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MEET KEITH JACOBS (10/2010)
by Bonnie O'Brian

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided that
you were going to be a writer when you grew up?

Keith Jacobs

Yes! Not just moments..the feeling tugged at me almost constantly. I knew that no matter what else I ended up doing, writing would always be something I concentrated on. It just happened to work out that part of my regular job- running a magazine publishing company- involved a lot of writing. But, I have always dreamed up scenarios that later I would use for stories, both for adults and children.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

I received a lot of rejections, and this taught me a very important lesson: in publishing it really is all about who you know. One piece I submitted was repeatedly rejected from one publishing house over and over again, but I kept sending it because I believed in the piece. Then, I happened to meet someone who loved the piece AND they knew the editor at the house that kept rejecting it. My new friend made one call and got the piece published. Turns out the piece was being rejected by a part time editor there and was never making it to the desk of the executive editor, so it never really had a chance without someone making a call. The most important thing in publishing- notice I wrote publishing, not writing- is networking and keeping good relationships with people that can get things done.

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

I do. I write for magazines regularly. In fact, magazine feature writing is by far my favorite type of writing. I like the length of the pieces, I like the process, I like the research. My style of magazine writing, as well as the subject matter I write about is a little quirky, and it’s fun to generate projects like that and not have to devote a prolonged amount of time to it like you have to do with a book. I also feel that, with magazine writing, the author’s voice has the opportunity to be “truer” and more upfront with the reader than through the guise of characters in a story.
 
Where do you get your ideas?

That question has more than one answer as I get ideas from all types of stimuli. An idea might come from one line that I hear in a conversation or movie, or it might be something that builds over time due to a topic I’m interested in that I have been pursuing. Sometimes I dream the idea, others it just pops into my head inexplicably. I’ve even gotten ideas from mis-hearing something someone was saying to me. Those are usually the funniest and most surprising ideas that I get. I don’t have any problem having a lot of ideas, I just have to really discipline myself to write them down so I don’t forget them.

What really triggers your imagination?

Life does. The absolute most important thing an author has to do is listen. You can’t filter good ideas and rev up your imagination without being still and listening to life going on around you. I think that is why sometimes writing is so lonely. A writer spends a lot of time watching, and then recording what he watched, and both of those are somewhat solitary pursuits.

Has anyone ever written you a fan letter that you’d like to share?

I have never really gotten a fan letter like that, but I was once sent a packet of work that was done by a third grade class after I visited them that consisted of poems and stories they wrote as part of a follow up to my presentation that had several story lines and funny bits that were clearly inspired by my work. Not only did the pieces make me chuckle, they seemed to me to be a very dear “fan” letter, if only by imitation.

What other jobs you had before you became a writer/illustrator?

This list is going to seem extremely random, but it is true, and if you really knew me, it is representative of the way my life has unfolded. I have been: a quarter horse trainer and conditioner, a newspaper copy boy, a pharmacy technician, an emergency medicine technician, a TV news producer, a magazine vendor, a short-order cook, a professional drummer, a pizza delivery man, an appliance salesman, an advertising salesman, a magazine circulation manager, a health club membership manager, the editor in chief of a health journal, a magazine marketing executive, and a publishing company executive.