America's Boy - my first book - has been republished & is available for purchase again (finally!) with a beautiful new cover!
The book that launched my career is coming back out into the world!
“A revelatory story about acceptance, pride, and the many ways family can surprise us” by the bestselling author of Magic Season (The Washington Post).
Indie Next List “Great Read” Selection by America’s Independent Booksellers
American Library Association’s Inaugural “Rainbow List” Selection
I’ve waited a decade to say this: My baby is coming into the world again! America’s Boy: A Memoir — my very first published book and the one to start my career as an author — is being republished (it came out yesterday, May 27!) and IS AVAILABLE TO BUY NOW AT THE FOLLOWING LINKS (Note: It is currently available as an e-book; print versions will be available in the near future):
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About America’s Boy
Let me say this first: This is a memoir. It is funny and sad, heartbreaking and uplifting, unfiltered and unflinching. You will learn things about my family you have never known. You will learn things about me that may be shocking. It is a memoir, and as a writer and journalist I believed that telling my truth would save me, and it did. It has also saved many, many other people who have felt they did not belong, that their families would never approve of them, that they would never measure up, or those that have faced such shame and overwhelming grief they believed they would never recover or be able to live or love again. This is for you, and I truly hope you love it. Here’s the memoir’s synopsis:
In this memoir, writer and journalist Wade Rouse delivers a humorous and heartwarming account of his Midwestern childhood and coming of age as a gay man.
Born in Granby, a small farm town in the southwest Missouri Ozarks, Wade was a fish out of water as long as he could remember.
Life didn’t get easier in Wade’s conservative hometown, especially after his older brother died just a month after Wade graduated junior high school. It was then that Wade buried his brother—and his sexuality, so his parents wouldn’t mourn the loss of a second son. Finally, after years of a descent into obsessive-compulsive behaviors and overeating, Wade was able to come out to himself, losing weight and gaining confidence until he had nothing left to hide.
Filled with memories of happiness and heartbreak, America’s Boy is both “a quirky tribute to [Rouse’s] rural Ozark family, and an easily digestible, homespun tale of a bygone era in Middle America” (Time Out Chicago).
“A storyteller and a memoirist in the best sense of the words. . . . Reading Rouse’s memoir is more like sitting with a good friend and a cold beer, trading stories and remembering those things that may have been painful or tragic at the time, but must now be respected for what they are.” —Metro Weekly
The Story Behind America’s Boy
I grew up loving Erma Bombeck, and I began as she did: Locking myself in my bedroom as a kid and writing stories in leather writing journals (see below!) about my kooky but lovable family. I didn’t believe I could ever become an author — I mean, who does that? — so I became a journalist and then PR professional but became depressed in my career. When I would visit my mother — a hospice nurse at the time — we would drive all over the Ozarks as she cared for people. She told me once at the end of a long day that nearly every person she cared for at the end of their lives was filled with some kind of regret and begged me — as her only remaining child — not to be filled with regret. “Fail,” she told me, “a million times, but don’t ever stop trying to make your dreams come true.”
And so I started writing a book. And it was awful. Instead of writing a story like Erma, or other memoirists I admired like David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs and Nora Ephron, I tried to fictionalize the story of my family and my life growing up gay in rural America. And so I started anew, using my voice, using humor, heartbreak and complete honesty to tell the story of an American family, our pain and path to redemption.
I woke at 4 a.m. before work every day to write. It was the only free time I had during days that often went until seven or eight at night due to meetings. I often wrote by candlelight on the tiny porch of my tiny bungalow in St. Louis. I had no idea what I was doing: I was simply telling a deeply personal, wholly universal story simply by trusting my gut and my voice. When I finished, I had no clue what to do: I had no connections in publishing, but I was a good student, so I began studying how to write a query letter and land an agent. I spent nine months writing a one-page query letter summarizing my book and identifying potential agents. On New Year’s Eve of 2004 — with my husband, Gary, on one side of me, and my mother on the other (as well as half a bottle of champagne in me!), I marched to the mailbox, inserted my letters (this was back in the day when I had to send SASE and pay for my own rejection) and said, “Here goes nothing!” “No!” my mother admonished. “Here goes everything!”
