Welcome to Ask an Author!
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If you’re here, you probably found me from the online talk I gave, Ask An Agented Author. Almost 200 of you signed up! I wanted to create a space to continue the conversation beyond one short Q&A. Subscribe (it’s free!) and you’ll have a chance to ask questions about writing and publishing, and I’ll do my best to answer and find the resources that can steer you in the right direction. It’s an advice column, by an author, for other authors regardless of where you are in your writing and publishing history. Questions can be anonymous - it’s up to you - and there’s nothing too newbie to ask.
This Substack is free. Depending on your questions and how this experiment grows, I’m aiming to pop into your inbox every other week or so. If you let me know you want more, or less, we can adapt as we go. That’s what writing is, after all!
For those of you who joined me for Ask An Agented Author via Zoom, consider this a continuation, in your inbox, of a resource you can turn to as you write, query, publish, and more.
How to ask a question:
Hit submit.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you’ll see the response in your inbox when I answer.
That’s it!
Why me?
I’ve had three different agents, all of whom signed me from the slush pile. Currently I have two agents in two different genres. I’ve published ten contemporary romance novels under the name Rebecca Brooks, nine with Entangled Publishing and one that initially came out with Ellora’s Cave and that I rereleased on my own. I’m also currently writing literary fiction under my real name, Kate, and working with my new agent to get those books into the world. I don’t know everything—I wish! But I’ve been in publishing for almost a decade (and published an academic book before that) so I do know a fair amount about writing, querying, publishing, and all the ups and downs involved.
I hope you’ll decide to join me and ask whatever writing questions are on your mind! I know I’ve had a LOT of stress in the past around finding an agent, parting ways with an agent, seeking a new agent, going on submission, getting R&Rs, going BACK on submission… and on and on and on. I wish I’d had some place to ask for advice, and not from a group of strangers who maaaaaybe had even less experience than I did and didn’t really have the answers, either. I’ll tell you when I don’t know something, but I’ll also do my best to find out what I can.
More soon!
Kate