Publishing Casket Case
More behind the scenes!
We are one month (and two days) from Casket Case being out in the world for all to read! I’m back in your inboxes with more behind the scenes details about how it went from a weird joke to a real book. Last week I wrote about the actual writing of the book. This week we’re moving on to the process of getting published.
One important thing to note is that there are many different ways to get a book deal, and I’m only going to talk about my experience. As someone who seeks to know as few people as possible, I knew zero people to help me get a foot in the door. I didn’t even understand “normal people” could be writers until I was in my twenties. Creative careers weren’t exactly hyped up in rural Alabama. In fact, I would say I was strongly urged to do literally anything else.
I started from scratch, which means writing a query letter to try and get an agent who can then find editors/publishing houses to publish your book. A query letter is basically a cover letter for job hunting, except it’s for your book. I sent query letters and sample pages to many agents whose clients I admire or people who I thought I might get along with based on their bios and wish lists. In imagining my dream agent, I was hoping for a southern woman around my age (because my writing is set in the southern US about women around my age) who was looking for relatively off-the-wall things like a romance about death.
Not to go too much into the weeds here, but querying is a lot of work because each agency/agent uses a different format for submission or asks for a different number of sample pages, and you want to tailor each query letter specifically for its intended recipient. For anyone who has ever applied for jobs on the internet at places where you have no connections - it’s like that. You don’t know when you’ll hear back or if you ever will. Also, this is a reminder that I queried a book before Casket Case that did not get published, so this was my second attempt.
It looks like I sent my first query letter for Casket Case on February 7, 2023, and I can tell you for sure that I sent my last one on May 16, 2023, because it was to my now-agent Sophie. I was ready to get back to writing instead of the administrative hell that is getting each and every query submission exactly how folks want it. Seven agents had asked to read the full manuscript of Casket Case, so those were still hanging out there, but I needed a break.
I got on Query Tracker to do a final sweep, and Sophie’s name popped up as a new agent at The Book Group. When I saw in her bio that she was southern, I knew I had to send her a query letter. She got back to me quickly and asked to read the full manuscript, and after she read it, she asked to set up a call.
Looking back, I had no idea what was going on. I had never gotten this far! I prepared for the call like a job interview. I practiced answering questions. I was so nervous. Then, we got on the call, and Sophie told me so many things she loved about Casket Case and offered me representation. It felt like a trick! I get a bit emotional now thinking back on the shock of someone liking my book. I had never really entertained the thought that something could go right after the experience with my first manuscript and the first few months querying Casket Case.
I knew Sophie was the right agent for me because she:
understood and appreciated Casket Case in the ways I wanted it to be understood and appreciated.
saw what I was trying to do and had ideas to make it better.
used the very southern interjection “Aw hell” in an answer to one of my questions.
The Andre I drank when I got a book deal
Sophie and I worked on edits over the summer, and in September it was time to send Casket Case out to publishers. This process differs for everyone - for me it was a blur. I met with a couple of editors right away, and one of them was my editor Hilary. I knew she was the right person for Casket Case because she was both excited and direct. She loved the characters and the story and also recognized the same weaknesses in the novel that I had been trying to figure out for L I T E R A L years and had ideas on how to fix them.
I was at a work conference when I got a call from Sophie a couple of days later with news that we had an offer! I’ll never forget that random hallway in Macon where my life changed! Of course, I accepted. Hilary wanted to move quickly to get Casket Case ready for spooky season 2024, which meant quick rounds of editing! This was also a blur. But I had some kind of editing to do pretty much non-stop through December.
Then, we got to copyediting. I learned through this edit that Casket Case had been existing beyond time and space, so thank you to Bonnie the copyeditor for teaching me how a calendar works. I think the advanced copies they sent out to early readers were printed after this edit. I did two more rounds of edits after that. Still finding first person POV errors in every one!!!! Again, do not tell me if you find more!!!
I’m going to pause the story here because I’m still in the middle of the rest of it!
Folks have asked me about various marketing things like future book events, and I would love to tell you the answers, but I don’t know them myself! I’ll definitely say this again before the book comes out, but to those who have asked how to help:
Recommend it to your library!
Share with your networks!
I’ll be back next week! Thanks for reading!
Happening this weekend:
