to a page of Joy2MeU The Web Site of Spiritual Teacher, codependence counselor, grief therapist, author, Robert Burney and Joy to You & Me EnterprisesGo to Home Page
Robert is the author of the Joyously inspirational bookThe Dance of Wounded Souls |
This page was formerly called the Investment opportunity
page, but it has evolved to being more than that - so I am changing the
page title towards the end of May 2002. It still offers an opportunity
for investment to anyone who resonates strongly with my message and writing,
who believes in it's value and importance, and who has the financial means
to become involved in support of spreading the message - but it also records
the evolution of my thoughts in relationship to my book and my writing.
Here is the beginning of the page as I first wrote it up back in 1998 when starting my original web site: (I am writing in this color for comments that I am adding today, May 27th, 2002.) Investment Opportunity in: Codependence: The Dance of Wounded
Souls
Robert Burney raised the money to publish Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls through what is known as Royalty Financing. Investors made personal loans to Robert and in return received a percentage of the net proceeds and/or royalties from the book. This percentage of the net proceeds / royalties is assigned to the investor(s) for 15 years from the date of publication (Jan. 96). Thus people who believed in the book, it's message, and it's potential made it possible for Robert to form Joy to You & Me Enterprises and publish Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls. June 2003 I am now using the Help page that I first posted January 2, 2003 to update my situation in relationship to finances. My requests to the Universe for a newer computer and a more reliable car have been answered - as I share on that page. The priority now is to raise the funds to keep my book in print. "More copies of the Dance is something that is necessary to maintain my ability to keep the web site going - so it is now first on my priority list of requests to the Universe for some financial abundance.I will most likely run out of copies of Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls in late August or September. So, more will be revealed about rather the Universe will provide the financial resources to print more copies. August 2003 - I have posted a new page Donations
/ Love Offerings addressing the situation with my book as it stands
today.
February 2003 I wanted to update this page a bit by basically saying that things haven't changed much. I did get the money to do a second printing of 1500 books - great news. They will probably last through this coming summer. I spoke about the opportunities that some more financial abundance would create in regard to future puslications in my November Update: "It is not possible to buy my book through either Hazelden or the Canadian version of Amazon. Hazelden because they carry their own publications primarily, and did not respond to a communication I sent them about carrying my book. Amazon.ca because I cannot get listed with them without a Canadian Distributor. The Canadian Distributors that I have contacted, or who contacted me, charge a fee in the range of $125 to $200 to carry a book. That is something that I haven't had room in my budget for - one of the many things.I also added a link on my New page on January 2, 2003 to a page asking for help. That had to do with a problem with my car - but I have decided to leave that page asking for help up for awhile. Written on June 19th 2002 for my personal journal in the Joy2MeU Journal. "I will probably be running out of the First Printing of Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls in August. It will take about $2500 to do a second printing of 1000 books. I could get 3000 for about $5000, and 5000 for about $7000. The cost of printing per book goes down pretty dramatically as the volume rises. At this point I will be very grateful to just be able to get 1000 to keep things going.Good News - On August 15th I sent the necessary files and a check for the 50% down payment to the printer. Thanks to the support of a friend I am going ahead with a second printing of 1000 copies. I have until the 26th or 27th to increase the print run if more funds become available. I also found a printer that seems to be a good resource for printing future books - both in quality paperback form (like the Dance) and downloadable e-book form. If enough funds become available I will move forward on publishing some more books - one at a time of course, but one after another. My next priority however, is to make the audio tapes available on CD. We will see what happens next - More will be, well you know. ;-) ~ RB October 11th - The
first 200 of a 1500 copy second printing arrived today. I had 4 copies
of the first printing left. ;-)
