Location: Midway Airport, Chicago, IL

So, I wrote this blog on August 5th and am just now getting around to posting it.  Welcome to my life!!! 

Ok, so this summer has not been quite as productive as I’d hoped.  I’m sitting at a table in Chicago Midway Airport right now waiting on my delayed flight.  Who knows when I will actually be on my way back home to Kansas City.  As much as it pains me to say this, grad school comes first.  My book comes somewhere after that.  It’s not that grad school isn’t important.  It is.  It’s just so hard to not be able to give my whole heart and soul (and every free minute I have) into my book.  That’s just who I am.  I want to put my whole heart and soul into everything that I do.  The problem is that my life doesn’t quite allow that right now.  I put my heart and soul into my husband, my sweet baby girl, my family, and my friends.  Whatever heart and soul is left now gets divided between work, grad school, My Perfect Little Secret, and everything else.  The past few months have been insane for me, and I think it will only get worse from here on out.  Grad school has out ranked my book, and will continue to do so until I graduate next August.  At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  So, back to Chicago.  I am here in Chicago because this is where my grad school is.

Here’s a little background information for those who don’t know.  I go to graduate school at Rush University, which is in the heart of Chicago.  I am getting my master’s degree to be a pediatric critical care nurse practitioner.  Shorthand:  A nurse practitioner that works in a pediatric ICU (where the sickest kids are).  Although I can do most of my grad program online, I do have to travel to complete some of it.  I have been in Chicago the past two days doing assessment exams and proving that I have what it takes to do this program.  I will come back to Chicago for about a week in January, and then again in June.  I will also spend about a month in Dallas, Texas at Children’s Medical Center.  The trips to Chicago are doable.  I have only been here 3 days, and I’ve missed Andrew and Gabby like you couldn’t believe, but we survived it.  I am not sure how Dallas will go.  A month away from my family seems absolutely unbearable.  With a visit or two, cell phones, and Skype, I am sure we will figure it out.  Then, after a lot of hard work, I will graduate in August. 

Now to get to what this whole blog is about!!! My Perfect Little Secret!!!  David has been even busier than I have, if you can even imagine.  So, he has given me assignments as he works on editing (word-by-word) my entire book.  I have finished my research on every potential agent, made a file on them, and have written the query letters for my top two choices.  See my previous post for an explanation of the word “query”.  In addition, an aspiring writer named Megan who is 15 years old, has read the first few chapters of my book.  David asked my permission to have Megan read them so that she could provide feedback.  In David’s words:  “I haven’t been 15 in a long time…I want to hear a 15 year old’s opinion”.  So, Megan read the first few chapters and provided some excellent feedback.  I am very excited to blog that she really liked the book so far…enough so that she is now reading the rest of the book!  In addition, Megan will be doing a guest post on my blog!!!  I am not good at being patient, but while I’m going through this process, I have adopted a slogan: Slowly but surely!  And while it is incredibly slow, I assure you, I will make it surely!!!    

Here it is! Finally!

Long time, no blog… Sorry!!! I feel like I could say this every blog but life has just been so busy!  My brother got married to wonderful Stephanie, our best friends got married, trip to Colorado, my brother’s graduation from medical school, a new puppy, and of course, work and grad school throughout it all.  I know the wait has been long, but I’m finally posting the name of my book and the pitch!!! I hope you guys enjoy! 

**************************************************************************

My Perfect Little Secret

Lillian Grace Parker – a 16 year old perfectionist with pencil straight brown hair and a sea of freckles– becomes determined to lose the few extra pounds she gained over summer break.  As the number on the scale goes down, Lilly’s life only gets more amazing.  She has Josie, her soul sister and best friend since kindergarten, a family who loves and supports her, a perfect transcript, and scores soccer goals with amazing ease.  She’s head over heels in love with Sean, the tall, cute, funny guy who sweeps her off her feet the first week of her sophomore year.   Even with everything going for her, Lilly becomes her own worst enemy.  Constantly telling herself she isn’t good enough, Lilly’s life spirals out of control.  Pushing food around on her plate and wearing baggy clothes, she lies to everyone she loves to hide her secret.  When Lilly collapses on the soccer field after scoring the winning goal, she is forced to make one of the biggest decisions of her life.  Will she sacrifice everything that really matters to maintain her twisted version of a perfect body or will she have the courage to fight for her life and see herself for more than the reflection in the mirror?

