How I Got a Book Publishing Contract

A story of perseverance, grit, and being nerdy

On May 1st of this year, I signed my first book publishing contract. My first publishing contract came back in 2008 when I published a humorous story in a magazine for $35. So the joy of signing an honest-to-god, for-real book publishing contract ten years later was immense.

Over the last ten years, I’ve done a lot of research on “how to be a writer.” That means I’ve signed up for a lot of email lists, followed a lot of writers on Twitter, and enrolled in a lot of…