"Don't Sign the Contract. I'll Call Tomorrow..." – Katherine Reay's Road to Publication

Patricia Beal here :) Please welcome author Katherine Reay to the blog once more. Her fifth novel comes out next week, and she's here today sharing her incredible and most unusual journey to publication. Enjoy! 

How did you get your first publishing contract?

That is such a fun story, and a longish one…

When I started querying for Dear Mr. Knightley, I received over thirty rejections – and those were the agents willing to reply at all. Just as I was about to give up, a small publishing house offered to buy the manuscript for an ebook collection. I’d met the publisher a couple years earlier when DMK was still an idea rather than a novel.

As I printed the contract, my inbox beeped with an email from a writers group. I opened it and found my picture, a random galley shot from a conference, staring back at me under the headline “Why You Need An Agent.” Flabbergasted (that word actually works here!), I immediately wrote the head of the group, explained my situation, noted my picture, and asked if I needed an agent. He wrote back that, yes, an agent was necessary and not to sign any contract without one.

But who? So many agents had turned me down. Instead of going back to any of those agents, I went to my bookshelves and pulled down books I admired. In the acknowledgments, one agency’s name turned up in three books out of ten. I looked up the website, saw a man’s picture, and felt in my heart, “That’s your agent.” It was an agent I hadn’t queried because the website said a writer needed to be previously published. It also said the writer was to write a query and patiently wait – six to eight weeks. I didn’t have six to eight weeks. I had a contract with a deadline. I broke all the rules and called.

I was shocked when the agent called me back, and humiliated when I couldn’t answer any of his questions.

Lee: “Give me your elevator pitch.”
Me: “What’s an elevator pitch?”
Lee: “Give me your story in three minutes.”
Me: “It’s complicated. Can I have ten?”

After what I am sure for Lee was a very frustrating half-hour, he closed with, “I’m not taking you on, but I will help you out. Send me the manuscript and the contract and I’ll call back Monday with my best advice.”

Monday came with no word. Tuesday too. I didn’t have the emotional fortitude to pursue other agents so, on Wednesday, I planned to sign the contract. That morning, a one-line email arrived:

Don’t sign the contract. I’ll call tomorrow… Lee

The next day Lee offered to represent me. He sold Dear Mr. Knightley a couple months later to HarperCollins’ Thomas Nelson imprint, along with two subsequent novels.

A career begins: Katherine Reay and Julie Cantrell with their Carol Awards

There you go… My road to publication. And I did most things wrong… But that’s not even the best part. God doubled down on his love when he gave me Lee for an agent. Lee was one of the most Christ-like men I’ve ever known. In the year we worked together, before he died of cancer, Lee taught me not only how to navigate book writing and publishing, he modeled how to be more a gracious and considerate person.

And that’s what makes my journey to publication so extraordinary. On days when I get caught up in my own problems, irritations and little frustrations, I cast back to this time and I remember.

What’s the best thing about being published?

I won’t lie – it’s thrilling to see your book in print and to know readers enjoy it. It’s fun to share with readers when they write to you and to be a part of a wonderful world of books.

The Austen Escape:  After years of following her best friend’s lead, Mary Davies finds a whimsical trip back to Austen’s Regency England paves the way towards her best future.  

What’s a not so good thing about being published?

While it’s delightful to see your book out in the world, it’s also a very vulnerable position -- not everyone will enjoy it and not every reviewer will be kind. That’s a reality of putting anything out there and fiction is no exception. So each and every day I must remember why I write and let the chaos of publishing, social media chatter, reviews and comparisons fade away and get my job done.

Thanks so much for asking me to be here today. And please find me on social media. I’m always out and about on FB, Twitter, Instagram and on my own website, www.katherinereay.com. 

Katherine Reay is the award-winning author of Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy & Jane, The Bronte Plot (an ALA Notable Book Award Finalist), and A Portrait of Emily Price, which released in November 2016 with Starred Reviews from Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and a Romantic Times TOP PICK!

