Angie Barrett's Blog

 

With the upcoming release of my very first non-fiction book, I've been talking to many people. One of the questions I get asked a lot is: How do I get MY book published?

I know many people want me to say something simple like, write a book, find a publisher then, voila! And maybe that's the way it is for some authors. I would guess, and based on my experiences and the experiences of my writer friends, that a straight and easy path to publication isn't the norm. 

You do need to write the book. You do need to look for publishers or agents. You also have to develop a thick skin, be ready for rejection, set backs and practice patience. You also need to, eventually, learn about building a platform, navigating social media and marketing in general.

I've been writing professionally for eighteen years. When I say professionally, I mean, I've been writing with the primary goal of getting work published. That doesn't mean that everything I've written has been or will ever be published. In fact, I have a hard drive full of never-to-be-published work. I consider those manuscripts (some finished, some not) casualties in the journey of publishing. It's part of growing as an author and learning the craft. It still sucks to leave hard work behind. 

I wrote my very first "serious" novel when I was on maternity leave with my daughter. I was "seriously" sleep deprived and in over my head with motherhood, but somehow that manuscript got me my first agent. Believe it or not, that first manuscript is one of the casualties of my journey. It sits on my hard drive never to see the light of day. Why? Simply...it was my first novel. I wasn't ready to be a published author and that manuscript was far from meeting publisher standards.

I moved on to my second agent a couple of years later with some new skills and many completed "practice runs" novels. My second agent was very hands on and we worked on edits for one of my books for many years. Yes, you read that right...years. 

I'm not a very patient person. I'd like to thank my ADHD for that. I love to keep things moving but that's not really how traditional publishing works. Being new to the world of publishing, I didn't really understand how much my pace clashed with the way things are and have always been. Slow. Careful. Calculated.

Being fast, impatient and ready for more...I found my own publisher. 

Going back, 2009, to be exact, I decided that I wanted to speed ahead of my agent and sold my first "spicy" novella to Samhain Publishing. Then I sold my second, third...four...so on and my agent and I parted ways. I thought for sure that I was on the brink of breaking out. 

Fast-forward a few years and Samhain ceased to exist, my books all came down from various retailers and I was starting over...or at least that's how it felt. No breaking out. No books for sale. Hard work down the drain. 

Thanks, again, to my ADHD, I don't give up. 

I got a new agent with a focus on thriller writing and I found myself a new home for my previously published books. That publisher is Entangled Publishing who I continue to work with to this day. My agent and I ended up parting ways amicably a little while later and I was full speed ahead in my writing journey. 

Back on the wagon and absolutely positive I was going to break through and become a best seller. 

I self-published five books, working with my editor from Samhain and her book packaging company, in a short amount of time. I loved the freedom but not the upfront cost so I found another publisher. 

Totally Entwined Publishing Group were happy to match my pace and I published quite a few books through them, all the while working on projects with Entangled Publishing and Cleis Press who published some of my short stories in their anthologies. 

It was the Cleis Press publications that earned me acknowledgement from the Canadian Council for the Arts as a bonafide author. 

So, as a tally, to date, I have over 25 spicy titles published under my pen name, plus four short stories in various anthologies, and 1 young adult novel. I have another YA novel in the developmental trenches with Entangled and my very first non-fiction book will be out in January from Pembroke Publishers.

I've written a number of YA books that are looking for a home still. 

I've travelled to many conferences and networked while there. In fact, I pitched my Classroom Management book to Pembroke Publishers last year and here I am with a new book coming out soon. 

All through my journey, I've never stopped learning, inviting feedback, digesting critical responses and pushing myself forward, always reaching for that golden ring, certain I was just inches away from being a world famous author.

For a long time, what I'd already accomplished was never enough. I wanted more, more, more. I never once took a moment to appreciate what my hard work had earned me. 

All of this momentum has not been without cost. I pushed myself so hard and worked so fast that I rushed head first into burnout. Burn out was something other authors got, not me. Yeah, right. 

Burnout, my friends, is no joke. I could not motivate myself to write. I lost my drive. My passion disappeared. I was disillusioned. Exhausted. Over the last two years I've been reading more than I've been writing and feeling guilty as heck about it. 

