How Holly James survived 132 rejections to publish her debut novel

And now she's on book deal #5.

Holly James, whose debut was published by Dutton in 2022.

Hey, friends. Welcome back to Poe Can Save Your Life. Today’s post is #2 in my new series in which I’m interviewing published authors about their debuts and how they broke through—all with the aim of gleaning tips you and I might put to use in our own creative careers.

And I really could not be more excited to share this particular one with you because:

1. Holly James, who I met through my awesome and much-missed L.A. writing group, is such a cool, smart, funny, and inspiring person;

2. Hearing her story reminded me of just how much rejection there is in this business and how basically YOU JUST HAVE TO HANG IN NO MATTER WHAT, COME WHAT MAY, 100+ REJECTIONS OR MORE, EFF IT. (That’s it, that’s the takeaway tip today, totally un-abstract.)

Holly knows this firsthand. She racked up 132 rejections before landing deals for her first book, second book, third book—you get the idea.

More on that directly below. She and I spoke by email, and I’ve lightly condensed and edited our chat. You’ll find links to her website and Insta below, too.

Hey, Holly! Could you start us off by sharing a little bit about your life and how you came to writing?

I grew up in a small town in Northern California. The misty redwoods and rugged coastline will forever be home to me! I played music from the time I was very young. I started piano lessons and also was in band from elementary school all the way through high school. I’ve always been a voracious reader, and during those years, I was much more into language arts, history, and creative/performance arts. When I got to college, I shifted to studying science. I was a psychology major as an undergrad and went on to earn a PhD in psychology after. It was in grad school, when I was so intensely consumed with science and logic every day, that I really started to crave that creative outlet I’d had when I was younger. I’d dabbled in creative writing as a kid and teen (poetry; short stories), but I’d never attempted to write anything novel-length until I was in grad school. Looking back on it, I think the creative side of my brain really was crying out for attention. Writing became my escape and helped balance me out.

It took me a long while to work up the nerve to share my writing with anyone, and once I did, I got enough positive feedback to give me enough confidence to throw my hat in the ring and start querying. I exhausted the internet for information on how to query, and once I had a letter and (what I thought was) a polished manuscript, I went for it. This was the spring of 2016, and—true story—I got a full request from the president of an agency the next day. I thought, this is going to be so easy! Fast forward three years. . . 

I signed with my agent in spring of 2019 with an adult thriller. Over those three years in between, I queried five different manuscripts and racked up 130+ rejections. I had so many close calls (partial requests; full requests; an R&R with a top agency that dragged out 4 months and ended in a pass), and ultimately signed with my current agent about a month after she requested my full (she took two weeks to read, and then I had to give everyone else considering two weeks as a courtesy before I accepted her offer). We went on submission with that manuscript in the summer of 2019. (Fun fact: I also got married in the summer of 2019, and that overlap was quite the rollercoaster.) That book sadly didn’t sell after several months on sub. Then, in peak lockdown of 2020, I went stir crazy enough to change genres and write a bubbly, lightly magical women’s fiction/romcom romp that sold at auction in two weeks and became my debut (Nothing But the Truth). It was night and day difference from my first sub experience and really hit home the fact that so much of publishing is timing and market trends. 

Here we are three years later, and I’m on book 3 with that same publisher (Dutton) in the romcom genre. I never thought I’d be writing romance, but I love it! I also never really thought I’d be a published fiction author. It wasn’t ever something I had plans to do (I’m a scientist!), but I’m so achievement-oriented that once I started querying, I wasn’t going to give up until I had my own book in my hands. Now I have two careers I spend every day figuring out how to balance. 

Where do you think your achievement-orientation comes from? Do you have any advice for writers and creators facing a string of rejections? 

Honestly, my advice is develop a thick skin and keep going. There is truly so much subjectivity that goes into an agent or editor offering on a book that it’s impossible to predict or plan for. I found it helpful not to marry myself to any one project. When I was querying, I just wanted one of my books to get picked up, not necessarily a specific one. Once I had that mindset, it was easier to move on to the next thing when one didn’t work out. I do write relatively quickly though, which allows me to easily move to other projects, and I know that’s not the case for everyone! 

I think my achievement orientation comes from a childhood/adolescence of excelling at school and being rewarded for success. This is my psychology background talking here, but it’s true! I learned during very formative years that getting As and doing well was what earned me praise and recognition. That became important to me and carried through the rest of my life. The drawback is that success is a constantly moving target, and I run around with a “what’s next” mentality all the time—which can be exhausting! I know that I am very bad and slowing down to appreciate any kind of milestone and am always moving on to the next thing. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’ve made it in any career, so I do my best to try and appreciate the journey.

