How I Got My First Book Contract
It began when I was 10 years old
I had wanted to be a writer since I was a kid. It took me a while to get there, but I eventually did. I wrote papers in school, and even worked on a few novels and non-fiction books. I ever even considered getting published with a huge company like Grossett and Dunlap, or Prentice Hall. It was beyond anything I could even fantasize about
In 1982 I hooked up with a business partner who was brilliant, a liar, and thief. He also slept with most of our office staff.
During our two year partnership, he networked us into a book contract at Putnam Books, a real big-time, mainstream, corporate traditional publisher.
Once in a conversation with our editor, a lovely and talented woman, I mentioned how much I enjoyed being a writer. She snapped back at me, at least that’s how I remember it, by saying “you’re an author, not a writer.” This was very painful to hear. Much of my self-esteem was built around the one thing I thought I did well — writing. I actually reached out to her on Facebook recently, a friendly call, to let her know that her statement had actually made me a better writt…She never responded.
Eventually, I escaped from the clutches and machinations of my crooked partner. Over the years I continued to have books published by traditional publishers, and always carrying one of these books with me wherever I went.
It was great to go to some fancy New York City cocktail party, and when someone asked what I did, I could reply authentically, “I’m a writer.”
Then they would ask (with obvious tackiness), “Have you been published?”
To which I would reply with a poker face and an air of indifference, “I think fourteen or fifteen times!”
As the big publishers, got eaten by even bigger publishers, I slowly watched the publishing business change. B. Dalton Booksellers, closed, as did Borders.
Independent bookstore were crushed for a while by Barnes and Nobles and their cafés.
Then Amazon.com came along and leveled the playing field. The Independent Booksellers have certainly bounced back in the last few years.
Every year I would go to Book Expo America, The largest publishing event in North America. Often held at the Javitt’s Center in NYC, it was three full flours of publishers, authors, agents, editors, printers, authors, lectures, and more.
Even celebrities walked the aisles like ordinary people shaking hands, meeting publicists, etc. Jack Canfield, Hillary Clinton, and the head of Blackwater. I attended a program, where Patty Smith interviewed Neil Young. It was just great!
Then slowly I noticed that the packed halls were getting less-packed. There were fewer booths, and more them then were occupied by digital publishers, or companies that sold for fee-self publishing packages.
Book Agents: A Bit of Heaven and a Bit of Hell
One painful experience in all this was an intentional or possibly unconscious slight by my agent. It almost destroyed my career
By this point in my writing-publishing career, I had three agents for the three different genres I was writing in.
One of these agents told me that he wanted exclusivity, and if I wanted to stay with him I needed to dump the other two. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place.
This agent, was 25 and on fire. He had already represented a few writers whose books had become best sellers.
I went with him. One of my other agents, a talented and lovely person told me she felt betrayed. She really had nurtured me, and I also felt like I had thrown her under the bus.
I told myself it was just business, and of course in a sense, it was.
They say what goes around comes around and boy did it.
Within a year, my young on-fire agent sold his agency to a major entertainment conglomerate, for millions of dollars. There was some stipulation in that contract, that if said corporation was sold to another corporation, he would get his agency back plus with millions of dollars more. By 30 years of age, he was a multimillionaire, and I had no agent.
A few years later, I attended a reading he was doing in a SoHo bookstore. He had recently published a book on grammar. He stood online, he greeted me and I bravely told him what he had done.
He apologized, “Sorry about that”, and moved on to the next person on line.
When I went to his website, it would always state that he was not taking on any new clients. That was a lie!
Through various random and casual meetings I became friendly with a novelist who was my neighbor. He told me he had recently been signed by a powerful agent for representation…Guess who? Yup. The guy who had thrown me under the bus.
There is a bit of really great news in all of this. After I got married, my wife and I opened an Air B & B. One of our guests, coincidentally with the same last name as me, read through some of my fiction. Stuff I had left on my bookshelf.
As he was moving out, he held up the manuscript, and asked me with excitement, “Is this your writing?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“This is really greatI”
I thanked, him and then he added, “You know I teach creative writing at Harvard.”
I felt chills run up my spine. I once again felt the emotions that had come over me when at 13 years old I had won an award for an essay on Hyam Solomon, an obscure, Jewish hero of the American Revolution.
It was at that moment that I realized I wasn’t just an author, but a writer.
Where I Am Now in My Writing Career
Today, the world of publishing has changed dramatically.
Book Expo is 50% smaller than it was at it’s peak, and it seems to shrink more every year.
Through all of this, something extraordinary happened. I was invited to interview for a Radio Show on an NPR affiliated community radio station (WIOX FM). I got the gig. From, I was also invited to participate (with pay) at a number of conferences of people looking to get interviewed in talk radio. Here’s the promo for my show… ”What’s Up with Lewis Harrison”.
Here’s the humorous promo for that show…
So here I am now, publishing my own stuff, on Amazon, but with ever greater interest focused in ebooks, and audio books and leaning in that direction. Of course, I publish multiple stories in Medium.com and a few weekly at AskLewis.Substack.com.
My next step may be to use A.I. to convert some of my 40 plus books into audiobooks. I’m resistant to A.I. but I will eventually fold, and use it for some things, though certainly not for my Medium stories.
Best of all I get write, publish, and know that someone, somewhere is going to read it, give me some likes, and even a few comments. As Martha Stewart often says, “It’s a good thing.”
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Author: Lewis Harrison is the author of over a dozen books with traditional publishers. He also self publishes. He is the creator of the HAGT Method (Harrison’s Applied Game Theory), and is the Executive Director of the International Association of Healing Professionals an educational organization that offers programs around the world in Intentional Living.
He is also Independent Scholar and a Results-Oriented Success Coach, with a passion for knowledge, personal development, self-improvement, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. You can read all of his Medium stories at Lewis.coaches@medium.com.
“I am always exploring trends, areas of interest, and solutions to build new stories upon. Please share this article with others. It is appreciated.
If you have any ideas you would like me to write about, just email me at LewisCoaches@gmail.com or check out all of my books, blogs, and videos through my portal www.asklewis.com