The Austen Escape releases November 7, 2017.

All Katherine’s novels are contemporary stories with a bit of classical flair. She holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University and is a wife, mother, rehabbing runner, former marketer, and avid chocolate consumer. 

After living all across the country and a few stops in Europe, Katherine now happily resides outside Chicago, IL.

Connect: www.katherinereay.com

Books: Amazon Author Page

My Italian Adventure - A Guest Post by Katherine Reay

Patricia Beal here :) I'm still recovering from that Writer's Digest interview and will have a new post next time. Until then... Remember that post on Christian fiction and foreign locations? I have a success story to share with you today. 

Please welcome my writing friend Katherine Reay. Her fourth novel, A Portrait of Emily Price, comes out on November 1st: After a whirlwind romance and marriage, Emily Price heads home to Italy with her new husband to find that life at its richest is found only when she accepts its chaotic beauty. 

Enjoy this post she wrote for us about her book research in La Bella Italia! 

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Setting, for me, is a character. 

I rely upon it and feel I need to know it very well. For my first three novels, I relied on places I have lived and, after years in each, felt I understood well. And I could’ve kept on with this, for after seventeen moves across three countries, I have plenty of choice. 

But for A Portrait of Emily Price, I wanted the sensorial opulence, the beauty of Italy, and the “otherness” of an Italian experience for my young American heroine. I wanted to take her out her world in such a dramatic way that she might imagine “something new” for her life. 

And if she was going to Italy – I needed to go too! 

While living in England, I’d visited Italy several times, but not for any extended period. In the summer of 2015, my family was able to take three weeks, step way from life, and roam the Italian countryside under the guise of a “research trip.” We had a marvelous time! And I found my setting for Emily Price.

If you are planning a research trip for a story – I have a few suggestions... 

1. Determine your goals? A sense of place, an understanding of people, one aspect of the culture, one moment in its history... Define exactly what you want upon your return. 

2. Plan your itinerary to get you close to your answers. I needed a small hilltop village and a glimpse at Rome – so we stayed two weeks in a couple small towns and spent our final days in Venice and Rome. 

3. Take notes. Take pictures. While there, don’t think so much about forming your story and editing your impressions – Simply absorb as much as possible. 

4. Watch everything around you: the way women wear scarves, how children run/sit/play, how drivers act on the roads, people interact waiting in line... 

A research trip is about filling up your well of understanding. 

It's a first draft. Put everything in. Edit later. Everything you discover has value because it will color your story – your impressions will filter into each and every description and inform the tenor of your writing. So be awake! 

And when you write your story – once home – allow yourself grace. 

You won’t get it all correct. Some aspects of culture and country can’t be learned during a research trip – after seventeen moves, I know this to be true. It can take years to recognize and understand the culture of a people or an area. But that’s part of the beauty too. You learn something new and extraordinary and, with respect, strive to share that with others. 

So I certainly recommend research trips – in any form. And if you do take one, I hope, first and foremost, you enjoy the experience. 

For my newest novel, just written, I went fishing. 

Thanks for letting me stop by today... How do you research foreign locations? What suggestions do you have? 

Katherine 

Katherine’s first novel, Dear Mr. Knightley, was a 2014 Christy Award Finalist and winner of the 2014 INSPY Award for Best Debut as well as Carol Awards for both Best Debut and Best Contemporary. She is also the writer behind Lizzy & Jane and The Brontë Plot, a 2016 ALA Notable Book Award Finalist. 

All Katherine’s novels are contemporary stories with a bit of classical flair. Katherine holds a BA and MS from Northwestern University and is a wife, mother, runner, former marketer, avid chocolate consumer and, randomly, a tae kwon do black belt. After living all across the country and a few stops in Europe, Katherine and her family recently moved back to Chicago. 

www.katherinereay.com