I HAVE A BOOK DEAL.

Part celebration, part FAQ, part worry journal.

Here it is, the other announcement that every single debut author to ever live* dreams about making.

I. HAVE. A. BOOK. DEAL!

Cue the second Kermit arm-wave gif I’ve shared in a calendar year.

I am absolutely still using this reaction gif for every positive development in my life.

Yes, it’s a real live book deal, with a Publishers Marketplace announcement and everything. At the end of July, after being on submission for about six months, I signed a deal with Heliotrope Books, a New York-based independent publisher. My debut novel, BE WELL, will be published in June 2026. That’s just in time for you to gift it to some bright-eyed young thang graduating from college next year, or to bring with you as an unhinged beach read when you take your own tired self on vacation.

For those of you sane people not trying to write, query, or sell a book right now, this is the holy grail for writers on the so-called “traditional” book publishing journey: a deal announcement on Publishers Marketplace.

There are so many people I need to thank for getting me to this moment.

• First, my agent Nick, who is my greatest champion. He tells anyone who will listen about how he laughed out loud while reading the manuscript for the first time on a flight.

• Naomi, my editor at Heliotrope, for believing so wholeheartedly in BE WELL. She said some wonderful things about my writing as we were discussing the contract terms, like “your writing touches a nerve and makes it dance.”

• My developmental editor Leslie Lehr, who lovingly ripped my manuscript apart back in summer 2023, and forced me to write a much better book.

• My husband, the original alpha reader, who read the very first draft I was comfortable showing anyone, pointed out timeline discrepancies with painstaking detail, and bought dress socks with books on them to wear on days I received good book news.

• My beta readers (you know who you are) who gave me both insightful feedback and encouragement on a later version of my book that powered me through multiple rounds of revisions.

• My writing community, aka the folks I’ve met through the San Diego Fiction Writers group, the Shit No One Tells You About Writing Deep Dive cohort, the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, and more.

• My family and friends, who have frequently told me I’m a good writer. One day I will fully believe them.

For anyone who is curious about what it’s like to sign a book deal with an indie publisher, here’s a little FAQ I’ve put together.

What happens now?

Right now, my editor is in the process of reviewing my manuscript and making her own editorial notes. Simultaneously, we’re all brainstorming book cover ideas, and even done a few mock-ups, which has been fun. I’m procrastinating on making an author TikTok account, even though it’ll probably connect me with a whole new world of reader audiences, because my overthinking elder millennial brain has a lot going on right now, OK? Also, I’ll soon be meeting with a publicist my agent recommended, who can give me a DIY marketing and publicity plan for me to take on myself.

A note on that: why am I paying an outside publicist if I’m already a PR person myself? Answer: because I am smart enough to admit that while I can do PR for a number of industries, I’ve never publicized a book before, let alone my own book, and it feels like the investment is worth it.

What happens after that?

Good question. I’m learning new things every day. But I do know that before the end of the year, I should have some digital and maybe print galleys/ARCs (advanced reader copies), which are almost-final versions of the book sent out before publication for review and promotional purposes.

When’s your book coming out?

I am SO glad that I can finally answer that. The answer is sometime in June 2026! I’ll tell you all where you can pre-order and give me a fighting chance at bestseller lists when the time comes. I cannot emphasize enough how important pre-orders are, so prepare to be spammed with pre-order links as soon as those are available.

But really, how did it feel to sign a book deal?

The days leading up to the contract signing were a blur of breathless excitement and constant inbox refreshment. The day of the contract signing was dominated by a feeling of elation combined with disbelief–I didn’t want to feel the crushing hurt if something went wrong, so I almost refused to believe it was real until the Publishers Marketplace announcement went live. The days after the contract signing have been…well, spin the emotions wheel.

I’ve loved the positive attention and congratulations since I announced. It’s buoyed me through some terrible work days, which have mostly been made terrible by this terrible presidential administration. It’s given me something to work on and look forward to, especially with all that’s going on in the world.

It’s also opened up an entirely new can of worry worms, which are not nearly as fun as gummy worms but just as sticky.

She has a book deal! She is so excited, but her brain is already coming up with some fantastically creative worst-case scenarios!

Some fun examples of my anxious thoughts, in order of severity:

• What if I don’t publicize the book well enough and it makes me doubt everything about myself professionally because I actually do PR for a living?

• What if something uniquely awful** happens in the world on the day my book is supposed to publish?

• What if nobody shows up to my book launch event and I’m reading excerpts to a bored bookstore employee and someone who’s just in there to use the Wifi?

• What if someone in charge at one of the locations mentioned in the book is offended by how it’s portrayed and bans me for life?

• What if I’m bad at TikTok and all the BookTokers call me cheugy*** or something?

• What if people say mean things about me and the book online, and I have to move into a hermit cave?

• What if every review I get is bad and I’m forced to excerpt the bejesus out of the least worst to have something on the back jacket? (“This is…certainly…a book.” - Kirkus)

• What if nobody wants to buy the book, and my future grandchildren don’t mention this chapter of my life in my obituary because it’s kind of embarrassing? (Nobody wants to write “she had a book published but it didn’t sell very well, because she was frankly funnier and better spoken in-person, at least before the dementia set in.”)

• What if there’s a typo in the book once it’s printed?

Honestly, writing all those out helped my anxiety, and if you’re anywhere in the book-writing process, I hope it helped with yours too. It’s almost as if worry journaling is something we should be doing on a regular basis.

As I’ve said elsewhere online, BE WELL is living, breathing, soon-to-be-published proof that sometimes good things happen to people who write books, even if they take a while. To everyone who has ever thought about writing a book: please, write the damn book. Even if it’s a sentence a day, even if you rewrite it several times, even if you get dozens of rejections. Just keep going. Mine took almost 6 years to get to this point. It’s never too late, progress isn’t linear, and nothing is wasted when it comes to creative effort.

And if you are writing/querying/on submission with a book right now: hang in there. You’ve got this.

Above all, I’m incredibly grateful to be here at this point. I cannot wait for BE WELL to get out in the world, and pour all sorts of creative energy into promoting it.

*Obviously not really, I know some incredibly talented self-publish-only authors who have never lost sleep over being on submission.

**Spoiler: uniquely awful things happen every single day. Sometimes the news cycle and social media pays a lot of attention to them, sometimes they go unnoticed. All are significant.

***Not a word, and I will die on this hill.