Question & Agent: Stephanie Delman of Trellis Literary Management
debutiful.net – Monday April 6, 2026
Welcome to Debutiful’s Agent Week! We gathered up some of our favorite literary agents representing the most exciting debut books and asked them some questions about what makes them love a submission, their agenting style, and what books they’re working on.
Stephanie Delman spent 10 years at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates before starting Trellis Literary Management with Michelle Brower and Allison Hunter. Her client list includes countless Debutiful favorites, including Vanessa Chan, Eshani Surya, Jenny Tinghui Zhang, and Gina María Balibrera.
We dug into what makes her a “hands-on” agent, why starting Trellis was the best decision in her life, and what makes her excited for a submission.
The evolving role of fan fiction and independent publishing
sbstatesman.com – Monday April 6, 2026
A core aspect of literature — from the newest young adult, romance or crime thriller novel release to screenplays and award-winning films — is trope. Tropes can be defined by unique, recurring motifs that often speak to the writing’s theme. Popular literary tropes include enemies-to-lovers, found family and love triangles, to name a few.
A place where tropes have always thrived are fan fiction platforms, particularly Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. In the past decade alone, the number of fan fiction uploads and fan fiction engagement has increased exponentially. In 2014, AO3 hit one million published works. In 2018, the platform was home to over four million works. As of early 2026, the site reports hosting over 17 million fanfics.
However, for active engagers in fan fiction communities, it’s undeniable that these fandoms feel less active than they did five years ago. This can be attributed to a wide range of reasons — fandom engagement, the rise of “niche” communities and a new approach to appreciating fan fiction stories — particularly the tendency to hyperfocus on tropes.
New readers make a habit of moving quickly from piece to piece, consuming only to leave “kudos,” the AO3 equivalent of likes, while barely leaving comments or actually reading the entire story.
As popular as this community is, especially in the digital age, fan fiction is seldom spoken about in literary circles. Some claim systemic propagation plays a role in this. Fan fiction is often associated with secrecy as it lends itself to mockery, especially since it is a female-dominated medium.
I wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence – but we are as valuable as ever
theguardian.com – Thursday April 2, 2026
I recently heard an exchange at a playground that should worry the executives at AI companies more than any analyst’s prediction of a bubble. A boy and a girl, maybe 10 years old, were fighting. “That’s AI! That’s AI!” the girl was shouting. What she meant was that the boy was indulging a new and particular breed of nonsense: language that sounds meaningful but has no connection to reality. The children have figured the new world out quickly, as they do.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, neither as an apocalypse nor as the solution to all life’s problems, but as a disruptive tool. The recent scandal over Shy Girl, the novel by Mia Ballard, was doubly revealing. Hachette cancelled its publication amid claims it was reliant on AI generation (Ballard has said that an acquaintance who edited the self-published version used AI, not her). But the book was originally self-published. Apparently readers and editors didn’t mind until the use of AI was pointed out to them.
The fact that machines can generate meaning in the first place is an existential curiosity. But for writers, and for young writers in particular, AI has a more practical significance. A recent survey found that 86% of college students use AI regularly, which means that 14% are lying to survey-takers. The ordinary business of quotidian language – writing student essays, emails, memos, all the granular sentence-by-sentence work that once trained writers in their craft – is dissolving. Mastery of style, the laborious gift of the skilled writer, is being automated.
‘Soon publishers won’t stand a chance’: literary world in struggle to detect AI-written books
theguardian.com – Sunday March 29, 2026
US release of horror novel Shy Girl cancelled and UK book discontinued after suspected AI use, as publishers feel ‘cold shiver’
Recently, the literary agent Kate Nash started noticing that the submission letters she was receiving from authors were becoming more thorough – albeit also more formulaic.
“I took it as a rise in diligence,” she said. “I thought it was a good thing.”
But then she had what she described as her eureka moment: the letter with the AI prompt right at the top. “It read: ‘Rewrite my query letter for Kate Nash including a comp to a writer she represents,’” she said.
Once Nash had seen the prompt, she “couldn’t unsee AI-assisted or AI-written queries again”.
A Guide for Aspiring Authors
universityobserver.ie – Tuesday March 24, 2026
In order to be a writer, one must form a writing habit. Pick a dedicated time in your schedule where you write. It does not matter how long you write for or what time you select. The key is consistency. Building this habit requires you to take yourself, and your writing seriously.
I recently attended an event at Chapter’s Bookstore, hosted by the Romantic Novels Association, a professional body dedicated to raising the prestige of romantic fiction. At the event, the association’s chair and director, Seána Talbot, spoke about the importance of respecting your desire to write as much as your other commitments.
For students, this might look like setting deadlines for your writing goals just as you would with your assignments, or informing your roommates that you need some quiet time in the same way you do when you study.
Build a community:
It can be much easier to motivate yourself to do something when you belong to a group with the same interests or goals. If you are not in a literature or creative writing degree, this can be harder to find as a student. That said writing groups you can join as a student still exist.
UCD Lit Soc hosts regular writing sessions where students from all courses can come together to write and share their work with others. Volunteering with organisations such as Fighting Words also gives access to events with other writing and literature enthusiasts. This is a great way to meet people with the same interests and sometimes network with others from the industry.
