Dear Pen Pals,
If you’re here, you’re probably a writer looking for support (or you’re our moms—hey moms). Whether you’re looking for editorial advice, marketing guidance, community, or all of the above, we want to be the pals that help your goals come to fruition.
Publishing is changing, and more and more of the onus for success is being put on aspiring authors. And to set the mood, because we both love to swear: It’s fucking hard and puts a lot of pressure on writers.
Which brings us to why we’re all here. We’re Pip and Emily, two writers, publishing professionals, and longtime besties. Your to-do list might be longer than the first draft of Emily’s last book (Too long, friends. Far too long.), but you’ve got us now.
Pip here introducing Emily (she/her) because she undersells herself and originally wrote this! Emily is a professional ghostwriter, editor, and book coach who also writes rad as hell fantasy novels. She has ghostwritten book proposals that have sold for six figures and books for some of the biggest publishers in the world, and has worked with hundreds of authors as they write, edit, and publish their stories. She’s incredibly kind while also being tough-love honest—she sincerely wants your project to succeed, and she’s absolutely the person you want on your side to do it. I’ve known Emily for over a decade, and though her knowledge only continues to grow, she has an intuition about storytelling and structure that’s invaluable. APPRECIATE HER OR I’LL FIGHT YOU.
(Emily is literally hiding under her desk as she reads this—all of you should prepare for that feeling, because I’m going to bully all of you into talking yourselves up 😠)
Pip (they/he) is a professional marketer and publicist who has worked in the industry for over six years, previously at HarperCollins and Penguin Random House and currently at Hay House as a publicist and influencer strategist. He also writes novels and screenplays and is a hell of a DM for our D&D campaign. Pip is rapier-sharp when it comes to marketing strategy, and has a remarkable ability to take high-level, intimidating concepts and make them seem totally doable, even if you have no idea what you’re doing. Geeking out over social media algorithms is one of Pip’s strengths, and take Emily’s word for it—he will bully you into improving your social media presence, and he will make you publicly say nice things about yourself even when it makes you feel uncomfortable. (Yeah, this is Emily writing Pip’s intro. Payback’s a bitch, and getting your best friend to introduce you to strangers is admittedly the best way to make sure people are seeing exactly what makes you so great.)
What to Expect From Pen Pals
We know firsthand what a steep learning curve there is when it comes to writing, publishing, and marketing books (and look, we both live in Colorado, so steep inclines are kind of the name of the game around here). We work with authors who struggle to stand out in an overly-crowded industry.
This twice-a-month newsletter has three aims:
Writing - To give you tips and tricks to help you grow as a writer while writing, editing, and constructing your outline, manuscript, book proposal, or query package.
Marketing - To help you resolve fears and anxiety around self-promotion and social media while providing strategies for success
Community - To remind you on a regular basis that you are not alone. There is an entire community of writers out there feeling what you’re feeling, and we’re here to help connect you to them.
Each newsletter, we’ll alternate focus between editorial and marketing, answering questions that come from you—yes, you, dear readers! (The first few questions are definitely not us anonymized that would be ridiculous) We’ll also include fun stuff like writing tips, social media trend roundups, book recommendations, shameless plugs to highlight our subscribers’ achievements/social media, and more!
Have a specific question for us? Submit it to this Google form and we’ll answer in an upcoming newsletter. Don’t worry, you can do it anonymously, so please feel free to ask us about the structural intricacies of erotica if that’s what you really want to know about.
You’re one of our Pen Pals now, and that means you’ve already taken an amazing first step. Through encouraging guidance (and probably a little gentle bullying from Pip), you’re on your way to learning how to overcome your anxieties, create new strategies, grow as a writer, and launch a kickass book that your readers will love.
We can’t wait to celebrate with (or bully) you every step of the way.
Love, your new Pen Pals,
Em & Pip
