After 20 years of working at Health Communications Inc., the publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul and other inspirational titles, Kim Weiss has found herself on the other side of the author/publisher fence for the first time. Her first book, Sunrise, Sunset: 52 Weeks of Awe and Gratitude, a collection of her photographs paired with inspirational quotes from other writers, will be published by HCI in late October.
"It was an unexpected occurrence," remarked Weiss. "It was a hobby that turned into a book."
Weiss lives in Boynton Beach, Fla., in a building overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and is high enough up to have a view of the sunset to the west. "I live in a beautiful place; I have an amazing view and am truly in awe," she said. "I've caught myself actually gasping."
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She began taking photos of the view as a hobby, and eventually shared them with family and posted them on Facebook. People kept liking them, Weiss recalled, and before long were urging her to put them all in a book. Her boyfriend also started writing little haikus to go along with her photos, and she started to see the potential for creating a "cute little book" of photos. Instead of pairing them with haikus, though, she decided to reach out to a variety of inspirational writers and leaders for material.
Weiss sent out short, three-part questionnaires to potential contributors, some of whom she had worked with before and others whom she simply admired. Contributors were supposed to choose one out of the three questions to answer. "Most of them returned it with one answer," Weiss recounted. "But the Type A people answered all three and then I had to pick for them."
From there, Weiss collaborated with her editor and the book's art director to pair the photos with passages and then put them in sequence. She stressed that although she was very pleased with all of the book's entries, her favorite passage was M.J. Rose's, which opens the book. "I love them all," she said. "But M.J. Rose is the first entry in the book for a reason."
The book's official publication date is October 28; Weiss will soft-launch the book on October 25 at the Peoria Women's Lifestyle Show in Peoria, Ill. From there, she has an extensive promotional tour laid out, including an official launch at Books & Books, appearances at Bookstore 1 in Sarasota, Fla., and visits to Barnes & Noble stores in Pittsburgh, Pa., Boca Raton, Fla., and Santa Monica, Calif. 
A significant portion of the proceeds of Sunrise, Sunset, will be donated to the charity AVDA, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. HCI had a charity connected with each book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and Weiss felt that was the perfect thing to do with her book.
"Giving back is part of the fabric of HCI," Weiss explained. "In this case, the owner and his wife (of HCI) are involved here locally with AVDA, so it seemed the right thing to do."
When asked what it felt like to be an author after 20 years in publishing, Weiss had one immediate answer: "Weird." Then she added, "It's oddly wonderful." --Alex Mutter