My Struggle (to Publication)

Recently, it occurred to me that, by the close of this year, I will have published a book with almost every single kind of publisher. This is either a reflection of the modern condition or my own mad career. There’s been the major conglomerate (Random House), the very large non-prestige publisher (Amazon’s Lake Union), the midsized indie (Verso), the much smaller indie (OR Books), the small imprint that belongs to a much larger company (Arcade), and the tiniest of indies (Tough Poets Press). I’ve dealt with major corporations and de facto one-man bands. I don’t know if that qualifies me for doling out any sort of advice, but I thought I might reflect, a few weeks out from the publication of my next novel, on how I got here.