If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a newsletter community of 2.1k aspiring and published authors. I’m Caroline Madden, author of THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and THE VILLAGE (May 20th 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Morning fellow writers,

I’m on a high this week because my editor sent round a draft cover for my second novel, The Village, and it gave me chills… in the best way! It’s got a sort of edgy Handmaid’s Tale/Stepford Wives/cult-y vibes, and I love it.

Seeing the cover for the first time is my favourite part of the whole publishing process. It’s like when you finally see your baby (is this a weird analogy?!? Oh well, I’ll plough on 😅) - you’ve been together for months and months yet you have no idea what they look like until that moment. So it’s this lovely shock of surprise mixed with recognition: you’re real!

Can’t wait to be able to share the final cover with you. And get it printed on a t-shirt so I can wear it all the time (joking… kind of 😅).

✨Community Shout-Out✨

On Monday, I was delighted to meet up with a subscriber to this newsletter, , who had travelled all the way from Virginia to Ireland for the Historical Novel Society’s conference in Maynooth.

Interestingly, Chandlee found that there was a really positive sentiment towards self-publishing amongst the writers attending the conference. (Speaking of self-publishing, have you seen ’s latest post? I’m so intrigued.)

It was amazing to meet up in person - and huge thanks to Chandlee for these lovely gifts all the way from Charlottesville! 😍👇

In fact, I’m feeling ridiculously spoiled this week, because yesterday a beautiful gift arrived in the post, sent by a subscriber in Scotland (I won’t say who because I haven’t asked her permission).

We had a zoom recently to chat about her novel, and there was really no need to send anything… but it was SO thoughtful and kind. Did I tear up a little? Yes, yes I did 🫶

✨9 Publishers Open to Unagented Submissions RIGHT NOW!🍂

This week I’ve put together a round-up of traditional independent publishers that you can submit your manuscript to directly, even if you don’t have an agent.

Agents also query some of these publishers (I know this from personal experience and also from reading deal announcements on Publishers Marketplace) but you can do it yourself, without an agent.

Okay, here goes:

Read more

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a newsletter community of 2.1k aspiring and published authors. I’m Caroline Madden, author of THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and THE VILLAGE (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

I’m just back from a roller coaster park with my kids. I overcame my abject terror slight nervousness and went on most of the rides and it was genuinely thrilling (i.e. I was thrilled just to survive 😂).

But then I spotted a woman by herself at a picnic bench reading a novel, totally opting out, and I have to say I envied her: she looked like the most content person in the whole park.

Also: why didn’t I get the memo that this was even an option for moms?

So this afternoon, I’m going to allow myself to flop down on a sofa and read for hours (what a luxury!), as a reward for letting my 46-year-old body be thrown around like a ragdoll in the name of Good Family Fun.

This week, I’m thrilled to share a Q&A with up-and-coming literary agent Tali Shammas 🎉

Tali comes from a corporate law background, and she joined Storm Literary Agency as an associate agent earlier this year. Many of you will already know her from the Prose Pros podcast which she co-hosts with her fellow rising agent . She is also an agented author.

My impression of Tali is that, like Lauren, she’s approachable and warm, but also driven, super-sharp and — because of her background— has a highly professional attitude to communicating with her clients (hallelujah!). As a lawyer, you can be sure she’ll also be top notch at the contracts side of things.

And best of all: Tali has kindly provided a SPECIAL LINK for readers of this newsletter, so that you can query her even when she’s officially closed to queries - how incredible is that?! 🙏

But first, before we get to the Q&A, here’s a little round-up of opportunities and posts that caught my eye this week:

O’Brien Press: Pitch Perfect

If you’re based in Ireland, this opportunity might be for you.

On Culture Night (Sept 18th), writers will be able to pitch directly to one of Ireland’s best known independent publishers, O’Brien Press.

Here’s what O’Brien Press says about the Pitch Perfect event:

“This Culture Night, we are looking for the best unpublished writers and illustrators to meet with members of our team via Zoom for one-to-one pitches. This year we’re on the lookout for children’s and YA fiction (especially all genres for 9yrs and up), and popular history and Irish culture for an adult readership. We particularly welcome applications from those of diverse backgrounds and New Irish voices.”

If you’d like to apply for Pitch Perfect, you can send an enquiry to: culturenight@obrien.ie

Brilliant Substack Reads This Week:

✨If you haven’t already read it, you have GOT to check out this incredible post by author . After 11 years, five books, dying on submission twice and almost giving up, Thea’s novel Delicious Minds sold AT AUCTION to Poisoned Pen Press in the US, and to Voyager in the UK, and will be published next year - incredible!

✨ I found this post by the highly experienced literary agent Trinity McFadden of The Bindery Agency really insightful. Trinity was mentor to my third agent (I sound like Elizabeth Taylor talking about her many husbands 😂) while I was represented by The Bindery, and is an all-round lovely person to deal with. Oh, and she reps non-fiction and is open to queries.

I particularly liked the Epictetus quote Trinity included at the end of her post:

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.”

Excellent advice for writers!

And now on to the main event… the Q&A with Tali Shammas!

I’m so grateful to Tali for taking the time to do this - her answers are full of extremely useful insights for querying writers.

If your (polished!) manuscript matches her manuscript wishlist, and you’d love to be rep’d by a super-responsive, intelligent, highly-motivated agent (I mean, who wouldn’t?!?), I really encourage you to query her.

Tali is going places! 🚀

Q&A with Tali Shammas

Are there any common mistakes that you see writers making in their query letter?

I think the biggest mistake I see comes down to query length. Please try to keep your query letters short and sweet!

This means cutting down on extraneous elements (e.g. unnecessary personalization, too many details in narrative paragraphs, and author bio elements unrelated to writing). I recommend the following query letter format:

a) metadata paragraph (title, genre, word count, and comps);

b) three narrative paragraphs (which set out: 1. the situation, 2. the protagonist’s goals/obstacles they face, and 3. the stakes); and

c) your author bio.

Personalization is not a must for me, especially if you are stating why you queried me based on my wishlist. This will likely become clear as I read your query, so save your word count!

When narrative paragraphs describe every detail of your story, agents may find your query tough to follow. Try to cut any information that is not crucial (i.e. keep the plot points, cut the vibes).

In terms of a bio, I am interested in seeing writers’ credentials, past publications, and select community involvement that is relevant to writing.

2. Could you give a little advice on how writers should select comparative (comp) titles to include in a query letter? Should writers avoid including runaway success comp titles like, for example, The Wedding People, even if, hypothetically, there seemed to be a hunger among editors to find the next The Wedding People?

Comp titles have certainly been a popular (and somewhat controversial) topic of discussion lately. I have heard it said that some agents will reject a query based on the comp titles - I don’t know if this is true, but I want to state very clearly that I am not one of those agents! I think writers should do their best with comps because an agent will likely select their own comps when submitting to editors based on their knowledge of the industry.

Generally accepted guidelines are to choose comps that are recent (published within the past two years or so) and that have achieved decent success without being “runaways”. The reason for this is that comps are meant to indicate how your manuscript might perform in the market, but runaways are generally outliers, which cannot be used for comparison purposes.

I would recommend looking up your comps on Goodreads and judging whether they are outliers based on the number of reviews. For example, Fourth Wing is definitely an outlier and should not be used as a comp.

In terms of your question about editors being hungry to find the next The Wedding People, you can use outliers in a logline, and this is sometimes a very effective way to pitch your manuscript.

For example, you could say something like, “If Wedding People met Jaws” (which is kind of terrifying, isn’t it?) - this is different than your comps, which should relate to some tangible part of your manuscript, like the atmosphere, the protagonist, the general themes etc.

3. Are there any genres/subgenres of books you’re particularly keen on at the moment? Is there anything specific you’d love to see landing in your inbox? Does your manuscript wishlist reflect what you’re hearing from editors, or do you follow your own gut instinct because you need to love a book in order to champion it?

I am desperate for an excellent horror and/or thriller manuscript that examines complex female relationships (especially those that have not been widely explored in the current literature, like daughter/mother-in-law) and ideally has a feminist tilt.

I would also love to see a horror and/or thriller featuring a trans protagonist.

I would say my manuscript wishlist is a mix of what I want to read and what I’m hearing from editors.

4. How do you feel about taking on a writer who was previously agented? Is it a plus, because another agent thought that their writing was good enough to take a chance on them? Or a minus, because it didn’t work out for whatever reason? Or would you take it on a case-by-case basis?

I definitely take that on a case-by-case basis. It depends so much on the specific circumstances at play. I will not turn down a writer just because they have been agented in the past, but I will also not weigh them more favourably than others.

5. Out of curiosity, roughly how many queries did you receive after you announced that you had become an agent?

Oh gosh, I got absolutely flooded! I received over 1,000 queries during my first 24 hours open in June. Since then, I have opened sporadically to fill certain genre gaps and have wound up with over 2,000 queries in my inbox. I am trying to stay closed until I manage to work my way through all these queries, which I hope will be this fall.

6. I see from Instagram that you’ve signed four clients already - how exciting! Ideally, how many more would you like to sign by the end of the year?

I have actually signed eight at this point, but not all of them have been announced yet!

I am thinking twelve clients would be a good number for my first year, but I might end up going over this number. I am just so energized by this job, I can’t help myself!

7. How would you describe your agenting style? How do you like to handle communication with your clients?

As a lawyer, I am extremely communicative. If I receive an email, I will answer as soon as I can - more often than not, within a few hours. I individualize my communication to each client’s preferences. Open and timely communication is one of the most important attributes of a client-agent relationship for me.

In terms of my agenting style, I am quite editorial and love to work with my clients to polish their manuscripts before sending them out to editors. I am always here for my clients, whether they have questions pertaining to edits or need emotional support while out on submission.

This is a tough industry, and I want to make sure that each of my clients has the tools they need to thrive.

8. In the past I’ve been represented by agents who were also published authors. In one case, it was a bit of a drawback because they got a big book deal and seemed to have less time for agenting (or possibly they just had less time for me! 😂). However, with my third agent, it was actually an advantage because she understood exactly what I was going through at every stage of the submissions process. How do you combine your own writing with your agenting work?

I treat myself as an additional client. Just like I slot my clients into my schedule for developmental edits, coaching calls, or whatever the case may be, I slot my personal editing time as well. I definitely think that being an agented writer is an advantage because, as you mentioned, I know what my clients are going through and sympathize with how difficult the publishing process can be.

In terms of having less time for agenting, this is not unique to agents who are writers. All agents, whether they are writers or not, choose how to prioritize their lives. Some may choose travel, others may choose physical activity, and others may choose family time. My priority is ensuring that all my clients’ needs are met and that I advocate for each one of them to the best of my abilities.

8. What can writers do to help their query stand out from the competition?

The best thing they can do is have a strong, unique, and marketable premise. Easier said than done, right? Ultimately, though, that is what this all comes down to. If you present me with a book I can’t turn down, then what else am I supposed to do but offer representation!