Immediately below is what I wrote about two weeks ago as some new ideas came through. Below this table is the investment offer I made several years ago - followed by the evolution of my thoughts in 2001 when I let go of the idea that Oprah was going to call one day and talk about the Hundredth Monkey Principle. Below that is my thoughts from March of this year when I had a paradigm shift in relationship to my perspective of these future books. May 14, 2002 ~ The paradigm keeps shiftingIt feels like I need to say all that I want to say in the next 3 or 4 months because my life conditions are going to change dramatically. There are a variety of ways this could happen - and if it does happen it will probably be in some way that I have not envisioned. The ways in which I can envision it happening vary from fame and fortune striking to some debilitating medical condition. It also could be some other challenging and wonderful opportunity for growth ranging from a romantic relationship to not being able to get the financing to print a second printing of my books and the resulting loss of income threatening my ability to keep this web site operating. In any case, I am wanting to get my beliefs down in writing - and to maximize my ability to spread the message. I can now see at many as 7 books in the writing on my web site - collections of articles on different topics: codependency recovery; inner child healing; romantic relationships; etc. - in addition to the book on the terrorist attack , the first book of the Trilogy, and the one I am writing now. I have had a vision of them available as both e-books and printed books - but printed books as a means of spreading the message, rather than full fledged books like Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls. In other words: printed, hard copy collections of articles - and/or the online books - that could be turned out relatively easily to make the information available to all the people out there who don't have computers. I see these as printed collections that are perhaps a notch or two above a booklet one could get printed at Kinkos - but not involving the investment of time, energy, and money that is needed to print a Trade Quality Paperback book like The Dance. They would have ISBN numbers and bar codes to allow them to be sold through Amazon.com and book stores (and to facilitate the sale of reprint rights to large publishing company who could come out with a high quality version) - but they could be produced in manageable numbers for small amount that would allow them to be sold for an affordable prices as possible (under $10 apiece certainly.) This would involve some tens of thousands of dollars - how much depending on the scope of the project. I would welcome discussing this possibility with someone who resonates with my work and could become a partner to some degree in spreading the message - and keeping it alive if something were to happen to me. More Will Be Revealed.
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This top section is the offer I made available several years ago - the next section contains the additions I made to this page in 2001 as my perspective has evolved. The ideas that came about because of a paradigm shift in my thoughts in March 2002 are below that.
Joy to You & Me Enterprises is at this time seeking to raise more funds to advertise and promote the book, as well as to finance a second printing of the book. Because of this, Robert Burney is offering an additional investment opportunity in Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls. He is offering up to 11% of the net proceeds/royalties from the book at a rate of $2,000 for one per cent or $20,000 for the entire eleven percent.In addition, Robert is offering a percentage of the royalties to his next book The Wounded Souls Trilogy - Book 1 "In The Beginning . . ." a magical, mystical, Spiritual fable which includes a history of the Universe unlike any which has ever been written. Twenty five per cent of the Royalties (same 15 years from publication date) are being offered for $50,000. This book can be in print less than 6 months after the financing becomes available. A preview of Book 1 can be viewed by clicking here.
The same offer is being made for Twenty five per cent of the royalties to his first process level ('how to') book which is entitled Wounded Souls Dancing in the Light. The subtitle is Spiritual Integration & Emotional Balance through Internal Boundaries. It will include material from Robert's columns, articles, and workshops. The focus will be on the tools and techniques he has developed that facilitate personal empowerment so that the individual can learn to relax and enjoy life. A preview of these techniques can be seen on the page Learning to Love your self and the pages that follow it. This book can also be in print within about 6 months of receiving the financing.
