by Rebecca Kim Wells
In 2015 I reached a major milestone in my writing career: I signed with a literary agent. The book I had written was a dark fairy tale-inspired YA fantasy, drenched with blood and magic and lies and quests. It was also a book featuring a queer main character and romantic relationship.
I saw no reason for this to be a problem. It was true that there weren’t that many queer YA books out there (especially not published by major US publishers), but there were some. Why couldn’t there be more? My agent, a fierce supporter of queer children’s books, had nothing but enthusiasm for my project. Together we spent several months revising this book and sent it on submission to publishers in the fall of 2015.
It’s not uncommon that a writer’s first book on submission fails to sell. Over the next several months we received kind rejection after kind rejection for this project, the sort that said, “I love the idea, didn’t quite connect with the main character,” or “The writing was great, but it’s too similar to something else on our list.” We got nice words, but nothing that told us anything about what might be wrong with the book, or what we could focus on in revision.
In early 2016, I had lunch with my agent. She (very kindly) suggested that it was time to shelve that book and write something else.
I was devastated. No matter how much experience you have in the publishing industry, rejection still hurts—and this was a big one. I shelved my book and spent months licking my wounds, but eventually, I picked myself up and started writing again. The next book I wrote, a YA fantasy about dragons and crumbling empires and secrets and one girl’s determination, sold to Simon & Schuster in 2018. Shatter the Sky, which was published last July, also features a queer main character and romantic relationship—in fact, it’s lovingly known around the internet as the “angry bisexual dragon YA fantasy novel.”
Last summer I was asked at a major bookseller conference how I feel about that angry bisexual tagline. I was lucky to be able to say with confidence that I feel great about it, and not just because I came up with it (lol). In my dealings with my publisher, S&S has always been supportive of my queer characters and stories. And I have sometimes been completely verklempt about how the book has been received—after the cover and first chapter reveal, I saw someone tweet that they were crying over the fact that two girls were kissing in the first chapter of a book published by a major publisher. Shatter the Sky is definitely not the first novel to do this, but I was overwhelmed that my writing brought joy to someone else seeking that representation.
Earlier this year, I had another lunch with my agent. We were gossiping about books we loved and talking career strategy, and my shelved book came up in conversation. And for the first time she told me that one of the imprints we’d submitted to in 2015 had told her that they weren’t sure the world was ready for the queer relationship in my YA book.
The world can change so much, so quickly. Sometimes it feels impossible. But it can.
I am so glad my agent didn’t tell me this at the time. Not only was it completely unhelpful information, it would also have devastated me even further and discouraged me from writing my next queer book. Instead, I got to hear about it five years (and three queer book contracts!) later, and laugh.
Because Simon & Schuster bought that 2015 book (after a revision I would not have been able to pull off five years ago). I am writing that book anew, and it is exhilarating. Next fall, you’ll get to read Of Blood and Briars (*working title!), a book I believed in too much to shelve permanently, and you’ll fall in love with my fierce (and fiercely disastrous) queer protagonist just as much as I have.
I am so lucky that my writing career has already had so many moments of queer bookish joy. But selling this queer book of my heart (five years later!) is one of the most satisfying. I can’t wait to share it with you.
—
Rebecca Kim Wells grew up in California before moving east in search of crisp autumns and snowy winters. Her debut novel Shatter the Sky was a New England Book Award Finalist, an Indies Introduce selection, and a Kids’ Indie Next Pick. She is also the author of Storm the Earth (October 2020) and Of Blood and Briars (2021), published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. She holds a BA in Political Science from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Simmons College. When not writing, reading, or talking about writing or reading, she sells books at a fiercely independent bookstore in Massachusetts. She can also be found drinking tea, singing along to musicals, or playing soccer. (Usually not all at once.) If she were a hobbit, she would undoubtedly be a Took.
Rebecca is represented by Rebecca Podos at the Rees Literary Agency.
