When I became a victim of the recession in December 2009, I purposed in my heart that with God’s help, I would do everything within my power to create multiple income streams. It’s been a long time coming, but the days of depending on a single employer to finance your basic life’s needs seem to be over for good. Our parents and grandparents could look forward to working for a single company until their retirement. That’s no longer the case. So after more than 25 years in information technology, I decided to do something about it.
In December, I sent a proposal to the technical publications division of McGraw-Hill. The proposal outlined details of what I believe is, to date, my magnum opus. The book is entitled “Principles for Maturing Your System Development Life Cycle: The Ultimate Guide to the SDLC.” I call it by its subtitle for short. Within two days, I received a positve response from McGraw-Hill. One of the first things the managing editor asked was “Do you do any kind of social networking or blogging to help promote yourself?” The answer at that time was “no.” In January, I decided to test the waters of social networking with outstanding results. I began earnestly writing the book in February and worked full-time 80 hours or more a week until I finished in mid-May.
That’s when the interesting part started. McGraw-Hill backed out of the project. I worked long and hard with the managing editor preparing presentations, concise proposals for their marketing staff, and much more. Unfortunately, during the time I was writing, the division lost several key senior editors. As a result, McGraw-Hill technical divison placed a moratorium on all book publishing for the remainder of 2010 or until they could resolve their personnel issues. What could I do? This is something completely outside of my control. Afterwards, I corresponded with Capers Jones, another McGraw-Hill author, who found himself in the same boat as I except he was working on his 18th book. He suggested I resubmit the proposal to a couple of publishers he had worked with in the past. I never heard from them.
I began wondering what God was doing. When this project started, I felt competely at peace that God was leading me to write the book. I felt His presence daily as I prayed over each of the 326 pages with their 6,240 paragraphs, 14,972 lines, 126,275 words and 815,163 characters. The book turned out to be a masterful collection of best practices for system development in the 21st century. There’s nothing like it on today’s market. But the only problem is, I still needed a publisher, or did I? I’ve learned through experience that when one door seemingly closes, God often opens another door better than the first. This is the 21st century and I possess a broad array of IT, marketing and leadership skills. Why can’t I use the talents God has given me and put them to work for me, with His Divine help of course?
Many authors have had their lives changed when they followed the self-publishing route. After praying fervently, God gave me three-very specific answers to prayer during the month of October as confirmation of His will and direction for this book. The prayers He answered, He did so within 24 hours of my asking. I’m not going to share what those confirmations are, but I can assure you, His still small voice came through loud and clear.
The website went live today at http://www.ultimatesdlc.com/ and I’m giving God the Glory.
