Trying to Fit a Square Peg into a Round Hole?

After writing that last entry, I went to bed, trying to be positive about our future — but I kept coming back to what the acquisitions editor is saying.  People only buy friendship books that focus on repairing damaged friendships or dealing with toxic friends.

If that’s an accurate statement, then I’m screwed.  No publisher will pick us up.

The only way to be picked up by a publisher is to challenge that belief — that there’s no one interested in a book like ours.  How can no one want to develop healthy relationships from the start?  It just doesn’t make sense!

So, I wrote back to the editor and commented that we’re living in a pretty sad world if people would rather screw up their relationships than develop healthy ones from the start.   I admitted that I did understand the publisher's perspective, but I couldn't help but wish we could change his mind, somehow. If only we could talk to him and present our case. All we're looking for is a chance to change people's minds.

I’m not exactly sure what happened, but she opened the door for us again... to see if we can massage the friendship book to fit the publisher’s step-by-step approach to self-help products.

We may be trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, but we’re trying.  It all depends exactly how much we’re willing to chisel out of “our” book to fit “their” formula.

How far will we go to get published?

We’ll just have to wait and see…

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