Jewish Blog to Book Deal?

Here’s the deal, over the past week I finally “ctrl c/ctrl v”ed every post on my conversion into a word document. Know what I’ve got? 335 pages about my conversion. While my word count tool on Word says I have 64,000 words, the manuscript calculator puts it at 85,000 words.

That is a lot of words about becoming a Jew.

Now what?

I’ve been looking at the publishers of some of my books. I checked our RiverHeadBooks (published Wendy McClure’s blog to book memoir) and also dropped an email to Rabbi Telushkin. I may also ask Rabbi Boteach for help on this–but realized, after I hit send to Rabbi Telushkin, that writing traditional rabbis emails on Friday night–not the smartest move. I hope that he won’t notice the time mark and deem me a bad jew and not offer me any help. I’ll wait till after shabbat to write any more Rabbis for manuscript advice.

I just figure–that these two prolific writer/rabbis, might have the connection to get my words into a book. Face it, the typical chick lit publisher isn’t going to want the religious memoir of a single girl, even if it is in the city. I think it is going to be a publisher that already has a decent stake in the Jewish writing scene. Another option was Kate Lee at International Creative Management–who has brokered a number of blog to book deals. But those bloggers were already HUGE. Come on, Leah In Chicago ain’t no Gawker.

So–Rabbi Telushkin, if you followed the link. Welcome and please, please, appreciate my story enough to help me get it onto bookshelves.