Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Perfect...on Paper

There's something to be said for following dreams. I've followed mine into business school, though 5 years ago, that's not likely what I dreamt. Maria on the other hand has been following her dreams for 3 years.

Tonight, I ventured into the city for one last night of festivities before tomorrow's trek to Colorado. It was a good friend's birthday (a heaven sent angel as I recall my b-school essay reviews). We met at a local bar and I ran into Maria, a fellow soccer stud. She mentioned that she may speak at UVA in the future for her book and next thing I knew, I was listening to the story of how she wrote the book. She always said she wanted to write a book, but never started. A short trip to Argentina resulted in a year stay and the first draft of her book. She shopped it to a number of agents and one found it aw inspiring. However, the publishers said "chicklet", which is the category of book she wrote, was on its way out. The aftermath of Bridget Jone's Diary had sucked out all the readers. After millions of disappointments, she decided to go it alone and publish the book herself. The release was well met by friends and family, but to her surprise, the book received even greater acceptance from the general public. Maria has marketed via word-of-mouth and other innovative channels. She's a case study of her own. However, without a publisher, the book will never be sold in stores such as Borders or Barnes & Noble. Given that she has won a number of awards for the book this year, she's hoping that she can take the book and its awards to a publisher soon and this time hear positive news instead of negative.

In my opinion Maria Murnane is inspiration at its best!

With the crazy interview schedule around the corner, odds are it'll take me a month to read this book, but I'm looking forward to it! And will post a full review when complete.

Check out her page: www.mariamurnane.com

1 comment:

Maria Murnane said...

Hey chica, thanks for your nice words! Have you had a chance to read my book yet?