Aimee Liu on Getting Published
February 6, 2008
My first book deal might be described as an intentional accident.
The year was 1977. All of 24, I was working as a flight attendant and aspiring writer without much writing to show for the aspiration. One day between flights I picked up a
Vogue magazine and read a column about a little-known condition called anorexia nervosa. This was the first time I’d heard that phrase, but the list of symptoms told me that I’d suffered from this disease for seven years. Though I was now recovered, I had no idea how I’d developed the illness or how I’d gotten better. More to the point, I thought, no one had ever written a memoir that tried to make sense of this eating disorder.
I spent the next year scribbling during layovers and typing on my days off. What began as an attempt at an article turned into a manuscript.
One summer day I bumped into a college friend outside my Greenwich Village apartment building. He had been my senior prom date. He had won the
Mademoiselle fiction prize. He had a literary agent. He asked if he could come up and use my bathroom. I said, sure.
Honestly, I had no ulterior motive. We were old friends. He spotted the manuscript on my coffee table when he came out of the bathroom and asked if he could take a look. After skimming the first few pages he asked if he could show it to his agent. I said, sure.
A couple of weeks later I had a deal with the late Harper & Row. The memoir was reviewed in the New York Times, and readers even today tell me that it changed their lives. That is the very good news.
The bad news is that I had no appreciation for how lucky I’d been. After finishing my memoir I spent the next year working on a novel that my agent made me promise never to show to another living soul. I went back to a paying job and co-authored a string of self-help books before attempting fiction again. My first published novel,
Face, came out fifteen years after
Solitaire.
In retrospect, I attribute my “luck” to several key factors, both plotted and serendipitous. First, I wrote about a topic that was truly fresh and marketable. Second, I had something intensely personal and meaningful to say on the subject. Third, I pushed myself to find my own clear voice to tell the story. Fourth, when I had a solid sample, I showed it to someone who would not bullshit me about its value, someone who had connections and was willing to help.
Ultimately, writing is all about making and extending connections – with yourself, your characters, your agent, your editor, booksellers, and your readers. The real purpose of getting published is to extend those connections. Never underestimate or overlook the role of those human connections in your writing career.
About Aimee Liu
Aimee Liu is author of the novels FLAS HOUSE, CLOUD MOUNTAIN, and FACE. Her 1979 memoir, SOLITAIRE, was the first narrative account of anorexia to be published in America. Her nonfiction includes GAINING: THE TRUTH ABOUT LIFE AFTER EATING DISORDERS, published in February, 2007 and a memoir, SOLITAIRE, published when she was just 25, in 1979.
Meeting Across the River and My California and in the literary journal Other Voices. She also has co-authored more than seven nonfiction books and written numerous articles on medical, psychological, and political topics.
Aimee earned her MFA from Bennington College and now teaches in Goddard College�s MFA Writing Program. She is a past president of the national writers� organization PEN USA. www.aimeeliu.net
Aimee Liu Profile at OnceWritten.com