When I wrote above, that "the hope and the belief is that the book will eventually become a best-seller . . . . ." some years ago, it was because I had a vision of how I thought the future would unfold. I thought that word of mouth about the Loving message in the book would spread rapidly among all of the seekers in the world - and that it was inevitable that it would become a best seller. Later, when Oprah started her book club, I was sure she would discover my book and be an instrument in spreading the word.The sales were higher in 2001 than in 2000 - and have increased again so far in 2002. The offer I made at this time in the fall of 2001 was: 5% of the net proceeds of Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls for $7500In the last few years the Universe has taught me to let go of thinking I know what the future holds. I have been given the opportunity to learn to integrate more of what I teach into my own internal process - and therefore into my relationship with life. I am no longer invested in any vision of what "there" looks like, of what the future of my adventure will bring. I have wants and dreams certainly, but I have been gifted with (and have worked long and hard for - as with all dreams, we need to work towards them at the same time we are letting go of thinking that getting there is more important than being present for the journey) the balance and clarity to let go of the outcome and pay attention to the dance as I am experiencing it today. It is a blessed space of peace and acceptance that I am able to access a great majority of the time. I am very grateful for the quality and depth of serenity that following my path to the best of my ability has created in my experience of being human in the moment.
The motivation for doing what I do, for writing and publishing the book, has never been about getting there anyway - has never been about making money. Money is a tool that would help spread the message - and also comes in handy for paying the rent and such. I do what I do because it is what I need to do to heal me. I follow my path in my quest to reconnect with my Source because it is what my soul longs for. I stand up in public - or write in the book or on the internet - because standing up in public and taking responsibility for owning and speaking my Truth is what I need to do to heal my wounds and settle my Karma.
I believe that this is a New Age. That an Age of Healing & Joy has dawned in human consciousness on this planet. I believe that ultimately the Absolute Truth is that we are all ONE - that we are all connected in LOVE. On my web page entitled The New Age - An Age of Healing & Joy I share quotes from my book about my beliefs - about the understanding of Truth which I have been given.
"Any single soul's evolution, its awakening, affects all souls because we are all connected. We can, like Imo the genius monkey, create a space, create a new level - a new aspect - of consciousness that other humans then have access to. It is not any accident that most great inventions, most great breakthroughs, were formulated in more than one location in the same time period. Once one breaks through and creates the space, others may follow."
This particular quote from my book refers to the Hundredth Monkey Principle, which I explain in the excerpt from my book that I share on that page. Imo is the name of the monkey who created the new aspect of consciousness for the rest of the monkeys of her species. My mission in this lifetime has been to be one of the "Imo"s in the Transformational Healing Process that has begun on planet Earth. The reason that I was chosen for, and chose, this particular mission was because of the Karma I needed to settle. (As I talk about briefly in my Update Newsletter 3-17-01.) It is not because I am better than, or farther along than, anyone else. Each of us is perfectly where we are supposed to be, doing perfectly what we are supposed to be doing. Even if your path only involves healing your relationship with your self in private without ever sharing it with others (not really possible since we all share with the people whose lives we touch rather we know it or not) - you are still contributing to the healing of the planet. Anyone's healing affects us all, everyone's healing impacts the whole - because we are all connected.
Rather my book is ever a best seller or not, rather it ever even goes into a second printing, does not matter. If I never have more money than just what I need to pay the rent and keep on living one day at a time, is not important. I have already been wildly successful in my mission. My work and my book have been instrumental in creating a new level of understanding in the Collective Human Consciousness. I have contributed to a paradigm shift that helps others to see Truth with more clarity. I have accomplished my mission of reminding others that they can remember the Truth of Love just as I have been led to do - even if I die tomorrow.
So, I do not know what the future holds for me or my book. I thought that the Hundredth Monkey would have fallen into place long before now. [It is easy to know when consciousness of a book (or anything else for that matter) reaches the paradigm shift represented by the Hundredth Monkey principle - because suddenly everyone we encounter is talking about it. Like such fairly recent phenomena as The Celestine Prophecy or Conversations with God.] Rather my book will ever reach that point is not that important to me any more. I am going to just keep doing what I do, following my path as it is revealed to me, one day at a time to the best of my ability.
I routinely pass up opportunities to promote the site and the book because of not having the funds available. A new opportunity has presented itself this week however, that appears to be a chance to introduce the book in a very powerful way to a much larger audience. New Promotional Opportunity
I added this on May 29, 2001 - When I decided to explain a little about the opportunities that I mentioned in the latest update.
