Hi, friend! Thanks for joining me on this virtual coffee date in which I will ramble at you as though you have asked me one very specific question (you may have, if you’re one of the people who responded to my instagram story).
Today’s Main Topic: How I got published
This was the most requested topic, and I hope it brings a little bit of insight to the inner-workings of the authorial side of this industry. This one is long, as it is a longer topic. The other ones won’t be. Please take this simply as me telling you my specific story, rather than offering prescriptive advice. I am not that kind of doctor.
Part I: I wrote a book!
It was early 2021 and vaccines were not yet available. I’d go to lab, cram as much into my shortened shift as possible, then go home. I did very little else, and I was miserable. So, I read contemporary romance. Too much, if you were to ask my wallet (I eventually bought a k*ndle as a birthday present to myself, and the Libby app is now my best friend). An idea of a meet-uncomfortable kept clawing to escape my brain. I started writing it in earnest during nights and weekends later that spring, with wonderful encouragement in particular from my friend, Betsy. She responded to each batch of chapters I sent like she was commenting on a fanfic she enjoyed and it made writing it so much fun. A few months later, I had a book! One month after that, I had a revised book!
Part II: I queried agents!
All the “how do you publish a book” articles online say the same thing, more or less: write the book, revise it, secure an agent, the agent submits it to editors at publishing houses. I had control over the first two things, and I was fortunate enough to have a longtime internet friend who was a soon-to-be published author (go read This May End Badly and pre-order You Wouldn’t Dare by Samantha Markum) and was willing to answer questions about the next two.
A query to an agent involves three components: 1) a query letter, 2) a synopsis, and 3) sample pages.
1) The query letter is analogous to a cover letter for a job application. You open with some form of personalization that explains why you’re querying them. You pitch the book as best you can, give a couple comparable titles, and you end it with a brief bio about yourself.
2) The synopsis is a ~500-1000 word summary of the novel, spoilers included. Some agents want them with the query, some don’t want them until they request the manuscript, some don’t want them at all.
3) Your sample pages are the first _ pages of your book. When querying, I found that the mode requirement was 10 pages, but I queried agents who asked for as few as 3 and as many as 50.
Sam was kind enough to share her query letter and read a draft of mine, which was immensely helpful. I read other query letters authors have published online. I also saw on Twitter a few different agented authors offer query critiques, and I took two of those opportunities. Please know, that kind of feedback can be a mixed bag—just because someone is agented/published/etc. doesn’t mean they’re an expert on how to help you get there. Hence my disclaimer about this not being prescriptive advice.
To determine who to query, I did the oft recommended advice: sifted through the acknowledgements of my favorite books in-genre. I looked up those agents, other agents at their agencies, scoured twitter and the Manuscript Wishlist website to find matches. For me, their social media presence was helpful information as it hinted toward their personality, but it doesn’t have to be. Another gift from Sam: the spreadsheet she’d used to organize her query process. I made adjustments to suit my own needs, making sure to note the specific requirements from each agent/agency (they can vary dramatically), and color coding it based on who I felt would be the best fit. Then, I was off.
I’d read a lot of different strategies online; some said to query people who you don’t feel as excited about first to test the waters, some said that was a terrible idea and you should query all your top choices first, almost all said you should do some form of querying in batches. I felt nervous querying all my top choices at once—what if I ended up needing significant revisions and thus lost my chance to work with any of them??? So, I would query in batches with one or two that I was the absolute most excited about and another few I felt could be a good fit.
Then came waiting.
I was lucky, and received a few full requests in my first round. I told myself I would wait until a rejection on a full to send out more (my very first one happened on Rosh Ha-shana and I will definitely remember that forever). A little over two months into querying, I was waiting on responses on several fulls and a partial request. Because I am not a notoriously patient person, and because I was feeling a little “why the hell not,” I broke my own rule and queried my last reserved top choices.
