There I was, minding my own WordPress and Blogger blogs, trying to Twitter, connecting to LinkedIn, finding friends on Facebook, and deleting hundreds of emails that I signed up to get. Everyone had an offer for me to make me better at all those things. It was offer overload. I’m not sure why I didn’t delete Ginny’s Wednesday, May 28, 2014 email asking me if I wanted to write a book about Woodlake.
My name is Ginny and I am the California acquisitions editor for Arcadia Publishing. We publish local or regional pictorial history books as part of our Images of America series. I’m interested in starting a similar project about Woodlake and came across your blog while researching potential authors. You’ve got a great style and voice and your experience and knowledge of the area would make you an excellent candidate to author the book. Is this something you might be interested in?
I fell for it almost as hard as I did for my first my spammer compliment on WP. She sent some attachments about the company, so I wrote her back.
Hi Ginny,That would be so fun! Let me look this over, and I’d love to talk to you!
Hi Marsha!
I just realized I had not gotten the proposal to you last week as promised! It is attached to this email. The most important sections are the Author Information, Book Information, and Schedule – everything else can come later (including sample images/captions). Please let me know if you have any questions! I look forward to speaking to you soon!
Business name | Contact person and affiliation to business (if known) | Address/City/State/Zip
Phone ###.###.### |
Local insight and personal connection |
Joe’s Drugs
(pharmacy) |
Joe Smith, owner
|
321 S. Main Street
Anytown, DC 98765 (123) 456-7890 |
Town pharmacy that carries local themed products. Owner Joe is my brother-in-law. |
I made my June 4th deadline. On June 12, 2014 I received this reply along with 450 more words and two attachments of instructions.
Hi Marsha,
I hope you are doing well! I am pleased to inform you that your proposal,Woodlake, has been approved. I am delighted to have this opportunity to work with you in adding Woodlake to our Images of America series!
I had my first opportunity to publish history, starting with 4 scanned pictures out of over 200 necessary.
I hope I won’t bore you, but I want to spend a few posts outlining the steps I took from start to finish to write this book so I don’t forget it. I sent my final draft in with all the pictures on Monday. I need something else to do! hehehe!!! Along the way, I hope it will help some of you in your writing journey.
Thanks for all your support and encouragement along the journey. NOW, I write histories! 🙂
Your babbling is music to my ears. Please leave a comment!