It was in the early days of Maya's diagnosis that we met Dr. Christopher Forrest| Maya's surgeon and head of the Craniofacial Department at Sick Kids. While trying to prepare me for the long and difficult road ahead| he suggested I should keep good notes. Being an organized Type A person| I rushed home to check on-line to see if a notebook or journal existed for parents for this purpose. Nothing came close to what I needed.
I decided to create a wonderful little book for myself with tabs and sections to record all we were about to endure. Then| a thought occurred to me - If nothing like this existed for other parents| I would create it. Surely all parents should be keeping good medical records! When my husband Andrew returned home that day I said| "Guess what honey| I'm going to write a book!"
I began researching how to get published| to market a book| etc. I got up the nerve to call other authors and publishers in a quest to find out where to start. After several rejections| I discovered it's not easy getting published!
I decided to investigate what it would take to self-publish. This meant managing all aspects of getting your book to market| often quicker and with greater profits| while you call the shots. Hmm| sounded good to me!
I wrote the book every spare moment I had. There was no turning back now. I was committed to making this happen. The GET ORGANIZED! Family Medical Journal was born.
I showed it to several doctors| had parents and friends trial it| and made hundreds of revisions based on their input. I hired a Graphic designer| an Illustrator| a Webmaster| negotiated with a Korean printer (wow| that wasn't easy!)| found a Distributor. I established myself as a corporation| Princess Publishing| named after my three girls. I contacted Sick Kids Foundation| which resulted in a wonderful endorsement from the hospital.
Ok| so now I had to sell this thing! What did a Corporate Human Resources-type know about marketing and selling a book? Well| I knew nothing about negotiating printing contracts or graphic design either and managed to figure that out. So off I went to pitch my book to stores. I am proud to share that since the book hit the market in February 2006| I have been fortunate to sell almost 1|000 copies across Canada and the U.S. through my website and stores.
This endeavour made me re-think what I want to do with my life. Hopefully my book becomes a bestseller and I can spend more time with my children and write more books. Until then| I'm happy knowing I can still be a great mom| with a corporate career in a large telecom company plus run a small business to help other families GET ORGANIZED!
Visit Jodie's website at http://www.getorganizedjournals.com/ or contact her at [email protected]
Printer-friendly version