Thank you, Tali!

You can follow Tali on socials: her handle is @talishammas everywhere

And here’s the special query link for the readers of this newsletter, so you can query Tali even though she’s closed… here you go!👇🎉

https://QueryTracker.net/query/talishammas/Tides

That’s it for this week - good luck to those of you who query Tali! If you need me, I intend to be feverishly catching up on a good book for the next few hours 🙏

Keep writing!

Caroline x

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a newsletter community of 2k+ aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and THE VILLAGE (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Subscribe now

Evening all!

If you’re searching for an agent, weighing up offers (go, you!), or trying to figure out if your relationship with your agent is ‘normal’ (maybe there is no normal?? 💁‍♀️), I highly recommend you check out ’s two-part series on how to evaluate if an agent is right for you.

It is SO comprehensive — essential reading.

I’ve had five 🫠 literary agents over the course of 14 years, and there were still plenty of things in Devon’s posts that I hadn’t encountered/considered:

The Agent Spectrum, 1-6

The Agent Spectrum, 7-13

Competition Time 🎉

If you’re an unagented YA or children’s authors, you might want to take a look at the Searchlight Awards.

The organisers are, according to their site, dedicated to ‘discovering exceptional new voices’ and connecting them with literary agents and publishers.

Both the shortlist and the longlist will be judged by agents and publishers, giving writers a chance of being noticed by industry professionals.

Also! The longlisted, shortlisted and winning writers will be showcased in a pitch book sent directly to a wide network of UK literary agents.

Many Searchlight long/shortlisted writers have gone on to secure full manuscript requests, agent representation, and deals with publishers including Puffin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Little Tiger.

Enter by 30th September 2026, 23.59pm UK time

Full details here!

The Women are Not Fine! 🧙‍♀️

I was delighted to make it along to a fascinating event on Tuesday given by the New York Times contributor and author Hope Reese (a subscriber to this newsletter 🙏) at Hodges Figgis in Dublin.

Hope’s non-fiction book THE WOMEN ARE NOT FINE is a riveting account of a group of Hungarian women who, at the turn of the twentieth century, were so desperate to be rid of their abusive husbands that they resorted to poison (yes, it’s giving real life Bad Sisters).

Trust me, it’s an incredible read. The second I’m finished writing this newsletter, I’m off to devour the rest of it.

Buy it here and thank me later!

✨9 Up-and-Coming Literary Agents ACTIVELY seeking clients✨

If you’ve been here a while, you know I have a soft spot for up-and-coming agents.

My third agent was pretty much brand new to the game and she got me TWO book deals (nice one, Kesia! 🙏), and my current (amazing!) agent team consists of a senior agent paired with an assistant literary agent.

So I would encourage you not to rule out greener agents (especially if they’ve got an experienced mentor) — they have time, they’re hungry and, in my experience, they’ll go to bat for you.

With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of new/rising agents across the UK and US, covering a range of genres from horror to children’s and non-fiction.

And they all have one thing in common: they’re looking for new clients.

Read more

Well, I was all worked up to unleash a little ranty-rant about the schmagenty agent antics* I’ve been hearing about lately.

(*Not at agents, I love my agents etc etc)

But before I got a chance to rant write a thoughtful, balanced nuanced post about these antics, I got swept away by an obsessive deep dive into book titles.

Specifically, I’m putting a lot of time into pinning down the exact right title for Book 3, because the right title can be, in my experience, a BIG potential selling point.

And as I was falling down the title research rabbit hole, it struck me that it might be helpful to show you the inner workings of how the title for my debut novel THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA was arrived at (it wasn’t straightforward), and why it was chosen.

The process turned out to be trickier than expected and culminated in one of the most dramatic (in a bad way) moments of my publication journey, but my agent and editors on both side of the Atlantic were extremely understanding and the problem was resolved with a level of kindness that I won’t forget and a compromise was reached.

Publishing DOES have a heart! 💖

But first…

Marilyn Biderman is open to queries until August 14th!

Thanks to the super-supportive subscriber who sent this to me (I love when people send me info they know I’ll find useful/enjoy — it’s usually feminist memes but agent updates are much appreciated too!):

Marilyn Biderman of the Transatlantic Agency in Toronto, Canada has opened to queries and is looking for upmarket women’s fiction/accessible literary fiction and historical fiction.

You can query Marilyn here - good luck!

✨How to Choose a Title that Helps Sell Your Book✨

By now, it’s indisputable that a strong concept/hook is an incredibly valuable selling point for your novel.

But a strong title can also do a lot of leg-work for you, even if it has to be changed later down the line.

My debut novel started out life as a three-word title.

That’s all I had: a sudden flash of inspiration one day.

The words ‘The Husband Whisperer’ popped into my mind.

Those three words came with a concept baked in. The title encapsulated the hook. Already I could see the story rolling out in front of me.

Years ago, as part of my work as an equestrian journalist, I’d been on a horse whispering course in the Cotswolds (this is not a metaphor or a joke — I did actually complete a horse whispering course… and I was actually quite good at it 🤣).

And it struck me how darkly funny it would be if an unorthodox marriage therapist applied strange ‘whispering’ techniques to recalcitrant domestic males. (Yes, I have a warped mind, that’s why I’m a writer 💅)

So anyway off I went and wrote the book in a blaze of lockdown-induced fury and when I started entering competitions, the title got attention, with feedback saying things like, ‘LOVE that title!’.

And when I was signed by my wonderful former agent, there was no question of changing the title before going out on submission.

And when I got deals on both sides of the Atlantic, it was full steam ahead for The Husband Whisperer.

But then, later in the process: a hitch.

Read more

Let me tell you, it’s been a comedy of errors in my house lately. The events of the past few days have served as a reminder to me of the importance of the domino effect (aka causality) in storytelling.

So here’s what happened: a…. how can I put this so I don’t get sued… a Person Who Shall Remain Nameless bought one of my children Thai food, and that child fed said Thai food to this little guy 👇

And because of that Benji needed emergency treatment in a vet hospital on the other side of the city.

It was bedtime for my kids, so I asked the Person Who Shall Remain Nameless if they could take him. Benji was treated successfully (phew!) and came home with a little red bandage on his leg, presumably to stop him licking the sore area where they’d put in a drip.

Unfortunately I was not given the essential instructions to remove the bandage 😑. And because of that Benji’s paw swelled up and the poor little mite stopped eating/drinking and I had to rush him to our vet on Monday.

And because of that we were late for swim camp and missed the private lesson. Two hours of driving there and back with no air-con (my car is slowly dying) in the heatwave. For nothing. Also: there’s a massive waiting list for swimming classes in Dublin and it had taken months to arrange the lessons.

And because of all the dashing to vets and ultimately pointless driving I got no work done, ground down most of my teeth in an effort not to release expletives in front of my kids, and ultimately lost a good chunk of my will to go on. (So a pretty normal day then 🤣)

And on and on and on it went.

One central plot problem (a single mother having no time to work in the THREE MONTH LONG school holidays) growing, escalating and complicating.

Can you see the snowball effect that all started with Thai food? (Or, if we’re going big picture with this, the foundation of the patriarchy?)

Now if this story was fiction, the MC (moi) would try to deal with this comedy of errors in her old maladjusted way (e.g. stumble from one drama to the next with gritted teeth), until things got worse and worse and finally she had to face up to her blind spot and change her ways.

In other words, the events would force a positive internal transformation. (In reality, they did not. They just aged me horribly.)

So here’s a little storytelling challenge for you: what should the moral of this story be?

Hint: it’s the last option. That’s the correct answer.

✨Top Literary Agent Opening to Queries on July 31st!✨

Katie Reed was previously an agent at Andrea Hurst and Associates for several years before founding Katie Reed Literary in 2025.

Yesterday Katie announced on Instagram that her query inbox is opening on July 31st, and she has posted a super-specific wishlist here!

You can find more details on what she’s looking for, and how to query her, here.

Stick or Quit?

Three years ago I still had no idea if the decade+ of my life I’d dedicated to writing novels would ever pay off. And then I stumbled across a quote from the Great Thinker of Our Age Ryan Gosling 👇 that really resonated with me.

Ryan has spoken about what it was like to be an aspiring actor in LA trying to break into Hollywood:

''Everyone's left their family, their homes, their friends [and] their jobs, to pursue a dream, where they know that the percentage of them achieving that dream is never and they do it anyway. Everyone has shared the same dream and no one knows whether it's a premonition or a delusion. And there’s only one way to find out.”

I often felt that way about my writing group friends over the years. We were united by the same dream and none of us knew whether it was a premonition or a delusion.

I can’t tell you whether to quit or persevere, but I can tell you that many writers came and went in our group, but the three core members, the die-hard few who didn’t quit, who kept trying and failing and learning… we all got traditionally published in the end. (I was the slowest of the group, but I got there!)

But in the year leading up to my first book deal in early 2024, I’d started to think I was delusional, and I pretty much gave up on getting published.

I wrote not one single word of fiction in that year.

I pretty much stopped querying the book that is now my debut THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA. A friend from my writing group urged me to query a new US agent, so I did. And forgot about it. I hadn’t a chance.

I told myself I was too busy to keep trying to get published. And it’s true that I was busy: I’m a single mother to two children, one with a lot of health issues, and a dog with no discernible self-preservation instinct. And I was still doing my journalism work back then. (This Substack and my contracted books have now replaced that work.)

But I was also out living during that year. I carved out time for fun each week. Difficult as it was to get out of the house by myself, I did it. Even if it was just for a few hours. Even if it was just to a small literary talk. Or for a drink with a writer. And I had Proper Fun for the first time in about a decade.

I felt alive again.

It was amazing. For a while.

The trouble with trying to combine fun with single parenting is that it’s exhausting. And it leaves no time for fiction. Cannot be done. Or at least not by me. By the end of the summer of 2023, I was shattered. At breaking point from trying to combine parenting and work through the long, looooooong school holidays, and then trying to squeeze in fun. Only one of those things was non-essential. Adios, personal life.

And I swear, the moment I bit the bullet, like the exact moment I admitted defeat and accepted that the Fun Era had to end… an email landed in my inbox from that US agent asking if we could have The Call.

✨Book karma, baby!✨

That (amazing) agent signed me, we went out on submission and THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA sold at auction to a Big Five publisher.

Was that Year of Fun a mistake? Should I have kept pushing ahead with another novel instead of having a writing-adjacent social life for a year? Would I be a year ahead with my author career now? I don’t think so.

I’d done enough writing. I needed to get out there and live. Experience the world.

And guess what? That Year of Fun has inspired Book 3 that I’m working on now. If I’d hadn’t gone out there and made mistakes and learned more about the world and other people and myself, I’d have less to write about now.

WRITING BREAK PERMISSION SLIP!

It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to stop exhausting yourself in pursuit of the dream. If writing is not adding to your life, you are allowed to stop. For now. For a month. For a year. Forever. It’s okay. It’s allowed.

