To celebrate the recent release of Sara Dobie Bauer’s Bite Somebody, I have the pleasure of hosting her today on the blog! She’s here to talk a bit about her publication journey. Take it away, Sara!
How Bite Somebody went from dream to reality
By Sara Dobie Bauer
The easiest part of getting published is writing the book. People never believe me when I say that. My novel, Bite Somebody, finally (finally) came out June 21, 2016. I started writing the first draft May 25, 2014. I completed the first draft in 41 days.
Please don’t think that’s normal. It’s not normal. I was on some sort of metaphorical literary speed for that first draft. Fairy dust may have been involved.
When the first draft was finished, I sat back and told myself, “This is it. This is the one,” because full disclosure: Bite Somebody was nowhere near my first book. I’d been trying to sell manuscripts for over a decade by then, but Bite Somebody felt special. I heard the swish of nothing but net. I’d nailed it.
Then, nothing happened. The book was rejected over and over … and over. Since I’d been in the literary game for a while, I wasn’t totally destroyed. I was surprised at first, because hey, Bite Somebody was good stuff. I continued to hope to no avail.
I kept writing. I kept trying. Then, I stopped. I remember sitting with girlfriends over beers and finally breaking down. I told them, “I don’t want to be a writer anymore.” This realization was terrifying, because I’d been a writer my whole life. If I wasn’t a writer, what was I?
I tried my hand at part-time hack jobs until my husband came home one day to find me crying on our bedroom floor. I knew it. He knew it. The President of the United States probably knew it. I’m a writer, but it can really suck.
One afternoon, I posted a big chunk of Bite Somebody online for general consumption. I started getting positive feedback from readers. One young lady in particular, Megan Gaudino (author of Always Kiss Me Goodnight), couldn’t stop raving. She told me about a publishing house called World Weaver Press and how I should submit Bite Somebody. I did, and I received an email from a stranger named Trysh Thompson.
She’d read the first 5,000 words, and she wanted 30,000 more. I got an email the following day that extolled the virtue of one of my favorite lines (“You need cutlery right now?”), and Trysh asked for the full manuscript. I cautiously did a mediocre victory dance, and ten days later, I got the rejection … sort of.
See, Trysh wanted me to rewrite the entire thing in third person (it was originally first person POV) and make some, what I considered, drastic changes. I remember sitting there in front of my computer, frowning, because I was too exhausted to cry—too sick of trying to get my work out there, sick of rejection, sick, sick, sick.
Plus, life was fudging with me. My husband had recently quit his cushy job as a nuclear operator to become an organic farmer. We were broke and, soon, moving across the country, from Phoenix to Ohio. My lifelong depression wasn’t giving me a break, and my severe anxiety disorder popped in like Cosmo Kramer to steal my cereal.
Somehow, though, I sat down and did what Trysh said. I rewrote the entire first draft of Bite Somebody, I packed up my belongings, and my husband and I found a new home outside Cleveland. Then, I waited two months until one Sunday afternoon (just a regular Sunday afternoon), I received a tweet from one Trysh Thompson, telling me to check my email.
As of October 2015, World Weaver Press wanted to publish Bite Somebody, and (drum roll) they wanted me to write a sequel.
It’s now June of 2016. Bite Somebody became a reality the twenty-first. The sequel, Bite Somebody Else, is with beta readers, soon to be pampered to perfection by my amazing editor and now dear friend. A dream come true! Immediate fame and fortune! Endless acceptance letters and a ticker tape parade! Right?
As a professional writer, I still get anywhere from two to five rejection letters a week. Trolls still tell me how much I suck. I have moments of immense self-doubt, and some guy at a poetry reading last week said he thought I seemed “fragile.” I wanted to tell him writers aren’t fragile. If we were, we wouldn’t be writers.
It’s a mean world out there, and publishing is incredibly hard. Even when you get that publishing deal, the work doesn’t end. It never ends. That’s the beauty and the horror. But we can’t quit. I tried quitting, and I failed. If you’re a writer, write. People are going to be cruel, and you’re going to get stepped on all the time—but it’s worth it. Maybe you’ll find your Megan, your Trysh, your champion, and finding people who get you and get your work is more valuable than a publishing contract anyway.
About the Book:
“Do you want to be perfect?”
That’s what Danny asked Celia the night he turned her into a vampire. Three months have passed since, and immortality didn’t transform her into the glamorous, sexy vamp she was expecting but left her awkward, lonely, and working at a Florida gas station. On top of that, she’s a giant screw-up of an immortal, because the only blood she consumes is from illegally obtained hospital blood bags.
What she needs to do—according to her moody vampire friend Imogene—is just … bite somebody. But Celia wants her first bite to be special, and she has yet to meet Mr. Right Bite. Then, Ian moves in next door. His scent creeps through her kitchen wall and makes her nose tingle, but insecure Celia can’t bring herself to meet the guy face-to-face.
When she finally gets a look at Ian’s cyclist physique, curly black hair, and sun-kissed skin, other parts of Celia tingle, as well. Could he be the first bite she’s been waiting for to complete her vampire transformation? His kisses certainly have a way of making her fangs throb.
Just when Celia starts to believe Ian may be the fairy tale ending she always wanted, her jerk of a creator returns to town, which spells nothing but trouble for everyone involved.
About the Author:
Sara Dobie Bauer is a writer, model, and mental health advocate with a creative writing degree from Ohio University. She spends most days at home in her pajamas as a book nerd and sex-pert for SheKnows.com. Her short story, “Don’t Ball the Boss,” was nominated for the 2015 Pushcart Prize, inspired by her shameless crush on Benedict Cumberbatch. She lives with her hottie husband and two precious pups in Northeast Ohio, although she would really like to live in a Tim Burton film. For more about Sara, visit her website: http://SaraDobieBauer.com.
Where to buy Bite Somebody:
