Interview with author Tiffany parks (English)
By Jack Wardynski. Published in Open Doors Issue N. 6 Dec 2024.
In honor of Florence Publishing Day, Open Doors will be publishing a series of interviews during the course of 2025 with authors on just how they went from manuscript to publication. Our intern Jack Wardynski sat down with Rome-based author Tiffany Parks to discuss her unusual path to publishing. From a tweet to an agent and a book deal with Harper Collins, Parks’ story reveals that the way to publication is anything but predictable.
In an age of digital communication and oversaturation of the book market, new au- thors often have to get creative when it comes to finding an agent and getting their book published. Tiffany Parks is a testament to this new reality for writers. Her first book, Midnight in the Piazza, was published in 2018 after she connected with a lit- erary agent via a Twitter competition called #PitMad. In this event, aspiring authors give a one-tweet long pitch for their book, and an agent selects one to follow up with and help find publication. “I hadn’t had any agents requesting to read my book,” said Parks. “That’s what this event was for. It’s a very fast way to see a lot of book ideas at once.” Parks caught the interest of accomplished literary agent John Silbersack with her quick pitch. Over 17 years at the Bent Agency, Silbersack has worked with high pro- file clients like Dean Koontz, Charles Schulz, and the NBA, just to name a few. Hav- ing an agent with such a wealth of experience was absolutely invaluable for Parks as the pair began the lengthy process of finding a publisher and completing the edit.
“I was extremely lucky because he is not only a great agent, but he was an editor with Penguin (Random House) for the first half of his career,” she said. “The book I had at that point was good enough to get an agent but not at the point of being publishable.”
Midnight in the Piazza is a children’s novel centering on a young girl, Beatrice Archer, who reluctantly moves with her family to the Eternal City, Rome. The story kicks off when Beatrice witnesses someone steal a set of turtle statues off a public fountain that sits outside her window. Since Beatrice was the only one to witness the crime before the statues were replaced with fakes, the duty falls on her to uncover the mystery and recover the precious turtles.
Parks’ book incorporates elements of both her own life journey and the real life history of Rome. The turtle fountain in question is the Fontana delle Tartarughe, a beautiful Renaissance masterpiece that sits in the Piazza Mattei, right in the heart of the ancient city. Similar to the novel, people have tried to steal the turtles, in both 1944 and 1979, and the ones seen today are replicas. The first inkling of a story crept into Parks’ mind from living near the Fontana delle Tartarughe and interacting with a young girl she befriended in the city. Parks moved to Rome after graduating with a Masters in classical music from the Uni- versité de Montréal, but she quickly had to get over the culture shock of life so far from home. The Pacific Northwest native’s story is mirrored in the journey of her protago- nist, Beatrice.
“Rome is my muse, it’s where I get my inspiration to write,” Parks revealed. “For me, it was very important for all the inspiration for this story to come from real things… You don’t need a made- up story about Rome, Rome has so many incredible stories.””
“Rome is my muse, it’s where I get my inspiration to write,” Parks revealed. “For me, it was very important for all the inspiration for this story to come from real things… You don’t need a made-up story about Rome, Rome has so many incredible stories.”
Fantasy author George R.R. Martin has said that there are two types of authors: architects and gardeners. The architect plans out their entire story ahead of time to make the writing process quick and efficient, while the gardener begins writing with the seed of an idea and eventually grows an entire story from there. Parks falls into the latter category; when she began the writing process, she did not know that it would end up being a mystery novel.
“All these elements swirled together in my mind. I had no idea where it was going…
I definitely wouldn’t do that again,” she laughed. “Even looking back now, I think that’s crazy, because it’s not really how I write anymore.”
“It was an extremely difficult book to edit… I don’t think people realize how long the writing and publishing process is.”
Silbersack worked with Parks for around half a year making edits before it was ready to be shown to publishers. Another half year passed before Silbersack revealed that HarperCollins was interested in publishing for them. After another few years collaborating with the publisher, the book was finally released in March 2018 after nearly a decade of work.
“I had a very positive experience with HarperCollins,” Parks said. “It was an ex- tremely difficult book to edit… I don’t think people realize how long the writing and publishing process is.”
Outside of writing, Parks pursues other passions as well. After moving to Rome, she reconnected with childhood friend and radio professional Katey Sewall to start a podcast called The Bittersweet Life. The show, ongoing for more than a decade now, began as a way to document the highs and lows of living in Rome as an expat, but now has broadened its scope to the highs and lows of life in general.
Parks works as a trip planner for those looking to visit Rome, Florence and Tuscany, Naples and the Amalfi Coast, Venice, Emilia Romagna, Umbria, and Sicily. Addi- tionally, she hosts a variety of tours within Rome that give visitors a taste of differ- ent sides of the city, from the most famous landmarks to the hidden gems. Her latest tour, “Rome is for Readers,” follows the paths of literary giants who called the city home, like Percy Bysshe Shelley and Henry James, to showcase where the inspiration for their great works came from.
Despite Parks’ success with Midnight in the Piazza, nothing is guaranteed in the publishing world, and getting her followup on shelves has proven a struggle. Initially, she wrote a sequel to Midnight that would feature the continued adventures of Beatrice, but Silbersack encouraged her instead to broad- en her scope and write something totally differ- ent. This led her to Saving Caravaggio, a young adult historical fiction thriller that incorpo- rates supernatural elements. The manuscript was awarded the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists in 2020, a testament to its quality. Envisioned as the first of a three-part story, Parks believes that it is the best thing that she has ever written. Both she and her agent believe the book is ready for publication, but finding a taker has been challenging.
“The truth is your career is never really ‘made’ as a writer… Just because you’ve pub- lished one book doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a second book deal,” said Parks. “It’s easy to get discouraged in this career because there are no guarantees.”
More books are being published every year than ever before, many of them self-published, and yet the percentage of people reading books is steadily declin- ing. The era of publishing competitions on social media, like the #PitMad that gave Parks her start, is drawing to a close as platforms such as The Artist Formerly Known as Twitter become more unusable. Reputable agents like Silbersack have
to be more selective with who they take chances on, while up-and-coming agents often get left behind. In the face of all these obstacles, it is easy for authors looking for their breakthrough to feel a lack of motivation to keep pushing. Speaking from her own experience, Parks attests that the best remedy to discouragement is to stay focused on the one thing that really matters: the writing.
“The best piece of advice I can give is if you love writing, taking out the end goal of getting published can help,” she said. “Write for yourself, and surround yourself with people that are encouraging.”
Despite her current publishing hurdles, Tiffany Parks is a testament to the fact that a breakthrough can truly come from anywhere. Aspiring authors can and should look to her as a testament to placing quality of literature above what they can gain from it. Because at the end of the day, telling a story is what we are all here for.
