Image courtesy of Mira Reisberg at the Children’s Book Academy

Six weeks ago, I told you about an online class that I was taking to hone my skills as a picture book writer. I thought the class was fantastic!

For those of you who are interested in improving your writing/editing skills or learning more about how to get published, I highly recommend taking a class with Mira Reisberg and her team at the Children’s Book Academy. The information she covered was extensive, and the material was well thought out. I think the biggest draw is Mira herself. She is incredibly kind and generous with her time and her knowledge. She loves teaching, and it truly shows in the interaction with her students.

Though I had high hopes that I would accomplish a lot during this class, alas, I did not. I wasn’t able to devote the time I wanted to devote to it. Consequently, I fell woefully behind with the lessons. However, I did manage to follow the webinars and the interaction with teachers and fellow students on Facebook as well as participated in my critique group.

The Teachers

• Mira Reisberg – She has helped MANY authors and illustrators get published. She has worn many different hats in the industry including art director, editor, illustrator and author, and literary agent.
• Kelly Delaney – An Assistant Editor at Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, where she acquires and edits picture books and middle grade and young adult novels.
• Published authors – Mira interviews many different authors so you get to learn from those who are on the same path you are on. She shares these interviews via videos in each daily lesson.

Class structure

Daily lessons were given through a password protected website. The material was presented via a web page and there was usually at least 1 video on the page. This allows students to go at their own pace. Mira acknowledges that there is a lot of information provided. So, she encourages you to go at a pace that works for you. I know I was not the only one who could not keep up with the material. Fortunately, the website still will be available for several months after the end of the course so that those who were unable to keep up will have access to the material. In addition, she provides an e-book at the end of the course which is a compilation of all the lessons!

Each lesson typically had homework. This homework was submitted as a comment on a corresponding “homework” web page.

Each week there was a webinar during which Mira and her co-teacher Kelly critiqued the homework submitted on the “homework” web page. Webinars were typically 1 hour long. So Mira and Kelly each were able to critique 10 of the students’ homework.

A dedicated Facebook page for the class was created. This was where we could interact with our fellow students as well as with our teachers. Questions posed to Mira and Kelly were typically answered within hours if not within minutes of posting! That’s how on top of things they were.

Critique groups (5 students each) were created and given a dedicated Facebook page. This was where we could upload our manuscripts and have the other students in our group critique our work. My critique group was great! Everyone was so helpful and responsive!

Fostering a community

Mira’s enthusiasm and love of craft were infectious. She created a wonderful community of authors who feel connected and supported. She accomplished this by bringing together people who share the same common goal and who actively engaged in learning not only from the teacher but also from one another.

Mutual respect and a wonderful camaraderie developed among the members of this group. Even after the course ended, class members are still posting questions and answers; and I suspect this will continue well past the end.

Bonuses and Golden Tickets

As a bonus at the end of the course, Mira critiqued our personal websites. Through a webinar where she shared her computer screen, she visited each individual’s website and offered advice on how to make it better. I am thrilled to say that she thought my website was great!!! She did have some wonderful ideas on how I can share my writing with you all. So, I will be working on that in the weeks/months to come.

Lastly, at the end of the course, Mira offers what she calls the “Golden Ticket” opportunity. You get to submit a pitch for your book to an agent or editor bypassing the slush pile or closed house submission policies. Writing a pitch for your book is one of the lessons provided, and the pitch is critiqued by Mira or Kelly before you submit it. The panel of editors and agents will read your pitch, and then choose ones for which they would like to see the full manuscript.

Because I fell woefully behind, I will not be submitting a pitch, but I wish my fellow students luck and success with their pitches as well as their careers as writers.

I highly recommend this class to new authors as well as published authors. There is something in it for everyone! By the way, writing and publishing are not the only topics Mira teaches. She has an illustration course coming up. If you’re interested, early bird registration is now open. Click here for details.

