I am not into marketing. I don’t like receiving marketing or promotions in the mail, by email, or by phone calls. I don't like feeling pressured by others.

This post is therefore a little difficult for me – for I am marketing my own book.

My first book was produced by a publisher who disappointed me. Promises of marketing were not fulfilled, apart from many suggestions as to how I could market my work myself, OR they could do (a few) promotional things for several hundred more dollars. I realised too late that it was what is known as a vanity press. I vowed not to be caught again. This time I did everything myself, learning along the way how to manage self-publishing.

The result is a book I am proud of.

“Jonathan’s Story” will be released today, Sunday, September 1, which in Australia is officially the first day of Spring; this date also celebrates Wattle Day for the golden blooms of our national floral emblem. This year, Father’s Day falls on Sunday September 1, which is also our son’s birthday. These special aspects of the date made me feel positive – a good date to release my book.

Spring is a time for hope and renewal, and my goal in publishing this book is that there may be a renewal in care for those who are disabled, and a sense of compassion when they see the human being within. This book shares the difficult life of someone who must depend on others for … everything, even for life itself.

Many have already read Jonathan’s Story as I posted each chapter earlier this year, but for the sake of newer people to the site, I will give an outline.

While the writing is straightforward, there are some heavy and emotional parts to this book, which make it a hard read, yet I believe it is a compelling one.

“Jonathan’s Story” is available on Amazon, (try amazon.com or amazon.com.au, then go to the search bar and google "Jonathan's Story" or my name, Wendy Smith-Gordon, and click on the format you prefer, Kindle or paperback). It should be found by googling either the title or my name.

Outline:

“This non-fiction memoir traces our family journey fostering an abandoned disabled boy with extremely complex medical issues.

It reveals the impact on family, social, and personal relationships, and how, with love and determination, the quality of life of such a child can be transformed. It explores our family’s emotional investment in one of these special ones so often rejected by society, and it speaks of our battles against confronting systemic weaknesses and failures. These occurred not only within the fostering system, but with disability services, government departments, and even within the world of medicine.

This book speaks also of the difficulty of helping a disabled young man to transition to other planned care when he reached adulthood, when no one understood, or was willing to understand, his needs.

It simultaneously traces my own emotional experiences, because “letting go” became impossible. I soon became aware of, and horrified by, systemic weaknesses in organisations and services meant to care for the vulnerable.

As well as tracing our shared life journey with Jonathan, I therefore expose the apathy, abandonment, manipulation, bullying, and corruption of those responsible for the well-being of the disabled. I was compelled into legal guardianship and became his advocate.

Many ethical questions are incorporated: the value of a disabled person, his quality of life, and the life span of vulnerable people … who decides such things?

I challenge readers to consider – and conclude – that people like Jonathan can teach us all many life lessons, including the qualities of patience, perseverance, resilience, and above all, love.

Readers will come to see and care for Jonathan as a person of value, and they will admire his courage and will to live, through his unique and sometimes dramatic life experiences.

Attitudes towards disabled people will be challenged – and, I hope, changed. I am advocating for compassion and justice for some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people in today’s society.

Jonathan’s life journey is an almost unbelievable one. He is non-verbal – but his story must be told. I am his voice.”

Well, that's it. Marketing done. I hope there'll be a few sales. I'll be happy if someone buys it.