I heard back from Publishizer.com that they recommended a couple of tweaks to my pre-sale campaign. I replied with a “thanks but no thanks, this is how I want it.”
And I am still waiting to hear back from them so I can go live with the pre-sale. I know that especially many of you on this email list are anxious to be able to get a hold of your copy. It won’t be long now, thanks for your patience!
Today, instead of a book excerpt…an announcement!
Lily Was the Valley: Undone by Adoption is ready* for pre-sale!
*OK, “ready” isn’t the exact same thing as “available right this minute.”
But my work is done, and I have submitted a campaign page to the powers that be at publishizer.com. As soon as their approval comes back (and that should be in a day or three) I’ll go live! And will post the news here and share it on Facebook. (Parts 4 and 5 of this series were not shared there––sign up to receive New Posts by Email! in the left-hand column of this blog if you don’t want to miss posts that don’t get shared to FB––I don’t always choose to fill up everybody’s feeds.)
As to Orphan Sunday, Tammy and I had a BIG Day. Details, pictures, and videos are going to have to wait, however…sorry!
Did your church do anything to mark Orphan Sunday? I’d love to hear.
DTC!
For all those who’ve dipped toes in the adoption world before…
You know “DTC” stands for “Date to China.” This means our dossier (all the paperwork compiled together, each document notarized, state certified and authenticated as necessary) has been shipped from the U.S.!
Next on the list: LID (Login Date), signifying CCCWA in China has received and logged in our dossier, at which point the process on this side of the ocean starts moving forward.
In other adoption news: Lifesong for Orphans, via one of their outside partners: We Care for Orphans, has given us a matching grant of $3000! We are so grateful for the Lord’s provision.
CTP!
Here’s an acronym no one’s familiar with. Cause I just made it up.
“Continuing Towards Publication.” That’s my update on the Lily Was the Valley front.
No, I haven’t landed a literary agent.
Nope, no publishers knocking at my door.
I’m getting ready to self-publish, educating myself (slowly) about the process, deciding what to do about a cover, but overall feeling pretty good about everything at present.
I also recently contacted a fellow author about my manuscript, and her advice was to seek professional editing for X reason. So, feeling pretty sensitive about my own editing chops being thus slighted (not that all authors don’t need editors, we do), I saw the problem and did a major restructuring of Part I myself, then sent a hard copy on to the Big League editor in Manhattan. Might be the most rewarding $30 bucks I’ve spent on the book-writing journey so far––here’s what he said:
Got LILY WAS THE VALLEY Wednesday and spent some time with it last night, and I’d be delighted to work on it. However, I’m not at all sure you need an editor, what I read was very well done (about 35 or 40 pages and I scanned the rest). If I were to work on it I would have to go through it carefully twice (which is my basic discipline) and my fee would be $2,000. But I’m not sure at all that it would be worth your money. Definitely don’t hire me unless you’re prepared for an evaluation that said you’d done a terrific job and it doesn’t need any, or much, work. Of course, I can’t say this for sure without carefully reading it twice, but I think there’s a good chance that you’re in excellent shape, so if money is tight my advice would be to skip editing and go ahead.
This guy’s resume proved he was no slouch, and after scores of rejection letters, getting that letter made me feel about the best I have in a long time. I’m grateful for everyone who has chimed in on getting the current manuscript to where it is now.
So…Everett and the book, they’re neck and neck. I wonder who’s going to arrive first?
