After four-and-a-half years of sending out queries and manuscript excerpts to agents and publishers, I am thrilled to share that Line of Flight has a publisher! Köehler Books has accepted my novel, and the planned publication date is December 17, 2026.

This all came about in February. I had only recently learned about Köehler and their Emerging Authors program. I checked out their website and found out they were accepting manuscripts, so I sent mine in, thinking if I didn’t hear back in a few weeks, I’d follow up with an email to be sure they’d received it. Nothing to lose.

The next day, to my amazement, I received a very encouraging email from Joe Coccaro, who was the publisher’s executive editor for more than a dozen years and is now an editor-at-large. He had scooped my manuscript out of the submissions box because he loves historical fiction. And he wrote that both he and the acquisitions editor thought my novel has a lot of promise.

How wonderful to read those words after so many agent form-emails that said not for me, but good luck! Publishing is, indeed, a subjective business. As I’ve been reminded over and over after each rejection, it just takes one yes.

Joe and I had a wonderful call the following week, and the day after that, he sent a contract. I had a contract attorney review it for me and worked out some minor changes with John Köehler, the publisher. John and I have now had two great Zoom conversations to review their whole process. Joe will be my editor. And I have a lot of work to do.

Among the many things that impressed me when I first looked up Köehler Books is their commitment to a collaborative relationship with each author. While they will certainly have a lot of welcomed professional input on the final manuscript and design, John emphasized, “You are the expert on your book.” I am looking forward to a great partnership.

Watch this space for progress reports.

Image: Getty Images for Unsplash