After 54 Agents Said No: James King's First Novel, and 'Bill Warrington's Last Chance'

At the age of 6, James King announced his intention to become a novelist. And in his 50s, that was still the plan. Yes, he paid the bills (and two college tuitions) with his day job writing corporate training materials. But every morning at 5, he'd turn on the computer in his basement in Wilton, Conn., and after a few minutes of staring at the screen, spend the next couple of hours writing fiction no one ever wanted to buy.

Fifty-four book agents had taken a pass on his fourth unpublished novel when he happened upon a link to something called the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition on one of those agent's Web sites. "What do I have to lose?" he asked his wife, strictly rhetorically. And this Monday, Aug. 9, as winner of that contest, which was entered by some 6,500 writers in 22 countries, James King's debut novel, "Bill Warrington's Last Chance," will be published by Viking. On its cover, the mystery-writing machine a.k.a. Sue Grafton tosses this humble bouquet in his direction: "This is what reading is about,'' she says of King's first published work of fiction, "and what a good book is supposed to do.''

"There have already been sightings of the book in various bookstores,'' says the newly minted, 55-year-old author -- a friend of a friend who when I met him in San Francisco in the 1980s had just finished a three-year, post-collegiate backpacking trip he hoped would provide some good grist for his future work. At the time, he was earning his paycheck in the hotel industry. But when he got a chance to write for a living, even for a company that produced newsletters, he packed up his diesel Rabbit and headed east to Connecticut, where for the last 24 years he's worked in corporate communications.

Along the way, he feels sure, he "corresponded with every literary agent in business.'' One of them suggested that his first effort, written for young adults, might do better as a novel for adults. After he rewrote it to spec, though, the agent decided it didn't quite work that way, either. Another agent suggested that his second novel, about a kidnapping, would just make a killer screenplay, so he followed that advice as well, with the same result.

Then, a few years ago, he tagged along to a college class with his daughter Katie (who wants to be a writer, too) and enjoyed it so much that he decided to go back to school himself, and enrolled in an MFA program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., not far from where he lives. "I didn't care about the degree,'' he says, "but I wanted to get some feedback on my writing other than, 'Thanks, not for us.' " For an assignment in a novel-writing course, a character he based on a crotchety older neighbor gradually grew into Bill Warrington, who, when he realizes he's losing his faculties, takes his 15-year-old granddaughter on a cross-country trip he hopes will force a family reconciliation before he loses the ability to remember it.

After so many rejections, King was not exactly sitting by the phone waiting for the good news that he'd won the contest. In fact, when Amazon did call – "We've been trying to reach you," the nice man on the phone said – he assumed it was a telemarketer, and snapped, "Well, you've reached me; how can I help you?"

In the year between that call and this week's publication, King's life has changed in some ways – he finally has an agent now, and plans for a 10-city book tour. He laughs when friends assume this means he can quit his job tomorrow, though he does hope he is moving in that direction.

Sometimes, he recalls, when it felt like his dream would never be any more than that, he'd think about the dear friend we had in common -- our college writing teacher, Elizabeth Christman, who when she was 52 quit her day job and went back to school to get her doctorate and begin a teaching career. She died this winter, at 96, and at her funeral in St. Louis, I learned that when she'd arrived at the University of Notre Dame, she was the same age as the professor whose retirement had created the opening she was filling.

Liz published the first of her four novels, "A Nice Italian Girl," which was made into a TV movie, when Jim was her student. "When her first book came out, I had her sign it and she put a note in it that she was fully confident that she'd be asking me to sign my book for her some day. I have all of her books lined up in front of me, and sometimes when I got discouraged I would pull out 'A Nice Italian Girl' and look at the inscription. Now I'm at the age she was" then, and is starting his own new career, with another novel in the works (of course). "And I'd love to teach." He can't believe how close he came to getting to sign a copy of his book for her. But if there's any greater tribute than emulation, mightn't it be proving your role model right?



Click here to follow Melinda Henneberger on Twitter.