How Do I Find a Publisher?
Invariably, this question comes up at author events, and it came up Saturday at Doug W. Jacobson’s reading and talk about Night of Flames: A Novel of World War II. Doug’s presentation at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum was part of the Wisconsin Book Festival.
I spent the day in Madison, attending several presentations and readings, and I’ll blog about them this week–so much great stuff to share! But back to Doug, and the inevitable question.
How did you find a publisher? a woman at the back of the room asked during the Q&A.
Doug closed his mouth, hung his head for a moment as if collecting his thoughts, and smiled in retrospect. He couched his terms carefully. If you want to get published, you have to be a person who won’t be discouraged by rejection, he said. I have a stack of them. He held his hand above the top of the podium to indicate the height of his stack of rejections from agents and publishers.
Then Doug went on to outline how he wound up getting published, and because it’s not one of those exception stories (sent it out to the first agent, who got the book a six-figure advance, or a writer I knew sent it to his/her agent, etc.) I think it’s instructive.
Here’s the process Doug described:
He Paid for Advice
Doug, an engineer and business owner, had long toyed with the idea of writing a novel. He was inspired to begin writing Night of Flames after a trip to Europe during which he spent time in Belgium. Once he had a first draft of the novel, he took it to Judy Bridges, who runs Redbird Studio in Milwaukee. Judy is a reputable, highly regarded writing coach whose advice was well worth paying for. Judy suggested that while his research was impeccable, his fiction skills needed work.
He Joined a Facilitated Critique Group
Doug joined one of the Redbird Roundtables, where he received peer review from other writers who had works in progress, and from Judy, who facilitated the group. Doug was able to work on the weak areas of his novel, improve them and get the manuscript ready for submission.
He Sent Out His Manuscript
Doug followed the usual route of sending out his manuscript to agents and publishers, and though he had requests for first chapter, multiple chapters and the entire manuscript, he got no takers.
He Knew the Publishing Business
All the while, Doug subscribed to and read Publishers Weekly. Eventually, he saw a notice that McBooks was looking for action-oriented historical novels with a strong female protagonist. Since Doug’s two main characters are a married couple who are separated on the first day of the war, each taking a harrowing and heroic path through war-torn Europe to survive and to find each other, he approached McBooks with his query, one thing led to another, and his book was accepted and published.
Doug’s story is a terrific reminder that luck favors the prepared. And his happy ending was just the beginning. He’s had good luck with the book, and is nearing completion on his second novel, which will also be published by McBooks. The second novel is also set in World War II, and again covers ground seldom seen in historical or fictional accounts of WWII.