I'm lucky (or cunning) enough to have lured yet another successful writer over to my blog for an SAT - Successful Author Talk. SAT authors have conquered the query, slain the synopsis and attained the pinnacle of published. How'd they do it? Let's ask 'em!
Today’s guest for the SAT is Sarah Hawley, author of A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon which releases on March 7
Are you a Planner or Pantster?
A bit of both! I tend to write long, rambling synopses that generally sum up the trajectory the book will take, but I go off synopsis frequently and write where the characters and dialogue take me. I’m trying to be better about plotting, rather than writing on *vibes*, but structure is not something that comes naturally to me.
How long does it typically take you to write a novel, start to finish?
All over the place, but generally a few months if I’m really committed to it. My ideal pace is about 1.5 months for drafting, 1.5 months for editing, but I’ve drafted a book in as little as 9 days and as long as 1.5 years. Now that I have a schedule dictated by a publisher, it’ll be interesting to see how my timelines change.
Do you work on one project at a time, or are you a multi tasker?
Generally one at a time. I work best when I can hyperfocus on something and ignore the outside world.
Did you have to overcome any fears that first time you sat down to write?
The fear of not being good enough! I started writing on a near-daily basis about ten years ago, but that was mostly snippets of dialogue or a few scenes, not an entire book. The first book I ever wrote was a terrible genre-mash (multiverse romantic sci-fi set partially in Victorian England) with the worst plotting this world has probably ever seen, but when I finished it I was so proud. I still am. It was proof that I could actually write a work of that length with a general beginning and end. (Let’s not talk about the squishy, chaotic middle.)
I still face those fears now that I’m being published. After the joy of getting a book deal, imposter syndrome started to creep in. What if I’m actually a hack? What if I wrote one decent book and the next two are garbage? What if my editor hit her head the day she made the offer and now that she’s feeling better she regrets it horribly???
Fears are normal, so I try my best to just keep writing, day after day. Eventually every book emerges from its awful first draft cocoon to become a butterfly.
How many trunked books (if any) did you have before you were agented?
I had two trunked projects that I didn’t even try to edit or query because they were so messy: the aforementioned multiverse book and a very short memoir of the demon Lilith. (Side note: Lilith now appears in book two of my fantasy rom-com trilogy!) But my third book (which sadly died on sub) was the one to get me an agent.
Have you ever quit on an ms, and how did you know it was time?
Yes, though maybe I’ll return to it someday. I have a YA heist MS that was just horrible to write, like pulling teeth. When everything is a slog and you don’t connect with your own characters emotionally, something is wrong. In that case, I was writing while feeling very down about my writing journey and inability to get published (I’d had several projects die on sub). I’d also tried to come up with an idea that might be “sellable,” which was the wrong place to approach it from. Instead of writing because I loved the characters and the world, I was trying to force myself to check off imaginary boxes in the hopes that if I wrote exactly the right thing, an editor would buy it. Ultimately, my heart wasn’t in it, and I decided to abandon it about halfway through.
Who is your agent and how did you get that "Yes!" out of them?
My agent is Jessica Watterson at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, who is absolutely lovely, kind, smart, and a dream to work with! The process of signing with her was very odd.
I’d been agented before and parted ways with them amicably (sometimes it’s just not a great fit, and changing representation is common in the industry). Initially getting agented involved the traditional process of querying and racking up dozens of rejections over months until that first yes.
After parting ways with my previous agent, a very strange thing happened. I had been writing Star Wars fanfiction as a way to stay creative while on submission, and I have an anonymous fanfiction Twitter account. When I tweeted about having a piece of original fiction and asking my fellow Reylos to wish me luck querying, someone slid into my DMs. It was Cindy Hwang, now my amazing Berkley editor! She liked my fanfic and wanted to read the book. This blew my mind, especially since Cindy has discovered some of my favorite authors through fanfic as well: notably, Meljean Brook and Jessica Clare.
I sent the book to Cindy, then got a referral from Ali Hazelwood to her agent, who referred me to Jess, who read the book at the same time as the editor. I signed with Jess the same day we got the offer call from Cindy!
This was a very backwards way to go about it, which just goes to show that sometimes this industry can be strange and downright magical.
How long did you query before landing your agent?
