The Face of Publishing is Changing

Author, Joan Wendland is one of those faces. 

She has received two Editors Choice awards and a movie option via the non-traditional publication of two books.

With the advent of electronic publishing and print on demand, non-traditional publishing is on the rise.  Nearly 775,000 books were published this way in the U.S. in 2009 alone.  More than double the 2008 figure and six times as many as 2007.

In traditional publishing millions of manuscripts are submitted a year. Only a few hundred thousand make it to market.  Only about ten percent of those are published by the five largest publishers. Good books are rejected everyday.

The author decided to self-published her first book since a previous rejection notice took one year to receive! She wanted a book in her hand before she died! Armed with a Masters Degree in Life Experience and a modest 401K to live on, she wrote Let's Fall in Love 'til Wednesday, published after her second job layoff—on April Fool's Day! 

Within six and one half months it was in Chicagoland Barnes and Noble stores, was featured in the Chicago Tribune AND it was optioned by a Golden Globe nominated producer to be made into a movie. Filming was to have begun in the Spring of 2009.  However, the economy tanked and so did this project at this time.  Stay tuned!

Reissued September 2011 this book also received an Editors Choice award. 

Joan Wendland spent twenty-five years as Alice in Corporateland and experienced three "off with your head" corporate layoffs—one on April Fool's Day.

After getting laid off for the third time Joan decided to wrap up her whole corporate experience with Alice in Corporateland: A Curiouser and Curiourser Bizness, based on her life and times in corporateland. It also received an Editor's Choice Award!

Both books are available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble and by request through book stores everywhere. 

Joan lived and worked in the Chicagoland area for many years but now lives in South Haven, Michigan, where she conducts creative writing workshops and does story performance on slices from her life called Living Outloud.