We recently connected with Yasmin Angoe and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Yasmin, thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

The old saying goes when it’s your time, then you’ll get what you’ve been wanting, and I think it’s right. My time to be a writer was not right out of high school, when I really wanted to be an author, had no idea how one got started in the publishing industry, but rather after school, kids, and a teaching career. Then it was “my time,” and I came back to writing with the intent of getting an agent and becoming a traditionally published writer. I think the detour in my writing career allowed me to deepen my craft and prepare myself for the ups and many downs of publishing.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a thriller/suspense writer and a developmental editor. I’ve been writing since elementary school but made a serious go of becoming traditionally published. I queried many agents and eventually got one who understood my work, voice and believed in me. From there, my agent submitted my finished manuscript, Her Name Is Knight, to publishers, and we were offered a two-book deal. My book was optioned for a tv series adaptation shortly after that. Since then, I’ve written the last two books of the trilogy, and I have realized I hate deadlines (but who likes them anyway?) and that writing is more enjoyable when it’s just for you. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t give up this opportunity now that I finally have it.

On the other side is developmental editing. I love to write, and I enjoy helping others get their work ready for the world. I think working as an English teacher helped me develop my editing skills. My clients either come to me through Tessera Editorial, with whom I work or are referred directly to me. I think what sets me aside from other editors is that I deeply enjoy the discussion around the plot and characters’ motivation. It’s a gift when readers pick up your story or book and give their time for you to entertain them with your words. So it’s important that what’s put out is to the best of that writer’s ability, and I want to help the writer achieve that.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I decided that in 2020, I would begin querying my manuscript, Her Name Is Knight, to agents. I queried, that is emailed and sent samples of my manuscript to over a hundred agents and kept getting rejected for various reasons. The majority of their reasons was that they could get into the voice. It’s devastating to receive rejection after rejection for work it took so long and so much of you to write. And I began to doubt myself. I thought all these people can’t be wrong. Maybe I’m a horrible writer after all and need to quit. So I decided that I would quit writer and continue to work in education.

One of my writer friends in a group I’m in, Crime Writers of Color, suggested I submit to the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color sponsored by Sisters in Crime. I figured why not because I wasn’t going to win anyway and so it didn’t matter because I was hanging up my pens and quitting. Even though I had every intention of quitting, something still compelled me to submit to the award.

Then near the end of May, I received an email from one of the agents who hadn’t yet replied. She wanted to get on a call which in publishing talk means I’m about to offer you representation. I couldn’t believe it. Sure enough, she offered me representation. And then another agent offered. I was floored. I went with the first agent and then received an email indicating I’d won the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award. I nearly passed out.

After many months of no’s, I’d finally received not one, but three yes’s back to back. I got an agent. I received a prestigious award named after a prolific Black female mystery/cop detective writer who wrote stories centered around people who looked like her just like how I wanted to write. Even though I received so many rejections I thought I was the worst writer in the world and was terrified to open up new email messages, I kept sending out queries. Even though I said I was going to quit, I made myself to try one more thing because I think inside I knew I’d never stop. Writing was life blood to me, telling stories is my love language and it was the only way that I could be true to myself. So I had to keep going. I had to be resilient.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had known and understood the power of community earlier in my creative journey. I didn’t have a group of people who understood the nuances of being a creative. I was surrounded by non-writers who thought writing or being an artist/creative was a hobby, not a real career. I was the child of Ghanaian immigrants, so my family definitely couldn’t imagine being an author as a career. If I had a writing group, critique partners, or anyone I could share with, I think my detour from writing would not have been as long.

Contact Info:

• Website: yasminangoe.com
• Instagram: @author_yas
• Facebook: Yasmin Angoe, Author
• Twitter: @yasawriter

Image Credits
The bookstore images credit goes to Christina Estes