“Congratulations! It is with great pleasure to announce that you have been selected as a Book Excellence Award Finalist for the following book and category – Book Title: Women’s Wisdom: Pass It On! Category: Personal Growth/Development. There were hundreds of entries from around the world and your book was selected for its high quality writing, design and market appeal.” Joy!
What a fun and wonderful email that was to receive. A friend who does marketing drafted a press release for me, sending it out to various publications in the area. Within a week, my home town paper featured the whole article with photo; my, what a surprise it was to receive the newspaper that week. (http://news.gulfbreeze.com/articles/gulf-breeze-author-earns-another-intl-book-award/ ) Then I was listed in the Winners & Losers column in another local paper, with a different photo. (Whew! I was on the winners’ side.) Just today, part of the article appeared in yet another paper in a nearby city. Who knows what may yet happen?
Sharing my excitement, I posted a link to the article on Facebook; the response has been overwhelming – and uplifting. As of this morning, there were 1,398 views; by this afternoon, there were 1,499. Fantastic! On a normal day, sixty views is good for me. I don’t understand how it all works, but I’m happy that people are interested in my story. Comments ranged from “You go, girl!” to “You deserve this.” How uplifting it is to read their input and see the names of friends and many others whose names I don’t recognize. I feel so very fortunate – yes, because I won this award, but even more because others want to share the joy with me. Is there “success” when others don’t share it with you? I can’t picture it.
My thanks to all of you who cheered me on at every step of the process. Success shared is joy magnified.
by Kathleen Vestal Logan, MS, MA October 23, 2017