Alexandra Almond Author

Menu

Writing Blog

writing_01b

Why I don’t use AI

, , , , , ,

Generative AI is a billionaire enrichment scheme built on theft and plagiarism; it’s accelerating environmental destruction at an alarming rate, training us out of our ability to think, and destroying our collective sense of truth.

Sure, there are places where generative AI is useful, but I can think of no use cases that justify the enormous environmental and societal cost.

Plagiarism  

The large language models (LLMs) that form the basis of current AI models have been trained on the pirated work of professional authors, including my own. I’m talking about all the big technologies; not just the model developed by Meta using pirated work, but ChatGPT as well as the models developed by Google, Amazon and Microsoft. Authors have not given permission for their work to be used for this purpose, nor have they been compensated.

Until the tech bros have paid for what they stole and sought retrospective consent, I don’t believe the use of LLMs or image generators in the publishing process can be ethical: they are a tool created by flagrantly ignoring the copyright law on which our industry depends.

Environmental destruction

AI data centres guzzle huge amounts of land, energy and water, competing with humans for those resources and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. The industry is growing at an exponential rate and the impacts are growing with it. We simply can’t afford this. The planet was already struggling, and AI is pushing it downhill faster.

There are environmentally friendly ways to manage energy and water consumption of AI data centres, but there’s currently little regulation and no incentive for the people behind AI companies to invest in them, so they’re not.

Societal chaos

Misinformation, deepfake-enabled sexual crimes, chatbot-induced delusions and increasingly sophisticated scams are just a few of the known and accepted side effects of AI. People are being manipulated into doing harm to themselves and others. Then there’s the destruction of the academic sector, where students are outsourcing their ability to think (and therefore to learn) to a machine.

We no longer know what’s real, who to trust. As a society we’ve lost our collective sense of truth. How are we just sitting down and letting this happen?

What to do about it

There’s an old proverb about having the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I no longer buy into this.

The inevitability of AI is a myth, a marketing ploy sold to us by those who stand to make trillions if it works, and lose as much if it fails. The same type of myth that tells authors they need to belong to a Meta platform if they want to reach an audience.

The tech bros driving this bleak future have made AI (and Meta) almost impossible to avoid—you can do it, but it takes commitment. I’m not just talking about choosing not to use ChatGPT, I’m talking about how hard it is to avoid the ubiquitous AI in everyday life. I pay for a non-Google browser and search engine, I’ve gone into the background settings on all my programs to turn off AI features, and have downgraded my app software where I can. I complained to the ACCC last year about Microsoft forcibly upgrading me to CoPilot and charging me more for the privilege (the ACCC subsequently took the software giant to court about this). 

I’ve also left all Meta platforms and Twitter, because the same tech bros profiting from generative AI are the ones derailing society with their social media sites.

I have no hope of combating this kind of wealth and power. But this is my line in the sand: maybe I can’t change the presence of generative AI in our society, but I can fight against it. And it needs to be fought against.

~ First published as a guest blog on the Writing Off Meta substack.

Goodreads year in books 2025_crop_01

My favourite reads of 2025

, , , , , ,

According to Goodreads I read 176 books last year, mostly romance, fantasy and sci fi. Here’s some of my favourites, categorised according to whatever felt good at the time.

REDISCOVERING MY LOVE OF EPIC FANTASY

I used to love fantasy but had got out of the habit of reading it much. Thanks in part to heading along to a Sci Fi and Fantasy writers’ con for the first time (thanks CONFLUX) I remedied that in 2025 and you know what, fantasy is great 😊

Pagans by James Alistair Henry
Police procedural murder mystery in current day alt-hist Britain where the Norman conquest never happened. Aedith is a terrifically strong female character, her strength being as much brains and emotional intelligence as force, and also I don’t know what she looks like; there was no emphasis on her physical appearance at all.

