First of all, I’m so sorry that it’s been few days since my goal date and I haven’t posted. I got the e-mail from Kickstarter that we’d reached the goal while I was sitting in a bridesmaid luncheon before my cousin Ali’s wedding on Saturday. Needless to say, I was pretty elated.

Once again, thank you all for your overwhelming support! I am so grateful for you and humbled by your generosity. Know that I literally could not be publishing my book without you!

I paid the publisher my first installment on Monday! 🙂 I’m so excited for this to actually be happening. Westbow set me up with my production team, and I talked to Maggie, my “Check-in-Coordinator” on Tuesday. She sent me about seven documents on where we go from here. First of all, I have to submit my manuscript. I have three more chapters that need a final-final edit, and then I need my mom to look over a couple of sections and their wording. By the end of next week I should have my manuscript submitted.

Then come all of the other details. I’ll be honest: the documents she sent me are a little overwhelming. As I’ve said, publishing with an independent company is cool because I have complete creative control, but I’m not always the best at making decisions. I’m somewhat easy-going, so I’m not great at deciding which option to go with because I genuinely could be okay with many of the options. Some of the details I have to start thinking about are what kind of image I want on the cover of my book, finalizing my author bio for the back cover, what text (aside from the title) I want on the cover, whether I’ll have endorsements in my “front matter” (the section before the actual book starts), etc. So, it’s cool to have creative control, but all of the details I have to creatively control are a little daunting. I’m just gonna have to try and take things one step at a time.

I won’t bore you with every minute step from here on out, but I will keep you updated with big steps in this process. To coordinate Kickstarter rewards, I’ll be contacting you in the near future asking for your mailing address, e-mail address, and other pertinent information.

Whew. I thought raising the money would be the “here we go” moment, but I was naive. Now, I’m realizing that it’s go time, and that’s pretty exciting after a long year of navigating uncertain territory. Pray for productivity, decisive decision making, and that God would establish this work. One of the verses from my quiet time yesterday is a great reminder in all of this: “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1a). Unless He goes before me, nothing of value will happen with my book, so I’m praying that He’ll lay the groundwork for my book and continue to lead me on.

Blessings! Hannah