From concept to publication: how does a book come into being? Join WNBA-DC as we talk with author Margaret Rodenberg about her new book, Finding Napoleon, and her relationship with her agent, Rachel Ekstrom, and publisher Brooke Warner,  as well as the current state of the industry.

Margaret Rodenberg's debut novel Finding Napoleon (She Writes Press, April 2021) includes an intriguing adaptation of Napoleon Bonaparte’s real attempt to write a romantic novel and introduces his last love, little-known Albine de Montholon. Her passion for French history began when she lived in France as a young teen with her US Navy family. An avid traveler who has visited over sixty countries, she journeyed more than 30,000 miles to conduct Napoleonic research, including to St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic where her novel takes place. She’s an award-winning writer and a director of the Napoleonic Historical Society. She’s as happy in a kayak as she is in a museum. Her website is www.FindingNapoleon.com.

Rachel Ekstrom is an agent at Folio Literary Management representing psychological thrillers, book club fiction, historical fiction, speculative fiction, young adult, and middle grade. Some of her well-known titles include FIVE FEET APART by Rachael Lippincott, A LILY IN THE LIGHT by Kristin Fields, THE COINCIDENCE OF COCONUT CAKE by Amy E. Reichert, GIRL LAST SEEN by Nina Laurin, SYMPTOMS OF BEING HUMAN by Jeff Garvin, LITTLE BLACK LIES by Sandra Block, and FINDING NAPOLEON by Margaret Rodenberg.

Previously, she was an agent at the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. After graduating from Duke University, she spent over a decade as a NYC-based book publicist, first working on mysteries and thrillers for Minotaur, then holding managerial and directorial roles at Penguin’s Dutton and Gotham imprints and St. Martin’s Press, promoting debut and #1 bestselling authors in fiction and nonfiction. Over the course of her career, she worked with a range of bestselling and award-winning authors including “Grammar Girl” Mignon Fogarty, Russell Simmons, Timothy Keller, P.C. and Kristin Cast, Alyson Noël, T. Jefferson Parker, Randy Susan Meyers, Louise Penny, John Hart, Tyler Cowen, Hari Kunzru, Susan Shapiro Barash, and Michael Palmer.

She’s eagerly looking for new voices and projects, particularly commercial and upmarket adult fiction with an immediate, commercially appealing voice, in the areas of psychological thrillers and suspense, bookclub and women’s fiction, historical, speculative, and exceptional Young Adult and Middle Grade.

Brooke Warner is the publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, and president of Warner Coaching Inc., where she specializes in helping writers get published. In her 20+ years in the publishing industry, including eight years as Executive Editor at Seal Press, Brooke has shepherded hundreds of books through the publication process. In addition to her role as Publisher, Brooke is a TEDx speaker (“Green-Light Revolution”), weekly podcaster of Write-minded (with cohost Grant Faulkner of NaNoWriMo), and author of Write On, Sisters! (She Writes Press, 2019), Green-Light Your Book (She Writes Press, 2016), What’s Your Book? (She Writes Press, 2012), and three books on memoir. She writes a monthly column for Publishers Weekly and lives and works in Berkeley, California.

The Birth of a Book