Over the past few years, in between moving, teaching, and hanging out with grandkids, I’ve been engaged on a HUGE project: writing my mother’s memoir and getting it published. What have I learned? Becoming a published author is not for wimps!

First, I wrote down all the stories Mom told us growing up. She read them over, told me where I had remembered wrong, filled in more details, and gave me some additional stories.

Next, I spent much time learning what happened in her part of the Netherlands during WWII. It was important to put the various stories in their historical context. She read the result through, helped me figure out where I had the events in the wrong order, and we spent several months going through the whole book with a fine-tooth comb.

Now for input from others, both professional and not. Argh! The entire book needed to be re-done in active voice with dialogue. Moreover, we needed to rethink our intended audience.

Yet another overhaul. We even changed the name of the book. But, finally we were pleased with the product.

Time to find an agent or a publisher. I wrote a query letter, a full proposal, and several more documents and began sending them out. Reams and reams of enquiries were sent. And, in the meantime, I learned to put up Youtubes, create a website, advertised it in various ways, and even checked out resources to help with self-publication should that become necessary.

Now finally, we have a few publishers who are interested. Are we done? Nope. The publisher we choose will want to edit the book and we will need to consult on cover design. I would imagine that adding a few of my mother’s family photos might also be in order.

After that, we will need to publicize and sell, whether through speaking engagements, books signings, school visits, radio interviews and maybe even TV appearances.

But eventually, let’s see where we end up. Look out Hollywood, here Mom comes!