J.T. Ellison, fairy godauthor

Author Series #2

New York Times Bestselling Author J.T. Ellison is not only a fantastic storyteller (with 30+ books), but also a wise and generous advice giver, so I’m thrilled that she offered her time to share the insights below, much of which she said she’s “never before revealed” (I know!!!).

I had the opportunity to meet J.T. last year when I interviewed her for the launch of It’s One of Us at Murder by the Books in Houston. Afterward we went out for chips and guac, and our chat was warm and lovely and informative at the same time. We talked about everything from families to kitty cats to this weird thing called publishing, and when we said goodbye, she told me that she was here to answer any questions (she probably didn’t expect a formal emailed list).

Not only has J.T. had a thriving career as a traditionally published author, she’s also launched her own press on the indie side. In addition to this depth of experience, one of the things I love most about her take on the industry is a sense of realism about the entire process: publishing changes, it ebbs and flows, waxes and wanes. I love that she faces those changes with a matter-of-fact approach, and I want to be her when I grow up.

I was telling my writing group about the responses I’m about to share, and Olivia Day Wallace deemed J.T. a ‘fairy godauthor,’ which I thought fitting enough to steal for this post (Thanks, Olivia!). May you learn as much from her words as I did.

As ever, you can find out more about my books or working with me as a book coach at www.kristenbird.com.

Happy writing—or not!—

Kristen

And now to the interview:

Welcome, J.T. Ellison,

Can you tell us about your debut novel? Feel free to share any business details with which you’re comfortable, including the year, the advance (a range or number or figures is fine), the kind of marketing you received, how sales performed in the first year. 

J.T.: Sure. My debut, ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, the first Taylor Jackson novel, released in November of 2007. It was sold in a three-book deal that was categorized as a “Very Nice Deal” on Publishers Marketplace. It was a shocking amount of money to me at the time. When we moved to Nashville, I couldn’t find work, so my husband happily agreed to let me write full time, and that deal refilled my part of the financial bucket for the several years I hadn’t been contributing.

My publisher at the time put most crime fiction novels out in mass market paperback, and it was pretty clear early on that the mass markets of that generation didn’t get a lot of marketing, reviews, or other fanfare. There was a large cohort of debuts that year, and we all banded together in a cooperative marketing group we called Killer Year. Together, we lifted the tide for 13 debut crime fiction novelists, and the buzz we generated got the attention of ALL our publishers, who poured in marketing dollars we wouldn’t have otherwise received, as well as putting us on the radar of the nascent International Thriller Writers organization, who offered to mentor us. Killer Year morphed into ITW’s debut author program, and having been a part of that first class of writers changed the trajectory of my career, without a doubt.

How many novels have you published since then? Have you ever changed publishers? What differences have you noticed in the publishing experience with these later novels? 

J.T.: I am currently in the publication process for books 30 and 31 and writing 32 and 33. Of those, 11 are cowritten. I’ve also published 15 shorts and edited two anthologies. Because of that, I’ve written for every Big Five publisher except Hachette, as well as launching my own indie press. 

I have jumped publishers for my own work, most recently, to Thomas & Mercer, the crime fiction imprint of Amazon Publishing. I find their model fascinating and have been very pleased with the move. They are old school publishers in a digital age, which is really interesting. At the beginning of my career, author management was a big thing for the publishers. They invested heavily in their debuts and really fought to make their careers have impact and longevity. I was very lucky that when sales slumped after my fourth book (ironically, my first award-winning novel), my then-publisher encouraged new directions, tried new packaging, and otherwise helped keep me in the game. I don’t want to say it was easier to stay published 10 years ago—you still had to write at an extremely high level and work hard to amass/please your readers—but they weren’t as fussed when there was a dip. You didn’t get dropped when a book didn’t have an upward trending velocity; they just tried a different way. 

With so many mergers, restructurings, cultural changes, and the myriad issues that have plagued the industry, things have changed. If you don’t blow the doors off, it’s very hard to sustain. I’m of course generalizing—not every imprint is struggling, nor do all authors have the same experiences—but I’ve seen too many great authors dropped or passed on to think that there isn’t a trend. Working with Amazon feels more like the publishing world in my debut years. They have the email of practically every person in the world, they are top notch with their author care (and believe me, that goes a long way toward keeping authors happy and engaged) and they fight for their authors. And they have the same objective that I do: More writing, sustained growth, reaching new readers through increased book sales and a steady publishing cadence. It’s an exciting moment in my career, for sure. Sometimes you just have to shake things up. 

