The American Dream...

I wasn’t really looking for it. I love to write, and penned some pretty nice words that teach old-fashioned virtues to children. I would have been thrilled to have a big-time publisher notice me… pick my manuscript out of the thousands on their desk… illustrate and produce a book without any input from me… and pay me pennies for each copy sold. That actually sounded good. A real author… wow!

But no, it wasn’t meant to be. My manuscript was part of a series… strike one. My manuscript was written in rhyme (can’t be translated into other languages for worldwide sales)… strike two. My manuscript was a non-fiction “to do” book (not your typical “storybook”… strike three. I still had choices… vanity presses, print-on-demand, scrapping the whole thing… but I ended up choosing the American Dream… I’d start my own business and produce it myself.

I remembered something Oprah once said – that the best decision she had ever made was the decision to own herself. That’s pretty powerful, don’t you think? Total control. And total responsibility. I was going to do this right… I’d show Random House (even though they had never seen my manuscript). Lots to learn. Lots and lots to learn.

I believed in my product… so off I went…