The Author's Trail: On Switchbacks, Sales, and Celebrating Jo van Gogh

Reflecting on the author journey, celebrating the Walter Williams Major Work Award, and going behind the scenes of the Saving Vincent audiobook narration.

This newsletter may be digging in, but lately I feel like I’ve been digging out. As a result, this (edited) essay comes from the archive on a reflection I did a year ago about the switchback life of a debut author. Funny, how so much of this still feels fresh.

Into the Fog

This is what it feels like.

You’re no longer where you started, the familiar path behind you is obscured, and the destination ahead is completely hidden. You can’t quite see the terrain under your feet. Forward progress feels slow and uncertain.

You’re in a state of flux, relying on instinct and a faint inner compass, knowing this obscured passage is a necessary part of the journey to reach a clearer vista on the other side.

Does this feel familiar?

Here’s how I got here.

The Initial Ascent: Writing the Book

After releasing my book in mid-April 2025—a seven-year trek—I’ve often been asked at lively launch events and book club conversations: What is getting historical fiction published actually like?

My answer has become a hiking analogy.

When you first begin researching and writing a book, it feels like an invigorating march up a shaded mountain trail. You can see your destination far ahead—a finished manuscript shining like a sunlit summit.

You stay on the sun-dappled slope as best you can, avoiding bushwhacking down research rabbit holes or getting distracted by spur trails of story craft books. It’s a steady climb. After writing, revising, gathering beta feedback, and polishing your manuscript into its finished form, you finally arrive!

Except…

Plateau One: The Pitch & Query Trail

This is just a plateau.

You’re not at the peak yet. Off to the side is a connecting trail you’d heard about but hadn’t truly factored in: Getting Published.

So, you start up that path. The canopy grows denser. Navigating the uncertain terrain of agents and publishers feels less like creativity and more like a slog.

Along with your manuscript, your backpack begins to fill: agent research, endless iterations of query letters, subscriptions to pitch databases, and advice notes from author friends. Months pass and queries stall, so you jam in lists of small traditional and hybrid publishers accepting un-agented work, slipping their intro letters into your already stuffed Dropbox pack.

(You toy with adding bulky self-publishing tools, but honestly, that just feels too heavy for this trip.)

Then, like a sudden burst of sunlight, it happens: Accepted by a publisher! You crest the hill! You’ve made it!

Except…

Plateau Two: The Production Push

It’s another plateau.

Hidden from view down the trail, a steep switchback jogs in a new direction: Book Production.

You set off again into heavy shade. As you trudge along, you step into brief pockets of sunny clarity—cover design decisions, copy edits, permissions, blurb requests to generous authors, and proofreading.

Though your shoulders are sagging, you add publicity to your overstuffed pack: a trail mix of writing guest blogs, recording podcast interviews, soliciting reviews, applying for contests, and maintaining your socials.

Stride after stride, every step is production or promotion.

The summit still looks far away, and your legs are getting weary. But this time—this time—you are confident. There is a definite end point in sight, marked with a specific date: Publication Day.

The False Peak: Launch Day

Breathing hard and nursing sore feet, you take one final, glorious stride. You reach flat ground! You’ve arrived!

Your book is published!

You cry a little. You gaze at the panoramic vista stretching to the horizon, complete with a rainbow cresting in the distance. You slip off the heavy backpack, close your eyes, and rest in the warmth of congratulating friends and fellow book lovers.

You’re grateful.

It was totally worth it. Every step.

Except…

The Long Horizon: Sales & Beyond

That wasn’t the peak either.

Darn it—another switchback. This one zags straight up a trail marked Book Sales and Promotion.

So, I take a deep breath and shoulder my pack once more. Staring up ahead, I can just make out a patch of wild berries and hear birdsong in the trees. Far, far in the distance, I think—yes!—I see a summit.

Should I trust it?

Today Back at the Beginning

Of course that wasn’t the summit. On this path, promotion knows no end.

So far, the trail has taken me through seventy-seven events—podcasts, book clubs, festivals, and talks—plus speaker engagements at five writers’ conferences, with a sixth on the horizon in October. Along the way, Saving Vincent has been honored with five book awards and five finalist recognitions.

It’s a whirlwind of activity. I admit, there are moments I can’t quite see the terrain under my feet, and when trail fatigue sets in, it’s hard to remember why I started the climb.

Until… until just one person steps up after a talk to say, “Jo van Gogh was amazing.”

Right then, the fog clears.

Every single step was worth it.