To find out what other classes Mira teaches, go to the Children’s Book Academy.

SCBWI Spring Spirit Conference

Back when I was mulling over a career in writing, I had been advised to join the SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I joined because I trusted the person who gave me that tip. Unfortunately at that time, all I did was read the newsletter they sent out. Though the cost to join was not high, I didn’t get anything out of it. After a year, I dropped it. I had not taken the time to seek out what value SCBWI could bring to me.

Now that I have entrenched myself in this endeavor, I have rejoined and am making a concerted effort to make use of the networking advantages as well as workshops and conferences. A few weekends back, I attended my first SCBWI conference. The conference, “2015 Spring Spirit,” was put on by the California North/Central region of SCBWI. It was fantastic!

Being that this was my first SCBWI conference, I had no idea what to expect. I went into it with my “growth mindset” and sought to learn as much as I could and hoped to make some new friends who also wrote children’s books.

I chose to attend the following sessions:

• Hand in Hand: How an Author and Editor Work Together to Birth a Book
• Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason
• There’s More to Writing Good Dialogue Than Just Writing Good Dialogue
• Killer Robots, Time Portals & Wizards — Oh my

Sounds like quite an eclectic group of workshops, eh? I’m happy to say that I got something out of each workshop and would like to share a few of the tips and tidbits I learned.

Hand in Hand: How an Author and Editor Work Together to Birth a Book

There were 2 speakers in this workshop, author Tracy Clark and her editor Karen Grove of Entangle Publishing. It was wonderful to have 2 different perspectives of what it’s like to have a book in the process of being published. Here are some things I learned:

• Having a literary agent really is advantageous (and worth the 15%) because your manuscript will go straight to the editor’s desk. Literary agents work hard to develop relationships with editors at publishing houses. So, if your agent has a good rapport with an editor, it is highly likely your manuscript will get bumped up in priority and read earlier rather than later.
• Before jumping on board with an editor, find out some of the things they want to change. It’s entirely possible the editor would like to remove things from your book that you feel are instrumental to the story. Don’t be afraid to have a conversation with your editor to make sure you both are on a similar trajectory.
• The work that goes on between an editor and author is a give & take process. Don’t be afraid to push back.

Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason

This session was hosted by author Erin Dealey. She has published several rhyming picture books: “Little Bo Peep Can’t Get to Sleep,” “Goldilocks has Chicken Pox,” and more! Like me, when Erin writes, her creativity comes out in rhyme. Yet, despite the ease and naturalness of the process, we must still take care to avoid certain missteps:

• Don’t rhyme for the sake of rhyming. Make sure your rhyming enhances the story.
• Watch the cadence or meter of your rhyme. Make sure it flows easily off your tongue. Have others read it out loud so you can see if there are any verses that someone might stumble on.
• Do not use too many “near” rhymes. For example, ‘explained’ rhymes with ‘complained’ and kind of rhymes with ‘became.’

Thankfully, despite not knowing the rules, with both of my stories, I avoided most of the missteps.

Killer Robots, Time Portals & Wizards — Oh my

This was my favorite of all the sessions I attended. Editor, Carter Hasegawa, discussed how you can create authentic and relatable characters and build worlds that your readers will love. This was a hands-on session, where we actually got to write. We paired up with someone that we sat next to and each pairing got an assignment. Ours was to sketch out an idea for the following: There are creatures living in the bay. And they want to communicate with you. How does this work? What are they? What do they want? Why you?

For the first 5 minutes we sketched out our thoughts. Then each of us got 5 minutes to present our idea to our partner so he/she could ask thoughtful questions that would allow us to expand on our idea. I had a lot of fun doing this and surprised myself by quickly coming up with an idea that I really like. I volunteered to share my idea with the audience. This gave the speaker the opportunity to ask thought provoking and probing questions so that I could really work out the details of the idea/characters. The questions he asked went into far more detail than I would have for a picture book, but I totally see the value in really honing in on the minutia so that you can cultivate a strong and intriguing story.

