"Learn how to write through the wait"
This week on Second Chapter, Alexandra Kiley shares how she went from tech project manager to published author with the help of spreadsheets and PitchWars.
As an American living in Scotland, I fell in love with this country during two holidays in 2011 and 2014. The landscape, the culture, and my happy memories of this country all played a huge part in what convinced me to move here in 2018, and the people (well, one in particular) are who I’ve stayed for for almost seven years now.
The same things convinced Alexandra Kiley to write two romance novels set within Scotland. Kilt Trip was one of my most fun reads of last year. Alex did an amazing job weaving in the Scottish scenery with the fun banter (and romantic tension) of an American and a Scot.
But before Alex was a published author, she started off as a tech project manager. Hear from her below on how spreadsheets helped her writing, how many revisions she did to Kilt Trip, and an honest look at how author’s are paid.
Did you have any preconceived notions / myths about becoming a writer? How did you overcome those?
I definitely believed you had to have an MFA to be a writer. But the more I got involved with the writing community, the more I discovered that so many writers have learned their craft through workshops, classes, books, and critique groups. There is so much value in an MFA, but there are other ways to learn writing craft, and creativity and dedication go so far in this industry, too.
Juggling anything with a day job is hard work, especially something as in-depth as writing a book. Can you set the scene for what your life looked like when you started writing?
I was first writing mostly as a stay-at-home mom and then during the pandemic when I was homeschooling and writing in the evenings. During that time, writing felt more like a hobby and an escape from the day-to-day, and less like juggling at that time. But typically, I would get the kids to bed and then write for a couple of hours before bed. Once I started getting more serious about mentorship programs and pursuing publication, it also looked like 5am wakeups and writing before the kids got up.
Did your first career help in your writing at all?
My first career was as a project manager in tech. The same skills of working on lots of ideas/projects at once and keeping things organized definitely helped in my writing. I even use some tools we used with software development teams like spreadsheets and Trello to keep projects, story structures, and ideas organized.
Did you employ any tips and tricks to help you write? If so, what were they?
In my first drafts, I didn’t really know enough to have tips and tricks. It wasn’t until I was a part of a mentorship program that I started using spreadsheets to track what was happening in each scene in the external plot, character arc, romance arc, setting, etc. to really have a high-level view of the story and pacing.
When I’m drafting, I will get so attached to a cute line and want to keep the entire scene just for that, but in a spreadsheet, it’s very easy to see where important things are replicating and need to be cut. And it’s also easy to see where there are big gaps in the narrative or where things are moving too quickly that’s sometimes hard to see when you’re in the midst of so many words.
In Kilt Trip, I remember feeling like the romance felt rushed and I could see in a spreadsheet view how they went from holding hands to Logan wanting to say “I love you” in a couple of scenes and knew I needed to draw that out more and add a lot more depth to their relationship in between.
A huge element of writing and the path to publishing comes from a cultivated community. What is your writing community like and how did you find it?
My writing community is fantastic and I completely lucked into a critique group that changed my life and career in so many ways. I found a critique partner through the Friday Kiss Facebook group and she had been working with a few other people. We eventually were all in a group chat together and exchanging work. And after that, we merged with another group of four.
I learned so much from them critiquing my work, but also from reading their drafts and learning how to critique and what to look for and what makes a powerful story.
At the start, no one was agented, and now all 9 of us have indie or traditionally published books release in the last couple of years.
I was also part of a mentorship program called PitchWars and met amazing authors while we all revised books and prepared query materials over the course of a winter. Exchanging work and going through a high-intensity program created wonderful bonds I cherish so deeply.
Kilt Trip is published by Canary Street Press. Could you tell us about your path to publishing?
Because my writing group was all pursuing traditional publishing at the time, I think that just seemed like the logical choice for me. To be honest, I didn’t look into the pros and cons of indie vs. trad too much at the outset. But for me, trad is the right fit. One of the huge up-sides to indie is the control you have over your book—the editors, the cover, the analytics—but it also requires becoming an expert in all those different parts of the business, so for now, I enjoy working with a publishing house and the people who are already experts in these areas.
I mentioned that I was accepted into a mentorship program called PitchWars which really shaped my publication journey. I spent about two months revising the entire ending of Kilt Trip with my mentor (Amanda Elliot), and then working on query materials. There was an agent showcase associated with this program, so each of the 100 mentees had a web page with a pitch about our book and the first page. Agents were able to comment and request materials.
I queried 34 agents (10 who had requested in PitchWars), had 19 full requests, and ended up with 4 offers. I am so grateful for so many parts of the mentorship experience—my mentor was fantastic, I learned so much, I leveled-up my book—and also getting to fast forward a lot of the query process because of the nature of the showcase.
