Rejecting Rejection with author Lyn Miller-Lachmann

This Monday’s Rejecting Rejection is a beautiful homage to the relationship between author and publisher that shows just how far the people who believe in your book can take you. Join author Lyn Miller-Lachmann in celebrating the life of her beloved publisher, who made all of the rejection worth it.

 When a Publisher Dies

by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Walking the exhibit halls at the Associated Writing Programs (AWP) conference reminded me of what I like most about small presses. Their editors’ passions drive what they publish, leading to quirky, experimental, diverse, and outspoken books that defy fads and sales forecasts. Ten years ago, my editor at Curbstone Press, Alexander (Sandy) Taylor, would have been there, talking about his non-profit literary press’s commitment to fiction, memoir, poetry, and books for young readers focusing on intercultural understanding and human rights. Sandy Taylor started Curbstone Press in 1975 and published three of my books from 2003 to 2009—a collection of middle grade short stories by Latina/o authors titled Once Upon a Cuento; my eco-thriller for adult readers, Dirt Cheap; and my YA novel featuring a teenage refugee from the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Gringolandia.

In December 2007, after Gringolandia had gone through its first round of editing and I had a rough draft of a companion novel, Sandy died suddenly. Because Curbstone was a non-profit publisher, a board of directors oversaw daily operations for nearly two more years, but it became evident that Gringolandia would be this venerable small press’s final book. Plans were in the works to sell Curbstone’s publishing assets to Northwestern University Press, with no guarantees of future titles. With the office in disarray—there were three other staffers, but Sandy made the important decisions—much of the promotion and even some production tasks fell to me. I quit writing the companion because I feared I would never find another publisher for it.

The demise of my small press—where I felt in sync with its mission and valued as part of a “family”—was a traumatic experience. I’m ordinarily a fast reviser, but it took three years for me to revise the companion novel, and I had no motivation to start anything else. I believed I would never find another editor like Sandy who shared my interest in diverse cultures and social justice but who always believed story came first and characters had to be more than, in his words, “black hats and white hats.”

Sandy repeatedly discouraged me from getting my MFA, saying, “Why do you need an MFA when you have me?” After he died, I felt I needed the guidance of an MFA program and applied to Vermont College of Fine Arts. I’m not sure I became a better writer at VCFA, but I did become a more confident writer, one who can diagnose weaknesses in character and story development before they lead to time-consuming dead ends.

After Curbstone closed, I had to query agents for the first time since I started writing fiction. Querying agents and, later, dealing with submissions to publishers forced me to experience constant rejection. When I did get a contract with a Big Five publisher for a new novel (the companion to Gringolandia has been revised several times but still hasn’t found a home), I was no longer the big fish in a small pond but one of many minnows trying to survive and sustain a career in corporate publishing.

The death of my long-time editor and the closing of the small press he founded and ran for 32 years forcedme out of my cozy publishing world. Had I continued to publish with Curbstone, I wouldn’t have gotten my MFA or had the experience of working with a Big Five publisher. I wouldn’t have expanded my range as a writer or learned as much about social media and marketing. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to speak at a national conference or to attend a book signing afterward with dozens of people waiting in line for my book.

I found out at AWP that Northwestern University Press has decided to revive the Curbstone imprint to publish more books like Gringolandia, which has been a highly successful title for my old publisher’s new owner. The new Curbstone Books editor has shown interest in both the companion novel and another YA manuscript that I started in my final semester at VCFA. I listened to the editor’s plans for Curbstone, this time knowing that I now have choices. I may still return to the Curbstone imprint, or I may end up with another small press that I feel is a good fit for the kind of novels I write. However, my return to the small press world will be from a position of knowing what the other side is like and with the skills I have developed from being forced to go there.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the author of Rogue (Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Books, 2013), a Junior Library Guild selection, which portrays an eighth grader with undiagnosed Asperger’s syndrome and an X-Men obsession, whose effort to befriend another outcast after being expelled from school leads her to some difficult and dangerous choices. Her previous young adult novel Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009), about a teenage refugee from Chile coming to terms with his father’s imprisonment and torture under the Pinochet dictatorship, was a 2010 ALA Best Book for Young Adults and received an Américas Award Honorable Mention from the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, among many other awards and distinctions. Lyn is a summer 2012 graduate of the Writing for Children & Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and reviews children’s and young adult books on social justice themes for The Pirate Tree (www.thepiratetree.com). Lyn blogs about LEGO, writing, travel, and culture at www.lynmillerlachmann.com.