Today is my last day as a girl in her ‘early thirties’ and it promised to be a long one. It’s also one of my six toilet days, so after the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., I immediately grabbed my phone to see if the review process had been completed yet. I had gotten an email at 1 a.m. inviting me to proof my book again.

I knew I needed to get ready for work, but I REALLY wanted to go submit the book. I hurried through my shower and breakfast in order to submit it before I had to leave. The cover looked GREAT. Nothing was cut off, and I quickly flipped through the other pages to make sure they were all still okay. They were.

I submitted the book with more glee than I care to reenact at this time. I was then directed to the Kindle page, where I had to fill out a bunch of information and was again informed that even the e-book wouldn’t be an instant process.

Fearing I’d be late for work, I closed the file and vowed to finish up tonight.

Throughout the day, I kept checking the Amazon site to see if they had posted the paperback book yet. Even though they said it could take up to 3-5 days, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done earlier? Right?

It wasn’t.

Mid-way through the work day, I began to feel sneezy/yucky. I decided it was probably stress (from what, I can’t imagine) and I decided that right after I finished uploading the e-book tonight, I should turn in early and actually get some rest.
………..
Let’s all share a quiet chuckle together, shall we?
……….
I submitted the e-book, and when it came time to preview, some of the photos showed up, while the others just had a giant red X instead of a cute dinosaur. I noticed it was only my Mom’s illustrations.

I texted Rachael, who asked:

“Are they all in .jpg format?”
“Of course! I made sure of that! Why would it be incorrect in the e-book format if it worked in the paperback format?”

(We all know why. Because why. not.)

“Hmmm..that doesn’t make sense. Double check.”

So I did.

They weren’t in .jpg format.

I had accidentally saved the photoshop files instead. So I flattened them, uploaded the book and previewed it again.

Now the margins were off on my quotes. I sent it to a couple friends, one who assured me it was fine, another who said it was definitely off-putting.

😦

As I was waiting for various things to upload, and to hear back from texts telling me if the margins looked okay, I decided to begin this blog. I’ve been writing it off and on for about an hour now. I got halfway through and noticed that it was 9:45 p.m.

I sighed. Way too late to get an ‘early’ night sleep. I decided to finish this blog and work on the e-book tomorrow. Before I shut down the work computer, I refreshed the Amazon page…

It’s there.

The e-book may not be done, but the paperback is online. It counts.

I made it. The last gift of my 34th year is that I made it. I made the deadline. With one day to spare.

I sat silently for a few minutes, thanking God for the phenomenal feeling of accomplishment. I also may or may not have cried a little.

Friends, for those of you who have followed me through this journey, I thank you. If you could, please do me the gigantic favor of visiting my Amazon page.  Even if you don’t buy the book (but I’d really like it if you did!) bask in the glow with me of knowing that within 35 days, my book went from cancelled to published.

Lest this ‘published author’ become too prideful, Henry came up to me, meowed, and promptly sneezed on my leg.

Somehow, that’s so fitting for this triumphant moment.

😀

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Right at 35 days before my 35th birthday, Rachael and I found out that a book we wrote about our experience making our first film “No Lost Cause,” was being returned to us by the publisher after a year of waiting for it to be printed. Instead of wallowing in our collective misery, I committed to blogging every day while I searched for ways to overcome this perceived rejection and obstacle to our goal. I currently also have about three other projects brewing at the same time, and write about the progress of each of them. This is part of that series.

Read the first entry here: https://ashleyraymerbrown.com/2015/01/23/35-days-to-35-dealing-with-rejection/