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

James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

Everyone thinks getting your agent will take care of all your problems. For some, it might. For most, it won’t. For me, it’s been part of a roller-coaster ride that started long ago, and isn’t anywhere close to finishing.

Over the past ten years or so, I self-published a successful series of interactive gamebooks (think of branching-path-narratives like Choose Your Own Adventure, but full novel-length books of 100,000+ words and over 50 possible endings), which have sold over 10,000 copies and were translated into Italian and Greek.

A decade later, I wanted to do something a bit different, so I wrote my first novel. I went about querying during Covid, which couldn’t have been worse timing. Then, I decided to self-publish via the Kindle Vella platform, which was still relatively new. I always enjoy the challenge of trying something new and different, but this ended up being a novel form of frustration. Finally, I submitted the manuscript to the Bath Novel Awards, where the book earned a place in the Top 5 (as the highest placing YA novel) in 2023.

This helped me find my first agent.

We took the book out on submission, and had an offer in the first two days — only we didn’t know that. The publisher was restructuring, and the contact who was meant to reach out to us only did so in the vaguest possible terms, before passing the ball to someone who thought it was a finished project. A month later, they reached out, but the terms of the deal weren’t great (I feared where my book my end up, given the rocky start to the offer) and we ultimately passed. This concluded the first round of submission.

We took the novel out on round two, just as I was moving across the country for my wife’s job. In the midst of this transition, my agent was let go during financial restructuring in the agency. The book currently remains on submission, my agent is still looking for a new agency, and I’m holding onto the “oh shit bar” on this wild ride.

How will it all go? That remains to be seen. I’m still strapped in, looking for the next bend in the tracks. But as the old saying goes, nothing worth attempting is ever easy.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

James Schannep is a United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) graduate with a degree in English Literature and General Engineering. He is the author of the Click Your Poison interactive gamebook series and his debut novel, Social Vampire, was shortlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award, shortlisted for The Letter Review Manuscript Prize, and received Honorable Mention in the 11th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published E-book Awards.

Schannep has been longlisted for the 2023 Hastings Book Festival, won 2nd place in the June 2023 Henshaw Short Story Competition, tied for 3rd in the Sixfold Journal competition, and won a Silver Remi Award for screenwriting at Worldfest Houston.

His bio used to be funny, but if he was here making you laugh, who would be talking about all of these awards?

James is represented at The Bindery Agency.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I’ve had a lot of “almost” successes over the years.

A screenplay languishing in development hell, for starts. This seems like a common enough origin story, unfortunately. It was a fun script, but it had a very particular place in the cultural zeitgeist, and I’m afraid it wouldn’t fare well in the current market. Still, that was a fun learning experience, and one that sent me down the road of focusing on prose.

After I had published a few books in my series, I was called by an Amazon exec in the early days of Alexa to translate my books into long-form interactive audio content. We did so, but were plagued by the design flaw where Alexa would “fall asleep” if a listener wasn’t speaking constantly. As you’re probably well-aware, Alexa has moved in a different direction for its role within the mega-corporation’s infrastructure. Still, it was thrilling to see all the pieces in development and I was essentially asked to be a producer in finding my own narrator, offering creative direction, and other roles I relished.

Next, I had a deal with the company behind the most successful “interactive story” boardgame on Kickstarter wherein I was asked to create a sprawling, novel-boardgame hybrid. I came up with a concept I loved, thrilled with the possibility of collaborating with others to help with gamification and production of tangible elements and visual art. Shortly after I began work, the brand went belly-up after mismanagement with the crowdfunding fulfillment came to light.

Shortly after this, I had a production company in Hollywood reach out to me to make interactive content for a major streaming platform. Big names were thrown out. I pitched my take on an idea for a feature-length interactive film, which was well received and we moved forward, eyeing the possibility of a network series for my interactive books as well. After a string of several “we’re just waiting for the final steps” I believe funding ultimately fell through. I still hope to be involved with something like this in the future.

And now, all fun I’m currently having with my novel on submission. I mean “fun” there in both an ironic, sarcastic sense, but I’m also being literal. It is fun to reach the next handhold as I try to continue climbing.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Each of these setbacks were incredibly difficult. And yet, I continue to persevere. How? Why?

Early failures are simply the pavement on the road to success. That’s the part not everyone gets. Is a writer better at his job the day after he gets a book deal? Of course not. So, why should we think we’re any worse the metaphorical day before?

Here are a few quotations which have served as mantras to keep me going:

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
― Richard Bach

“Genius is infinite patience.”
― Michelangelo

“You fail only if you stop writing.”
― Ray Bradbury

And I’ll leave you with one from me, a personal mantra of sorts.

“Remember, before you set out on this journey, there was a time where this was exactly where you wanted to be.”
-James Schannep

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jamesschannep.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.schannep/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamesschannep
• Twitter: https://x.com/JamesSchannep