Your internal worth as a person is not linked to your success as a writer.

Sometimes you need to give yourself a long break to find out if the urge to write is still there.

To get curious about life again.

To fill up the creative well.

To go out and LIVE without feeling guilty.

And if you’re a writer? The urge to write will come back.

In case you’re still really struggling to decide whether or not to persevere, here’s a flow chart I’ve put together based on my experiences. I wish I’d had this a decade ago. It would have helped me to move from delusional to achieving my dreams much faster:

Note: apparently there are people happily walking around out there in the world with zero urge to sacrifice their social lives and general mental well-being in order to lock themselves away and write stories. Bizarre, I know!

Okay I’m off to revive my poor neglected Book 3 - wish me luck!

Happy writing,

Caroline x

P.S. You HAVE to read this post by on what bestselling books all have in common. Fascinating doesn’t even cover it.

P.P.S. Benji has made a full recovery, thanks for asking, and regrets his poor noodle-related choices

If you like my writing, you might also enjoy my novel THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA which one Goodreads reader described as: “if Gone Girl had a baby with Fleabag – and that baby grew up in Dublin with a really questionable therapist.”

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a community of 2k+ aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (forthcoming April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Celebrations are in order, people! This newsletter community of aspiring and published writers has now grown to 2,000 free subscribers and a mind-blowing 91 paid subscriber (whaaaat?!?) — I am OVER-THE-MOON grateful to each and every one of you! 🍾

Subscribe now

Without this newsletter, I don’t think I would ever have gotten a traditional publishing deal. I would have quit before I got there.

The newsletter originally started out as a little blog I set up in 2015 to cope with the blow of parting ways with my second literary agent. 💔

It gave me something to focus on, something that did not require pleasing the gods of publishing. The lack of gatekeepers was so refreshing.

I interviewed authors I admired in order to find out how they got their first book deal. I learned a lot but something else wonderful happened. Some of those writers I interviewed, like Charleen Hurtubise, Miriam Mulcahy (whose new memoir Walking to the Foot of the Sky is STUNNING!), Lauren MacKenzie and Róisín Coyne, went from being my writing heroes to being… my IRL friends! Going to their book launches in now my social life and it blows my mind.

And then the blog morphed into a ConvertKit email newsletter, and through that I got to know subscribers like the talented Martha Higgins whose book launch I went to last year (check out her novel here!), and the columnist and award-winning writer Sarah Harte who has become like the big sister I never had and helped me salvage my second novel when I hit a wall. 🙏

And then I moved the newsletter over here to Substack, hoping it would feel more like a community where subscribers could comment and interact (it does!), and have gotten to know SO many special people here like and many more!

I thought that this blog-turned-newsletter would be a means to an end, something that might help me break into publishing.

I never anticipated that it would be this newsletter (and not my novel) that would help me find my tribe, both online and in real life.

So if you’re starting a podcast or a newsletter or an online book club or a writing group or whatever it might be in order to bolster your chances of making it as an author, open your mind to the possibility that it might not just be a side quest or a means to an end. It could become a WHOLE THING in its own right.

But I know you still want a book deal 😉, so let’s get on to the good stuff!

Story Genius

One of the first things I did after I fiiiiiiiiiiiiinally got my first book deal was email the legendary Lisa Cron to thank her for writing Story Genius because it had such an impact on me.

And not only did she send me a lovely reply (I was starstruck!), but recently she got back in touch to ask if she could put my email on her revamped website, so here it is (note: the title of my novel changed to The Marriage Vendetta):

Lisa understands story like no-one else and she’s offering coaching services that you can check out here. If that’s out of your price range, make sure you at least get your hands on a copy of Story Genius — it could change your writing life.

✨Split/Lip Press Wants to Read Your Novel - NOW!✨

The indie publisher Split/Lip has announced an open call for previously unpublished novels and novellas. This submission window is open until September 1st.

They’re not looking for any specific theme or genre — they’re open to all novels and novellas as long as they’re at least 100 pages long.

According to its website, Split/Lip is dedicated to boundary-breaking books:

“We love work that questions the concept of truth and work that reinterprets what we think we know. We prize experimentation (physical, emotional, metaphysical, meta-emotional); we welcome the unanswerable. We want to see the dark and the light side of the moon—or we want to see it obliterated. If your book is a wedge in a crack, Split/Lip Press is the hammer helping you split the wall apart.”

Now I’m not one hundred percent sure what any of that actually means, but if you think your novel is a ‘wedge in a crack’, then why not let the good people at Split/Lip be the hammer? 🤷‍♀️

One thing that threw me a little about their open call is that they charge a reading fee of $15. This goes towards paying their reading team, so I guess it makes sense as they’re an indie press?

And if you can't afford the reading fee, they ask that you email splitlipthepress@gmail.com before submitting to receive a manuscript fee waiver, no questions asked.

Best of luck if you decide to submit to them!

Right, I’m off now to have a choc ice and watch the second half of Heartburn on Netflix. If the message turns out to be that Meryl Streep’s character finds happiness with her editor, rather than returning to writing, I will despair…

Caroline x

If you enjoy my writing, you might also enjoy my debut novel The Marriage Vendetta which one Goodreads reviewer described as “rage-inducing in the best way” (note: I want that engraved on my headstone)

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a community of 1.9k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (forthcoming April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Hey fellow writers,

The ‘acceptance and delivery’ portion of my advance for The Village landed this week—woohoo🍾— and to celebrate, I decided to take a spur-of-the moment trip with my two kids.

I’m so grateful for my book deals, as they completely changed my life — and my children’s lives — and made little adventures like this possible.

On Thursday, the three of us headed off on a ‘mystery tour’ (my son wanted our destination to be a surprise 😍) to a lovely hotel where we swam, had ice cream at a quaint duck pond café and then ordered room service while watching The Hobbit in bed — our idea of heaven!

Then I raided the collection of novels in the hotel… and in between the Da Vinci Code and The Art of War, I discovered Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. For the last few weeks, my fiction-writing battery has been running low but as I began reading Revolutionary Road, I could feel my love of writing being reignited ❤️‍🔥

The writing and storytelling in Yates’ 1961 debut is just so exceptional — it’s like an Americana Madame Bovary — and it made me want to be a better writer.

We’re back home now and for the first time in weeks, I’m invigorated and dying to dive back into Book 3, a feminist anti-romance. So if you’re feeling a bit stuck with your work-in-progress, a 24-hour change of scene and an exceptional book might just snap you out of it!

I was also inspired this week by the writer ’s post about finding her way back to herself through play. In it, Stéphanie included a Stuart Brown quote that stopped me in my tracks:

“The opposite of play is not work. The opposite of play is depression.”

As a single parent trying to hit deadlines while keeping all the plates spinning, I struggle to make time for creative play.

But I’m going to pin that Stuart Brown quote up in my office nonetheless, because if I don’t make time for play, I won’t be able to write.

I was honoured to appear as a guest on Stephanie’s podcast recently, where we chatted about my shockingly long journey to a book deal (I started writing seriously two decades ago), but also about creativity and the need for creative breaks. You can listen to it here — I hope you find it inspiring.

✨Verve Books Opening Soon to Unagented Writers!✨

Get your manuscripts ready, because Verve Books is opening to unagented writers on July 27th! Although they’re a UK-based publisher, they will also accept submissions from international writers.

Verve is seeking new adult fiction and non-fiction for publication in 2028 onwards, and they’ll accept manuscripts that have previously been self-published.

Encouragingly, the publisher was asked on Instagram if they’ll be selecting books based on the writer having an online following, or purely on the quality of the writing, and Verve replied that their selection will be based on the quality of writing — that’s what we like to hear!

They’re especially keen to see writing in the following genres:

Are Your Scenes Actually Doing their Job?

A lot of writers plunge straight into scenes and write them instinctively. I used to. Until, that is, I watched Lisa Cron’s ‘Anatomy of a Scene’ mini-course. In this course, Lisa does a deep dive into what a scene actually is and how it needs to work in order to be effective.

Her course made me realise that I’d never given individual scenes anywhere near the level of thought necessary.

I started applying Lisa’s approach and this change proved pivotal: it was one of the factors that helped me leave behind my growing pile of unpublished manuscripts, and go on to land two book deals.

I now check and double-check that all my scenes are doing their job; they are never included ‘just because’. They serve a function, and I make sure I know what that function is.

Lately, I’ve been helping a friend (a published author) refine the opening chapters of her new novel and I sent her some thoughts on getting her scenes working as effectively as possible.

She has applied these suggestions brilliantly and the improvement is amazing, so I thought… why not share my approach to scene writing here in case you find it useful too?

With that in mind, here are the things I always ask myself before writing a scene:

Read more

If you’re new here, welcome to this community of 1.9k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (forthcoming April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections.

Greetings from balmy Dublin!

Well, my lofty writing targets have gone right out the window since last week. I decided to take a break from working on Book 3 because (do you relate to this, or is it a ‘me problem’?) it felt like my brain was tired from writing fiction.

Like, not too tired to write a Substack or other kinds of work. Just fiction.

I think I pushed it too hard over the last year writing-wise and it’s catching up now.

Also, I was waiting to get some feedback from a trusted reader on my opening chapters. So I took a break for a few days.

And here is why I should never, ever take a break from writing:

Writing must really drain my brain or something, because as soon as I stepped away from my novel, my mind went into overdrive.

First of all, an idea for a novella suddenly POPPED into my head, and I had to stop myself from diving right in, because my poor novel will die on the vine if I do that.

Then I became gripped with the certainty that I HAD to set up a new in-person book club—The Grand Hotel Social Book Club—in my village. Doesn’t it sound like the title of a cosy murder mystery? (We’re pretty much full now and are reading Ikagai for August!)

And then…. an idea for a writing-adjacent business hit and I’ve been CONSUMED by it!

We’re talking mood boards, business plans, calls to suppliers, budgets.

What is actually wrong with me?

The idea has got me in its grip and it’s not letting go. This is apparently how my brain works now 🤷‍♀️

So watch this space because you’ll be the first to hear about my deeply unsensible but wildly exciting project… if I actually have the nerve to do it!

Anyway, enough about my delusional fantasies. Let’s get down to business (and then I better actually get back to my poor neglected novel 😂).

First off, I wanted to give you a heads-up about an exciting joint post I’ll be sending out with next week. I’m thrilled to get to work on this with Karin, author of nine novels, as her newsletter is one of my absolute favourites on Substack.

So anyway… we’re teaming up because, by coincidence, we’ve both had FIVE literary agents each. Not between us. Each.

We’re talking a total of TEN agents.

(And before you ask, yes I probably do need to join some kind of support group: I’m Caroline and I’m an agent-oholic…)

So do look out for that newsletter in your inbox next Wednesday, July 15th where we’ll be spilling the beans on our agent-y experiences.

13 Literary Agents Repping NYT bestsellers (and open to queries!)

Want to know who the power brokers are behind the current New York Times bestselling authors?