Two weeks later, I had seven requests to read my manuscript. Three weeks later, I received three formal offers of representation (and still have the same agent to this day!) and two weeks later, she sold my memoir to Penguin, and it was published in April of 2006 by Dutton. It received a lot of great momentum out of the gate — including being named an Indie Next List selection by the nation’s indie booksellers — but before the book had come out, my editor (the one who loved and championed the book) had left to take another job, my book was shuffled around, the imprint underwent big staffing changes, and the book sort of just came … and went. I was to learn that happens much too often in publishing.
Publishing houses traditionally focus their marketing efforts almost entirely on new books. Once a title has been out for a while, publishers generally have to move on to the next one, no matter how much they believe in the book. After a while, books — no matter how good — simply go out of print (authors have the ability to buy some copies), and many great books (including National Book Award winners) have such meager sales that the rights to the book revert from the publisher back to the author. That used to be the end of a book, unless TikTok or a movie brought it back to the attention of the book world.
And Then Along Came Open Road Media
A company called Open Road Integrated Media is trying to change that by giving a second life to older books. The company was originally founded by former HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman and American feature film and TV producer Jeffrey Sharp (Boys Don't Cry, You Can Count on Me and Proof).
“There’s potential to breathe new life into these books,” said publishing vet David Steinberger, current chief executive of Open Road, “and that flies in the face of conventional wisdom in the industry.”
It does this by using machine learning to make these titles more visible online and by republishing books that were largely forgotten or had fallen out of print.
This new venture by Open Road is called Re-Discovery Lit, and that is who is bringing America’s Boy back to life.
Here is a great New York Times article about Open Road Media and Re-Discovery Lit!
The life of a good book can span hundreds of years, but most of the time, a book gets a flash of attention when it is first published — if its author is lucky. Then, it fades away. Right now, I feel very, very lucky.
The Beautiful Thing about America’s Boy Is …
I now control more of the rights to the book and have more ownership over its new life. Which means, basically, if you buy and support it, the book stays in the world. Shockingly, this book has been banned in some libraries - simply because I talk about growing up gay - despite it being an American Library Association pick as an exemplary book with outstanding content that has the potential to help young readers as well as adult readers. Books save lives!
I have received hundreds of notes, letters and emails from readers of all ages - gay and straight - who said America’s Boy has changed - and often - saved their lives with its honesty, love and message of hope. The more things change in this world, the more they stay the same, and readers need books with characters, storylines and messages that reflect their lives, offer different viewpoints and perspectives and that hold out a hand — if not a lifeline — for those who are drowning in the world.
I am deeply proud of America’s Boy and always will be, and I’m thrilled “my baby” is able to walk in the world again. I hope you love it!
One last time, here’s how you can buy it:
Speaking of Leather Writing Journals …
I haven’t changed since I was a kid: Although I write my novels on a laptop, I always keep writing journals with me everywhere I go (by my bedside, by the TV, on the screened porch, in the car) so that I can note any idea, any inspiration, any thought, any nugget that crosses my mind as I’m writing a book (and ideas when I’m thinking about my next book). I use them so much, I created one of my own! Our gorgeous Viola leatherette journals feature a quote from THE PAGE TURNER that not only sums up the soul of the story but also what it means to listen to your voice, write and become the person you dreamed of being: BE THE HERO OF YOUR OWN STORY! This is what my grandma told me decades ago, and it was the best advice I could have ever received about life and writing.
Moreover, these beautiful journals are engraved by a female-owned, Michigan-based company, so you will support multiple small businesses with your purchase.
Choose Black, Brown, Pink, or Purple, all with the quote in a stunning engraved font. This journal boasts 112 lined pages with a black, ribbon place holder, perfect for jotting down notes for YOUR next story, or journaling.
ORDER YOURS NOW WHILE THEY ARE STILL IN STOCK HERE!
Congratulations, Wade! I'm a fellow SWMI author (St. Joe area) who has followed your career since I laughed my way through "At Least In The City Someone Would Hear Me Scream" fifteen or so years ago. I was so excited to find you here on Substack, and am looking forward to getting a chance to read "America's Boy" as I missed it the first time around. The hurry-up-and-wait, hope-it-doesn't-die-on-the-vine nature of book publishing is real! So glad to see that your first book is getting new life!
This is so wonderful! Congratulations.