There is no single way into publishing.
Katie Tallo is a particularly good example of that.
Before becoming the bestselling author of Dark August and, most recently, Where Her Secrets Lie, Katie spent decades working as a screenwriter and director. She had always wanted to write a novel. She just hadn’t done it yet.
Then she did.
That first manuscript went on to win an international competition for unpublished women writers. It helped Katie find the literary agent who still represents her today.
And then something happened that writers don’t always hear about in the neat versions of publishing success stories:
They couldn’t sell the book.
Katie wrote another one.
That novel became Dark August, her bestselling debut.
It was one of several refreshingly candid moments from our first Lucinda Literary Conversations, where Katie joined Lucinda Literary agent Lauren Eldridge to talk about writing, agents, publishing, changing genres, finding your voice, and what she has learned along the way.
Lauren also brings that same agent-side perspective to writers as an instructor in our Book Publishing Accelerators program.
The conversation covered plenty of ground, but these are the lessons that stayed with us—and, importantly, they apply well beyond thriller writers or writers at Katie’s particular stage of their careers.
The short version: 7 lessons for all writers
- You don’t have to feel completely ready before you begin.
- Research matters when you’re approaching literary agents.
- Professional feedback serves a different purpose from encouragement from friends and family.
- Not everything you write needs to survive into the finished book.
- A good agent gives you context, not a formula to follow.
- Chasing publishing trends is rarely a good reason to write a book.
- You get better by continuing to write.
Here’s what we mean.
1. You don’t have to know exactly what you’re doing to start
Katie had wanted to write a novel since she was a child. But years became decades while she thought and talked about doing it.
Part of the problem was simple: she’d written screenplays, but she didn’t know how to write a novel.
Eventually, she stopped waiting to know.
She started with a situation—characters trapped after a car crash—and followed them to see where the story went. That exercise became a manuscript. She still wasn’t entirely sure she had written a novel when she entered it into the Mslexia competition.
Then it won.
There’s an important distinction here for writers: confidence doesn’t always come before the work. Sometimes the work has to come first.
You may not know whether the idea will hold up for 80,000 words. You may not know whether you have found your voice. You may not know if the book is commercially viable.
Some of those answers only become available once you’ve written enough to find them.
2. When it comes to literary agents, do your homework
Katie’s route to her agent sounds almost impossibly simple.
She was reading Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars, admired the way the novel bent conventions, and recognized something in it that connected to her own manuscript. She looked up Heller’s agent and approached him specifically because of that connection.
Her query was only a few lines long.
That doesn’t mean every writer should now send a four-line query.
The more useful lesson is why she queried him in the first place.
There was a genuine reason she thought her work might suit his list.
And before signing with him, Katie did another smart thing: she researched the authors he represented and contacted some of them to ask about their experience.
Lauren pointed this out during their conversation. Long before Katie understood much about the publishing business, she was already doing several things well: researching the landscape, being thoughtful about whom she approached, and looking beyond the simple question of whether an agent was interested in her.
For all writers querying agents, that’s worth remembering.
The goal isn’t simply to find an agent.
It’s to find an agent who understands what you’re trying to do and who you can trust with a long-term writing career.
3. Get feedback from people who know how to diagnose a story
Before querying, Katie knew she needed someone other than friends and family to read her manuscript, so she hired a professional editor.
Later in the conversation, she returned to the same point when talking about beta readers.
Friends and family can be wonderful sources of encouragement. Sometimes, as Katie admitted, hearing someone say, “It’s really good” is exactly what a writer emotionally needs.
But encouragement and editorial feedback aren’t the same thing.
Katie’s preference is to seek readers who have some professional understanding of story—people who can tell you not simply whether they liked something, but why something isn’t working and what may be causing the problem.
For all writers, the question to ask when choosing a reader is:
What do I need from this person?
If you need reassurance, that’s one thing.
If you need to know why the middle of the novel is losing momentum, whether the character’s motivation makes sense, or which storyline deserves more space, choose someone equipped to answer that.
4. Some writing exists to help you find the book—and can still be cut
One of the most useful craft discussions came when Katie talked about writing Where Her Secrets Lie.