Have you ever had a novel ‘die on sub’? At what point in your writing career did this happen? How did you handle that (emotionally and/or practically)? 

J.T.: Oh, yeah. Several times. Nature of the beast, I’m afraid. The biggest of these was NO ONE KNOWS. It was my first standalone, and I was so, so excited to have written something new and fresh. It had always been my plan to follow the Harlan Coben model: Write several mass market series titles, then launch a standalone career with a big, splashy hardcover. It was working, too, but my publisher didn’t want the book. At all. They were not interested in standalone crime fiction; they were really invested in my series. My agent sent that book all over New York, and no one wanted it. I spent five years writing it, revising it, submitting, getting rejected; revising again, submitting, getting rejected; until I finally figured out what it needed, made that change, and landed at Gallery Books, which was fantastic. They’re a great house and I have always treasured my time there. 

I was also co-writing with Catherine Coulter at this moment in time, and she moved our series from Putnam to Gallery, and it was really challenging to juggle growing a standalone career as well as cowriting with a #1 bestseller under the same imprint. I wrote another standalone, LIE TO ME, and my old publisher promised the moon and stars, so I went back. 

I remember this moment as very, very fraught. Frustrating. Scary. I didn’t know where things were headed, at all. I had another series that had an offer from another house, too, but there were stipulations, because they weren’t willing to have me writing for multiple publishers. (I still have that one in my back pocket.) And then I tried to return to my Samantha Owens series for the fifth book, and the publisher declined it in favor of more standalones. (I still have that proposal and 25k words just waiting for me to return). The market shifts that happened in 2016-2019 complicated everything. Suddenly, the female led standalone thriller was all anyone wanted, and happily, I was already writing in that vein. Perfect timing. And let’s admit it—a whole lot of luck. 

But these choices are a challenge. You never want to walk away from a good offer. I threw the dice and it eventually worked out, but it was a huge gamble.  

I want to say this. When things are looking bleak, if your publisher seems to have lost interest, if your sales are bottoming, if you’re in a rut, pivot. Find a new path for your editorial. Write the book they can’t ignore. It’s not so much about the publisher as how the readers react to the book. A brilliant book trumps everything, even a less than stellar sales record. 

What has been the best part of publishing? The worst part? Or, what has been your highest high and lowest low in publishing? 

J.T.: Getting notes from readers who were in a painful moment in their lives and were taken away from their situation, if only for a few days or hours, by one of my stories, is hands down the best feeling ever. And this might sound weird, but I used to have horrific social anxiety, and I’ve been mostly cured of that over years of public appearances. Not that I don’t get nervous—of course I do—but I don’t have to drug myself to appear at an event. The confidence that gives me, the ability to travel the world talking about my books… yeah. It’s not a bad job. 

The hard parts are…innumerable. When you disappoint a long-time reader, either by changing directions, moving on from a series, changing styles, or even genres. When the publisher turns down a project you’re passionate about. When TV and movie deals fall apart. When a book you thought was going to be a huge hit fizzles. Watching your fellow writers lose deals. But if you focus on the negative, that’s where you stay. I prefer to focus on the positive. And believe deeply in the old adage: Everything happens for a reason. 

Would you consider other types of publishing (indie, hybrid, digital first, Kickstarter)? Why/why not?  

J.T.: I am a long-term planner, and feel it’s always important to have a Plan B. Back in 2012, I started a small indie press to publish some of my short stories. I eventually moved into anthologies, and most recently, published both the ninth novel in my Taylor Jackson series and launched a pen name—Joss Walker—to write contemporary fantasy. I treat Two Tales Press as another business arm of my “brand” (a term I dislike, along with “platform,” but it is what it is. I never set out to be a brand. I set out to be a writer.) I’ve often been tempted to publish authors other than myself, but that is a full-time job in and of itself. It’s a wonderful mechanism to explore genres and directions my main publishers aren’t interested in. I get great pleasure and satisfaction from publishing a book. Making every decision, from cover art to font size to pricing, then enacting them, is a lot of fun.

I’ve also blogged for twenty years (!) and started a new blog last year to live-write my 32^nd novel. I’m about halfway through that series (and book) now. Writing about writing makes my work richer, for sure. 