Since the conference, this story keeps creeping into my thoughts. As a result, I’ve spent more time flushing out the idea and refining the details of the characters. Actually, I can see turning this workshop idea into a children’s picture book!

Conference wrap-up

My initial membership with SCBWI was completely lackluster because of my lack of effort. The adage, “you get out what you put in” was so true. I put in nothing and got out nothing.

Belonging to an association affiliated with your trade can bring many benefits as long as you are willing to be an active participant. There is power in being connected to others in your line of work. Many people think that joining the organization is enough, but to capitalize on the return on your investment you need to be engaged and take part in the workshops and conferences. I went into the conference with a goal to learn. Not only did I learn a lot, but I met a lot of really great people. I think I even found a great critique partner!

Oh, and the bonus is that the editors and literary agents who presented at this conference are accepting submissions from conference participants. Channels that are normally only open to literary agents are open to conference authors/illustrators for a short time. Woohoo!

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/ctjo

When I first considered writing children’s picture books, I envisioned myself at a desk with my laptop or a notebook/pen feverishly creating whimsical rhymes that would later become fabulous bestselling books. That dream still exists, but the reality is that an author is so much more.

What I have discovered during the past year is that in addition to being an author, I am also a:

• marketing person
• sales person
• researcher
• web master
• networker

If you want to become a successful author, you need to be able to promote yourself, you need a website, and you need to connect with others in your field.

You don’t have to wear all of those hats, but you’ll increase the likelihood of your success (or so I’m told) if you get all those elements in place. You could hire a team to help you; but given that you may not have any income rolling in, the impetus to “do-it-yourself” can be rather strong.

Do-it-yourself

I have opted to do as much as I can on my own. The areas that I am attempting to do on my own are:

• updating and maintaining my website
• researching how to market my book to parents of teenagers/young adults
• networking with other authors and illustrators to better understand the industry
• finding a publisher for my book

In those areas where I am lacking skills where the learning curve is great, I have hired others to help me out:

• My beautiful website was designed by Denise Hill at Posh Daisy. I could never have pulled off such a gorgeous site on my own.
• I hired an editor through KN Literary Arts to help me write my book proposal and edit my book.

The money was well spent considering the time it would have taken me to accomplish the same thing on my own.

Not all hats fit the same

Not all the hats you choose to wear are going to fit comfortably. Hats that fit well are those things you do well; those tasks that are in your wheelhouse. Hats that do not fit as well are those things where you have to stretch and improve your knowledge.

Given my technical engineering background, I am much more comfortable dealing with my website than I am being a sales person or a marketing person. Because those latter tasks are not in my wheelhouse, insecurity creeps in. Many of the things I do require research and trial and error. For me, this invokes a lot of self doubt. Am I doing this right? Am I going to embarrass myself? What if I fail?

Probably the biggest frustration with doing it yourself is how incredibly time consuming it all is.

This past week, I spent at least 3 days talking to technical support for my website. I have a technical background so you’d think it wouldn’t be that difficult; but honestly, I was ready to pull my hair out! In the beginning, they told me the problem was mine, but 5 technical support people later, it turned out the problem was theirs, and they were working on resolving it as fast as they could. Gee, it would have been nice if they had told me that on day one!

Options other than doing it yourself

With regards to publishing one’s book, one could opt to self-publish. To help you accomplish this, you could hire a “book shepherd” to help you every step of the way.

A book shepherd will walk you through the entire process from cover art design, editing, find a printer, dealing with Amazon, and some will even help you create your brand so you can market yourself and your product. This can alleviate a lot of the worry and free up your time so you can continue your writing.

Self-publishing houses also offer packages of varying sizes to accomplish the publishing of your book. The more money you’re willing to spend, the more the packages will encompass, and the less you have to figure out and do on your own.

