Sometimes, getting signed begins exactly as you might imagine: with a perfectly crafted pitch arriving in an agent’s inbox at precisely the right moment.
Most get signed stories? Don’t happen that way. True Crusaders invent their own paths to success.
Charles “Charlie” Daly, a young ghostwriter based in Ireland, first approached me after reading my book, Get Signed. He invited me to appear on his podcast, Notes from a Ghost, A Storytelling Podcast, where he interviews people with extraordinary stories to tell—and the writers who help bring those stories to life.
I was impressed by Charlie’s tenacity, his thoughtfulness, and the genuine respect he showed for my work. So I said yes.
We had a fabulous conversation, and I was left impressed by Charlie’s hustle and drive.
What happened next, however, I couldn’t have predicted. Charlie asked point blank: would you like to consider a memoir by a 9/11 first responder, who already has Jon Stewart’s endorsement, among others?
Agents and publishers hear a lot of promises. But minutes after our call and his pitch, Charlie forwarded an email from Jon (Stewart) himself.
John Feal is a native New Yorker, Army veteran, and demolition supervisor who rushed to Ground Zero after September 11th to assist with the cleanup. Ninety-six hours later, an 8,000-pound steel beam crushed his left foot, leading to a partial amputation. As John struggled with his recovery and medical bills, he watched fellow responders develop cancers and other devastating illnesses after breathing air they had been told was safe.
When those responders were forgotten by the systems and lawmakers that had promised to “never forget,” John began to fight.
I was immediately moved by John’s story and mission. And when we met, I found his highly compassionate but tough and no-bullshit demeanor extremely refreshing.
Within a month of Charlie’s first LinkedIn message, I was signing him and John for the book that would become I Will Follow You Anywhere: The True Story of the 9/11 Responders Who Took On Congress.
That was the exciting part. Then came the work.
Developing the book was neither quick nor easy. The material was sensitive, sprawling, and deeply personal. Together, we worked to make the story more scenic and less diary-like, helping readers feel the human stakes rather than simply understand the chronology. We also wanted it to reach a younger generation who may know 9/11 only as history.
Most importantly, this could not be only a record of what John had endured. I encouraged John and Charlie that the book needed to show what he had learned—and also what readers could do with those lessons.
The result of their incredible work is at once a memoir, a tribute to the responders who fought beside him, and a guide to taking on systems that seem too powerful to change. John shares his unconventional “recipe” for advocacy: how ordinary people can organize, build unlikely alliances, and hold leaders accountable. It is a story of grief and loyalty, but also of turning trauma into service and anger into measurable change.
Watch John speak and you will understand why people follow him. He practices everything he preaches, devoting his life to showing up for people whose suffering might otherwise be ignored.
As agents, we necessarily make a livelihood from books. We evaluate ideas, audiences, positioning, and commercial potential every day. But every so often, we encounter a project that is also simply a project of the heart: a book we believe must exist, a story we feel personally, and a mission we want the privilege of ushering into the world.
This is one of those books.
I Will Follow You Anywhere has just been released to precede the 25th anniversary of September 11th, just over two years after we sold the book. At the time, it surprised John to learn that he couldn’t publish the book that very year. But I think he’ll agree the wait has been worth it—Charlie, John, and their publishing team have lined everything up for the book to make the wide impact it deserves.
I hope our community at Lucinda Literary will support this book, because it represents John’s life’s work—and because its lessons are incredibly timely, extending far beyond one cause.
For those writing a memoir, it’s also the story of the little engine that could. Not every publisher believed in this book. But one did—and that’s all that mattered.
For writers, I hope Charlie’s story offers a lesson of its own. He did not wait for permission to enter publishing. He took the side door and found a way in. He arrived with work worthy of that connection, and we’re now proud to represent both him and John on our list at Lucinda Literary.
I hope this story inspires you.
