The Program —Path to Publication

The Program is a novel by Charlie Lovett. A new weight-loss clinic in New York has an offer for you—give them $5,000 and they’ll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and you’ll never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be—if only she had $5,000.

When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, she’s on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women.

Will they be able to stop The Program before it’s too late?

This essay describes the eight-and-a-half-year journey of The Program from the original idea to its publication and beyond.

The Background
Writing a novel isn’t the easiest task in the world—but it might be easier than marketing one. My novel, The Program, published in May 2008, had a long path to publication, and the story of that journey may interest those of you who enjoyed the novel or may be working on your own books.

I finished a graduate program in Creative Writing in January 1997 and spent the next six months in England with my family. I had been writing (or trying to write) short literary fiction for the past two years and during our time in England I researched and began writing three non-fiction books on Lewis Carroll. Those books were completed and published over the next several years, but after returning to the USA, moving my family across the country, and publishing a memoir I had worked on in graduate school, I was ready to return to fiction.

There was a problem, though. In graduate school I had worked on literary short stories that no one was ever likely to read (you can find a few of them on my website and a couple in obscure publications). I wanted to write fiction, but I wanted to try being a little more accessible. I noticed that many bestsellers were not “literary” in the sense that we used the word in graduate school. I didn’t set out to write poorly, but I did set out to write a book that would be enjoyable to read and accessible to most adult readers.

The Idea
When my older daughter was in grade school in Kansas, she had a visit from the D.A.R.E. officer, who counseled the students to stay away from drugs and alcohol. This was fine with me, but looking at many of the girls in our neighborhood, and at the teenage magazines they read, I was equally concerned about the threat to their health of poor body image, low self-esteem, and eating disorders, none of which were addressed by the school.

This concern stuck with me and I gradually began to think about the possibility of a novel about a weight loss clinic that promises “perfection” but at a very high price. Now, I don’t want to give away the secret twist in The Program, so I can’t say too much about this idea, but I will say that the secret twist was part of my idea from the very beginning.

I find that a novel requires lots of thinking and note taking before I begin writing, and I spent a long time letting the idea for The Program percolate in the back of my head before ever writing a word. I also jotted down ideas on the backs of envelopes, credit card receipts, and junk mail, all of which my wife kindly did not throw away when I left them scattered around the house.

Beginning Work
In late 1999, I began writing The Program. I discovered all sorts of things about my characters and the story as I worked. I did not start out with an outline, only a general idea of where the story would end up. Many of the secondary characters were created as I worked. By late January of 2000, I had a good idea of how much work I had left to do. I had written about 25,000 words and I thought the first draft would be about 100,000–120,000. I decided I would try to finish the first draft by the beginning of April. That meant writing 2000 words a day, five days a week.

Many writers set goals for themselves when they are working on a long project like this, but I decided that I would not use the word “goal.” Instead, I told myself that I was required to write 10,000 words a week until the novel was done. For the next nine weeks, writing was my job. When my family went out of town I did my best to meet my requirements; usually I was able to catch up upon our return. On March 24, 2000 I finished the first draft of The Program. It would be over eight years before the book was published.

Revisions & the First Rejection
Over the next several months I worked through the manuscript of The Program, revising, clarifying and generally trying to be sure that the whole thing worked. Many revisions were easy to make, as I discovered I had changed my mind about plot points or characters during the course of writing the first draft. By late summer, I felt I had a book I could show to other people. I gave the manuscript to several friends who are voracious readers, and they all responded positively. Then I sent it to a friend who is a literary agent and he passed it along to an agent who handles novels.

That agent was kind enough to reject the manuscript with a personal letter in which she shared some concerns about the book.  Thanks to that letter, I had a good idea of what parts of the book needed work and what parts were working well. I felt, now, that I needed some distance on The Program, so I put it away and turned to other projects.

More Revision and More Rejection
A year later, I had returned to The Program and had done another major revision. This time I really got into changing plot and character elements as suggested by the agent who had read the earlier draft. I felt that the book was better, even though it sometimes hurt to cut out scenes I had worked hard on. In the summer of 2001, I sent the manuscript out to several agents; all politely declined to represent the book. And so, I let The Program lay fallow for a while.

I took a job writing children’s plays for Summit School in Winston-Salem, NC, and found that I had some talent in that area. My play Twinderella beat out over 700 entrants to win a playwriting prize, and my plays were soon being published and performed all over the country and even abroad. I worked on several other non-fiction projects as well as doing some long-term substitute teaching. During one of these teaching gigs, I hit upon the idea of writing a sequel to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in the style of Dickens. When I passed this Christmas novella along to an agent, he was excited about its possibilities and signed to represent me.

As is so often the case, first enthusiasm waned as major trade publishers declined to publish Keeping Christmas (it’s still available if anyone is interested). While I was working with this agent, however, I sent him a copy of The Program. At that time the word count was about 123,000. The agent wrote me back and said he couldn’t even consider the book unless it was under 100,000 words. So, I set to work to cut one fifth of the manuscript. Scenes that had only peripheral bearing on the plot were axed, sentences were tightened, and the passive voice (which I am using so shamelessly in this sentence) was reduced. It was a bloodbath, but the result was a book of about 98,000 words that was much tighter and more focused than the previous draft. I sent the new version off to my agent; in the summer of 2005, he politely declined to represent it. Oh well, back to the drawer it went.

Acceptance
At some point during my years of revising The Program, I had compiled a list of publishers whom I thought might have an interest in the book. In 2006, I thought I might try marketing the book myself directly to these publishers. The smallest company on the list was also the best prospect, I thought—Pearlsong Press in Nashville, Tennessee. Pearlsong focused on books that dealt with themes of body image and the philosophy of health at every size. The Program seemed to fit right into their list.

In the autumn of 2006, I wrote to Peggy Elam, editor-in-chief at Pearlsong and sent her a synopsis of The Program. She responded that she’d like to read the book. On October 8, 2006, Peggy wrote to me, “I just finished reading The Program and love it. Great characters, a real page-turner. The last scene was a perfect closing note.” She wanted to publish the book.

Peggy’s reaction to The Program was exactly what I was hoping for from the readership I imagined when I wrote the book. I wasn’t searching for literary greatness; I was trying to write a book that would make people want to turn the page. I also hoped it might make them think more positively about their bodies the next time they looked in the mirror.

I signed a contract with Pearlsong, knowing it would still be another year and a half before the book could be fit into their publishing schedule. During that time I read through the book two more times, fixing tiny errors and making a few small changes. Peggy looked over the manuscript carefully, too, finding a couple of inconsistencies I had missed. Via e-mail, Peggy and I discussed the cover design, submitted proofs to people we thought might be willing to write “blurbs” for the book (those little paragraphs of praise on the back cover), and talked about ideas for publicizing The Program.

Publication
And so, The Program will be published at last—but even then the author’s work isn’t done. In the spring of 2008, I gathered addresses for local media outlets that might review the books, worked on a mailing list of people to receive a postcard advertising the book, and planned a massive publication party at Summit School. I updated my website to prominently feature The Program. I continue to work on The Program, scheduling readings at bookstores, visits to bookclubs, and anything else I can do to get the word out.

My advice to aspiring writers—work hard on your writing, but realize that completing that first draft of a novel is only the first step in a very long journey.