My little book club was lucky enough to talk with Kristy Kiernan, author of the recent book group favorite, Catching Genius. I’ve always wondered about overnight sensation stories like hers, so we talked about her path to success. Turns out Catching Genius is not a first novel… or a second novel… or a third novel. She had to work hard and stay at it through repeated rejections. We’re glad she did. Here’s Kristy herself, talking about the journey:
I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was five, but I didn’t get down to seriously pursuing it until I was thirty. I was thirty-seven before I got my first novel, Catching Genius, published. Over those seven years I had several opportunities to go back to work full-time, but I turned them down, certain that success was just around the corner. After every rejection I would look around our finances to see what else could be cut, and I was slowly running out of possibilities, unless we wanted to stop showering altogether. When, just before I started writing Catching Genius (the fourth manuscript I wrote), we sold my car, I knew I was at the end of my chances and I made plans to re-enter the workplace full-time as soon as I completed it. But fate was with me, and the book sold within two weeks of going on submission. I don’t regret any of the sacrifices. Even if I never wind up taking the New York Times bestseller list by storm, I still know that I did everything I could do to achieve my dreams.
We’re excited to see Kristy’s book do well, and we look forward to the next one!
PS> An aspiring cartoonist was sending work samples to prospective buyers. He was turned down a number of times. One company’s rejection letter even advised him to “find an actual artist to do the drawing.” He shrugged it off and kept going until he got a yes. His name is Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and he’s now one of the top selling cartoonists of all time. In business, “no” means “keep trying.”
