Lisa Gardner is one of two wunderkinds I’ve interviewed (the other is Michael Koryta) who began their publishing careers while still in college. (What? Me jealous? My goal at the time was to learn how to write a declarative sentence for news stories for The University of Tennessee Daily Beacon.)
She was all of 17 when her friends at Penn urged her to write a category romance. She did. Her manuscript was pulled from the slush pile by a fellow Alumna, and she was slowly on her way. It was more than two years of waiting followed by the typical back and forth editing. But finally, a division of Harlequin published her category romance novel.
“I had dreams I’d sell my first novel and buy a Mercedes,” Gardner says. “I sold my first novel and could only afford a new computer.”
Romance novels sell more than any other classification in book publishing, above regular fiction (number two) and thrillers (number three). But, according to Gardner, it’s difficult to make a living writing category romances—a niche inside a much larger niche.
Her father, an accountant, urged her to get a real job. “I got a job my father approved of. A cubicle, benefits, pantyhose—all the comforts of a business life.”
She was a business consultant by day but kept writing every evening. Having been relatively isolated in college from the publishing world, she joined the New England Romance Writers and met her first for real, actual, published authors, and in person, and began to network—one of the most important things every writer should do in this solitary business.
“A few of the women romance writers helped me get an agent.” Several knew Damaris Rowland, who was previously an editor at Dell and was looking to become an agent and build a list of authors. When you’re looking, Gardner says, “find an agent with no clients.”
Rowland read her romance novels and said Gardner’s sex scenes were just okay, “but your violence is exquisite. You need to write thrillers.”
At the time, Tess Gerritsen had just sold Harvest and romance authors Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts were moving into thrillers.
Gardner, being up on business matters as a consultant (it’s a genetic thing, both parents are accountants) saw she might actually be able to make a living at this writing thing if she switched to the more lucrative thriller line of writing. She immediately started work on one, but she didn’t immediately know what she was doing. Finally, she figured out she was actually writing a domestic thriller.
She again went through the long back and forth with an editor, this time with a new publisher, Bantam, and finally they began working on their marketing plan, gearing up to launch her first thriller. Bantam wanted to title her novel “Redemption” and created a cover that her book editor, Beth de Guzman, said was awful. After all of her work, Gardner realized her thriller was not being packaged for success.
“I’m beginning to believe my father was right. That job with benefits was looking really good right now.”
Then one of the sales directors at Bantam read her manuscript. “This is really good,” he said. “We can sell the be Jesus out of this, but you have to give it a new cover and title.”
The Perfect Husband emerged, and the cover of a burning wedding dress with embossed foil flames quickly appeared. The cover was so good, the New York Times published a story about it, one that failed to focus on anything but the cover. Not a mention of Gardner’s wonderful sex scenes (okay, I’m being too cute). It didn’t matter. She suddenly had a bestseller on her hands and no worries about pantyhose ever again.
Learn more inside dish about your favorite authors. If you like this, please feel free to forward to a friend and encourage them to sign up.
Rick Pullen is the author of the best selling thriller Naked Ambition, its sequel Naked Truth, and a stand-alone thriller The Apprentice.
Thanks for reading Idol Talk! Subscribe for free or support Idol Talk with a paid subscription.