My first (collaborative) book – Journey so far and the path ahead

In the last 5 years, I have self-published couple of books exclusively for my family circle and an e-book on Blogchatter. Yet the possibility of working on a book for a global audience, and with a publishing house, from the scratch is always a first-time experience. Guess this is the novelty that keeps authors (and budding ones) to continue working on books and articles. Having engaged readers, like you, is always a pleasure, as it helps in improving my skills as a writer. 

I remember when I first saw the email from Let’s Author in July 2022 requesting me to get in touch with them, to get onboarded as an author for a parenting book titled How to Parent in a Crazy World. I thought that the email was a phishing email.

So the first step was to search for Let’s Author online, and to my surprise, I saw my college senior’s post on social media where she was backing an author for the book One for the Road. I still went ahead and ignored this email for almost a month or more. Suddenly in September 2022, I find the same message from Let’s Author on my LinkedIn messaging Inbox. This time I decided to engage with them. Given my personal & professional commitments, I let them know that until end of October 2022 there was no way I could spare time for this opportunity. Having said that, I wanted to, at the very least, have a conversation to understand what their proposal was. So, we decided to get on a call by end of September 2022 and from that point there has been no looking back. 

In December 2022, crowdfunding went live for this book. With no cohesion in the team, each of the initial collaborating authors spread the word of our book in our network, but the combined push was lacking and hence the crowdfunding did not take off, despite the immense value of the book. I was a bit disappointed. I decided to find out more about CEO of Let’s Author & the company, on LinkedIn, only to find that she was an alumni from my alma mater, BITS Pilani. Now the urge to connect with her was even stronger, when we were informed that the Lead Author had dropped off the project for personal reasons, and our book co-ordinator was also leaving Let’s Author.

The crowdfunding was supposed to close by 15th Jan 2023. I was told that if the pre-orders did not reach the target of 500, then this project will be scrapped. The pre-orders were the way to fund for the publishing of the book as well as see how well the book and its concept was received by the readers, a kind of a dip-stick survey of the public interest. The team that remained came together and got that extended, given that the lead author and book co-ordinator left us abruptly. 

Without any delay, I decided to bell the cat and sent an email to the entire team of remaining collaborating authors with a copy to Let’s Author asking for clarification on the status of this project along with highlighting the lapse in communication and cohesion within the team and coordination between the author team and Let’s Author publishing & marketing team. This paved the way for many changes to come including:

• A change in title of the book – Raising Children in a Changing World
• Moving into the Lead Author role for this new title, along with Jayne Ruff.
• While Jayne reworked on the concept of the book, by bringing clarity to its USP, we all brainstormed for additional chapters based on which we could source for collaborating authors & I handle the programme management aspects of the book.
• From the team of 5 who were remaining from the original project for which we came together, today we are a team of 12 collaborating authors, with each of them contributing one chapter to the book.

You can read about each of us and the chapter blurbs to know the value that we all are trying to bring to you through our book that has our parenting life stories on the crowdfunding page. The chapter blurbs can be found under the Content tab. 

What is the value that we are striving to bring to you through our effort?

Most parenting books available today are functional guides. Not a single one discusses how to become reflexive parents ourselves, attuned to our times. This is an emotional support book for parents raising kids in times of change and uncertainty. In an evolving world that’s fast-paced, unpredictable, ambiguous, and often different to our experienced childhoods, for better or worse. It’s a collection of honest and unfiltered stories from a group of international parents who hope that through openly sharing the highs and lows of their parenting journeys, they can offer reassurance, guidance, and friendship to others as they navigate theirs.

How do we plan on bringing this to you through our book?

• Sharing real-life, relatable stories about the different changes and choices facing parents today
• Offer a global perspective on parenting in a complex and ever-changing world.
• Provide practical advice based on personal experience on adapting and responding to the changes within and around us.
• Its honesty and diversity affirm that there is no one way of parenting but many.

Estimated Date of Publication/Book Launch: 30th October 2023

Here is a list of chapter titles you will see in the book:

• Chapter 1: Parenting Ourselves Before We Parent Our Children
• Chapter 2: Raising Happy Kids and Balancing a Meaningful Career
• Chapter 3: Being a 'Woke' Amma
• Chapter 4: Raising Gender Sensitive Kids 
• Chapter 5: Raising Kids in a Virtual World 
• Chapter 6: Parenting and Mental Health 
• Chapter 7: Parenting and Learning from My Special Needs Son 
• Chapter 8: Raising My Children While Re-Parenting Myself 
• Chapter 9: Raising Kids in A World Of Distraction And High Demand 
• Chapter 10: Raising a Kid as a Single Parent 
• Chapter 11: Supporting our Children through their ‘Coming Out’ Journey
• Chapter 12: Empowering from Birth

To read the chapter blurbs visit - https://payment.letsauthor.com/order?book=How-to-Parent-in-A-Crazy-World, click on Content tab, and the chapter title that you would like to glimpse. 

And if you are happy with what you are reading and would like to own a copy and support us in getting the book published, you can pre-order your copy as well by clicking on the Order Now button on the right panel. You can also see the names of the people who are backing us by placing the pre-orders under the Backers tab.

While the aspiration to write books has been a constant, this is the first time I am working with a team and I am enjoying this process of collaborative building of a book from it concept to the end product. Do visit book page and leave a comment here about what you think about our project. And do grab your copy by pre-ordering the same to learn from lived experiences of our parenting journeys to support you in yours. Do look us up on our socials and we will be happy to strike up a conversation on parenting challenges to arrive at better solutions to overcome /address them. 

The team is currently working on the individual chapters for the manuscript to be developed and sent to the publishing team in a couple of months to be on track for an October 2023 launch. 

This blog is part of Blogchatter’s:

• #CauseAChatter challenge, as this is one of the ways by which I am leaving behind my responsible #DigialFootprints as well as working together with the team for the benefit of the larger collective, not just the team benefiting by publishing, but carefully bringing authors and their respective parenting stories for the rest of the world to also benefit from their journeys and lessons.
• #TBRChallenge (#BookChatter) for the year 2023. Of course I am going to read my own book while building the manuscript as well as after. 

I also hope to see my book on the Blogchatter’s book review programme, but that is still a long time away as the book launch is only in October 2023.