Astreiant series by Melissa Scott
Loved this. Terrific world building of the “drop you in the deep end and you figure it out” kind (my favourite). Lots of cool magic and interesting plots.

Sorcery and Small Magics by Maiga Doocy
The only thing I don’t love about this, is having to wait for the second and third books to be written. It’s a beautiful play on the forced proximity trope, where Leo and Grimm are bound together by a curse and somewhat begrudgingly have to work together to lift it. 

Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Completely gripping, despite there being way too much action for my usual preference (I skim read a lot of the battle scenes). Agnieszka is a reluctant magical apprentice and the Dragon is her rude, grumpy, frustrating master. Special mention the best friend Kasia who is quite a power in her own right, and how good is it to see a strong female friendship playing out in fantasy?

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
Terrific fun. A secret British agency controlling magical powers (think Umbrella Academy rather than Harry Potter). Myfanwy wakes up not knowing who she is but with a letter in her pocket from her past self explaining things. Sort of.

Paladin of Souls by Louis McMaster Bujold
Everyone said this was even better than Curse of the Chalion (the first in the series), and everyone was right. Ista is a middle aged woman who takes charge of her own life, deals with whatever’s thrown at her despite being very sceptical about and angry at the gods, and brings things out in the open rather than stew privately about them.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Zhu takes on her brother’s name and destiny in this epic fantasy re-imagining of the rise to power of founder of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. It’s pretty amazing and also emotionally draining; Zhu goes through A LOT. She’s ruthless in her pursuit of power, and it’s testament to the writing that I empathise with that even though it’s absolutely not my thing. 

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
My last read of 2025 and what a great way to finish the year. A motley crew on a rundown spaceship, it’s homely and heartwarming rather than scary and challenging. Strong Firefly/Serenity feels.

ROMANCE

Wow, this is a short list! I read a lot of romance so I’m not sure what’s happened. I guess most of the comfort reads section is romance, and the Aussie authors section as well.

The Worth Saga by Courtney Milan
As far as historical romance families go, I’ll take the Worths over the Bridgertons any day. Particular call out to instalment 2.5, a novella “The Pursuit of…” There’s a depth of character and storyline to this that it’s hard to do (well) in a novella.

Copper Script by KJ Charles
Did I stay up half the night to glom this in one sitting? Yep, and I regret nothing. A graphologist (someone who reads handwriting but magically not scientifically) and a policeman chasing a murderer in 1920s London.

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
Swoon-worthy stuff. Jessica is a legendary heroine; feisty enough to shoot the lover who does her wrong, intelligent enough to make sure he’s the one who ends up in trouble after, sensible enough that when things go wrong she tells her husband what’s going on rather than go behind his back. She’s all the things I never realised were lacking in Georgette Heyer’s females (excluding Sophy and Venetia who were always and remain brilliant).

PRIDE & PREJUDICE RETELLINGS

My most specific category ever! I don’t know that I’ve ever read any P&P retellings before, but this year there was two and they were both terrific.

Mr Collins in Love by Lee Welch
An absolute heartwarmer. I love it when you get to see a well-known character from a different point of view. In this case it’s the slimy Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice, except it turns out “slimy” is just the prejudiced view of the self-absorbed characters from that book. I know it’s hard to believe but you’ll love him, I promise.

Just to be clear, this is not actually a re-telling of P&P; the same events happen, just seen from a different viewpoint. Strongly recommend (but it may have spoiled Pride and Prejudice for me…)

What Will People Think? by Vedashree Khambete-Sharma
A terrific 1970s Indian retelling of Pride and Prejudice. The setting is perfect—the character motivations make even more sense than in the original—and while being largely true to the plot, it goes at a much faster pace. The tongue in cheek footnotes are a delight, and the whole thing is written with a cynical but humorous world view. Well worth a read.

AUSSIE AUTHORS

I’m proud to know most of these authors, and loved reading their books particularly those set in Melbourne.

