News From The Dolphin!

The email begins…’Just to prepare you now, the book business is not known for its ‘quickness’. My lesson in patience has officially begun!
While I was at Tate, Rachel, the formatting goddess, let me know that I would be hearing from Dave Dolphin on Friday regarding my production schedule. As anticipated, I heard from the Dolphin on Friday. How I love how these people follow-up! They have done everything they have committed to doing. They do business the way I do business. An ideal match.
I feel like I have just opened the door to a learning curve like no-other I have experienced before. From the day I allowed myself to be managed when I visited Tate to the Dolphin email warning me that the publishing industry is not known for its ‘quickness’. I have always been the one to make things happen and to make them happen NOW. Now, I am going to sit back, do what I am told and let the process unfold before me. The Dolphin even says, “Many authors have commented that God used this time in their lives to teach them patience. But remember good things some to those who wait and this can be a very exciting time in your life.” Understatement!
I feel pregnant! The book is there and I need to just let it incubate. I am just going to have faith that it IS going to come out! Production will officially begin in July and apparently at this time I will be assigned a team consisting of many players including an editor, cover designer and layout artist. Apparently the first month will be copyediting and I already feel sorry for whoever will be assigned this task! They will be dealing with technical/grammatical issues and obviously, spending quite a bit of time deciding which of my exclamation points to save and which to discard.
Of course, the Dolphin gave me homework. I need to complete two Author Outline pages. Lots of questions such as, ‘What is the goal of your book’ and ‘Who do you see as your target audience’ and ‘where does your book fit in a bookstore’. I look forward to stopping and taking the time to answer these questions. The more time I spend on them in answering, the better idea they will have of placing me with the best conceptual editor match. This editor, I cannot wait to meet! They will be the person who will take my words and make them real!
I was lucky enough to be in Nashville last weekend for my Florida Nephew’s college graduation. It was a fabulous weekend with the actual graduation being one of the highlights. The commencement speaker was talking straight to me like my pastor at home normally does. He talked about his Seven Steps to Success with the first being to Dream Big. (Yes, I took notes!) I have been dreaming big about how I am going to help so many small business owners all over the whole wide world to be successful in spite of themselves! Teaching them from my experiences how to manage themselves within their businesses. With my news from the Dolphin, I really think I can begin my lesson in patience and realize that my dreaming big is paying off!
(On an off note, my personal goal is to have 500 followers to this blog by the time I am in print. Have you clicked follow? Who do you know would like to be following…)