well received by myself as they all add value for the post follow up phase of my studies.

I'd like to extend my follow up to a wider audience hence have one simple question here that may shed some lights on what UGC is or is not. My question to you is "What is the importance of UGC in your personal and professional life?" By this question, I'd like to understand how important UGC is for you, how it has been affecting your life, your profession, career and more from your own experience.... Do you believe (as Helen alluded) UGC is mainly rubbish and could be toxic for overall life?

Regards,
Mehmet Yildiz

Saturday, June 12, 2010

What affects our attention so much?

Attention in our lives determine our success in certain context. Attention is affected by myriad of factors. However, one of the major ones which I have been observing (and recently confirmed by a study conducted at the University of Granada) is anxiety.

The article titled Anxiety Affects Attention Processes highlights that "Being of a nervous disposition and being anxious at a given moment affects our attention to what happens. This finding will help improve the treatment of anxiety disorders, so common in our days. In fact, anxiety has become one of the most common conditions among the population, which can explain the negative connotations usually associated to this term."

Dealing with anxiety in an efficient way may have tremendous affect in our life satisfaction as I believe that attention is the key enabler of this process. Wondering what else may have as much impact as anxiety for our attention? Could it be other strong emotions like fear, love and even other shades of anxiety?