I moved from Los Angeles to an off-grid tiny home I built in the mountains of Northern California, mostly to cut my expenses low enough to pour myself into writing. I had training in screenwriting and story structure, but novels are a whole different beast, so I homeschooled myself on YouTube and watched the Reedsy videos religiously.
When my horror novel was finally ready to go out to agents, I knew I needed a professional set of eyes on it. I couldn't afford a full edit of the manuscript, so I hired an editor on Reedsy to sharpen my query letter and first chapter instead. It was the best investment I've made as a writer.
Twenty-six agents came back asking for the full manuscript, and soon after Swallerjaw, my Southern Gothic swamp horror, sold in a two-book deal to Tor Nightfire, the horror imprint of Tor Publishing Group (a trade division of Macmillan).
Here's how it happened.
From screenwriting to swamp gothic
I came to storytelling in a roundabout way — first visual and performance art, then film and screenwriting. While I was writing my thesis script for my screenwriting MFA, I realized the stories I wanted to tell might work even better as novels, where I could really dig into the interiority of my characters and into my own voice.
Swallerjaw is a swamp-drenched horror, with Southern Gothic themes of generational trauma, and twisted faith. It started bubbling up when I was living by the Florida blackwater swamps — something in the humidity soaks into your brain and makes local folklore feel real and inevitable.
That lore built my fictional town of Festus, whose story runs through three braided points of view: a pole dancer searching for her long-missing brother, a widowed mother whose child is snatched from his bed, and gravedigger brothers who find a sentient skull that demands a new body.
Why I chose traditional publishing
When I was weighing my publishing options, I chose to try my hand at traditional publishing because I didn't have the money or the passion to properly run my own publishing business. Self-publishing well is running a business, and I wanted to spend what I had on the writing.
But when it came to my query letter, I knew I needed a professional set of eyes on it, and I thought it was worth the investment. The easiest way to find an editor was through Reedsy, where I'd already gotten so much trusty advice for my boots-on-the-ground writing practice.
That’s where I found Karmen.
The edit that fixed my pitch (and my whole novel)
Karmen Wells stood out to me as the editor who would truly get my weird vision. She's worked at a high level across horror fiction and screenwriting, including as an editor at HarperCollins Canada and a book-to-screen agent at The Rights Factory, which perfectly suited my own writing experience and influences. She has a honed sensibility for what sells in horror. I can't speak more highly of her.
What she did with my query letter was pare it down and strengthen it. Writing a blurb is very different from writing a 100,000-word novel — learning how to distill an entire story into a one-page pitch is its own art form, and Karmen helped get mine shining.
The first chapter was the other half of it. Even though I couldn't afford a full edit on the novel, the issues Karmen flagged in those pages — overwriting, mostly — were revisions I could then fix manuscript-wide. That's something I hadn't anticipated: a sample edit can help you fix a lot more than one chapter!
Tip: If you're aiming for traditional publishing and can't afford a full edit, spend what you have on your query package. It’s the chance to put your best foot forward pitching to agents, and whatever revisions are needed in your first chapter are probably manuscript wide issues.
Twenty-six full requests, and then a deal
Having a polished letter really helped to sell the novel. I received twenty-six full requests, and after evaluating the offers, I ended up choosing Sam Edenborough of Greyhound Literary in the UK. He took the time to give me the most insightful revision notes, and I knew he'd be the best person to champion my work.
We went out with Swallerjaw in an exclusive first look with Tor Nightfire, and they snapped it up in a two-book deal. It's also being translated into German through Fischer Tor.
I couldn't be more thrilled to be working with my dream editors. Swallerjaw comes out in summer 2027, and I'm revising my second novel now. Being a full-time writer — still off-grid — is a dream come true for me.
Wherever you are in your author journey, I hope my story can be of inspiration.
Tif Robinette writes folk horror and rural gothic. Her short fiction has appeared in Black Hare Press, Blood + Honey, Bitter Magazine, Divinations Magazine, Bloodletter Magazine and Feign, and her story "Additional Elegancies for Additional Cost" was nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize and a Bram Stoker Award. Her debut novel, Swallerjaw, is out from Tor Nightfire on 17 August 2027. Find her at tifrobinettewrites.com.
