Changing the World: Book Launch Party

Who would've thunk it? Certainly, not I. 

Never in my wildest dream did I ever think that I would be writing about my daughter's book launch party but here I am today doing just that. It is truly amazing and a testament to how great God really is.

Read on and I'll tell you why...

I’ve always told my darling osita how great of a writer she is. She's so sincere and heart-felt for such a young girl her age. So, I tried to recall my earliest memory of her telling me that she wanted to be an author. I think back to the summer of last year when she was preparing her introduction speech for a pageant she was participating in for the very first time. She told me that she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast just like Gabi Douglas and a #1 best-selling author. She declared just that to the hundreds of people in the audience that day.

Well, fast forward to November of last year, just before Thanksgiving – I remember coming home after work one night and cooking dinner like I normally do. NB kept bugging me with this question about how to publish a book. I kept ignoring her until finally, after about the tenth time of her asking me, I snapped back and said "I don’t know, NB! Look it up online!" She did just that.

About 15 minutes later, she came running back in the kitchen and proceeded to ask me questions like: "what’s your email address," "what’s your telephone number," etc. I made it clear to her that I didn't want her submitting any of my information online but, of course, my little NB is unrelenting and so very persistent that she just kept asking. I, being pulled in a million directions between getting dinner ready and dealing with my younger two children, must’ve finally told her to just do it and leave me alone. I don’t recall doing so but she swears that I did. 

I didn’t hear anything else about the matter for the rest of the night.

Can you guess what happened the next day?

I got a call on my cell phone from an unknown number while I was at work so I let it go to voicemail. Turns out, it was the publishing company NB had submitted all of my information to, requesting that I give them a call back. I was completely shocked and blindsided! 

The first thought that came to mind was "I’m going to kill this girl when I get home!" I then make the biggest mistake of calling them back from my work phone, because now they have my work number, and I told them that it was a big misunderstanding and that my 10 year old daughter was behind it all. 

I honestly thought that was going to be the end of it but, of course, it wasn’t. The representative I spoke to was somehow impressed by the fact that a 10 year-old girl had the know-how to do this all on her own. She wanted to know more. She wanted to know what kind of book NB wrote, how many pages it had, did she illustrate it – the questions just kept coming. I finally had to let her know that I was at work and couldn’t go into details at that very moment. She offered to call me back. 

I remember telling my co-workers what this little girl had gotten me into and they thought it was the funniest and cutest thing ever.

When I got home that night, the first thing out of my mouth when I saw NB was "I can’t believe you! You actually gave those people all of my information and they called me!"

Now, any other child would’ve thought they were in big trouble but not my little NB. She almost shot through the roof with excitement and joy over the fact that they actually called back! I’m not going to lie, her reaction was pretty priceless so I finally asked her to let me see this “book” she had written.

When I finally read it, I was blown away. I couldn’t believe she came up with this all by herself. I mean, it was such a positive message and the fact that she acknowledged the Lord and even quoted a scripture was everything to me! I, honestly, couldn’t have been more proud of her at that moment.

To make a longer story short (or maybe just a little shorter), the publishing company called me back the next day and I gave them all the details. The representative stalked me at work for over two weeks to the point where I had to tell the receptionist at my job to tell her to stop calling me or else I would loose my job. It was crazy!

In the end though, it was just too expensive for us to commit to, especially with Christmas right around the corner. I had to explain that to NB but, of course, like any other child, she didn’t understand that and she was so heartbroken over it.

I had to find another way.

So, in doing some research, I finally came across a student-publishing kit and thought it would be a perfect Christmas gift for her. I asked my brother, her uncle, to gift it to her for Christmas. She loved it! 

She was able to illustrate the book on her own, using their online tools, and she finished the book towards the end of February, of this year. It took a while for her to actually receive the hard copy, but it finally arrived on April 22nd, which also happened to be Earth Day! Given the topic and content of her book, I thought that was pretty cool and meaningful, in a way.  

O.K., now I thought that was the end of it, right? She finally got what she wanted. End of story, right? 

Wrong.

NB began showing it to anybody and everybody that would listen and the response was truly overwhelming. People wanted to know how they could purchase a copy. The secretary at her school even called me asking to buy a copy and demanded that NB have a book signing before the end of the school year, which, at that point, was about a month away! So here I go scrambling again to find out how I could order more copies.

I contacted the company that sold the student-publishing kit only to find out that it would cost $24.99 plus S+H to reproduce each copy and, on top of that, NB wouldn’t get a dime in royalties.

We just knew that wasn’t going to be a viable option.

I was so distraught and didn't know what to do. My daughter wrote this beautiful book and she couldn’t even sell any copies of it.

I had to find another way.

Then, by the Grace of God, I eventually found a way to make it work and here we are celebrating the launch of her book.

I say all of this to say that God is truly amazing and He, most definitely, gets all the glory!

I can’t tell you how many times I put this project on the back-burner because I was too busy doing other things but God kept whispering in my heart – you have to do this, you have to do this for your daughter. Her message is important and needs to be shared with the world – and every time I thought this project was over, another step revealed itself and sent me on a wild goose chase to make it happen. 

If I learned anything at all throughout this process, it’s that we, as parents, have an obligation to do all we can to make sure our children succeed. If I was born for no other reason than to make sure my children have what they need to succeed in life than I welcome that challenge proudly. 

Often times we get wrapped up in trying to succeed in our own lives but I learned that it should never be at the expense of our children and their future. 

So, I challenge everyone to purchase a copy here and when you reading your copy, think of ways you can affect change in our world and help our next generation soar! 

To my dear NB,

I hope this is the beginning of great things for you. I know that your future is bright and I can't wait to see what's in store for you next. You were on Cloud 9 the day of your launch party! The look and smile on your face as you signed copies of your book was priceless. I'm glad I was able to help this dream come true for you, mi amor. My God continue to bless you and guide you down the right path. You're awesome, my love!