MARCH 12, 2024 (Cont.) It so happened that a year before I was fired, David, a member of the law department applied for an open position in my group. He made it to the final round and was scheduled to meet with me. We’d never even heard of each other before the job had been posted, but in what had been billed as an “interview” turned into a wonderful conversation. David and I discovered that we shared many common interests and viewpoints. Though he was offered the job, in the end he decided he would stay where he was in the law department.
Nevertheless, we stayed in touch and became good friends. Over lunch one day I shared with him my open secret: that I was working on a novel that lampooned corporate life. David was amused, and when I mentioned that the hard part wasn’t writing the damn book but getting it published, he put me in touch with his next-door neighbor, Vince Flynn.
Vince had just come out with his first novel, initially self-published, then acquired by Random House, which catapulted Vince into stardom. He went on to write a string of highly popular thriller CIA novels. At David’s urging I phoned Vince, who was gracious enough to talk at great length about his self-publishing efforts. Before his writing career he’d been a realtor, a salesman, and he exhibited considerable business savvy.
He convinced me that rather than spin my wheels trying to land an agent—let alone a publisher—I should self-publish, market my book to success, and then with proven sales, find an agent. This seemed to be a reasonable and realistic approach, and Vince walked me through the process and gave me the names and contact information for all the parties it would take to produce a book; where to go for an ISBN, whom to use as a jacket designer, where to have the book printed, and so on.[1]
My goal was to produce a book that in substance discerning readers would recommend to others and that in physical quality would be indistinguishable from all the other books on the “Just In” table at Barnes & Noble.
All this was going on in the background when Jeff gave me the ax. When I met with Tom Kimer for lunch the next day, he said he wanted to be in on the self-publishing venture and contributed substantial capital to the entity I formed, Third Option Publishing, LLC. Off to the races we went.
A day or two later my lunch with Tom, David called me at home. “I heard what happened,” he said. “People here in the law department want to hire you, but because of the [Wells Fargo] merger, there’s a hiring freeze. However . . .” he continued, “don’t go back to your old law firm or any other of the big firms in town. Hang out your own shingle, and I’ll send you all my overflow work.”
David handled commercial loan documentation, which had been one of the staples of my law practice before I’d joined the bank seven years before. The work would be form a reliable foundation.
The timing was exquisite. While living off my real severance package, I could publish my novel called, Severance Package, thanks to the superb guidance provided by Vince Flynn—thanks in turn to David. After that ran its course, I could sail out of port on my own boat—again thanks to David. The name across the transom would be, “Solo Practitioner,” but over the years, I’d open over 500 Wells Fargo loan files and branch off in countless other rewarding directions.
Jeff had given me the ax, but it turned out to be a kick in the pants and the beginning of my halcyon days from a professional standpoint.
But first . . . more about my career as a novelist (as it were.) (Cont.)
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© 2024 by Eric Nilsson
[1] I’d already retained my oldest sister as my editor. A veritable usage wizard, she freelanced as a professional editor and had a number of published books to her credit.