Once I signed with my agent (Jill Marr), we did a very small revision and went on submission. I heard back fairly quickly from a lot of editors saying they loved the armchair read to Scotland but didn’t know how to market the book. With no actionable feedback, I was definitely feeling very unsure of how to proceed.
My now-editor had fantastic notes for changes she’d like to see including a restructure in the middle of the novel, to amp up the backstory with Addie’s mom and also to bring the humor more to the forefront to brand this as a romcom and not a contemporary. She agreed to an R&R (a revise and resubmit) and I did a huge revision over the summer with only the guarantee that she’d read again—not that she’d like it or that the book would pass the various marketing and sales meetings before going to acquisitions.
That fall, I was at the bank when I got a text from my agent that said, “OMG call me!” I screamed in the lobby of Wells Fargo and went outside to call her back. She said my editor had offered on Kilt Trip and what ended up becoming Scot and Bothered.
It’s hard to track the number of revisions on this book, but I’d say I did an initial overhaul, rewrote the ending in PitchWars and rewrote the beginning in my R&R. So the book at its heart is what I set out to write, but the actual words are very different than my original version!
What would you recommend to others who are considering traditional publishing?
My best advice is to learn how to write through the wait. Publishing is so much of a hurry up and wait environment and it’s so challenging to disassociate from your work when it’s out with agents and editors, but I have wasted so much time refreshing my inbox and then scrambling on the other end to meet deadlines. Learning to let go of work and move on to the next thing can be a gift!
To be able to pivot any career, there’s usually a supporting financial element tied to it. Did you have any financial support that helped you on your journey? Could you share what that looked like?
Absolutely. I was lucky enough that my husband was working full-time and I was a stay-at-home-mom and freelance editing. The way publishing pays advances and royalties and the lag of sales numbers makes it very challenging to start off without other financial support.
There’s also a blackhole when it comes to how much authors make, enabling a myth that once you’re a published author you can write full-time as the only source of income. But it's not always that simple or linear! Could you tell us a bit more about how this is working for you financially?
Yes! There is such a lack of information, even once you are a published author!
What I think it the most challenging part of trying to make writing a full-time job is the lack of information around sales. For my publisher, reporting periods are quarterly. Since Kilt Trip came out in March, I got my first royalty statement for January-March on July 31st. On it, I could see all my print books but was told that e-books and audio books are on a one-month delay, so I didn’t know my March sales for audio and e-books until Halloween. Foreign rights are also on a big delay, so I won’t know my UK and Australian sales until December 31st or potentially later.
Advances are also paid out tied to deliverables, so I received half my advance when I signed my contact (a few months after my offer came through). One quarter was tied to delivering Kilt Trip to production and the other quarter tied to Scot and Bothered going to production. So I got an offer in November of 2022 and got the last quarter of my advance in the summer of 2024. Some people have deliverables tied to their publication dates which can be years after a deal.
Because of the lack of insight and the lack of control over my sales, I don’t plan to write full time. I also freelance edit, which I can scale up and down depending on how busy I am writing which is a perfect combination for me. I have also learned that I cannot stay in a creative headspace 8 hours a day. Doing both types of work is a lot more productive for me, as well.
Time to put on your wise Hindsight Glasses. What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
My biggest advice is always to keep reading. We all started writing because we love stories! It’s so easy to fall into the traps of either picking apart books and turning them into homework when we’re first learning story craft or of believing the lie that there’s not enough time to read. Reading is one of the best ways to improve your storytelling and also refill your creative well!
The other piece is to learn story craft. My favorite books are GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon, Creating Character Arcs by K.M. Weiland, and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi.
What did you learn about yourself during this process?
For some authors, I think the advice of writing every day is so important—making the time and being disciplined about it. I learned that I need to take breaks when I get stuck. My personality says to keep pushing and I often just get myself more frustrated. I would love for writing to be a linear process, but it is not! So I have learned that giving myself a break, getting into the sunshine, consuming other types of media, and being with people often unlocks things faster and in more creative ways than staying at my computer trying to power through.
Are there other Second Chapter authors that inspired you? If yes, who are they?
Jessica Joyce and Livy Hart are two of my very favorite authors who I was lucky enough to be in a writing group with early on. Jessica writes such heartfelt and deep characters and Livy writes amazing banter and big casts. I am so in awe of their talent and all the other things they juggle in their lives.
What's been your favorite read of 2024 so far?
Funny Feelings by Tarah Dewitt has been my favorite read of 2024. The characters are so endearing and Tarah’s voice shines so brightly. I was laughing out loud, which I rarely do with books, and also deep in my feels. It was so much fun and had such an interesting and unique plot. It’s a big stand-out for me!
Thanks so much, Alex! Be sure to read her books: KILT TRIP and SCOT AND BOTHERED. For more from Alex, follow her on Instagram, TikTok and subscribe to her Substack (
).As always, thank you for reading!
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