Kat Devereaux: On Writing for Yourself First to Find Publication
Kat Devereaux was born near Edinburgh, and has lived in the United States, Russia, France, Chile, Germany and the Czech Republic before finally settling in Italy. She is a writer and translator with a special focus on Italian Literature.
In this post, Kat shares how she changed her writing process to finally get an agent and publisher for her debut novel.
Name: Kat Devereaux
Literary agent: Broo Doherty, DHH literary agency
Book title: Escape to Florence
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release date: July 11, 2023
Genre/category: Historical fiction/Women’s fiction
Elevator pitch for the book: Fleeing her controlling husband, Tori MacNair arrives in Florence, the city her grandmother taught her to love, in the spring of 2019. As she digs into her family history, she uncovers a long-hidden story of courage and sacrifice dating back to the dark days of the German occupation.
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What prompted you to write this book?
I call Escape to Florence my “oh, screw it” novel. I’d written four previous books, and none had got me an agent or a publisher. My marriage had fallen apart. I’d dropped out of a prestigious postgraduate degree, moved to a new country, and started building a freelance career… and then the pandemic hit, and my hard-won new footing was swept from under me. As far as I was concerned, I’d failed at everything I’d tried to do. Time to write something just for myself.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about a year from having the idea to signing with my agent, Broo Doherty. Eight months or so later, after I’d done a couple of rounds of substantive edits, the offer came in from HarperCollins for publication in July 2023. The entire process comes to around two and a half years.
The idea evolved a great deal. Originally, I intended to write an escapist rom-com with a satirical edge: a sardonic response to all those well-meaning friends who assumed I was having some kind of life-affirming Eat, Pray, Love experience simply because I was in Italy. But as I got drawn into writing the story, it became darker, thornier, more complex. I was still in denial about that when I started querying: I pitched it as a rom-com to agents who represented rom-com, and I was extremely lucky to get a few positive responses.
But it was Broo who read it and said: Look, there’s an amazing historical backstory here, and you need to bring that out. I knew I had to work with her to make my project into the book it was always meant to be.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I’ve been around the book industry for quite a while as a reviewer, and I have lots of friends who are authors, so I thought that nothing could surprise me. I was wrong! One thing I didn’t realize is quite how gradual the publication process is.
I was still working on my structural edits when pre-order links started going up for the audiobook. It’s disconcerting when that first happens. But it’s also a gentle way in to understanding—really accepting—that your writing isn’t just for you any more. It’s going to be out there in the world.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I’m a fairly uptight person and I have a lot of anxiety around expressing negative emotions, especially anger. So it was a big surprise to me that the angriest passages in this book, the scenes I threw down onto the page in a moment of indignation, were the ones that got the warmest response from readers.
I meant to go back and rewrite them to be neater and smoother and, well, nicer — but I never did. Now I see those moments as raw and authentic. It’s changed how I write.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope they’ll find at least one character they can really love. There’s a lot of pain in both Tori’s and Stella’s stories; there’s bleakness, especially in Stella’s. But this is also a book that’s all about love.
It’s not just about big romantic relationships, though there are at least three of those. It’s also about the people who come and scoop you up when those closest to you have let you down. And the small kindnesses of relative strangers, which make such a difference when you’re alone in a strange land.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
It’s easy to let self-consciousness creep in when you’re writing that first draft. But that’s the moment when you really need to let go.
Whatever you’re feeling, no matter how undignified, let yourself feel it: anger, hurt, desire, jealousy, grief. Get it all out now. You’ll feel so much better, and chances are that your book will benefit, too.
While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.