E-books also are another option. Places like Smashwords or Lulu will help you to create an e-book and distribute the e-book on various reading devices. I think this is a great option for people who have written novels. Books with illustrations are a little more problematic as the layout of the book with pictures and text is trickier. That said, Amazon came out with a children’s book creator app to help you create books for the Kindle. I haven’t tried it yet because, sadly, I’m not much of an illustrator but it’s something I’ve kept in the back of my mind for future projects.

Sizing your hat

If you too have found that you must wear multiple hats in your life and some hats fit worse than others, do not despair! I have found that as I learn and try out more things, I am more comfortable as I go. It goes back to that growth mindset. Don’t let lack of knowledge and fear keep you from taking something on. Your brain is capable of growing and expanding and as it does, those hats that seemed so big in the beginning fit better and better as time goes on.

It seems that most of my life, I’ve always colored inside the lines. What I mean by this is I play by the rules, I follow the instructions, I rarely deviate from the norm. I know that may sound a bit odd to say given the current writing journey I am on, but I think for the most part, I’m a “color inside the lines” type of gal.

The reason I bring this up is because I’ve been following a well-trodden path for publishing my book. I’ve perused many websites, attended writing workshops and read various books on publishing. My take away from all of that was:

1. You should only contact a publisher if they are a really good fit for your book.
2. Initial contact for submitting your manuscript should follow strict submission guidelines.

Initial attempts at finding a publisher

Early in the year, I purchased the book “2015 Writer’s Market” which contains lots of tips on getting published. It provides lists of literary agents, book publishers, consumer magazines, trade journals as well as contests and awards.

I really did find this book very informative and helpful. It helped me to craft a query letter to send to publishers. Unfortunately, after poring through the publishers section in the book, I came up with a list of about 10 publishers that might be a good fit. I considered a publisher a “good fit” if they published gift books or inspirational books. Once I found a publisher who was a good fit, I then went to that publisher’s website and scrutinized their book catalog to see if they have published books similar to mine. I narrowed down the list of 10 publishers to:

• 4 publishers that were a really good fit.
• 3 that were an okay fit.
• 3 that I needed to wipe from the list.

I was left with only seven publishers to which I could send my book proposal. This did NOT bode well, given the fact that newbie authors are warned to brace themselves for hundreds of rejections.

Despite the dismal numbers, I did send my book proposal out, taking care to follow each publisher’s submission guidelines, and then I fell into a waiting state. It felt like an intangible black hole. Several of the publisher’s websites indicated “Given the volume of proposals we receive, we are not able to personally respond to unsolicited proposals unless we are interested in pursuing the project.” In other words, if you don’t hear from us, then it’s a no. Thus far, I have yet to hear from any of the publishers to whom I sent my proposal.

Falling into a funk

Having pored through the list of publishers from A-Z, I was at a loss as to which way to turn next. This put me in a funk. Because I was coloring inside the lines, I felt like I had exhausted all my options.

Fortunately, life will only allow me to wallow in self-pity for so long before someone or something kicks me in the butt. In this case, my friend Adele did the kicking. She made me finish the book “Mindset” by Carol Dweck which made me realize that I had a fixed mindset with regards to publishing. Consequently, this hindered my actions. The steps I had followed were just one avenue towards publishing a book. Adele made me realize I need to take other steps towards what I want even if they are baby ones. Even the smallest step could open a door or lead to another path to try.

So, I decided to find a Meetup for authors trying to publish their book. What I found was a woman, Gini Graham Scott, who was offering to share her book publishing experience. The meetup was an hour from my house and cost $10. Well worth the time and money if I learned even one tidbit of information that would get me one step closer to publishing my book.

Where the baby step led

Gini Graham Scott has published 80+ books through both traditional publishers and self-publishing with Changemakers Publishing.