This week I’ve done a lot of digging, found out who reps who, checked whether they’re open to submissions and compiled all of these Power Agents into the list below.

These agents are looking for new clients from a mix of genres across adult and children’s fiction, as well as non-fiction.

I was surprised that I had never heard of some of these agents even though I comb through lists and directories of agents almost every week for this newsletter. My conclusion? There are some big hitters quietly doing their thing without needing to call a lot of attention to themselves.

Also, I had to take one agent OFF the list for reasons that will be explained below…⬇️

Read more

So I didn’t quite hit my writing target last week but I got close enough (the opening three chapters of book 3, so about 8,500 words rather 10,000 words).

The sensible thing to do now would be to accept that I’m going to get less done over the summer holidays. Instead, I’ve set myself a 500 word a day challenge for the months of July and August — I mean, it’s totally do-able, right?

If, like me, you like to overload your nervous system with self-imposed deadlines, why not join me in this challenge? If you start today, you could have around 30,000 words written by the end of August (I think? Numbers are not my strong suit — hence why I quit my job as a tax consultant to become a journalist!).

Aside from shuttling small people to and from camps and playdates, and squeezing in some writing, I was delighted to get a chance to chat with fellow Substacker yesterday for an episode of her podcast (I’ll send out a link once the episode airs) and then I headed in to Chapters Bookstore in Dublin city centre where the actress-turned-novelist Caroline Grace Cassidy was launching her 12th (!!!) novel.

Her Q&A session was really interesting: she talked about how she’s increasingly focusing on her script writing and film production work.

Q&A with up-and-coming US literary agent AND agented author Lauren Khan

I’m absolutely thrilled that has taken the time to do a Q&A with me this week! I love her work ethic and determination, which is evident from her Substack posts and the Prose Pros podcast that she co-hosts with fellow agent Tali Shammas.

Lauren is not only a literary agent, but is also an agented writer, so she brings both perspectives to the table.

I always love finding out about up-and-coming agents because it reminds me of signing with my third agent, Kesia Lupo, who was still pretty new to agenting when we had The Call but I loved her energy — and she sold my debut novel at auction so I was right to trust my instincts!

The moral of that story is: don’t rule out new/up-and-coming agents. And also don’t rule out agent-writers. I had a not-so-great experience with a previous agent who got a MASSIVE book deal (for his own book) after my never-published novel died on sub and it felt like his attention was sucked away.

But my former agent Kesia has had three novels published and I never, ever felt like her own writing distracted her in the slightest from her agenting work. In fact, it was an advantage as she understood exactly what it’s like to go out on submission.

Okay, let’s do this!

Thanks so much for joining us, Lauren. Last year, you took the brave step of parting ways with your agent for a number of reasons, including ghosting. Having experienced ghosting myself with my second agent, I know just how devastating it is, but also how risky it feels to walk away given how hard it is to get an agent.

It has worked out brilliantly for you (huge congrats on signing with Jessica Mileo of Inkwell management!). Fortunately it worked out for me too — my current agents are wonderfully responsive — and so I became a firm believer that a bad agent* is worse than no agent.

But then I encountered (very successful) writers who had parted ways with uncommunicative agents and never managed to get another agent. So now I’m not so sure. I’d love to know your thoughts on this: do you believe that a bad agent is worse than no agent?

(*By ‘bad agent’, I mean one that ghosts/doesn’t follow through on promises etc. Also, I don’t mean to be negative about agents — I’ve loved four out of my five agents!)

Absolutely. No agent means the publishing world is your oyster, you can go in any direction, the possibilities are endless. A bad agent could damage your career before you’ve even started!

In my opinion, an uncommunicative agent is unacceptable. The agent works for you. As an attorney, if I didn’t respond to my clients, I would’ve been fired. Leaving a bad agent can often mean regaining control of your career as an author, even if it feels like you’ve lost the plot for a while (pun intended).

When you began querying agents again, you got a mind-blowing 47 full requests! Your query letter is an absolute MASTERCLASS in how to pitch agents. I noticed that you led with comp titles, and it seems to me that you put a lot of thought and effort into getting those exactly spot-on.

In the past, I made the mistake of treating comps as an afterthought. How important do you feel comp titles are in a query letter (and of course now you’re seeing it from an agenting perspective too!)?

Thank you, that is so kind! I advise starting your query letter before the manuscript is finished, so you have a clear sense of its hook and where you’re going with it.

Comps are EXTREMELY important. Believe it or not, the authors who think no comps exist for their novel, will probably never sell said novel (sorry, I said it!). When I pitch your book to editors, I must include comps. In fact, it may be the most important part of my pitch!

The publisher will use those comps to run P&L reports that will be used in determining if they want to buy your book. They also set the tone of what the agent/editor is about to read!

What writing advice would you go back and give your younger self i.e. what is the most important lesson you’ve learned in terms of writing a novel that will attract agent attention?

Hook matters. Pitch matters. Yes, write the book of your heart that you want to read, but also work to distill the story into a clear concept that can be pitched. If your goal is to be published, you have to remember publishing is a business. It is a sales game, in the end, and the pitch is what sells. If it’s a high-concept, hooky pitch? Even better.

In an interview, you mentioned that several interested agents said they loved the ‘voice’ of your main character Violet — it would be incredibly instructive for aspiring writers to read even the first line of your novel, to get a sense of what ‘voice’ actually means/looks like on the page. Would you be willing to share the opening sentence with us?

The novel starts with the prologue, but here’s the current first sentence of Violet’s POV:

“Arriving at the nuptials of a couple I barely tolerate with bloated fingers and swollen feet was not on this year’s vision board.”

(Note from Caroline: love this opening line, cannot wait to get my hands on this book!)

Are there any craft books that you found useful and would recommend to aspiring authors? Also, did you pay for any manuscript assessment and, if so, do you feel that they helped you in your journey towards getting an agent?

The combo of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and Story Genius by Lisa Cron is vital in my opinion. As I revise, I’ve also fallen in love with the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook by Donald Maass, thanks to you!

I’ve never paid for a manuscript assessment but I’ve taken a couple fiction/novel writing classes at Gotham Writers Workshop and through CeCe Lyra.

Moving on to more agent-focused questions...

What do you feel your strengths are as an agent? (From listening to your podcast, I'd say: super-determined, approachable, communicative, an unstoppable force!)

I would agree ;) thank you for saying that! I’d also add that between law school and working in Manhattan, I was on the corporate attorney path for a decade. So you can add my negotiation skills and ability to read a contract (surprisingly uncommon) to that list!

Authors these days (both aspiring and published) are increasingly stressed out by the messaging that we need to build a platform. Trying to create an online presence can feel like shouting into the void rather than connecting with potential readers.

What advice would you give to a client if they asked you about building a social media presence?

I would say to focus on your writing first and foremost. If you’re too stressed about social media to write, then what are we here for? But if you’re able to do both, I’d say hone in on the platform that you’re most comfortable with and focus your efforts there. Allow the platform to be synonymous with your author brand. My friend is an author brand strategist and shared a ton of tips about this when she came on our podcast!

Do you pay much attention to a prospective client’s social media platform when you’re considering signing them? Does this differ depending on whether they’re writing fiction or non-fiction?

For non-fiction, yes, it’s important to have a platform these days. For fiction, I may look just to make sure you aren’t tweeting a ton of anti-publishing rhetoric that is going to make it difficult to work together...but otherwise major debuts sell without a platform all the time!

You're now open to queries, woohoo! Is there anything in particular you'd love to see landing in your inbox?

Please query me more psychological suspense and thrillers! I would love something comped to BEST OFFER WINS on my list.

Here is my QT link: https://querytracker.net/query/3906)

How market-conscious are you when selecting which books you want to represent? By which I mean, do you go on taste and gut instinct, like that wonderful immersive 'pull' when you get sucked into a propulsive story that feels alive?

Or are you also very conscious of what type of deals are being announced at the moment, and what you're hearing from editors in terms of what they'd love to see? Maybe a mixture of both?

I always go with my gut. I know my taste incredibly well when it comes to both unpublished and published works, and if it’s a manuscript I can’t put down, I’m going to offer regardless of what the market is saying about it.

Do you feel it's important for a book to not only have a strong concept/hook but to feel relevant at this particular point in time e.g. the fresh take on a thriller that we didn't know we needed or a zeitgeisty concept like Yesteryear?

I don’t think it’s the end of the journey if it’s not, but it certainly helps!

Which buzzy book(s) of the last 12 months would you have most liked to represent (apart from your own clients' books!)?

YESTERYEAR...naturally.

What one thing do you wish more aspiring authors knew about the publishing industry?

It’s not always THE book, but A book over the course of several manuscripts that makes your career. Focus on writing the next thing—focus on your body of work.

Thank you, Lauren, for taking the time to answer my nosy questions - this has been fascinating!!

The Secret Agent

Before I run off to chill some bubbly for what has become a weekly Prosecco evening, I also wanted to mention a service provided by one of my favourite Substackers Phillipa Donovan (), who works as a book scout for TV/film producers.

I normally only include links to services that I have personally used, or that a writer friend has recommended, but Philippa has been extremely helpful in giving me expert advice relating to some TV/film *stuff * currently in the ether, (and a big shout-out to @poppadom too for your expertise!) so I wanted to mention her service here.

Note: this isn’t an ad -- I don’t have any sponsors/affiliate links in my newsletters (but I do shamelessly self-promote my novel 💅)

In addition to being a TV/film scout, Philippa also runs Smart Quill Editorial, where she edits manuscripts and… introduces writers to literary agents if their work is considered to be of a very high standard — intriguing! Smart Quill has been going for 16 years, and she has worked with about 650 authors.

Here’s the link :)

Okay, over and out — luckily I got this newsletter finished before I popped the cork this week 🥂

Keep writing!

Caroline x

If you enjoy this newsletter, then you might also enjoy my debut novel THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA which one Goodreads reader described as a “full-blown, feministic fever dream of identity, rage, and rebirth”.

If that sounds like your kinda thing, and you’d like to support my continuing feministic fever dreams, then you can order your copy HERE!

Welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 1.9k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections.

Greetings, writers! Please forgive any typos in today’s newsletter. They are most likely definitely due to the unprofessional quantity of prosecco I indulged in earlier when my parents came over for a little celebratory tipple.

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What can I say? It’s been an exciting week and so I made the executive decision to raid my ‘writer’s solace corner’ 👇

A friend of mine who is a brilliant children’s writer once told me that she always keeps a bottle of Champagne in her fridge in case of anything good happening writing-wise. It’s a sort of motivator. I always loved that idea, so my prosecco corner is my version!

So yeah, there’s a potentially exciting long-shot kinda thing brewing, but when I fell down the inevitable Reddit (where else?) rabbit hole trying to figure out what it all might mean, I came across a writer with a beautiful attitude. They said: no matter what’s going on, a writer’s only job is to create something beautiful. (Wait, so it’s not our job to stay up half the night fixating on things that are beyond our control?!?)

