A Writer's Guide to Publishing and Storytelling with Laura Stanfill

IMAGINE A DOOR author shares the inside scoop​

Last week, I caught up with Laura Stanfill. In addition to being the award-winning publisher of Forest Avenue Press and the author of the historical novel Singing Lessons for the Stylish Canary, Laura is also an old friend.

I was thrilled to chat about Laura’s new book, Imagine a Door: A Writer's Guide to Unlocking Your Story, Choosing a Publishing Path, and Honoring the Creative Journey, which demystifies the literary landscape for new writers and experienced authors alike.

What inspired you to write Imagine a Door?

I started Forest Avenue in 2012 to learn about publishing from the inside so I could pass the information along to other writers who, like me, were trying to figure out the mechanics of the industry. While the initial drafts were full of other people’s quotes and stories and experiences, ultimately I pulled it together as a manuscript after my debut novel got published in 2022. Having that experience crystallized a lot of my big-picture thinking and gave me more insights and stories to share.

Most of all, it’s everything I tell people when I teach classes and workshops and do consulting. Be part of your literary community. Adore your independent bookstores. Distribution matters when looking at small presses and deciding where to submit. Blurbs can help buyers know how to position a book in their store.

Why did you decide to publish this book at Forest Avenue Press?

I envisioned several iterations of this project, some of which were proposal drafts I sent to my agent. One even started going out to editors. But then I realized that this really is a small-press project, full of authors who work hard on their sentences but aren’t necessarily household names. It’s the anti-expert book, not just quoting the famous people, but quoting real-life writers, editors, publishers, and agents, centering many viewpoints, not one publishing path or one “correct” avenue. Which meant I should probably publish at an independent press.

Doing it through Forest Ave, instead of selling it, made the most sense financially when I really got thinking about it. In spring 2023 I received a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant for $5,000 to help me accomplish that, and the grant felt like a signpost. You’re going the right way! Good job! So I wrote yet another draft and then went through a few rounds of developmental edits before committing to a publication date. And here we are!

Laura and I at a Beaverton Library book event

You are a writer with a vision; what is your vision for Imagine a Door?

I want people to feel seen and heard when they read my book, like they’re sitting across a table for tea, and we’re nodding and smiling at each other. So much of how we feel about ourselves as writers is based on our perceptions of other people’s careers. Which of course, for the most part, are made pretty for social media. Which means we’re all judging ourselves against imperfect—dare I say impossible?—standards.

Breaking down those walls, bringing communication and real stories of becoming an author, getting rejected, finding ways to stick with it in tough times, all felt important to put in the book.

Most of all, I hope readers who find Imagine a Door feel better about their work, more empowered, more resilient, and more open to playful investigation on the page. It’s so easy to forget that writing is fun when we’re trying to meet a certain goal or external expectation.

How long did it take to write the book? Were you working on your other writing projects at the same time (aside from the immense requirements of Forest Avenue Press?)

I started this project in 2016, with a series of interviews, and for a while that’s all it was. Information. When Lanternfish published my novel in 2022, my voice started taking precedence, tying everything together. By that year, I had been in publishing for ten years. I didn’t feel like I needed to center everyone else’s voices; I knew a lot and wanted to share a lot from my experiences.

What was different about publishing your own book as opposed to someone else’s? The challenges? The pitfalls?

Oh gosh, anytime you put work into the world it’s vulnerable and scary. Putting your own work out without the filter of an intermediary, without someone else greenlighting the project or approving the financial cost, feels even scarier! And yet I've had complete artistic control, working with my favorite designer Gigi Little, and if Imagine a Door sells, part of me wants to grab a few friends and whisper, There are definitions in here AND I MADE THEM UP! Like, nobody told me I could. But I couldn’t just use terms and leave them as-is, because I wanted this to be an accessible text. So . . . I wrote personable, original explanations, and I put them in the manuscript, and now I’m kind of living my childhood dream: writing a dictionary.

The other thing is this. I’m great at boosting others’ work. Rah rah, go you! It’s a lot harder for me to say, Rah rah, go me! When I’m about to launch an author’s novel, I tell them all the reasons I love it, I ooh and ahh and check in with their mental state, answer any last-minute questions, and I forward reviews and other bits of praise. I’m not really checking in with myself in the same way—but I am trying to keep busy so I don’t think too hard about how personal this book really is!

Laura, Gigi Little, and I tabling at Powell’s City of Books.

Did you seek outside consultation?

Indeed! I had several editors work on the manuscript, including my primary developmental editor Liz Prato, and then I brought in Suzy Vitello and Nancy Townsley to verify I had done the work Liz so brilliantly encouraged me to do.

On the publicity side, I’m working with the fabulous Alisha Gorder of Pine State Publicity. Pine State and Forest Avenue were meant to work together, right? Alisha actually worked on Courtney Maum’s Before and After the Book Deal, and my book feels like it’s absolutely in conversation with Courtney’s valuable resource. I feel really lucky the timing worked out to have Alisha on my team for Imagine a Door.

I noticed that you interviewed Susan Finesman of Finesman Literary. Was she helpful and how? Did you interview other agents?

Susan was one of my earliest interviews, maybe back in 2016 or so. She was very helpful, but even more generally, those first interviewees agreed to chat with me because they believed in my project. I am grateful to them because once I had their sacred words, once I held their perspectives in my laptop, I had an obligation to keep going. It took me a lot longer than I expected—and the result was way bigger than my original idea of a 55,000-word project—but I kept going because of those agents, editors, and authors who said yes to my requests for time.

I did interview people from many stages of publishing. The total is more than seventy-five separate voices. Some are quoted a few times, but I wanted to include many perspectives.

I can see that this book will open more teaching and presentation opportunities. Was that part of the original vision?

Yes and no. I love speaking to writers and helping them find their way, so once I got rolling on getting Imagine a Door out, I knew public speaking gigs would follow. But really it was the conversations and workshops and classes that led me to want to put my knowledge in a book, instead of the other way around.

Does your work as a publicist/marketer/publisher take away from your own writing?

It’s all a matter of balancing priorities, health, and brain space. Right now, I have a lot of competing priorities, so my own novel-in-progress is at the very bottom. Other times, I can create space for my imagination, or I find the opening to work on it because I have writing group coming up.

I think if my day job was less about publishing, I’d feel fresher and more focused on my own stories, but I really love that I get to work with words and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

How do you manage to do it all? I know you have family obligations as well. Is there some magic formula to how you manage your time?

My brain is happiest with a lot to consider, so keeping busy actually keeps me going. I used to have a magical formula, and that was called anxiety. Truthfully, I ran all my priorities through my worry filter. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, miss an important email, forget to respond to a text, or let anyone feel ignored. So I got a lot done using those worries as my engine.

Now that I’m so much gentler with myself, I feel slower, and I am not as responsive, but I’m okay with that. I do what I can and I take breaks for healthy food and naps.

Imagine a Door is out April 1, 2025 from Forest Avenue Press. Claim your copy today.