Rejecting Rejection with author Bobbi Miller

The Importance of Patience

by Bobbi Miller

I’ve long studied American folklore and history. In fact, I earned my MFA in writing for children from Vermont College in 2001, and was awarded honors with distinction for my MA in children’s literature degree from Simmons in 1995. During both of these degrees, I studied the folklore process in children’s literature. Children’s literature at that time showcased the best storytellers of the genre, including Eric Kimmel, Rafe Martin, and Aaron Shepard, among many others. Folklore was a staple in picture book collections.  I graduated from Vermont with a four-book contract for picture books that highlighted my love of American folklore and history. But, as much as I knew about writing and story, I knew nothing of the business of children’s publishing. And it is, foremost, a business.

I signed on with the first agent who would help me with the multi-contracts. What I didn’t realize is that an agent-writer relationship is akin to a marriage. While this agent helped seal the deal with the contracts, other issues arose. Needless to say, that relationship didn’t work out. I was referred to another agent, and more problems arose. It turned out that the contracts contained a couple of damaging clauses. According to this new agent, I couldn’t submit work elsewhere, and she couldn’t renegotiate the clauses.  In other words, my career was not only stalled, but completely derailed. The relationship ended, of course. Determined, I went to Author’s Guild, learned what I had to in order to understand these clauses, and then I renegotiated the particular clauses myself.

My first two picture books came out in 2009, eight years after signing the contract. The third book came out in 2012, eleven years after signing the contract.  The fourth contract, however, was cancelled. Thankfully, I had a strong circle of friends, in particular Eric Kimmel and Marion Dane Bauer, who understood that business side of things and shared their wisdom and support through the years.

But there was yet another, stronger riptide I had to steer through. Beginning in 2001, the children’s market was changing dramatically. The folklore picture book market was bottoming out. The very genre that I had studied, loved, and sought as my career was no longer an option. What the heck do I do now? Eric said I should write middle grade books. Writers have to find a way to adapt. So I moved to middle grade fiction. 

The challenge became in combining all that I had learned and loved in folklore and history with this new format. For a long while, it was a hit-and-miss effort. Finally I had this manuscript, Big River’s Daughter.  By now, I was unsure if it even fit in a market that no longer viewed folklore as relevant. Even historical fiction was having a hard time.

And that’s when I learned my greatest lesson: the importance of patience and perseverance. 

I met Emma Dryden via Facebook, when she was describing her recent experience as a passenger on a Windjammer cruise – the very one I had gone on as I was researching my book, Big River’s Daughter! I’ve known about Emma for decades; she’s legendary in the field. It turns out, she had just started her own business, drydenbks. I signed up, asking her a crucial question: Where do I fit in now?

And of course, Dumbledore that she is, she helped clarify my thinking and create a plan that would help me achieve my goals. Not only do writers have to adapt to the shifting markets, sometimes they have to make their own place. And we need a business plan!

Part of that plan included an introduction to agent Karen Grencik, who it turns out had just started a new agency, Red Fox Literary. And this time, I wasn’t shy about asking questions – even dumb ones. While I was cautious given my previous experience, it didn’t take long before I knew she was the one.

One month later, Karen sold Big River’s Daughter to Holiday House. Three months after that, she sold my second middle grade novel, Girls of Gettysburg, also to Holiday House. Again, the big lesson I learned was patience. All things happens for a reason at the time they are supposed to happen. As River plunges into the wilds of the frontier, taking on the Pirates Laffite and the extraordinary landscape of the mighty river herself in the rough-and-tumble Big River’s Daughter, there is that truth of River’s journey: if one perseveres, life can be full of possible imaginations.

History is literature, David McCullough says. And our history is full of amazing stories. For my second novel, The Girls of Gettysburg, I walked the battlefield four times, watching re-enactors create this moment in history. One hundred fifty-one years ago, twelve thousand Confederate forces gathered along Seminary Ridge. Almost a mile away, at the end of an open field, a copse of trees marked the Union line standing firm on Cemetery Ridge. When the signal was given, the men marched across the field. The line had advanced less than two hundred yards when the federals sent shell after shell howling into their midst. Boom! Men fell legless, headless, armless, black with burns and red with blood. Still they marched on across that field. And in the middle of this gruesome battle, the bloodiest of the Civil War, were The Girls of Gettysburg.  The book is due for release on August 1.

I love writing middle grade novels, and I would never have discovered that if events hadn’t unfolded as they did. I love my agent, and I could not have met her any sooner as she was busy elsewhere. Likewise, I love Emma Dryden, whom I would never have met if not for that Windjammer cruise.

Bobbi Miller‘s first middle grade novel, Big River’s Daughter, comes recommended by the International Reading Association, and was nominated for the Amelia Bloomer Project (American Library Association, 2013). Cherub Book Reviews states: “I love Bobbi Miller’s work: her exaltation of folklore and refined yarn-spinning, plus the generous Author’s Notes included in Big River’s Daughter about the legends and historical facts found in her research inspire more insightful reading for all of us.” The book is listed on A Mighty Girl’s Top 2013 Mighty Girl Books for Tweens and Teens.

Her second middle grade novel, The Girls of Gettysburg, will be released by Holiday House in Fall 2014.