Salty, Spiced and a Little Bit Nice by Cynthia Timoti
What a delight! Pacy, warm, funny and smart, and with delicious baking a bonus. Ellie moves across the country to escape her controlling family and set up a sugar-free bakery (a lifelong dream linked to her diabetes), only to be pushed into forced proximity with her teenage crush, Alec.

The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow
A fascinating premise; our reflections are sentient beings cursed to simulate our lives in their own world, until they rebel.

An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister
Jonah and Sadie are rival academics and both thoroughly likeable characters, who obviously care deeply about each other despite the surface tension from page one. Set in Hobart.

Ghosted by Amy Hutton
I do love a second-chance romance, and this is the perfect blend of spooky and romantic. Sparks fly when ghostbuster Holly and paranormal podcaster Callum are thrust together into a life-or-death ghostly situation.

A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson
Love the magical system and the threading through of fairy tales and female empowerment and obviously I’m a fan of anything that pokes at the patriarchy. More dark than my usual.

The Love Contract by Steph Vizard (set in Melbourne)
Terrifically entertaining read, despite me having very little interest in the premise—the struggles of a single mother. Zoe and Will are intriguing characters and the writing is pacy and fun. Love the Melbourne setting.

In the Long Run by Emma Mugglestone (set in Melbourne)
Set in Melbourne with a French patisserie, found family, and dogs. Ticking all my boxes 🙂 Also, a run club called Croissants & Kilometres would probably entice me in.

After the Siren by Darcy Green (set in Melbourne)
A queer footy romance set in Melbourne? Count me in! Theo & Jake are footy teammates who go from enemies to friends to lovers, in a really beautiful romance that also touches on the rampant racism, sexism and homophobia in the AFL, not to mention mental health issues in sport. Also an absolutely terrific ending, full of joy and hope and future possibilities.

COMFORT RE-READS

I re-read A LOT. In previous years I’ve only put new-to-me books on my best of the year list. But the fact is, these are books that I come back to time and time again for a reason, and they deserve a place. I’ve read each of these more than five times, and at least once this year (confession: this isn’t even all the books that meet that criteria).

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
I love Murderbot. And I love ART, although I also hate him a little. If you’ve already discovered the series then you don’t need me to tell you how good it is. If you don’t know it, I recommend reading the first page of All Systems Red and if you’re not hooked, we probably can’t be friends any more.

The Will Darling Adventures by KJ Charles
This is my all time favourite series. Will and his endless bloody class-consciousness, and that bloody twisting slippery weasel liar Kim; they’re the perfect couple in almost no way but somehow they just fit and I love them and wish there was more.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Truly delightful. Elliot goes to magic school and finds himself best friends with elven warrior Serene and best-at-war-games Luke, which given Elliot is a sarcastic, pacifist bookworm makes for interesting times. It’s a play on the portal fantasy / magic school tropes and it’s beautifully done. Laugh-out-loud funny and tug-at-your-heartstrings gorgeous.

Hither Page / The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian
One of my favourite couples and an absolute comfort read. There’s a gentle mystery involved in both books, but the focus is on Leo and James falling in love and caring for each other in a beautifully unassuming way.

Boyfriend Material / Husband Material by Alexis Hall
Compellingly drawn characters, laugh out loud lines and a storyline that races along. Luc and Oliver are a reminder that messed up looks very different for everyone.

Waiting for the Flood / Chasing the Light by Alexis Hall
Possibly the best pair of novellas you’ll ever read. Waiting for the Flood is heartbreakingly sweet and tearjerkingly sad and hopeful at the same time. I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive Marius for leaving Edwin, then two pages into Chasing the Light I completely got it and was on team Marius. I mean, he’s a complete bastard but Alexis Hall has this incredible ability to make you love characters who behave appallingly. Bring it on.

Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland
This was my top pick of last year, first read in December 2024 and at least every couple of months since. Tam is a grumpy self-despising tea-shop owner who has been sleeping with Lyford for 10 years and pretending it means nothing. I love pretty much everything about it; the magic, the characters, the quests, the emotional growth, the word “cock” in the first line, the fact it’s all about communication. The author has landed a trad pub deal for this book with Tor and it will be released with new chapters and an audio book later in 2026 and I CAN’T WAIT.

Something Human by A.J. Demas
Rus and Adares rescue each other on a battlefield where they’re on opposing sides, and fall in love while recuperating. Different worlds, beliefs, customs and language; they don’t clash, it’s not that kind of book, but they still have to work through it. Picture perfect characters, setting, plot, angst, love, banter.

The Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher
Stories about older people finding love after they’ve been through lots of shit. Each book focuses on a different Paladin of the Saint of Steel. Prior to the events of these books, the Saint suddenly and traumatically died (yes, nobody knew a god could die) taking most of his paladins with him; the remaining seven are lost and trying to find their way.

Swordcrossed by Freya Marske
Workaholic and family-loving Matti hires debonair con-man Luca to be the sword-wielding best man at his marriage of convenience. That goes pretty much as you’d expect… Despite being billed as fantasy, there’s no magic or dragons here. Alt-hist might be a better label. Almost the only fantasy element is that queer relationships are normalised, and that’s quite lovely, as are the key characters.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry
I love most of what Emily Henry writes, but this is my pick of hers. Nora is a prickly heroine with lots of faults that she absolutely owns, and Charlie is a guy who loves her for her challenges not in spite of them. It’s a book about romance tropes and yet it turns at least one of the main romance tropes on its head; nobody has to change to be with the one they love. I laughed out loud and I cried.

goodreads year in books_month_2025

books in review

2024: a year in books

, , , , , ,

According to Goodreads, I’ve glommed 172 books this year. A lot of them are ones I’ve read before (November was almost entirely comfort re-reading) but there were lots of lovely new finds mixed in as well. Here’s a round-up of the best new-to-me books of the year.

Romantasy

While this whole list is in no particular order, romantasy is probably my favourite category and these four books will all be added to the future comfort-read shelf.  

  • The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty: Amina is a middle-aged pirate heroine with a bung knee. This book has everything you want in an alt-history piratical romp: queer rep, found family, morally dodgy likeable characters, fantasy mixed with real world, boats, a bit of romance.
  • In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan: Elliot goes to magic school and finds himself best friends with elven warrior Serene and her partner in being-best-at-war-games Luke. Given Elliot is a sarcastic, pacifist bookworm, this makes for interesting times. It’s a play on the portal fantasy / magic school tropes and it’s beautifully done.
  • Yield Under Great Persuasion by Alexandra Rowland: Tam is a grumpy self-despising tea-shop owner who has been sleeping with Lyford for 10 years and pretending it means nothing. I loved pretty much everything about it; the magic, the characters, the quests, the emotional growth, the word “cock” in the first line, the fact it’s all about communication.
  • Swordcrossed by Freya Marske: Workaholic and family-loving Matti hires debonair con-man Luca to be the sword-wielding best man at his marriage of convenience. That goes pretty much as you’d expect…

Romance

Some lovely contemporary romances here. Three of these authors are auto-buys for me, and Jodi and Iona will probably become that now because their stories are delightful.

