Thank Goodness for My Day Job

My day job is constantly feeding me the motivation necessary to keep my dream alive.

It’s truly a fertile and futile training ground for me. 

It allows me to practice the fine art of waiting — a skill that I’m finding crucial in keeping my sanity while keeping my dream alive. 

• I wait for others to get back to me. 
• I wait for phone calls and emails to be returned. 
• I wait for corrections to be made and processed. 
• I wait for co-workers to get back from vacations and lunch breaks. 
• I wait for answers to my questions. 
• I wait for approvals and authorizations. 
• I wait on clients.
• I wait for the day I can quit. 
• I wait… and wait… and wait.

While I’m doing all this waiting, I’m also learning lots from my co-workers, supervisors, and managers.  

• They’re teaching me to reduce my expectations so to reduce my disappointments.  
•  They’re illustrating the destructive forces ego and insecurities have on team spirit and productivity.
•  They constantly remind me how the "blame game" erodes a person’s integrity and credibility.

All these skills come in handy when trying to become a published author, so I’m grateful to my day job.
 
Yes, thank goodness for my day job.  If it wasn’t for it, I wouldn’t be pursuing my dream so diligently.



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Wait

Well, I’m back to playing the waiting game — waiting for feedback from those who agreed to review the children’s book, endlessly waiting for a publisher  to come through for us, and waiting for Katherine to have time to meet with me regarding our next move.

I have to admit, I am not a patient person.  I have this insatiable need to constantly be doing something to keep this dream going.  We call it “throwing spaghetti against the wall” — just hoping something sticks for us.

And yes, I know that things will happen… all in due time.  It’s just that… well, I am not a patient person.




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I’m Not Used to This

I told you that I was reaching out to various organizations and associations to see if they would help us with getting our children’s book picked up by publishers.

Well, the Florida Department of Education pointed me toward the 67 individual school board districts throughout Florida.  I contacted my district and a neighboring one as well.  My plan was to contact each of the 67 districts, one by one, and see who would respond to our request, if any.

Within a couple of hours, I received emails back from the school boards willing to discuss our projects.  Some back-and-forth emails later, those involved with elementary education and bullying prevention programs for the school districts, along with the district’s school’s social work supervisor have offered to review our manuscripts and give us their feedback.

Hopefully, our project strikes the right core with them.  If not, I’ve got 65 more districts to contact.

I’ve also reached out to Abundant Assets Alliance—which combines YMCA of the USA and Canada and Search Institute (three distinguishing organizations with proven success in building strong kids).  One person with Search Institute emailed me back to let me know that she was forwarding my email to her colleague.

I know all these people could come back and tell me that they can’t help us, but I’m just excited that each one of them took the time to reach out and make contact.

After months and months of reaching out to publishers and literary agents — only to receive cold silence from them — it’s a pleasant and welcoming change to have people actually respond back.

I guess I’m just not used to this.


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Shifting Gears

Since it seems that we’re changing direction with the relationship book, Katherine and I have to really sit down and think things through and make some decisions. 

This means I can’t go any further on this project until Katherine and I can meet.

So, to keep myself busy, I’ve turned my attention back to the children’s book. 

I’m pretty sure that we’ll run into the same hurdles with the publishers of children’s books as we have with the adult-nonfiction publishers — which is that we don’t have a following, a built-in audience, or formal and time-tested sales platform that would guarantee book sales for the publisher.

We could self-publish the children’s book, but we’ll need help with the funding of it.  Because of the discussion aid that goes along with the story, we’re talking about a two-book package, with illustrations for each chapter.  All of that takes more money than we have.

With that in mind, I’m brainstorming as to how I can generate some support for the book.  I’ve started sending out requests for help to various groups… hoping that someone would step in for us. 

I’ve sent letters to homeschool publishers, organizations, and associations. 

I’ve reached out to the National Homeschool Association, various parent/teacher associations, the Florida Department of Education, and the Florida School Board Association.

I’ve targeted Target® as well.  Their community outreach programs focus on reading and educational programs for children.  That gave me the idea to write to the president of Target® to see if he had some leads or contacts that would help us get published. 

I’ve even written to Mrs. Laura Bush to see if she would help us out.

We’ll see if any of this bears fruit.  In the meantime, I’ll keep brainstorming…

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Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover

We’ve had a couple of emails going back and forth from that “helpful literary agent.”  She’s very eager to introduce us to her contacts at the two non-traditional publishers she’s mentioned.

I’ve looked into both of the companies.  One is a hybrid publisher who requires us to buy 2,500 books from them, which would mean we would have to invest around $15,500 — a price tag that was way over our budget.

Once we hand over all that money, we would have to do all the marketing, promoting, distribution, and selling for this huge inventory.  For all of this, we would receive pennies in royalties for those books that are sold through their distribution channels.

The second option this “helpful literary agent” is promoting is a newly formed self-publishing arm of a huge traditional publisher (which dominates the self-help industry that we want to break into).  The literary agent tells us that the president of this huge publishing company personally reviews all the manuscripts that goes through the self-publishing division and the strongest titles are brought over and republished through the gigantic traditional publishing arm — which is a huge bonus for first-time authors like us.

