Once in a while something good happens to you for no apparent reason. Call it karma. Call it luck. Call it “your turn.” Whatever you call it, it feels nice to be wanted.

I got a phone call on Thursday, April 1, 2010 from Richard Narramore, Senior Editor with publishing giant, John Wiley & Sons. I had never approached Wiley so I have no previous history with the company.

For those not familiar with the book publishing world, Senior Editors don’t just pick up the phone and call you to ask if you want to write a book for them. This courting process is a lot like the one between a man and a woman, which requires a lot of dating, courting and in general getting to know one another. This is followed by a proposal for marriage and a walk down the aisle. Like successful courting, the process can take months and like many courtships, it can easily fall apart before the stroll down the aisle.

I have been involved with five other books, three of which were self-published. The fifth was a book I co-authored with Jeff Slutsky, “The Toastmasters International Guide to Successful Speaking” (Dearborn Financial Publishing/1996).

Most books with major publishing houses are brokered through publishing agents. It is unheard of when a publishing house the size of Wiley picks up the phone and calls a potential author to ask if he or she is interested in doing a book.

John Wiley and Sons have been around since 1807 and are award-winning publishers with an impeccable reputation. It’s safe to say this isn’t their first rodeo. So it follows that since they knew what they wanted to accomplish, it was easier to find the right author to help them accomplish it. Thus the phone call to yours truly.

Through the 20^th century, John Wiley expanded its publishing activities to the business world, the sciences and higher education. They have published the works for over 350 Nobel Laureates in every category in with the prize is awarded. Today they operate worldwide with headquarters in Hoboken, New Jersey near the shores of the Hudson River.

So when Richard Narramore called, I had to ask the question, “Why me?” I’m inquisitive like that because stuff like this doesn’t happen. Color me skeptical, if you will. Richard tells me he found me in the National Speakers Association database. In the publishing world, it’s a given the author has to sell the book. Naturally, professional speakers have the benefit of being in front of large audiences who can purchase their books on the spot.

Richard also tells me that he was searching for speakers with certain credentials and awards. The speaker’s fee level and topics made it even easier to narrow the field to the candidates he wanted.

Senior Editors don’t just pick up the phone and call someone they don’t know and never heard of and ask if you would like to write a book for them titled “It’s the Customer, Stupid!” It just doesn’t happen. Well it happened to me.

I got the call on a Thursday. By the following Monday, I had e-mailed my speaking schedule, my previous book sales activity, a proposed table of contents, a marketing plan and copies of articles I had written on the subject of customer service. By April 27, 2010, I signed a deal memo to publish “It’s the Customer, Stupid!” with a March 2011 targeted release date.

While this all happened relatively quickly, I submit to you that this has been in the works since 1974 when I first began speaking professionally in conjunction with my other business interests.

While I speak over a hundred times a year, half of which are within my industry of life insurance, I have never considered myself a full time professional speaker because I do have other business interests.

However, it’s those very business interests that give me the right to climb up on a platform and wax eloquently. The great baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean once said, “When you done done it, it ain’t braggin’.”

You say you’re interested in writing a book? Go forth and live the message. The book will follow.