One of the Late Harry Leo Duran aka NOTORIOUS DOC’s favorite movies was
Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios.
If you could have seen me on the phone earlier (Pascha Sunday, April 24, 2022), you would have thought I was the lead character. Why? Because I was trying to tell my friend, Luann, that I had a June 5 deadline to enter the Hay House contest to win a $10,000 advance and a publishing contract. To do so, I have to submit a cover letter and a proposal.
Not one to try to blather on from memory, I wanted to read from one or three successful proposals we, in the PRIVATE MEMBERS only community were given. I KNEW I had downloaded them. What I had named them, or what the original file names were, I couldn’t remember. And, if anyone in their right mind is anything like I am, that triggered a panic attack. DOWNLOAD FOLDER? Nope. The folder I created for all of the Hay House assignments? NOT SEEING IT. Keyword PROPOSAL – nope. OH GOD NO PLEASE!
Breathe, apologize, hang up, break into a sweat. Breathe. Do a keyword search on the site. Nope. NO NO NO! Search the community discussion – someone must have asked this, right?
VOILA and someone answered with a link.
AH HA! I’m not crazy – yet – well, maybe a little – more than a little.
FILE NAME = . . . . And with that I found both files safe and sound WHERE I had saved them in the folder with the Hay House file name. I just couldn’t see them while on the phone.
Uh, oh, but if you’re writing a memoir, one text exchange said, you have to submit the completed manuscript.
AND THAT was what I had stored in the back of my brain. I have to finish the entire book because it’s half memoire of my life with a psychopath and half biography of a pervert narcissist board certified physician!
Keep in mind that I had to download all of the photos and text messages and Facebook Messenger screen shots to the late fiend from hell’s laptop because that is the PRIMARY source material for the book, sort through several file boxes with dumped paperwork that we found laying all over the apartment and/or the condo, and sort through 65 years worth of my late husband’s life to write the book! And Apple’s FINDER isn’t all that great. I often have trouble finding what I need to file the taxes, pay bills, you know, LIFE!
When the Notorious Doc died, and I unlocked his cell phone, I realized I had a book that should become a best seller. Page Publishing advertises on the radio all the time, so I used the contact form and got a reply. Because my book is not like anything that has ever been written, I sent the Literary Development Agent an email introducing myself and the book and added a PDF of the first 38 pages. The agent called and said he had submitted the draft to the review board, and they were very interested in publishing my book BUT the author has to pay all the upfront fees. ALLEGEDLY the review board only accepts a very very small percentage of submitted manuscripts. That said, I still couldn’t afford the up front fees. I also had only just started.
Less than a month later Hay House offered a free Four Day Writer’s Workshop. Free is great. FREE gets me hooked. Before the four days were over, I signed up for their membership to the Writer’s Community and it has been worth every penny and then some!
Within the private site, we have a Facebook like comment area where people within your Pathway can share each other’s homework assignments. THAT is INVALUABLE. It’s where we can promote our books before they ever get underway or while they are well underway and get lots of feedback and constructive criticism and recommendations and pats on the back. Over on the Facebook page just for us, we can use Messenger to share files, or friend each other or do group chats.
It’s within these forums, that I’ve tried to use my years as a college librarian and college library director to share websites. What, for example, is an AUTHOR PLATFORM? I had no clue. Most of us didn’t. This webpage answers that:
I had started this website and blog thanks to Yasmin Boland in March 2021 so step one was done and I have, thanks to all of you, an international following.
I got up the courage to start a Facebook page and it took off. I had a YouTube channel to support my blog so I read up, scanned in photos, launched PowerPoint, created a slide show and spent half a day trying to figure out how to do voice over and by the late afternoon, I uploaded my first video. It also took off.
From the feedback I’ve received I do NOT want to use a voice actress to read the audio version. My voice sounds fine, although everyone said I need to get a headset mic, and some wanted subtitles. I like to ad lib so that might take awhile.
Facebook ads bombed my timeline and I signed up for several free presentations and bought one.
I also started posting about my book and about narcissism on Quora and met a FANTASTIC writer named Valentina Blažek. Not done much with Instagram. One of the people who knew my husband REALLY REALLY REALLY well wants me to get on Tik Tok. The Notorious Doc was killing him by giving him injections of insulin. He’s fine now and we’re beasties! I can’t make this up!
One of the writers in the group posted that we should buy our own ISBN numbers. To do that I found this
My biggest hurdle will be to see if Hay House finds my Tell All Book to be uplifting because like all horror movies and fairy tales, if there is a happy ending – and mine is incredible if I do say so myself, it is both cathartic and it gives victims hope.
What types of books are you in the market for?
Some of our best-selling titles are: Medical Medium Cleanse to Heal, by Anthony William; Food Babe Kitchen, by Vani Hari; The High Five Habit, by Mel Robbins; Becoming Supernatural, by Dr. Joe Dispenza, Light Seer’s Tarot, by Chris-Anne; and African Goddess Rising Oracle, by Abiola Abrams.
We are interested in a variety of subjects as long as they have a positive self-help slant to them—no negative concepts that aren’t conducive to helping/healing ourselves or our planet.
We are not accepting proposals for poetry, quotation books, or children’s books. However, all genres, including those mentioned above, are accepted for our workshop and membership contests.
Note that we publish mainly nonfiction in the areas of Self-Help, Mind-Body-Spirit, New Thought, Metaphysical, Spirituality, Psychology, Health/Wellness, Business, Finance, and Inspirational Memoirs. Subjects include social issues, food and nutrition, education, nature/the environment, alternative health/medicine, money/personal finance, entrepreneurship, tarot/oracle/affirmation card decks, religion, men’s and women’s health, spiritual growth, and fitness.
https://hayhouse.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/227066427-Manuscript-Submission-Guidelines
For further reading, click on these links below
PS I paid for this course. I found it quite useful and relatively inexpensive.
Librarian's Guide to the Multiverse! 
I love it!
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Harry Leo Duran was a terrible human but he did introduce me to some of the most amazing movies. I walk around with dialogue and jokes in my head that few people can appreciate. Fortunately, I’m meeting more and more people thanks to his death so the odds of finding someone who has seen the same films is rising!
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Good on you, Barbara! I enjoyed this read, and you’re very gracious with how you share resources.
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