I really admire the strategy you're advocating: developing a thick skin, spreading your bets over multiple projects. When you say you work quickly, how quickly are we talking?

I am a complete pantser (plotting makes me so anxious!), and I tend to get possessed by an idea. Once I have the hook and characters, it starts flowing, and I can finish a draft usually in 6-8 weeks. However, I’ve learned that writing under contract as well as having to prepare option materials (i.e., sample chapters and synopsis of my next idea for a book) for my publisher mixes in interesting ways with my process. It usually takes me a good chunk of a manuscript (maybe 30k-50k words) to be able to know enough about where the story is going to coherently pitch it to my agent and/or editor. This leaves me walking a tricky line of writing enough of it to feel confident that I can finish it, but not too much that I fall in love with it only to have it shot down. (Who am I kidding, I fall in love with everything!) So I’ve learned to cut myself off before I get carried away writing the whole thing before my team gives the go-ahead—which is really hard to do! Like I said: I get possessed by a story.  

I don’t think I have any productivity secrets. Maybe just stubborn determination and dedication? My life right now is me, my husband, and our dog. We both have full-time day jobs (Not the dog! Slacker!), but I currently only have to go into my office one day per week and otherwise work from home. Not having to commute allows for extra room in my morning and evening schedules. Depending on how early my meetings start for the day, on a good day, I can get in maybe an hour of writing before work. And then if my brain isn’t too fried on the other end, I can get in 1-2 hours after work before bed. (I make sure to cut myself off at 10pm otherwise I’m too wired to sleep!) My main writing time is weekends. Like, forsake everything, don’t change out of my pajamas, forget to eat until 4pm binge sessions. Those are my favorite days and I am taking full advantage of having the time to be able to work like this right now in my life. Luckily, my husband is also a bookish introvert (I chose well), so our time spent together independently engaging in our own interests naturally fits.   

Actually, maybe I do have a few tips. I’ve learned how to double-up on tasks. My favorite way to edit is converting a Word doc to spoken text and listening to it while I exercise or do chores. I’m guaranteed to hear things I don’t see on the page. I also convert my WIPs into PDFs and send them to my Kindle to read for editing while I’m on the treadmill. I have found ways for writing not to be always just sitting in front of my computer, and this helps me fit it into my schedule in more places. 

Have you experienced a sense of arrival, i.e., “Here I am, right where I intended to arrive with my writing career at this point in my life”?

Oof. Good question. Yes and no, but mostly no. Like I said earlier, my achievement orientation makes success a moving target. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’ve made it, but I am proud of where I am now. I’ve seen other authors who are wildly more successful than I am say that they don’t ever really feel like they’ve made it either because there’s always something more like hitting a bestseller list or getting a movie deal or winning a top award. With all that looming out there, it is easy to lose sight of what I’ve already accomplished. If you’d told me back in 2016 when I started querying that within 7 years I’d have sold 5 books and had 2 of them published, I would have thought I’d won it all. But now here I am in the midst of all that and still thinking “What’s next?” 

I’m also in the thick of experiencing how difficult it is to break out in a crowded genre/market, which is definitely coloring my views! After all the build up and pre-pub excitement, sales can be incredibly humbling. I don’t think my motivation has changed, but I have definitely backed off on stressing over things that are out of my control. I know there’s next to nothing I can personally do to affect sales, which is oddly kind of freeing. I’m entering the era of just writing what I love and not worrying about the rest. And I realize I can say this as someone with an otherwise full-time job, health insurance, etc. My livelihood isn’t dependent on my writing career, which would be an entirely different story!   

A Good Link

You can learn more about Holly and her books here, or say hi on her Instagram. I don’t know about you, but I’ve read through my conversation with her a half-dozen times now, and each time it’s given me some mmmph to head back to the ol’ coalface and keep working. Hope it’s had the same effect on you.

Next up: I’ll be bringing you interviews with Leigh Stein and Andrew Boryga about how they broke through and got published. Stay tuned.

As always, thank you for reading, and Happy Halloween,

Cat

P.S. Speaking of Halloween, the Poe for Your Problems ebook is on sale for $1.99 from now until midnight on the 31st. If you’ve been binging “The Fall of the House of Usher,” or if you need a pick-me-up well suited to depressive/creative types, maybe give it a look.