What’s the Story Behind The Devil Take the Blues?

This book started out as kind of a love letter to my sister, but also to process a lot of the thoughts and feelings I had around a relationship with her that I knew wasn’t a good one. Beatrice’s story is a lot like mine—I had to learn to let my sister make her own decisions and make her own mistakes.

But I also just love stories about the Devil and how we can beat the Devil at his own game, sometimes. This was really fun to write, and it was my second full-fledged attempt at a novel. I had written one previous fantasy/romance, but I cared about this one much more because I really poured my heart, soul, and ability into it. I wasn’t lazy with plotting, I did a lot of historical research, and I took courses on novel writing to finish.

In the publishing world, there is either traditional publishing or self-publishing. To get a “traditional” book deal, you typically need an agent. Most big publishing companies won’t look at manuscripts unless you have an agent.

So after two rounds of revisions by different editors, I thought I had a pretty great manuscript. Their feedback was solid, and I was really hopeful that I would be able to find an agent relatively soon (within six months). I queried for about a year with no luck. I fell into “the slush pile,” and in the publishing world, you often have only the first 5 pages to make an impression. (Imagine watching the first ten seconds of a film to decide if you want to watch the entire thing.) Agent after agent sent me either a boilerplate rejection (“sorry, this isn’t a good fit,”) with no feedback or didn’t reply at all.

After about a year of querying agents, I went to a literary conference in New York, where I refined my pitch and was able to query 6 or so agents directly. Once again, I had some initial interest  (“Oh wow, that sounds like a great premise,”) but eventually, no one took on the project to represent.

Then, I went to another conference, in Dallas, where I pitched fourteen agents. I thought that someone would like my book enough to represent. (Keep in mind, all of these conferences cost hundreds of dollars to attend, plus more to query individual agents.) I didn’t give up because a lot of the agents said things like, “Your writing is really good, but I don’t feel strongly enough about this book to be the best champion for it,” or “I don’t have a market vision for this book.”

I wanted to pull my hair out. It’s hard to describe the feeling of facing that much rejection (360 queries—all either “no,” or no answer) in two years. I thought my book was bad, my writing was bad, or that there was some fundamental flaw with the book because (my logic went), if it were really good, then someone would want to represent it. (I will explain in another post about the flaws of the publishing system.)

So I tried to go to small presses. I pitched and queried about 50 with the same result.

I cried.

My mental health tanked. I was checking my email every five minutes, hoping, waiting for that one email that would say, “When are you available for a phone call? We’d like to offer representation.”

Nothing.

I think I would have given up long ago if I weren’t already working and making a living as a writer. I knew that I was a good writer; I had evidence from clients, and I literally paid my bills with my writing.

One day, about the 361st rejection letter (“Sorry to not have better news; I’m going to pass on reading more than 5 pages.”) I snapped. I quit querying.

The biggest barriers to self-publishing were my confidence level and money. To truly succeed at self-publishing, you have to run it as a business, and businesses take investment.

The biggest barrier, by far, was my worry that people would look down on me if I self-published. I’ve seen plenty of self-published books out there that lack, ahem, finesse. I didn’t want to get lumped in with vanity projects and bad covers.

However, it was a combination of my friend, Laura Rodriguez, watching Severance (“Maybe you don’t need to change; the system needs to change around you.”), the movie Sinners, and a lot of soul-searching that finally helped me make the decision:

I was tired of gatekeepers, people only giving my book the first 10, 30, or 50 pages to make a decision. I was tired of how slow that system worked, how I wouldn’t have any say over cover art, title, and basically receive only 10% of the book price in royalties. I was tired of hearing, “This is such a hard decision…but no.” “I don’t have a “market vision” for this book.”

In other words, who is going to want to read a Southern Gothic historical paranormal book?

(Everyone who ever saw the film, Sinners, and liked it. I saw the success of Sinners and knew, knew that some projects that don’t have a clear genre can and do succeed.)

So I went all in on self-publishing. I have been a freelance writer for about four years, so this ain’t my first rodeo running a business.

So if you don’t like gatekeepers, if you like to root for the underdog, if you want to show the publishing world that YOU are my most effective champion, support my book. Support my work. Thank you.

Why buy The Devil Take the Blues?

This book does not have a clearly defined genre, and I think a lot of people like that. Just look at The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue or Sinners. It’s only the publishing world that demands a “genre,” so they know what neat little box to put it in. This book is for people who like lyrical, character-driven stories that don’t wrap up nice and neat at the end. Out of a million other books out there, why should you read this particular book?

It attempts to hold up a mirror to society; it attempts to ask the question, if there is a just and omnipotent God, why does he allow pain?

This book also gives plenty of Easter eggs for those who love the blues. With that, it also tries to celebrate the heritage of the blues. The blues isn’t a popular genre nowadays; just look at Spotify numbers or even their Facebook pages, but the blues is what made American music. It is one of the most important genres of the twentieth century, and from it, we get so many other genres. For that, I’m trying to entice the reader into learning more about the genre, listening to the “Gold school” blues, and learning to spot the roots in what they listen to today. Once you learn how to listen for it, you can’t “unlisten.” It’s there, hidden in plain sight. Or whatever the aural equivalent is.  

What’s the Message of the Book?

I hope my book helps someone realize that they don’t have to stay in a toxic relationship out of loneliness, convenience, or fear. You can leave, and you have help to leave. I hope that at least one person who struggles with emotional or physical abuse leaves that person. It took Agnes seven times to attempt to leave Tim in the book, and that’s not a coincidence. On average, it takes someone that many times to finally leave an abusive partner. What I also hope people take away is that the most dangerous time for them is during the leaving. Get help, get support, lean on friends, family, neighbors, church-friends, whoever you have to. Let reading this book be a sign that you have the strength to leave whoever might be holding you back. Just like Agnes, you might change, and it will be hard, but hopefully, just like Agnes, you can build a better life for yourself after. There is hope.

Why Do I Write?

It’s my way of making art. If I didn’t, my soul would shrivel.