Emi here - welcome to the first guest Post-Mortem, from the wonderful Sasha Vasilyuk! She lived the double dream: her op-ed not only went viral, but she got an actual book deal from it. I was dying to hear the details – I hope they thrill you as much as they thrilled me!
Post-Mortem: My Op-Ed Led to A Book Deal. Am I an Outlier?
2022 was going to be the year I’d query literary agents with my novel. The problem was – I dreaded sending cold pitches to agents. I’d heard too many horror stories about years-long projects that no one wanted to represent.
That’s when someone suggested writing an essay or an op-ed. “Then the agents will come to you,” they said. “Happens all the time!”
The truth is it doesn’t happen all the time. As a freelance journalist, I’d published dozens of articles – before and since – that have led to absolutely nothing. What were the chances of landing a relevant, hooky essay that would go viral enough to get an agent interested in my novel (a historical fiction novel set in Ukraine)? Basically, zilch…
Timeline
6 weeks before book deal
I was finishing the last draft of my novel, which spans from WWII until the Russia-Ukraine conflict, when things began heating up on the Russia-Ukraine border. I grew up in both countries and still had family there, but I felt I was no one to be offering my opinion about a looming war.
5 weeks before book deal
A journalist friend convinced me otherwise and another friend helped send the op-ed I wrote to The New York Times. This was a few days before Putin invaded. The editors and I worked on the piece around the clock as war grew more likely by the day. Russia invaded Ukraine that Thursday, and my piece ran on Saturday morning, in print on Sunday. At the bottom of it, my bio read “Sasha Vasilyuk is working on a novel set in Ukraine”.
4 weeks before book deal
Over the next two days, I was contacted by several media outlets, made an appearance on NBC and gave an interview to the BBC. Among the flurry of emails there was an email from a literary agent! She asked if I had a manuscript, so I sent it to her as well as to another agent I was introduced to. They both made an offer. Once I chose which agent to go with, we went on submission to publishers within a week. All in all, in a little more than a month, I had a book deal in multiple countries and my life completely changed.
My novel Your Presence is Mandatory just came out from Bloomsbury and will be published in Italy, France, Germany, Finland and Brazil this fall.
Such impeccable timing is hard to replicate and, just like with all things publishing, luck was very much involved.
Key Takeaways
Recognize your unique POV
Call it imposter syndrome or whatever, but just the fact that you aren’t “The Expert” in some field doesn’t mean there isn’t room for your voice on an important issue. Editors love writers with unique angles that can sometimes get more attention than more predictable takes written by regular columnists.
Make it personal
A personal perspective on an issue is often more powerful than an expert’s. My piece wasn’t a geopolitical analysis by some politician or historian. It was a mix of my personal emotions and the opinions of my family directly affected by the war. It felt visceral because it was sourced from on-the-ground reporting.
Here’s another example: when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed earlier this year, every news outlet ran a story about it. Because I had briefly met Navalny, a CNN editor asked me to write a personal take on my and my community’s reaction to his death. I didn’t get why they wanted yet one another take on this subject, but my CNN op-ed on Navalny ended up getting a lot of eyeballs precisely because it was so personal and so much more emotional than other pieces out there. It helped people understand the news in a deeper, resonant way.
Use that short bio smartly
You have a few words to describe yourself and your work. If I had said that I was just “writing a novel”, I may not have received that agent’s email. But I thought this was a piece about Ukraine and my novel is about Ukraine, so I should emphasize that.
But don’t expect agents to come knocking
Even though my NYT op-ed got a lot of attention running in the international Sunday edition, only ONE agent reached out. She turned out to be a very good agent and a perfect fit for my novel, but just to tell you that the odds aren’t huge. I had a friend whose short story led to two agents approaching her, but they wanted a novel and she didn’t have one yet. By the time she wrote a novel 2 years later, they weren’t interested. So, a lot of things need to align for an article to lead to a book deal. BUT even if my op-ed hadn’t attracted an agent, it gave me a platform and new leverage that would have made it easier to query agents.
There are some downsides of being extremely timely:
No time to edit
My agent and I didn’t work editorially on my novel. Many of today’s literary agents spend several months editing with you to prepare the manuscript for publication. We just sold it as is because it was so timely. That means, however, that I don’t know what my agent is like editorially when it comes to my future book projects.
What would have been
I’ll never know whether my novel would have sold had there not been a huge war to make it so timely. I don’t plan to time my books to any future disasters, so it’s a question that will remain unresolved.
Trends pass
Trends pass and publishing is slow. Book publication cycle is typically 2 years from purchase to pub date. So something that’s hot in 2024 might not be hot in 2026. When I brought this up with my editor, she said she wants a book that stands on its own, no matter what’s happening in the news. And she is right, but it’s something to keep in mind. What’s trendy today might not still be trendy tomorrow, so plan accordingly.
Passions run high
However, if your book is still talking about hot button issues (like in my case, the war is still on), it can mean that passions will run high. For example, my book, which was inspired by my Ukrainian family, is currently getting review-bombed (by Ukrainians who don’t have access to the actual book, but are known to be indiscriminately aggressive online). I have friends who’ve experienced similar situations with multiracial books as well. As an author, it’s important to not let that get to you, though that’s easier said than done.
In conclusion
Write the best book you can. With luck, timing will work in your favor. But you can’t - and shouldn’t - chase trends. Leave trend-chasing for journalism. Meanwhile, finish your book!
photo by Christopher Michel
Sasha Vasilyuk is a journalist and author of a debut novel, Your Presence Is Mandatory (Bloomsbury) that spans between World War II and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. She has an MA in journalism from New York University and her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times, CNN, Harper’s Bazaar, Time, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Telegraph, KQED, and elsewhere. Sasha grew up between Ukraine and Russia before immigrating to the U.S. at the age of 13. She lives in San Francisco.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, and congrats on your book deal!
Loved reading this and learned a lot. Thank you, Emi and Sasha!