Ande Pliego: The Only Failed Writer Is the One Who Gave Up

When not reading or writing, Ande Pliego can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library. Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest with her craftsman husband and little son. Follow her on X (Twitter) and Instagram.

In this interview, Ande discusses wanting readers to play detective in her new mystery novel, You Are Fatally Invited, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Ande Pliego
Literary agent: Hannah Schofield, LBA
Book title: You Are Fatally Invited
Publisher: Ballantine Bantam Dell, Penguin Random House
Release date: February 11, 2025
Genre/category: Mystery/Thriller
Elevator pitch: A legendary author’s murder mystery writing retreat on his private island turns lethal when one of the writers is murdered. With a storm cutting off the island, the body count rising, and horrifying tropes from their stories coming to life, the authors must outwit a killer who knows every trick in the book.

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What prompted you to write this book?

You Are Fatally Invited is both my fun escapist book, and my (figuratively said) villain-era book, all in one. I wrote it while I had a YA thriller on submission to publishers; while we had that iron in the fire, my brilliant agent and I decided to switch tracks, and I pivoted to the adult market. It proved to be a natural fit for my voice and penchant for complex, twisting stories.

My YA books tend to be emotionally heavy, dark coming-of-age stories, so I wanted to write something very different—a breath of lighthearted air, so to speak (although some people may debate about You Are Fatally Invited being lighthearted!). Psychologically clever mysteries where everyone’s a suspect have always been chicken soup for my macabre-loving soul, so I decided on a locked-room mystery in the vein of And Then There Were None. But how do you write something that’s been done before, by many amazing authors?

My thought was to lean fully into it, to make it fun and intentional—to write every trope and cliché with a meta-twist that would serve as a tongue-in-cheek nudge to the reader. You Are Fatally Invited only works because of the great locked-room stories that’ve come before it, as it lovingly pokes fun at all the thriller/mystery/horror tropes that we all roll our eyes at (lovingly, of course). In the same way Galaxy Quest is about TV actors find themselves in a “real life” sci-fi story, and Jumanji has video-gamers dropped into a virtual game, so the thriller authors of You Are Fatally Invited find themselves trapped inside a real murder mystery, and must escape a killer who plots murders as clever in reality as he does on the page. To me, that was just a delightfully fun idea with plenty to play with.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

Total, it took around two and a half years. My agent and I brainstormed the initial premise in July of 2022, but it took three drafts for me to become confident in who the killer was and figure out how all of the characters were connected. I also leaned more into the tropes with each draft, coaxing out the humorous bits to become more satirical.

But what’s more or less this incarnation of the book sold nine months after I first had the idea, which is wild; from then, it’ll have been little over a year and several months by the time the book hits bookshelves.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

So many surprises! The one that shocked me the most was how the book sold. Having had one book “die” on submission before, I honestly expected my agent and I were just sending You Are Fatally Invited out into the void to diminish and go into the West (disappear). But less than a week after we sent it out, a U.S. editor took us to second reads, so we sent the book out to the publishers on our U.K. list. My U.K. editor at Bantam offered a pre-empt two days later. We started meeting with U.S. editors and set a date for a seven-way auction, but the day before the big day, we ended up accepting a pre-empt from Ballantine Bantam Dell.

Two weeks from sending the book out, we’d sold in the U.K., U.S., Italy, and Germany. It completely blew all of my little hopes out of the water and has honestly changed my—and my family’s—life. Gratitude doesn’t express well enough what I feel for my incredible agent who hustled to make this happen, for the stunning number of publishers who fell in love with the book, and for my amazing editors who fought hard to win it.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Ha—this question truly turns a spotlight on how chaotic my writing process is. I meticulously plotted the book chapter-by-chapter before I ever started drafting; but even then, after I finished the draft three months later, I realized the antagonist was wrong! I had to go back through and play detective myself, and figure out who actually did it, and why. But it’s not a waste when that happens—whenever I realize I have something wrong, I’ll still keep the breadcrumbs leading to the original conclusion and turn it into a built-in red herring. Voilà. As if it’s part of the plan. Work smarter, not harder, friends!

It also took four (very stressful) drafts until I pieced together my main character’s motivating goal. In retrospect, it should’ve been obvious, but my characters usually take their sweet time to let me know what’s actually going on, versus what is a red herring. So, my philosophy has become that if I’m not surprised by my own characters, the reader might not be—but if I am, I’ve (probably) struck gold.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

This is awkwardly on par with the idea of authors feasting on reader tears, but I do very much hope You Are Fatally Invited keeps readers up way too late at night to find out what happens—that’s a thriller author’s dream! I hope too that readers really playing detective figure out at least one twist but are had by some of the others. But probably most important of all, I hope every reader finds a piece of themselves in these characters, and that a part of them feels seen and understood.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

If you’ve got a story trapped in your bones, and you draw immense pleasure from the act of storytelling itself, don’t quit, even (especially) in the face of rejection. My mantra is the only failed writer is the one who gave up. Never stop reading, writing, trying to better your craft, and learning all you can about the industry. And pop over to the “For Writers” page on my website for an alarming amount of writing/publishing talk from yours truly!