What Does it Feel Like to Hold Your Book in Your Hands?
This is my client, Dr. Beth Ricanati. She has been working on a book for many years that didn’t fall into any one category. Part memoir, part how-to, part inspiration, it includes stories and a recipe for challah, and instructions on shopping for flour and salt and eggs, and a big message about the way women treat themselves and the need to stop and breathe and get your hands in some dough (which is a breadmaker’s way of staying stop and smell the roses.). Beth worked so hard to find the right structure for her book and the right voice.
More than a year ago, she landed one of the country’s top literary food agents at the Culinary Entertainment Agency. Her agent was excited and attentive, but it was tough to place Beth’s book as she had conceived it. While she waited for something to come through on her book, Beth began to build up her Instagram following with daily posts about women, wellness, food, and challah — and she now has almost 6,000 followers. She got herself booked for some guest blogs and articles and began to make a name for herself as a wellness writer. After giving it a long, long try with the agent, she finally made the decision to self-publish. She loved her book as it was, and decided she wanted to preserve the integrity of her vision.
She worked with Brooke Warner and the team at SheWrites Press, which offers a hybrid path to publishing. They changed the title from what Beth had used as a working title (Make Challah and Call Me in the Morning), made a gorgeous cover, and brought the book to life. Here is the cover, and the words on the back:
What if you could bake bread once a week, every week? What if the smell of fresh bread could turn your house into a home? And what if the act of making the bread―mixing and kneading, watching and waiting―could heal your heartache and your emptiness, your sense of being overwhelmed? It can. This is the surprise that physician-mother Beth Ricanati learned when she started baking challah: that simply stopping and baking bread was the best medicine she could prescribe for women in a fast-paced world.
Just a few days ago, Beth got her first box of ARCs (advanced reader copies) — the version of the book that is used to send out to reviewers and bloggers and media.
Beth wrote me an email that so perfectly captures the joy and power of the moment, and she is allowing me to share her words with you — so you can be inspired to hold strong on your vision, to persist, to make this dream happen:
I thought the idea of writing a book would be enough.
I thought working on a manuscript would be enough.
I thought signing with a publisher would be enough.
I thought seeing the cover for the first time would be enough.
But I was wrong.
Later still, I thought seeing the designed pages would be enough.
Yet I was wrong.
Tonight, sitting with my children & opening the box packed tightly with advanced reader copies of my book…now that is enough!
To hold a book — my book — in my hand…WOW, that is enough. To see it, hold it, give it to someone, watch my kids flip through it…WOW…
Sometimes the journey to holding a book in your hands doesn’t go the way you thought. It might not be fast or easy or smooth. You might get close to getting the big juicy book deal you dreamed about and still not get it. But there is always a way forward.
Beth will be going around the country making challah in celebration of her book launch. If you want to see if she is coming to your neck of the woods, check out her website and shoot her an email.