It's taken time and a lot of therapy to say now that I'm proud of what I've done. I've been validated repeatedly by people in the publishing industry who I respect and admire. I've achieved things that I dreamed of doing since I was a child. 

It took me a long time to be satisfied with holding my books in my hands rather than measuring my worth as an author by how many I've sold.

So, this is me slowing down. Rediscovering my love of writing. Reigniting the joy of creation. Choosing the next project with more deliberation and giving myself room to breathe. 

If you'd like to support my writing, you can find my new book, How to Win at Classroom Management in Six Easy Steps on preorder at all kinds of retailers. LINK

Yes, I know, I've been absent for a while. 

Burn out is real. It's soul crushing. 

Also, since 2021, I wrote and published 15 novels under my pen name, wrote five or more novels that have been trunked and slowly died inside.

I was also experiencing some very personal, very traumatic, mental health challenges in my family. I am the of the sandwich generation so it's coming from both sides. Lucky me. 

Not to mention working a full time teaching job, a side gig facilitating at OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and navigating the, very broken, Ontario Health Care System. Can someone say ADHD?

Miraculously, I have also been gifted the amazing opportunity to share my learning and experiences in my book (releasing early 2026), called...

**Teaching is hard but classroom management doesn’t have to be.**

Teaching is hard. It’s trial by fire. No matter how much training educators experience, how much theory they devour, nothing compares to the reality of managing their own classroom. In this practical guide, Angie Barrett shares her tried and tested teaching strategies in six easy steps. You’ll discover a game plan for success, personal and colleague-shared experiences, tips and tricks, as well as troubleshooting through real classroom examples. Angie’s approach to classroom management will appeal to any educator who may be struggling with, or pre-emptively dreading, the classroom experience.

Coming in January 2026 — Pre-order today!

Amazon

Indigo

It's Release Day!!!


Buy your copy here from a preferred retailer! 
Also, I'm running a contest to win a $25 Amazon GCEnter Here

Here's the release week line up of blogs that are hosting me! Thanks Chapter-by-Chapter for putting this all together. Also thank you to Riki Cleveland and Alex Mathew at Entangled Teen for also organizing my release week shenanigans.

*These are general links for now. I will update them as the posts go live.

February 1, 2020-June Reads Books-Review

February 1, 2020-Struck by Stories-Review

February 1, 2020-fierymermaidbooks-Review

February 1, 2020-I’m Shelf-ish-Guest Post

February 1, 2020-What Is That Book About-Excerpt

February 1, 2020-Chapter by Chapter-Interview

February 1, 2020-SplendeurCaisse-Review

February 2, 2020-Living in a Bookworld-Guest Post

February 2, 2020-NightlyReading-Guest Post

February 2, 2020-Shelf-Rated-Review

February 2, 2020-My Tangled Skeins Book Reviews-Review

February 2, 2020-A Book Addict’s Bookshelves-Excerpt

February 3, 2020-Lynn’s Romance Enthusiasm-Excerpt

February 3, 2020-breen.rb-Review

February 3, 2020-NerdNarration-Review

February 3, 2020-L.M.Durand’s Little Book Corner-Guest Post

February 3, 2020-Becca’s Book Affair-Review

February 3, 2021-Em & M Books-Spotlight

February 4, 2020-Earthy Soulful Things-Spotlight

February 4, 2020-Library of a Book Witch-Review

February 4, 2020-Ted Ryan – Vocal Media-Interview

February 4, 2020-Huskypuppy432-Spotlight

February 4, 2020-Read Your Writes Book Reviews-Guest Post

February 5, 2020-DEEKAY | Daily Dose of Reading-Review

February 5, 2020-Becky on Bookd-Review

February 5, 2020-Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers-Review

February 5, 2020-bookblogarama-Guest Post

February 5, 2020-Just Reading Jess-Review

February 5, 2020-Tanya the book obsessed momma-Guest Post

BUY it here from your preferred retailer

 Release day for Love Spells and Other Disasters is coming soon and I'm doing a live chat with some wonderful and talented YA authors! Join me Friday January 29th at 4PM EST on FB, YouTube or Twitch

Can't wait to see you there!

