How Women Can Get Their Books Published, According to an Accomplished Author

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Just write! It sounds simple, but it’s the step we so often get stuck on. Let the first draft be terrible.

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—Andrea Bartz, Author of “The Herd” and “The Lost Night”

Here’s a bit of good news: Female authors dominated 2019’s major literary awards. Both winners of the 2019 Booker Prize were women, as were the winners of the National Book Awards for fiction and nonfiction, and a woman took home the 2019 Pulitzer for general nonfiction. But female authors aren’t just gaining attention from the industry’s leading critics—readers are taking note, too. In fact, of the 10 best-selling books of the past decade, eight were written by women.

To find out what aspiring women authors need to do to get their books published, we sat down with none other than Andrea Bartz, the author of the wildly popular, edge-of-your-seat thrillers “The Lost Night” and “The Herd,” which hit shelves on March 24. Ahead, Bartz tells us what it really takes to go from writing a manuscript to getting your book optioned for a TV series, including how to land a literary agent, overcome writer's block, and stay on top of deadlines along the way.

CREATE & CULTIVATE: You're an accomplished author with two novels to your name (congratulations!)—but can you take us back to the beginning? What does it take to land a book deal? 

ANDREA BARTZ: Thank you! I started working on the manuscript for my first novel, “The Lost Night” (a whodunit that’s a bit like “The Girl on the Train” meets HBO’s “Girls”) in late 2014—at the time I had a full-time job as a magazine editor, but I started working on it in my free time. It took about two years to get it ready to show to agents, and I signed with a literary agent in late 2016. We worked on more revisions and finally landed a book deal for it in July 2017—and then there were more rounds of revisions before it finally came out in February 2019.

For my second book, “The Herd” (a thriller set in an exclusive all-female co-working space), I already had an editor who wanted to work with me again, so I got a book deal based on the idea and a few sample chapters in late 2018 and turned in a first draft a few months later. Now I’m hard at work on my third novel, which should come out in 2021!  

Do you need to have a large audience (a.k.a. a built-in market) to get noticed by agents and publishers? 

Nope! Having a built-in audience certainly won’t hurt, but agents and editors are looking for a great book that they think will fly off the shelves—so even if you’re not social-media famous, if your manuscript is fabulous, they’ll consider publishing it. That said, I think it’s smart to be on Twitter and Instagram, at minimum, where you can connect with authors and bookstagrammers and demonstrate that you’re savvy at self-promotion. But if you don’t already have a ton of followers, don’t let that stop you from trying to sell a novel. 

What comes first: the book or the book proposal? How do you go about writing a book proposal? Are there any mistakes you've learned from along the way that you can share? 

Nonfiction writers start with a proposal—it includes stuff like an outline, sample chapters, and a market analysis. Then, they get a book deal and head off into the world to do their research and write the book. I confess I don’t know too much about nonfiction book proposals, because I write fiction! For your debut novel, you’ll need to write the entire manuscript before you can try to sell it. You’ll query agents with a completed draft, and then your agent will try to find an editor (at a publishing house) to buy it and publish it. That’s how I sold “The Lost Night.”

For my second book, “The Herd,” I was able to sell it on essentially a proposal: I wrote 50 sample pages, plus a one-page “treatment” that gave an overview of the characters, plot, and “hook.” I know other authors go into more detail and sell their editor with sample pages plus a detailed, multi-page outline, but since I write without an outline, the best I could do was share the general idea! By the time you’re at that stage, though, your agent can help guide you on selling book number two. For that first novel, you’ll need to write the whole dang thing.

“Keep in mind that most authors never feel like writing. You can’t wait until you get the urge to write. You just have to sit down and write!”

Both of your novels were published by a major publishing house, how did you decide to go with a traditional publisher? Did you consider self-publishing? Can you talk us through that decision?

I always knew I wanted to go the traditional route: I wanted to see my book in bookstores, which is hard to do when you self-publish, and I wanted to focus on the writing and let other people think about stuff like cover design and ad strategy and publicity plans. When you sell your book to a publisher, they kinda take it from there—but the tradeoff is that you make far less money per copy sold. I don’t know a ton about self-publishing, but I know that those who are successful at it write in genres that sell well online (such as romance), spend a lot of their own money in upfront costs like hiring a copyeditor and getting the cover designed so everything looks professional, and invest tons of time in learning digital marketing so that they can actually find readers and make money. It’s a totally different way to approach publishing.

How did you find a literary agent? What did you look for in an agent and what would you advise others look for? Can you share links to resources for aspiring authors who are just beginning this process?

