Want to write a novel? Chances are it won't work out as you'd expect. ~ ONEEL JRNL

"From Pitch to Publication" is a series taking readers behind the curtain of modern publishing as a business.

(From left to right) Novelists Ocean Vuong, Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca F. Kuang, Matt Haig, Taylor Jenkins Reid.

I'm so accustomed to rejection that I brace myself for every email – even before opening. Even when good news may be waiting after that click.

Writers, and all creatives to an extent, have to get accustomed to "no."

About 81% of Americans feel that they have a book in them, according toan often cited surveyreported inThe New York Times(from the early 2000s). Many aspire to write and publish a book in their lifetime, but only a small fraction see their work formally acquired and announced each year.A little over 2,000 fiction writersannounced deals in 2025 on Publishers Marketplace.

What's it like to write a bestseller?We followed Lucy Score for a year to find out

This year, one of those deals announced is mine: My debut young adult novel, "How to Kill a Chupacabras," was acquired by independent publisherTiny Ghost Press. I almost dismissed the email confirming the offer as another rejection.

I started writing this novel in 2021. My father, who inspired it, landed in the hospital as I was drafting the outline. He developed complications from cancer. I wrote the book at home, before work shifts, on weekends, beside my dad's hospital bed.

That 2021 idea was ultimately acquired in 2024, announced in Publishers Marketplace this week, and expected to publish in the summer of 2027.

That's six years from spark to publication date. And that's not unusual. Two years from acquisition to publication is considered a "normal" timeline.

So, when people ask, "Can anyone get a book deal?" what they're often asking is something else:

Is this still possible for people who aren't famous?
Do I have to know somebody in the industry?
And if I do everything "right," will it still take years?

In short: Yes, no and maybe. A book deal is attainable – to some extent. It's also not a finish line. Here's what aspiring novelists and readers should know about the behind-the-scenes of publishing a fiction book.

The part people don't see: fewer chairs, louder music

The publishing industry is consolidating, which means fewer imprints (and fewer editors). During the hearings for the proposed Penguin Random House merger with Simon & Schuster,Judge Florence Pan said in his written opinion:"It is significant that in a market already prone to collusion, where coordinated conduct already appears to be rampant, PRH's acquisition of S&S would reinforce the market's oligopsonistic structure."

Still, about300 of the deals announced last year went "to auction," which means imprints had a bidding war for them.

When editors are stretched thinner, the time it takes to nurture talent – especially debut authors – shrinks. The industry's ability to take a slow bet on a writer, to develop them the way record labels develop musicians or sports teams develop rookies, becomes increasingly rare.

I lucked out in connecting with Tiny Ghost Press Founder and Editorial Director Joshua Perry through a call for submissions on social media.

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"The first question I ask (authors) is, what goals do you want to achieve with this particular publication?" said Michelle Herrera Mulligan, vice president and associate publisher at Primero Sueño, an imprint of Atria Books – a division of Simon & Schuster. "Are you trying to heal a trauma, create social change or be a commercially successful author publishing book after book? All of those are legitimate goals, but they would deploy very different strategies and very different budgets."

Independent publishers and small-to-medium imprints often stand out because of that personalized care. That's no shade to the Big Five – Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan Publishers and HarperCollins – but novelists in a massive house compete with celebrity memoirs and household-name writers for resources. Their books are in a busy (but quite effective) ecosystem.

It's not easy, but it's doable

One wrinkle in the process is that imprints under the same parent company can't bid against each other, thus limiting the number of deals.

The number of traditionally published books in the U.S. rose in 2025 by 6.6%, to 642,242 from the prior year, according tostatistics compiled by Bowker for Publishers Weekly. Among those, 64,449 titles were adult and juvenile fiction.

Even when the book is good, "we have less places to sell things than we have in the past," Carly Watters, senior literary agent at PS Literary, told USA TODAY. "A lot of things are more predicated on the appetites of a smaller group of people … there might be separate imprints, but they all share an editorial board meeting."

Quality aside, a novel also has to be "sellable" to stand out in those meetings. "In my experience, (books) that are easily pitchable, meaning we can sum up – hook, line, sinker – in one sentence, that's something that I can get people's attention with," Watters added. There are gorgeous books that are hard to summarize, she said. The kind you want to hand someone and say, "Just read it, then call me."

Those books can sell. But it's harder.

Eric Smith, literary agent and founder of Neighborhood Literary, agreed that for novelists, the product is what dictates the trajectory – more so than who the author is.

"I feel like you see a lot of contrasting thoughts on it regarding like, 'Oh, you need X-amount of platform, or you need to know somebody who knows somebody.' But none of that's true," Smith said. "I have plenty of clients who have no social media following or the book that they wrote is the very first book they have ever written, and they ... get book deals just as much as somebody who has a million followers on TikTok or has two MFAs or something."

Thought this year was going to be big for new books? Just wait until you see how many of your favorite titles are slated for adaptation in 2026. Here are the movies and series we're excited to see this year, in order of release date.