Kalie Reid's Blog

Publishing is slow until it isn’t.

Little did I know that September 20th, 2023, would kick off the busiest, most mind-blowing three weeks of my life. I ended my last post on how I got my wonderful agent Alice with a bit of a cliffhanger— we were on submission for not even two days before I heard my debut, THE SACRED SPACE BETWEEN, was off to the mysterious, hopeful land that is acquisitions. What followed was a whirlwind of editor calls, frantic voice notes in my very patient agent’s inbox, and more than a few tears of joy and indecision.

So, here is the story of how TSSB sold to Harper Voyager in a six-house auction!

As a little precursor, so much of this story is pure luck and timing. I am SO proud of my book and so thankful to my agent for getting me the deal of my dreams, but I can’t discount luck’s role in the speed at which my deal came about. Romantasy is certainly still having its moment in the market, and I was lucky enough that editors wanted my slow-burn, gothic take on the genre. Several of my comp books, Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross and A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid, were topping the charts, and editors were hungry to get something in a similar vein.

Before I launch into my submission story, I thought I’d do a quick run-down of what sub even looks like and a few key terms that would be good to know.

Submission is when a literary agent submits their client’s polished manuscript to editors at publishing houses. There are five large publishers, Penguin Random House, Harper Collins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan, colloquially known as the ‘Big 5’ and countless independent publishers to submit to. Before going out, your agent will develop a list of editors they want to submit to, aiming for editors who work in your genre or have shown interest in elements in your book. You can usually only submit to one editor at an imprint, so your agent wants to ensure they find the best fit!

Once your book is out to editors, the waiting begins. There’s really no way of knowing how quickly your book will be read; it could be overnight, it could be months, it could even be years. But once an editor reads it and decides they’d like it enough to buy it on behalf of the publisher, next comes acquisitions. Acquisitions is where the editor needs to pitch your book to the larger team and get everyone on board so they can make you an offer. Before then, the editor will be gathering support through second reads (other team members reading your book), creating a pitch deck, and figuring out where your book will sit on their list. If your book makes it through acquisitions, an offer will be made— yay! But if it doesn’t get support from the team, even if the editor loves it, they will not be able to buy your book.

As you can imagine, it’s a pretty hectic process in which the author is largely in a state of ???? mixed in with the occasional !!!!, and if that doesn’t sum up publishing, I don’t know what does.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s return to September 20th.

Before going out on sub, we already had a decent amount of editor interest, mostly from Alice going out and meeting them in person and drumming up anticipation, which definitely worked out in our favour. So much so that I got a phone call from Alice the next day while I was midway through shooting a wedding. An editor had read the book overnight and loved it.

We were going to acquisitions.

Circling back to the !!!! because that was the current state of my brain. We’d barely been on sub a day. I couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around it. And that was only the beginning.

More editors rushed to read it over the next week after the first offer came in. Alice sent me snippets of emails where editors at imprints I barely allowed myself to dream about being published under were gushing over my book. It was overwhelming and wonderful and completely mind-blowing. I had to rush and create a pitch for book two as we were aiming for a two-book deal of two standalones, which was certainly an adventure creating a whole new book out of little more than a Pinterest board and a dream.

From there, Alice set a deadline for first offers, and calls with the editors were set up. These calls are important for a few different reasons— they help you get a good sense of the editor’s vision for the book, where they see it sitting on their list, and their marketing plans. You also get a chance to see how the two of you would work together both personally and professionally. They’re equal parts surreal and stressful, and you want to make sure you go into them with all your questions prepared beforehand.

Then, the offers started coming in.

Six in total.

Six. I couldn’t believe it. Imprints where some of my favourite authors were published, books I’d grown up reading, and stories I considered life-changing work. And they wanted my book!! It was wild.

With six offers, we were now in auction. When I first heard the word auction thrown around, I pictured Alice jumping on a Zoom call with the editors, gavel in hand, and the deal would negotiated there and then. In actuality, a deadline was set for first offers, second offers, and best bids, all done (more sensibly) over email.

