Book Update

I wrote a few weeks ago that I had decided to write a book. It seems like once I made the decision life has been on fast forward. Thank you all for the emails and comments of encouragement! School has been crazy busy, Claire has been sick, church has even been busier than normal. I am happy to say though that my book is finished. Now remember it is a children's book intended for children under 5, so it wasn't like I wrote the next great American novel in just a couple of days. Plus most of what I wrote was what I have told Claire many times before. I haven't really decided on a title, but I am calling it Claire's Mommy.

Since it is finished I started preparing for the long process of trying to get it published. I even emailed Kerri, author of the blog sixuntilme.com, to ask for her input. She wrote back very quickly and thought the idea of the book was great. I started searching online, cuz that is what I do, for hints and tips for hopeful authors looking for publishers. Several sites suggested that authors get a Literary Agent because more and more publishers aren't accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Then they would list a couple of different agencies. All of the sites had WLA listed, so I went to their site first.

I found their site, found the Children's Division and on the top of the page in bold letters was "We have a publisher that wants NON-FICTION right now." I click were it says and I am thinking yeah, this is perfect! But wait there is more, I get to the Children's Nonfiction page and at the top is a statement saying, "We have a number of publishers that move very quickly on non-fiction submissions. We also have a publisher that is looking for books that deal with 'Issues, Diseases, and Concerns' that affect parents, children, and families." That is me! Wow, how could that be?

I go ahead and fill in my info with a synopsis of my book and wait. They say it could be 10-14 days. 4 days later I get an email asking to see my manuscript and answer some questions. Then I wait, they say another 14+ days. I get a response in 7 days saying that they would like to move ahead with my manuscript to prepare it to submit to publishers. They asked me to sign a contract and get an outside critique of my book. That is where I am now. I haven't signed a contract, but will probably do so after getting a lawyer or someone to look at it. I am still a little skeptical that this will all happen, but I am optimistic too. I have great visions of getting paid to write. To make enough money on this book to not have to worry about Claire's college! But the most exciting part is the idea of writing similar books to help little kids Claire's age understand that their parents might have MS or Crone's Disease or Breast Cancer, etc, etc.

I appreciate your prayers as we go through this process. It has been a fast one up to now, but I completely admit that I need wisdom to manage through a business I know nothing about!