By Karen Whiting
As an author, success
came fast. I started submitting and within three months received my first
acceptance. I wrote articles, puppet scripts, and activities for a few years
when an editor called and asked me to write a book. I started to submit book
proposals and received both acceptances and rejections. But, one book proposal
remained an unclaimed treasure for eleven years.
I wrote books for women
and girls, but getting one contracted for boys proved super difficult. I wrote,
rewrote, retitled, re-proposed, and redesigned the book several times. I wanted
to use ideas I created for my youngest son Daniel. He had enjoyed the sample I
wrote and thought a whole book would be great.
The concept seemed good.
I wanted to have devotions for tween boys that would engage their minds and
pair it with an activity that would grab their interest. I wanted to
provide a variety that includes jokes, puzzles, experiments, weird facts, and
fun food concoctions to create and eat. I also planned to include a checklist
once a week for boys to access their faith or actions. I designed it for ten
weeks, then ninety days, and even one-year. I asked a children’s magazine
editor for feedback and he loved the concept and told me to keep submitting it.
He had written several books for boys, so I trusted his opinion.
Finally, as I prayed, I
had a new thought. In publishing a book, the publisher has to trust the author
can reach the audience. For boys, it would help to have a male author who could
speak at father-son events. I prayed about that. The book at times moved to the
back shelf with deadlines for new books to meet. Then, the perfect timing
helped things fall into place.
The magazine editor
Jesse Florea (Focus on the Family Club House Magazine), the editor from
Tyndale, and I were all faculty at the same conference. Jesse and I had both
done books with Tyndale. I asked Jesse if he’d be interested in co-authoring
the book. He remembered it and agreed. Then we asked Katara, the editor at Tyndale,
and she loved the idea of teaming us up for the book. Jesse and I rewrote the
proposal for the book, as a one-year devotional. A few months later we received
the contract.
I asked Daniel if he
recalled the book idea. He laughed and said, “Mom that was eleven years ago.
I’m grown up now.” I responded that he had nephews the right age to enjoy the
book. He agreed.
At last, The OneYear Devotions for Active Boys just released. It’s been a
long journey, but with Jesse’s editing and input, the book is better than I had
dreamed. It takes persistence to follow a dream, and flexibility. There might
even be a new plan for a book idea that will be wonderful.
______________________________________________________________________
Karen Whiting is an international speaker and
author of 18 books, including the best-selling God’s Girls series. Karen
hosted the television series Puppets on Parade for Miami
educational TV and has been a guest on various television shows. She has spoken
in such faraway places as Russia and Malaysia. Her book The One Year My Princess Devotions won the 2014 Christian Retailing Best Award in
children’s nonfiction. Her book Stories of Faith and Courage from the Home Front won the Golden Scroll nonfiction book of the year in June
and gold medal from the Military Writers Society of America nonfiction
category. Her writing experience includes more than 600 articles in more than
sixty publications. She writes for Leading Hearts, Book Fun Magazine, and Molly
Green magazines. Karen
Whiting’s website is http://www.karenwhiting.com Her social media
links are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcplzj4JJm0 and https://www.facebook.com/KarenHWhiting
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