Danna Staaf—Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World

NURSERY EARTH:
THE WONDROUS LIVES OF BABY ANIMALS
AND THE EXTRAORDINARY WAYS THEY SHAPE OUR WORLD
Danna Staaf
The Experiment, June 6, 2023, hardcover $27.95, ebook $19.99
Hardcover ISBN-13: 9781615199327
Ebook ASIN: B09Z7QTNMB

Staaf reports:

In marine biology grad school, I studied how baby squid the size of rice grains can grow into adults as big as I am. To hone my research techniques, I took a summer course on marine embryos and larvae and fell in love with the incredible diversity of early animal life stages.

Then I gave birth to two human babies. I kept thinking that neither squid babies nor human babies are incomplete adults, but rather are whole beings in their own right. And some features make them more similar to each other than to adults of their own species. I knew I’d want to write about that, but the opportunity didn’t come until years later, after I had published two other books.

I found an agent by querying with a fiction manuscript that 32 other agents had already rejected. While the thirty-third agent did not manage to sell that novel, she sold my first nonfiction book, Squid Empire. After she left agenting a few years later, I switched to another agent at the same agency.

Then the Squid Empire publisher went out of business, pushing my new agent and me to seek a new publisher. We found one who liked Squid Empire so much they offered a deal to publish my next adult nonfiction book as well, even though I didn’t know yet what the topic would be.

Nursery Earth was one of several ideas the editor and I discussed and the one we both liked best. I got the green light to research and write!

Pandemic lockdown and quarantine meant that I did most of my reporting via zoom—disappointing, but cheap. About halfway through, I was passed to a different editor at the same publisher. Like my new agent, my new editor had excellent ideas.

My experience exemplifies the shifting nature of publishing: You may not finish a project with the same agent, publisher, or editor you started with, but you never know what opportunities are around the corner. Keep up your hope, enthusiasm, and curiosity!

Contact info:

• Danna Staaf: 650-387-1335, dannajoy@gmail.com, http://www.dannastaaf.com, @DannaStaaf, @dannajoystaaf
• Book: https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/summer-2023/nursery-earth/
• Publicist: Besse Lynch, besse@theexperimentpublishing.com
• Agent: Stacey Kondla, stacey@therightsfactory.com

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Banner image adapted from original photo by Danna Staaf.

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