Hi everyone,
Today I’m delighted to welcome Charlotte Duckworth to The Honest Editor! I have long admired Charlotte’s ability to speak honestly about the ups and downs of publishing, and today she shares her thoughts about communication - how publishers communicate with their writers, how writers might be feeling in today’s climate (obviously this is her take on it and neither of us presume to know how everyone out there feels!) and what sort of things could be helpful for publishers to know when it comes to giving their authors information.
I hope you find it useful - I certainly did - and please feel free as always to share your own thoughts on this subject in the comments.
Hi Charlotte, welcome to the Honest Editor. Thanks so much for being here. Please can you tell us a bit about yourself and your publishing journey so far?
Hello and thanks so much for having me! I’m the author of eight novels, all traditionally published, and like most writers, I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I even submitted a book to Penguin when I was about twelve, and they wrote back - very nicely - suggesting that I read it out to my class at school. Needless to say I did not take them up on this (can you imagine?)!
I was lucky to sign with my agent in my early twenties, but the first three books I wrote didn’t sell to publishers (two went out on submission and one had near-misses, and the third wasn’t good enough to go out). So I had a break from writing for a bit and set up a business in a different field.
Then, after I had my daughter, I sold my business and decided it was ‘now or never’ and time to try writing again. To get myself out of the house, I signed up for the Faber Academy course - which was fantastic - and wrote a draft of my debut in ten weeks. By the time the course was finished, I had a book deal!
I have published six psychological suspense novels with Quercus, including my latest, Connie, which came out earlier this year. But during lockdown I also wrote a book club novel, The One That Got Away, which sold in both the UK & the US and around the world too. That was published under a pseudonym, Charlotte Rixon, as well as a second novel, After The Fire.
The One That Got Away was one of those hallowed ‘six-figure deals’, with film rights sold etc, and it changed my life in lots of ways. I learnt a lot about myself and about publishing from that experience, and I try to share as much as I can through my own blog.
Thanks so much for sharing your journey. Today I wanted to talk a bit about communication with you. As an author, how do you like a publisher to communicate with you? For example, do you want to be kept up to date with things like sales figures, or do you prefer not to know?
Oh this is such a brilliant topic! I speak to lots of authors and this is the thing that comes up the most when they are feeling frustrated: lack of communication, inconsistent communication, confusing communication. My theory is that publishers care deeply about their authors and don’t want to worry or upset them, so when things aren’t going as well as everyone had hoped or they don’t have good news to share, they tend to disengage a little. And this sends authors into panic - their (imaginative!) brains start filling in the gaps. I have certainly been guilty of this.
It is very hard for authors to understand the breadth and scope of what a publishing team does for their book. We really have no idea. I remember a few years ago hearing that Orion had started a ‘Debut Author Academy’ programme to onboard new authors and I thought this was such a brilliant idea. Not sure if they are still doing it. But many authors really don’t understand the nitty gritty of publishing and the more transparency, the better. Things like your Substack are so helpful!
I also think authors are really nervous to contact their editors. I think it would be really helpful if editors explained that it’s totally fine to drop them a line if they are worried or don’t understand something - no question too silly, that kind of thing! I have been really lucky with my editors who are all INCREDIBLE at communication and never make me feel stupid for asking about things, but even then, I can be shy at times.
As for me, I like to know everything - lol. I am incredibly interested in everything to do with my books so am always happy to hear from my editors. But at the same time, I do feel as though the sales side of things is the publisher’s responsibility, so weirdly, I am less interested in this. I feel as though the point of being trad-pubbed is that you are handing the sales over to the publisher. So although I like to be kept informed, it’s not something I’d be emailing weekly for updates on.
You run a brilliant website yourself and speak to lots of authors in the writing community. What do you think the general vibe is at the moment when it comes to how authors are feeling?
Thank you! I love my blog and get such a great response from it.
A lot of authors are having a hard time at the moment. I think the industry is in a really interesting transition phase, with lots of change, and it feels - to authors, at least - as though editors have become quite wary and are acquiring less right now. There’s the AI stuff which has really blown up over the past few weeks, but also the challenging retail space, where it’s harder than ever to get books into shops.
The problem with a job like writing is that as soon as you achieve one goal, the goalposts shift and then you want something else. So it can feel as though authors are never happy with how their careers are going. I wish we took more time to reflect on our successes: this is something I’m trying really hard to do. It’s important to accept that it’s not a linear career.
What could publishers do to help authors feel more secure / at ease in 2026?
