FIRST BOOKS PUBLISHED: ADULT & YOUNG ADULT
by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
I started writing seriously nearly 14 years ago, got my first book deal in 2002, but it wasn’t until the owner asked me to write this piece for the marvelous Teen Book-Shelf that I connected the dots and realized that the first books I sold in the areas of adult fiction and YA fiction both centered on the topic of pregnancy, although in totally different ways.
In November 1994 I left my day job of 11 years as an independent bookseller to take a chance on my dream of becoming a published novelist. Success, it may not surprise you, did not come overnight. Over the next five years, I wrote five novels, each of which did not see the light of publishing day for a variety of heartbreaking reasons.
While writing unpublished novel after unpublished novel – and burning my way through 2.5 literary agents in fairly rapid succession – I held up my end of the mortgage-paying by taking on a variety of simultaneous jobs: I talked my way into a job reviewing books for Publishers Weekly (where I subsequently reviewed 292 adult hardcover fiction titles), I talked my way into a job freelance-editing (I edited nearly 100 books), I washed a ton of windows (making me arguably the only woman who has ever hosted a book-signing for the late Robert Ludlum and washed his windows), and my local library even wrote a special position for me into the budget whereby my chief responsibilities included leading a monthly book discussion, running a writing workshop, and arranging for other authors to come talk.
In May 1999, having been married nearly 10 years and believing I’d never be pregnant – poof! – I became pregnant. While home sick the first few months, the thought occurred to me, What if some insane, slightly sociopathic woman were to make the whole thing up, faking the complications, an entire pregnancy? Thus was born The Thin Pink Line, a dark comedy set in London about a madwoman, Jane Taylor, who makes the whole thing up.
Now let’s fast-forward a bit.
In November 2001, Red Dress Ink launched their first title and I started seeing reviews of their books in Publishers Weekly and even one in the New York Times Book Review. These reviews were not necessarily positive, but I could see right away that the editorial sensibility behind these books would probably be interested in my crazy book about a crazy lady who fakes an entire pregnancy. So I showed The Thin Pink Line to the man I like to think of as Agent .5, whom I’d been working with on my seventh novel. He said he thought the book was hysterical but that this kind of thing had been “done too much already” – can someone please tell me the last dark comedy about a fake pregnancy they read? – and when I further asked if he’d be willing to just submit it to the one editor at RDI on my behalf, he declined, saying one of his reasons for saying no was that he knew for a fact that editor was “not interested in books with a London setting.” Immediately, red lights went off in my tiny brain and I asked him if he’d mind, if he’d feel I was stepping on his toes if I submitted it myself. He gave me a very scathing, “Well, if that’s what you want to do with your time…” And the rest, as they say, is publishing history.
Or my publishing history, at any rate.
In May 2002 I got the call from an editor at RDI saying they wanted to offer me a two-book contract. Then, before the first book was even published, I was offered an additional three-book contract. The book that Agent .5 couldn’t be bothered to send to just one place was launched as RDI’s first ever hardcover; it received a starred review from Kirkus, with PW calling it “hilarious and original”; it has been published in 10 countries and the film rights were optioned.
It was three years later that I sold my first YA novel to Simon & Schuster, this time with the help of an agent, Agent 6. The book was called Angel’s Choice, and by the time it was published in December 2006, I’d already had six books for adults published. I hadn’t deliberately set out to write a YA novel. But as I was writing the first draft of Angel’s Choice, a serious novel about a senior on the fast track for Yale who becomes pregnant, it struck me that the book wasn’t a coming-of-age story, but rather an authentic YA story. Unfortunately, Agent 5 (not to be confused with Agent .5) didn’t share my enthusiasm for the book. She said she loved it but that it was too serious for the YA editors she normally did business with. So I did my own legwork, located six top editors who did publish serious YA fiction and who all said they wanted to see the book. Agent 5 was still reluctant to go forward, so I parted company with her and hired Agent 6, who sold Angel’s Choice almost right away plus a lot of other books since. Agent 6 is still my agent and I’m happy to have her. As for Angel’s Choice, I once heard the editor who originally bought it for Simon & Schuster refer to it in an interview as “an important book” – words I’d never thought to hear in my career.
So that’s it. Those are the stories of my first adult and YA sales. And I’m here to say that if you dream it and you’re willing to work hard, I can’t guarantee that you will achieve what you desire, but I will say that you’ll have a lot greater chance of achieving something than if you have no dreams and are unwilling to work hard. Me, I’m lucky. I get to live the life I want, doing work I love.
Be well. Don’t forget to write.