When I felt “The Lost Night” was in good shape, I started by researching literary agents who were accepting queries. I used Publishers Marketplace’s Dealmakers database to find the agents of authors whose work was similar to mine. I searched for specific terms like “female psychological thrillers” on AgentQuery, and I browsed through the Twitter hashtag #MSWL (Manuscript Wish List) to see what agents were looking for. Here’s an article I wrote on the process, which goes into detail on resources used and even includes my query letter.

How do you manage your time while you’re writing? Does your publisher give you deadlines, or do you create your own? What tools do you use to stay on top of your deadlines? 

My publisher sets my deadlines based on when each book is supposed to come out. But it can be intimidating to think of it in huge terms: In five months, you need to complete a 100,000-word manuscript. So instead, I start by using pacemaker.press to calculate how much I need to accomplish every day; it lets you block off days when you'll do less or no work (e.g., a holiday or trip), and you can keep track of your progress on the site. When it comes to actually drafting, I use the Pomodoro method: I use tomato-timer.com to do 20 minutes of uninterrupted work followed by a 5-minute break. Then I repeat as needed until I hit my word count goal.

Your sophomore thriller, “The Herd,” was recently published on March 24, 2020. Was it more or less difficult to come up with an idea for your second novel after already having published your first?  

Coming up with a second book idea was tough. It took a while to settle on an idea that my editor was into—she said no to my first two ideas, because she didn’t think they spoke to my strengths as a thriller writer or that they’d appeal to readers of “The Lost Night.” I was frustrated at the time, but she was totally right! “The Lost Night” is a mystery set in the warehouse parties of hipster Brooklyn in 2009, and part of the fun comes from taking the reader inside the close-knit, closed-door world of that social milieu. My editor challenged me to find another juicy, exclusive setting that would allow me to go deep on complex female friendships—which is how I wound up setting a mystery inside an elite, all-female co-working space. 

“Don’t psych yourself out or worry about whether your book will fit into the shifting marketplace years down the line”

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I mentioned the Pomodoro method, which definitely helps when I’m stuck—when the twenty-minute writing sprint begins, sometimes the first minute is just me typing I HATE THIS THIS IS TERRIBLE I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE. But once you get going, real words start to flow. Another tip, if you’re stuck on a plot problem, is to write it in a notebook right before bed. Your subconscious will work on it as you sleep, and the next morning you’ll find you’re much closer to having the answer. Finally: Keep in mind that most authors never feel like writing. You can’t wait until you get the urge to write. You just have to sit down and write! 

Your debut novel, “The Lost Night,” was optioned for development as a limited series by Mila Kunis. Can you tell us about that process? What does it really mean to have a book be optioned and what advice can you share for other authors looking to land entertainment deals?

The two production companies involved, Cartel Entertainment and Orchard Farm, actually reached out to me directly to ask if TV rights were still available. My literary agent had hooked me up with a film/TV agent within the same agency (ICM Partners), so I connected them with her. The production companies made an offer and I requested a phone call to discuss their vision for the book, what they’d want to change, and what role, if any, they’d want me to have in developing the limited series. It was pretty surreal to be on a call with Mila Kunis and to hear her talking about my book!

Getting a book optioned just means a production company has the exclusive rights to try to get it made—there are no guarantees. So right now they’re working to bring other people onto the project, and to find a home for it (such as premium cable or streaming). I’m not super involved—it’s their art form, not mine! As far as I know, the best way to get your book into the hands of a Hollywood production company is to work with a film agent. I inherited my film agent because she’s part of the same company as my literary agent, but if you work with a literary agent at, say, a boutique firm, they can still hook you up with an external film agent.  

What advice do you have for aspiring female writers?

Just write! It sounds simple, but it’s the step we so often get stuck on. Let the first draft be terrible. Don’t psych yourself out or worry about whether your book will fit into the shifting marketplace years down the line. As the old adage says: You can’t edit a blank page. Go ahead and write, and then you can start the long process of revising, perfecting, and finding your path to publication.

The Herd

A novel by Andrea Bartz

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About Andrea Bartz: Andrea Bartz is a Brooklyn-based journalist and author of “The Herd,” which Publishers Weekly called “a smart, twisty thriller.” Her debut, “The Lost Night,” is being developed for TV by Mila Kunis. It was named a best book of the year by Real Simple, Glamour, Marie Claire, Library Journal, Crime Reads, Popsugar, She Reads, and other publications. Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Women's Health, Martha Stewart Living, Elle, and many other outlets, and she's held editorial positions at Glamour, Psychology Today, and Self, among other titles.

About “The Herd,” out March 24: When an exclusive New York women’s workspace is rocked by the mysterious disappearance of its enigmatic founder, two sisters must uncover the haunting truth before they lose their friendships, their careers—maybe even their lives. 

Lede image photo credit: Kate Lord courtesy of Andrea Bartz

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