Aly A Galanti-Ruybalid

THE FUNHOUSE To earn freedom from a floating city that abandoned the world below, a "Hexed" prisoner named Sangre must descend into the monster-infested ruins of the old world to hunt the very beasts that nearly destroyed it Iron Widow X The Blighted Stars #sciencefantasy

@Linnaeus_Writer @RoweWriter Agreed! It felt like I asked an update for a submission that has only been out for a few months and she just dismissed me and told me to self publish .. nothing else :/

@RoweWriter @masterpgrated Agreed. It's fine if she truly thinks you'd do better self publishing--there are certain markets that are easier to reach that traditional publishers can't. But she needs to explain that in her response to you if that's the case.

I asked my agent what the next steps were and she told me to just self publish??? Uhh what? Is this normal?

@SashaLysette Are you having a good experience with self-pub? That’s what I thought an agent would do as well… I feel like she’s had a lot going on in her personal life and took on a bit more then she can handle

@masterpgrated I only have experience in self-pub but this doesn't feel normal to me. Isn't the role of an agent to try and help you get published traditionally? Why would they suggest otherwise? 😬

@reesamguerra Sadly no, but my response to that email was me asking for a breakdown of who she’s sent each of my submissions to, and who I’m waiting for responses from …and now we wait 😅

@masterpgrated I hope she said something more, such as if it's still being considered by anyone or not.

@Ekaylasimpson You’re not the first person to say that to🥲 I think I agree

@masterpgrated Yeah, that’s weird. And inconsiderate. That should have been a conversation not a side note Best case scenario, it sounds like she’s lost interest, and that’s not a good scenario. Apathy will kill a sub as fast as anything else. I hate to suggest moving on but maybe it’s time?

@Ekaylasimpson Pt 2. Newest work was what the market was looking for, so I said that’s great and aligned with my newest submission!! Any interest yet? And she said no, try self publishing..that’s weird right?!

@Ekaylasimpson Pt 1. Agreed on the red flags!! Jan ‘25 she got my first work, July ‘25 my second (unrelated) and Jan ‘26 my newest. I’ve gotten NO interest in any of them so far (and only 3-4 rejections do the first two TOTAL over the year) she sent a client wide email saying the genre of my

@amsunshine_ That’s so interesting bc last night at a book signing another writer said the same thing to me!! I feel like I’m so far removed from the know haha

@masterpgrated Then maybe you need another agent🫣🥴 I will say that the publishing world as changed alot even in the last year or so. My agent talked about me self pubbing my first book as a roundabout way to maybe working on getting a trad deal with it in the future if it does well indie.

@amsunshine_ Not that I ever think self-publishing is bad - just the reason I went with my agent is bc she seems really confident in getting me trad published so I feel a bit blindsided :( she also has been very bad with giving me any sort of updates w the 3 stories she now has of mine

@masterpgrated I agree with Erin. My first book was shelved back in October and I have a second book on sub now. When we spoke last she told me that two years ago or even a year ago she wouldn’t give me this advice but she suggested self publishing my first book.

@Ekaylasimpson They put this newest work of mine on submission in January - so I don’t think all options exhausted yet? But I also asked for a list of who they sent it to and they couldn’t see to give me an answer so now I’m starting to doubt they ever sent it out :(

@masterpgrated Depends. If you’ve already subbed several rounds and exhausted the pool of what your agent thinks are good fits, they might give this advice. That being said, my (previous) agent shelved a manuscript of mine I later sold to a small press. You don’t have to take their advice.

@WrnrWrites It’s either I come back like “wow this is so good!” Or “what even happened!?”

I do not recommend taking a few days off from writing when you were deep in it.

@SBAmerican_ Sarah!!

who are the most iconic characters in the SBA universe?

The most moving writing is always going to be a fanfic written by some high schooler but you all aren’t ready to talk about that yet

@collinstimbela_ Sometimes I finish a book and have to sit with it for a week because it impacted me that hard..idk how people so easily move on 😭

I genuinely think the worst thing the internet did to reading was convince people that finishing books is a competitive sport. You don't need to read 52 books a year. You just need to read. Books you like. At your own pace. And think about them for longer than a TikTok video.

@brantleywrites The best and worst feeling 😭

just revised one of the most tragic scenes in my book and i'm currently fighting back tears and wondering why i put myself through this wbu

I get this feeling every few days.

@BMFwrites It has to be rage bait…why would age matter lol

Someone asked on here if writers who are past their 20's are getting agents and holy shit. I'm just a few months shy of 40. Please don't let this be another depressing querying statistic... #amquerying

@ElChandler Watching anime really helped me to be honest

I wish I was better at writing epic battle scenes! I’m just not very good at writing good ones yet 😶‍🌫️😶‍🌫️

@AnthonyLaFauci I think engagement…I really just think a lot of everything on here is just that to sadly :(

Do you all really care what other people think or is all of the writing rule drama just engagement baiting?

@EloiseRuffell It hits twice as hard I swear 😔

So depressing to get a rejection when your book seems to precisely fit an agent's MSWL...