I’ve never been a co-author before, but I have no doubt it has it’s unique benefits and challenges.
Today, I’m visiting with Mary Potter Kenyon and Mary Jedlicka Humston, co-authors of Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink, which released earlier this month. Be sure to check out the details below for a chance to win a free signed copy of the book.
Let’s find out how these two Marys managed co-authoring.
What was it like to co-author?
Mary Kenyon Potter: Co-writing was a special blessing for me. My husband had encouraged two of my writing projects through some pretty rough times. In fact, he was my biggest encourager. When those books were finally accepted and released, David was no longer there to celebrate with me. He’d passed away 7 months before I signed a contract. I couldn’t enjoy those firsts: the advance copies in the mail, my book displayed in a Barnes & Noble window, etc. Working on this project with Mary has been a huge blessing because I get to see all those firsts through her eyes. I believe God gave me a beautiful gift in that opportunity.
As far as difficulties, it was matter of learning how to work with each other’s strengths and writing styles and an initial adjusting to sharing the load. It didn’t take us long to figure out a sort of pattern that worked. Now that we are planning workshops and programs, we are having to adjust again; this time to two different styles of public speaking and preparation.
Mary Jedlicka Humston: Co-writing a book with a friend is an amazing adventure. Writing, editing, promotion and marketing, and the joy of seeing our book in print were shared and allowed an already strong friendship to be deepened even further. I joked that all good friends should write a book together to enjoy that deeper level of bonding. Because this is my first book and Mary has been published before with the same publisher, it was advantageous to have her experience along the journey. I was grateful for her wisdom and ideas since she has been there before and could offer advice, explanations, and help.
We live 90 miles apart, and that distance has been a challenge at times. While it requires three hours, round trip, every time we meet, it’s very important to have face-to-face visits to accomplish tasks. We also realized the value of frequent phone calls when we needed to clarify misconceptions in some rare hastily worded emails. We also discovered we can’t let too much time pass between our letters, phone calls, and visits. We must create time for frequent contact and communication, and that can be a challenge with the distance and our busy schedules.
Why did you write Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Though Ink?
Mary Jedlicka Humston: Mary and I have been writers for many years. It didn’t take long before we began critiquing each other’s work. Every once in a while we’d ponder in our letters about writing a book together, especially since people have always been amazed by the sheer number and frequency of letters sent back and forth between us. Yet, there were always obstacles preventing the idea from going further. Last spring we seriously bandied it about, but it didn’t become a reality until a definite nudge from above led Mary to announce at a meeting where she was the speaker that her next book would be one written by us. The moment she said it, I knew it was true. We also wrote our book to promote letter writing and to show the importance of friendship.
Mary Potter Kenyon: My hope is that women will share this book in their book clubs and women’s groups and utilize the discussion questions at the back to open up lines of communication. How many women out there are like I was: not sure how to make, or keep, friends? And how many are like my co-writer, Mary Jedlicka Humston: with too many friends to count? While letter writing may have been the link that held our friendship together for nearly thirty years, it was after my husband’s death in 2012 that our friendship was strengthened by personal visits when Mary took me out to lunch once a month for eighteen months straight. In this book, we openly discuss issues like envy, anxiety, lack of time, our mutual love of writing, and our personal faith journey.
In the book, you say “The face of envy is not becoming on anyone.” Why do you feel that way?
Mary Potter Kenyon: I wrote that in our chapter on jealousy. Envy is a very ugly, complicated emotion, and uncomfortable when it comes up between friends. I knew we needed to delve into this topic in our book because it is a reality: we will feel envious of our friends at times. How then do we deal with it? The bottom line is that envy and jealousy, though inevitable, can be controlled, and I have learned to consciously replace envy with joy for the other person. Joy is a much more pleasant emotion to experience. Contentment and gratitude for the blessings in our own life shines through our eyes and makes us much more attractive.
What’s the most important thing readers will learn from your book?
Mary Jedlicka Humston: One thing would be to treasure your friendships. Hold them close to your heart. Mary and I chose to write copious letters to link our friendship all those years, but how you keep connected isn’t as important as that you stay connected. Also, I hope it will encourage everyone to return to letter writing. Pick up the pen, get some note cards or stationery, and then just write, write, write. Receiving a handwritten note is a true gift. When I dealt with thyroid cancer surgeries and treatments in 2008, opening up my mail added joy to my day.
