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Write On, Mom

Have Something to Say?
Get the Word Out!

By Mark Stackpole

Of course, part of being "real" in your writing is chronicling the hard times and the good ones. Ellington suffered from postpartum depression, and one of the main reasons she wanted to publish the book was to help moms who are struggling. "Becoming a mother is the biggest transformation a woman can go through," she says. "Life changes forever, so it's crazy to expect it to be easy like I did. Postpartum depression was the most difficult thing I have ever gone through. For a few months, my life didn't feel worth living. But now I can't imagine living life without children. The reality is, the first few months with a baby are tough. But it gets better and better."

While not everyone is going to be able to turn her e-mails into a best-selling book, there are a variety of routes to getting published. That doesn't mean it's going to be easy, though. "With 477 books published each day in the U.S., the competition is fierce," says Penny C. Sansevieri, a marketing expert and author of From Book to Bestseller: An Insider's Guide to Publicizing and Marketing Your Book! (PublishingGold.com, Inc., 2005).

To get a sense of the market, Sansevieri recommends that aspiring authors spend time in bookstores, surfing the Internet and reading discussion groups to find out what people are interested in and talking about. New writers also tend to put too much pressure on themselves to come up with a totally new idea. "The key is not to write something that's never been done before," she says. "If it's never been done, there's probably a reason. The key is to write something with a new angle. As you're trying to decide what to write, remember that sometimes the best books are those that are an 'inch wide and a mile deep.' The narrower the focus, the better the book."

Want to see more?

• The Lost Art of Letter Writing: How to Get Your Child to Pick up a Pen
• Expressions of the Heart: Writing Your Wife a Love Letter After Delivery
• Blogging the Baby: Keeping an Online Journal During Pregnancy and Beyond
• Talk about it!

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