Thread by @vauhinivara

This is a thread about my story collection that comes out today, THIS IS SALVAGED, and also about luck in publishing. First of all, here's where you can find it! But that's not the interesting part. (1/x) wwnorton.com/books/97803935…

This collection's first encounter with the publishing industry was in 2009, when an agent read it and offered to represent me. In 2010, she changed her mind about the stories — stories were too hard to sell without a novel, she said. We should wait till I finished my novel. (2/x)

In 2014, I finished the novel and sent it to her. I waited for a long time for her to read it and give me notes. Months. When we talked, she admitted she wasn't sure the novel had a future. It had too many yet-unresolved problems. (3/x)

We hung up. I called her back: Wait, are you saying maybe you don't want to represent me? I said. Yeah, she said. (4/x)

I got pregnant. I'd heard a rumor babies are bad for writers, esp. non-male ones. Oops, I thought. Then my husband introduced me to Brando Skyhorse, who introduced me to my dream agent, Susan Golomb. (5/x)

Susan also thought the novel wasn't ready, but she saw potential in it and wanted to work with me to help it reach that potential. In the meantime, she said we could start by selling the stories, which seemed done. (6/x)

In 2015, Susan sent out the stories. They were rejected everywhere. Here are some receipts — including one from the genre people sometimes don't believe exists but does! (7/x)

By then, I'd been working on the story collection as well as the novel for 5+ years. I went back to work on both of them. It took me another 5+ years. (8/x)

In 2020, I was in Mexico on a reporting trip for Airbnb's magazine when the pandemic struck. The magazine folded; my story died. (It was about whales and has never seen the light of day.) Also, Susan had just sent my novel to editors. (9/x)

Within months, the industry would become much more conservative about what they bought. But that hadn't happened yet. A couple of editors — just two — were interested in the novel. On the phone with both, I mentioned I'd written a story collection, too. (10/x)

Neither of them read the full collection, as I recall. But when my editor at @wwnorton offered to buy the novel, she offered to buy the stories as well. Go figure! The next day, the World Health Organization declared we were in a pandemic. (11/x)

The novel, THE IMMORTAL KING RAO, came out last year and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The stories, THIS IS SALVAGED, comes out today and has gotten starred reviews from @KirkusReviews, @ALA_Booklist, and @PublishersWkly. (12/x)

Luck! Sometimes, it's bad. And then, sometimes, it's good. Here's me signing preorders, this particular one for @esmewang. (13/x)

Find the book wherever you get your books (or via the link in the first tweet); find me on tour here. (14/x) vauhinivara.com/events