Hey there, writer friend,

Today we’re celebrating a big win for one of my clients: Varun Gauri’s novel For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus is now available for pre-order!

Varun first reached out about working with me in 2022. I was immediately struck by the strength of his writing–he has a real knack for deep point of view–by the fine balance of intelligence and humor in his novel, and by the characters.

For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus tells the story of two twenty-somethings of Indian descent who decide, after modern dating and relationships, to try arranged marriage. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of humor and pathos in this story.

For all of the manuscript’s strengths, though, I saw that Varun had issues with the story he was trying to tell, and an ending that didn’t quite land.

Over the next two years, Varun and I worked together on his novel, and he quickly became one of my favorite clients: Laid back, intellectually sharp, and a quick study, especially when it came to the critical ways that the protagonists’ internal journeys need to shape the external story.

After completing his revision with me, he took the novel through further revisions on his own, and this spring won the Washington Writers Publishing House Carol Trawick Award, which includes publication.

Recently, I asked Varun a few questions via email, as I think his journey may help to shed light on the road to publication for all of you still seeking to break through with your big debut.

1. Prior to working with me on this novel, what sort of work had you done with it? And what efforts had you made toward publishing it?

I wrote a few paragraphs many years ago, when my oldest daughter (now twenty-three) was a toddler. I worked intermittently for decades, snatching hours here and there, before finally completing a draft in 2019. I worked intensely during the Covid pandemic, turning out two more drafts. I participated in critique groups, including a year-long workshop in which peers and an accomplished novelist gave me detailed comments.

Finally, starting in 2021, I submitted the novel to nearly a hundred agents. About ten asked for the full manuscript. Many were initially enthusiastic, and one even emailed, while I was on vacation with my daughter in Guatemala, to say she wanted to talk.

Despite caution from friends and family not to get too excited, I spent the morning before the call dreaming of publication (why would an agent call me if they weren’t interested?). The agent told me she enjoyed my writing but had to stop reading, halfway through because she couldn’t understand my protagonist’s decisions. She wished me good luck.

In the end, no agent took my book.

2. What sort of issues did it feel like you were struggling with in it?

Mostly, the agents gave me anodyne comments like, “Nice work, but this isn’t for me.” Those who provided explanations seemed to be saying they lost interest in the story. They wanted more momentum. They wanted the plot to hang together. They couldn’t understand the motivations of my two protagonists. In the critique group, my peers were supportive, but I could tell they also seemed to appreciate the quality of my writing more than my storytelling.

3. What new perspectives on the story, and maybe fiction in general, did you gain by working with me?

Before I worked with you, I hadn’t thought much about character arc. (Call me a fool, but I thought readers pick up a book to admire the writer’s style, witticisms, and general brilliance.)

Perhaps my biggest aha moment working with you was when you said that good writing is valuable but it doesn’t sustain the reader’s interest; unlike the story itself, it burns away quickly. Good writing is the kindling, like newspaper, but the story is the log.

Once I grasped that, my task was to identify and refine my protagonists’ characters arcs. I already knew my story was back-loaded, character development and setting up front, then a rushed second half. Outlining with you, I learned how to put my characters’ back stories, initial misbeliefs, and circumstances in the service of the storyline, and to tie each scene to a point in the characters’ arcs.

Suddenly, the book was becoming more emotional, and the plot clearer. I started to understand a memorable line from a previous writing teacher: Plot isn’t what happens, it’s how your characters respond to what happens.

4. What was your road to publication with this novel?

I sent the draft out to another eighty agents and received another seven requests for the full manuscript. They would all eventually say no. Meanwhile, I kept revising and revising, taking out extraneous material, killing my darlings if they weren’t in service of character arc. The final version ended up 20% shorter than the last six drafts had been.

Finally, I got an email from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House, a small but locally prestigious literary press, in January 2024. I didn’t open the email at first, assuming it was another rejection, but it was good news — my novel had won a prize and would be published in October 2024. I was thrilled!

5. What sort of novels do you feel like this book is in conversation with? What sort of reader do you think will particularly enjoy it?

I’d love for my novel to be in conversation with leading immigrant-and-assimilation stories, such as Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian, Family Life by Akhil Sharma, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, and Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.

Of course, it would be an honor even to be mentioned in the same sentence as those books!

At the same time, my novel is a story is about a marriage, a domestic comedy of manners indebted to George Eliot and Jane Austen. In fact, the relationship between my female protagonist, Meena, an earnest soul with an expansive mind, and her younger sister, Vishali, who is fun-loving and happier, was modeled, I later realized, on Dorothea and Celia Brooke from Middlemarch.

I hope any reader who appreciates accessible, contemporary literary fiction will enjoy For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus.

—

If you’re still in the trenches with your first novel, I suggest you pre-order Varun’s! That way, you’ll have some good literary karma in the bank when the time comes for your big debut.

PS. I am ALMOST done with something special I’ve been working on for you–a tool you can use to gauge how close to done your novel manuscript really is (and if it’s ready to pitch). I’m planning to spill the beans next week, so stay tuned!

Never miss a post! Subscribe to my newsletter.