“I got signed!”📝 🤯🙌🏿 I always imagined saying that in association to a record label—- yet, in God-fashion here I am signing a publishing deal for a manga!?😂🤷🏿‍♂️📚 Story time: May 1st 2018 I went on a discipleship trip in Colorado hosted by @grantskeldon. While there Tom Dean hosted a session teaching young leaders how to land publishing deals. At that time my mind was on RAP! So I wasn’t interested. Grant noticed I wasn’t paying attention so he whispered and said “bro, he’s talking to YOU!” Me ? write a book? 😂 naaa… Anyways, when Tom (who worked as CFO for Zondervan at the time) got to the Q&A’s, I raised my hand and said “Hey, I see a lot of great books, but are you aware of any good Christian Mangas?” He looked me in the eyes and said, “No… But you write it…” That night in my bunk bed I wrote the premise for my manga which is now called “The Fallen”. August 2019 after a year of revisiting storylines and dreaming up cool fight scenes, I finally put my money where my mouth was and reached out to @krazedkai who I KNEW was going to be my illustrator for this project. After I used her drawings and my storyline to show to Tom, he said “This is great! Send me a proposal and give me call.” I now realize (at that time) I was texting the WRONG NUMBER🤦🏾‍♂️ After months of thinking I was being rejected, surviving Covid, & taking off in battle rap… I occasionally would get a great idea and jot down things that were ‘Fallen related’ but I just didn’t have the funds, nor the drive to keep bothering @krazedkai wit the manga so i tucked it away. But last December 2023– I was chatting with Jackie The Educator … She mentioned how she got published , yet she didn’t even have any chapters done! So, wait? Publishers SIGN you for ideas?! Jackie taught me how to make a proposal and prepare a pitch! I took that pitch to Tom(yup, got his number) who started an agency and is now my agent! He then sent my proposal to David C Cook publishing who LOVED my idea and signed me! And of course they’re a company based in none other than… Colorado! As I write all of this from JAPAN, know that God hasn’t given up on your ideas. Do the work and keep the faith!