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I recently received a few emails from readers
who ask me how I got published.
Anyway, the story goes like this…after getting my masters in
creative writing, I knew I wanted to get into the freelance scene,
but I didn’t know how to do it. I asked everyone I knew if they
knew anyone in the publishing or magazine world. Then I found out
that an old childhood friend worked as a writer at ESPN Magazine.
At the time I was hell-bent on writing for Sports Illustrated,
but no one there returned my inquiring calls and emails. My ESPN friend
told me to send my portfolio. I had very little journalism pieces,
most of my work was in essay form. At the very last minute, I threw
in an essay on skating. Lindsay’s boss liked the essay. He said,
“I’d like to show this to my third wife’s uncle’s
cousin’s stepbrother’s neighbor’s friend who is a literary
agent.” Or something like that. I said gee thanks, and didn’t
expect much to come of it. Then, I got a phone call from the third
wife’s uncle’s cousin’s stepbrother’s neighbor’s
friend who is a literary agent. He liked the essay, too. He thought
it could be a book.
“Do you think it could be a book?” He asked.
“I think it could be a book!” I answered.
For six months, he helped me work on a book proposal. Then he shopped
the proposal to publishers. The proposal was rejected 11 times before
Little, Brown offered me a book deal. Oh, and that essay that my friend’s
boss’s third wife’s uncle’s cousin’s stepbrother’s
neighbor’s friend who is a literary agent liked so much is now
the first chapter of All the Sundays Yet to Come.
HOW YOU CAN GET PUBLISHED
If you believe in your writing, if you think that your writing will
be of interest to people other than yourself and your friend who
is way too nice to tell you otherwise, if you are serious about
the craft of literature, if you want to be a writer because language,
words, and stories are more important to you than paychecks, fame,
and critics, if you can handle rejection, if you have the ability
to live off instant, generic, carbohydrates for years on end without
serious gastrointestinal or mental ailments, then send your work
to every one of your friend’s boss’s third wife’s
uncle’s cousin’s stepbrother’s neighbor’s friends.
(As well as to every agent who specializes in your craft; you can
find agent-listing books in bookstores and libraries). I wish you
all the best. |
