Y’all, Houston is hot. My husband and I returned from Boston late Tuesday night where we went on a work trip/anniversary trip (it was lovely). We took two different walking tours that, while warm, were not suffocating-sweat-dripping-from-every-pore, but when we got home on Tuesday night, we came back to a Houston that was very much post-Hurricane-Beryl.
As soon as we drove out of the airport, the lack of normalcy was evident. The red lights were either out completely or flashing as four-way stops; swaths of neighborhoods had no lights at all; gas stations were either empty or nonfunctional; grocery store aisles were depleted. When the phones would actually send texts, I was seeing and hearing about friends or acquaintances who had trees fall on houses and garages, totaling cars. Four people died from the storm itself, and many are likely to follow in the heat this week. It’s projected that somewhere around 2.8 million people were without power at the height of the outage, which is so dangerous in Houston in July. Our power came back on about 2.5 days after Beryl hit land, but a million or so are still without AC now.
As I said, this time we lucked out, only losing a fridge and freezer full of food, but others will be dealing with repairs for months to come. (We were the UNlucky ones when Hurricane Ike hit Galveston hard in 2008, but that’s another story.) This post is usually about publishing, but this is a reminder that sometimes life happens and writing does not. And that’s okay.
Still, we press on and as Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Marmie’ used to say, “Hope and keep busy!” (We got to tour Orchard House in Concord, which is so charming.) Now, onto our guest this week…
I so appreciate the many authors who have responded to my request for details about their real-life experiences with publishing, and today is no exception. I had the opportunity to read and blurb Ashley Tate’s debut, Twenty-Seven Minutes, last summer. It’s a thriller and a mystery and family/friend drama all rolled into one, and it landed on Canada’s bestseller list for weeks after publication. I know you’ll learn from her as she shares her personal publishing journey!
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.
Ashley T: My “debut” novel (technically my third, but first to be published), Twenty-Seven Minutes is a literary suspense/psychological thriller hybrid. After an earlier book died on sub (mid-2021) and I was ready to give up entirely, I was thrilled to sell TSM as a lead/primary title into three markets (mid-2022)—Canada, UK, USA. Since that submission process it has also sold into: Hungary, Croatia, and Italy. It published in January 2024.
As of this writing, it’s been out for about four months and it’s doing fine (I think) although sales have definitely started to slow. It’s selling the best in my home market (Canada) and was on the bestseller list there for 11 weeks.
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?
Ashley T: I signed a two-book-deal and am in the beginning stages of editing that second book.
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)?
Ashley T: Yes! The book that got me an agent died on sub during the pandemic (mid-2021). It was crushing. I thought very seriously about giving up. It had taken me three books and several years of rejections to finally sign with an agent and to get so close and face rejection yet again made me question if I could keep going; if I wanted to keep going! I let myself feel deflated and depressed for a couple of weeks and then decided I would give it one more shot—because I wanted to model resilience for my kids, and I had a twist in a previous book that had died in the query trenches that I wasn’t ready to let go of yet. So I completely re-wrote that book, worked on it with my agent for a year, and we went back out on sub with it mid-2022—and that’s the one that was just published as Twenty-Seven Minutes.
What has been the best part of publishing? The worst part? Or, what has been your highest high and lowest low in publishing?
Ashley T: The best parts have been finding a community, meeting other authors especially debut authors in my debut year (2024), and working with some really brilliant women at my publishers. The worst parts have been working through a crushing sense of imposter syndrome while writing my second book and learning how to navigate and handle negative reviews. (Pssst: Don’t read them.)
Would you consider other types of publishing (indie, hybrid, digital first, Kickstarter)? Why/why not?
Ashley T: I don’t think so. There’s been a learning curve to understanding the trad pub world (still learning!) and now that I’ve done it once, I feel more ready to do it again—I’ll take what I learned and apply it to the second book. It’s full of ups and downs but at least I know what they are or might be—I don’t think I have it in me to try a whole new way of publishing.
Do you think of yourself as a full time writer? Do you have other streams of income that help pay the bills?
Ashley T: Absolutely. But I’m in a very fortunate position in that my husband is the main bread-winner and my kids are older and more self-sufficient—I couldn’t have done this when they were young. I tried, and I just didn’t have the capacity to take care of them (stay-at-home-mom) and write during the day (I was an editorial writer for my career) and then also write at night. So I’m coming to this career later in life (I’m in my 40s) which has its drawbacks, but this is the only time that it became possible for me.
What would you tell someone/what advice would you give to someone who wants to be traditionally published?
Ashley T: This is the big question, right? I think my advice would be to write for yourself—getting an agent and then getting a publishing deal is hard. It’s not easy for anyone; most authors are probably not debuting with their first novel; most have faced rejection. Write authentically. Try. It took me a few books to really write the way I wanted to—and it wasn’t until I did that things started to happen.
What does success in publishing look like to you at this point in your career? Has it changed over time?
Ashley T: I love this question. It’s hard not to keep moving the goalposts, especially if you’re surrounded by other authors. As they say, comparison is the thief of joy, and I think it’s really important to remember that. I’ve already hit things I could have never imagined three years ago (the Canadian bestseller list, participating on panels with authors I admire, having readers come to signings) so for me success is to keep enjoying writing. And hopefully sell another book!
Is there one thing you or your publisher did that you think may have helped sell books to readers? We love tips and advice!
Ashley T: The million dollar question! As far as I know, my book is selling the best in Canada—this is also where it seems that I’ve had the most visibility in stores. If people see your book, they’re more likely to buy it, right? So I think store placement is important. (Though hard to get, there’s so much competition for shelf space.)
Do you have any tips for protecting your mental health in such a tough business?
Ashley T: So much of publishing it out of our control; the only thing we can control is the work. So I think always working on the next thing is important. Also, doing things that aren’t publishing-related! Read, get outside, block social media. It’s easy to fixate on sales numbers and reviews but if they’re negatively affecting your mental health, it’s important to take a break from it.
Thanks so much for sharing insights with us, Ashley! You can follow her on Instagram @ashleytateauthor or on X at @tate_ab.
Stay cool, everyone, and as always, happy writing—or not!
Kristen