We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Devin Greenlee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Devin, thanks for joining us today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. ther times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed.

Once upon a time, there was this thing called covid. It hit us all hard, and while we were clawing at the walls inside our own homes, many of us were looking for ways to escape. Me personally? I craved stories–small mental vacations from reality, whether that be in the form of movies, video games, or books. Somewhere along the line, I ran out of material. I was on my last series of novels (one I shall not name), when I began thinking, “Hmm. I can do this, too.”

So I did. I wrote my first book, words pouring out of me at an alarming rate. I can honestly tell you that I couldn’t write fast enough to get the images from my mind onto the page. And then it was done! So here I was, thinking I would just take the unedited manuscript and post it on Apple Books for the world to see.

But then my mentor, Gary Johnson, stopped me.

“No,” he said. “There’s a way to do this.” I followed his advice, raking in any type of feedback or advice I could get, all in an effort to be traditionally published. I’m talking all-night bingers of blogs, tweets, self-help books–I hit them all. I edited, re-edited, re-edited again. Finally, a year later, I was ready to try and find an agent.

It had to be easier than what I’d already gone through, right?

WRONG.

My greatest “failure” was that I garnered over two hundred rejections on this precious baby I had created. Reality hit me hard, but I just kept going. I learned to be shameless and resourceful, which in combination with some luck, can tear through just about any wall.

On my last Hail Mary, I submitted my novel to a romance publisher, Entangled Publishing. Was it a romance? No, but I reasoned that there was two guys falling in love, so close enough–right? Somehow, there was an editor working on New Year’s Day in 2022. Jen Bouvier emailed me not even twenty-four hours later. They were complimentary, nurturing, and brutally honest that the book didn’t work.

HOWEVER, Jen pitched me an idea for a collaboration. It was with their mind fuel that my second book was born. I wrote it under Jen’s guidance, with all of their knowledge of the market, and at last, my book EVERGREEN was purchased by Entangled Publishing.

Not long after, I was offered representation by my force-of-nature agent, Ramona Pina of Bookends Literary. With her as my champion, my career began.

So, long story short, I followed my passion. I kept chiseling away at that wall two hundred times over, and with some luck and faith from others, I finally broke through.

Devin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Devin Greenlee and I write queer fiction. I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, where I was a fully-devoted band nerd in high school (color guard folks, represent). I was an English Lit major in college, and I’ve been working in multiple areas of public education since I was eighteen.

Being gay, I was lucky enough to grow up in a liberal state and city that allowed me to be myself. However, no matter how free I was to find my own way, I yearned for more representation of LGBTQ+ people in media. I would have begged, borrowed, and stolen for SOME sort of roadmap on how to figure out who I was. Sure, there was Will & Grace, Queer As Folk, and the works of Augusten Burroughs–but let’s be honest, none of those are geared toward teens.

I had one series I found, and I read it on repeat. RAINBOW BOYS by Alex Sanchez. But I wanted more.

Honestly, being a lit major in college burnt me out from reading. For a long time. But I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was when I returned, finding books like CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell and HEARTSTOPPER by Alice Oseman.

So the question is, how did I get into my industry? By following in the footsteps of the authors and publishers before me. The ones that weren’t afraid to give queer kids like me books that I could see myself in.

What I’m proud of is that I make sure my novels show representation. Representation matters so much these days– whether it be LGBTQ+, BIPOC, or #ownvoices. I’ve devoted my craft into adding to all those piles of books people in the Bible Belt want to burn. I’ll even bring the marshmallows.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My agent, Ramona Pina, is my dear business partner. She was one of a few agents who offered me representation once I had my book deal, but I was immediately drawn to the integrity of her no-BS approach. She was there to help me forge my career, reminding me of a sobering fact: if I don’t make money, she doesn’t make money.

More importantly though, she believes in my work. There is no dollar amount that can be put on support like that.

While I create my works, she’s responsible for molding them into the market, pitching them, and negotiating the contracts. That sounds like a horrible job to me, but for her it’s second nature. She’s my champion, my cheerleader, and my friend. We’re fully transparent with each other and I wouldn’t want to work with anyone else.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

So what a lot of people don’t understand is that 99.9% of published authors are NOT rich and famous. Sometimes we get advances ranging from a few hundred dollars to six-figure deals, but let’s be honest, those six-figure deals are quite elusive.

And as far as those advances go? We pay them back dollar by dollar per book sold. We also do not make piles of cash from selling the books. Generally you make $1-$2 per copy.

Just about every dollar I make from my books, I put back into my career. A new laptop once I break the keyboard from typing so much, fees to keep my website running, and flights and hotels for panels and signings (some publishers pay for these things, but again, elusive deals).

Where did I get my inital capital? My day job. Luckily traditional publishing doesn’t require much of an upstart.

I will qualify that I am specifically talking about trad pub–self-publishing is WAY different and not for the faint of heart. I have great friends and critique partners who swear by it. Advertising and marketing are a struggle for me, but those two things are the lifeblood of a self-pubbed author. I look up to those authors for being able to do it, but that just wasn’t the route I wanted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://devingreenlee.com
• Instagram: @Dev.L.Lee
• Twitter: @DevLLee
• Other: Threads: @Dev.L.Lee
  Bluesky: @DevLLee.bsky.social

Image Credits

Headshot:
Katie Martin
Locations:
Boulder Bookstore: Boulder, CO
Books of Wonder: NYC, NY