We’re interrupting your regularly scheduled media and marketing newsletter for something a little different today. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know my bookish side has slowly been taking over my Media Maven side. And today, I’m letting it because I have some news that’s WAY too big to keep to my bookish corner of the internet. I GOT A TWO-BOOK PUBLISHING DEAL!My debut novel, Zoe’s Got Baggage, is going to be published by Minotaur Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, part of Macmillan! If you’re a thriller reader, you probably know Minotaur. They publish some incredible mystery and thriller authors, and now somehow I’m going to be one of them. WHAT?! This whole journey started because I joined a book club. February 2025In February 2025, The Creepy Book Club picked Cross My Heart by Megan Collins as our book of the month. During our meeting, Megan mentioned that she mentors aspiring thriller writers. I said, “Say less.” April 2025I’d signed up to work with her and Jericho Writers, and for the next year, I learned how to write a thriller. Spoiler alert: Writing a thriller is WAY harder than reading one. Somewhere along the way, I created Zoe Hensley, a Wellington boutique manager whose life gets turned upside down when an influencer returns a designer handbag with blood inside it. Then the influencer goes missing, a man turns up dead, and things get a little messy. And just like that, Zoe’s Got Baggage was born. Then came a piece of advice that changed everything. February 2026I attended The Creepy Retreat, where I met two women who write thrillers together under the pen name Addison McKnight. (Sidenote: They are a huge ball of fun.) They told me I needed to go to ThrillerFest in New York City. Basically, you fly to New York, sit across from literary agents, and try to convince them your book is worth representing. I took their advice and went in April. I pitched my book to agents, crossed my fingers, and entered every writer’s favorite phase of the publishing process. WAITING. Checking my email. Refreshing my inbox. Checking again in case something magically appeared in the last hour. And then someone said yes. Well, sort of. June 2026In June, I heard back from a literary agent who liked my book. BUT… she had notes. She wanted changes to the beginning, the pacing, and how quickly the action started. So I went back to work. I tightened the opening, moved up the inciting incident, and made the story move faster. Then I sent it back and returned to my favorite hobby: obsessively checking my email. July 2026SHE LOVED THE REVISIONS and she offered to represent me! I had a literary agent! For anyone unfamiliar with publishing, a literary agent represents authors and pitches their books to publishers, hoping to land a publishing deal. And that’s exactly what happened next. August 2026My agent started pitching Zoe’s Got Baggage to publishers. More waiting. More email refreshing. More wondering whether anyone would want to publish this book I’d spent so much time writing. September 2026I got an email from my agent with the subject line: “forward momentum and feedback from St Martin’s” An editor was interested! BUT… you guessed it. She wanted changes. This time, the changes were bigger. I added more twists and turns, changed a major plot point, and gave certain characters more important roles in the story. I worked on the revisions, sent the synopsis back, and hoped for the best. And then came THE email. October 2026A couple of weeks later, an email from my literary agent popped into my inbox. The subject line: Offer from Minotaur MINOTAUR. BOOKS. They wanted to publish Zoe’s Got Baggage… AND THEY WANTED A SECOND BOOK, TOO! I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that something that started with a book club meeting turned into a two-book deal with a major publisher. So, what’s next?More writing. More revisions. More learning about an industry I’ve spent years following as a reader and book content creator. And yes, apparently I have to write ANOTHER BOOK. We’re aiming for a publication date in the Spring or Summer of 2028… and you better believe I’ll be sharing the behind-the-scenes of this whole experience. I also have to give a HUGE thank-you to Megan Collins for helping me learn how to write a thriller, the magnetic women behind Addison McKnight and Courtney Psak for convincing me to go to PitchFest, Ashley and Emily from The Creepy Book Club for starting this whole chain of events, and my literary agent, Ellen at Stonesong, for believing in me and helping make this happen. And THANK YOU for being part of my bookish corner of the internet. I’ve spent so much time talking about other people’s books, and it’s pretty surreal to think I’ll eventually be talking about my own. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all of this, it’s that sometimes the biggest opportunities come from the smallest decisions. Like joining a book club or taking someone’s advice to go to a writing conference. Christina P.S. If you want the full play-by-play, complete with pictures, emails, and a few questionable facial expressions, make sure to subscribe to my Substack. |