Most of the information Gini provided during the meetup was information I had discovered on my own. However, there was one big take away that I knew I would implement. Gini is affiliated with a company called Publishers, Agents & Films. They have an extensive database of:

• publishers
• agents
• children’s publishers
• children’s agents
• foreign agents for other countries
• book distributors and sales reps
• bookstore buyers

Through them, email queries are sent out from your email to individual contacts based on your type of book, script, or film.

So, I tweaked my query letter to make it more generic and used their service to send it out. Email recipients are determined using query terms that match your book genre and topic. The query criteria in my case was: children, teens, family, education, work, illustrated, gift. This yielded over 300 emails sent on my behalf!

Coloring outside the lines

My narrowly focused search for the perfect publisher is an example of me coloring inside the lines. Likewise, only sending a query/book proposal if the publisher was a good fit was me coloring inside the lines.

It had never occurred to me to send out a massive amount of emails to try to open a crack in a door because I was playing within the rules established in my head by several books and websites, Yet, that is exactly what I did. Am I spamming? I don’t know. I prefer to think of it as broadening my search criteria and incorporating whatever tools available to expand my reach.

It’s been one week since 300+ emails were sent on my behalf. Since that time, I have had 25 people reject my book idea and 4 people who have requested my book proposal! I’m still playing the waiting game, but this time it feels more tangible.

You never know what can happen if you dare to stray outside defined boundaries. It’s important to remember that coloring outside the lines can lead to creative and innovative ideas and this in turn will open up unexpected opportunities.

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/vicnt

Have you ever heard of the expression “going down the rabbit hole?” It’s when you start off on a quest towards a goal and then get sidetracked by something which causes you to change direction multiple times along the way. Eventually you end up somewhere you didn’t expect, typically without having satisfied the original purpose of the quest. A classic example is when you surf the Internet. You start off with something in mind but pretty soon it’s 2–3 hours later and you still haven’t found what you were originally looking for (nor, I might add, are you even still looking for it!).

This is something that I struggle with. Every day, every week, I have goals in mind. My primary goal, of course, is to figure out how to publish this book. But, I also want to get a weekly blog post out. Combine that with caring for my dogs, working out, getting chores done around the house and pretty soon, the day has gotten away from me and I have very little to show for it.

I’ve always thought that if I didn’t have a full time job, I would be able to get so much done. Yet, that just has not been the case. I’ve talked with other friends who do not have a full time job and they too experience the same problem.

Is it that we lack focus?
Is it that we lack discipline?

Truly, I start out with wonderful intentions and yet, something always preempts them.

How do I stay focused on the prize?

Part of my problem is the priorities I set for myself. Publishing my book and continuing to write other books should be my highest priorities but honestly, publishing my book doesn’t typically make the top 2 and writing new books isn’t even on the priority list!

Hmmm, for someone who wants to be a writer, I think there’s a problem with my priorities!

Because I have a goal of writing one post a week, this puts my blog at priority #1 or #2. Even though those of you who follow me would forgive a missed week, I still hold myself accountable to do this. My biggest issue with writing this blog is that it takes me too darn long. I’d like to be able to bang out a blog post in a few hours but the reality is it usually occupies a few hours across several days.

The next top priority at least for the last month has been my dog. Those of you who really know me and my spoiled dog, know that it is difficult to put him at a lower priority especially when he’s not feeling well.

Then, like all good rabbit holes, there is always something that comes up (or should I say “down”?) that needs my attention. Last week, it was tearing down the holiday decorations. This week, my dad fell and hit his head.

Taking ownership

My point is I let a lot of life’s issues/things get in the way of my priorities. I need to stay focused and I need to treat being a writer like a job with tasks and priorities. Publishing my book and writing new material should be priorities #1 and #2.

Last year, I worked with a dietitian to learn how to make smart choices to lose weight and to be healthy. Her big thing is taking ownership of the process. I always had excuses for why I would eat something bad. Most of the time it revolved around emotions. I’m sad, I’m angry, I’m frustrated were all reasons for derailing myself. I would put the blame on something external to me when in reality, I had the ability to make a choice. I could choose to let my emotions dictate my actions or I could choose not to.

