The end of a calendar year means a lot to businesses, however small! It is time to check our inventory, to look at our expenses and our income, to make sure any outstanding bills are paid and that outstanding orders are fulfilled. Looking at the data can also allow us to gain insights into deeper things: What is most popular? What do sales say about our communities? What may need more promotion? How should these insights affect inventory choices for the following year? And so, here is one data point you may be interested. TOP 10 sellers for 2012 at Peaceful Pages:

#1 Open Door (over 200 copies!)

#2 Breezes of Confirmation (Hurray for Junior Youth Materials!)

# 3 Photos of 'Abdu'l-Baha

#4 Bahá'í Teachings for a New World Order

#5 The Bahá'í Faith (Teaching book published by Palabra)

#6 Monthly Planners

#7 Ruhi Book 1

#8 Bahá'í Marriage Certificates

#9 Golden Rule Sheets

#10 Gift of Prayers booklets

What insights do you gain from this report?

Since our partnership started in September 2012 with Dawn Breakers Publishing (Austria), Peaceful Pages has shipped 1,240 copies of the booklet "Words of Love" to 34 destinations in the United States. We are very happy to be able to provide this service and assist in the promotion of this beautiful and affordable color booklet.

• Want to remember Bahá'í Feasts and Holy Days?
• Would you like to increase Feast participation in your community?
• Would you like to increase Feast participation in your own family?

Here is an easy way.

One local community made a table with the dates of every Feast for the year.

The day of the week that the Feast Day would fall on was also added to make it easier for community members to look through and choose 1 or 2 days their family/household could host. Families with children, for instance, preferred to choose a weekend day to host. This list was passed around at the beginning of the year and households were encouraged to sign up. In this way, with most of the calendar filled up, the Assembly of that community gifted every household one wall calendar with the table glued to the back. The table was glued upside down on the lower half of the calendar so that it could be viewed at a glance when flipping the bottom upwards.

Peaceful Pages has many wall calendars in stock. Click here to open a pdf file with a table of all Feasts for 2013-2014.

Let us know if you put this to use and how it works in your community!

Those boxes that just recently arrived were quickly unpacked and orders in the US and Canada were processed for delivery. Today 11 boxes with 450 "Words of Love" booklets got packed and labeled. That is 56 pounds of booklets (+shipping material) to carry out!

What a joy to be a part of this partnership. Have you seen these booklets?

And now I'm off to the Post Office!

Some wonderful people accross the ocean put together a booklet with quotations from the Baha'i Writings and called it "Words of Love". Through much effort this became a high quality book, with colorful photographs, inspiring quotations and a brief introduction to the Baha'i Faith. The publication was dedicated to the Yaran and sold out quickly. A second printing was issued and a distributor was needed for the United States. Guess who they chose! Yes! Peaceful Pages.

Yesterday, a large delivery truck came up our small road. It was hard to miss. At the same time, my 14 month old decided to add some spice to the delivery by waking up after only 5 minutes of napping. And so baby in the backpack and dolly in hand, I ran up the drive to the truck to unload the boxes. Thankfully the driver was amused and most helpful.

We now have some 5000 booklets shrink wrapped in sets of 10 sold for $25.00/ea. These booklets make a great gift!

For more information on the publishers visit: Dawn Breaker Publishers

Never a dull day here at Peaceful Pages

Follow this link to a full story that is wonderful for all ages, but may be particularly interesting to a group of Junior Youth that may find themselves in a similar situation.

Feel free to pass on and share with others!

The Mandolin (SORRY link not working at present)

Taking on a service oriented business that deals with inventory that both has eternal application and perishable shelf life I often find myself reaching out into the learning demands of the age in which we live. I guess we all deal with the same questions: everyone has a body with limited duration in this material existence and yet our souls will live eternally. How do we balance the care for the limited while investing in the eternal? How much attention do we place on the limited? How do we prioritize? Deeper questions for another time.

At present the question is, how do I market the huge inventory? So I went to a marketer. Twice. Both times I presented my case: I am a small operation. I work out of my home. The business has no profit. I don't get paid. There is a little bit of cash to advertise. The second time I was more specific: OK there is a single line of product that has a profit margin that once moved could save our business. Can you create a marketing focus on just that?

How much can you spend?

Yeah. That was their question.

Well… I have a 10 hr gift certificate for services from your business that I purchased at a fundraiser and could add another $500. Can that get me an ad?

(courteous face that in my mind is masking a chuckle and thought of 'are you kidding me?')

Days pass. Email arrives:

Just want to let you know we are working on your proposal. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you. Silence.

Hm…. Since it is not in my culture to be aggressive and pursuant after getting the same response two times I back off.

