Hi Callie,

In 1995 I wrote a novel, "Rocket City." It was published by a small publisher, but picked up in paperback by Vintage Contemporaries, a division of Random House. In 1966, Randomhouse sent me on a ten-city three-week book tour across the U.S.
However, despite the fact that Jim Berkland is brilliant, has a platform (ready-made audience), selling the book proposal was a challenge. My agent shopped it. We got a garden-variety of rejections from large NY publishers, such as yours. These read: "This proposal is well written, Cal Orey has great credentials, but earthquakes are just a California thing" or "Too speculative" and "Not a wide interest in quakes." Ironically, after the Indian Ocean quake-tsunami hit, literary agents from Japan, China, and the UK were calling my publisher (yes, a traditional one)--Sentient Publications. They all wanted Cal Orey's "Big Wave" book.

Who published Berkland's book?

Callie

P.S. Just landed a nice radio spot in MO. It has a very large audience. We will do fine. But marketing is a job and at times it is challenging.