I Am Not Rachel Ray

Now I totally understand when artists and actors talk about being an overnight success, after being in their line of work for a life time already! I know that very few of you really know that I have been working on a book, actually two books, for a very long time. Now that my book is going to be published, everyone is assuming that it is a cook book. It's not! Consequently, I am starting this blog to talk about the book and to share my publishing experience.

For many, many years I have wanted to write a cookbook. Primarily because while I was in business, everyone wanted me to write a cook book. They wanted the Fudge Brownie recipe and the Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada recipe and the Amazing Chocolate Chunk Cake with the Fudgy Chocolate Frosting recipe. Turns out though, that the universe had no intention of me ever producing a cook book. Besides, there are plenty of cook book authors out there. We don't need another one and especially not one from me!

When I went through the crash of my business in 2004 the world was very bleak. As you know, I gutted it up and resurrected my business and ultimately sold it. During this time, I learned an amazing amount from the mistakes I made. I learned enough lessons that I ultimately developed a 'process' by which to manage my business to success. Not only that, my process and the way I managed myself and the way I ran my business enabled me to start and run another highly successful business. I turned this process into an 8 week 'course' with my goal being to realize my passion of nurturing and empowering other people with knowledge.

Everyone has a passion and most small business owners start their companies because they are passionate about producing a certain product-tangible or non-tangible. Unfortunately, allot of small business owners spend allot of time producing their product and not a lot of time managing the business side of their business. They don't really know how to manage their time, what their filing system should look like and what kind of business relationships they really need to have to support their business. I developed a way to show small business owners everywhere what they need to do, why and how they need to do it so that they may also enjoy success!

When I sold my first company I was still playing with the idea of writing a cook book. I tried my hardest to convert recipes from massive amounts into smaller in home amounts. I tried to measure and document portions and ideas. Then I started writing stories to attach to the individual recipes. As you can imagine, after being in the catering world for almost 20 years, there were plenty of stories. Not only stories about the business, but great stories from the roller-coaster that was my single Mom life.

Then, during a frustrating time cooking, the light bulb went off. I was not meant to write the cook book! The way I was going to feed my passion to empower people, was to attach my stories to my 8 weeks course! Consequently, we now have Recipes From A Life: Crisis Prevention for YOUR Small Business!, the working title.

A few years later the book is complete. Publishing a book is not an easy task as you can imagine. I was persistent with my dream though and made the decision to visualize a finished product. Little purple notes have littered my house for years. All just saying: The Book! I entertained the idea of self-publishing only to find that all self published books really do look the same and there is no marketing or PR support. When you self publish you have minimal choices. Cover A or B. Format A, B or C. Layout design A, B, C or D. That's it. I just knew that my book just could not look like any other book!

As you can imagine, I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the Internet exploring the publishing world. In February of this year, I happened on a publishing company just outside of Oklahoma City called Tate Publishing. They are one of the largest in the country and the only large publisher that commits to reading and/or reviewing unsolicited manuscripts. On a whim and a prayer, I sent Tate my manuscript the first week in March. They commit to following up with all authors with in 6-9 weeks.

I tried to forget about Tate and my book sitting in their care. That line of thought worked for about 4 weeks. Last year Tate only accepted 2.8% of the manuscripts subbmitted to them. I knew that if there was hope for them to accept me, that I needed to put the word out to the Universe. So I did. In my prayers and in my mind and most importantly, in my heart. I put it out there that I have the ability to ensure success for small business owners EVERYWHERE!

On a Tuesday morning early in the middle of week 8, I opened my email inbox to a message from Tate asking me to respond with answers to a few simple questions including the kicker: Why did I think my book could be successful and what would I do to support it's success. I responded immediately with as much energy as I could and attached my author bio and headshot.

I was out of town that day and the next. I returned home that Thursday night late, exhausted and hungry to be welcomed to my dark little apartment by a FedEx envelope. As you know now, the letter read: Welcome to the Tate Publishing Family!

No, to the cook book! Yes, to ensuring success for small business owners everywhere!

Thank you for reading. Next post, my visit to Mustang, Oklahoma!