Moving away from characters she’d lived with for years was difficult. She went through draft after draft while figuring out who her new protagonist, Lenny Bird, really was.
At one point, the novel contained a substantial storyline involving Lenny visiting her father in a retirement home alongside another thread involving a crime family.
Katie’s agent saw the stronger book inside those drafts. His advice was essentially: the crime-family story is where the energy is. Follow it.
Katie eventually stripped much of the other material away.
But that writing hadn’t been pointless.
She needed some of it to understand the character.
That’s an enormously freeing idea for writers.
Not every page you write has to earn a place in the published book to have done its job.
Sometimes a chapter teaches you who a character is. Sometimes a backstory helps you understand a motivation. Sometimes an entire subplot takes you far enough into the story to realise that it doesn’t belong there.
Revision isn’t always fixing bad writing.
Sometimes it’s finally seeing what the book is really about.
5. A literary agent should give you information—not tell you what to care about
Katie described her agent relationship in a way we wish more writers heard before they begin querying.
He knows the industry. That’s his job.
He can tell her where an idea may fit in the market, what’s happening in publishing, or whether something feels timely.
But his recurring advice is much simpler: write what you’re excited about.
That doesn’t mean the market is irrelevant. It means market information and creative decision-making have different jobs.
A strong publishing partner can help you understand the landscape without asking you to hand over your instincts.
Lauren echoed that agent-author dynamic throughout the conversation: an agent can help a writer see what’s working, understand what publishers are looking for, strengthen positioning, and make more informed choices.
That’s also a central part of what Lauren teaches inside Book Publishing Accelerators, where writers work directly with publishing professionals to better understand the business around the book—not just the writing itself.
6. Don’t build your book around today’s trend
Katie’s final piece of advice may have been the simplest.
Don’t chase the trend.
Publishing moves too slowly.
A book can take years to write. Then it may take time to sell. Then comes editing, copyediting, proofreading, cover design, production, and publication.
By the time a writer identifies what’s popular, writes a book to match it, and gets that book into the marketplace, the conversation may already have moved elsewhere.
Katie has watched different areas of the mystery and thriller market grow—from cozy mysteries to darker horror-inflected thrillers—but that isn’t how she decides what to write.
She follows what genuinely interests her.
Her genre has even shifted around her characters. With Where Her Secrets Lie, she began with Lenny Bird, a woman in her seventies inspired in part by conversations with Katie’s mother. The crime story emerged from who Lenny was and the world around her.
Character first. Genre second.
For all writers, that may be a more useful way to think about the market: know what’s happening, certainly. But don’t mistake awareness for instruction.
7. Keep writing. It really is part of the answer.
Perhaps the best lesson from Katie’s story isn’t the contest win, the agent, the bestseller lists, or the book deals that followed.
It’s what happened in between.
Her first novel won a major competition.
She found an agent.
They couldn’t sell it.
So she wrote another book.
Later, after building a successful trilogy, she changed protagonists. She changed perspective. She experimented within her genre. She wrote drafts that didn’t work. She cut material. She found a stronger story. Now she’s moving again into darker thriller territory because that’s what currently excites her.
Katie was also candid about the parts of publishing she deliberately tries not to let into the writing room. Reviews, sales, and reader reactions are largely outside her control once the book is published.
What can she control?
The next page.
The next book.
The work.
As she put it during the conversation, you only get better by writing.
For writers at almost any stage—starting a first manuscript, querying agents, revising after feedback, or wondering what to write next—that may be the lesson worth keeping closest.
Keep going. But stay curious enough to keep learning as you do.
If these lessons have you thinking more seriously about your own path to publication, Book Publishing Accelerators is designed to help you take the next step.
Beginning September 22, 2026, this immersive 12-week program gives writers direct access to literary agents, bestselling writers, and experienced publishing professionals who can help you better understand how the industry works—and how to position your own work more strategically.
You’ll work on everything from your big idea and market positioning to your pitch, submission materials, author platform, and publishing strategy, with live feedback and practical guidance along the way.
Whether you have a book idea, a proposal, a manuscript in progress, or you’ve already begun querying, Accelerators is designed to help you move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
Ready to take your book and your publishing goals more seriously?