So here goes a simple attempt to market (I am not a marketer, and I would have hoped that an expert in the field could have done better with 10 hrs of work…). Sets of wonderful CD's with inspiring stories and music were put together. Wrapped in tissue paper and tied.

Packaged and mailed to the first batch of local therapists and counselors.

Uploaded onto CDBaby for purchase as MP3s

Send out a request for prayers.

Let you know what we're doing.

Pray.

Take more steps to expand the list of recipients of the gift.

We'll keep you posted if this yields any results.

For now, pass this on! We are offering a profit share where these CD's could be used as fundraisers. We keep 50% and you keep 50% for your community, local project or the Fund?!

This week I referred my first customer to downloadable books on Kindle, gulp.

Yes, I have a bookstore with over 1000 books I'd like to sell, but how could I refuse? The person in question needed a paperless option. And so the age old dilemma: is service at odds with business? The longer I live, the more strongly I believe what I told all those teachers that argued there is only one right answer to those multiple choice questions - rarely do things boil down to dichotomies, we just have to see the truth in each side and seek a solution that often reads something like "it depends".

So paper and printed form may still be around for a while, but perhaps not as prevalent. No need to toss it all out into the recycling (yet), but exploring the digital formats may be in order. By exploring, in my case, that means a knot in my stomach, opening up my search engine and typing "how to make an e-book". Alas! The world is full of people more eager than ever to share what they have learned and how you too can become an expert! Now I'm overwhelmed with even more to learn!

Of course, a distractible brain will not only think of digitizing what is already comfortable like a book, but ask questions like: what about video of story readings? Audio-books? Downloadable stories for bedtime? And on and on.  Stop. Time to run a test. If all goes well, there will be an image below of some wonderful cover art created by Cinda Logerwell from Corvallis, Oregon  for a CD with oral stories read by various community members. The first story of 'Abdu'l-Baha is read by Lorri Hendon, from Philomath, Oregon. The story comes from the book "Stories of 'Abdu'l-Baha" by Jacqueline Mehrabi.

Click on the image to listen to a story. Cross your fingers! Hope it works!

Opening a box of books or CD's is like getting a gift. Always exciting and filled with a bit of anticipation.

This box in particular is extra special because it comes all the way from the United Kingdom. The box is also packed in a bag, yes, a bag that has the words "Royal Mail" stamped on it. Here is a quick photo of some of its contents.

I'd like to suggest a favorite, but it is really hard to settle on one. As a parent, I absolutely love the books by Jacqueline Mehrabi with short stories for children from the life of 'Abdu'l-Baha and the Greatest Holy Leaf. The second, in particular, offers us a glimpse into the life of one of our Faith's most outstanding and little known woman.

As a youth, reading about the life of Shoghi Effendi (The Priceless Pearl) was most meaningful and definitely cemented an appreciation for the appelation "The beloved Guardian".

When studying Ruhi Book 8 in our community, having a booklet such as The Life of Thomas Breakwell was instrumental in adding an understanding into the influence of 'Abdu'l-Baha on the early believers in the West.

And finally, "Meditations of the Blessed Beauty", a hard cover book with beautiful color photographs and short passages from the Writings of Baha'u'llah provide a dignified, inspiring and uplifting book to enjoy or share with others.

A few days ago I advertised the book "Daily Reflections and Stories for Children" as a good way to nurture daily habits at a young age. Around the same time, I found myself lamenting how challenging it has been as a mother of young children to find my own moments to pray and read with any degree of deep contemplation.

What might appear to be an obvious solution to some, has entered and quickly escaped my mind. At this point I will just go ahead and blame sleep deprivation for the lack of connection. Of course! I haven't found the time alone. My children need to develop the habit. Why not do this together!? An obviously simple solution, I know, but can it be implemented?

So I listened to the bookstore part that had advertised that book and bought a copy for myself (yes, even I have to pay for books ;)). That night before reading the Hardy Boys, I brought out our prayer box with special books and added this new one with a Reading and story for every night. My 7 year old complained. Believe me, there is nothing more discouraging than your own children complaining and whining about reading the Baha'i Writings and praying. I took a deep breath and figured he just didn't want to be distracted from the mystery he was about to read about and went on with the plan.

The first chapter was centered on the quality of 'compassion'. We read the prayer and then the quote. The story was titled "The Wild-Looking Woman". My son tried to hide his interest and was relieved when we could go back to the Hardy's, but we have been doing this consistently for the last 10 nights and it is now becoming a natural part of our bedtime routine. We have recognized quotes and prayers from the children's classes and some we know that have been set to music. Some stories are already familiar and I've noticed how they are met with interest as my children feel happy about having some prior knowledge about these.

What can I say. All week I have found myself whispering: "if only my children (and sometimes grownups!) would listen the first time I say something, things would be so much easier!"…. well….I should have been listening to myself too.