Likewise, I get to make the choice of whether or not I will let life preempt the things I want and need to do. Similar to the diet and eating healthfully, I need to own this career path if I hope to make it as a writer. I need to make better and smarter choices.

So, I am going to make publishing and writing a higher priority than blogging. Rather than posting weekly blogs, I am switching to every other week. This will give me more time to concentrate on how to get my book published, and it will give me more time to be creative. I can’t promise that my dog Bryce won’t preempt publishing and writing, but at least I think this is a step in the right direction.

Image courtesy of canstockphoto.com/Marcopolo

Moving on from my first book rejection, I have decided to walk 2 separate paths. I am taking steps towards finding a traditional publisher AND I am taking steps towards self publishing my book. I wish I could say that one path or the other definitively felt right to me but neither does. So, I’m hoping if I start walking the paths of both, something will fall into place that will make one of them stand out.

Walking down the traditional publisher path

Despite having been told that traditional publishers do not take unsolicited manuscripts, I have since discovered that that is not entirely true. Yes, the bigger publishers only take manuscripts submitted by literary agents but there are many smaller publishing houses that accept unsolicited manuscripts (i.e. a book that an editor did not specifically ask to see).

To find these publishers I am poring through the “2015 Writer’s Market” book. This book contains thousands of publishing opportunities for writers, including listings of book publishers, consumer and trade magazines, contests and awards, and literary agents. The key is to find a publisher who takes unsolicited manuscripts whose interests match what you have to offer.

Each publisher has general guidelines about what is required when submitting your book proposal and those guidelines must be followed to the letter if you want to be considered.

A query letter is critical to getting your foot in the door and enticing the editor to open your proposal. When writing the query letter, I found striking similarities to writing a cover letter for a resume you would submit to a company.

Other similarities between the two

• You want to research the company/publisher to show your interest and show that you are willing to go the extra mile.
• There is a likelihood that after you submit your inquiry, you will never hear back from the company/publisher. Only if there is interest will you get a response.

Huh, just when I thought I was getting away from job searches! Fortunately, over the years, I had become pretty good at writing cover letters. So putting together a query letter wasn’t too difficult.

I know that it is highly likely that I could get hundreds of rejections before getting a single acceptance. However, since many publishing houses accept electronic submissions, it seems like a no-brainer to send them out and hope for the best.

Walking down the self publishing path

In order to think about self publishing my story, I first need to find an illustrator whose skills would be a good match for Journey to Jobville. Again, the book will be in picture book format and is written as a rhyming parable. Since its topic is for an adult audience, I need to have illustrations that are sophisticated and appealing to adults.

I believe I mentioned that I had met an illustrator when I attended the SCBWI event. I made contact with her and we met last weekend. I read her my story, and she was interested in potentially doing the illustrations for it. So, we agreed that she would draw the main character as a sample to see if her style would match what I am looking for. I’ll keep you posted.

Moving forward

Regardless of the path I eventually traverse I did decide that I should copyright my book. This turned out to be surprisingly easy. I was able to submit my manuscript online at copyright.gov and paid a $35 fee. Done!

As you can see, I am continuing to take baby steps towards my goal of having a published book. I’m still not entirely sure which path I will be taking to accomplish this feat, but I continue to learn and grow with this process. So I figure it’s all good!

” width=”199″ height=”300″ loading=”lazy”></a> Photo courtesy of canstockphoto.com/leungchopan

As you can well imagine, there are tons of books, websites, podcasts, and people who promise to teach you or help you to write a book proposal. Once again, I was overwhelmed so rather than wade though it all on my own, I chose to get help. During the Hay House Writing Workshop, we were introduced to Kelly Notaras from KN Literary Arts. She and her team provide a wide variety of services from writing to editing to marketing your story. I hired Kelly and her team to help me write a book proposal and edit my book. The knowledge and support I gained from KN Literary has been invaluable to me and was well worth the money spent.

