Last year at the Midwest Independent Publishers Association Book Awards ceremony, Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully won first place in the Health category. After accepting our award in front of 300 publishers, booksellers, and authors and getting gold stickers for our books, Nancy and I were given the envelope of scoring sheets and comments from the judges. Our mouths dropped open when we read, "This book deserves a mainstream publisher and a national audience."We hadn't considered going mainstream, but the judge's comment was a catalyst. We didn't do anything for a while, but then our friend Mary Treacy O'Keefe, author of Thin Places (also published by Beaver's Pond Press), started nudging us: Find an agent! You need to get to a big publisher! Find an agent! Call Larry Dossey and ask him who his agent is!
Eventually we contacted Larry Dossey, M.D., who had already written a beautiful blurb for our back cover, and he recommended a literary agent in northern California --Barbara Deal, owner of Literary Associates. Although she wasn't taking on any new projects, once she read Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully, she agreed to take us on.We've been waiting out the economic crisis, but now that publishers are again buying manuscripts, Barbara thinks the time is right. So we wrote a book proposal for her to present to publishing houses. By the time we finished this 30-page description of our book, the market, the competition, and our passion for sharing Diane's story, even WE were impressed!
Last week, ten packets went out to ten publishers. If one of them likes the book, there could be a revised, expanded edition published by this time next year. We're keeping our fingers crossed. We hope that Diane's inspiring story can take the next step in reaching a much wider audience!
3 comments:
It's so easy to visualize this next step happening ~ there could even be a bidding war for it!
Amy and Terry say:
What a great idea! We look forward to seeing this book go mainstream to reach an even wider audience. Everyone should read this book!
The only real surprise to me is that it has taken this long! Like many others, I knew that your writing of Diane's journey is compelling, the message is powerful (as well as practical), and that the outcome would be beyond anyone's comprehension! (After all, this is Diane's energy we're talking about!)
Kudos once again to you Nancy and Becky for putting the pieces together on an intimate subject so beautifully. Your story, Diane's story, has already helped thousands.
Clearly you wrote from the heart, and the returns will be boundless!
Post a Comment