Though I always point to MOMMY, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO as my first book, that’s not quite accurate. Technically I wrote one and a half books before it. But I lacked the faith in myself to call myself a book author or pursue publication.
MOMMY, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO was published in 1993, less than a year after I wrote it and sent it around to a number of publishers. But it was back in 1984 that a friend contacted me and told me she had been approached by a company that wanted her to ghostwrite a book she didn’t have time for…and she was suggesting I take on the task instead.
The details surrounding the book are too arcane and convoluted to go into here. Suffice it to say the topic was medical, the company was outside the mainstream publishing world, and the plan included selling the book to doctors who would each order copies to be printed with their name as the byline, to be given or sold to patients. I was aghast that my friend would consider recommending me for the gig. I had never written a book, only short-form stuff, and I didn’t have faith in my own ability to write a whole book let alone get it published.
But here was an opportunity to write a pre-sold book. Okay, it wouldn’t have my name on it, but the money would be mine. And unless I effed up badly, it was a guaranteed thing.
I accepted the assignment and began work on the book…but 1984 was the year I moved from New York down to Florida, and the move occurred while I was in the middle of writing the book, totally wrecking my writing schedule. The deadline to finish the book was looming, and I knew I’d never pack up the contents of my house, make the move, set up my new home, and finish the book on schedule. I contacted the company that had hired me, and begged for a deadline extension.
No dice. They wanted the book by the contract date. Period. End of discussion. So I asked if a friend could finish writing the book for me. As long as it was done by deadline, they answered. Which accounts for the half a book I mentioned above. I wrote the first half; Jesse wrote the second half.
The other book I wrote before MOMMY, THERE’S NOTHING TO DO was OCTOPUS PIE. I didn’t set out to write a book when I wrote that one. I kinda wrote iit “by accident.” You see, I’m a great devotée of wordplay. I even belong to an online punsters’ group, have been both a contestant and a judge (not at the same time!) in an annual wordplay competition in Austin TX, and was once honored as Punster of the Year by the International Save the Pun Foundation. (No, I did not make that up—it really exists.)
So one day I had the word “octopus” in mind—I no longer remember why—and thought of the plural, “octopi,” which led wordplayer me to tack an “e” on at the end and make it “octopie,” which I thought might be something like chicken pot pie only with octopus in the chicken’s role. And my mind took off, riffing on “octopus pie,” and pretty soon I found myself writing rhymed couplets to do with fishing for an octopus to bake in a pie.
It turned into a book. And I even made a few half-hearted attempts to send the book around to various publishers of children’s books, but to no great success. Well, I told myself, what had I expected? After all, I wasn’t a REAL book-writer. I wasn’t even a college grad. The only writing credits I had to my name were that half-a-book for that company back in 1984 and a bunch of short-form stuff that didn’t pay well. I filed OCTOPUS PIE away in a drawer.
Ironically, I was working as an editor at the time—of several magazines, not books. And in 1992, when my then best friend was wailing that she didn’t know how she was going to keep her two kids amused over the upcoming Christmas school break, I had an idea: How about persuading the publisher for whom I was working to bring out a one-shot magazine filled with activities to keep kids busy over the Easter break? (It was too close to the Christmas break by then to get the magazine written, edited, laid out, proofed, printed, and distributed in time for Christmas break…but Easter break was only a few months away.)
I approached the publisher with my idea, but he turned me down.
The idea had a hold of me, however, and it wouldn’t let go. I still didn’t have that much faith in myself, but I had faith in the idea. It was a good one!
My editing position was freelance. I worked from home and got paid for each magazine issue I edited rather than getting a weekly salary. If the publisher had greenlighted my idea, it would have been another issue to edit and another paycheck.
There was nothing legally or morally stopping me from taking the idea to another publisher, but if I did, they’d likely give the magazine to one of their own editors, and I’d miss out. There was only one answer: Audacious as it seemed, I’d have to turn it into a book!
There weren’t many activity books around in 1992, and once I’d completed the book and started sending it around, a major New York publisher quickly snapped it up. Emboldened, I started wriiting a follow-on…another activity book, but with a different angle. The same publisher picked up that one, as well as a third book. I was on a roll!
My fourth book went to another publisher, which then contacted me about writing a book for kids (rather than for parents), which was followed by two more books for kids. With every book that I wrote, my confidence grew. I really saw myself as a book author now and, as I turned out book after book, there was no stopping me.
I lost track after 100. I honestly don’t know how many published books I have to my credit today. (If you’re curious about them, I invite you to visit www.cynthiamacgregor.com.)
And yes, OCTOPUS PIE finally did get published—first by a tenth-rate publisher that introduced a typo into it, then, when that contract ran out, by an e-publisher, which was not a good placement for a picturebook, and finally by Roundtable, where it has at last found a good home.
Along the road I found an ever-growing faith in myself, without which I could never have written (or sold to publishers) the over-100 books I now have to my credit. Which just goes to prove that if you believe in yourself, there is much you can achieve, but without that faith in yourself, you’re going nowhere.
Do you have faith in yourself? Then go out and accomplish something meaningful. You can do it. You know the formula now: Believe…and achieve.