Publishing Your Peace Corps Story
I would add stories about RPCV contacts with people in their host countries. I had a student who first became…
Publishing Your Peace Corps Story
Finding an Agent
Yes, it is difficult to find an agent. But you can start here and have a list of names, addresses, and what these agents want to see. http://www.1000literaryagents.com. Remember, if an agent says he or she only publishes YA novels then don’t send them your Peace Corps story, unless, of course, it is written for Young Adults. Agents are in the business (and it is very much a business) of making money so if they think your book will sell, they will represent you. If they think your book is wonderful but won’t sell to a publisher, they won’t represent you. Very few agents are in the business of literature. They leave that work to the academics.
Editors & Publishers
You have heard, I’m sure, how Catch 22 went to more than 50 publishing houses before it was published back in 1960. That novel is still selling! There are endless tales of books that were rejected by this editor or that publisher as being worthless that went onto become huge commercial successes as well as literary prize winners.
You can save yourself a lot of time and heartache if you study the market and pick houses where you have a chance of getting published. That is why an agent is so important. She or he knows the marketplace. That is their job.
Today, it is difficult to get anything published by a ‘commercial’ house until the novel or non-fiction book is very commercial (or the editor thinks it will sell, i.e., it fits a genre.) I wrote a series of occult/horror novels back in the ’70s that sold for lots of money. Now you can’t give horror novels away. I also wrote a series of novels set around golf and those novels fit a sports category in publishing, i.e., golfers. They don’t make much money, but I don’t mind. I love writing these novels.
Now, if you write a literary novel than you have to really go for small presses like Graywolf, Permanent Press or Curbstone (they have published a collection of Peace Corps fiction I edited.)
If you are writing an academic novel well, you know where to go for that kind of publication. Georgia Press, for example, has done a few Peace Corps related books, as has New Mexico Press, Iowa State University Press, etc.
Finally, you can self publish or POD publish it, and sell copies out of your car trunk, as John Grisham did with his first novel, and before he wrote The Firm.
It is difficult to get a novel published in good times as well as hard times. I wrote 7 novels before I published one. Since then I have written 3 novels that no one wants to buy. And I have also sold a half dozen novels. Go figure.
Submitting a Novel to an Agent
Last week an RPCV sent me a novel he had written. He is trying to get published and he asked me to look at it. I did. I told him the truth. I was blunt. Why fool this RPCV with praise if I think it is unpublishable? I might be wrong, but I have read a lot of bad books by RPCVs. I told him to send me 25 pages and he sent me the whole novel as a PDF file. That is the wrong way to present a book to an agent or editor.
Why Write Your Peace Corps Story?
As an RPCV, you have the opportunity to write an account of what it was like to be a Peace Corps Volunteer during your years. Your story has value as it contributing to the history of the Peace Corps as an international development movement. Someday some scholar will be thrilled to come upon this story.
Not only scholars but host country nationals. What you wrote will be a history of their country.
John,, Thank you. Jim w
This is very sage advice, John. Usually, it takes ten years of constant writing to find a voice. Most freshman writers do not appreciate that fact and become frustrated when their first book is not fawned over. For the obsessed, you just keep writing. This is a skill like riding a bike. If you feel the need to write a book, there must be a very good reason. Keep trying.
Thanks, John. FYI, my grandmother had an amazing life in late 1800’s into the 1900’s. She kept quite a diary that much later she self published just for family and friends! What a treasure complete with black and white photos. It may be enough for many of us to write our story just for ourselves and our family. No small task!
And the oral history of collecting stories is very rich. I would give anything to have a recording of each of my grandparents’ voices now! Sadly I have forgotten the sound of my beloved maternal grandmother who lived with us in Berkeley so long ago as I was growing up.
Just saying we don’t all have to get published to make writing worthwhile! Thanks for all the support you have given so many people over the years!
I would add stories about RPCV contacts with people in their host countries. I had a student who first became a computer programmer and later digitized his native language, permitting 60, million people to use computers and iPhones to communicate. I hope to get around to writing this story. Thank you for your encouragement.