mediabistro.com interviews Orbitz travel blogger Lena Katz about pitching and selling a multi-volume guidebook series covering California’s ski slopes, beaches, and wine country. “The original proposal was for one book with the hope to spin it off into others if the first was successful,” Katz says. “But from the start, it was obvious the concept would work better as a series.” That doesn’t mean it worked quickly, though: “All in all, it took more than a year to write the proposal and find a buyer. By the end I was begging [my agent] to stop pitching it because I couldn’t stand to have my ego crushed by one more rejection, but she said, “‘No, no, I have a good feeling about this. It’s going to sell.’ And she was right.”
(Earlier this summer, Katz discussed the people she met during her research phase in a guest essay for Beatrice, senior editor Ron Hogan‘s literary website.)
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