By the end of 2008, Lauren will have seen 12 books published with her name on the covers, the most recent of which is Secrets of My Suburban Life, while the next is the tween novel Me, In Between. You can read more about Lauren’s life and work at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com.
In November 1994 I left my day job of 11 years as an independent bookseller to take a chance on my dream of becoming a published novelist. Success, it may not surprise you, did not come overnight. Over the next five years, I wrote five novels, each of which did not see the light of publishing day for a variety of heartbreaking reasons.
While writing unpublished novel after unpublished novel – and burning my way through 2.5 literary agents in fairly rapid succession – I held up my end of the mortgage-paying by taking on a variety of simultaneous jobs: I talked my way into a job reviewing books for Publishers Weekly (where I subsequently reviewed 292 adult hardcover fiction titles), I talked my way into a job freelance-editing (I edited nearly 100 books), I washed a ton of windows (making me arguably the only woman who has ever hosted a book-signing for the late Robert Ludlum and washed his windows), and my local library even wrote a special position for me into the budget whereby my chief responsibilities included leading a monthly book discussion, running a writing workshop, and arranging for other authors to come talk.
In May 1999, having been married nearly 10 years and believing I’d never be pregnant – poof! – I became pregnant. While home sick the first few months, the thought occurred to me, What if some insane, slightly sociopathic woman were to make the whole thing up, faking the complications, an entire pregnancy? Thus was born The Thin Pink Line, a dark comedy set in London about a madwoman, Jane Taylor, who makes the whole thing up.
Now let’s fast-forward a bit.
In November 2001, Red Dress Ink launched their first title and I started seeing reviews of their books in Publishers Weekly and even one in the New York Times Book Review. These reviews were not necessarily positive, but I could see right away that the editorial sensibility behind these books would probably be interested in my crazy book about a crazy lady who fakes an entire pregnancy. So I showed The Thin Pink Line to the man I like to think of as Agent .5, whom I’d been working with on my seventh novel. He said he thought the book was hysterical but that this kind of thing had been “done too much already” – can someone please tell me the last dark comedy about a fake pregnancy they read? – and when I further asked if he’d be willing to just submit it to the one editor at RDI on my behalf, he declined, saying one of his reasons for saying no was that he knew for a fact that editor was “not interested in books with a London setting.” Immediately, red lights went off in my tiny brain and I asked him if he’d mind, if he’d feel I was stepping on his toes if I submitted it myself. He gave me a very scathing, “Well, if that’s what you want to do with your time…” And the rest, as they say, is publishing history.
Or my publishing history, at any rate.
In May 2002 I got the call from an editor at RDI saying they wanted to offer me a two-book contract. Then, before the first book was even published, I was offered an additional three-book contract. The book that Agent .5 couldn’t be bothered to send to just one place was launched as RDI’s first ever hardcover; it received a starred review from Kirkus, with PW calling it “hilarious and original”; it has been published in 10 countries and the film rights were optioned.
It was three years later that I sold my first YA novel to Simon & Schuster, this time with the help of an agent, Agent 6. The book was called Angel’s Choice, and by the time it was published in December 2006, I’d already had six books for adults published. I hadn’t deliberately set out to write a YA novel. But as I was writing the first draft of Angel’s Choice, a serious novel about a senior on the fast track for Yale who becomes pregnant, it struck me that the book wasn’t a coming-of-age story, but rather an authentic YA story. Unfortunately, Agent 5 (not to be confused with Agent .5) didn’t share my enthusiasm for the book. She said she loved it but that it was too serious for the YA editors she normally did business with. So I did my own legwork, located six top editors who did publish serious YA fiction and who all said they wanted to see the book. Agent 5 was still reluctant to go forward, so I parted company with her and hired Agent 6, who sold Angel’s Choice almost right away plus a lot of other books since. Agent 6 is still my agent and I’m happy to have her. As for Angel’s Choice, I once heard the editor who originally bought it for Simon & Schuster refer to it in an interview as “an important book” – words I’d never thought to hear in my career.
So that’s it. Those are the stories of my first adult and YA sales. And I’m here to say that if you dream it and you’re willing to work hard, I can’t guarantee that you will achieve what you desire, but I will say that you’ll have a lot greater chance of achieving something than if you have no dreams and are unwilling to work hard. Me, I’m lucky. I get to live the life I want, doing work I love.
Be well. Don’t forget to write.
By the end of 2008, Lauren will have seen 12 books published with her name on the covers, the most recent of which is Secrets of My Suburban Life, while the next is the tween novel Me, In Between. You can read more about Lauren’s life and work at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com.
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