Cherry Hill West senior Jennifer Gitler has always had a passion for writing. Ever since elementary school, she has spent her spare time writing poetry and short stories.
“I kind of always remember writing,” she said. “In elementary school, I was always writing.”
Gitler’s dedication ran so deep, even 43 rejections of her first fiction novel “Forced to Be a Traitor,” wasn’t going to stop her from chasing her dream.
It would take perseverance and a big break with an online contest, but Gitler finally self-published her novel in January.
“Forced to Be a Traitor” is now available in print and electronic versions through many booksellers, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Gitler began writing the book through a National Novel Writing month contest in November 2011. It was the first she had dipped into novel writing, having written mostly poetry and short stories prior to that.
“This was actually my first novel I attempted writing other than a couple little ones when I was 7,” she said.
Originally, Gitler wanted to do a book involving werewolves, but decided to change gears early in the process.
“The story was going to be about werewolves,” she said. “But I realized I didn’t know much about werewolves.”
Gitler discovered she had a greater knowledge of vampires and began to develop the plot. The main character is an 18-year-old high school girl from Westboro, Mass., who meets a vampire in the woods of her neighborhood. The student discovers another world beyond the one she already knows.
Gitler said her story combines a high school girl’s typical life with a fictional twist, incorporating a secret vampire world. Eventually, the main character discovers challenges both in the secret world she discovered and with her school life, particularly with her boyfriend.
After completing a preliminary draft of the story, Gitler began sending it to many literary agents. However, she encountered the harsh reality of an author trying to break into the world of fiction writing.
“I knew I was going to get rejection, I knew it was part of the territory,” Gitler said. “I was a 16-year-old who had not published before.”
Gitler’s determination kept her moving forward with the process. However, there came a time when she stopped sending her manuscript to agents.
A few months passed before Gitler finally got a break. After submitting a survey through Figment.com, a teen writing website, she won a publishing package with publishing company Book Baby.
Until she won the contest, self-publishing was not an avenue Gitler had explored.
“I knew self-published existed, but I didn’t really know if it was for me right away,” she said. “When I decided to stop sending to agents, there was a gap between when I began to self-publish.”
After winning the contest, Gitler worked on editing and fine-tuning her story. With the release of the book in January, Gitler’s dream of being a published author had finally been realized.
After graduating from Cherry Hill West in June, Gitler plans to attend Rider University in the fall. While she is unsure what major she will pursue, she plans to continue writing and is already working on her next novel.
“I’ll probably stick with fiction, but the specific genre I don’t know yet,” she said. “The story I’m working on now is much more realistic.”
Regardless of how the rest of her writing career plays out, Gitler’s first novel will stand as a testament of perseverance and hard work. She is happy about proving her doubters wrong.
“There’s always been a couple of people who said I was wasting my time,” she said. “I can go up to them today and say ‘look at me now.’”