How are you tackling marketing your book?
Both Marys: We put together a solid marketing strategy in our initial book proposal. While our publisher will do a large part in promoting our book, we knew from the start we needed to do the same. So, quite some time ago, we created a Facebook page for Mary & Me to build a “buzz” about it before it was even published. We held a “name the sub-title of our book” contest, complete with a basket of goodies as the prize, and that generated dozens of ideas. Each of us having our own author pages on Facebook has also been important. We have a Mary & Me blog that immediately posts onto our Facebook page. We already have several “Letter-Writing 101” workshops and readings booked at bookstores and libraries, along with “Girlfriend teas” at tearooms and cafes, with other potential events in the wings. We plan to send out press releases to area newspapers. Our book came out this month, which is National Female Friendship Month, so we are planning events and blog reviews with that in mind. We are approaching bloggers and those with websites that pertain to either friendship or letter writing to write reviews for us. And, we hope that many readers will do the same on Goodreads or Amazon once they’ve read the book.
That’s a solid plan and has the potential for a lot of fun. What advice do you have for writers concerning finding and gaining a publisher?
Mary Potter Kenyon: We can’t forget that publishing is a business and we need to present our writing in a professional manner. The book proposal is your business plan. I spend a lot of time on a proposal, with hours of research beforehand. Sometimes it is all about finding the right fit for your book. I approached 88 agents and publishers with a book about caregiving through cancer before I stuck it in a file cabinet and began pitching a different book, an ethnographic history of the cultural phenomenon of extreme couponing. I pitched that book to just a handful of agents and ended up with representation fairly quickly. I had two different New York agents that pitched my coupon book for a few months and then found a publisher for it myself shortly after my last contract ended. That publisher accepted the caregiving book that had remained stashed away for five years. I had to rework it because I’d become a better writer in the ensuing years. A few months later, the same publisher accepted my book about finding hope in grief. Familius has the same vision for my books as I do, and that is important to me. This will be my fourth book published with them.
What did you know going into this whole publishing process that helped you the most?
Mary Potter Kenyon: I think my previous experience with this particular publisher helped us know how to prepare and present a proposal, what to expect in the editing process, and what was, and is, expected of us as the authors when it comes to marketing and promotion. I also believe it was my previous experience that made it much easier to garner blurb endorsements for this book. I had collected our first one before we even sent the proposal! The right foreword or endorsement can help an author sell their idea to a publisher.
What did you learn—good and bad—through all this that you’ll apply to the next time?
Mary Jedlicka Humston: This book was unique because we were coauthors. The co-writing experience taught me how honest communication creates an environment of openness. Mary and I knew that any suggestion for the good of the book, no matter how ridiculous, would be considered. Openness like this allowed some rather far-fetched ideas to be accepted that might not have been without our ability to communicate along the way. An added bonus? We were amazed how our already strong friendship deepened even more.
**Book Giveaway**
Leave a relevant comment or question below to be entered to win a free signed copy of Mary & Me.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Mary Potter Kenyon is widely published in magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. She is a popular speaker and workshop presenter. Her previous books include Coupon Crazy: The Science, the Savings, and the Stories Behind America’s Extreme Obsession, Chemo-Therapist: How Cancer Cured a Marriage, and Refined By Fire: A Journey of Grief and Grace. Find her at MaryPotterKenyon.com
Writer/poet/speaker Mary Jedlicka Humston has had over 150 poems and essays published at the local and national level, with one poem selected to be projected on the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature “Poems on the Wall” in Nov. 2014. Contact her on Facebook at Mary Jedlicka Humston.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Mary and Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink explores a thirty-year friendship between two women: one who had never learned to cultivate female friendships, and the other who had managed to gather and maintain a large group of friends throughout her adult life. The fact that thousands of handwritten letters between them linked these two together is just part of the intriguing story. Mary Potter Kenyon, the author of Refined by Fire, Coupon Crazy, and Chemo-Therapist, and her co-writer Mary Jedlicka Humston share an unforgettable friendship that will inspire you to pick up your pen and begin writing “Dear . . .”
Published by Familius Mary & Me can be purchased directly from the publisher, on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and through your local bookstore.
Beautiful book, amazing women!