Stop me if I've bubbled about this already! I went to my meeting with my Voc Rehab counselor... and they are willing to fund my publishing projects, if my publisher is willing to become an official vendor! That's so that they don't give money to me and have me squander it wantonly... and so they can keep track of every penny they spend and so forth.

So far, I haven't heard back from my publisher on this issue. It never occured to me that she might not cooperate with the process, which is hardly a bother anyway... and all she will have to do is to bill the State of Florida, sign a voucher, get a check, and go full-tilt boogie on putting me into POD! So at least I have some hope... and if she is not willing to do this for some strange reason, oh well! I guess I will have to find a publisher who is....

I would hate to break ties with her at this point, because she has proven herself competant, trustworthy, and very, very nice to work with! But I guess I will have to do what I have to do.

Bright Blessings,
Lil

Lil, help me out here...I'm not sure how all of this is working. Can you explain?

ps, Lil you amaze me! Here you are in the middle of this situation with your spouse, mother-in-law, friend, and her children and you are submitting work online. I'm impressed girl!

<blush> Well, what's happening is that I have already started the publishing process with Synerge, and they have already produced 3 of my book-length manuscripts as eBooks (there's going to be a 4th very soon, too). But in order to get my books into print, POD, I've got to put some money up front, because Deb, my publisher, can't afford to pay for all her writers to go into print. So I'm getting Vocational Rehabilitation to foot the bill, because *I* can't afford to get myself into print, either.... but V.R. can only pay to have me emerge into print if the publisher is an official vendor with the State of Florida.

Becoming a vendor is ridiculously easy these days... Deb has already done the application online, and she should be approved shortly. Basically, she will need to submit separate bills for each of my books' POD set up fees and such... then she signs the voucher paperwork that they will send her... and then they send her a check, hopefully in a week or so after she completes the paperwork. Voila! I get published, acquire a minimal first order of 30 copies or so of each paperback, and I'm free to arrange book signings and such (God help me, I've never done that before)... and send them out as bribes for reviews and all. I'm mostly counting on the cookbook for my initial success as an author... but if I have paperbacks available for Ghosts 101 and the Tarot book, Deb will be able to list them on Amazon.com (I was there once before, with the screwed-up POD version of Ghosts 101 that my former publisher plopped out into the market place. THAT was humiliating, having a horribly flawed book be my first emergence onto Amazon.com. I then had to go begging Amazon and other wonderful places to STOP marketing my book, because my former publisher was no longer authorized to produce or sell those flawed copies. Well, it didn't sell very well, only 19 copies for the year, so I'm hoping the new edition from Synerge won't be tainted by the first disaster.)

How am I actually sitting down to do this, while the rest of my life is a freakin' disaster? Heh heh, I have wanted this my entire life... I'm not going to let anything or anyone stand in my way, regardless. This is my life, my dream; OK, my dream of spending eternity with my soul mate has completely shattered and splattered...if I let BOTH my dreams die, I might as well be dead, too.

I may not have a warrior's body... but I have a warrior's spirit....

Well, someone's snoring incredibly loudly about 4 feet away from me. Computer's in the bedroom, and someone's trying to catch a few winks before both kids wake up. I HATE the sound of snoring...can't stand it at all... so I'm gonna take a break until my friend wakes up.

Bright Blessings,
Lil