Piece 1, A/W 2023 Collection It's no (big) deal

It’s a deal. Say whaaaaaaaaaat? Yes, Sarah. I have read your book, loved it, and would be honoured to publish it if you will so have me. So have you? I’ll have you, hold you and cherish you until death do us part if you can convince me that this is actually happening right now. Signing on the dotted line of that Author’s Agreement, about six months ago, had me more animated than a Walt Disney fairy tale. Cinderella’s remarkable good fortune, as she glided that slender foot of hers into a glass slipper, would reflect as a minor stroke of luck held up against the mirror of the gift-from-god-size windfall that I felt had come my way as I signed my name across this dear publisher’s heart.

And by windfall, I am not referring to any monetary pot of gold. Nope. The royalties in this deal for me were not the percentage share of any dollar bucks, but rather the crown that the publisher was placing over my very own words. The value she was attributing to my deeply personal story. The acknowledgement she was lending to my courage. For an unknown

first-time shit scared author, more interested in sharing her story then any profits, this kind of validation and opportunity was priceless. I felt levels of excitement that were in the move over cloud nine, make space for cloud ten, kind of stratosphere.

So, you’ll forgive me then I hope, for harbouring legit jealousy towards Cinda-bloody-rella for finding her Prince when the pages of my own dream come true story turned to meet a not so happily ever after ending. The publisher had made the very tough decision to close her own dream down due to financial difficulties and so the precious deal unravelled. In all seriousness, for the both of us, I was totally and utterly heartbroken. Desperately seeking solace, and, I can admit in a woe is me kind of mindset, I reached out to a wise person I know. I asked him for some kind of soothing wisdom about why this setback had happened. He wrote back pretty swiftly and with none of the common niceties. Just eight words: “Better publisher and launch time will be coming”.

He was not trying to be arrogant on my behalf, because he knew that I already felt like I had it all with the publisher I had just lost and the exciting timeline for my book launch we had planned together. But what I noticed in his simple undramatic reply is that he had taken the exact same facts that I had shared with him as a tragic tale of cataclysmic catastrophe and done his own mental interpretative dance with them, giving them an entirely different meaning. Put simply, he was choosing to look at it in another way. The way he had put it, the end to this deal might not be a signal that things were falling apart, but rather that things might be falling into place.

I have actually read a hell of a lot about the power of reframing thoughts in my time and this moment clearly called for it like never before. The way I like to think about reframing is that it's when you make a deliberate shift from the way you tell yourself it is to the way you could see it if you tried. How much more empowering would it be for future victories if I chose to exercise my freedom over that part of this situation that I actually had control of and change my god damn attitude? Fact is, I have no control over the facts that already are as they are. No deal is no deal. But what I do have is power over my own mind.

Not. Happening. Jan. did not necessarily need to mean Not. Happy. Jan. The publisher may well have created the actual situation I now find myself in with no more deal on the table, but it is me who gets to decide how I am going to experience that. I’ll say it again. It's no deal. Well, yes. This is true. But equally, and with the single click of the reframe button in my mind, it’s also no (big) deal. It's OK. My time will come.

#ineedanewpublisher #reframeinthemembrane #thehautequoture #thequotesswiththemostess #whateverfloatsyourquote