"I also had a promotional opportunity come up for the book that seemed like it would be a real good thing. So, I made a special offer on my investment opportunity page to see if the Universe would manifest the financial means to take advantage of it. I have had second thoughts about that particular opportunity since then, but there are many other ways out there that I could be promoting the book and the web site - and making it more available through various distributors - with some more financial abundance. This comfortable period I am experiencing is greatly helped by having enough money coming in to pay my basic bills - but there is not any excess to take advantage of some of these other promotional, advertising, or distribution opportunities. So, I am going to leave this special opportunity open for now." Joy2MeU Update - May 17, 2001There are a lot of people out there who are on a quest seeking some answers - expanding the potential for them to discover the book is the challenge. Thus I am making the special offer below in the hopes of raising the funds to take advantage of this opportunity. I have been meaning to rewrite this page for quite awhile and this opportunity is the spark, the message from the Universe, that caused me to do this writing today. Rather it results in anyone investing, or rather the money to take advantage of this favorable opportunity comes from somewhere else - or even if it is not meant to be - all falls into what I call the More Will Be Revealed realm. My job is just to take the action to put it out to the Universe.For example: More book stores would stock the book if it was carried by a national distributor (in US and elsewhere) - these charge $150 - $200 up front to stock a book; In order to get it carried in British books stores it requires a United Kingdom ISBN number which costs about $150; the distributor that I do have, New Leaf, offers me a free ad in its catalog - but it would cost over $100 to get the ad made up to specs; getting the web site listed in Yahoo costs $199; etc., etc. Since I am happy at this point just to have enough money for rent each month, any one of these costs is beyond my means at this time. (My distributor New Leaf is a national distributor, but they have a minimum order of $100 - so book stores cannot just order my book from them. I have had two national distributors that went bankrupt, and another that dropped the book due to low sales several years ago before my web site got established.)
So, I am posing below a special offer to invest in my book in the hopes that it helps me manifest the financing to take advantage of what seems to be a favorable opportunity. The reprint rights for "The Celestine Prophecy" sold for $800,000 so obviously there is a potential for a substantial investment return - but this is not an investment to make if you are just interested in making money. Making money may be side benefit to investing in this book - just as helping others is a side benefit of working a twelve step program. This investment is an opportunity to align yourself with the message of my book, with any Truth you find in my writing. If you resonate with my message, and the Universe has provided you with the abundance to make an investment of money energy, that would be great. If the Spirit moves you to align with, and energetically connect yourself to, the Karmic Settlement and Positive energy associated with being a channel for Truth and Love to manifest in the world, then this is an opportunity.
The sales of the book were 50% higher in the year 2000 than any year since the book has come out. This is due to the word of mouth that is spreading because of the internet - which Truly is a medium for reaching out and touching others, for connecting with Kindred Spirits. So far in 2001, the sales are continuing to rise gradually.
The chain book stores still have not stocked the book and will not until they decide there is enough demand. Until it is they stock the book, the only way there will be enough demand is through word of mouth. (Orders from Barnes & Noble and Borders stores - most of them for a single copy at a time - have been rising steadily and are now averaging 20 or more orders a month.)
I just mentioned in an e-mail to someone, that I thought I would do some kind of special renewal / rebirth ceremony on Easter this year - and rewriting this investment opportunity page seems to be part of that ceremony.I have been getting some interesting messages from the Universe in the last few days, and am experiencing a paradigm shift in my perspective of this investment thing.
I got the message that The Dance of the Wounded Souls Trilogy - the Magical, Mystical Fairy Tale that was so important in opening me up to expanding my perspective of life - of thinking outside of the box - might be something different that I had always thought it was. I talk about how important writing that book was to my process, and how it led to the birth of Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls in my recently written online book about the terrorist attack of September 11th.
"In the summer of 1988 - within a few months after getting the message about being a mystic at the end of my 30 days in treatment - my life got really bizarre. I started writing my book (what I hoped was just going to be one book because I really did not like writing ;-) The Dance of the Wounded Souls in a cabin at 11,000 feet elevation on Taos Mountain in the fall of 1988.
