I'll never forget pulling up that webpage and seeing my little book, "Why Me?", listed among the giants in the publishing industry. Since then "Why Me" reached #8 on the New York Times best seller list in January of 2012. I was shocked and honored to be contacted by one of the "giants" in the publishing industry, however I turned them down! I wasn't looking for mass-market appeal I was looking for a way to get my book into the hands of people who NEEDED my story. I uploaded my book in September 2010 and was approached by a major publisher on December 1st of 2011 for potential print distribution. Then one day through a random online search, I stumbled upon Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing program and found the world of self-publishing. Most of the publishers I found wouldn't even read a manuscript without agent representation, so I began to give up on the idea of ever publishing my book. However, I was discouraged when I started looking for traditional publishers to see the hoops you had to jump through just to get someone to look at your manuscript. I decided that I wanted to try to get my book published to help other abuse victims. It made me wonder how many children and adults were also suffering or walking around with the same guilt I had harbored for years. I had done nothing wrong to deserve what I got from Mom. I realized that I had been feeling guilty my entire adult life for nothing. The writing process was extremely therapeutic. I wrote about what I still felt, what still gave me nightmares and what was still making me sad in my adult life. I wrote about how when I shut my eyes I could still see Mom's eyes, how I could still smell her breath in my face, how much time I spent in our barn and how Mom made me brush my teeth with Comet.