  • The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles: An incognito Duke and a disgraced gentleman, chasing a thief across England. Another delightful Heyer-but-gayer romp from the master KJ Charles. Slightly sweeter than her norm—neither of the romantic leads are complete bastards and nobody dies—which worked a treat.
  • Chasing the Light by Alexis Hall: A companion novella for Waiting for the Flood, one of my favourite Alexis Hall works. It took me about two pages to go from team Edwin (Waiting for the Flood) to team Marius (Chasing the Light). Not that they’re on opposite sides, exactly. But going in I wasn’t sure that I could ever forgive Marius for leaving Edwin, but now I completely get it and am totally supportive. I mean, Marius is a complete bastard but Alexis Hall has this incredible ability to make you love characters who behave appallingly. Bring it on.
  • Funny Story by Emily Henry: Daphne wouldn’t fall in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex, would she? I loved this, maybe not as much as Book Lovers but it’s up there with Beach Read. Witty dialogue, real and flawed characters, lots of heartache and pining, some sweet sexy times.
  • Not Here to Make Friends by Jodi McAlister: Murray and Lily are both devious, scheming, manipulative bastards and I could not tell you why I love them so much but I do. This is the third in a trilogy showing the same season of Marry Me Juliet unfold, but it feels new and very different to the two previous books, and could be read as a standalone.
  • Division Bells by Iona Datt Sharma: Ari is a public servant (civil servant maybe, in England?) and Jules is a ministerial staffer, trying to get a bill through parliament. It’s a workplace romance where the work is almost the most important thing, and I’m 100% there for this given my fascination with all things politics and parliamentary procedure. The characters are delightful, the writing superb, and I cannot recommend highly enough.

Sci Fi & Fantasy

I went on a sci-fi catch-up binge early in the year, and it was totally worth it. 

  • The Ghost Brigades (Old Man’s War #2) by John Scalzi: I read the whole series and this one was the standout because of the main character, Jared. The themes were around choice and free will, and I absolutely loved how it played out even though I cried for most of the last part and ended up completely heartbroken.
  • Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde: This makes the list because it’s the sequel to Shades Of Grey and I waited FOURTEEN YEARS for it! Jasper Fforde’s imagination is extraordinary. Don’t start here; it will make no sense without reading the first one.
  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin: I can’t believe it’s taken me until now to read this masterpiece that was written before I was born and talks about gender and sexuality and nationalism and civilisation in ways that feel provocative today. I loved it.

Murder mystery

If I had to name my two favourite authors, it would probably be KJ Charles and Margery Allingham. Oh no, I’ve just realised Dancers In Mourning is a re-read! But I’m including it anyway because otherwise I don’t have a mystery category.

  • Death in the Spires by KJ Charles: A historical detective novel set in Oxford at the turn of the century. This is KJ Charles’ first foray into murder mystery—although as the author herself has pointed out, there’s a much lower body count here than in most of her romances—and I sincerely hope it’s not her last.
  • Dancers in Mourning by Margery Allingham: I did a re-read of the Campion novels at the start of the year, and this remains one of my favourites. Possibly because for the first time we see Campion vulnerable and emotionally involved, and I actually love that he gets the crime wrong. Also Lugg is brilliant; taking charge of a household, befriending a six year old girl and teaching her to pick locks and help him with the housework at the same time. I did have to put my politically correct hat aside to read these, because the misogyny, classism, intellectual snobbery and judgement on how people look is all on the nose (also racism in other books). But Allingham’s light hand with the story and her characterisations are enough for me to let that pass. Is that a good thing? I don’t know.

Sorta kinda literary

These days I just can’t cope with the misery-guts depressing shit that makes up most literary book lists (if I want to know how bad life can be I could watch the news). And while these novels were all sad, they were intriguing and beautiful and I am still thinking about them.

  • Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton: Incredibly powerful. I read a lot of it through tears; it’s deeply moving and heartbreaking. I loved the style, each chapter introduced with a drawing and a description of the work from a future art show. And we could all learn from the way our heroine makes decisions; “I find it motiving to consider what all those people are going to one day make of my life choices… it reminds me to apply a strong sense of significance to everything I do.” There was a bit more violence than I normally like and a few too many people dying (unnecessarily?) but I can forgive that for the emotional journey it took me on
  • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Just goes to show it doesn’t matter if you know how the story ends; this captivated me and made me cry, and I read it in two days. I also had my phone handy to check on my who’s who of Greek mythology, mostly picked up from Percy Jackson but expanded a bit now. My only quibble is the flicking between past and present tense. What was that all about?
  • The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera: Quite extraordinary. I didn’t understand about half of what was going on, but I was still captured by Fetter and the world he lived in, and the twist at the end was terrific.