This writer said that they imagine themselves in a garden surrounded by high walls (keeping out all the outside noise of literary agents, editor interest, film stuff, whatever it may be), and their one and only job is to make that garden beautiful.

I thought how lovely… and then obviously I turned to alcohol🍾🤣

Anyway! Time to stop rambling.

If you’re querying, you need to know about . She’s an up-and-coming agent, having joined FinePrint Literary Management in 2025.

And to coincide with getting this essay published in Business Insider, Lauren has reopened to queries, woohoo!

You might know Lauren from the Prose Pros podcast that she co-hosts with her friend and fellow agent Tali Shammas (Storm Literary). A former New York corporate lawyer, Lauren comes across as super-sharp, extremely driven and someone who won’t give up on you. What writer wouldn’t love that?

Lauren is particularly interested in adult and YA commercial fiction, especially women’s fiction, romance, mysteries, and thrillers, as well as select non-fiction titles.

You can query her here. Go go go!

My Little Black Book of Publishing (aka all my favourite writer-y things)

This post might be worth saving so you can come back to it as a reference in the future.

Podcasts

• The Long Road to Publishing with

• The Shit No-one Tells You About Writing ( ) with , and

• Publishing Rodeo with and Scott Drakeford (worth listening to even just for Scott’s laugh)

• #AmWriting with (I was honoured to record an episode with Jennie recently — it was a true highlight as Jennie’s book, Blueprint for a Book, changed my writing life!)

• The Prose Pros (as mentioned above)

• The Writer’s Identity podcast with (I’m delighted to be going on this podcast soon)

• The Sophia Chang Show: Books. Biceps. No BS. — is a Reese’s Book Club LitUp author with a 100% request rate on her query letter… and she is also hilarious. We had a zoom chat this week and some serious craic* was had.

(*Irish term for having a laugh. In no way related to drugs. Quite often related to alcohol.)

Agents I have had great experiences with/hear great things about/admire

• Katie Shea Boutillier and her assistant Rachel Saylor — the Donald Maass Literary Agency (Katie and Rachel are my agents and they have been brilliant - SO responsive 🫶)

• Lauren Khan

• Sara O’Keeffe (Andrew Nurnberg Associates, currently closed)

• (currently closed)

• Ali Lake — O’Connor Literary (currently closed)

• And don’t CeCe and Carly from TSNOTYAW sound so great?

Favourite Substack newsletters

There are so many more that I love — I’ll keep adding them here as I remember them!

Successful query letters

• As well as working as a literary agent, Lauren Khan is also an agented author. Her query letter got her 47 full requests!

• Here’s the query letter that got me my third agent

• has created an incredible directory of successful query letters here

Favourite book clubs

• Lauren Neely’s virtual book club with special author guests

• I’ve recently joined the Dublin chapter of the Difficult Women Book Club network. DWBC is a global network - just google it/search on Instagram to find your local chapter.

Best Online Writing Courses

Story Genius courses by Lisa Cron on www.creativelive.com — life-changingly brilliant

Best Writing Craft Books

• Story Genius by Lisa Cron

• Blueprint for a Book by Jennie Nash

• The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

• Writing the Breakout Novel workbook by Donald Maass

• Into the Woods by John Yorke

• Story by Robert McKee

• The Anatomy of Story by John Truby

• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

• On Writing by Stephen King

• Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder (just don’t admit to people you’ve read this, they will think less of you!)

• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

• Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Best place in Ireland to go on a DIY writing retreat

Powerscourt Springs Health Farm — I personally guarantee* that you will get an idea for a new book and at least 3,000 words written if you stay at this absolute slice of heaven in Wicklow, the garden of Ireland.

(*Note: definitely not an actual guarantee. I CAN guarantee that you will not be interrupted by anyone asking you for snacks, though, as there are no children allowed in this hotel.)

Highly Recommended Manuscript Assessment Services

• Anna Barrett — I’ve personally gone to Anna, she’s a former Madeline Milburn agent and she’s excellent

• Catherine Gough — I’ve gone to Catherine too and she’s great. She used to work as the commissioning editor at HarperCollins Ireland and her fingerprints are all over so many Irish bestsellers

• Kristen Weber - comes highly recommended by

• Heather Sangster - recommended by a lovely subscriber who really enjoyed working with her (oh and has been Margaret Atwood’s copy editor for years!!)

Substacks that Made Me Decide to Buy the Writer’s Book!

• — I have just ordered Vera’s debut NEVER SAW ME COMING (which by coincidence was published by Park Row, the same imprint that published my debut)

• — the way she writes about gothic storytelling is insanely brilliant

• — her recent vlogs of her book tour are so full of personality and humour, I’m addicted to them!

• CC Holland’s cover, you guys:

Hope you found this helpful! Better go as I have to get 2,500 words of my WIP done in the next 24 hours - surely the prosecco will help, right??

Keep writing!

Caroline x

P.S. This Instagram reel about men writing women badly is cracking me up

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my Bad Sisters X Fleabag debut novel, THE MARRIAGE VENDETTA. Paperback is out now 👇

If you’re new here, welcome to this community of 1.8k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (forthcoming April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

This week, I’ve been burning the midnight oil to make progress with book 3, but it’s been worth it because I finally feel like I’m ‘in the zone’. And is there any better feeling than that?

This new novel is, like The Marriage Vendetta and The Village, a feminist dark comedy, but because of the nature of the plot, I can no longer shy away from 🌶️🌶️🌶️ scenes, eek! 🫣

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I’m trusting in Erica Jong, the late great queen of spicy feminist writing, who felt that taking the brave step of writing about sex allows writers to “play without fear” and break free of the “excessive self-judgement” that hampers creativity.

“Only by letting go of the inhibition that makes us bow to social propriety can we delve into the depths of the unconscious,” she said.

Still cringe though, right?

I was chatting back and forth about this with a Substack friend, , who is facing this same question with her own writing — how to write 🌶️🌶️🌶️ scenes without it feeling gratuitous. And we came to the conclusion that Claire Leslie Hall strikes exactly the right balance in Broken Country. And Helene has now written a gorgeous review of the book here!

If you’re grappling with this question too, I recommend you check out this brilliant Romance Spice Rating Scale by literary agent — just scroll down a little in her post — so funny and useful!

For this week’s newsletter, I’ve put together a list of 9 NEW and RISING literary agents who are actively building their lists, which means they’re hungry to sign brilliant clients and get deals done!

Some of them are new to agenting; others have recently been promoted from assistant to associate literary agent.

They’re looking for everything from middle grade and young adult to graphic novels, rom-coms, fantasy, upmarket fiction and so much more…

Read more

Welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 2k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections.

(Any typos are proof that this newsletter is written by a human!)

This week I’ve been celebrating because it was my birthday yesterday but also — much more importantly! — because my editor let me know that my edits on book 2, The Village, are officially accepted.

It’s a huge relief because I’ve read about authors getting stuck in an endless loop of revisions. This official acceptance also triggers the next pay-out of my advance, woohoo (guess who’s going on the tear in her favourite bookshop this weekend??) 🎉

And I guess it means that the new, darker sections I added are staying in, eek… I think I’m going to have to warn my more sensitive relatives not to read it! 🫣

Okay, enough about me. Here’s what we’ve got in today’s newsletter:

1. New agent at Storm Literary is looking to sign clients!

2. Why you shouldn’t believe your beta readers (trust me on this one)

But first…

✨Subscriber Corner!✨

Huge congratulations are in order for the talented writer , who is a subscriber and great supporter of this newsletter. This week, her very first humour piece was published by The Belladonna Comedy, a publication on Medium.

I adored the piece. It’s just my type of thing: a brilliantly captured funny female voice, and a really clever structure. It’s a must-read: check it out here!

Note: if any other subscribers have had recent writing successes, please send me details so I can spread the word

New Agent at Storm Literary Open to Queries

Co-host (with agent ) of the Prose Pros literary podcast has joined Storm Literary Agency as an associate agent and is now open to queries. 🎉

Regular readers of this newsletter will know that I’m a big believer in querying new agents (because of my own brilliant experience with former agent Kesia Lupo), so if you’re seeking representation… run! Go query Tali ASAP!

Tali is a former corporate lawyer so you can be sure she has a killer work ethic and will be a skilled negotiator and strong on contracts. You might already have read the excellent Q&A that fellow Storm agent @jennasatterthwaite did with Tali this week. If not, I highly recommend you check it out here .

What’s Tali looking for?

According to manuscriptwishlist.com, Tali is drawn to:

• Commercial hooks, lyrical writing, and voice-y characters who jump off the page and pull you in

• Books that explore underrepresented folk stories and mythologies

• Non-Western settings

• In fantasy, she adores a unique magic system

• She is also a big fan of books about books

You can find more specific details of what she’s looking for here.

Best of luck to Tali and all those who query her!

Hot Take: Why you shouldn’t believe your beta readers

First off, what do I mean by a beta reader? I suppose technically a beta reader is someone who reads a draft of your manuscript after you’ve reworked it based on feedback from an alpha reader, the first reader of a messy draft.

But for the purposes of this post, when I use the term beta readers, I mean it to encapsulate:

• Fellow writing group members

• Critique partners

• Early readers you may, for example, have been matched with through a beta reader-matching service

• Friends and family who are foolhardy brave enough to give you feedback

In other words, writers and readers who are kind enough to take a look, often for free or because you’re reciprocating the favour, at your unpublished manuscript.

Before I go on, I should say that I’ve been in the same writing group for TWENTY YEARS and joining it is one of the best things I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t have gotten published without it and I’ve made some true ride-or-die friends.

You definitely DO need to get feedback along the way in order to improve on your early attempts.

In fact, there are many advantages to having beta readers/a writing group:

• Interacting with other writers is vital - you can encourage each other and moan about share insights into the publishing industry

• It’s useful to get feedback — careful beta readers will pick up on things like plot holes, inconsistencies, glaring errors, elements that are confusing or don’t make sense etc

• Writing is isolating, so the social aspect of it can be really enriching

• In a writing group, there’s a useful ‘wisdom of crowds’ element to it. For example, if most of the members of your group are having a pretty similar reaction to a chapter (like they’re lukewarm about it, or they love it) it’s probably worth taking this reaction on board

All of these things are particularly useful at the early stages of becoming a writer. It’s very easy to give in to those inner doubts and throw the towel in (it’s harder to walk away after you’ve committed a decade of your life to your quest for publication!), so having cheerleaders is extremely helpful, people who will:

• assure you that your work has potential

• convince you not to feel guilty about the state of your house

• agree that being a writer is the only sane response to an an insane world

• hound you into PERSISTING!

Every non-writer in your life will at some point get exasperated with your self-inflicted obsession with getting published, so it really helps to have writing friends who are similarly delusional committed.

HOWEVER! (Brace yourself for some tough love…)

There are three major problems.

Problem #1: your beta readers are sugar-coating it, honey!

