Erin Quinn-Kong: The Only Thing You Can Control in Publishing Is Your Writing
Erin Quinn-Kong is a longtime magazine editor. Currently managing editor of Texas Highways, she has also been an editor at Austin Monthly, Us Weekly, and Allure. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and lives in Austin, TX, with her husband and their two children. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.
Erin Quinn-Kong
In this interview, Erin discusses how observing social media influencers during the pandemic helped inspire her debut novel, Hate Follow, the empathy she felt for her characters while she built them, and more.
Name: Erin Quinn-Kong
Literary agent: Rachelle Gardner @ Gardner Literary
Book title: Hate Follow
Publisher: William Morrow
Release date: October 8, 2024
Genre/category: Contemporary Book Club Fiction
Elevator pitch: After years of building her influencer brand as a widowed mother of four, Whitney Golden is at the peak of her career with 1 million followers. But her carefully curated life comes crashing down when her 15-year-old daughter Mia reveals she no longer wants to be part of her mother’s social media empire—and sues her for invasion of privacy.
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What prompted you to write this book?
I started writing Hate Follow in December 2020, in the thick of the pandemic—before the media attention on the privacy of influencer kids really amped up. I’d been following influencers and bloggers for a long time before that, and I noticed there were several influencers who lost their husbands and then their followers skyrocketed. One of the women had preteen kids, and I remember thinking, What will her kids think in a few years when they see their sick dad all over the internet? That got me thinking about whose story parents are allowed to tell. If someone dies, does their spouse get to tell that story or their child? Or should anyone? And that was the jumping off point to have a teenager sue their influencer parent for invasion of privacy—something I swear is going to happen in the future!
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
About four years. The premise of the book never changed, but when my editor bought it, she wanted a different ending. I originally had a trial, but she wanted something that was more emotional. To complicate things, there were chapters after the trial that remained in the book. It took me weeks to figure out how to rework that puzzle, but I think the new ending is far stronger.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I’ve been a magazine editor for 20 years, so I know what it takes to produce a publication. But book publishing was still a whole new beast for me to experience. The rollercoaster of quick deadlines and then long waits in between took some getting used to. But it’s also nice to have some space to keep thinking about your book. Also, books are just so big! Before Hate Follow, the longest story I had ever written and published was about 3,500 words. That’s a lot easier to manage than 85,000.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Hate Follow is dual POV, and I honestly went into writing it totally on Mia’s side. But as I wrote draft after draft and figured out Whitney’s backstory and got a few more parenting years under my belt, I’ve been able to see how Whitney truly believed she was doing the best thing for her family—and that she deserved to tell her own story, too. It’s been gratifying for me to have early readers say the book feels very balanced.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope it makes parents think about how they are sharing their children on social media—especially if their accounts aren’t private. Our culture has put such a premium on oversharing and I think there are a lot of parents who post about their children without even thinking about how it will affect them later. There’s also the safety element that is often ignored. When your social media isn’t private, your photos can be taken by anyone. It’s quite scary.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I’m going to cheat and give two pieces of advice.
First, figure out your process. People say you have to write first thing in the morning or every single day in order to be a “real” writer, and that’s just not true. If you can only write a few times a month, or at night after your day job, or at 1 p.m. when your baby naps, then do that. The important thing is to be consistent. How you get there is totally dependent on your personal circumstances.
Second, if you find another writer or three that you click with and trust, hold on to them tight. You will need someone to vent to about the ups and downs of the publishing industry or to help untangle a tricky plot issue. Only other writers will be able to understand and commiserate about this crazy career path in the same way.
Okay, and I have one more: The only thing you can truly control in publishing is your writing. So have fun and enjoy it!
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