I queried for about six months before getting my first agent. The total number of queries was somewhere around 90-100, I think, with 100 being my internal marker of when it was probably time to shelve the book. My first agent got the query somewhere in the middle of that process, but the reading timeline added a few months.
Any advice to aspiring writers out there on conquering query hell?
It sucks! I have a few pieces of advice:
1. Dig deep and find whatever motivates you to keep going and getting your voice out there. This industry can be terribly painful, but resilience will carry you through the waves of rejection. Some days I queried out of hope, sometimes out of spite (not directed at any particular agent, of course, more of a generalized spite – like “You can’t keep me down, publishing industry!”) I also turned querying into a habit—I got into a routine with my batches of queries and sent a new one after every rejection.
2. Speaking of spite, remember that agents are generally lovely human beings and not evil boogeyman gatekeepers determined to crush your dreams. Don’t be rude to them and don’t hate them for doing their jobs or not connecting with your book. This is a long-term personal relationship and business partnership, and you don’t want to go into business with just anyone – you want the right person for your material, vision, and communication style, and agents want the same. Be gracious and respectful!
3. Research, research, research. Before sending a query, check out QueryShark, PubTips on Reddit, and other sites that workshop queries. When I was first in the trenches I knew my query was working when it got about a 10-20% request rate, but request rates may be lower now – I haven’t been in the trenches for a while, so I recommend doing some exhaustive internet searching. If you’re not getting requests, rework your query. Also, I really liked QueryTracker as a tool for finding agents and tracking submissions.
4. If it is affecting your mental health in a serious way, take a step back. There’s no deadline for you to get agented, and timelines in this industry are long. Your brain is the precious source of all those words – protect it! Sometimes that means not sending any queries for a while or even trunking a project.
How did it feel the first time you saw your book for sale?
I think seeing it on a shelf will be an incredibly surreal moment. Even seeing it available for preorder online has been shocking. Like… I wrote that, and now people can buy it? What?? So much of this process can seem nebulous or like it’s taking forever, and then you get something tangible like that and it’s like “oh yeah, this is actually happening!”
How much input do you have on cover art?
Berkley asks me for ideas before their cover conference: Pinterest boards, character descriptions, or whatever else I have that might be useful for a general direction. The artist then creates a sketch or two, and I can give notes on elements that don’t match how I see the characters (like if someone’s hair is too long). Then we get color options, and I can choose my favorite color or ask to see a few more options if nothing’s really hitting. Jess Miller, the artist who does my covers, is incredible; I love her sketches and her eye for color. I actually just saw the color options for book 2 and immediately fell in love with one of them, which I can’t wait for people to see!
What's something you learned from the process that surprised you?
The sheer volume of things to learn in the publishing industry has been surprising! I feel like every level, from querying to being on sub to having a deal to doing promotion, teaches me something new, and I’m definitely nowhere near done learning. Plus getting to peek behind the curtain and see how a book actually gets made has been fascinating.
How much of your own marketing do you do? Do you have a blog / site / Twitter?
I have a website where I post updates, as well as an email newsletter I send out about once a month (sign up here!). I also tweet and post on Instagram, though usually it’s either jokes or pictures of my cats. I’m trying to find a balance between posting my normal silly content and posting information about my books.
When do you build your platform? After an agent? Or should you be working before?
I started working on my platform before, but I don’t think it’s necessary (and my platform isn’t huge by any means). It just sort of happened because my friend Jenny Nordbak and I started a romance podcast, The Wicked Wallflowers Club. For querying authors, I wouldn’t worry about it too much—focus on writing the best book you can because your words are more important than how many followers you have.
Do you think social media helps build your readership?
Possibly! Maybe! I hope so? I don’t have a massive social media platform, but there are a lot of engaged readers on there. In particular, my fanfic mutuals have been extremely excited about all the Reylos getting book deals recently (as am I).
Sarah Hawley is an author of romance and fantasy novels. She was a winner of RevPit 2018, and her short stories and satirical articles have been published by Hooked, Slackjaw, The Belladonna Comedy, and Points in Case. She co-hosts the Wicked Wallflowers Club podcast about romance fiction, which was featured on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” as “a compelling reminder of why the oft-dismissed genre is a real force in cultural conversations about consent and desire.”