If a beta reader is too brutal, too honest, they could destroy an early-stage (and middle-stage and late-stage 🤣) writer’s confidence.

The job of a beta reader is to encourage the writer and point out the strengths of their manuscript, while also highlighting the problems (as they see them, and herein lies another issue — see problems #2 and #3 below).

You have to cushion the blow.

It’s not being disingenuous or deceitful. It’s balancing encouragement with constructive criticism.

It’s giving the writer a confidence boost while drawing attention to areas where they might be going off-course.

And I believe it’s important that beta readers aren’t too brutal, because writing is a mental game just as much as tennis or golf.

As a critique partner or beta reader, you do not want to be responsible for giving someone the writing yips or the creative collywobbles. Aka the dreaded writer’s block.

Most early stage manuscripts by most early stage writers are not of publishable quality. That’s just part of the process. It doesn’t mean those writers should quit. It doesn’t mean they can’t get there eventually. But if a beta reader is too brutally honest about the flaws of a manuscript, the writer may quit before they get there.

It’s also much easier, psychologically, to absorb criticism if it’s sandwiched between positive feedback.

There comes a point, however, when a writer has moved from fledgling to more experienced, when they’ve learned, improved, rewritten, honed, polished, when they’ve done as much as they possibly can with a manuscript and feel it’s ready to start submitting to agents that the beta reader system starts to derail.

Problem #2: your beta readers, even if they are writers, even if they are published, will almost certainly lack market insight.

Unless your beta reader has worked in the publishing industry, they’re very unlikely to approach your manuscript with the mindset of an agent or editor.

Publishing is where art meets commerce, so the gatekeepers in that industry have no choice but to keep the market in mind: what will sell?

As a result, they’re on the hunt for that irresistible pull, a story that hits them like an emotional slap across the face from the get-go (if it doesn’t, you’ll get those dreaded ‘too quiet’ rejections), that feels like dipping their face into a stream where the current is already coursing along under the surface.

Beautiful writing is not enough.

They want assured, skilled storytelling.

And they want a HOOK, people! And they want you to then deliver on that hook.

They receive hundreds, maybe thousands, of manuscripts each year.

The competition is savage.

A good effort isn’t enough.

Your book has to be irresistible.

These are not usually the criteria that beta readers apply to a manuscript.

Problem #3: beta readers are not always skilled at diagnosing CORE problems

Most people think they can identify what’s wrong with a novel.

They’ll talk about uneven pacing and saggy middles and rushed endings and plot insistencies and grammar issues. And yes, those things will detract from a novel.

But most people (including writers) are not trained in how to open the bonnet of a book and diagnose the big-picture, potentially fatal problems, such as:

• Lack of tension

• Lack of inner conflict

• Lack of internal transformation

• Lack of any central ‘point’ (read craft books by Lisa Cron and @jennienash for help on this one)

• Lack of characters we care about (we don’t have to like them, but we do have to care)

• Lack of dilemmas

• Lack of a desire line i.e. the characters don’t care about/desire anything strongly enough (the reader will only care about something to the extent that the character cares about it)

• Lack of propulsion/narrative drive

• Lack of causality

• Lack of stakes

• Lack of a hook (if you’re writing commercial fiction)

• Lack of timeliness/an original take (again, for commercial fiction)

And out of all of those, the main killer of books is a lack of tension.

Your book has to be thrumming with tension throughout.

And most readers aren’t on the lookout for this.

So it’s not that writing groups and beta readers aren’t helpful. They can be extremely helpful, especially if the other writers in the group are more experienced than you.

It’s that their feedback can give aspiring authors an out-of-whack sense of whether or not their manuscript is likely to get snapped up by agents/editors.

If your beta reader’s verdict is at odds with the feedback you’re getting from agents/editors and you don’t know who’s right… I hate to break it to you but: the agents and editors are right.

Because they’re the gatekeepers! They’re the ones who decide whether or not to open those gates and let you in!

So their opinions are the only ones that really matter (in the context of getting traditionally published).

They’re the people you need to impress, not your beta readers.

👇Try THIS instead of over-relying on beta readers👇

If you ask your beta readers and writing groups for answers as to why you’re getting rejected, what tends to happen is that (out of camaraderie and kindness), they’ll try to buoy your spirits and say that the agents/editors have made a huge mistake by not signing you on the spot, and will one day bitterly regret this terrible decision.

It’s tempting to believe this comforting conclusion.

Here’s what I think you should do instead (assuming that you’ve already made your MS as strong as you possibly can):

• Make a short list of your dream literary agencies and your dream publishing imprints

• Then find one person who used to work at one of those agencies/imprints and who is now freelance (try Reedsy?)

• See if you can hire that person to read your query package

• Ask them to tell you what their reaction would be if this had landed on their desk while they were still working in your dream agency/imprint

• Ask them to brutally honest. Say this: am I barking up the wrong tree with this project? If you can get the truth, and take it on the chin, it will be gold dust!

• If they wouldn’t have signed you/your book, ask them to explain why (tell them you’re thick skinned and can handle the truth)

• Ask them what they think you should do

• Ask them what agents they think you should query/would be a good fit

This is what I did and it gave me the confidence to push on with my novel which did — in the end! — get published.

Okay, gotta run as one of my children is determined to paint a mural on our garden wall so I better go check what exactly is going on out there… it’s gone too quiet, I’m worried 🤣

Keep writing!

Caroline x

Welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 2k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

If you’re struggling to find writing time, I feel your pain! For some mysterious reason, our school was closed almost all week, so I’ve spent most of my time this week on the beach with Children + Dog and almost all day yesterday playing Monopoly. Which was so lovely!

But my new manuscript has been crying out for attention — I know from experience that if I neglect a work-in-progress for too long (especially at this early stage) it starts to die and sometimes there’s no resuscitating it. I may have to go back to my old 5am regime for the next few weeks, as I need to get the first 10,000 words done and polished by the end of June.

What about you? How do you manage to make time to write? (I need inspiration!)

How to Build an Author Platform (Without Losing Your Mind)

This week’s post is inspired by a question from a lovely subscriber who is writing her first novel:

Do you have any thoughts on building an audience (long) before the first book comes out? Looking back at your own debut journey, how would you have approached this in hindsight?

Such a great question!

I have a LOT to say about this. I’m the type of person that when I go for something, I generally go waaaaay too far. Like, in a really unhealthy, unbalanced (but fun!), obsessive deep dive kinda way. So when the time came to start doing social media stuff to promote my debut The Marriage Vendetta online, I went for it.

I did online courses on book marketing and social media for authors (The Author Circle and Marketing by Shelby) and then I went all in on Instagram which at the time was my favourite platform. (More on this below)

Also, last year I posed a version of this question to my very experienced New York literary agent: what should I be doing in terms of social media? Her answer surprised me. In a good way.

So here’s what I’ve learned from my own experience of what worked, and my agent’s advice and… what I’ll be doing differently for my second novel, The Village:

Read more

Welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 1.8k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

This week I’ve had the privilege of reading an advance copy of a fantastic novel written by an author I got to know through this newsletter - her novel is being traditionally published in 2027 (watch this space) and I’m thrilled for her. This is also the first time I’ve been asked to give a blurb, so I’m feeling like a 'real’ author now (it also helps that I’m really enjoying it!).

Another bonus is that reading her novel has given me an excuse to ignore the towering laundry pile on my bed, which my little muse is very happy about:

Also, huge congrats to another lovely subscriber, Edelle Dwyer, whose short story has been selected by Howl Writing for inclusion in their next issue. Can’t wait to see what’s next for you, Edelle 🎉

Jennifer Herrera Re-opened to Queries YESTERDAY!

US literary agent Jennifer Herrera, of the David Black Agency in New York, is now open for fiction queries and loves:

• character-driven thrillers

• upmarket book club fiction

• imaginative fantasy

Jennifer is an experienced agent, having joined the David Black Agency in 2015 after working at Fletcher & Company and Europa Editions, where she was an early advocate of Elena Ferrante.

And she comes across as approachable and knowledgeable on her Insta account.

She’s also an author, which used to be a no-no for me (due to an unfortunate experience years ago with one of my early agents) but I actually wouldn’t let that put you off. My third agent was a published author but her writing didn’t distract from her agenting work — and she got me two book deals (eternally grateful, Kesia 🫶🏻). And she also understood what it’s like from the author perspective, so it was a plus.

You can find more info about the genres Jennifer is interested in, and query her, HERE.

Should You Keep Trying to Get Published?

This is a question that plagues both aspiring and published authors: should we keep trying? Should we keep writing? Or should we just go and try and live like ‘normal’ people with… what’s that thing called… oh yeah, a social life?!?

I remember after my first novel died (twice) on submission and I parted ways with two agents, wishing that someone could just tell me if it was all going to be worth it. If I should keep going or throw in the towel.

So in case you’re wrestling with the same questions, I decided to put together the decision tree that I would send to my younger self if I could, in the hope that you find it useful:

Note: I don’t receive any commission for any of the books, courses or services recommended above. I paid for them all over the course of many years and am including them here because they proved to be game changers for me. I suggest you pick and choose according to your budget. If your budget is €0, then I would strongly encourage you to borrow Story Genius from your local library. That’s what I did and it put me on the path to a trad deal. (I should also point out that self-publishing has become a much more viable option over the years.)

Social Media Experiment

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that I was playing around with different approaches to creating a ‘platform’ (ugh, I’m starting to hate that word) to promote my second novel The Village.

As part of this, I started a new Insta account and it kinda took off (thanks SO much to those of you who followed the account!), gaining over 900 followers in two weeks.

Here’s the problem: something about being active on Instagram DESTROYS my ability to write fiction.

So I’ve pretty much put the new account on ice for now. Because what’s the point of anything if I can’t write??

Okay, I better go sort that laundry pile before it collapses on me try to get some fresh words on the page!

Keep writing ✍️

Caroline x

P.S. Let me know in the comments if it’s just me, or if social media affects your ability to write too 🤯

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 1.8k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

This week I decided to try a trend I spotted on Substack: it’s called ‘100 days of connecting’ (or something like that — I can never re-find interesting things on Substack!). My version is to do 100 days of getting in touch with interesting people about possible collaborations to tie in with the release of my second novel THE VILLAGE in April 2027.

It’s a while off yet, but when my debut novel came out last year, I was too busy to do anything like this, so this time around I want to get ahead!

I’m about five days in and here’s how it’s going so far:

• The gorgeous little hotel in Wicklow that inspired my novel agreed to collaborate on a reader prize as part of my pre-order campaign, and they suggested I could use their beautiful yoga studio for a small launch event, which I hadn’t even thought of but am so excited about!

• I’ve been invited onto three brilliant podcasts - SO grateful to the hosts!

