Quillflyer asked Francesca Zappia:

Was there pushback about the subject matter? My novel FLYAWAY is about a young woman stuck caring for her schizophrenic brother. Her devastating decision: give up her dreams or let the hospital put him the street. My research was navigating the mental health system for four diagnosed schizophrenics in my family. Several agents loved the book but didn't think they could sell it. Did you encounter this?

Francesca Zappia I'm sure there were some agents who thought this about MADE YOU UP, though they never said it directly to me. Some of the publishers who read the manuscript did say it in so many words--either they weren't sure if it was represented correctly, or they weren't sure they could properly market a book about paranoid schizophrenia, etc. etc. It was never more pushback than I'd expected, and MYU is kind of a strange story anyway, so it was hard to tell how much was because of that and how much was because of the mental illness aspect.

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