#trad pub

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Lmaoooo I hope these folks are joking :')

I got an ask on querying, which I answered privately as it had personal details in it, but thought the info might be useful more widely. As I didn't officially query I have crowdsourced some tips from my agented friends who did (ed: the group chat would like me to say i have 'consulted the sages') so here is the collected wisdom, which I have sorted into categories.

Please note that this is largely based on querying US agents.

Before you start:

Prepare yourself emotionally for rejection. if at all possible, write another book. Really common not to get rep for your first novel and really common for the book you got signed for not to sell. Honestly a lot of the confusion around querying is like, this is not about getting a good mark in writing a book. This is starting a career.

Don't jump the gun - make sure you've polished your book as much as possible yourself, sought feedback from beta readers and critique partners etc.

Finding agents:

What freelance editors want aspiring trad pub writers to think:

Trad pub is such a competitive field that paying them is the only way you have any hope of achieving your dreams.

What freelance editors conveniently forget to mention:

If you don't tell your agent and/or publisher that you used an editor beforehand, they will expect your future work to come with the same level of competence. If you can't produce that on your own, you're now stuck in a loop of paying an editor out of pocket. Even if you find some success as an author, that by no means guarantees that you can just eat the cost.

Developmental editing takes time. If your publisher wants another book from you, they will give you a deadline that may not allow for your writing process plus time with a freelance editor. But the publisher expects the same level of work you seemingly produced on your own, so you're now stuck in a loop of paying an editor out of pocket.

Trad pub will find any excuse to not pay for something. If they hear from enough of their acquired writers that people are willing to pay for their own editors, they will not hesitate to make that the norm and cut the cost. Having a huge chunk of the marketing burden placed on writers' shoulders was bad enough. Now we're all stuck in a loop of paying an editor out of pocket, meaning what little money authors make is further eroded and the industry further enshittified.

Being expected to pay for your own editor single-handedly axes the chances of poor writers. It makes trad pub pay-to-play, maybe not to the exact same level as indie pub, but enough to count out anyone who can't afford to pay an editor. A huge swath of poor and marginalized voices fly out the window as a result, and further solidifies the prevalence of straight, white, male voices.

Holy shit, y'all. It's official.

Berkley will be publishing my debut novel, CHASE ME IF YOU CAN, in 2026!

If you’ve known me for any amount of time, you already know that I’ve wanted to be an author my entire life. You may or may not also know I’ve been a weather nerd for just as long. It’s a dream come true to have this particular novel, full of love and hope and⚡🌪️⛈️ be my hello to the book community. I can’t wait for you all to meet Wes & Sloane and fall in love with them as much as I did writing it!

I like to joke that this is a book about storm chasing, and it's got the enemies-to-lovers vibes, a bad boy who's secretly a cinnamon roll, and just one bed trope for max fun...but it's also about an eldest daughter who finally says screw this, fix your own shit to her family. Not that any of us know anything about that last part...

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And while I'm here, I want to say an enormous THANK YOU to every single one of you who've read and continue to read my fics, comment on them, like them, and share them. The fanfic community gave me the confidence to try my hand at novel writing. It also gave me friendships that are still going strong.