The Joy of "Just Following Up" and Why You Always Should
Don't be afraid, nothing bad happens.
This month, I’m celebrating the release of Leslie J. Anderson’s The Unmothers. Between a starred review from Library Journal and how it’s been embraced by indie bookstores with an August Indie Next Pick, I’m just so wildly proud.
Leslie writes exactly the kind of horror novels that speak to me, her stories asking questions that the reader simply doesn’t want to answer. Because the truth, whether we’re strong enough to handle the horrors or have already lived through them, is really hard to think about… but is so powerful to examine.
And in that way, horror can become comforting.
And you know, speaking of being brave, Leslie was kind enough to let me share the original query letter for The Unmothers, which you can read here. It leads me into what I wanted to chat about in this month’s newsletter.
Following up.
I see it a lot on social media. Authors who are anxious about following up with an agent or an editor who has their work. When is too soon? When is too late? Are they being annoying? Are nudges welcome? Will that ruin their chances?
Let’s take a deep breath here. I want you to remember that agents and editors spend all day being nudged and getting emails along the lines of “just checking in” or “circling back on this.” We email each other like that all the time. I cannot imagine someone who is considering your book, who is on the receiving and sending end of such messages all the time, being furious about this.
In fact, only good things have come from authors following up with me.
As you can see in Leslie’s query letter, her pitch is a followup to having queried me before, and me passing on that previous project, but wanting to keep the door open. Because hello, if you’ve read Leslie’s work, she is incredible.
Also, in a story I told about Kate Fussner’s The Song of Us (which is on the longlist for the Massachusetts Book Award!), she had sent me a nudge about the book after a few weeks. Our agency says to expect an answer on a query in four to six weeks. When she didn’t hear back, she sent a followup. I hadn’t seen her pitch. And her book was perfect for me. Again, nothing bad happened. All that happened was a two book deal and an award-nominated book.
And in yet another example, Adam Sass checked in with me a year after I passed on the original draft of Surrender Your Sons (the revised version won a bunch of awards), after I told him he should stay in touch. He certainly did.
So please. Check in. Say hi. If we say we’re open to nudges, if we say we want you to drop us a line… we mean it. The result might change your bookish life.
While I don’t have office hours this month, I do have the Philadelphia Bookstore Crawl. If you’re in the region, it takes over the city on August 24th, with three dozen bookshops joining in the celebration of our thriving indie bookstore scene. It’s a major labor of love each year, truly.
If you’d like to get a good brain pick in with me, I’ll be appearing at American Grammar in Fishtown with a bundle of editors and agents I admire, to answer questions about publishing and the industry. It’s completely free, at 10AM, though I would love it if you came and bought as much coffee and as many books from that wonderful shop as you can carry.
I celebrated a lot of happy things in the month of July, from new books publishing (Jill Baguchinsky’s So Witches We Became) to major book deals (Mike Chen’s space opera was acquired by Saga), as well as some others that I hope I’ll get to talk about very soon.
For now, let’s just say while I thought With or Without You might have been my final book (that sounds dramatic, but it’s true), it looks like I’ll have something fun to share with you in 2026.
And… in 2027.
Entering my vague era.
More soon. Until then, keep writing good things, friends.
Oh, I just added UNMOTHERS to my TBR yesterday but now I'm even more excited to dive in.