Do you think of yourself as a full time writer? Do you have other streams of income that help pay the bills?

J.T.: I am a full-time writer, have been from the beginning, and I work hard to create as many revenue streams as possible under that umbrella (cough brand cough): fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and so on. 

What would you tell someone/what advice would you give to someone who wants to be traditionally published? 

J.T.: That’s easy. Take yourself seriously. If you don’t respect your work, respect your creative time, no one will respect it for you. Set your time and stick to it. Touch the work every day. Set some goals, be it time spent writing, word counts, pages, whatever, and learn what it takes to meet them. That habit will serve you well ten years down the road. Also, read everything in and out of your genre. Subsume storytelling, it will make you a better writer. And be persistent. 

Once you get your foot in the door, MEET YOUR DEADLINES NO MATTER WHAT. I’ve seen too many great careers crash and burn because the author just didn’t take those deadlines seriously. They are not a suggestion, like red lights in Italy. They are sacrosanct. Get offline and get the book done on time. It will serve you well.

What does success in publishing look like to you at this point in your career? Has it changed over time?

J.T.: It has. My initial goal was a pretty common one: make the New York Times list. Once I did…nothing changed. I was not suddenly popular and thinner and richer and happier. (kidding…) Yes, bestseller lists give gravitas, but it doesn’t change the amount of work that goes into these books. If anything, it makes it harder, because the expectations are so much bigger. Plus, it is totally and completely out of your control. I don’t like putting my hopes and dreams into things that are out of my control.

So I thought long and hard about what makes *me* feel like I’ve really accomplished something. And surprise surprise, it had nothing to do with a subjective external nod. It was finishing a project. Typing The End. There is absolutely nothing more powerful. So now, I measure my success by how many projects I finish in a year. It’s much healthier to measure your success with things you can control. 

Is there one thing you or your publisher did that you think may have helped sell books to readers? We love tips and advice!

J.T.: I’ve been extremely lucky to have excellent publicists over the years, both in-house and external, who have gotten me on the radar of a lot of people who otherwise might not know anything about my work. They are the unsung heroes of publishing for me! I’m also blessed to have a strong cadre of fans who are always willing to take a chance on my work, indie bookstore and librarian champions, and of course, one can’t discount the power of the reader’s voice. Bookstagram has been a huge component of my marketing recently because hey, go where the readers are, right?

As far as a tip: There is something in common with all of the books where I feel like I leveled up as an author. I took a huge swing with a better, stronger, higher-concept story, upped my craft, and took a real chance with either narrative structure or writing style. This was rewarded with more marketing dollars, better publicity campaigns, and really launched my career to the next level every time. I said it earlier, and I’ll say it again: Write the book they can’t ignore. If you’re interested, the books I feel like I took a step forward with are JUDAS KISS, A DEEPER DARKNESS, LIE TO ME, and IT’S ONE OF US. Four books out of 32 that I knew in my heart and soul were the best I could possibly do at that moment in time and connected with both the publishers and the readers. 

Do you have any tips for protecting your mental health in such a tough business?

J.T.: Let’s not pretend for a moment that you don’t have to have a mental health strategy when facing a career in publishing. Lao Tzu says: “When you are content not to compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” I am still working on that one, because it’s totally natural to have that moment of envy when another author in your genre gets something wonderful, be it a bestseller list or a TV deal or a book club pick, or whatever clearly elevated marketing happens along. But I really have gotten to the point where the envy is a momentary blip and is far outstripped by my transcendent joy that we—the fans—are going to be able to enjoy that author’s work in a new way. I am first and foremost a fan of other writers. It’s important to remember that we’re all on our own paths, and trying to compare your career to another author is both a staircase to madness, and a guarantee of unhappiness. Have you ever seen two apples that were exactly alike? No. There’s always a slightly different texture or color or shape or taste. That’s what writing careers are like. They are all in the same family, but none looks alike. It’s a lot healthier to find a way to genuinely be happy for your colleagues. Your turn is coming. 

Also, if you believe the bad reviews – and you will get them – then you must believe the good ones, too. So stay away from your reviews. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. You are not required to experience those opinions. Trust the words of those you respect, and let the rest go. 

Thank you, J.T. for giving us your time and wisdom! You can find J.T. on Instagram @thrillerchick and on her Substack at The Creative Edge. You can also PreOrder her new thriller, A Very Bad Thing, which has an AMAZING pink cover. Check it out today.