Non fiction

  • The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein: I’m not sure if one book makes a category, but let’s pretend it does because otherwise this wouldn’t get a look-in and it truly deserves to. The text interweaves stories of trauma cleaning (hoarders and murders and everything in between) with the story of Sandra Pankhust’s life. Quite traumatic to read but ultimately hopeful.

writing_editing

What it’s like to go through an editing process for the first time

, , , , , ,

I’ve just handed the final proof-read of Thoroughly Disenchanted back to my editor at Harper Voyager. It’s been a fascinating journey to get to this point and I thought it worth sharing for those of you who are new to this as well.

There are three main stages to the editing process:

  • The Structural Edit: any big picture changes to plot, characterisation, story arcs or as the title says, structure.
  • The Copy Edit: a line by line review of the manuscript, sense checking and considering words and phrasing.
  • The Proof Read: typos and final tweaks.

I imagine each of these stages changes depending on how much and what sort of work the novel needs, and maybe with different publishers or editors. Here’s how it played out for me.

THE STRUCTURAL EDIT

I’d heard horror stories about people getting their edit letter and freaking out about the changes they were being asked to make. So it was with some trepidation that I opened the attachment and… felt absolutely SEEN. My editor and publisher obviously completely got what I was trying to do, loved my characters and the story, and I could see the rationale behind every suggestion. 

Some data:

  • My edit letter was 4 pages long (11 point font, single spaced)
  • It had 7 items to address, 6 of which were small-ish and one medium/large
  • I had about 6 weeks for my first response, then another 4 weeks going backwards and forwards with further tweaks

The most simple suggestion was to get rid of chapter titles, which were apparently “a bit too flippant compared to the tone set by the rest of the book”. I say this was the simplest suggestion, and yes it was absolutely the easiest to deal with, but actually it was the one I least wanted to action. I liked those chapter titles! But I sounded out a few trusted friends who mostly sided with the editor, and I wasn’t absolutely wedded to them so out they went.

Some other slightly more complex changes included going into more depth on one characterisation, altering the role and backstory of another character, providing more clarity on the magical system and how it all worked, and rewriting a couple of scenes.

The most complicated suggestion was to introduce a new character, one who was talked about but didn’t actually appear on the page originally. That meant significant rewrites of some parts and several new scenes. I can’t reveal the detail for spoiler purposes, but trust me, it was not a small change.

My editor, Shannon, was terrific. He framed the feedback in a very positive light and made sure I was aware they were just suggestions and I could do what I liked with them. He offered (and I took him up on) a brainstorming session mainly to work out how and where we should introduce the new character and what the implications of that would be.

I made myself a spreadsheet to track the suggestions, my initial thoughts on what I needed to do to address those, and the actual changes I made in the manuscript. I then bit each change off piece by piece, easiest to most complicated. It was actually much easier than I expected and not as daunting as I feared.           

THE COPY EDIT

I’d kind of presumed the editing rounds got smaller as they went on, so the structural edit would be the biggest, the copy edit would be more manageable and the proof-read I’d be able to knock over in a night.

Boy was I wrong!

I got a heads up when Shannon messaged to say the copy-editor had some structural suggestions. We had a phone call to talk through them and they all made sense, so that was cool. And then a few weeks later his email sending through the changes, came with a reminder to look after my mental health as I was going through it…

Some facts:

  • The marked up manuscript was accompanied by a 5 page cover letter—so longer than my structural edit letter—with 17 sub-headings.
  • There were OVER 700 COMMENTS in the document, and many more marked up changes.
  • I had to get an initial response back within a week for us to send the ARCs to print (which I knew about in advance, and had agreed to) but then I had a further 3 weeks to review and make final changes.