Can anyone get a book deal? What it takes to be a novelist in 2026
eu.usatoday.com – Sunday March 22, 2026
Consolidation, fewer imprints and editorial bottlenecks are reshaping how fiction book deals are acquired and developed in today’s publishing market.
“From Pitch to Publication” is a series taking readers behind the curtain of modern publishing as a business.
I’m so accustomed to rejection that I brace myself for every email – even before opening. Even when good news may be waiting after that click.
Writers, and all creatives to an extent, have to get accustomed to “no.”
About 81% of Americans feel that they have a book in them, according to an often cited survey reported in The New York Times (from the early 2000s). Many aspire to write and publish a book in their lifetime, but only a small fraction see their work formally acquired and announced each year. A little over 2,000 fiction writers announced deals in 2025 on Publishers Marketplace.
What's it like to write a bestseller? We followed Lucy Score for a year to find out
This year, one of those deals announced is mine: My debut young adult novel, “How to Kill a Chupacabras," was acquired by independent publisher Tiny Ghost Press. I almost dismissed the email confirming the offer as another rejection.
How to write your first children's book - meet the experts
knutsfordguardian.co.uk – Saturday March 21, 2026
Cheshire has produced generations of award-winning children’s authors, from Lewis Carroll to contemporary luminaries such as Alan Garner. Now, in World Book Day month, we discover what it takes to pen a hit for young readers.
For me, it’s Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree. My daughters opt for Dame Lynley Dodd’s unlikely canine hero, Hairy Maclary. Friends and family suggest other titles – Shirley Hughes’ We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Lauren Child’s Charlie and Lola, Julia Donaldson’s The Gruffalo, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter. They’re all stories that endure – enthralling and inspiring young readers and making indelible marks on fresh imaginations in a way fiction rarely does as we mature.
In Warrington, international best-selling author Curtis Jobling traces his success back to childhood inspirations.
One book after another: indie publisher Joffe Books continues to rise
thebookseller.com – Friday March 20, 2026
To enter Joffe Books’ office, one must first navigate several levels of a dark and dimly lit stairwell in a Shoreditch office block – a heart-racing endeavour in more ways than one. But on reaching it, a New York loft-style haven of light and space beckons. A more informal and talkative office atmosphere than some traditional publishers, there is a palpable sense of energy – perhaps aided by the smorgasbord of luxury chocolates in the kitchen. A permanent fixture, I am told.
I am here to speak with founder and chief executive officer Jasper Joffe and editorial director Rachel Slatter, not long after the indie made yet another acquisition, the Severn House list. This takes the imprint count to five, with turnover cresting £10m, Joffe says. Much of this is generated by the digital-first company’s e-books base, but print is growing, up 16% in 2025 to £231,000 through NielsenIQ BookScan.
Genre as Delight, Not Dictator: How Learning About Genres Helps You Write Better
janefriedman.com – Tuesday March 17, 2026
Jane recently wrote about the importance of not obsessing about arbitrary genres and subgenres, whether one is just beginning to write a book or struggling to pitch it. After all, genres (and categories) are the concerns of people selling books, not the people writing them.
Yes, but. Or should I say Yes, and?
As a multi-genre author of seven novels who jumped from literary historical fiction to the more commercial thriller category a few years ago—and sold more copies in the last two years than I’d sold in the previous ten—I want to share my view that genre does matter in ways that can be inspiring and instructional rather than limiting or vexing.
First, let me explain that I came to creative writing via literary fiction and the classics. I fed my late-blooming novelist’s mind with doses of Virginia Woolf, Philip Roth, and Ian McEwan. My debut historical novel was modeled on Don Quixote.
This high-brow literary focus taught me useful things about voice, theme, and the evolution of the novel as a form, which I passed on to my students once I became an MFA instructor. What it didn’t always teach me or my students effectively was how to plot. Or even about how to develop characters, in that I gravitated toward characters who were opaque, passive, and generally inaccessible. While my friends were reading Fifty Shades of Grey, I was thoroughly enjoying Of Human Bondage. (Don’t be fooled by the title; it’s not a spicy book.)
I challenged ChatGPT to a writing competition. Could it actually replace me?
theguardian.com – Thursday March 12, 2026
Every writer I know is in despair at the prospect being replaced by AI. Many of them say they never use it on principle; I know all of them do.
So this week, as part of my AI diary, I’m conducting the forbidden experiment in plain sight. I’m going toe to toe with ChatGPT as a creative writer. Can it truly match me, and might it replace me? Let’s settle this.
We do battle using writing prompts, selected at random from an excellent new guide called A Year of Creative Thinking by Jessica Swale. The first page I flip to has us inventing new words for existing things. It’s very fun. A cheese grater, I decide, could easily be known as a “stinkchizzle”. A very long road would be better as a “slodgepuff”. A fart becomes a “piffsnut”, and a dream an “asterfantastic”. I’m pleased with that one. But how does the machine do?
For cheesegrater it has scritchygrater, which is obviously crap. Very long road? Neverendipath. Bit literal. Trumpelsnort is pretty good, as is slumberwhim. I like nibblink for mouse. For some reason, I could only come up with “pimpsquint”.
Get the free newsletter | Submit a news item or article | Get Writers' News for your website
