Sometimes, It Works: One Writer’s Lesson in Persistence
By Jamie Madden
In 2021, I set out to write a book that had slowly been forming in my head for years. I work in creating affordable housing, and I’d always wanted a book I could leave behind with community groups, policymakers, and the like. Developing affordable housing is complicated and full of obscure jargon, but it’s all learnable. I wanted to write a book that would demystify what affordable housing is, how it works, what we’ve tried, and what is necessary to fix this housing crisis.
I couldn’t write that book. It was too boring. At least coming from me. (This year, Greg Colburn pulled it off better than I could.)
Then, I encountered wonderful and informative hybrid-memoirs like Angela Garbes’ “Like a Mother”, Suzanne Simard’s “The Mother Tree”, and Stefanie Foo’s “What My Bones Know”. Their stories taught me about birthing, forest ecology, and C-PTSD, and I began to see more clearly that my stories of growing up in affordable housing, experiencing housing insecurity as a child, and growing up to be a professional who helps create affordable housing might do for housing what those fine writers did for their topics.
I completed my “granite block” draft to prove to myself I could write a book before I really began to reach out about publishing. Some very generous friends offered to read that draft, and while they read, I began my outreach. I did the usual things: searching online, asking friends, listening to podcasts, reading periodicals. A couple college friends had been successfully published and walked me through the typical process of querying agents, developing a book proposal, and then submitting it to publishers. They sent me to the acknowledgment pages, and I spent an afternoon at Elliot Bay Books taking note of the agents and publishers of books I liked or thought were comparable to mine. I spent many months - from that test reading through to carving the granite block into something more resembling a book - querying agents. I had a few respond with some interest, and a couple requested the manuscript, but nothing went further than that.
Then one day, I heard Rebekah Borucki guest on a podcast. They founded Row House Publishing to “raise the volume on voices that matter” and to “build a community of diverse authors and imprints that support one another while publishing across genres at the intersection of literature and social justice. I was smitten. I’m deep enough into my career to have learned the hard way the importance of working with people you like and with whom you share values. Row House was open for unsolicited proposals at the time. I thought they would be perfect for my memoir about affordable housing.
They rejected me. Like any writer, I’d piled up rejections already. This one stung a little more.
I had also signed up for a writing class with Rebekah. For a few months, by zoom, I got to hear from Bex and from a couple dozen other inspiring, aspiring writers. It was the kind of room I always want to be in, focused on the values of social justice, on the work we create, and on the people we were - all at once. Meanwhile, I continued to pile rejections, and I had a wonderful conversation with another indie publisher who had some interest. Then, I got a second chance to put my book in front of Row House through its 100 Block imprint, and this time they accepted me.
My hunch was right, they have been the perfect house for my book, Bittersweet Lane: Creating Home(s) in the American Affordable Housing Crisis. Row House is a publisher with a community, and it’s been an honor to be welcomed into that space with their other tremendous authors. Their contract was fair and kindly negotiated. They hired a developmental editor, Nirmala Nataraj, who turned out to be a perfect fit for this project and for working with me. That big block of granite was now carved into the statue I’d envisioned. Row House brought in a copy editor - a PNW local, Lore Alexander - who brought a unique combo of relentless attention to detail with flexibility and facility with language. Almost everyone associated with Row House who touched this book did so with a passion for my topic, compassion for my story, and cultural understanding of my language and social class. I brag about them being the best of both worlds, with an indie publisher level of care but major distribution power through Row House’s agreement with Simon & Schuster.
When Bittersweet Lane hits shelves on November 18th, it’ll have been four years and two months since I began work on it. I’m still stacking rejections as I reach out to bookstores, conferences, and events to put together a book tour, butI know I have been incredibly fortunate. I am unrepresented, found my best fit publisher, and came out of editing with great admiration for my editors.
I think the lesson of my publishing story is the same lesson as dating or building a career; just keep trying. Keep meeting people. Keep querying. Rejection is part of the process. Try to find the people you believe in who also believe in you. It may seem hopeless at times, but if you keep looking you just might find the match for you.
Jamie Madden (he/sé) is the author of Bittersweet Lane: Creating Home(s) in the American Affordable Housing Crisis. Jamie is a dad and community development professional with expertise in housing development, public policy, and real estate finance. Jamie earned his Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BA in Political Science and Chinese from Swarthmore College, but he learned his most important lessons inside Massachusetts’s most diverse high school, Randolph Junior/Senior High. Jamie grew up in affordable housing at the Bittersweet Lane Apartments, and he went on to work for the affordable housing industry’s leading nonprofits. His work has contributed to creating more than one thousand affordable homes. If this housing crisis were fixed, sé would spend his days writing, parenting, playing music, and learning an cúpla focail as Gaeilge.