The First Time I Met Ivan Doig
When I sold my first novel in 2000, I was very ignorant about the publishing world. But I guess I kind of assumed that my publisher was going to wrap me up in their big powerful arms and help me figure out how to maneuver my way through the process of becoming a published author. Silly me.
Right about the time I finished the edits on my novel, I got a call from my agent, informing me that William Morrow, the publisher who bought my book, had just been acquired by Harpercollins. He told me that he wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but that he would let me know when he found out more. What he did not tell me, and thank god he didn’t, was that there was a very good chance my book would probably get dropped. Both the woman who bought my book and my editor were laid off, so there was nobody at Harpercollins who was even familiar with the book, much less there to champion it.
I was very relieved, several months later, when my agent called and told me that they had assigned my novel to a new editor. He gave me her name and number, but I was not quite so reassured when I called her one day, and she didn’t have any idea who I was. I reminded her about the book, and she finally said “Oh yes, I’m excited to work on that book. I love memoirs!”
The book was not a memoir.
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