We were lucky to catch up with Ben Rose recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ben, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?
I am, at the present time, and for the foreseeable future, being represented, published, and promoted by Oracle BookArt & PA Services LLC. The journey to this representation has not been easy. In 1994 I had a novel that I thought was ready. I submitted Silent Tears of A Desperate Age the old fashioned way, via snail-mail. That’s how it was done back then. I got, maybe, 40 rejections and a lot of no response.
Then, in 2018, I had another novel I thought was ready. I submitted Everybody But Us to a publisher, they agreed to publish, but I found out about some shady, bordering on distasteful, side businesses with which the publisher was involved.
I put the work through 15 more edits and found another publisher. This one was less distasteful but no less shady. They ghosted on numerous clients, including me, and were less than honorable with some of the ones they did publish.
In 2020 I finally published Everybody But Us and a second one, The Long Game. Things went well, but the publisher was overextended and couldn’t keep up with all the clients. After 3 years we parted amicably.
I discovered Oracle BookArt through a friend, and everything meshed. I republished The Long Game in January of 2024. It has been top 100 in categories internationally for over two months.
In the meantime I had rediscovered my manuscript from 1994. I rebranded the novel Bury Me Upside Down, and put it through numerous edits. This novel was published in February 2024 and has been top 100 in categories for over a month. Oracle BookArt & PA Services LLC will republish Everybody But Us in July.
So, the road has been long and arduous, but Oracle BookArt & PA Services LLC is the best I’ve dealt with and the most upstanding. They are a one stop shop. Great cover art, great editing by Caroline Giammanco (also a stellar author in her own right), and a great team that promotes and encourages each other.
Ben, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’m an author, and always wanted to be an author. I was an advanced reader from an early age, and due to experiences I can’t, or rather, won’t, discuss I had a deep well from which to draw inspiration. It took decades of living, however, before I could properly write the sort of novel I had always needed as a younger reader. Not that the young adult fiction available wasn’t good, but it rarely spoke to me at a soul level. The one exception was Daniel Pinkwater who I consider the maestro of all fiction young adult.
I set out to write young adult fiction that is real and cuts to the bone. I believe I’ve succeeded and shall continue to succeed. My fans and reviewers say as much.
What sets me apart, I believe, is that too many in the literary world believe that young adult literature has to tiptoe around subjects like drugs, alcohol, intercourse, and pure unadulterated rage against the world. I don’t tiptoe. I’d lose my balance and hurt myself if I didn’t keep my feet flat on the ground.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
The world of today is not the world of past generations. Every generation has felt this, but the affect is more pronounced for young adults today. My goal is to provide an enjoyable and memorable read, while also imparting knowledge that I believe will help today’s generation survive the maelstrom ahead.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ve spent my life pivoting. That’s a continuing theme in my books. Mike Tyson once said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I believe this to be so. I could pick one of hundreds of stories about this. There were times I knew the direction my life was heading, and suddenly it went off course. Like with Covid. I was finally at a good place in life. Things were going swimmingly, to use a British expression. Then the whole world was blindsided by the pandemic. I didn’t just sit in front of the TV and gain fifty pounds. I took the opportunity of social distancing to dedicate extra time to my writing career. As long as I couldn’t be out and about it seemed best to make lemonade out of the lemons life was handing out.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benroseauthor/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=100063950238834
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SobrietyStories
- Other: https://www.threads.net/@benroseauthor https://bsky.app/profile/benroseauthor.bsky.social My agent ,(Susan Catt) and editor (Caroline Giammanco) https://www.facebook.com/OracleBookArt/