Ask Me Anything (July 2025)

It’s Q&A day!

You can submit questions for future months here.

Q. How necessary is it to have a following (mailing list, social media, etc.) for a traditional publisher to consider publishing your manuscript?

It can’t hurt to build up as much of a following as you can, but I wouldn’t neglect the most important thing which is…your manuscript! A huge following won’t make up for a bad book (unless you are a major celebrity) and a small following won’t cause an agent or editor to reject you if your manuscript is amazing. Ideally, they’ll even help you build your following before publication or suggest someone that can help. So basically, don’t lose sleep over this. Focus on your writing. Start a social media presence or email list in a way that feels natural for you and doesn’t take too much time away from actually writing your book. If you absolutely can’t conquer social media, there’s no harm in hiring someone or asking for help. One of my clients is doing a great job with her social media thanks to her 17-year-old son. Who can help that you haven’t thought of? But again, writing an excellent manuscript is much more important.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Q. I just attended a conference and received several requests for my manuscript…but it isn’t finished. Should I rush to send anyway?

Absolutely not. I say this with tremendous love, but agents are never waiting. They have actual clients they’re dealing with and coming home from a conference involves a lot of catch up. Whenever your manuscript is as perfect as you can make it is the right time to send. You can include a reminder of where you met and that you are sending the manuscript you pitched inside the query. But it is always more important to do things right than fast. This business is a marathon and you only get one chance. So make sure you aren’t wasting it with something that isn’t ready. You can even let the agent know during the pitch session you need more time and you’ll send as soon as it is ready…but again, don’t waste your shot!

Q. I’m writing a story with a main character that feels unfamiliar to me. How do I make them authentic?

Research! This is the fun part of writing, or it can be. Step away from your computer screen, travel if you need to, talk to anyone similar to your main character, read everything you can about their culture, interests, history. If it is too hard, then change your main character. There’s no reason to make something so hard before you even start writing. How can you make them a little more familiar to you? But, if you’re really tied to them, then just research as much as you would anything else new that you’re writing about and run what you come up with by readers that are familiar with your character’s personality and world, to make sure you captured them correctly. And most of all, have fun! Stretching outside your box and playing on the page can be one of the best parts of writing.

Please feel free to share your own thoughts and advice in the comments.

Until next time,

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