So, let’s get to the details. A book proposal is very much like a business plan. It is a document that explains:

• Who you, the author, are.
• What your book is about.
• Who the audience is for your book.
• What books you compete with.
• How you will help promote your book.

It should also contain a table of contents and chapter summaries if your book has chapters. My book does not, so I omitted those.

Market Analysis – Who is the audience for my book?

The largest target audience for Journey to Jobville is high school or college graduates. People who wish to transition to a new career that combines passion and skills make up the secondary market. Lastly, readers of motivational and creativity books round out the audience for this book.

Gathering statistics for these markets gives the reader (agent or publisher) an idea of how big that audience really is. The bigger the audience the greater the number of potential book sales.

Here are the statistics I found:

• The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) projects 3,307,080 students will graduate from high school in 2014 and 2015, and 1,606,000 students will graduate from college with a Bachelors degree.
• A survey performed by Harris on behalf of the University of Phoenix found that over 50% of working adults are interested in changing careers.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May 2014, there were 145,814,000 people employed in the United States.

This means that over 72 million working adults are interested in changing their career!

YIKES! Clearly, I’m not alone in feeling that my chosen career path was inadequate! Fortunately, I have stepping stones in place so I can continue on this writing journey. I’m already thinking about what 2015’s stepping stones will be.

Question: How many people do you know are part of that 72 million?

Photo courtesy of Istockphoto.com/Peshkova

When setting intentions, I kept it simple. I articulated my desire to become a successful writer and I envisioned what that would look like to me. Everyday on the vacation, I consistently threw my intentions out to the universe. Mind you, I had been doing that for a least a year prior to vacation, but I wasn’t as diligent nor as mindful. My intentions must have been heard because only a few days into our vacation, the first door in this writing journey appeared.

Just so we’re clear, doors are opportunities and when they present themselves you have a choice:

• Walk through the door and see where it takes you.
• Bypass the door.
• Close the door.

The first door on this journey

I received a promotional email from Hay House for a writer’s workshop they were doing in San Francisco which is just an hour away from where I live. Hay House is a publishing house known for products that have a positive self-help slant. Though this is not typically the genre I write in, I still felt that this would be a good starting point into the world of writing.

When I got home from Maui, I signed up for the workshop. Even though I knew this was the right first step, I still felt nervous. Insecurity about being a “real writer” ran through my head right up until the moment I sat down at that workshop. But within the first 5 minutes of being there, I met 3 women who have become a wonderful support system for me. The camaraderie we shared by being on the same journey caused my insecurities to slowly melt away.

The workshop was fabulous! They talked about writing as well as publishing and marketing. Out of all the material they presented, my 3 biggest takeaways were:

1. Promotion, promotion, promotion – Regardless of how I publish my book (self-publish vs traditional publisher) I will be the person who must promote and sell my book.
2. A book proposal is a useful tool to help you market and clarify the audience for your book. It is also necessary if you want to find a literary agent and if you want to publish through a traditional publisher.
3. Regardless of whether I publish or not, the sheer fact that I put words to paper and allow my creativity to pour forth makes me a writer.

The workshop was not only validating and encouraging but it planted the seeds I needed to begin this journey.

Walking through the door

Doors are a gateway into the unknown and the unknown can definitely be scary! I don’t believe you need to be brave to go through a door, but I do think you need to trust. Trust that you have it within you to face anything you encounter. Trust that the door (opportunity) wouldn’t have presented itself if you weren’t ready for it.

“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear; The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.”
– Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries

When faced with something new and unknown, something that fills me with trepidation, I like to ask myself:

”What is the worst case scenario?”

Often times the answer is “I’ll end up exactly where I am right now.” If that’s the case then why not take a chance and see where that door will lead you?

Next up: more details about my 2014 plan!

Question: What door has opened for you after putting your intentions out into the universe?