COMM Post--Walter versus the Publishers

I started the second hardest thing next to completing a manuscript, publishing the manuscript.

I can't complain about the positive comments I have received from doctors all around the U.S.

I received another kick ass comment from a prominent neurosurgeon from UCSF. It took me five emails and a lot of patience to get this comment.

Dear Walter,

I’m glad to offer a brief comment.

"This is a riveting account of a patient’s own journey through the many challenges of having a potentially fatal disease. It points out that perhaps the most important medicine in life is determination and perseverance that this illness can be beaten and controlled. Congratulations for an outstanding account of your experiences. "

I hope this is what you had in mind.

Sincerely,

Mitchel S. Berger, MD, Kathleen M. Plant Distinguished Professor, Chairman, Department of Neurological Surgery, Director, Brain Tumor Research Center
University of California San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, Room M786,
San Francisco, CA 94143-0112

I started my query letter email campaign to 10 book agents on April 1. By April 2, I received three denials. I sent out five more on April 3, and received a reply from Betsy Amster Literary Enterprises, in Los Angeles, requesting the first three pages of my manuscript. Yippie!!!!!!!!!!

An actual positive reply. One out of 15! Not bad for a two day start.

I know that I have a long year ahead of me, filled with hundreds of email and SASE query letters until I find someone to represent me.

I will toss all the rejection responses to the side, keep my head down, think positive, and continue to run into the burning building, naked, and with gas cans and dynamite strapped to my body.

To me, this sounds just like trying to survive a grade two and three brain tumor.

From here on out, it is me against the rest of the cancer survivors trying to publish a book about a battle between a talking brain tumor and a guy that will never give on trying to live.

I bought Always Looking Up, by Michael J. Fox, and am excited about cracking it open this weekend. I loved his first book Lucky Man, and he will always be an inspiration to never give up on anything that you want to accomplish.