How I Finally Landed a Book Deal (a Timeline)

Step 1: Decide to write a book. Step 2: ???? Step 3: Book deal!

When I decided that I wanted to get serious about writing a novel, I had no idea what “getting serious about writing a novel” would actually entail. I didn’t even know how to start writing a novel. Let alone how to navigate the publishing industry (I’m still figuring that one out). After a couple of false starts that never made it past a few thousand words, I decided to find a novel writing program that could provide me with some much-needed guidance.

That was in early 2018.

It would be so easy to say that just a few, fast (ha!) years later, I now have a completed manuscript, a fantastic agent, and a two-book deal with a Big Five publishing house. Just like that. Easy peasy!

While I do have all of those things now (pre-order DEAR DOTTY here!), the last few years certainly weren’t easy. I know I worked so, so hard on my novel, but sometimes I forget just how much went into getting here.

Note: This process is wildly different for everyone and while I know it’s tempting to compare (I do it all the time. Oops!) try to remember that every author’s path looks different. This is just my experience and I’m not suggesting that anyone else needs to do it this way! That said, I always find comfort in reading about other writers’ experiences. There’s a lot to be said for solidarity.

Ok, here we go!

June 2018: Apply to the Stanford Continuing Studies Online Novel Writing Certificate (OWC) Program (I had to write a short story as part of my application, which will come into play later).

July 2018: Get waitlisted. It was devastating, but I held out hope that a spot would open up.

July 2018: Submit to the Storyshares Story of the Year Contest (I sent in the story I wrote for my OWC application).

August 2018: Get accepted to OWC!

September 2018: Attend my first novel-writing class. Stacey Swann was my first writing teacher (fun fact: Stacey signed with her publisher the first week of class! Stacey became a great writing friend and helped me immensely with my manuscript. She’s also an incredible writer and you should absolutely buy her book, Olympus, Texas. It’s one of my all-time favorite novels).

September 2018: WIN the Storyshares Contest! My short story, a Runaway Tale was chosen for the 2018 Character Award. It was so exciting to win and gave me a much-needed boost of confidence after being waitlisted.

October 2019: Apply to the NorCal Writers’ Retreat.

December 2019: Get accepted to NorCal Writers’ Retreat!

March 2020: Attend the NCWR. This was the last thing I did before the pandemic hit. We all have very vivid memories of being together when we found out Tom Hanks had Covid. It was surreal. I also couldn’t recommend this retreat highly enough – it was so fun to get to hang out with other writers, learn about the industry, and meet the author in residence, Jasmine Guillory! I tried to downplay how big of a fan I am but probably wasn’t successful. Most importantly, I received invaluable feedback on the second draft of my novel and made progress on the third draft while I was there.

Summer 2020: After completing all of the course requirements for OWC, I enrolled in a 1:1 tutorial with my former teacher, Stacey Swann. She helped me through a major developmental edit that resulted in a completed 3rd draft of my novel!

December 2020: I officially graduated from OWC!

March 2021: Attend a (virtual) NCWR Alumni gathering, where I got to mingle with fellow writers, get feedback on my query letter from a group of wonderful agents (I also got my first request! It ultimately turned into a pass but was absolutely thrilling at the moment), and workshop new pages.

April 2021: Send a draft to a group of beta readers. Do NOT skip this step if you can help it – they were super helpful in identifying plot holes, character flaws (not the good kind), and ultimately, providing me with enough positive feedback to keep going.

June 2021: I decided to work with a really amazing editor on a final round of revisions before querying. I found her through NY Book Editors – they were great to work with.

July – August 2021: Revise and polish my manuscript and obsess over my query letter. I also relied heavily on the NY Book Editors Literary Agent Alert to find agents to query.

September 2021: Send my first batch of queries (this batch included my now agent Rachel!).

May 2022: I received a too-good-to-be-true offer, followed by three other offers! It was surreal and I still can’t quite believe it happened. Querying was HARD, but that’s a story for another post.

June 2022: Sign with Rachel Beck @ Liza Dawson Associates!

August 2023: Finish revisions on my novel based on Rachel’s feedback.

September 2022: I went out on submission! We got a lot of requests (more than twenty!) which was so exciting. I also got a few quick passes and one almost offer that the editor couldn’t get the board to approve. That one hurt. Things went quiet after the holidays.

May 2023: After going to auction with four offers (!!) I signed a two-book deal with Asanté Simons at Avon. My dream came true!

All told it took me about three years to get my novel ready to query, ten months to find the right agent, and another eight months to get a book deal. The people who say that the publishing industry moves at a snail’s pace are NOT exaggerating. Patience, persistence, and positivity are so necessary - albeit not always easy to come by.

I also have to say that I’m fortunate to have resources that allow me to take writing classes, pay editors, and attend writing retreats, not to mention simply having the time to write. There are some serious barriers to entry in the publishing world, and while I’m certainly not the most qualified person to write about this, I still want to acknowledge it.

Was this helpful? Exhausting to think about (just me)? Do you have burning questions about the publishing process? Let me know in the comments!