This self-publishing arm also offers the same marketing opportunities that the traditional publishing company has created — another good bonus for authors who are not skilled in the art of marketing and distribution of books.

We thought this would be perfect for us.  Without this option, our materials would never be reviewed by anyone in one of the large traditional publishers — let alone the PRESIDENT of the company!!!  Our thought was that if we couldn’t get pass the bouncer at the front door, maybe we can slip in through this backdoor…

Yeah… This golden carrot that the literary agent is offering us is sooo bright that it’s blinding our senses.

We graciously accepted her kind offer of introduction — but accepted it in a vague and general manner.

This way we had time to decide what our next step should be.  Although an extremely important element, getting this book published is only one step in our master plan.

We really need to analyze this option to see if this new path is in line with our overarching goals.  We have very limited funds, and we don’t have the luxury of missteps.  We want to make sure that we are spending the money in the most effective way possible and in a manner that would propel us down the right path for us.

So, I’ve taken off my dreamer’s hat and have replaced it with an analytical one.  I’ve taken off my rose-colored glasses and replaced them with sunglasses that will protect me from the glitter of gold illuminating from this carrot that’s being dangled in front of us. 

And the more I look into the proposal, the more I’m convinced that this definitely IS a golden opportunity… for the publishing company, that is.

This self-publishing service is actually being outsourced to another self-publishing conglomerate, and the services are being marked up considerably through this “self-publishing arm” of the huge traditional publishing company. 

Also, the promise that the PRESIDENT reads every manuscript that comes through is an… exaggeration… to put it mildly.  The busy president of this huge successful publishing company doesn’t read the manuscripts that come through the front door of his main business, why would he waste his time to personally read every manuscript that comes through the backdoor of the self-publishing arm of the company — that is actually outsourced to another conglomerate? 

Why is our “helpful literary agent” pushing us in this direction?  Why is she advising us to spend money that we don’t have for a promise of a golden carrot that was made of fool’s gold?

This is a good reminder that everyone operates primarily out of self-interest.  At some point, another’s self-interest will get in the way of our self-interest.

This is why it’s always good to follow the basic rule… “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

But I’m a person who always looks for a silver lining, and a good thing has come from all of this. 

It’s made Katherine and me seriously consider the self-publishing route… 

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Keep in Touch

I complimented a co-worker for a job well done and patted her on the shoulder.

She stopped for a moment and gave me a thoughtful look. 

It was then that I realized that I may have crossed into her personal space when I patted her on her shoulder.  In this crazy world that we live in, I guess I could be brought up on harassment charges in the workplace because I touched her.

I started backing away from her when she smiled and said, “You know, it’s really nice to be appreciated and be given a pat on the back every once in a while… well… a pat on the shoulder.”

I walked back to her chair and gave her another pat on her shoulder and then I gave her a pat on her back.  Then, I rubbed her back between her shoulders a bit.

She said, “Oh, wow!  I’ll give you 30 minutes to stop that.”

It’s just another reminder that we need to be told that we are appreciated.  We need to feel that we are appreciated. 

Everyone needs a good pat on the back… and if you follow it with a little back rub, all the better!

Time to Get Off the Merry-Go-Round

We received a very interesting “encouraging letter of hope” from a very kind and helpful literary agent.

She eloquently expressed her concern about our lack of a “well-developed platform” to support the marketing and promotional aspects of our project. 

She told us that:

“Publishers increasingly expect authors to have well-developed platforms prior to seeking publication so that they have a built-in audience when the book comes out.  If a publisher doesn’t believe that the author can personally sell many thousands of copies on their own (the big NY publishers expect to sell in the 20,000 to 50,000 copies at a minimum based on the author’s sole efforts), they are averse to taking a project on.”

Without an established audience, publishers — and, thus, literary agents — will not take on new authors.

If this was a rejection letter, it would have stopped there; but our encouraging letter of hope continued.

Although this literary agent could not take us on as a client, she advised us to look into other publishing models that have developed over the years. 

She has gone so far as to name a couple of non-traditional publishers and has offered to personally introduce us to her contacts in these companies. 

We really appreciate her offer because a personal reference really helps in this business.

So, we’re getting off of the merry-go-round we’ve been on for the last year and moving on to a different ride. 

Hopefully, this new ride will take us somewhere exciting, and not just round and round in a circle.

That Didn’t Last Very Long…

Just got word from the “intrigued” publisher…

Although our work is interesting and intriguing, their listing is all booked for the next year and can’t place our book on it for now… She wishes us the best of luck…

That’s the catch in all of this…

The larger publishers won’t look at our work because we haven’t been published… and the smaller publishers who will look at us — and are moved by our stuff — don’t have the staff, resources, and publishing power to take on more than they already have.

Seems like an endless cycle for us.  I feel a bit like Don Quixote, fighting my own personal giants.

Like the song, Windmills of Your Mind, from the Thomas Crown Affair:

Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Anyway, I’m trying to think of another strategy, while still sending out (pointless) queries and book proposals.

If only I can connect with some established authors in the field that we want to break into, maybe they could help us.  It’s worth a try. 

What’s the worst thing that can happen?  They ignore our request… and heaven knows, I’m used to that by now.

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