This was quite a different process to the structural edits, and in some ways it was easier because the suggestions were marked up in the document. So I didn’t have to decide where and how to make the suggested change, just whether I wanted to or not.

The 700+ comments fell broadly into these categories:

  • Explaining why she’d made a word or phrase change.
  • Asking a simple question (Did you mean to use this word?)
  • Asking a complicated question (This doesn’t make sense; what are you trying to achieve?)
  • Suggestion for where something needed to be reworked, and why.

I agreed with by far the majority of the changes, and I was impressed with the attention to detail. Here’s one example, explaining a very simple marked up change:

“Suggest tweak to make language sound more natural and not too explanatory. Also to avoid repeating the ‘intellectual and emotional connection’ reference that’s already been brought up on page 4 and is coming up soon again on page 16.”

But even though I agreed with the changes, and honestly believe my book is significantly better because of them, the sheer scale of the task was overwhelming. Plus there’s something about looking at a sea of red mark-ups that hurts your soul.

It also involved a lot of work; we’d created some plot holes with the structural edit that needed fixing, and other parts required rewrites and new scenes. It wasn’t just clicking “accept all” on the changes.

So, I found this much more draining than the structural edit. A part of that is expectation—I’d thought it would be easier—but I do think it was also more work. 

THE PROOF READ

That part was fun to start with. Shannon sent me a printout of the formatted manuscript, so I read it in hardcopy rather than online, and marked up changes with a pen. I found a few changes but they were minor; words and phrases rather than anything structural. I had heaps of time, too, so I put it aside for a month and came back to it with slightly fresh eyes.

Shannon combined my markups with the changes from the proofreader and sent it back to me for one absolutely final review. 

Some facts:

  • There were a further 490 comments! Apparently that’s quite light on, and that 800 would have been quite normal. But still…
  • I had about three weeks to turn this around. 

These were all quite minor changes and yet, I found myself saying “no” to more of them than I had in previous rounds. I stopped myself a couple of times and stepped away from the computer, went for a walk and made a cup of tea, and came back to it with a fresh mind. If my instinct was to say no, I made myself read the original text and then the changed text out loud to see if it scanned better. If I still preferred my original wording, I tried to articulate why, just to make sure I wasn’t being pedantic.

Shannon reassured me every step of the way that it was my book, my words, and I didn’t have to make any changes I didn’t want. But maybe because I’m a debut author, I was nervous about rejecting something that might be legitimate feedback, that I was just not ready to hear. Hence if I rejected something, I had to have a really good reason why.

I ended up saying “no” to quite a lot of suggestions; particularly those that I thought changed my voice, or the cadence or rhythm of the text, and most of the dialogue amendments (I don’t care if it’s grammatically incorrect, that’s how she speaks!)

I accepted quite a few changes that I didn’t really agree with, but I felt they were so minor that it didn’t really matter. That was a deliberate decision to focus on the things that mattered most to me, and let the small stuff go. 

I thought the proof read would be super quick, but actually I took nearly my allotted three weeks to get the final response. This was mainly because I knew I had time, so I didn’t rush. But it’s also because I had to think about nearly every suggestion, and take lots of mental health breaks. 

* * *

So there you have it, the editing process with a trad publisher through the eyes of a first-time author.

It took 7 months from the time I got my structural edit letter in January, to finalising the proof read in August. I’ve been told this is longer than normal (it was certainly longer than I expected). I was always clear on what I had to do by when, and the time frames were reasonable and flexible if needed.

I’ve been enormously lucky to have such great support and commitment from Harper Voyager, and I’m very excited about where Thoroughly Disenchanted has landed.

Happy writing!

 

Note: KJ Charles has an excellent blog about how writers and editors deal with disagreement.

prototypes (4)

My first published novel is not my first manuscript (not even close)

, , , , , , ,

Six years ago I typed “The End” on my first manuscript, and was convinced I’d written a masterpiece.

