Ronda Del Boccio The Story Lady and Bonnie Tesh, co-authors of I’ll Push You Steer, on Television : Profitable Storytelling Techniques for Personal & Business Transformation

Ronda Del Boccio The Story Lady and Bonnie Tesh, co-authors of I’ll Push You Steer, on Television

Posted By: Ronda Del Boccio, The Story Lady | More From This Author

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Author’s Note: This is one of many personal narrative examples on this site.

The morning I appeared on local television was bitter, but inside the car with my mom driving and my co-author Bonnie Tesh, the only thing warmer than the blast of air from the heater was our conversation. We had to leave about 3:30 AM in order to pick up Bonnie and drive to Springfield for our television appearance.

We were about to have a big day. After our early EARLY TV time, we would grab some breakfast and then go to the local Barnes and Noble bookstore to sign copies of our book I’ll Push You Steer: The Definitive Guide to Stumbling Through Lives with Blinders on.

Here’s our first stop at Channel 33 studios:

After our first TV spot (now we’re As Seen on TV!), we had breakfast and went to the bookstore. Now, I adore bookstores and could spend hours in them. I wish we had one here! When I walk into a bookstore, the aroma of paper and ink reminds me how much I adore books – reading them, writing them, talking about them – EVERYTHING!

What’s better than being in a bookstore? Seeing your very own book that you wrote sitting on the shelves. Selling piles of them is really wonderful too.

Bonnie Tesh was much more reserved, though she was excited to see I’ll Push You Steer facing front on the shelves. That is definitely an honor. As for me, well, I am exuberant. I did manage to keep my squeals of joy down to a simmer, but I jumped around with glee.

Here’s a picture of bonnie and I with our book on the shelf at the Springfield, Missouri Barnes and Noble:

I'll Push You Steer book on the shelves at Barnes & Noble

by The Story Lady

And here we are standing on either side of our book. I still feel a thrill looking at this picture.

We had a great time at the bookstore putting Local Author stickers on our books and signing them. We put stickers saying “autographed copy” on them as well. That actually adds to the value of the book. It’s very cool to get a signed book.

Our contact was kind enough to give us each a latte from the in-house Starbucks to enjoy while we autographed books and applied stickers. That was indeed a memorable day.

Ronda Del Boccio & Bonnie Tesh with their book I'll Push You Steer by you.

When you’re co-authoring a book, it’s always about the team. I got us the TV show and some other media, and Bonnie got us into bookstores. We each had our “area” that we did so that each of us could work from our strength. For I’ll Push You Steer, we each wrote stories taht we divided into categories. What we’ve discovered is that middle school children, and even a few younger, are loving our book. They can read a story and come back later to read another, and it gives them some advice on keeping your joy even in the midst of challenges. Good lessons for anyone, especially our youth.

We’ve had some wonderful adventures. During my travels, I’ve personally sold copies of the book to people on 5 continents. Bonnie did a book signing while she was in Denton, Texas visiting family. We’ve been in a few newspapers, on the radio, on television and all over the internet. We even made a local media event out of signing our contract with our publisher. Bonnie hates how she looks in that picture, so I’ve never posted.

Here we are with Dan Case, our publisher from AWOC Books, at a writer’s conference in Springdale, Arkansas.

Dan Case is about to publish my book The Instant VIP. I am excited to work with such an ethical publisher and to retain all rights to my book. Bonnie Tesh is working on a novel and a book of true stories.

When you publish your book, you will want to take every possible publicity opportunity. Telling the bookstore we had a TV show that same day definitely opened the door for us to get our books on the sehlves, even though people swore up and down that we couldn’t get our book into B&N .

Bonnie and I are both women of strong belief in ourselves. The minute you tell either of us, “You can’t do that!” we say, “Oh yeah? Watch me!”