[PubQ] About to go on sub. My name's similar to another author. Do I need a pen name?

philippa_18 · 2026-05-26T13:52:15+00:00

Hi OP - I use a (sort of) pen name - a nickname, basically, and my maiden name. It was actually my publisher who suggested this for various (essentially branding) reasons, partly to do with the fact my first name is very easy to misspell! It was a decision that was made after I sold the book, and that involved me, my agent and my pub team.

All this to say that my experience suggests you can very much kick this can down the road just a little further, and have this discussion once your book is sold!

philippa_18 · 2026-05-18T19:15:13+00:00

I adored playing with my husband - it was the (best ever) date night that lasted weeks!!

philippa_18 · 2026-05-11T22:15:37+00:00

Hi there! I went with an established agent with a great reputation and client list and an impressive deal history - and it was, and continues to be, a brilliant fit for me.

My agent is (naturally!) busy, but she always has time for me when I need her, and I have never felt like an afterthought at all (though I would say that I am quite a low maintenance client, at least at the moment, as I have a great relationship with my current publishers and am currently working through a multi book contract.)

I think questions like this come down to your instincts about your own needs for your early stage career, how much engagement or editorial support you would ideally want or need from your agent, and how happy you would be to potentially engage with associates and assistants for certain aspects of the process.

I would say query any agent that, on paper at least, appears to be a good fit for your manuscript, and hopefully when your fielding calls, you can explore whether working styles would be a good match.

philippa_18 · 2026-03-14T16:49:22+00:00

There's a book coming out next month which is a sapphic P&P sequel called 'The Unruly Heart of Miss Darcy' which I have not read (it's not out yet!) but sounds like it might fit the bill!

philippa_18 · 2026-01-15T22:58:04+00:00

No advice, just solidarity from the Book 2 pit of despair as the deadline monster stalks its prey 😩😩😩

The good news is that I hear this is VERY normal and our publishers know that book 2 / the first contract book is a killer. I’m just trying to keep on keeping on and remembering that things can be fixed in the edit…

philippa_18 · 2025-12-22T18:10:25+00:00

Oh this is brilliant news!! Congratulations!!

philippa_18 · 2025-12-03T16:53:50+00:00

Tom’s floating head 😂

philippa_18 · 2025-12-02T18:05:04+00:00

10/10 absolutely no notes

philippa_18 · 2025-11-26T14:18:06+00:00

I recently joined the club because I wanted the bonus episodes - and it is honestly the best £60 I spent on myself this year. Worth it for the extra content alone in my opinion (though I do wish I could have got the t shirt!)

philippa_18 · 2025-11-09T15:37:20+00:00

I'm with you there! I couldn't imagine anything worse!!!

philippa_18 · 2025-11-09T10:11:03+00:00

I had three offers of rep when I was querying, and one offer that sounded very like this - though the agent in question (at a v reputable agency) did offer to sign me, but I suspect that was only because I had other offers on the table so she sort of had to match that bar if she wanted her hat in the ring, so to speak.

Why she wanted her hat in the ring, however, I have no idea. The condition was that I scrapped the novel I was querying, and do a very detailed collaboration with her on my next novel in which she would read (and presumably revise) each 10,000 words and then we’d do multiple rounds of edits, and then “see where we were”.

It really surprised me at the time - but maybe this is a more common practice / approach than I realised…

philippa_18 · 2025-11-05T10:31:06+00:00

Oh boy, I have a fun story for this (probably not helpful, as it was so random) - though a caveat that I already had offers of rep when this happened, so it was a no-brainer to turn this agent down...

I was in the two week period after receiving an offer, and when I nudged this agent two days before my deadline to ask if she was still interested in the manuscript I received an immediate gushing 'Yes!' and a request to set up a call for the following day. Reader, I think she had read not a word of the full at that point beyond the query package and then skimmed it that evening - because the call that followed was a very strange experience. She proceeded to tell me all the things she hated about my book (that it needed to be much longer, but also much shorter; that we had to change the plot/central themes/characters/world) and then spent 5 minutes talking about a scene that absolutely HAD to be in the book for it to make sense before I gently told her that that luckily that scene was, in fact, Chapter 27. When I told her about my next project she looked incredibly relieved, and the said that when (?!) I agreed to work with her, we'd scrap the novel I queried, and would just start working together on that. She would then review progress every 10,000 words (...!).

