In this month’s edition of mediabistro.com’s “Book Keeping” series, Allison Winn Scotch talks about beating rejection, revealing how she bounced back from the publishing industry’s hesitancy over her first manuscript, and her then-agent’s lack of enthusiasm for her second, to wind up as the center of attention in a four-way bidding auction over The Department of Lost and Found. “It was both demoralizing and exhilarating because it really lit a fire under me,” Scotch says of trying to place that first book with a publisher. “In retrospect, I am so grateful it didn’t sell. Now, I think [the first book] is horrible. As a fiction writer, there’s just no ceiling for how much better you can become.” (As always, the full interview is available on the mediabistro.com website as an exclusive to our AvantGuild subscribers.)
When I was looking at Scotch’s website, though, I noticed that her author bio mentioned a dog—so I immediately emailed her and told her to send us a picture of Pedro post-haste! So she sent along that wintry headshot in the corner… all that snow is making me nostalgic now!