This seven-part series will cover the 2 ½-year time span between the day I set out to become an author and the day I became one.

Becoming an Author – Part Seven
Spring 2008

This final segment of Becoming an Author describes the past few months, when when our gears shifted toward marketing. We’d seen the cover design, and now the designer was finishing the back cover as well. I asked my editor to send the manuscript to a few like-minded authors I’d met and they offered strong testimonial blurbs for promotion.

I’d already learned so much during this process – about publishing and youth empowerment both. But my education would just begin regarding marketing piece. My confusion about when the book would be available for sale caused me to finally contact my editor, who referred me to a new team of professionals in marketing, public relations, web design and trade publication. Apparently the book would be available in July, even though the IPG release date wouldn’t happen until September. The IPG date is our in-house terminology for when the book becomes available to all the trade markets.

I went to Search Institute Press for a brainstorming meeting and was awed by the beautiful architecture in the historic Banks Building which houses Search. I was also completely impressed by the team that would be marketing my book. A do-it-yourself-er my whole life, you can imagine the relief I felt in knowing that other talented professionals would manage the press releases, trade shows, advertising and promotional contacts. I left this meeting even more buzzed about the book than I was when I entered the building.

And this brings us to today — 2 1/2 years after I decided to pursue a writing career, and more than two years since proposing the concept which turned into Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things. During this journey, few people close to me understood the process involved to making this particular life-list item happen. Few friends or family members comprehended what I was doing during those long months at the keyboard. If you’ve read this series, you now know how it happened for me.

I now anxiously await this book so I can hold it in my hands. I hope you’ll join me.

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, is now available from Search Institute Press.

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Part Seven — Spring 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

When I drove to Minneapolis for a marketing brainstorm session at Search Institute Press, I was awed not only by the grace and talent of the entire team that will bring this book out into the world, but also by the architecture of the building itself.

Search Institute is housed in the historic Banks building in Minneapolis. This beautiful mural is painted on the wall leading up to the offices.

But my favorite part of the architecture is this stairwell within the office. The natural light from the ceiling leads the way to my publishing/editing/marketing team.

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, will soon be available at Search Institute Press.

For More Wordless Wednesday, please go here or here.

This seven-part series will cover the 2 ½-year time span between the day I set out to become an author and the day I became one.

Becoming an Author – Part Six
July 2007-February 2008

After a year of homeschooling, we knew it wasn’t a long-term solution for us, so we did our research and chose the school district we wanted our kids to attend. We just needed to buy a house and move there. Our summer was spent doing that, and preparing to enter a new chapter in our lives.

I was also offered a part-time school counselor position in the same district, which turned out to be the perfect fit. This way I could be selective about my writing pursuits, without needing to worry as much about income. I chose not to take work-for-hire writing contracts that came my way, but rather narrowed my focus and reestablished my goals as a writer.

Throughout the next eight months, I completed several edits, usually with a month or so in-between revisions. My editor posed clarifying questions and insightful nudges to help me to tighten the focus and better define sections that were too gray. So in this way, we took turns sculpting the manuscript — each time handing off a cleaner, more readable and fine-tuned document to fresh eyes that could read the manuscript more like it was the first time. Each trade brought this little book a little closer to the final product.

During this time, I also started the overwhelmingly mundane process of requesting permission from publishers and authors for the research and diagrams that were referenced in the book. This tedious aspect of authorship was not my favorite piece of the process, but it was necessary nonetheless.

The designer finished the book cover in January and I felt a rush of “reality” when my editor forwarded the very professional-looking pdf file to me. Several focused weeks of editing followed, but most of the work at this stage was done by my editor, assistant editor, page designer and other invisible and crucial roles in the publishing puzzle.

The editing team sent the manuscript to numerous reviewers within the youth development field, to ask for feedback, and the questions and suggestions posed by these reviewers significantly contributed to the validity of our finished book.

