39 Months of “Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids”

In August 2005, I pitched a book concept at the Willamette Writer’s Conference and landed, eventually, my first book deal.

In March 2007, that book, Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids was released by Writer’s Digest Books.

I tell the beginning of the story of how I grew my writing career to the point where I was ready to do a thing as scary as standing up in front of a room full of people to propose a book in Writer Mama. (I even include the pitch I used.)

Then, I finish the story of what it’s like to write a first book proposal and write a first nonfiction book in my recently released (and first) e-book, Author Mama, How I Became A Published Author and How You Can Too (available in PDF now and coming soon to Kindle and POD).

But I want to reminisce a bit about Writer Mama. Because just like the seed becomes the sprout and grow and forms a bud which becomes a flower that eventually bears fruit, which is harvested, Writer Mama was the seed of an idea that has born infinite joy and possibilities for me as a writer and a teacher.

Of all of the things that I love most about my writing, teaching, and speaking career, my relationship with my students is the greatest source of happiness for me. You might think that my favorite part of being a teacher would be to look back on the people whom I have taught and bask in the glow of their successes. But that’s not really where it’s at for me. That’s not what really pumps me up.

For me, the biggest source of pride always goes back to the very beginning. To the point where a writer is basically unpublished, unfocused, and unsure how to get from not writing to getting paid and published. Saying it so briefly makes it sound like a piece of cake. But it’s not so easy that some specific guidance and support can’t help and speed up the process. And if it’s done in a foundational way, the work I do can (and often does) lead to the launching of a professional writing career for many mom writers.

The beginning part of the process, assisting in the launch, continues to be my most satisfying role. Although lately, I confess, another favorite part of the process has been helping writers become regularly published, after they’ve gotten published once or twice in my Dream Teams. Because once a writer mom has gotten published and gotten the hang of getting regularly published, she has lots of options in her future.

Writer Mama has been around for 39 months, with almost fifty reviews on Amazon, and new moms still discovering it every day. In the meantime, some of its original readers have gone on to grow their writing careers to the point where they have a book out or coming out or in the process of being pitched. They are building platforms, landing agents, and just basically producing their own careers, which makes me really happy.

I’m going into my fifth year of working with mom writers. Okay, sure, I love to get the e-mails saying that the first piece was published or that one piece has been published ten times now or that the student has decided to take their career to the next level or that the student just landed an agent or that the student created a class or got a book deal or any kind of good news. But I just love hearing from my students period. At the end of the day, my role is being helpful and helping mom writers find their momentum. It’s simply what I do.