On July 26, 2010, I received a long-anticipated email from the publisher Albert Whitman & Company. The first word in the body text was “YES.” My heart leapt. After more than four years of trying, after laboring over a slew of unsold manuscripts, and after receiving a drawer full of rejection letters, I had finally gotten a book deal.
Reading that emailed “YES” was—and still is—the happiest moment of my professional life.
Two years later Sarah Gives Thanks hit shelves. It was the true story of Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who tirelessly advocated for a National Day of Thanksgiving.
The first hardcover printing of 4,000 sold out quickly. A second printing was arranged, and while that batch of books didn’t sell as well (‘tis difficult to generate interest in a Thanksgiving book when the second printing wasn’t ready until December), the title did respectable business each fall.
Throughout the second print run, I would often get inquiries, mostly from moms and teachers, asking when the book would be out in paperback. I had no idea as to the answer, but was happy for the question; it signaled that Sarah would have a healthy paperback existence once the hardcover sales ran its course. I referred the moms and teachers to Albert Whitman’s editors; if anyone knew the timeline for the paperback it was probably them.
It turned out that the editors did know the timeline for a Sarah Gives Thanks paperback, and that time was never.
I’m sure they had their reasons, but I was gobsmacked nonetheless. Despite my best and repeated efforts to persuade AW&Co. otherwise, the book went out of print in 2017.
This broke my heart.
I partly distracted myself from the bad news by being busy. 2017 was a good year in my kid lit career; I was writing the Prince Not-So Charming chapter book series as well as working with Macmillan editors on the final touches of my second picture book, Everybody’s Favorite Book.
But Sarah Gives Thanks mattered to me in a way those other titles didn’t. Maybe it was because Sarah was my first book. Maybe it was because Sarah was my only nonfiction book. Or maybe Sarah mattered so much to me because Sarah Josepha Hale was just too awesome a person to be relegated to the sidelines of American history.
The more I had researched Sarah, the more I loved her. I admired her grit and intelligence and business acumen. I adored her efforts to use her influence to persuade America to be a better and kinder and more educated nation.
With my book out of print, I’d no longer have opportunities to sing her praises.
But then something unexpected happened. Years after the book was no longer available for purchase, people started emailing me about it. They wondered where they could find a spare copy.
At first, I commiserated with them, “So sorry,” I’d say, “but Sarah Gives Thanks is no longer in print.”
But as the email queries continued, the opportunistic side of my brain began to take over. I tweaked my reply. I’d still tell them that Sarah Gives Thanks was out of print, but then I’d suggest they contact the publisher directly to see if they had “spare copies in the warehouse.”
I knew there were no spare copies in Albert Whitman’s warehouse, but I figured if enough emails made their way to the editors, it might lead them to recognize there was still demand for the book.
Then another unexpected thing happened. Each year when Thanksgiving rolled around, podcasters would reach out and ask me to be a guest. They didn’t care that Sarah was out of print, they just wanted suitable holiday-themed content for their shows. I was the Thanksgiving guy.
You can listen to one of my interviews here.
After each podcast aired, I would send a link to Albert Whitman with a note saying something along the lines of: “Hey! Sarah’s still getting some love! Woo!” I’d let the publisher draw its own conclusions about how much free publicity its long-out-of-print book was still generating.
The podcasts had the added benefit of generating new waves of Sarah interest from listeners. They emailed me, wondering where they could find a spare copy of Sarah Give Thanks.
I would suggest they contact the publisher directly to see if they had spare copies in the warehouse.
I didn’t know if these maneuvers were doing anything to change hearts and minds at Albert Whitman, I was just happy to be doing something.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was a recent query from a South Dakota homeschooling company that wanted to include Sarah in its second grade curriculum. After a very cordial email exchange with the company’s founder, I suggested that Albert Whitman might be persuaded to do a Sarah reprint if his needs were significant enough to warrant one.
Three weeks later, an AW&Co editor sent me an email with the subject line “GOOD NEWS.” It was official, after seven years of passive pestering, there was going to be a Sarah paperback.
Reading that email ranks as the second happiest moment of my professional life.
Sarah Gives Thanks will be out on August 7, and is now available for preorder. Do consider picking up a copy for yourself or the Thanksgiving fan in your life. If you already have a copy of the book, please consider leaving a review.
I really want to get the word out about this.
Fans of Sarah Josepha Hale got this book back into print and I cannot even begin to properly express the full extent of my gratitude. All I can say is thank you. From this point on I promise to do whatever’s necessary to keep Sarah’s story from falling back into obscurity.
Hey, Look! A Writer Fellow! 