I’m Publishing an E-Book!

Big news, people: I’m in the final stages of publishing my very own e-book. I’m taking a lesson from Oprah’s “Lifeclass” and repackaging my best content over the years into a Brand! New! Shiny! E-book!

Clearly, I decided that the holidays weren’t stressful enough, so in addition to starting a new session of my writing classes in January, I also opted to take on this major, time-consuming project of the e-book at the same time. You know, just in case the shopping and the wrapping and the cards and the cookie-baking didn’t keep me busy enough. And did I mention that my youngest is home on a 3-week break from preschool? Yeah…

So anyway, the 50-page e-book is meant to be short, funny, factual, and for new and expectant moms. (Although to be totally honest, the pre-readers who’ve liked it the most are not starry-eyed first-timers, but moms who already have a kid or two and love the look back at my newbie-mom naivete. I tell myself they’re laughing WITH me, not AT me, but hey, I’ll take it.)

The e-book is titled, Mama Insider: Laughing (And Sometimes Crying) All the Way Through Pregnancy, Birth, and the First 3 Months. Along with some brand-new content, it includes some of my best hits, like “Is that the Baby’s Nose?!”; “You Might Be a New Mom If…”; “Weekends: Then & Now” and “How to Lose the Baby Weight (And Possibly Your Hair).” It’s the same brand of PG/PG-13-rated parenting humor you’ve come to expect from me, only polished, prettified, and funnied-up.

If all goes well, this e-book will be the first in a series. Because you know I’ve got LOADS of material. I could do an entire e-book on toddler trials, work-at-home mom mishaps, homeownership woes… You get the idea. The possibilities are endless.

I’m not going to pretend that this e-book or the subsequent ones will CHANGE YOUR LIFE and that you MUST BUY THEM NOW or you’ll MISS OUT FOREVER. This isn’t an infomercial for Shark vacuum cleaners. (Although I did fall for that one, and I do love my Shark vacuum. This is not a sponsored link.)

So I’ll just say this: the e-book’s funny. I have confirmation of that from people who aren’t even related to me. Also, I worked really hard on it and had my grammar-Nazi, English-teacher mother proofread it for me. I even got a designer to create a cool logo for the cover. And lastly, it’s only gonna cost about $5. Admit it: you spent more than that at Starbucks the other day. (I know I did.)

So that’s it, people! My big news. Since many of you have been reading me since I was just a wee little blogger with traffic in the single digits, I wanted you to be the first to know and to share my excitement. Because without readers like you, it wouldn’t have happened. I would just be spending this month wrapping presents and baking cookies like a normal person.

LINK O’ THE DAY: Speaking of e-books, check out this round-up by Christina Katz, who also has a brand-new book out, “The Writer’s Workout.” Several of these folks are also past students of my essay classes, so I can vouch for the fact that they’re all fab writers. Enjoy!