Papa Lucy & The Boneman
A few years ago, I was doing work experience at a large publisher, reading submissions and writing reports about them for editors. I hadn’t realized up to that point how important everyone is in the publishing process: even though I was inexperienced and new, I was helping to determine which manuscripts got the attention of people who might decide to buy them.
One manuscript really stood out to me. I was dropped straight into a strange world with no compass, no map, no water, and no guide. A half-dead ancient magician limped out of a dead lake, a murderer crossed a deathly saltpan straight into a camp of cannibals, a humanoid echidna kept watch over a dying body, warped WWII monuments and televisions appeared through wormholes and were looted by the poor. This book, Jason Fischer’s Papa Lucy & The Boneman, blew me away—I hadn’t read anything like it before. I immediately recommended it to the editors I was reading for.
Strange things happen in large publishing houses, and even the best books don’t get published for any number of reasons. Somehow, Jason’s book fell through the cracks, and my work experience (and whatever small influence I had) ended.
My career moved on. I became a freelance editor, working with people to make their manuscripts better. Many books and manuscripts later, though, I had still never stopped thinking about Papa Lucy. It stayed with me, always right there in a little Papa Lucy-shaped hollow in my heart.
One day a couple of years later, two things happened at once. I thought to myself that in my development editing work I always sent my authors off to agents, who took their work and sold it. Why couldn’t I do that part too, I wondered. Separately, I thought again of Papa Lucy. I googled it and learned from Jason’s blog that it had been acquired by a publishing house! … and then that publishing house folded, returning the rights to Jason. Devastating.
So I emailed Jason. I told him just what I’ve told you here, that his book had stayed with me all this time, and that I was so sorry to hear that his deal had fallen through. I was worried that approaching him as a stranger would feel creepy to him. But he wrote back and was happy to hear from me. He said he felt encouraged to send it to some more publishers.
This response threw me. Why wasn’t Jason’s agent doing that for him? Well, it turned out he was currently unagented. And then a light went on in my head.
“I’ll be your agent! I’ve never done it and I have nothing to offer you except enthusiasm!” To his credit, Jason did not block my email address and take out a restraining order on this obviously deranged stranger, but instead just said ok.
Hard part done, right? Not so much. Now I had to figure out how to be an agent. And in my second round of amazing luck with a good and kind person who was willing to take a chance on me, I contacted Emily Sweet, who (long story short) decided to help me out in the world of agenting.
It took me about 9 months and quite a few approaches to publishers, but I sold Papa Lucy & The Boneman to a publisher in January 2020. And I sold the next two books in the trilogy, too. And I sold an RPG based in the world that Jason had imagined.
My foray into agenting was sadly beset by COVID-19; just when I was starting to build good relationships I was suddenly cut off from meeting new editors—many of whom were furloughed. I was homeschooling two children on my own. I couldn’t keep up with submissions and I couldn’t represent my clients as well as they deserved. I stopped agenting in September. That’s not really part of this story, though.
What is part of this story is that Papa Lucy is available for pre-order. I didn’t write this as simply a long marketing pitch: I returned all of my rights to royalties etc back to Jason, so I won’t make any money from PLB. I do want you to consider, though, whether you would like to take a chance on the book that haunted me for years. I’ve provided some Amazon pre-order links, but you can also pre-order through your favorite indie or hometown bookshop. If you love unforgettable strange fiction, you can’t afford to miss this.
Well. That’s my first newsletter. Maybe it won’t be my last.
Yours,
Angel