Rosa Kwon Easton on publishing with Lake Union

I am very pleased to announce that I will be speaking with Rosa Kwon Easton on Thursday, June 26th, from 5:30-7:00pm, on Zoom, about her debut novel WHITE MULBERRY. Lauded by Lisa See as “beautiful and deeply researched…If you loved Pachinko, you’ll love White Mulberry,” Rosa’s debut is the first book in a two-book deal with the Amazon “bookclub-fiction” imprint Lake Union.

I want to talk to Rosa about…

1. How she has published a patently adult novel with an eleven-year-old protagonist. I know some of you want to write about a young protagonist but not get pigeon-holed into MG/YA. Let's ask Rosa how she achieved this.

2. How she was identified by Lake Union Publishing as bookclub fiction. I know that many of you want to break into this genre, so what made her book particularly “bookclub,” and did she bear that in mind in her edit?

3. What is it like to publish with Amazon? How did that differ from the traditional/self/or hybrid experience? Did she deal directly with Lake Union, without an agent? How much marketing help did she receive?

4. Rosa has an impressive list of endorsements that specifically position her book as commercial historical fiction -- Lisa See and Alka Joshi both gush on her covers. How did she get such big names on debut?

It sounds like Rosa’s been on quite a journey, one we can all learn from, so save your seat here if you would like to meet Rosa and join the discussion on June 26th. Be ready to be inspired and come armed with your questions!

For those of you who missed last month’s chat with Tomas Moniz, here’s a link to the recording. We had a lovely discussion, and I want to thank Tomas (THANKS, TOMAS!) for being his usual warm, open, and confiding self.

And lastly, a quick round-up of community news worth celebrating:

First I want to share with you some of MY news, ten years in the making: MY NOVEL IS AGENTED AND ABOUT TO GO ON SUBMISSION!!! I could insert a picture of myself doing cartwheels here (maybe not), but this image from my agent’s, Heather Jackson’s, website better expresses my strangely zen yet empowering excitement:

Suddenly, theory has become potential. We’re still not at fact yet, but watch this space.

And while we’re here, there’s plenty more I’d like to celebrate. First, I love and appreciate our wonderful writing community, a small portion of which met in Portugal earlier this month for a week-long retreat. Some good progress was made. New words! New insights. A new title for my novel. And we savored the joy and discipline of writing in community—because it did take discipline to get any writing and critiquing done in Portugal. But as you can see, we managed!

And, Lisa Manterfield, a participant on this retreat and my buddy and teaching partner, has a new novel out on submission with her agent, Melanie Figueroa of Root Literary. We’re wishing you the best of luck, Lisa and Melanie!

Don’t forget Lisa and I will be hosting a one-day querying workshop with another buddy and teaching partner, Heather Lazare, (that’s me, Lisa, and Heather above) on Saturday, September 6th. It’s juried in, so if you’d like a submissions package, you can register for one here. It will be a blast, and we’ve worked out a way whereby you can learn a little from each of us, and a lot from one particular mentor.

And last but not least, community member Melora Fern released this beautiful debut on May 16th, so it’s not too late to wish her book a happy birthday! I am always so pleased and proud to see one of our community get a first (or seventeenth) book over the line. Big congrats, Melora, and let us know how it goes!