This might be a good time to mention I really, really struggle with decision anxiety. I couldn’t seem to fight my way out of the sea of pros and cons, of what-ifs, of making the wrong choice when there didn’t seem to be a wrong choice, exactly. I spent the last five days of the auction period in Venice with my mom and sister, annoying them with constant back-and-forths and talking through my options. Don’t get me wrong, I never dreamed of being in such an incredible conundrum, but decisions are definitely not my forte.

All of the imprints would have been amazing. Each editor was passionate and committed and really seemed to get the heart of the book, something I couldn’t be more grateful for. I truly could envision TSSB under any of the publishers, which made my decision infinitely harder.

After berating my friends continually for advice and more than a handful of spirals, a conversation I’d had with my husband Gregg earlier in the year kept coming back to me. He’d asked me who my pie-in-the-sky, ‘it’s never going to happen’ publisher was. Who was the imprint that would just bowl me over if they offered.

I had one remarkably fast answer.

And so, on October 16th, a little over three weeks since we went out on submission, we let Harper Voyager know I would be accepting their offer of publication for The Sacred Space Between, my romantasy about the exiled saint and the iconographer sent to paint him, and one other standalone.

I was ecstatic.

I’m still ecstatic!

Now, a year from the auction and almost a year from its November 6th, 2025 publication, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. My editor, Rachel, is truly amazing, and Harper Voyager is the perfect home. I can’t wait for Maeve and Jude to make their way into the world next year and for TSSB to find its readers. Since then, it’s sold in Spanish language, Italy, Bulgaria, and Turkey, with more still to be announced. I’ll be sure to update my socials with all future territories!

If you’re interested in adding it on Goodreads you can do so here, or pre-ordering in the UK from Waterstones, Amazon, or Blackwells (free international shipping), or Australia.

Thanks so much for reading!

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It started with a few sentences in my notes app—

Writing for me has always been a bit of an excavation. I find some piece of me I want to examine, some little area I want to pick at, and a story is pulled from it. The novel that got me my agent (TSSB) was just the same. I signed with my wonderful agent Alice Caprio at Felicity Bryan in June of 2023 after a pretty quick three months of drafting, two months of editing, and two months of querying, and here’s how it went!

the first few lines that later became a whole book...

TSSB was my third full length novel and second one queried. I’m not going to get loads into my writing background - mostly because I tend to skim them in HIGMAs like the opening to a food blog’s recipe, and also because there’s not loads to talk about!

I’ve always been a voracious reader in every genre I could get my hands on and an extremely committed ao3 consumer, but never really pictured myself writing a full novel until 2020 hit and I found myself with a bit too much time on my hands. My first book was a YA fantasy about a lonely girl with plant magic, which I queried for around two years and ultimately ended up shelving. My second book, a YA 1930s historical fantasy with a magical jewellery heist, I wrote, did a bit of editing, then promptly ignored when the idea for TSSB sprang up.

Set in the foggy moorland reminiscent of the Yorkshire dales, TSSB is the story of an exiled saint, the iconographer sent to paint him, and the Abbey seeking to make martyrs of them both.

I wrote most of the first draft over November and December 2022 and finished it in January of 2023. I’m a pretty quick drafter (giant outlines FTW) but this was quick, even for me. Immediately, I knew something about it was different.

I loved my other books, but TSSB was truly the book of my heart. I’d put so much of myself into the story - things like wrestling with institutionalised religion and what life looks like when you peel back layers and layers of what you’re taught to believe, of how loneliness and isolation effects a person. I typed the final few words and found myself looking at something raw and exposing, but a necessary upheaval. Maeve and Jude were no longer just for me, and I couldn’t wait to share them with the world.

I edited for all of February before joining in on the Futurescapes writers workshop in early March which was seriously SO helpful. Alongside my cohort we went through a query critique session with well-known literary agent, a first chapter analysis with an SFF editor at Tor, and a first page polish with a bestselling author. It truly gave me the push I needed to make TSSB the best it could be before querying. I couldn’t recommend the programme more!

