#33 - It's A New Year, But It All Feels Old
AKA "reflections on my debut year"
PROLOGUE
Happy New Year! Somehow, the world limped onward into another year despite all the *gestures* everything. I spent the holidays in New York with my family, but now I’m back in Washington being an independent bitch. I try to be very thoughtful about my choices of first book, watch, and music of the year, because I truly believe in Leigh Bardugo’s #BAYMTGO. So, for 2025, my first read of the year is going to be The Scarlet Alchemist by Kylie Lee Baker, because I’ve heard amazing things about it from my friends and because, in general, I always like to start off with a BIPOC author.
For my current watch, I’m starting with one of my comfort shows, The Nanny, because I really do hope that this year is more comforting than the chaotic one that came before it. (This will be a tall order given that I have, like, four books coming out this year, but it’s fine.) And my current music is the An Arcane Inheritance playlist, because I’m working on my edits for that.
Speaking of my books, are you ready for that reflection on my debut year? Strap in!
CHAPTER 1: CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER DEBUT AUTHOR
It’s been about a week since my debut year ended, and I’m still struggling to figure out what’s a good enough insight to share with all of you who have subscribed to this newsletter.
As writers, we are always thinking two, sometimes even three, books in advance. By the time you’re reading this, the SO LET THEM BURN paperback will be on shelves tomorrow, to be followed a month later by THIS ENDS IN EMBERS, the end of the Divine Traitors duology. But by the time you’re reading this, I will be working on the first draft of Wicked Endeavors, my Summer 2026 YA romantasy, and edits on An Arcane Inheritance, my Fall 2025 Adult debut. I spent most of my debut year furiously laying a groundwork to make sure I would have a career after this duology was done, so it’s weird now to look back on the one book that started it all.
Technically, it hasn’t been a full year since SO LET THEM BURN came out on January 16, 2024, but when the ball dropped at midnight on January 1, 2025, I was no longer a “debut author” but simply an “author”. Publishing puts a lot of pressure on debuts, as if your first book is your most important book, as if your ability to continue in this industry depends entirely on how that first book is received. (If you’re an aspiring author reading that, it’s both true in the sense that the sales of your first book will be considered when judging advances and marketing for your second book, and it’s bullshit in the sense that many, many, MANY of your favorite authors’ most popular, bestselling book is their second, or third, or tenth, so it literally doesn’t matter.)
I was lucky in that SO LET THEM BURN was a bestseller, but I’m no longer a shiny debut. In the words of Taylor Swift, “Lord, what will become of me once I've lost my novelty? …Will you still want me when I'm nothing new?” While thinking about that, how publishing moves madly on to the nest splashy debut and “overnight” success, I realized that the most important thing I learned from my debut year is probably also the most important thing I can tell anyone who hopes to go far in this industry.
You need a community.
You need the people who are there when the lights are off and the party is over, when the sales taper off and your publisher ghosts your emails, when you don’t sell foreign rights or get that book box and what do you mean they’ve spoken to their marketing team and oh my god did you see that they’re getting two, no, four special editions?! You need those people who answer your panicked texts so you don’t vomit your thoughts into the unforgiving Twitter void, those people who let you ask aloud if you can even write without laughing at you, those people who celebrate your wins and whose wins you genuinely celebrate—and who hold you and are held by you when those losses come, too. Because no matter how successful you are, they’ll always come.
I think, and this may just be me, that the best way to build a community is by being a community. Other writers are not competition or levers to pull to get to where you want to be. I try hard—even on a bad day when it’s through jealous tears—to celebrate more wins than just my own. I boost debut authors and career authors as often as I boost my own books. I help, honor, and celebrate my friends as if their wins are my wins (because they are). And—something hard for me personally—when I’m feeling low, I let those same friends help, honor, and celebrate me in turn. Not because I’m networking, bragging, or using, but because publishing is fucking hard and it will make you feel so fucking bad and if I couldn’t laugh for a full two minutes at a silly picture of my friend’s cat then I wouldn’t have survived this fucking year.
Of course, not everyone you talk to will want to, or will be able to, be your friend. Some writers will just be co-workers, and that’s okay. Because focusing on getting “in” the people you don’t vibe with will only lead to you missing out on the people you do vibe with—and I’ve never needed to be friends with another author to boost their work. A good book is a good book, and writing is hard. I devote my non-writing energy to people who give me that same energy back, but I’m still thoroughly rooting for everyone who did that improbable, daunting, terrifying, wondrous, magical task of finishing a book. And I hope they’re rooting for me, too.
TL;DR?
You need a community.
Other writers are not competition or levers to pull to get to where you want to be.
Some writers will just be co-workers, and that’s okay.
Devote your non-writing energy to people who give you that same energy back.
I’ll disagree with Taylor Swift here. You’re not on your own, kid. You never have been.
CHAPTER 2: THE REC ROOM
Welcome to the Rec Room, the section of my newsletter that I use to highlight books coming out each month I’m really excited about. For January, we have…
SO LET THEM BURN by Kamilah Cole (That’s me!)
This paperback includes a swoonworthy bonus chapter, plus a sneak peak of book two! Whip-smart and immersive, this Jamaican-inspired fantasy follows a gods-blessed heroine who's forced to choose between saving her sister or protecting her homeland, perfect for fans of Iron Widow and The Priory of the Orange Tree.
HONEYSUCKLE AND BONE by Trisha Tobias
On the run from her own dark secrets, a teen girl becomes the nanny for a prestigious family on their Jamaican estate, where she quickly discovers even paradise may be haunted.
LIAR’S KINGDOM by Christine Calella
Ell has spent years toiling away for her cruel stepfamily. So when Prince Bayard, who seems to have difficulty recognizing faces, shows up at her door with a glass slipper, Ell allows him to believe she danced with him at the ball. There's just one problem: Ell didn't attend the ball and she's never met the prince before in her life. If Ell wants to keep this life she's stolen, she's going to have to roll up her sleeves and rescue herself.
BREWED WITH LOVE by Shelly Page
A cozy, contemporary romantasy about a teen witch who wants to keep her family's apothecary from falling to the competition but can only do so with assistance from her first crush.
CHAPTER 3: LOOK AT MY CAT!!!
While we were home for the holidays, Sora took up residence on my mother’s walking pad. No one turned it on while she was on there, so who was I to argue with the queen about where she wants to take her naps?
EPILOGUE
Thank you for subscribing and/or for sticking around! I hope you like rambles, shenanigans, and nonsense, because that’s truly all this is. Remember that it’s perfectly all right if all you did last year was survive. I can’t wait to see you at the end of this year, too!
late to this but really really love the reflections on community--you nail it as always 🤍