Playing Hardball With One of the Big Publishing Houses

The following is an actual exchange I had this week and hope it helps other writers. Everything is verbatim, except the names of the people and details of the books, which have been changed.

Hello Bob,

I hope you’re doing well. My name is Sally Forth, and I’m the Chief Editor at Faulty Fiction UK.1

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums, and I am a big fan and genuinely impressed by your body of work. You blend whimsical illustrations and thoughtful storytelling, creating books that are both informative and deeply engaging. Such a distinctive voice is always exciting to discover.

I’d be interested in learning about your current projects and whether you’re represented by a literary agent. If you are, I’d be pleased to continue the conversation through them and explore whether there may be an opportunity to discuss your work further and its potential fit within Faulty’s publishing program.

Should this be of interest, I’d be delighted to hear from you and continue the conversation at your convenience.

Warm regards, Sally Forthright Chief Editor, Faulty Fiction UK

Dear Sally,

Thank you for writing and your kind words.

I do have an agent, it’s Wonder Woman of Justice League Literary. I’m sure you’ve heard of her, but I can make this first contact and answer your question as to what I’m working on now.

DRAWING A BLANK: MEMOIR OF A CARTOONIST WITH AMNESIA is an illustrated diary that documents my internal struggle to embrace a new identity for the second half of my career working under a nom de plume and with constant memory problems. I’ve written 70,000 words, I think, and have hundreds of drawings already completed for this unforgettable project.

Now that Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums has performed well, I have day-dreamed about doing a sequel that would cover England and maybe Europe as well.

I’d be happy to talk further about any of these projects.

Thanks, Bob Eckstein

Dear Bob,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply and for sharing your exciting projects with me.

First of all, congratulations on the success of Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums. I can certainly see why you’re considering a sequel. I was also intrigued by Drawing a Blank, the concept is refreshingly original, and the combination of inside baseball information, your illustrations, and humor sounds incredibly compelling.

I’m also pleased to hear that you are represented by Wonder Woman. Having an experienced literary agent is always an advantage when exploring publishing opportunities. Please provide her contact information and let’s see what we can work out. I think you will be excited to know, I believe we can offer a significant offer to publish your memoir.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Warm regards, Sally Forthright Chief Editor, Faulty Fiction UK

[At this point I wrote to my agent, catching her up to speed with the exciting news. She wrote back immediately.]

That’s not a legit email address. — Wonder Woman

[I proceeded to search for Sally Forthright’s real email address.]

Dear Sally,

I was so excited to be corresponding with you the past two days only to learn it is probably an impostor who reached out to me (unless I am wrong again). Confirming that the enclosed attachment is indeed not you.

But since you may be reading this now I will add that I am working on my memoir, DRAWING A BLANK: MEMOIR OF A CARTOONIST WITH AMNESIA is an illustrated diary that documents my internal struggle to embrace a new identity for the second half of my career working under a nom de plume and constant memory problems. I’ve written 70,000 words and have hundreds of drawings already completed for this exciting project. Did I say it’s an illustrated diary?

Bob Eckstein

Dear Bob,

Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. I am sorry to say that this was not me but an impersonator! We have seen a lot of this across the industry recently so I would encourage you to stay vigilant. We have more information about these scams here at this live link: Combating Faulty Fiction Fraud2

With thanks and best wishes,

Sally

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Now that I cancelled ordering that speed boat, I want to remind everyone of my merch and online stores (I continually hear how much people love wearing one of my shirts).

I have some pride so I won’t parade out all the descriptions and photos but just quickly provide a link for those interested:

If you hate Trump—I’ve got mugs and snarky T-shirts for you.

For book lovers, ranging in subjects from humor to museums to cats.

Everything from onesies, hoodies, stickers, magnets, tank tops, hats, and sweat-shirts with my artwork on it.

A fun new card game called Writer’s Block!

I am coming out of my sabbatical from teaching, I will be giving talks as well as lessons in this newsletter for paid subscribers. It will be stuff I normally would discuss in my writing & art classes at NYU Journalism School.

My talks will be one-offs through different venues. I’ll mention the first two.

This Tuesday I will be kicking off the Writer’s Digest’s 5th Annual Humor Writing Virtual Conference, with a FREE casual Meet ’n’ Greet as a sneak peek to the main event the following Saturday. I’ll share an exclusive humor writing tip that will not be covered during the main conference. That’s Tuesday, August 11th, 1pm. Click HERE to join.

Saturday August 15th starting at 1pm and going to 7pm (it’s a little over four hours of classes) is the 5th Annual Humor Writing Virtual Conference:

“Writer’s Digest University is pleased to present a one-of-a-kind online event for anyone wanting to inject humor into their writing! On August 15, 2026, our Humor Writing Virtual Conference will provide expert insights from FOUR award-winning and bestselling humor authors on the finer points of how to write humor. Spend the day learning techniques for honing your craft from four different published humor authors.”

For details to that event and to sign up, go HERE. Hope to see you there and please share this with anyone you think would enjoy it.

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And thank you to all the new subscribers, especially the paid ones as I inch closer to reaching the goal of Substack’s White Badge Bestseller, and they help this newsletter financially (I’m just 9 paid subscriptions short). — Bob