My Path to Publication (February Theme, Sarah Dooley)
At a shared computer in a mountaintop boarding house, I
wrote the novel in seventeen days. The fire in the wood stove crackled while the
other tenants flipped channels. Law and Order. The Obama campaign. I learned to
write before dawn, for the quiet.
I’d moved to Asheville
by the time I revised. That’s also where I started my agent search, in a little
brick house to the west. Five queries out at a time. With each rejection or
extended silence, I reworked my query letter, tried again. Got a yes, followed
promptly by a box of free books. Figured out I was in the right business.
After I moved into the basement apartment, we talked
editors. There were two who wanted to talk to me. The other half of the
basement was used as the practice space for a jazz cover band. They practiced
on Thursdays, and it was a Thursday. I stood out by the road with my hand over
my ear, trying to hear what each editor had to say. I was still in that
basement when we got a “yes.” Followed promptly by a box of free books. Indeed.
Right business.
I was back in West
Virginia and staying with family by the time I
finished revisions, first with my agent and then with my editor. Things were
starting to happen.
Next came cover art. Bound galleys. Reviews. One exciting
bit of publishing news after another. From my cold little snowbound house, it
all seemed thrilling, but surreal.
In the driveway of my city apartment, holding a box of my
very own books – that’s when it sunk in.
“I got … I got this book published!”
“What’s it about?” my new neighbor asked, plucking a copy
off the top of the stack. He turned it over and over in his hands.
I couldn’t think what to say. I wasn’t practiced at this
part yet.
“It’s about a girl,” I said, “trying to figure out where she
wants to live.”
This is hilarious, Sarah...
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I enjoyed reading about getting your first book published. Sounds so exciting to hold your book in your hand for the first time.
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