My writing buddy, Marion Jensen (w/a Matthew Buckley), called me yesterday to invite me to dinner with James Dashner.
James is quirky, kinda goofy looking, and more fun than jelly beans–come to think of it, he kinda looks like Mr. Bean! 🙂
Talking to him gave me hope, and I want to share that hope with the rest of you.
James started out publishing the Jimmy Fincher Saga with a tiny little publisher called Cedar Fort. He pounded the pavement and worked hard to get as much publicity as he could on the series. It paid off. His next contract was with Shadow Mountain (another small publisher, but with a wider market and deeper pockets–plus they work their bums off for their authors).
Once again, James worked hard by going to conferences and speaking on the panels, doing school visits, blogging, and going to other writer events.
He landed an agent. Life didn’t work out with that particular agent. He found another. He praises his new agent like some people praise expensive chocolate. He landed a BIG deal with Random House (read about it http://jamesdashner.blogspot.com/2008/07/random-house-maze-runner-good.html).
Now he’s making enough money that he quit his full time job.
To top it off, the guy is really a genuinely nice person.
See, it can happen. Even to goofy Mr Bean lookalikes!
(James, if you’re reading this, know that you’re soooooo much better looking than Mr. Bean. 🙂 )
Author
Congratulations to James. In my opinion he is handsome, though not as handsome as my husband.
James has worked very hard–I’m glad that he inspired you, his story wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if he’d just written a little book and had it published right off the bat. I was invited to that dinner and couldn’t make it work–poor me. Maybe next time. And what’s this I hear about a baby?
We were hoping you’d make it. 🙁
And I’m having a baby in two weeks!
encouragement of any kind is appreciated these days. thanks, amber.
This is a great story! It really gives the rest of us hope, I think. I’ll keep pounding away!