I honestly think it all comes down to frank communication. I know that authors can be very emotional and I understand that publishers sometimes think it’s better not to hit them with bad news, but I actually wonder if this makes things worse. I think it’s better to treat authors like grown-ups and be honest with them about how challenging things can be. That way, debuts especially won’t feel like a failure if, for example, their book doesn’t get into a supermarket.
I also think that when authors are acquired it would be good to share more detail about the publisher’s realistic expectations for the book.
Of course, publishing can be completely unpredictable and you never know which books might suddenly take off, but when I speak to debuts many of them honestly believe that their book should be a bestseller, despite it clearly not being one of the priority titles for that publisher. When they come back down to earth, they find it really hard. And I would wager - harder than if they had known the likely trajectory from the outset.
I think a roadmap of exactly what to expect from acquisition to publication would be so helpful too. E.g: will my book get printed proofs or not? When will the PR team reach out to the media? When will my book go up on Netgalley? For how long will my book be supported with ads? Etc, etc.
And I’m not sure this is the publisher’s job, but I also think it would be really helpful for more authors to understand that one book is not your entire career. And that just because your debut book doesn’t take off, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for you. We have to keep adapting and pivoting and writing. As I said, publishing is unpredictable and you really never know what will happen next!
Do you think it is important for writers to have multiple streams of income, and why? How do you juggle this yourself?
I did an Arvon course years and years ago and one of the authors running it told me that she didn’t know of any authors who didn’t have either a) a rich spouse or b) a private income. I had no idea what a private income was and I’ve never had a rich spouse, so it was a bit of a shock!
But once I figured out what she was getting at, it was super helpful information. I had one year when I wrote full time, just after I got my big US deal, and actually, I really didn’t enjoy it. I blogged about that more here. But to me, it’s incredibly important to have another source of income. I think writing takes its toll on you in many ways and worrying about money is the last thing you need on top of that.
I run my own web design business, and I work exclusively with authors. Which I love for many reasons, but mostly because it means I can separate my writing from my need to pay the bills.
Of course, the juggle is really hard sometimes, especially if you have kids too. But most people write their first book while working another job, and if you really love writing, then you would do it for free anyway. And if you don’t really love writing, then you really shouldn’t be pursuing a career as an author!
What one thing do you wish publishers knew about authors?
That we are in awe of you!
I’m not someone who generally gets ‘star-struck’ but to me, my editors are superhumans and I really look up to them. Editing is such a difficult, specific skill. Editors don’t get enough credit for the work they do on books.
But again, I think being in awe of your editor does make it hard to just ‘reach out’ - we have this feeling that our editor is an Incredibly Busy and Important Person and we mustn’t bother them unduly. This is where the ‘it’s OK to email us first’ message could really be strengthened.
What advice would you give to an author just starting out?
Absolutely make friends with as many fellow authors as you can. These people will be your lifesavers. Other people just don’t understand the job.
Also, save your emotional responses for your author friends, and keep your dealings with your editor and agent professional.
They want your book to succeed and if things aren’t going the way you’d hope, it’s rarely anything specific they have or haven’t done. Publishing is incredibly competitive at all stages. You have to make peace with this or you will drive yourself mad.
On a more pragmatic note, I also strongly advise setting up your author platform as soon as possible. I have lots of advice about this on my blog. I think building a strong, recognisably human (!) author brand is more important than ever, for obvious reasons.
What is next for you in your writing career?
I’ve been having a little break over the summer, which I have loved. I’ve published eight books in eight years - back-to-back - and I hadn’t really realised how tired I was. I have a finished draft of a novel that needs editing so that will be the first thing on my plate when I start the ‘new term’ in September. I also have a couple of other novel ideas that have been pestering me! Watch this space 😊
Thank you so much, Charlotte, for your candid responses and for all the work you do to help demystify publishing!
What do you think about the way publishing communicates? How are you feeling as a writer at the moment? Feel free to comment below.
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Phoebe x
Thanks to Charlotte for an excellent post, and thoroughly recommend her blog too. I'd like to say that for all the authors I know, the toughest and most soul-destroying part of publishing comes during submission - whether to agents or to publishers. 'Ghosting' appears now to be the norm and as writers, this void is really difficult to navigate. A simple pass is far more useful than an endless 'nothing', where, as Charlotte writes, our minds fill in the gaps negatively. I understand that editors and agents are extremely busy, and that the number of submissions has grown, but a simple, form rejection email takes no more than a click and gives the writer completion and the ability to move on.
Thank you for having me!