What to do when dreams don't come true...

Way back at the beginning of January, I moodled about a dream turning into reality. Well, here's an update...

Back in July, I received a response from the publisher to whom I offered the manuscript of my first, and so far, only, novel. My hands shook as I opened the letter, because I honestly felt that if this publisher wouldn't accept it, no one would.

I guess I kind of figured that if my project really had a chance, the publisher would phone, so I wasn't exactly surprised to read a nice letter, but still a rejection. Even though, at that moment, I felt as though I might never get my book on the shelves, I wasn't exactly devastated because I'd been down that road before -- and my garden needed my attention!

Later in the summer, I chatted with a friend who challenged me about my lack of passion for getting my dream story published. She figured I should send my manuscript out another ten times (not realizing it costs over $50 per attempt), and she clearly had bigger expectations of me than I did! From our conversation, I concluded that I'm not your typical author -- I have no dreams of best-selling grandeur left, and the objective of getting published is not the most important thing in my life. There's too much other living to do!

But still, I didn't put ten years of work into this story so that it could languish in my computer. I wrote it with the idea that it might help people. I passed it around among family and friends, and one of my aunts actually sent some money to the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) in support of their work with women caught in the sex trade. Woo hoo! That's what the story was meant to do -- make people aware of a need! My cousin also said she would be willing to carry the book in her bookstore, and sent me a link to a novel contest  (June deadline) held by a vanity publisher. Feedback from others has also been very positive -- people are rooting for my project.

I guess what I'm saying is -- there's still hope. The trick is to find a way to get the story out there so that more people will be motivated to get involved in a good cause. As I'm not a business person who knows a lot about fundraising and covering the costs of sharing a story through publication, I'd like to meet a few people whose gifts are in the marketing/promotions sector who could mentor me, perhaps.

So I'm putting it out there -- if you know anyone who might be willing to help me with the business side of my project, or anyone who is tech-savvy enough to help me to get my novel into e-book format at the least so we can publish it on the CEASE website, I would love to connect with those kinds of people. Maybe there can be hard copies later. One thing's certain, the dream's format is changing, but hopefully, it can still be a reality.

What to do when dreams don't come true? Change the dream a little, but keep dreaming!