Not everything without a happy ending is a sad story.
About a year ago my friend Durell Godfrey suggested we do a book combining AllWays in Fashion with her illustrations. We were collaborators for many years, putting together Glamour Magazine's How to do Anything Better Guide each month with staff writer Linda Gordon.
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| Solving problems in the "How to do Anything Better" book |
Durell's drawings garnered much praise and quite a fan following. She's also illustrated many books and recently created two of the best grown-up coloring books, "Color Me Cluttered" and "Color Your Happy Home". Eight years ago I began this blog to scratch the writer itch that has been on me since earning that Author girl scout badge.
The sash and badges are long gone, but the memory lingers on. Of all the ones I earned, that Author badge meant the most. I worked hard for it, creating my own "magazine", on which I was editor, writer, illustrator and layout designer. Never was a magazine put together with such a singular vision.
Durell and I were fortunate to secure a New York book agent who loved the idea and encouraged us in writing the proposal for submission. That included an outline of the book, an expanded table of contents and sample chapter with illustrations. We put together a survey and polled 100 women from ages 55-85 about their relationship to clothes. We secured promise of a foreword by a lovely movie star of a certain age.
Slowly it became clear no publisher considered us worthy of a book deal. The reasons given ranged from the possible ("Fashion books don't do well for us") to the ridiculous ("Women that age aren't interested in fashion"). The rejection letters themselves were full of praise. There were enough of them to paper a small room. We would join the ranks of the many thousands of the unpublished.
Writing a book would be hard. I had a taste of that preparing the proposal. There were days I stayed in my bathrobe and fairly threw dinner at my husband. I made up a sign that said "Do Not Disturb" and waved it at him if he was talking too much. Durell was halfway across the country; we telecommunicated by trial and error. I learned that perhaps I was not (nor ever would be) ready to write a book.
I now have THE GREATEST RESPECT for any published author. If you've published more than one, you are either a glutton for punishment or super human. When they say "It was a labor of love", I suspect they may be playing down the labor part.
Please don't feel sorry there was no book for us at the end of the rainbow. Durell has plenty on her plate, as do I. You will still get my crotchety views on fashion or my delight in something just too fabulous not to share. All's truly well that ends well. And thanks to Durell, I now have another badge.