Slowly...but surely...

It's been too long since I've posted anything.  Sorry about that!  Life is flying by.  So, as you can probably deduce from the title of this blog, getting my book published is coming along slowly but surely.  Right now I am putting the finishing touches on my pitch and doing research on literary agents.  The pitch has to be absolutely perfect, so it is taking several drafts to get there.  It is amazing that one or two words can change the whole pitch.  Make it better, make it worse.  It has gone from good, to almost perfect.  I have a list of several agents who could be a really good fit for me and my book, so right now I am just trying to find out more about each agent.  I've had two conversations with David since my last update and he's been incredibly helpful.  While I'm working on my stuff, he is going to do a line edit on my first chapter.  A line edit is essentially a break down editing of the book (or chapter at this point) sentence by sentence.  So, in the next week, I will hopefully finalize my pitch (and post it for you guys to read!) and have a thorough file on each agent. 

Happy 1st Birthday!

So a couple of things have happened since the last blog so I will bring you up to date!

First: I had a nightmare that I got an email from David that said he and Arielle had changed their minds and decided they didn't want to work with me.  When I woke up the next morning, I rolled over, grabbed my phone, and checked my email since Gabby was still asleep.  Among a sprinkle of various other emails sat an email from David that had arrived at 1:26 am.  Oh crap... While I thought it was only a nightmare, it was completely real.  I proceeded to read every email except for his.  Yes, courageous, I know.  I finally worked up the nerve to open the email.  I almost cried tears of relief when I read it!  It was sweet and to the point.  He said he had gotten my stuff and wanted to set up a phone call to get things rolling.  Hallelujah!

Second:  David and I talked on the phone this past tuesday.  I really am not sure how much I should discuss about what sort of intern work I'm doing for him so I guess I'm going to leave it at that.  We spent a majority of the phone call discussing the details of my intern work that I started immediately.  The time I spend doing my intern work will essentially "barter" their time spent working on helping me get my book published.  When we hung up the phone, we had a plan of spending about an hour on the phone dissecting my pitch in a week or two.  So, once we have done that, I will post my pitch for you guys to read.  Yay!

Third: Completely unrelated to the book, but even more important... Gabriella Grace turned 1!!!!! 

A little lesson in the adventures of publishing

So I sent off my stuff to David!  Stuff meaning my pitch and my manuscript.  I imagine it will be several days before I hear back from him but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I just really hope that he sees the same potential in my book that he saw when we first talked during our consult.  So when I first started learning about getting a book published, I had no idea what the steps were and I especially didn't know what the lingo was.  So... I'm going to give a little lesson on getting your book published.  I'd like to credit this information to Arielle Eckstut and David Henry Sterry and their book, The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published.

 

Vocab you need to know:

 

Pitch: A pitch is essentially your promise of what your book is going to deliver.  It is the answer you give when someone asks you what your book is about.  It delivers the essentials of your book, leaving the person you are pitching to wanting more.  A perfect pitch will leave a person saying something along the lines of "I can't wait to read that book" or "Wow, that sounds amazing".  There are two types of pitches:  The first is called an elevator pitch, and is essentially a pitch that can be given in a sentence or two (hence the name: It can easily be delivered on an elevator ride).  The second, and probably more common, is the long-form pitch.  Long form meaning a pitch that can be delivered in under a minute.  No exception to the rule.  Excellent examples of long form pitches are the back covers of books.  These are long-form pitches.   

