Several people have asked me if I’m going to submit my book to The Oprah Book Club. Hey! That’s a great idea. How? It’s not like Ms Winfrey takes my calls regularly. I went to the Oprah website and this is what it says:
Please be advised that The Oprah Winfrey Show no longer accepts unsolicited packages or fan mail. Additionally, Harpo Productions is not a publishing house or agency. Scripts or manuscripts will not be read, reviewed or returned.
I hope this is helpful. Please know we hope good things for you.
-HarpoBoard1, Oprah.com Community Moderator
Not to be daunted, I found buried in another post from the Harpo staff a link for pitching a show idea. Below is what I pitched. It had to be less than 2000 characters including spaces with no compound words.
Overcoming illiteracy: I did not read my first book until I was in my twenties. Tackling this deficiency was not easy, but I was determined. Now, I am almost fifty and proud to have a BA in English from Mills College, and I have written and self-published a novel: Pearls My Mother Wore.
As a young person, I was quiet and did not attract attention to myself. As far as reading goes, I could phonetically garble through, but I could not pick meaning off the page. I had no idea what all those words were saying.
Recently, I have come to learn that a big part of my problem is field/ground perception. For me, the white part of the page competes for my attention as much as the black letters. Even today, it takes extra concentration for me to focus on the words.
There are so many people, young and old, who are functionally illiterate just as I was. We look good, succeed in society, and we blend in, yet we either do not read at all or we take months and months to get through a book.
I do volunteer work at Hanna Boys Center where I read one-on-one with students. Without exception they tell me – I hate to read. I tell them – I am sure. I hated to read too, when I did not know how. It is great when I see a student have one of those ah-ha moments when the meaning light goes on. Instead of marching through a string of vocabulary words, we will talk about what is there, and he will get it. He will get the point, the mental picture, the big pay off that good readers get all the time. When I hated to read, it was because I never got the big payoff. Lurching through words was such a miserable task that comprehension was out of the question. Having crossed over from being a non-reader to being a reader is like going from being a non-driver to being a driver. You can get around, but you can not go very far, and it is just not that fun.
www.pearlsmymotherwore.com has my blog with more on this subject.
Thank you for your consideration.
Wouldn’t that be a gas if I got through? What are the odds? Astronomical, but what the hell.
It’s all good. Have a great week, and I’ll post again next Friday.
Right on Rita! Every good intention really helps; it helps me, and it helps the book. Thank you.
I’ll put this on my prayer list. I think you have a chance.
Rita
Comments are welcomed and appreciated.