by Joe Taylor

To be brutally honest, it’s been worse than brutal. It’s been silent. A month after Labor Day, when I thought my responses from prospective agents might pick up, I haven’t even received my 16th rejection email. 18 percent of the agents I queried about my radio book had declined by the unofficial end of summer. Do the math to figure the total number of agents approached. I’m too embarrassed to see it in print.

The Declines

The responses that I got from agents varied, some were personal and encouraging, most were form letters. All pointed to the very reason an agent is in business—to make money off of our creative product. As poignant, funny, or important as we think our book is, if an agent can’t make her 15% off of it-she isn’t interested. The most common phrase in the “declines” I got was that the agent didn’t feel there was a “market” for my book.

The second most common phrase was—and this intrigued me—“with the publishers on my list.” To this publishing newbie that seems to indicate that an agent either voluntarily confines herself-or is confined to-only certain publishers. That they will not think out of the box. They are interested in the easy sale.

That professional agents felt that there was no market for my book reinforced the fear that I have had and expressed ever since I was gently shamed into agreeing to write the book at a Writer’s Block Party workshop last year.

Having been in radio for 60 years I have seen its importance in society and pop culture diminish, especially over the past couple of decades. People under 40, who’ve grown up in the social media era, probably rarely, if at all, listen to over the air radio. If my book is to sell it’s going to have to be either to people nostalgic about radio, or those fewer folks who are curious about how the medium works.

Change of Game Plan: Independent Publishers

Unable to find a literary agent, and with a 62,000 word manuscript on my hands I’m turning now to my Plan B-trying to find an independent publishing house. Encouraged, and in awe of Jess Weible’s success in publishing Dead Letters—and with her help—I’ve sent my manuscript to Sunbury Press. Jess was kind enough to write a note of support for me to Sunbury’s editor.

Even though Sunbury focuses on books about or by writers from this region I remain skeptical—in a healthy way—about them publishing my book. While much of the book is about my time in Pittsburgh radio and in managing and consulting radio stations in smaller Pennsylvania towns, a lot of it takes place at stations I worked at in New England and the Midwest. The fact that I was not a huge radio star, like Jack Bogut in Pittsburgh, also diminishes its potential salability. After all, Sunbury, like the agents, is in it to make money.

Truth is, I’d like to make a few bucks from it myself. I live a comfortable retired life, about to blow out 77 candles on my birthday cake. But a little icing on the cake would be nice. Not as a gift, but something I’ve earned. I can’t calculate the scores of hours I put into writing those 62,000 words, editing, re-writing.

Getting up in the middle of the night to correct a misused word, drop in a comma, worry if the reader would get the joke-all of that was worth something. And, damn it, three people, who I respect for their literary knowledge and ability all had a hand in editing it. Jo Scheier, Patty Zion, Jess Weible — each of them told me it was a book, worthy of publication. Each of them could be, in their own right, an editor. 

The Backup: Self Publishing

So, should Sunbury decline I have a Plan C. I have steadfastly refused to even consider self publishing, equating it with vanity publishing. Years ago I cringed looking at a “book” that an old guy had self published. It was embarrassingly amateurish and lacking in any literary value. I have told friends that I wouldn’t self publish because I needed the validation of a professional editor accepting my work. Only then could I legitimately call myself an author.

But then I’ve seen members of our group — writers I’m in awe of — self publish. Some of their work is personal and niche, some more commercially viable. They won’t get rich, but they’ll make a few bucks-which they deserve for their creative effort. My radio book would fall somewhere in between. As for validation: I have received it from the women who’ve had a hand in editing my book. Who’ve told me it’s a publishable book. Duh!

Ray Bugay has offered to help me get it published, as he recently did for Peggy Zortman and Rachel Robinson. I don’t really understand how it all works, but I trust Ray. He’s a good friend and a prince of a guy. Honestly, I am still hoping that Sunbury publishes my book. But, I believe in the book that I’ve written.

It doesn’t just chronicle my sixty year career in radio. It explains how radio has, in a sense, committed suicide by walking away from the communities it serves and by conforming rather than innovating. And along the way I describe some of the colorful and strange characters—myself included—that I worked with and knew. Like the newsman who robbed a bank then went on the air to report it. You’ll have to read the book to find out more about it.

Damn it. I’m going to get this book published. One way or the other.