Introducing "Shutdown"

The history of the rejected YA novel I'm now publishing on Substack.

I first started writing Shutdown in late 2011, early 2012.

My debut trilogy was under contract and I wanted Shutdown to be my next book after the trilogy was complete. 

It was quite different from Taken, which was a YA dystopia launching during the tail end of the dystopia craze. Shutdown was quieter by comparison. More of a contemporary, but with a subtle sci-fi twist and a big emotional core. Ultimately, it was (is) a speculative YA novel about a boy who knows how he will die and a girl who prefers to remain ignorant. 

I loved this book. My critique partner, Susan Dennard, loved this book. (She may or may not have ugly sobbed after finishing it. You’ll have to ask her.) My agent also loved it. We polished it up and got it ready to send to my Harper editor. Shutdown was going to be my option book. 

Fast forward to August 2012.

My Harper editor rejected Shutdown. This happens sometimes. You think getting that first book deal will make the next sale come easier, but that’s not always the case.

Ultimately, my editor didn’t think Shutdown’s premise was believable (predicting death required too much suspension of disbelief for her) and her additional feedback made me think she wanted the book to be more of a kids-take-on-big-tech epic. Another dystopia, of sorts, much like my Taken books. But to me, this was always a coming-of-age story about two teens, set in the near future, with technology as a backdrop for the themes. 

I was devastated by the rejection. I cried quite a bit. Sooz rubbed my back (metaphorically, via email) and assured me the story would definitely find readers somewhere, somehow. I hoped she was right.

After composing myself, my agent and I talked, and we decided to shelve Shutdown for the time being. I hadn’t given up on the book or anything. I just really liked my Harper editor and wanted to find a story we could work on together, rather than taking Shutdown out wide and finding a new publisher/editor.

So I went on to write a YA fantasy—Harper passed on that also, sadly—and finally Vengeance Road, which found a home at HMH (now Clarion).

But I never stopped thinking about Shutdown. Neither did my agent. I cleaned up the manuscript in the spring of 2015 and we gave it to my HMH editor for consideration. She also passed, mostly because she wanted another historical adventure from me, but not speculative fiction.

The book got shelved again.

But I kept thinking about it. My agent kept thinking about it. And wherever I’d be chatting with Sooz about what project I should focus on next, she’d say something like, Gosh, remember Shutdown? I loved that book.

Fast forward to today.

It’s now fall, a full decade after Shutdown was first rejected, and I still think about the story often. I also think it’s finally time to share it.

Over the next several weeks, I will be releasing a chapter of Shutdown each day, right here on Substack. A preview of the first four chapters will be available to free subscribers (about 10% of the novel), but the rest will be for paid subscribers only. 

This book is not perfect. Reading through it again as I got it ready for serialization was an experience. The story has many strengths. It also has things I’d do differently if I were writing it for the first time now. And some of the things that were futuristic when I drafted the novel in 2011/2012 have become commonplace technology today, which has caused the novel to lose a little of its near-future feel. (On the plus side, I’m proud of all the things I predicted correctly.)

All this said, I’m sharing the story as it stands. (The last time it was truly revised was in 2015.) I’m hoping it will be interesting for you to read a book that was rejected—and hopefully you’ll enjoy it in the process. It’s also simply an interesting look at the writing of Past Erin. Once the novel is fully released, I’ll wrap things up with a commentary post, reflecting on the novel as the writer I am today.

But I’m getting ahead of myself… 

---

I want you to pick the cover.

I’m sharing this novel in a non-traditional manner, so it only feels right to approach the cover in a unique way as well.

I’ve designed two potential covers for Shutdown. They are very different but each one fits the story in its own way. I have a favorite, but I want to know what you think; vote in the poll below.

Here’s the “jacket copy” / premise:

Thanks to a revolutionary, future-predicting procedure called Shutdown, Matthew Ross knows how he will die: peacefully, in his sleep, after a long, rich life. Matty finds this comforting. Unlike some, he has many days ahead of him.

Loanna Laughlin—known as Lola to her friends—lives at the Preserve, a nearby gated community that chooses to live a simpler, more unplugged life, free not only of most technology, but also of Shutdown predictions. Worried the procedures might one day be mandated by insurance companies, Lola frequently protests at the Shutdown centers. Seeing flashes of her future would be like relinquishing free will, and she refuses to let fate hold the reins of her own life.

When Matty first meets Lola, he instantly recognizes her. She appeared in his Shutdown prediction—in many of the visuals leading up to his death. She was even in his bed on the night he’ll supposedly die. As their cautious friendship grows into something more, Matty must decide: Can he bear to tell Lola that he approached her solely because of his Shutdown prediction? Is their relationship real or the product of a drug, and will she reject him when she learns the truth? She wouldn’t—couldn’t—even if she wanted to, right? After all, Matty knows the future. Matty knows how this ends.

Unless, of course, Shutdown predictions aren’t set in stone and neither Matty—nor anyone else—actually knows what waits ahead.

And here are the two cover options:

shown left: Cover A (Hourglass) | shown right: Cover B (Polaroids)

For a closer look at the covers, click them above to enlarge them. Please note that the cover poll will be open for a week only, so get your votes in ASAP.

Lastly, here’s what Sooz had to say when I told her I’d be serializing Shutdown on Substack and asked her for a blurb:

I loved Shutdown so much when I read it, and to this day it remains my favorite Erin Bowman book. It has all things I love most from her—especially characters that live and breathe long after I close the pages. I still think about this book a decade later.

—Susan Dennard, NYT Bestselling author of Truthwitch and The Luminaries

---

I’m really excited (and also a little bit nervous) to finally share this story with the world. I’m hoping many of you enjoy it just as much as Sooz.

Once the cover poll closes, I’ll clean up the winning art and start rolling out chapters. Be sure you’re subscribed to the Serialized Fiction section if you want to read along.

XO,