Reader, I had not.

I sent it off for external validation by means of a paid manuscript assessment, and in hindsight I got lots of great advice. I didn’t pay attention to any of that, though. The only thing I heard was “I’m sure you’ll be able to find an agent”. Clearly the assessor had recognised it was only a matter of time before I became a best-selling superstar.

It took a year and rejections from nearly every publisher and agent in Australia before I learned to listen to what I was being told. The tipping point was from someone slightly more blunt than most, and I remember her exact words. “Your writing is fine, but you have no idea about plot.”

I went back and looked again at all the feedback I’d been given, ignoring the ego stroking this time and just focusing on the “but…” comments. Surprisingly, there weren’t many themes. Sure, plotting came up a bit, but so did pacing, head hopping, dialogue, character arcs, the use of tropes and many other bits and pieces.

It turned out that there was so much wrong with my masterpiece that it was too hard to tell the whole truth, so people just pointed to the one thing that bugged them most. And that was different for everyone.

I didn’t have a masterpiece; I had 75,000 words of irredeemable triteness. No amount of rework was going to make it something worth reading.

I’m not gonna lie, the realisation hurt.

For some reason though, it never occurred to me to give up. The end product might have been terrible, and I had lost confidence in my ability to produce something good, but the act of writing was a revelation. This was something I loved and was going to keep doing. I just needed to figure out how to do it better.

I signed up for the first of many writing courses and began learning the art of writing. I joined writing associations and met other writers and talked about the craft, and the industry. This was not a moment in time but a way of life. I’m now a member of, and regularly attend workshops, conferences and training programs with:

  • Romance Writers of Australia
  • Australian Society of Authors
  • Writers Victoria
  • Queensland Writers’ Centre (the CYA conference is terrific)

Then there’s all the other non-association aligned courses or talks I sign up for just because they seem interesting or someone recommends them.

It wasn’t only training though. I started reading widely in the genres I wanted to write in. I entered any competition I could find that would give me feedback. I pitched to editors and agents at every opportunity, and I asked for feedback. I worked with an editor (May Peterson, cannot recommend highly enough) who helped me understand where I still needed to improve. I found a writers’ group who I trust implicitly, and I listen when they tell me something isn’t working.

And through all of this I kept writing. I wrote a second novel, then a third, fourth and a fifth. Each one was exponentially better than the one before (which just highlighted exactly how bad the first one was).

I call those first five manuscripts my practice novels. I was learning the craft of writing, but I was also learning what works for me; how I write best, what I like to write, what other people like that I write.

Thoroughly Disenchanted is novel six. I had no problem finding an agent for this one, or a publisher. It was remarkably quick and easy; if you count from when I started submitting it, and not from the moment I realised I needed to get better at this writing gig. If you’re consider the big picture it was not quick or easy; six years, countless hours of writing, lots of education, and not a little soul searching has led up to this novel being published.

I’ve been trying to think what the moral of this story is, and I’ve come up with several. Choose which works for you, or make up your own. 

  1. Keep writing (if you want to). The way to get better at writing is to write, but you need to enjoy the process of creation not just the external validation of succeeding.
  2. Keep learning. Take every opportunity you can to hear from others about what they do; not so you can copy it, but so you can figure out your own way.
  3. Listen to feedback. You don’t have to action all of it (or any of it!) but if you’re not listening, there’s no point asking for it. I have a whole other blog post lined up about this.

Happy writing!

RECENT POSTS

Back To Top

Find me online

Bluesky Bluesky
Goodreads Goodreads
hello@alexandraalmond.com.au hello@alexandraalmond.com.au
Bluesky Bluesky
Goodreads Goodreads
hello@alexandraalmond.com.au hello@alexandraalmond.com.au
© 2026 Alexandra Almond | website design by Mara Communications | photography by Leah Ladson