So here’s my challenge to you: 100 days of connecting

For the next 100 days, take one tiny step every day to advance or enhance your writing life… and see what wonderful, unexpected things happen! Here are some suggestions, if you’re an aspiring writer:

• Join a book club (virtual or IRL) in the genre that you write. Or if you’re feeling really energetic — and want to build a platform — start your own! (Lauren Neely’s introvert-friendly virtual book club is an excellent example)

• Volunteer to join the ‘street team’ of an author in your genre - you’ll be spreading good karma by helping with their launch, and also learning how they run their campaign

• Volunteer at a book festival

• See if any writers in your area want to start a writing group

• Send a thank you note to someone who has helped you on your writing journey

• Moon Shot Mondays: every Monday, roll the dice with something outlandish. For example, if you’re feeling REALLY brave/brazen, see if a published author in your genre will blurb your unpublished novel (helps if you know them!). It’s a long shot… but a blurb could help you stand out from the crowd when querying agents.

Let me know if anything interesting comes out of this challenge!

15 Fantastic Literary Agents Who have Landed Buzzy Deals for Debut Authors (and are OPEN to queries)!

This week, I’ve compiled a list of literary agents who have landed deals for new authors. These deals were announced on Publishers Marketplace over the past two months, though of course the deals might have been agreed quite some time before they were announced (in my experience, editors are keen to announce deals quickly, but I imagine each case is different).

Many of the agents in this list are US-based, but there are several in the UK too, and even one in Australia. Some are veterans of the industry while others are young associate agents actively building their client. All are open to submissions!

Read more

If you’re new here, welcome to Rising Tides Writers, a community of 2k aspiring and published writers. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (2025 HarperCollins/Bonnier) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Please forgive any rambliness (is that a word??) in today’s newsletter. I was out at my imprint sibling Miriam Mulcahy’s book launch yesterday evening and I’m always so inspired and buzzed up after these events that The Thoughts won’t let me sleep 🥱

Miriam’s first book hit #1 in the Irish bestseller charts and it was so well deserved as she’s an absolutely stunning writer. I started reading her new book, Walking to the Foot of the Sky, on the train home last night and knew within four pages that I’d be forcing everyone I know to read it. It’s that good.

I’m very lucky that Miriam will be doing the copy edits of my second novel The Village, which is coming out in 2027. I’m experimenting with a different social media strategy with this book, and would be eternally grateful if you could show this post some love 🫶 and give my new Insta account @matriarchyvillage a follow on Insta.

If my strategy works, I’ll make sure to share all the details with you in this newsletter in case it’s of use.

What the Heck is ‘Zeitgeist Sparkle’?!?

In a newsletter a few weeks ago, I wrote about the pre-writing groundwork I did that helped me to get deals for The Marriage Vendetta and The Village.

And I mentioned one element that I felt really helped get both of my books across the line (bearing in mind I’d died on submission twice with a previous novel). In my head, I call it the ‘zeitgeist sparkle’. A lovely subscriber asked me if I would elaborate on this element, so here goes!

I’m delighted to go into more depth on it this week, because it’s on my mind anyway since chatting with my publisher at the launch last night. She mentioned something both exciting and insightful that, for me, drove home the importance of the ✨sparkle✨ factor.

Read more

Welcome to Rising Tide Writers, a newsletter community of almost 1.8k aspiring and published novelists. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (HarperCollins/Bonnier 2025) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections. Enjoy!

Hey fellow writers!

It’s been a crazy week here. I spent another night in the emergency department with one of my children who has asthma, but fortunately we’re home now and things are settling down. I haven’t been able to get any writing done this week though, which is making me seriously twitchy (for twitchy, read: crazed).

As a subscriber to this newsletter said in a note this week, “A short scene a day keeps the doctor away”, and I totally agree.

I recently finished reading Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette? and really identified with Bernadette’s epiphany that if she’s not creating, she’s a menace to society. Let’s just say, it resonated!

But on a positive note, I was delighted to make it out last night to Maynooth Bookshop to say a few words at the launch of 21-year-old author Roisin Coyne’s third book The Golden Child. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a launch with so much love in the room.

Roisín has epilepsy and has been in and out of hospital so many times over the last year, but she’s an absolute warrior and never lets it stop her from writing. She told me last night that she’s already on to her fourth novel, and is even planning an eight-book series! I came away from the launch totally inspired and feeling a lot more sane ;)

Senior Agent Seeking Literary & Upmarket Clients!

Maria Vicente, a senior literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency in Canada, is open to queries and is actively adding more literary and upmarket fiction writers to her list.

Here’s what Maria’s looking for:

• genre fiction | fantasy, grounded science fiction, magical realism, retellings of fairy tales and folktales, and horror;

• contemporary fiction | exploring modern life, queer themes, friendship, mental health, nostalgia, existential dread—anything with “cool girl” or “sad girl” vibes

• novels that experiment with narrative structure;

• stylish mysteries and thrillers.

She’s also interested in some non-fiction projects, as well as graphic novels, YA and middle grade.

You can find out more about Maria here and here.

Before you query Maria, make sure to take a look at this post she put up on Instagram, breaking down her April 2026 query letter inbox stats.

I was fascinated and surprised by this slide, which showed how often people didn’t follow Maria’s query requirements:

Remember you only get one shot (usually) at impressing an agent, so it’s essential to follow their submission guidelines to the letter.

Wishing you luck if you decide to submit to Maria!

Subscriber News

👏Huge congrats to the subscriber who got a request for more material from an Irish super-agent… crossing everything for you!

👏And I’m over the moon for subscriber , who took the brave, scary decision to part ways with her agent last October… and went on to get a whopping 47 full requests, and a wonderful new agent! Thrilled for you, Lauren. I highly recommend checking out her brilliant posts about this experience here and here.

👏Finally, loving this funny Mother’s Day (for those of you in the US) reel by subscriber Lauren Neely.

Oh and speaking of Mother’s Day, this post by the writer Jo Piazza about the billboard ad her husband got her as a present single-handedly restored my faith in mankind this week. THIS is the standard, ladies! (Also, how great does Jo’s book sound?!?)

Okay, that’s it for this week. I have to go reply to an email from my lovely agents about THINGS!

Keep writing… if only so you don’t become a menace to society.

Caroline x

P.S. If you’re not already an avid listener to ’s The Long Road to Publishing podcast, go… run! SO informative and inspiring. You can find it here.

P.P.S. Looking for your next read? I’ve been getting so many brilliant book recommendations from the bookstacker (is that a word??) .

Morning fellow writers,

Last week I was lucky enough to get away for a couple of nights to my favourite place in the world, Wicklow, and while I was there it struck me that I really should check out the Sally Gap, a remote mountain pass that I mention in my second novel, The Village (currently going through the edit stage - out next April!).

I mean, I really should have researched it before this stage, but better late than never, right?

So off I headed from my little hotel in the glorious sunshine, music blasting, basically high on life. And then this happened 👇👇👇

Okay that didn’t quite happen, but… I suddenly found myself on a steep, narrow, cliff-edge road and boom! My fear of heights and sheer drops and roads carved into cliffs (why, just why?!?) struck all at once, a hundred times worse than anything I’ve ever experienced.

The road was too narrow to turn around. So there I was frozen on the road in my little red car. Couldn’t make myself drive forward, couldn’t go back. (Afterwards the situation struck me as a good metaphor for creating tension in fiction!) We’re talking full-on rabbit in the headlights frozen. Blocking the road.

Eventually, I forced myself to inch the car forward at approximately 1 km per hour till I reached a point where I could turn around… and then inched the car back down, shouting motivational nonsense at myself and forcing myself not to look at the spectacular drop to my right.

All of which is to say, I did not make it to the Sally Gap.

Apparently this is what it would have looked like if I had made it up to the top.

So if any of you have actually been there, and can let me know what it’s like to drive along, this writer would be eternally grateful if you could send me details 🙏

UK Agent Now Open to Queries!

For those of you seeking an agent, you might want to consider querying the UK literary agent Hannah Sheppard. In 2023, Hannah left DHH to found her own boutique agency (the Hannah Sheppard Literary Agency), with a focus on commercial adult fiction and children’s fiction.

This interview with Hannah is from a few years ago but still relevant and extremely useful: Book Broker – An interview with Hannah Sheppard – The Darling Axe

Hannah is reopening to queries in September!

Here’s what Hannah’s looking for in fiction:

• Crime/Police

• Graphic Novel

• Horror

• Middle Grade

• Romance

• Speculative

• Thrillers/Suspense

• Young Adult

And in non-fiction:

• General Non-Fiction

• Narrative

You can query Hannah here. Good luck!

The pre-writing groundwork that helped me land TWO book deals

When I wrote my first two novels, I had a very haphazard approach — I basically sat down and wrote whatever came to me. It wasn’t that I didn’t put effort in. I put massive effort in, but in the wrong places, and exhausted myself in the process.

I managed to get two agents but was rejected by every major UK publisher - twice. Those books remain unpublished. My two trunk novels.

For my next novel, no WAY was I going to make the same mistakes again.

I came up with and applied a strategy based on a combination of:

✨ What hadn’t worked for my previous two novels

✨ Epiphanies gained from mind-blowingly brilliant writing courses and craft books

✨ Insights from my agents (I’ve had five!) and super-sharp developmental editors

✨ Knowledge I’d gleaned from interviewing tons of successful trad pub’d authors, both for The Irish Times and my old writing blog

I combined it all and, in my head, I think of it as the Heartbeat Strategy.

The Heartbeat strategy does not involve:

• Writing to market

• Working to a formula

• Doing ‘busy work’ like irrelevant character questionnaires that give you a sense of achieving something but don’t actually bring the story to life

It helps me to figure out the story that only I can tell, the book I wish existed so I could read it.

The book that’s missing from the world that only I can write.

And a book that’s also designed to interest editors.

It’s an alternative to the pantsing V plotting debate.

Essentially, it involves pinning down the core inner kernel at the heart of your story and then working outwards to figure out the important layers around that kernel.

And then making sure the key elements are in place so that heart starts beating and your story comes alive.

So now, as I’m about to dive into my next book, am I going to use this strategy? Damn straight!

It involves doing a lot of groundwork before I write a single word.

There’s no plotting at this stage; it’s more like the process actors go through when preparing for a role.

So here’s the groundwork I always do as part of my Heartbeat Strategy, because I never EVER want to go back to those days of writing novel after novel that fail to come to life:

Read more

Subscribe now

I’m writing this week’s newsletter in the middle of a busy shopping centre. I dropped my car in to be serviced in the garage here because I’m intimidated by mechanics, but somehow less intimidated if they’re working away near bookshops and cafés and pizzerias, instead of in some godforsaken business park. Not sure if that’s logical, but anyway here I am!

If they can salvage my beloved banger, it means I can get away for a few days to a really beautiful spot in the wilds of Wicklow where I’ll be able to get lots of writing done, so cross your fingers for me. Last time I went there, I got lost in a forest which was not my finest hour BUT I was able to use it as inspiration for a section of The Village — out next year — so it was worth it. Still, a bit too ‘method’ for my liking. I won’t wander so far this time!

