Bloodlines - A Memoir of Harm and Healing

Against the backdrop of author Tracey Yokas's struggles to break free of limiting familial patterns, depression strikes her teenage daughter, Faith. After many dark moments, she finally confronts the truth of Faith's illness-she can't cure it?and discovers that the key to helping her daughter is hidden inside her own transformation.

About the author

Tracey Yokas creates stuff. When she isn’t writing about mental health and wellness, she can be found playing with paint, glitter, and glue. She shares about her family’s journey with mental illness so others will know they are not alone. She is dedicated to supporting women in the journey toward authenticity and fulfills her mission by creating safe spaces where art, words, and vulnerability meet in dynamic community. Tracey earned her master’s degree in counseling psychology from California Lutheran University and lives in Newbury Park, CA, with her family. You can find her on Facebook (@traceyyokascreates), Instagram (@traceyyokas), and on her website, www.traceyyokascreates.com.

Summary

It should have been Tracey Yokas’s time to heal. With the recent death of her mother, she was given a brand-new chance to redefine herself and her happiness on her own terms. But just as she prepares herself to spread her wings, Tracey discovers that her only child, Faith, is battling issues of her own—carrying forward the legacy of disordered eating, depression, and self-harm Tracey is so desperate to leave behind.

Tracey is determined to save her daughter, but she has no idea how to reach her—and as their fragile family navigates a medical system and a societal fabric that fails innumerable families in need, she and Faith become near strangers to each other. Ultimately, it’s only when Tracey begins the hard work of standing up to her own history of rejection, low self-esteem, and longing does healing—for both mother and daughter—become possible.

Carrying a message made urgent by the epidemic of mental health challenges now besetting millions of American teens each year, Bloodlines is a story about how waking up to the power of love can allow us to reimagine the past—and fortify the present.

Foreword

AUTHOR HIRED: Smith Publicity, Inc.
• PRESS MATERIAL. If not conducted during the initial consultation, we’ll write your press material for your review. We want to make sure we are accurately representing you and Bloodlines to the media. While your press releases are the approved foundation of the campaign, our publicity efforts are fluid, requiring multiple pitching angles and introductions, which you may not see.
• ARC MAILING. Research and compile a targeted list of media to proactively offer/mail/submit your ARC, final press materials, and personalized cover letter.
• MARKETING SUPPORT: We offer a number of service initiatives (at no additional cost) designed to diversify your publicity plan and aid in strengthening your author platform. These service initiatives are strong complements to your publicist’s ongoing strategic media, blogger, and influencer pitching. While focus on these initiatives will offset some time spent on tailored outreach, they greatly support our unified goal of bringing visibility to your new release. During the first month, you’ll work with your publicist to identify which of these service enhancements you’d like us to incorporate into your campaign, which include:
o NetGalley: If you share your ebook files (PDF, ePub, and mobi), we will place your book on NetGalley, a platform where 420,000+ librarians, educators, booksellers, bloggers, media, and reviewers can download an electronic copy for potential review, recommendation or coverage. While we are able to easily upload most PDFs and ePub files to NetGalley, some graphic-heavy projects may be too large to be shared on this platform.
o Goodreads Guidance: As you review the press release drafts during the first week of your campaign, your team will audit your current presence on Goodreads and offer insights on how to begin to build OR enhance your presence on the platform. If desired, your publicist will create your Goodreads profile for you.
o Blog Tour: If interest warrants, your publicist will work to coordinate a blog tour for you. We research appropriate, genre-specific book bloggers and pitch you for interviews, excerpts, Q&As, contests, book giveaways, etc. to encourage coverage over a specific timeline.
o Ebook Promotion: Your publicist will consult with you on paid ebook promotion options and, if you’re interested, will work with you to coordinate an ebook promotion to take place after the publication date.
o BookBub Author Profile: Your publicist will claim and build your BookBub Author Profile to allow potential readers to learn more about you and your book. This profile also ensures you are elegible for possible inclusion should you choose to explore the various marketing programs BookBub offers, such as Featured New Release Alerts, Featured Deals, and more.
• INITIAL MEDIA PITCHING. Launch initial pitching to long lead magazines, podcasts, and targeted print and online media to set the stage for placements before or around Bloodlines’ publication date. We’ll also spend this time conducting any relevant ARC submissions to publishing trades.
• MEDIA INTERACTION. When we “pitch” we contact targeted media with the author’s information and story ideas—exhibiting why you and Bloodlines will be of interest to their readers and audiences. When a media outlet is interested, we call this a “hit” and we follow up sending them the press releases and book. Then, we systematically follow up to encourage coverage, or a “run.” When media is interested, we organize and arrange all media opportunities.
• FOLLOW UP. Once a media contact has expressed interest in you and Bloodlines, our next role—persistent yet professional follow up—begins. As media interest builds, following up plays a greater role with the goal of converting initial interest to coverage. Media contacts receive large numbers of pitches each day, so patiently and thoughtfully “reminding” them of the book and presenting new story/interview suggestions is what makes the difference.
• TELEVISION. For television opportunities, most interviews are being conducted remotely through Zoom or Skype, at this time. When reaching out to national television producers, if they are interested, they will often ask for links to past interviews. Starting with regional programs, we’ll work to build your broadcast resume, gathering coverage and clips that we’ll need in order to pursue national interviews. Even if studios are back open—and hopefully they are!—we’ll still recommend working to penetrate local/regional broadcast first.
• EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR PIECES & EXCERPTS. Work with you to identify outlets where positioning you for guest contributor opportunities would assist in further elevating your author platform and drive attention back to Bloodlines. Introducing specific angles and topics that directly correlate to key takeaways from the book, we’ll systematically pitch these outlets with the opportunity to have you write an exclusive piece that ties into your book. We will also work with you to identify key, impactful outlets where we’ll offer up excerpts.

