{"id":212988,"date":"2025-09-09T14:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/212988\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T14:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:10:08","slug":"a-new-novelists-quiet-lit-fest-debut-chicago-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/212988\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Novelist\u2019s Quiet Lit Fest Debut \u2013 Chicago Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

For every Jonathan Franzen and James McBride, for every John Grisham and Stephen King, there are a thousand Jacob Hubbard<\/a>s: Writers who aren\u2019t on The New York Times bestseller list, who don\u2019t win the PEN\/Faulkner award, who aren\u2019t offered six-figure advances from Big Five publishers, or see their books reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. Jacob Hubbard wasn\u2019t on the list of speakers at the Printers Row Lit Fest. Rather, he was sitting with his girlfriend at a table in front of Dearborn Station, hoping a few passersby would buy a copy of his self-published novel, Sounds of Yesteryear. He\u2019d flown all the way from San Diego and paid $400 for a table just to sell his book to a few Chicagoans. He\u2019d printed up a poster, bookmarks, a Q&A sheet and a list of songs mentioned in the book. He wasn\u2019t expecting to make any money off the trip. He just wanted what every beginning novelist wants: exposure. Chicago was the latest stop on a nationwide tour that has also included Tucson, Detroit, and Pittsburgh. So far, he said proudly, Sounds of Yesteryear has sold 110 copies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a break-up story told from the perspective of an autistic man,\u201d explained Hubbard, a burly, bearded 36-year-old in a \u201cPortal to the Cat Dimension\u201d t-shirt. \u201cIt\u2019s a relationship story told from the perspective of an autistic person looking at loss through a neuro-divergent perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hubbard, who is autistic himself, published the book under his own Celestial Seaside imprint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically decided to do the indie route because I wanted to keep it authentic myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI know a lot of publishers shy away from neuro-divergence.\u201d<\/p>\n

By one o\u2019clock on Saturday, Hubbard had sold three books. He looked hopefully at everyone who slowed down to check out his poster, and even more hopefully at those who stopped to take a bookmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely wish you the best of luck,\u201d said one potential customer. At a book fair, that translates to, \u201cI\u2019m not buying your book.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood luck to you, too,\u201d said Hubbard, trying to be friendly, trying to sell himself.<\/p>\n

Hubbard, whose day job is teaching business writing at San Diego State University, wasn\u2019t expecting to sell enough books to pay for the table, the flight to Chicago, and the AirBnB in Pilsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s my first book, I\u2019m expecting to sell it at a loss,\u201d he explained. \u201cAs I write books and get my name out there, the profit will come in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, a young woman stopped at Hubbard\u2019s table and turned a copy of the book over in her hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book seems interesting,\u201d she said. \u201cCan I get a copy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all based on lived experiences,\u201d Hubbard said. He took the woman\u2019s debit card and swiped it through a Square reader, the cash register of every do-it-yourself author.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your name?\u201d Hubbard asked, uncapping a Sharpie to inscribe the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go by Ann a lot. No \u2018e.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hubbard was selling his books for $17.99. He has them printed on demand by Ingram Spark. Between the printing and shipping, the price just covers his costs. He also paid $3,000 for a narrator to read an audio book. He\u2019s sold 20 of those so far. The money will come later, once he writes more books, once he gets his name out into the publishing world, he tells himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hubbard had never completed a novel before he wrote Sound of Yesteryear. He\u2019d tried three or four times before, but never made it to the end. He was inspired to write this book by a breakup with a woman. All great art is born of pain, the saying goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started off writing to process things, to grieve,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt turned into a therapy session about my whole childhood. I was in special education. That affected how I saw myself. It\u2019s shame and internalized ableism. A lot of people, when they see a neuro-divergent worldview, when they see heartbreak and trauma and grief, they can relate to it. A lot of neuro-divergent people tend to like this. They\u2019re really excited about this book. This is giving voice to a perspective not seen in today\u2019s media. There\u2019s a Netflix show called Atypical, about an autistic kid navigating high school. Personally, it\u2019s not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hubbard is already 30,000 words into his second novel. He doesn\u2019t want to give away too much about it, but \u201cit\u2019s going to have the main character of Sounds of Yesteryear\u2019s dad. It is something that takes place in a genre. It\u2019s \u201960s, \u201980s magical realism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hubbard brought 28 copies of Sounds of Yesteryear to the Printers Row Lit Fest and sold 20 of them, so he was happy with how the weekend turned out. The next stops on his tour are the Louisville Book Festival in October and the Miami Book Fair in November. If you were one of the 20 readers who bought Sounds of Yesteryear, you got a signed first edition by a first-time author who\u2019s just getting his career off the ground. Who knows, it might be worth more than $17.99 someday.<\/p>\n

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