This week I am so excited to bring you an interview with , an Irish writer and a subscriber to this newsletter. Antoinette has experienced lots of highs and lows (like most of us!) but she’s making a fantastic come-back with a two-book deal with Bloodhound Books. I couldn’t be more thrilled that it has worked out so brilliantly for Antoinette, and in today’s Q&A she’s been generous enough to share lots of extremely useful advice.

But first! Huge congratulations to another subscriber, Patti Manuel Go, for staging her first play, Sole Survivor! It was chosen as the season premiere of Repertory Philippines, and was staged at the end of March.

“It began as the first short story I ever wrote, Sole Survivor. I turned it into a play because I felt I could do so much more with it in that format and it was actually a really enjoyable process,” Patti tells me.

“It was truly a surreal experience,” she says. “Nothing prepares you for the thrill of seeing actors on stage speaking lines you have written, hearing the audience laugh or gasp in surprise, having people come up to you after and realize from their comments that the message you wanted to send was heard and appreciated.”

I am in awe, Patti — what an achievement. I can’t wait to see what's next for you!

✨Q&A with Antoinette Tyrrell✨

Thanks so much for doing this interview, Antoinette! It took you seven years, six manuscripts, two agents and at least 120 rejections but you finally achieved your dream with a book deal with Bloodhound Books who will publish your romcom Lucy Gallagher’s Big Move to Spain in April 2027 (huge congratulations on this incredible achievement!). Can you tell us about your journey to a book deal, and how you managed to persist in the face of rejection and set-backs?

Thanks Caroline. Like the majority of authors, my journey to publication has been long and complex! There’s a perception that the journey to publication involves writing the book, getting an agent and the six-figure book offers come pouring in. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be further from the truth for the majority of writers, and I was firmly in that majority. My first book, Home to Cavendish was published by Poolbeg back in 2019. I went into the publishing industry with such naivety, without the knowledge that to succeed takes much more than simply writing books and honing the craft.

After the publication of Home to Cavendish, I went through my wilderness period. I struggled to write another book and encountered some big life changes. I quit writing for a while.

In 2022, I came back to it and realised I needed to change to a genre that I loved, which turned out to be romcom but with a real focus on female protagonists faced with not just problems in their romantic lives but also in their jobs, their families and their friendships. I wrote another book and secured my first agent, but that book died on submission. I then wrote Lucy Gallagher’s Big Move to Spain, and with representation from my fabulous agent Ger Nichol, I finally got a two-book deal with Bloodhound Books.

Persistent rejection can feel unbearable although it does get easier. Over the years, some rejections have hurt more than others. My approach is to give myself an hour to grieve and then move on but it’s taken years to master that art and I’m still not always successful.

What do you think moved the dial the most for you in terms of achieving your writing goals and getting this deal? (E.g. working on your craft/learning about the business side of publishing/hitting on the right idea?)

Two things come to mind, the first was changing to a genre that best reflects me. I write about mid-life Irish women facing big challenges and changes but with an injection of irreverent, Irish humour. As a mid-life Irish woman who has learned not to take life too seriously, I now feel confident doing this. I’m passionate about my genre, and that has made a huge difference to my writing.

The second dial-shifter was learning about the industry. From that day in 2022 when I sat down and started writing again, I’ve consumed every nugget of information I could get my hands on about the publishing industry - podcasts, substacks, social media, my subscription to the Bookseller Newsletter etc.

Publishing is a business and authors are the foundations of that business. I believe a knowledge of what’s selling and what editors are looking for is a minimum requirement.

When I wrote the first draft of Lucy Gallagher’s Big Move to Spain I focused on Lucy’s move to Spain as a single woman over 40 and a light-hearted look at the challenges she faced, starting over. However, as I studied the market more, I realised the story was missing a romantic element. According to a recent article in The Guardian, the UK romance and sagas book category, which had for two decades made around £20m annually, leapt to a staggering £53.2m in 2022 during the pandemic, growing to £69m in 2024.

As I was basically a high-risk signing for any publishing house, coming back to publishing, writing in a different genre to where I started, and with no established sales record in my new genre, I needed to do everything I could to make myself as appealing as possible.

I started thinking about the reason Lucy moved to Spain… what if it was to show an ex-boyfriend what he’s missing? Haven’t most of us done that, wanted to show an ex who dumped us that they’ve made a huge mistake? I began to think about where that could lead if my character just went for it. I ended up having the best fun writing the romance into the story and developed a fabulous love-triangle, featuring a hot Spanish builder. Some writing days really are better than others!

You’ve been represented by two literary agents. How did you go about securing representation, and have you any advice for writers who are currently struggling to catch the attention of agents?

I put massive effort into tailoring my query letter, finding the correct comp titles and putting together a list of agents who I felt would be interested in representing my work. For the most part I was ghosted! Sorry, you’re probably not meant to say that, but I really want to help aspiring authors out there and I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by sugar-coating my experience.

When I finally got a full MS request, I let all the other agents I queried know about the it. Five of them came back seeking to read the full and I ultimately ended up with three offers on the table. But please remember, that book did not get a deal… yet!

For writers in the querying trenches, so much is out of your control, so you really have to grasp every opportunity you can. Whether that’s leveraging a full MS request, using your contacts, attending events where you can meet with agents etc. I actually wrote a blog about securing an agent outside of the traditional querying route if anyone is interested you can read it here.

You moved on from your first agent to your current agent. Can you tell us about the decision to move on/part ways, and whether having an agent who is ‘the right fit’ is important to you?

I genuinely thought once I landed my first agent, I was on a clear path to publication. Again, this is another aspect of the industry that’s rarely discussed. Most writers have at least one book that’s died on submission.

My first agent was a brilliant editor, and I was so excited to work with her, but I soon realised that for me, I need an agent with the capacity to manage my expectations and with a communication style that mirrors my own.

I can’t sing the praises enough of my agent Ger. Her communication is top notch and never once in the process of working with her have I felt I didn’t have all the information available. I spent most of my career working in corporate communications, so this is a really important part of the relationship for me. I think setting clear guidelines at the beginning is so important and it works both ways. Ger is brilliant at managing me when I get a little bit crazy and start to spiral. I really need that.

Are there any craft books/writing courses/mentors you found helpful and would recommend to aspiring authors?

Learning material that really stood out for me included completing the Curtis Brown Write Your Novel Course with Suzannah Dunn. It was a fabulous experience and taught me so much.

To learn about the publishing industry, The Publishing Rodeo podcast is terrifying but fabulous, and will teach you lots about the industry itself and the real experience of authors once they sign book deals.

And finally, is the go-to woman on everything about the publishing industry. She wrote The Business of Being a Writer and she writes The Bottom Line newsletter. I reached out to her when I was considering parting ways with my first agent, and she kindly gave me some excellent advice.

Bloodhound Books asked if you’d be interested in pitching them a Christmas romcom set in Ireland, and based on your pitch they offered you a two-book contract which means your debut will launch in April 2027 followed by your second novel in December 2027, which is incredibly exciting! Can you tell us how this two-book deal came about, and how you’re managing the workload of having TWO (!) books out next year?

Given that I was out of contract for so long and with the heavy lifting of Lucy Gallagher’s Big Move to Spain mostly finished, I really wanted to be able to relax into my next book. It was important for me to know that once I’d finish it, I wouldn’t be faced with submission again. I’ve been on submission for most of the last three years and it can really take its toil. I know the time will likely come when I’ll have to go on submission again but for now, I need a break. The incessant email-watching is exhausting.

When Bloodhound suggested an Irish Christmas romcom, I was very excited. They asked for an overview – something I’d never done for a publisher before but after a few weeks’ work, I pulled together an eight-page overview of a novel and they offered me a two-book deal based on that. It’s turned out to be amazing because I’m not a major plotter and usually begin novels with just the premise, an inciting incident and an ending. What happens in the middle unfolds as I write. With the novel I’m now working on, I have all the major plot points planned and I know where I’m going. There are still surprises being thrown up as I write, but that’s all part of the fun.

One thing I’ve always been good at is sitting down and getting the writing done. I think it comes from my career in press offices and in crisis communications where every day involved juggling ten different media deadlines all at once. There was no option but to get the work done and that discipline stands to me as a novelist.

Antoinette writes about her experiences of writing and the publishing industry and publishes a free newsletter full of advice and writing tips at https://writingmentor.net/

You can follow her on Instagram:

If you’re looking for some excellent Substack reads this week, I recommend:

✨The Crap We All Know About Publishing - by the inimitable

✨On the 'pile up' effect in agenting - another unmissable post insight from literary agent

✨Behind Every Prolific Male Author Is… a Wife by - this is a MUST READ! (Note to self: get myself a wife 😉)

What I’ve been reading/re-reading and loving:

Saoirse by Charleen Hurtubise

Everything that is Beautiful by Louise Nealon

Spinster by (which has reignited my fascination with New Yorker writer Maeve Brennan)

What Do Women Want by Erica Jong

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Right, the mechanic has just texted me a video of my car’s engine - there are problems! I better go see what the verdict is…

Caroline x

If you’re new here, welcome to this newsletter that goes out to 1.7k writers each week. I’m Caroline Madden, author of The Marriage Vendetta (99p on Kindle this month!) and The Village (April 2027). It took me more than a decade to get my first book deal, and in this newsletter I’m sharing all the things I wish I’d known back when I was getting buried under rejections!

Subscribe now

Book launches are my entire social life these days (which is fine by me!) and yesterday I was delighted to make it to Dubray’s on Dublin’s Grafton Street for the launch of Louise Nealon’s second novel Everything that is Beautiful.

I adored her debut Snowflake so Everything that is Beautiful has gone straight to the top of my towering TBR pile. I also got to meet up with some of my Bonnier/Eriu imprint siblings which is one of my favourite parts of being a writer.

This week, I’ve done a deep dive into the novelists who are currently on the New York Times bestseller lists to see which literary agents they’re represented by, and also to see if any of those agents are open to submissions…

I fell down a lot of fascinating rabbit holes in the process, and found out several things that surprised/interested me:

✨Many of these heavy hitter agents are seeking new clients!

✨Some bestsellers are represented by relatively low profile agents I’d never heard of, but who sound like they're brilliant champions of their clients’ work

✨Many bestselling authors had a very difficult road to publication filled with rejection and disappointment before eventually achieving huge success

✨A number of current NYT bestsellers were originally self published and were approached by agents once they found success themselves.

✨One of the most successful current NYT bestsellers (three HUGE hits and two massively successful film adaptations) originally found it impossible to get an agent: “So after three years of not being able to get any traction with literary agents, I had one knocking on my door!”

✨Most of these agents have LOTS of bestsellers on their roster. One agent has represented almost 200 NYT bestselling titles.

I was also delighted to discover that my own agent represents a current NYT bestseller! (And please bear in mind, around this time last year I was once again floundering without an agent.)

So here are 12 literary agents (spread across the US, Canada and the UK) who represent current New York Times bestselling novelists, and who are looking for the next big thing:

Read more