Ashleigh Smith
Art Director
Junior Katelyn Brawn has never enjoyed rejection, but when she received her first rejection letter, she had it framed.
“You’re not a good writer unless you’ve been rejected,” explains Brawn, who was just as excited to get her first acceptance letter, too. “It only takes one,” she adds.
Brawn, who recently turned 21, is in the process of publishing her own novel, called Her Hair, a title which comes from a tradition of the culture created for Brawn’s story.
Brawn is thoroughly excited to have the opportunity to be published. “It’s surreal,” says Brawn. “It’s crazy, but I love it.”
She began writing the story about four years ago, working on and off, though she has always been a writer. Brawn, from Baltimore County, notes that her family and friends have always been there to support her writing, even when she was a young girl just beginning to dabble.
Brawn says that things “would have been hard without a support system.” Many of the people in her life have not only supported her, but inspired her characters.
Following the old adage, Brawn says she learned “write what you know.”
“I took from the people I knew,” she says. Her main character was inspired by the women in her family, her mother and her grandmothers.
Brawn says she received a lot of support from her friends Beth Corrigan, a childhood friend, and Kate Goeddel, a McDaniel junior and Phi Mu sister with Brawn.
Goeddel is one of the few who read the story in its working stage, and she convinced Brawn to change the original ending.
“I told her it was way too depressing,” says Goeddel, “that it can’t happen. It was too Shakespeare tragedy?where everyone dies.”
Even with a new ending, Brawn describes Her Hair as a story about “the constant battle between head and heart, […] about choosing not what’s best for you but for everyone.”
Goeddel describes the novel as a fusion of two versions of the same story, both of which are romances, but more realistic. “She’s a very realistic person,” Goeddel says, “yet there’s an aspect of fairy tale. It blends reality and fantasy well.”
Brawn is the author of two other unpublished books, which she calls “practice runs.” She has always hoped to be published, but this is her first attempt.
Brawn sent query letters to about 70 different publishing houses “anywhere and everywhere” before receiving an acceptance letter from Author House in Indiana, but “it made it all worth it,” says Brawn.
Though only about half responded, they were quick. Brawn started sending letters in August of 2008, then started working with Author House by the end of the year.
As soon as she accepted the contract with Author House, they set her up with a one-on-one consultant, who has served as a liaison between Brawn and the publishers.
“He’s been fantastic,” says Brawn. “He’s literally held my hand through everything.” She says the publishing process is a lot more complex than she realized, and that she had fears that the publisher would not work so closely with her, or that they would allow her no input.
“This company lets the author control a lot,” says Brawn, but the consultant has been able to guide her through everything.
Brawn’s novel is about half-way to bookstore shelves. She recently started the editing process, reviewing the 300+ pages of her novel, which was one of her least-favorite steps.
Currently, the publisher’s designers are working on her book cover and will soon start work on her website. The publisher will also work with Brawn to advertise her book before it hits stores, which is scheduled for August 2009. However, Brawn adds that date is always changing.
The price is tentatively settled for $14, allowing Brawn about $5 in royalties for each copy sold. Brawn says that her dad helped her with the pricing. “Numbers were not always my strong suit,” she admitted.
Goeddel adds, “It’ll be cool to see it on Amazon.”