You know the feeling you get, when something good is happening and you don’t want to jeopardize it by doing anything that could throw it off track. That’s kind of what I’m feeling right now. At the same time, when I started this website, I undertook to be honest and put myself out there — 100 percent. I need to get the events of the last two weeks off my chest, especially since they could prove to be a turning point.
Three weeks ago, I blogged about how I was planning to take these promotional bookmarks of mine and start targeting publishers. The idea was — instead of distributing them outside Chapters — to start distributing them outside publishers’ offices. I’m up to 6,000 visitors now on my website, and averaging over one hundred new visitors a day. I figured it was time to see if I could get noticed by the industry.
People are always asking me if I’ve found a publisher for my book. I get a lot of strange looks when I tell them not only have I not gotten a publisher, I have not even approached a publisher. It’s crystal clear to me that I have been doing the right thing, but not everybody has understood my logic.
Two weeks ago, while disbursing bookmarks outside a publisher’s office, I met somebody who did understand my logic, somebody important within the industry. We chatted for a while; I told him my story. He liked my story. And then that somebody, let’s call him “Mr. Somebody,” asked me if I had approached his company. I told him “no” and I told him why. As I explained my reasoning, he nodded and broke into a big smile. And that’s when he asked me to submit a proposal.
This is a big deal. Most top publishers don’t accept unsolicited submissions. They certainly don’t accept them from non-agented writers who’ve never published anything. So I spent all of last week working on the proposal. My proposal follows a standard industry format and essentially argues the case for my book. It’s about twenty pages long.
Enclosed within the proposal is several chapters from my book. Choosing them has not been easy. I’ve barely looked at my manuscript since April 2007. Partly because the book is finished and I’ve been focusing on my blog. But part of the reason, to be perfectly frank, is I’d kind of fallen out of love with the book.
Not to say I’d fallen out of love with writing. Rather, I’ve felt my writing has improved. The manuscript needs editing, but I haven’t wanted to edit it. There’s a lot to edit! Moreover, I started writing the book only a week before my marriage ended. It came from a angrier, more aggressive place, and I simply haven’t been in the mood to go there.
But as I worked on the proposal, I found myself rereading the manuscript and enjoying it. I may not be in an angry place anymore but I can still appreciate the book for its humor. I got excited. And I fell back in love with the book. I cut a chapter, not because it’s bad but because it simply didn’t belong. It felt good to cut it. And I chose five chapters — thirty-five pages — to include in my submission. I edited them for flow.
I also expanded the title of the book. I think it works better now:
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You Don’t Look Young for your Age
…and other revelations you might not want to hear
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I submitted the proposal on Friday. I prepared a small gift basket, full of rejuvenating creams, wrinkle removers and other anti-aging remedies.* Mr. Somebody personally came out to accept it. In the basket, I included a CD with a rough cut of my video, a stack of bookmarks and of course the proposal itself. Attached to the basket, was a handwritten card. The card read as follows:
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Dear Mr. Somebody,
Here’s hoping you like the proposal. And don’t worry. I never would have given you this joke basket unless I thought you truly did look young for your age.
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* I actually stole one of the night creams for my own use, leaving Mr. Somebody with an empty box. After one week of slaving away on that proposal, I figured I probably need the cream more than he does.
