Journey to Publication: The Book Deal
To celebrate turning in the outline for secret book 2 to my editor, I thought I’d share my personal “How I got my book deal” journey. I love reading celebratory posts from other authors, on everything from them finishing a rough draft of a project to crafting a stunning aesthetic for a shiny new book idea, and of course the very exciting “How I got my agent” blog posts they share. I never did write a “How I got my agent” post (whoops!) so how about I make it up by sharing the submission journey for THE UNDERWILD: RIVER OF SPIRITS?
Before I begin, this is a gentle reminder that the submission process can be very stressful, even to read about! You’re welcome to skip to the section titled THE GOOD NEWS to read about good news only :)
Also, I won’t be going too in-depth into my agent’s submission strategy and I won’t be naming any editors other than the editor who acquired my book, for privacy reasons. The sub process was both long and extremely quick (in one very important instance), for reasons… which I’ll get to in a moment!
A Quick Timeline:
March/Early April 2023 - River of Spirits officially on sub ✨
May 10, 2023 - An editor* reached out letting us know they were loving my manuscript and were planning to take my book to acquisitions 💛
May 18, 2023 - Received word my book had made it through acquisitions! (Reader, I cried). We had an official offer in hand not long after.
May 30, 2023 - Accepted the offer from Kara Sargent at Aladdin books with Simon & Schuster 🎉
September 2023 - Signed the finalized contract for my two book deal 🖋️
December 12, 2023 - The release of the official Publisher's Weekly announcement! THE UNDERWILD: RIVER OF SPIRITS will be published in Spring 2025 with Aladdin Books 🖤
* remember how I said the sub process was extremely quick in one very important instance? For this editor, who is my now-editor Kara Sargent, my agent had sent the sub package to Kara in March but the email wasn’t received due to an error in the email address (this happens fairly often due to different email formats between publishing houses)! My agent followed up and re-sent everything in early May 2023 and less than a week later, Kara got back to use with the news that she loved my book and wanted to champion it through acquisitions. So the sub process to hear an “I love this!” both took 3 months and also only took 1 week.
A Little History:
RIVER OF SPIRITS was was my sixth project sent on sub. Yep, this means five other projects were sent out on sub between 2020 and 2023, and all were ultimately shelved (2020 was a particularly brutal year for the world in general and submissions were drastically impacted by this, as well). These now-shelved projects included: two middle-grade novels, two chapter book series (the first book was written in each, along with proposals for future books in both series), and a picture book. RIVER OF SPIRITS was my third MG novel to be shared with editors. To be transparent, I thought it would be my last middle-grade book fully written and sent on submission. I’ll get to the reason why I was in this headspace soon.
The Sub Journey:
To start at the beginning of the submission journey for this book we need to rewind to March 2023. I’d finished a final round of revisions on RIVER OF SPIRITS (the title of the manuscript when we took it out on sub) and my agent shared a potential list of editors with me in preparation for submission. This step is always exciting because it symbolizes the culmination of all the work that’s gone into getting the book to this stage; it is the deep, calming breath before the book is moved out of my hands and sent into the hands (er, inboxes) of editors. After giving the (enthusiastic) go-ahead on the editors Andrea suggested, she reached out to each editor individually with the pitch letter for my book and sub package. The pitch letter is in essence a query letter and is written to entice the editors to want to read more.
Then, we waited.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have to wait long to get the first response. Three days after the sub package was sent, the first editor responded - it was a pass. A kindly-worded pass, at least, but still a rejection. What is hardest about submission is that once you get a No from an editor, it is a No from their entire imprint (unless they inform us they’re passing it on to a colleague, which sometimes happens). There isn’t an opportunity to try again with a different editor—in essence, that path is now closed to you. Until the next completed project is sent out on sub, that is.
I shook off the rejection and reminded myself that we were early in the process and that a quick no was a good sign, because it meant editors were reading and responding; responses are so much better than receiving no word at all. I wish I could assure everyone that ghosting doesn’t happen once you have an agent and are on sub to editors. Unfortunately, ghosting still happens at this stage—there are several editors we’ve still never heard back from. It is not great! So, I marked the pass on my master spreadsheet and kept hoping.
And I wish I could say that the rejections we got after that first one were quick and painless. What followed was a slow stream of kind step-asides and no-thank-yous. Friends, I got three rejections on my birthday. On. My. Birthday. Talk about brutal. I cried a lot, then had a heartfelt conversation with my husband about how I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep doing this (writing middle-grade specifically). I knew the odds of getting published were slim, and I had tried so hard to keep going. Writing RoS was a long and deeply emotional process and I didn’t know if I could do it again, knowing that the book would most likely die on sub. For a book about death the irony was not lost on me. He encouraged me to keep doing what I love most: Writing. Experimenting with different genres, testing out other forms of storytelling—whatever it was that brought that same joy, just keep doing it.
So I did. I threw myself into new projects. This time, I focused on an Adult cozy fantasy with characters who were just doing their best even when facing impossible odds. Kinda like me. And I wrote two solo role-playing journaling games that made my mind spark (I’ll have more news on one of those RPGs soon!). Even though more rejections trickled in on my MG project on sub, I wasn’t ready to give up writing—I was expanding the possibilities and reaching further than I had before.
The Good News:
Two weeks later, I heard from my agent that one of our initial editors had just gotten the manuscript and was looking forward to reading it. It was one of those emails I had delayed opening, thinking it would be another rejection, but it ended up providing a little spark of hope. When an editor says they are excited to read your manuscript, you can’t help but hope this will be the one. And less than a week later, we heard from the editor again.
It was a Yes, after all. Kara was so lovely from the very first email exchange. We scheduled a Zoom meeting. I was nervous and so very hopeful, and when I hopped on the call Kara was there, equally nervous and hopeful. Over the next hour we discussed my book; Kara was incredibly kind and supportive of my writing and absolutely loved my main character, Senka, and her journey through the Underwild. We also talked about how the book’s themes are about death and grief, but also of hope and love, and how very needed these themes are in the middle-grade space. It was one of those moments I’ll remember and cherish forever.
Then came the flurry of alerting editors who were still reading and considering my manuscript. My agent reached out to all of them to let them know we had an offer on the way. Once again we got a few step-asides, but the sting of rejection was gone because I knew I’d found the perfect home for my story with Kara and her team. And it was such a magical moment, sending Kara the news that we were going to accept her offer.
Have I finished that Adult project I mentioned yet? Nope! It is fully outlined and I have several thousand words written in the draft, but I set it aside when I started working with Kara on THE UNDERWILD: RIVER OF SPIRITS. I will be returning to it soon, though ;)
I’m so proud of this book and am overwhelmed with gratitude for the entire team at Aladdin books. I’ve seen initial cover sketches (Reader, I cried again), and I can’t wait to share this story with the world—it went from this deeply personal, solitary writing project that made me face demons and ghosts, to a book that will soon be shared with readers everywhere. It has been an incredible journey so far, and it has only just begun.