On Writing.
I always wanted to be a writer. It was a thing. I think for most people being a writer is a thing. It’s an aspiration. We throw it out there in conversation, “Oh maybe I’ll write a book on this one day.”
My first job out of college turned out to be a lucky break. I got a job working for — you guessed it — an author. But not any author. I ended up working for Gail Sheehy. She was finishing up a biography on Hillary Clinton. Gail was married to Clay Felker, the legendary editor and founder of New York Magazine. So in my early 20's I spent thousands of hours with two literary giants. That’s helped my writing. I mean really, how could it not?
Around a decade ago I got into writing screenplays. It was fun. I was pretty terrible at at. But I got better. I still think my second script, Fake Wedding, is hilarious, with real character development and an emotional hook packaged in a romantic comedy. I assume eventually someone will pick it up and make it into a film. Or not.
Five years ago I signed with a very big literary agency. It was very exciting. I had put together a book proposal. They pitched it. The book got rejected and they dumped me. It sucked. I remember how dejected I felt when the publishers and then my agent punted on me. I had written a 25,000 word proposal. Now that was gathering dust along with my earlier writing.
Then a year ago I met another literary agent who owned her own firm. I told her I wanted to be a writer. I feel like that’s akin to going up to the owner of a baseball team and asking to the GM. What do you say in response to that?
We did eventually work up a book proposal which she pitched last winter and spring. We got 23 rejections. At least I was used to being told no. Getting a book published began to remind me of dating before I met my wife. Except at least with dating there was a chance of getting lucky. Here, I had no game.
Until…I did.
Most of the 23 rejections went like this: Hey, this is a really interesting and well written book proposal. But Jason isn’t a Kardashian. With no big following we can’t take a chance on an known.
I thought about changing my last name to Kardashian but I was worried that it could land me a reality TV. So I didn’t go that route.
But this publisher was less interested in how many people knew me. They really likes the content. But they wanted to see more. So I quickly wrote two more chapters in an effort to impress them. It wasn’t my best writing but it got the job done. 6 weeks later we had a deal. There was only one catch.
The delivery date.
The publisher wanted the book done by November 15. It was now July 30th. Writing 70,000 words in 3.5 months is a big challenge but I figured it would be worth it. I was asked if anything could stop me from delivering the manuscript on time. Well, only if the New York Mets go to the World Series could there be a problem. But let’s face it, that’s not happening this season.
Oops.
The next day the team completed its roster overhaul and dominated the National League for the rest of the season. Despite the Mets success I was still able to finish the book in-time; just with a it less sleep.
And now here I am. I have a book in the can and a release date of May 10, 2016.
Shameless plug! You can pre-order it here. Seriously if you let me know that read about it on Medium, I’d be happy to sign it and ship it back to you. And if you are interested in social entrepreneurship you will really like this book.
So….does this mean I’m now a writer? Do I officially become one on May 10th? No.
While working on my book I realized that I’ve always been a writer. Anyone who scribbles in a notebook, posts a blog or scribbles on a post-it is telling a story.
On May 10 I don’t become a writer. I do become a published author. I’ll share more detail on the journey from July 30-Nov 15 in a later post.
In the meantime, I’ll keep writing. So should you.
