Move with me

Follow Me . . . Please

Charlie Sheen has a famous father, Adonis in his family tree, a lot of money, goddesses, tiger's blood and a mercury surfboard.  I just have my passion for fighting congenital heart disease, a sense of humor, and a good book.  Charlie Sheen had a million twitter followers in about 15 minutes; I just need 500.  That's my goal.  So, even if you hate Twitter, you can sign up and only follow me! Try it . . .

Go to this address: http://twitter.com/#!/amandaroseadams  and follow me on Twitter.  I know, Twitter seems lame to most of us who remember the 1984 Olympics, and I didn't really want to use it, but I need it.  I need Twitter to get published, and I need you.  There I admit it, now please help me and sign up for twitter and follow me.  You don't have to follow anyone else.  It's painless, I promise.

You're on the old blog, please check out the new blog at this address: http://halfheartwholelife.blogspot.com/
This is the blog for the book.  Search for the words "Follow" and "Subscribe" on the page and follow and subscribe to the blog.  If this scares you, ask a teenager for help.  :)

Here's the deal, I wrote a book.  Several literary agents (more than five but less than twenty) have told me the writing is good and these folks know their writing, but I have to prove that despite the recession and the public's love of all things Sheen and Lohan, that maybe, just maybe there is a market for the story about girl meets boy, falls in love, has baby and battles for his life.

So, please help.  Help me prove that Americans (and my rockin' Aussie, Costa Rican, and EU friends out there)  have more substance that a wild fascination with a substance abuser with tiger's blood.  It's as easy as clicking some links and telling your friends.

Pass it on! Tell your friends! Help me make this more viral than the stomach bug that took down my husband over the weekend and caused Liam to produce a huge bowl of mashed bananas for mommy to dump down the toilet - see my life is not so glamorous, but this book matters because it shines a light on CHD and the fact that normal people can do extraordinary things.

Oh yeah, and post comments!  Show the love, and know I love all my friends and family who've supported us these past eight years. 

New Name Same Story

So I have good news, bad news, and no news.  The good news is that six agents have asked for proposals and the bad is that two of the six have passed.  The no news is that there's no news from the four who have it and I must proceed with caution and not harass them lest they find me annoying. . .

The other news is that I've changed the title of the book. It's now Half Heart, Whole Life.  If it's not too much trouble, please hop over to the new site and subscribe to that too!

Thanks all!

http://halfheartwholelife.blogspot.com/

Cross your Digits

So, after sixty-seven rejections, an agent finally asked to READ the whole manuscript today.  I hope, hope, hope she has the same reaction to it that some of the AMAZING bookclub bees had last night and just can't put it down, and yes I hope it makes her cry!

I know that's awful, but at the same time the more attached she gets to my book the harder it will be for her to reject it.  So, cross your fingers and toes that our friendly literary agent needs a tissue or two and stays riveted to the book!

And special thanks to those beautiful bees who let me into the hive and sent me home humming.  Thanks Sue & Deb for the little bit of sweet honey comb that gave me some very needed encouragement!

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Will you still need me when I'm 64?

Sixty-four rejections.  I'm recycling the printed ones for shopping lists!  The one that hurts the worst was from the only person who wanted a proposal/partial.  She liked the writing and the story but doesn't expect she can sell it. 

I am feeling a bit down about it all.  It's a lot of work to query, and to get so much rejection is par of the course, but I feel like I've missed out on a lot of my actual life trying to get this book published.  I'm considering self-publishing, but we'll see where things go.  I'm giving myself at lest until Liam's birthday at the end of April before I give up on agents all-together. 

I worked REALLY hard at this process and did all the right research, so it's not like I've not done things the right way.  It's more that things aren't going my way.  I won't spend too long feeling down though; I've overcome far worse problems than this.  Still, it's a little depressing when no one says yes.

Seven in One Day!

I'm up to 51 rejections, and seven of them came today - five in the mail! I'm so glad I spent those $5 on postage! Jim is actually more upset than I am, but it's all good.  Rejection is a right of passage, I just didn't think I'd have fifty-one rejections and only one person ask to read more. 

We'll see, I have another 49 queries floating around in cyberspace and snail mail.  Like they say, you only need ONE.  We'll see.  There should be some press coverage on the reading group next week, so we'll see how that goes.  Always the optimist - that's the role of a Heart Mom, and I'm a veteran.

Wish me luck, if I don't get any serious interest by my birthday I'll start looking at alternative channels.