 

I can finally share my gorgeous cover for Love Spells and Other Disasters! Isn't it so perfect?

Set to release February 1, 2021

I didn’t know when I wrote the first love spell that it would actually make things happen. Like, actually make people fall in love with each other…

How could I have known something like that? I mean, magic isn’t real, right?

But here’s the thing—the spell does work and so does the next one and the next one...and suddenly I’m getting a whole lot of attention from everyone at my high school. Me, Blend-into-the-Walls, Please-Let-Me-Introvert-in-Peace Rowan Marshall. And not only that, but I’ve also caught the attention of Luca Russo, a godlike, football-playing hottie who claims he likes me just the way I am. Ummm...

But as I’m about to learn, playing around with things you don’t understand means when things  go wrong—like really, very awfully wrong—you don’t know how to fix them.

If you're interested in preordering your copy you can follow these links:

You can preorder your copy here!

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Amazon UK

Amazon AU

Kobo

Google

BN

Apple

Entangled

*I'll update links as they go live

I wanted to kick off this blog with a post about my journey to becoming a YA author because it hasn't been a straight line and it hasn't been easy (not that I think anything related to writing is easy.)

I've been writing professionally for thirteen years. I'm a multi-published author of adult fiction (under another name) and have worked, and continue to work, with some of the best, most talented editors out there. I've learned a lot about the industry and the craft of writing. I feel like each book I write is better than the last and each year I grow stronger as a writer.

But it wasn't until recently that I decided to use my years of experience as a high school teacher to inform my writing. Weird, right? I've been in the classroom for sixteen years and yet, for most of that time, I rejected the idea of writing YA. Why? Well, I'm stubborn and hate to do what people expect me to do, for one. Also, I didn't think I had a voice for it or even knew what to write about. I hate reading YA books that talk down to young readers or that get lost in adult voice so I avoided even experimenting. I'd like to think that it wasn't time wasted but time to absorb and learn from my students. Talking to teenagers, hearing what was important to them, what they liked, disliked, running ideas by them...it worked to build my understanding of what makes a good YA book and a worthy read for young adults. 

I don't remember a day where I suddenly said, oh hey, now it's time to write a YA and see how that goes. Instead I remember an idea taking form and a voice coming into my head that didn't sound like my usual writing voice. Yes, I do hear voices in my head. My characters start to take shape sometimes before the plot does and they do start whispering things to me until I feel compelled to start writing those whispers down.

I wrote that novel and got some positive feedback from a few editors who specialize in YA, so I knew I was on the right track. I wrote another YA novel and then another one, each time honing my skill and experimenting more with voice. I shopped these stories around and although I got a lot of rejections, some of those rejections came with feedback letting me know that I was still on the right path. *Side note: getting feedback when you are querying a project is a bonus so if you start to get feedback from agents and editors, you know you're on the right track.

Then I wrote my fourth YA book and I knew I'd hit on something good. I had publishers taking it to acquisition meetings (where they pitch your book to a team in an effort to get you a contract) and even though, in the end, those all resulted in rejections, I knew how close I'd come. I was almost there. *Side note: The book is good, it's just not right for this point in time. I'm okay with waiting because I know I can write more books. There is no finite number of words available to me and the more I write, the more ideas flow. 

I wrote number five and I pitched it to my editor at Entangled. Number five, Love Spells and Other Disasters is about a girl who starts writing love spells for a class project and discovers that they actually start working...which, of course, leads to many complications and problems that she needs to fix. It's a magical story about love and friendship and also doing what's right, even at the cost of valuable, irreplaceable things.

It was number five that got me my first YA contract. This journey has not been quick or easy. I'm not going to be an overnight success. I've had to work hard, long hours and I've had to accept defeat, cry my frustration and then pull myself up and brush myself off so that I can move on to the next project.

I've just finished writing book six. I don't know if it'll get contracted but I hope it does. Either way, I know my brain is already working out a new story idea because I've had a few what ifs pop into my head out of nowhere. I'm just waiting for the character to start whispering in my ear and then I'll know it's time to get back at it.