Additional text

“This book will help parents who are navigating their child’s mental health crisis know that they’re not alone . . . but it also illuminates this fact: no matter what is breaking your heart, sometimes the best place to look for answers is inside yourself. Tracey Yokas shows us how.”
—Laura Munson, best-selling author and founder of Haven Writing Programs

“We hear the harrowing statistics about a generation of kids with sky-high rates of anxiety and depression and the tendency to self-harm, and we immediately want to do something to help these children—but in our rush to empathize, we often forget the other part of the story of mental illness: the mom's story. What is it like to be the mom? What is it like to love someone in so much pain, and to parent them through it? In this unflinching memoir, Tracey Yokas gives us that tale. It is a story filled with pain and with hope, told with generosity and love.”
—Jennie Nash, founder and CEO of Author Accelerator

“An honest, raw, and emotional look at a family nearly torn apart dealing with a child's mental illness. Told from a mother’s point of view, Bloodlines takes readers on the harrowing journey she faced while doing everything in her power to help her daughter. This memoir of an arduous, painful road to recovery is also one of acceptance, love, and hope.”
—Jeni Driscoll, author of the mental health blog Peace from Panic

“In her journey to examine and understand the emotional scars handed down from her family experience, Tracey Yokas finds her truth and her voice. We witness the beautiful unfolding of powerful insight, courage, and wisdom. Tracey becomes a warrior to free her daughter, herself, and her family from a seemingly endless nightmare.”
—F.D. Raphael, author of The Rock Stars of Neuroscience and founder of MindfulnessbyFaithe.com.

“A powerfully honest, riveting, and stigma-busting peek into the oft-hidden shadow world of self-harm that shines with Yokas’s hope and determination to find a path to healing for her daughter, and herself.”
—Lauri Taylor, author of The Accidental Truth: What My Mother's Murder Investigation Taught Me About Life

Product details

• Authors: Tracey Yokas
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 07.05.2024, delayed
• EAN: 9781647423452
• ISBN: 978-1-64742-345-2
• No. of pages: 312
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature > Letters, diaries; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women, SELF-HELP / Eating Disorders & Body Image, FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Motherhood, SELF-HELP / Mood Disorders / Depression