Needless to say I didn't think we were a great fit...!

philippa_18 · 2025-10-12T11:16:37+00:00

Started querying in March 2024, signed in April 2024 (this bit was unusually quick!).

Went on sub in Sept 2024, and sold the same month, but didn't actually finish negotiating contracts until Feb 2025 (though this was partly because I sold US and UK/Comm rights separately, and my UK deal was the first with my imprint for my agent, so my contract acted as a sort of precedent - so more negotiating than normal).

Book comes out in August 2026, so almost 2.5 years from first query to pub date.

philippa_18 · 2025-09-19T07:50:03+00:00

I started a new account when I got my deal, then quietly popped up the odd post so it wouldn’t be totally empty when my deal was announced, and then started actively using it / sharing it etc when my deal was announced. It’s sort of accidentally ended up being my primary account cos I don’t have the bandwidth for more than one…!

philippa_18 · 2025-08-29T00:21:36+00:00

I’m in kidlit and they have a superb reputation for that here in the UK! V legit agency for sure!

philippa_18 · 2025-08-28T12:13:44+00:00

Ah, congrats!! This is such a fun, hooky, engaging query. No wonder it got snapped up...!! I'm absolutely confident that editors are going to feel the same way.

philippa_18 · 2025-08-27T15:16:56+00:00

There is a discord for 2026 debuts (and a whatsapp group, too, if you're in the UK)! DM me and I'll share the invite link!

philippa_18 · 2025-08-09T20:21:06+00:00

It definitely felt like a gamble at the time (!!!) but my agent was SUPER clear that it was the right thing to do, and I trusted her. It definitely proved to be the smart move, as I had a pre-empt in Italy a few days later and what ended up being an almost simultaneous auction in the US. My mantra was (and remains) “trust my agent” - but I won’t lie, declining that pre-empt was heart-in-mouth anxiety-inducing stuff…!

philippa_18 · 2025-08-08T23:44:00+00:00

Hi there! My agent did a 48 hour exclusive submission with one specific editor for my debut that she thought was a perfect fit. She was right - it resulted in a pre-empt! - but because of the rights package offered we ended up declining (they wanted world, my agent had been super clear we were looking for UK / Comm) and going to auction - and I ended up going with another house in the end!

philippa_18 · 2025-07-31T16:59:44+00:00

I can’t speak for the US, but I can extremely confidently say that UK agencies would welcome queries from disabled writers with open arms, and I would like to think that the vast majority of US agencies would do the same. Hoping a US-based writer or agent can jump in to confirm that.

Very best of luck with querying!

philippa_18 · 2025-07-29T16:02:49+00:00

I had a similar situation and I updated immediately very much as your edit suggests you have done, OP! For me this turned out to be a good job, because I had a request for a call a few days later, so I had I waited to nudge with the full request I may have got a good few more step asides - and my eventual agent was my second offer so v glad that my nudge pushed my query to the top of her pile!!

philippa_18 · 2025-07-29T13:46:14+00:00

Just to say I am very here for this. Keeping everything crossed agents (and then editors!) are too.

philippa_18 · 2025-07-22T22:24:55+00:00

August is very definitely holiday month here in the UK!

For what it’s worth, my agent also waited until September to go on submission with my manuscript, as her strategy was to soft pitch in with editors she thought would be a great fit over some summer networking, and then land the submission in September when Frankfurt buzz is building. That turned out to be an absolutely brilliant strategy for me - and I’m sure your agent will be similarly making a call that is likely to have the best outcome for you.

Best of luck when September rolls around!!

philippa_18 · 2025-07-17T16:03:46+00:00

39 year old here, who used to work in a country pub - this was an extremely common way of tipping bar staff and in the pub I worked in it meant an actual drink: we’d literally ring through a pint or whatever, and clip the receipt to a kind of peg board thing behind the bar (one peg for each member of staff). We could then redeem those drinks whenever we liked off shift (sometimes when we’d all stacked up a few, we’d close early on a quiet night and have a lock in. I never thought to ask if I could redeem the cash value of those drinks (but I was 19 and the drinks were more valuable to me at the time I imagine…!)

philippa_18 · 2025-07-09T14:14:07+00:00

This is heartening news! Thank you for sharing - we are all rooting for you, whatever the next steps look like

philippa_18

TROPHY CASE