How one mom with a supportive husband self-published her own guide

by Sarah Masterson

After years of graduate school and full-time work as an academic and journalist, my career path drastically changed in one brief instant. It was the moment the "indicator window" on the home pregnancy test turned pink. I would never be the same, and neither would my career.

I kept a hectic pace at the office during a difficult pregnancy, working as the editor of small daily newspaper and as an over-scheduled community volunteer. But as my pregnancy progressed, I knew more and more that I wouldn't - in fact, couldn't - return to business as usual after becoming a mother.

Just days before my daughter's premature birth, I told my family and colleagues that I wouldn't be returning from my planned eight-week maternity leave. One of the toughest announcements of my life, since my self-worth had always been tied up in my professional achievements. With my husband's full support, we'd decided I needed a break - emotionally, physically, mentally - and I needed to be with my daughter unconditionally, without the pressure of an expiration date. It would mean substantial financial sacrifices and a total lifestyle adjustment on my part. It was scary. But it also felt right.

Staying home with a baby was a drastic, wonderful, exhausting, fulfilling, and timely life change for me, the classic Type A at the age of 33. I discovered such an intense bond with my daughter that I couldn't fathom working the way I had before her birth - and I felt so grateful to have the luxury and privilege of making the choice to be at home.

Still, as is typical of many women who've gone through this life-changing experience, part of me did miss intellectual stimulation and personal challenges that staying at home full-time didn't always fulfill. I dreaded leaving my daughter even for a short time, but I also got the blues from my isolation.

It wasn't until my husband accepted a new job on the other side of the country that I finally figured out how to be present for my child, putting her first without exception, while still doing productive, interesting, stimulating work on my own terms. In preparing to move to Washington, DC with a toddler, I did what nerdy academics do for fun (and for the reassuring illusion of control): I started to research. I got online, invaded the library, and pillaged information like there was no tomorrow. I wanted to find the best listservs for DC parents, the best family-friendly neighborhoods with the lowest crime rate and most walkable streets, where to shop, where to play, where to make new friends with similar interests.

As I packed boxes, filled with the anxiety of leaving Texas in the rearview mirror, it occurred to me that all the research I'd been doing was the key to reinventing myself. I knew I wasn't the only mother moving to Washington who had fruitlessly searched Amazon.com for a resource book that could answer my questions and concerns. I knew I was one of thousands who must have faced this big city with a young child and without a clue.

The proverbial lightbulb came on. DC BABY was born. I would write the book I had wanted to read.

It was a miraculous revelation to me that I could do something organic in my working life -- something that made sense to my everyday interests and priorities, was flexible and self-motivated, was needed. So I wrote the book. And, with my husband's tech and marketing assistance, I started a companion website, a free resource for pregnant women and the parents of young children who live in (and around) DC. My husband and I established our own small press, so that we could control both our process and our profits. In other words, we did every single thing ourselves, learning as we went along. A baptism by fire.

It's often been a pain in the rear, and sometimes the logistics of writing and publishing a book have been more tedious than I could've imagined. It has been a scary financial gamble. I've had to learn the previously repugnant skill of "selling myself," also known as "selling my product." (They are one and the same.) I have had to push myself out of my comfort zone - sometimes kicking and screaming. But the satisfaction that has come from the entrepreneurial experience has also made it the best, most rewarding work I've ever done. What I do professionally is, for the first time, a seamless part of who I am and how I live. "Work" and "life" are no longer artificially divided into two compartments.

My book, DC BABY: A Handbook for Parenting In (& Around) the Capitol City, has been picked up by several Washington retailers and is selling successfully online, as well. We're extending into merchandising and already starting to dream about the next challenge. DC KID? Who knows.

Every now and then you stumble across an idea, an opportunity, that just feels good in your gut. And - contrary to what they told you in that MBA program - the gut really does make good business decisions.