"When I was told, in April of 1988, that I was a mystic I was not even sure what the word meant. I sure found out in a hurry. From that day until now my life had been a continuous series of mystical revelations and experiences. By the time that the unicorn appeared to me in January of 1989, I had already had revealed to me such interesting items as the history and purpose of Creation, and the True nature of God. I had been given the privilege - a rather dubious and terrifying gift I must say - of being consciously involved in the titanic battle between the forces of good and evil which resulted in the energy field of Collective Human Emotional Consciousness on the planet Earth returning to positive alignment with God after 66,000 years of being reversed. I had been allowed to remember some detail of almost all of my past lives, experienced a month of deep grief about my part in the nefarious events on Atlantis which preceded The Flood, and in some instances had been allowed to know the future."That book evolved into being the first book of a Trilogy, and over the next few years I worked on it intermittently. Meanwhile, I was working on my emotional healing, and started working with others in helping them to access and release their grief.The Dance of the Wounded Souls Trilogy Book 1 Chapter 1I was looking at the work I was doing on internal healing, and the work I was doing on the mystical book as being two separate things. It never occurred to me to connect them. And then suddenly in early 1991, they came together. In some speaking engagements to talk about codependence, I heard myself answering questions with mystical statements that I had never even considered that I would make in public.
In the summer of 1988, I went through an inconceivable experience which was a recreation of some events from a past lifetime. In that lifetime, I had been a coward who did not stand up to evil. In August of 1988 I was given a chance at redemption - an opportunity to stand up to evil. (Definitely a good news - bad news situation, a black cloud - silver lining type of opportunity.) The message I got was that in this lifetime - in order to settle the Karma from that and other lifetimes - I was going to have to be willing to stand up in public and speak my Truth. I needed to be take responsibility and be willing to speak my Truth even if everyone in the world thought I was crazy.
So, in the spring of 1991, when I felt this message coming through me, I knew that I had to follow where I was led. I set some dates to do a talk in June of 1991. It was that talk which became my book Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls.
I was terrified beyond description the first time I gave this talk in June of 1991. It seemed as if emotional memories of what it felt like to be stoned to death by an angry mob were assaulting my being. I went ahead with it anyway, because it is what I needed to do for myself. I needed to stand up in public and own my Truth. I needed to own the Truth that I had come to believe in, the Truth that worked for me to allow me to find some happiness, peace, and Joy in my life. I found that other people found Joy and peace in my message also.Author's Foreword of Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls
However, I have never had any clear perspective of the next two books of that Trilogy. And it never felt quite right to me that I would continue it as a trilogy tracing the linear History of the planet - which I assumed was what was meant by it's title containing the word Trilogy. There really is no point in writing a revisionist history because the point of the work is not to "set the record straight" or anything like that. The details of history are ultimately not important. What is important is the paradigm shift in consciousness away from shame towards Love.Attack on America: A Call for Higher Consciousness Chapter 7"None of the details of any of these explanations of the unexplainable should be taken too seriously or literally - it is impossible to describe the indescribable. They are merely tools to facilitate a paradigm shift in consciousness - to help us open up to larger definitions of the Creation than those we were taught in childhood. The goal here is to empower a more expansive context within which to view the dance of life - one which allows for a perspective of human existence that does not include shame and sin."The change in perspective I have just had is to see it indeed as part of a Trilogy - but in a whole different way.The Dance of the Wounded Souls Trilogy Book 1 History of the Universe Part IV In The Beginning What I am now seeing is a Trilogy of books about this healing process and Spiritual paradigm that I have been led to discover and refine - but with only one of those three being in the form of the Magical Mystical Fairy Tale. I am seeing this as a Trilogy that is published pretty much simultaneously - which along with The Dance make up a Quartet of books on healing. One of those three books would be the Fairy Tale. One would be the process level book - which may be primarily made up of articles from the web site. And the third would be the Attack on America book - or perhaps the story of my Spiritual Path from my Journal - or perhaps some combination.