And I gotta hand it to the “query all your top choices first” crowd, because Jessica Mileo at Inkwell Management requested my full two hours later and emailed me the next day to set up the call to make the offer. If I’m being honest, I knew I was going to go with her by the end of the call. I know Myers-Briggs is just, like, finance bro astrology or whatever, but I am an ENFJ (and an Aquarius) and that means I often follow my big-picture gut feelings. The vibe was right! What can I say! Jess also put me in touch with one of her other clients (go read How to Fake It in Hollywood and pre-order Will They or Won’t They by Ava Wilder) who sung her praises. She’s now my critique partner and someone I consider to be a very close friend, so Jess impacted my publishing journey in more ways than one.
ANYWAY, I signed with an (awesome, competent) agent, got some relatively minor revisions, and it was time for…
Part III: First round of submission!
During submission, your agent pitches your book to editors much in the way you do to agents, except they have cultivated relationships and generally actually know what they’re doing. Ideally, the editors read it, love your book, make an offer, and then your agent leverages those offers against one another to get you more money and/or better rights. Non-ideally, the book just doesn’t connect with anybody. (Un)Fortunately, neither happened with Thank You for Sharing. Editors for the most part loved my writing (cheer) but felt that the story lacked an appropriate [commercial/narrative] hook to sell in a crowded market (boo). Many explicitly said they’d love to read a revised version or another project of mine, and a couple offered to be involved in helping me revise it.
Part IV: The time I actually had to learn how to outline and revise
Because there was broad interest, Jess advised that I not take an official revise & resubmit offer, as that would give that publishing house first dibs, diminishing our bargaining power. So, we hopped on a call and crafted a more high-concept premise (they both had their first kisses at Jewish sleepaway camp, but what if it was the same camp? and with each other? I said; Liyah wants to get her exhibit going, Daniel wants to do fewer corporate accounts, what if her boss forces her to work with him? Jess said, and so on). I wrote an actual, detailed, for real outline this time and again, I was off!
Actually, I cried about it a bit. It was difficult to mentally reconstruct the story I had become so attached to. I felt like I had failed somehow. But Jess was so, so helpful, as were Sam and Ava. Not only from a critical/editorial standpoint, but also from a supportive one. I sent in that revision to Jess, started brainstorming my next project, and then when I got her feedback, got back to it (fewer tears), and then suddenly had an overwritten manuscript (a genuinely new problem for me) that I had to pare down for submission.
Part V: Second round of submission!
To mostly the same people, but with some fresh blood in the mix. This time, Vicki Lame at St. Martin’s Griffin (part of St. Martin’s Press, which is part of Macmillan) took a liking to it quite quickly, gathered second reads to make sure there was in-house support, and set up a call to discuss her excitement about and ideas for the project. We hit it off, I understood her editorial vision (thankfully minimal developmental changes, but R.I.P. pool party. Liyah, you were so hot in that sheer sarong), and just like with Jess, I felt pretty certain that SMP was where I’d end up even though the process wasn’t over yet. A bunch of negotiating and leveraging of interest and an auction memo and maybe just Jessica Mileo magic (see? I truly don’t know what I’m talking about, and I’m glad I don’t have to) later, and I had a two-book deal!
Part VI: The End
Of the “how did I get published?” story, but really the beginning of my writing career, I suppose. I get to work with Vicki and Vanessa Aguirre, who’s an editorial assistant, and a team of a lot of other really cool people at SMP. Jess continues to be a fantastic advocate, Ava and Sam continue to be amazing friends and publishing woe vent buddies, and I am working on my second novel! More on that TK (for non-publishing folks, that means “to come” for some reason).
Bonus: Media I’m currently enjoying
Shout out JG (@theroguerecommender on Instagram) for suggesting this! I think I’ll just make it a little treat at the end of all of these. A biscotti with your coffee, if you will.
Podcast: I am a fan of the You’re Wrong About cinematic universe of podcasts, and its newest offshoot is If Books Could Kill with Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri. My partner and I listened to the episode called The Secret on a road trip and it was WILD.
Books: I recently finished Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola on audio and it is laugh out loud, swoon audibly, fantastic. Romantic comedy at its finest. I also just read Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn and it carved my heart out with a spoon and then sewed it back into my chest (my partner says I sometimes use metaphors that are too visceral. I don’t see it).
Mwah,
Rachel Runya Katz