By Laura Buchwald
I began writing The Coat Check Girl many years ago, without knowledge of what the path to publication entailed or whether that was even my goal. I’d been a writer since I learned to hold a pencil and had dabbled in short fiction. The idea for a longform project came to me by way of the haunted ladies’ room of a restaurant I frequented.
I had a premise—a loving, dysfunctional restaurant staff and a ghostly presence that takes up residence one summer. I started writing the novel for no other reason than to challenge myself, and with the feedback and support of my writing group, I became invested in it. One of my mentors encouraged me to enter a First Chapter Contest, saying, “You have a better chance of winning if you enter than if you don’t.” So I did, and I won—a small stipend and public reading.
That was in 2008. My book was published in 2024.
Lest you assume this a cautionary tale about the publishing industry, it isn’t. It’s a tale about paying attention when you can’t shake a character and persevering through doubt and rejection.
After winning the contest, I wrote a bit more, then put the story aside in favor of freelance work. Over several years I started other projects but kept coming back to my protagonist, Josie, and the setting, the fictious Bistrot restaurant in Greenwich Village. They were tenacious, and eventually I dove back in.
I met with writing coaches and workshopped with my group, read books on craft, anything I could think of to get me over the finish line.
I completed a draft, revised, revised again, revised some more, then began the daunting task of querying in December 2019. This process required a surgical level of precision in researching because 1) I was advised to compile a list of fifty agents and 2) each agent wants something specific. Some want a synopsis and the first five pages, others no synopsis and three chapters, some want you to list awards and experience, others do not. Since agents inundated with submissions are looking to quickly weed out, any misstep might send your manuscript spiraling into the abyss.
I compiled a poem of lines from my rejection letters that a friend dubbed “the saddest thing [he’s] ever read.”
When 2020 showed up, I put querying on hold. That July, an agent reached out saying if I were open to some changes, she’d like to sign me. I spoke with her, liked her ideas, and signed a contract.
After another round of revisions, in spring 2021, she began submitting to everyone from the Big Five to tiny niche publishers.
A close friend is a prolific novelist who publishes independently by choice. His books are beautiful, a far cry from the prototypes of the early days of self-publishing. As my manuscript circulated unsuccessfully, I contemplated this route, wanting to get it out there and move on. But my agent was confident we’d find a home and launched round after round of submissions. An imprint from one of the Big Five had it for months and was “strongly considering it.” I received a fair amount of encouraging rejection, a concept perhaps best known to writers on submission.
Then came an offer from a small publisher. I was elated, but before I signed the contract, requested minor changes. Things on their end moved at a glacial pace, and it would be months of frustration and disappointment before I’d hear back. This turned out fortuitous as in that time I reached out to some of their authors and learned poor communication was the least of this publisher’s problems. I learned of public complaints and extensive litigation and today the business is defunct. I’m eternally grateful I held off on signing and did my due diligence.
My agent mentioned another publisher she thought would like it but cautioned that they only want multiples. She asked if I were open to writing sequels, and writing them in fairly quick succession. I eagerly said yes, ignoring the fact I’d written The Coat Check Girl as a standalone over the course of a decade-plus. We came up with rudimentary outlines for books two and three and she submitted the package. Within a stunningly short period, I had a contract.
Roan and Weatherford has been a pleasure to work with—creative, professional, skilled. Book One came out last October and I’m in the home stretch of revisions on Two, while keeping copious notes on Three. I love that I get to spend so much more time in Bistrot with Josie.
If there is one takeaway from my case study, I hope it’s that, while rejection stings, it’s par for the course, and it takes only one yes to get published.
Bio: Laura Buchwald is a writer and editor based in New York City. Her novel The Coat Check Girl was published in October 2024 as the first in a three-part series, and is available in hardcover, paperback, and as an ebook. The audiobook will be released in 2026.