I am not sure. The paradigm has just shifted - and the dust hasn't settled yet.
"I had not even started to digest the concept of all imagination being memory, and here she was talking about memories of the future. My Higher Self does this to me all the time, reveals some new and startling perspective that requires me to redefine how I look at some aspect of reality as I understand it - and then before the dust of my old, shattered definition has settled, She/He adds something even more mindboggling on top of it."The Dance of the Wounded Souls Trilogy Book 1 Chapter 4Some different ideas have drifted through my consciousness. What I believe I would need to publish 3 more books, is $100,000. Now, I don't think someone is just going to decide to give me that much money. With the investors who put up the money to publish The Dance, I had a contract that specified the money was a personal loan to be paid back out of net proceeds from the book. I learned later that it was a pretty lousy contract - probably not a contract at all (terms of loan.) That wasn't really a factor because the people who invested were really supporting my work and book - not looking to make money. Some different ideas
I think that there is money to be made - and in fact, still believe the The Dance will be a best seller one of these days. My plan has been all along, that if I ever have a financial windfall - win the lottery or something - the first thing I would do is pay back all of the investors so that I can own the rights to The Dance unencumbered. I would Love to do that. I didn't really like selling off part of it anyway.
Anyway, to raise a sum like $100,000, I think it is would probably be necessary to form a partnership or corporation. Then it would be possible to sell shares or whatever. So, if anyone would be interested in such a venture, I would be willing to sell up to 49% of those next three books for $100,000. The details could be worked out in whatever way worked for both myself and the investor/s. Such a deal would not include The Dance. With that book added to the equation, I would require another $100,000. (In part to pay off the original investors - but also because it is well worth it.) So, for instance, we could go into partnership/form a corporation with $100,000 in financing for a fee of $100,000 paid to me for including The Dance. Then I could pay off the investors and maybe get a car that runs. Or $200,000 could go into the company, with $100,000 of it earmarked for paying back the original investors and paying me a salary for a specified period of time. Same difference basically
If there is anyone out there who has the means and the interest, I would certainly be willing to talk. It has been kind of strange to me, that with all the people the web site has been reaching, that someone rich, or rich and famous, or important in a publishing company who would want to buy reprint rights, has not come across the book as part of their spiritual quest/healing/recovery. Oh well. Maybe that will happen.
The main consideration right now is to find the funds to do a second printing of the book. As the box below states, the supply of books is running low. The offer in that box is still available.
I am also open to receiving gifts. The Universe has provided some incredible miracles on my path, that have included opportunities for me to be open to receive gift donations from people who believed in what I was doing. They were real life savers and made the book, and web site possible, with donations at particularly crucial times. On two occasions, those gifts were for $5,000. That would be enough to get a second printing done of at least a couple of thousand books. (The more one gets printed of course, the lower the cost per book. My original printing was 7,000 books.)
So, anyway, I am casting seeds to the wind here. More will be revealed. Anyone interested can call me at 760-230-1821.
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Amazon Honor SystemAs I say in the message on the pay page that clicking below will take you to, I had misgivings about this new feature when they first notified me of it. I decided to give it a tryout in alignment with being open to receive. In placing this box here, and at a few other places on the site, I am giving you all an opportunity to affirm and validate my work by making a contribution of between 1 and 50 dollars through this Amazon Honor System. I call the pay page that clicking below will take you to, Joy2MeU Affirmation Opportunity. That is what it is, an opportunity for you to show support if the Spirit moves you. I am not asking you to contribute - the information on this web site is free to anyone who visits (with the exception of the Joy2MeU Journal) - I am just opening to receive financial support in whatever manner the Universe wishes to manifest it. If this turns out to be a way in which the Universe will manifest support for my work, then so be it. More Will Be Revealed. |
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