Each time I received the edited manuscript, it would feel a little more polished, a little more focused, and a lot closer to something I’d eventually find on the shelf in a book store. Each time I read the revised chapters, after being away from them for two months, I’d look at the words with fresh eyes and be pleased with most that I saw, but irritated by an overused or repeated word I allowed to slip by. The changes I made at this point were rather small, and more because of vanity and OCD, than because of a significant need to change.

In February, my editor sent me the proofs for the designed pages. It’s hard to describe the difference between reading a version of a manuscript that LOOKS like pages in a book, versus 200 pages of double-spaced text. It’s more readable, more attractive, and at this point, it’s virtually error-free. We did have one more shot at changes even after this typesetting, but the revisions were pretty minute at this point.

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Part Seven — Spring 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, is now available from Search Institute Press.

This seven-part series will cover the 2 ½-year time span between the day I set out to become an author and the day I became one.

Becoming an Author – Part Five
Winter-Spring 2007

After working out some contractual issues and signing the contract, I met my editor via email. During the next year I would find Susan to be one of the most affirming people I’ve ever met. While coaching me through the writing process, she helped me to discover what I wanted to say, in a way that made me want to give her my very best work.

During our family’s two-week winter vacation in Florida, we homeschooled in the morning, and in the afternoons I read research articles on the beach. By the time we returned to Wisconsin, I had taken nearly 200 pages of typewritten notes. Then the real work started.

My first deadline was the end of February, and my goal was to submit the introduction and first chapter. This meant I needed to do a tremendous amount of research and interviewing, while finding my voice as an author. Oh, and I needed to make sure my kids learned fractions, long division, science, literature, and a thorough overview of ancient civilizations.

My kids knew the book was important to me, and they took it in stride, like everything else we’ve thrown at them. We schooled in the morning, and I interviewed and wrote in the afternoon. They were very patient during those long months at the keyboard. I also got help from family and friends. I would dive into the manuscript for a non-stop two-day session, while the kids visited Grandma.

The people I interviewed were truly inspiring. It was such a gift to have the opportunity to talk in depth with people that impact so many young lives. These people are passionate about what they do, and confident that their efforts make a difference. Just listening to them gave me hope for the world, and made me recognize my own sphere of influence. The fact I have the opportunity to share their gifts with others — that’s a bonus.

Although the early spring months got pretty long, I met all my deadlines and submitted a completed first draft on May 1, more than a year after initially suggesting the project. My house was a disaster and my extended family members forgot what I looked like, but we’d made it through.

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Part Seven — Spring 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, is now available from Search Institute Press.

This seven-part series will cover the 2 ½-year time span between the day I set out to become an author and the day I became one.

Becoming an Author – Part Four
Fall 2006

Our family experienced some turmoil as we prepared for school to begin again in the fall of 2006. My husband had accepted a new school principal position. We’d been open-enrolled to a neighboring school district and we’d be switching to our local district, since he would no longer bring the children with him to work each morning.

Any kind of change for kids can be difficult and ours had experienced their share of “shifting” in their young lives, but this was the first time we’d ever switched schools.

The result was that we gave up on the new school after six weeks, and embarked on a year-long homeschool experiment which I chronicled here on Pass the Torch. Thrust unprepared into a totally new and life-changing situation, I did virtually nothing related to my writing career, while I found my way as a homeschooling parent. I had just begun writing a monthly Positively Speaking column at 5 Minutes for Mom, however, and I continued writing there.

Then in December, while I attended a conference to exhibit for my company, I checked my email from the business center of the hotel. And the director of publishing had sent me an email.

“We’d like to offer you a contract.”

Becoming an Author series:
Part One — Winter 2006
Part Two — Spring 2006
Part Three — Summer 2006
Part Four — Fall 2006
Part Five — Winter-Spring 2007
Part Six — July 2007-February 2008
Part Seven — Spring 2008
Photos of Search Institute Press

My book, Empowering Youth: How to Encourage Young Leaders to Do Great Things, is now available from Search Institute Press.