 

Literary Agent: A literary agent is a person who manages the business affairs of an author.  They DO not publish books.  They have a variety of jobs that can include but are not limited to finding an editor for you, helping you to get a publisher, proofreading and editing your work, doign PR stuff, help build your career, etc.

 

Query Letter: A query letter is the letter you send out to literary agents to pitch your book and to try and get them to represent you.  The query letter is one page and includes three paragraphs (the connection, the pitch, and your bio).

 

Steps of getting a literary agent for fiction books:

 

1. Read, read, read.

2. Write the book.

3. Make sure it's the best you can possibly make it.

4. Write your biography.

5.  Write your pitch.

6. Write your query letter.

7. Research the literary agents who represent books within your fiction genre.

8. Send out query letters to the literary agents.

9. Keep your fingers crossed!!!   

 

*The steps for getting a non-fiction book published are a bit (actually a lot) different, so I'm not going into that!

One Phone Call Closer

I suppose a bit more information is due!  So here it is:

About 3 years ago, I started writing about thoughts that had been swirling around in my head for a long time.  I didn't originally set out to write a book, but as it turns out, I did.  It took me a year, lots of long hours drinking cappuccinos at Latteland and munching on carrot spice muffins, juggling grad school and work, and lots of amazing encouragement from Andrew and my mom.  After I finished it, I put it in a binder, let a few special people read it, and put it on our bookshelf.  Life went on.  I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't have a desire to try and get the novel published.  I did.  I wrote a pitch, a query letter, a bio.  I read books on how to get an agent, I researched the publishing industry.  I even sent a few queries out to agents.  The timing wasn't right though because only a few months after I finished the book, I found out that I was pregnant with Miss Gabriella Grace!  There was just too much going on in my life to really pursue anything with the novel.  In the back of my head though, I was silently hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that some day I would get the opportunity.

Fast forward to February 28th.  David Henry Sterry and Arielle Eckstut, authors of The Essential Guide To Getting Your Book Published, brought their book tour to Kansas City and did Pitchapalooza.  It was like an American Idol for aspiring authors.  My mom and I went (it was amazing!) and kept our fingers crossed the entire time that I would get chosen to pitch my book.  I didn't, but since I had bought a copy of their book, I received a coveted 20 minute consult with David Henry Sterry to be set up at a future date.

Today was that future date.  3:30 pm Eastern Standard Time to be exact.  I got the privilege to pitch my book to David and let me tell you, it really was quite the experience.  He is an amazing author, and a very funny man to boot.  He let me pick his brain, ask a ton of questions, and most importantly, he gave me the feedback that I have been needing to turn my pitch from "really good" to excellent.  I felt so inspired by our conversation and it seemed like David really understood my novel and why I am the person to have written this book.  It just solidified in my mind that this book could make it.  I knew we were getting close to our 20 minute limit and we were starting to wrap up the conversation.  To make a long story short, I expected David to say something along the lines of goodbye and good luck, and then hang up the phone.  Instead, he has offered me the opportunity to send him my new pitch with the changes he suggested, my query letter, and my manuscript.  He said that he knows people (agents and publishers) who would be interested in my novel.  In exchange for some intern work, he and Arielle are going to review/edit my novel, provide feedback, and try to assist me in getting my novel published!  So, like I said, an opportunity of a lifetime.  Hence the title of my blog entry: one phone call closer.

I thought that today would be the perfect day to start this blog because the entire purpose of the blog is to follow my journey of getting my book published.  I had no idea that this is the type of entry I would be posting!!!! I am praying and keeping my fingers crossed that this opportunity works out with David and Arielle.  He sounded very encouraged but made no promises, so I hope that he likes my material.  I won't be sending it for a few days since I have to rewrite some of my pitch.  I will definitely post when I send off my stuff.  I will also soon be posting a few blurbs about the book itself.  Aren't you the least bit curious now? :)

A Sweet Beginning

So I've been keeping a little secret...

The secret:  I wrote a novel.
The even bigger secret:  I am going to get it published.