And so, on March 27th, 2023, we were off to the trenches. I’d love to say I was immediately inundated with dozens of requests, but that wasn’t quite the case. I’ll post my query letter and final stats at the bottom if anyone’s curious, but it did take a little time and a few tweaks to my query package to get up and running. Out of the 23 full requests I got, most were after my offer nudge. I did receive some editor interest which I nudged with and got me some more interest, but overall things were pretty slow until my offer.

Every rejection truly felt like a gut punch. Most of my rejections cited the same reason (too quiet, slow to start, wanted more action), which definitely started to stress me out, culminating in an R&R that wanted pretty big changes to my writing style. I started to wonder if TSSB was going to be the book to get me my agent and tried to ignore the little voice whispering that it would end up shelved like the others.

Then, I saw an announcement for a Twitter pitch event— a new agent had joined Felicity Bryan, and they were holding an event to pitch Alice with the prize being a 30-minute consultation. After a quick look at her MSWL, I thought why not!

My pitch ended up winning the event and got me on a call with Alice for, what I didn’t realise at the time, was a representation offer call! Shout out to all my anxious girlies out there because I was SO nervous that I asked approximately 0 questions, blurted “is this an offer?” right as we were about to sign off, and had to schedule a second call to actually ask all the rep questions I wanted to go over. 10/10 would not recommend. But she was SO patient and lovely and I adored her vision for the book. I’m a big believer in gut feelings and I just knew I’d found the perfect champion for Maeve and Jude.

I often wonder if I wished I would’ve gotten an agent with my previous two shelved books and, honestly, not at all. As much as I love those books and will (hopefully!) return to them someday, TSSB is everything I love most about storytelling, and a piece of me that I just can’t wait to share with the world. Every rejection, every debilitating bout of imposter syndrome, was worth it to get those words on the page. I can’t wait for it to find it’s readers!

And so, after a whirlwind two weeks of nudges and countless rejections, I signed with Alice on June 7th, 2023, after 72 days of querying. We launched into edits straight away, working over the summer to polish TSSB to it’s best possible form. In late September, we went out on submission.

For two days.

query stats and letter!

Dear AGENT,

I'd love to introduce you to my adult grounded fantasy romance novel TSSB, complete at 97,000 words. Based on ***, it might be a good fit for your list. As a dual-POV standalone, it combines the themes of confronting toxic institutions of Juniper & Thorn by Ava Reid, the gothic atmosphere and enemies-to-lovers romance of Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft, and the chafing of religion and magic of The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten.

EDITOR at IMPRINT is currently considering the full manuscript.

The abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. At fifteen, Jude was exiled from the abbey to protect their control from his bourgeoning magic. Now, eight years later, he wants to live a normal life without the abbey's oppressive gaze. When they send Maeve, a stubbornly devout iconographer to paint an updated icon of him, Jude makes it his mission to get rid of her as soon as possible. That is until he discovers she holds the same tainted magic as he does, and that the icons she paints may be the key to destroying the abbey's power. Maeve's assignment was a ruse for exile, and both their memories are crumbling because of it.

Together, Jude and Maeve must venture back to the abbey's stronghold and destroy Maeve's paintings if they want to break free of the abbey's control. As Jude and Maeve draw closer and hate turns to love, they face a choice — they can take on the full power of the abbey and risk their lives for freedom, or escape back to exile and make the most of their fading memories.

But this institution has eyes everywhere, and the only thing the abbey loves more than a saint is a martyr.

Please note trigger warnings of religious trauma and gaslighting, memories of past self-harm, recollections of childhood (non-sexual) abuse and brief torture.

Originally from near Portland, Oregon, I've lived in Northern Ireland for the past nine years. I currently work as a photographer and can usually be found bothering my cat or wandering around in the forest. TSSB was inspired by my experience with the relationship between personal belief and institution.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Kalie Reid

(not all agents were on QT so there’s a few fulls/rejections not recorded)

If you want to follow along on 👀 what’s next 👀 I’m on Instagram, Twitter/X, and TikTok or my website for a very Formal introduction.

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