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Ashley Hearn

@_ashleyhearn

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Executive Editor @peachtreeteen | Liberal Southerner | Hiker | HEMA | ENFP | Equal parts coffee, craft beer, and chaos 🌒🌓🌔

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New Publishing Info series! ✨ “What do editors wish authors knew?”

Starting with probably the number one complaint I see from authors online when it comes to trad pub and that’s “why would they buy my book and then give it NO marketing?”

Not trying debunk this entirely or minimize authors’ experiences, but hopefully I can provide some background information on the kind of “marking to the trade” that happens behind the scenes and why publishers do it this way.

Would more emphasis on consumer-facing marketing be more effective? That’s a different question. 😅 Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Also if you find this helpful, please let me know!

In pt. 2 I’m going to cover “what can an author so when a retailer passes on my title?”

#author #authorlife #publishing #bookpublishing #bookish by @_ashleyhearn

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4 months ago

COOL! 😎✨🍑

Hard to believe it’s been over a decade 👀 (what?) since I took my first paid editing gig.

So much has come and gone and transformed in the publishing industry since then. It’s hardened me, healed me, kicked me around, but given me so much purpose. I genuinely cannot imagine a different calling for myself. I’ve been so lucky to have come up surrounded by incredible mentors, colleagues, and authors, who through it all, have remained steadfastly committed to the mission of bringing transformative stories to the readers who need them.

Can’t wait to see what the future holds for me, my authors, publishing in general, and Peachtree Teen. How are we already celebrating 5 years next year?! 🍑

Swipe ➡️ for some MSWL items!

#peachtreeteen #editor #editorlife #writer #mswl taken in Atlanta, Georgia by @_ashleyhearn

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7 months ago

‼️9/25 UPDATE: September slots are full! Still plenty of spots for October, November, and December though! ☺️ Thanks everyone!

I’m taking on a few freelance query critiques to raise money for a personal project.

There will be 10 slots open on each of the four days I’ve set aside. First come first serve. All genres of Adult, YA, and MG Fiction. $50 each (invoiced through PayPal day-of).

Reserve a slot now through the Google Form link in my bio!

#writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #querying #querytrenches writingtip taken in Atlanta, Georgia by @_ashleyhearn

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8 days ago

Hehe. Looks like a few new people fell into my trap. 😏

Which of course makes this an excellent time to talk about what a massive failure I am!

I’ve been cooking on this post for a while. For a long time I felt like I needed to hide my author failures to protect my editor persona, but honestly, I think maybe it’s helpful to someone out there to see how success in one thing is a guarantee of nothing else. Especially in the hellscape that is publishing. 🙂‍↕️

There is a TW for Depression here (slide is marked).

I’m sharing this across accounts because I think this has value in both places, but please mind the “Programming” slide at the end and Choose Your Own Adventure wisely from here.

Finally, what the heck is a BATTLE CLERICS? 👇

📖: A dual-timeline romantic Epic Fantasy that combines the war college setting of Fourth Wing with the mind flayer lore of Baldur’s Gate III (if the aberrations were hot eldritch angels instead of squids).

If you love the doomed yaoi of Jayvic, Oufrey, and The Summer Hikaru Died, then boy do I have the slop for you. 😋

It features:
🖤 Doomed by the Narrative
👁️ Slooooow Burn (Yearn it to Earn it)
🖤 Magic War College
👁️ Eldritch/ Cosmic Monsters
🖤 Light Victorian Steampunk World
👁️ Weird Monster Kinks
🖤 Trippy Hive Minds
👁️ Neurodivergent-coded Protagonists
🖤 Trauma Healing and Hurt/ Comfort
👁️ Oops! All Clerics Magic System
🖤 Us Against the World Energy

If you want writing updates follow @ashslayswrites. For more industry advice and editor stuff @_ashleyhearn is what you want!

#authorlife #writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #publishing #writer taken in BOOKSTA by @_ashleyhearn

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16 days ago

Sedona 🌵 And Updates!

Where does the time go? Might as well celebrate September 1st by posting pictures from a trip I took in July. 💀 I went to Arizona for stabbings and feel like I put some of my best fencing out there, then went to touch rocks. They were very pretty rocks.

Work has been very very busy lately but packed full of exciting projects (some announced and some ✨SECRETS✨), and naturally, social media is always the first thing to fall off my plate when it gets too full. But here’s a few things I’ve been up to lately:

💫 Writing writing writing… cranking away at my secret beloved silly guy battle clerics project (just crossed 150k words).

💫 Stabbing. This is kind of evergreen. 🤪 Next tournament is AGO in September. But just booked flights to HLO in January!

💫 Wedding planning! It’s in November, and it’s historical costume-themed, and I’m living hearing about all the garb friends are planning!

I’ve got plans for a few more editor posts… hoping to one about print runs soon. But it’s all depending on time and bandwidth.

Until then ✌️
Ash taken in Sedona, Arizona by @_ashleyhearn

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a month ago

Well, in acknowledgement of Belgium 🇧🇪, and their utter embarrassment of the USMNT, might as well get around to posting some of my pics of Antwerp from when I was there in November.

You win Belgium. Your football good. Your waffles unparalleled. Your face card never declines. 15/10 would return.

#antwerp #belgium #belgiumtrip #travel #eurotrip taken in Antwerpen, Belgium by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

Well, it finally happened! ⚔️ My love and I met on the field of battle (in a HEMA tournament) for the first time since we both started competing. And okay he skewered me, but I still feel like a winner cause he’s mine.

Also apparently our post-fight makeout was live-streamed. Sorry internet. 😜

📸 Massive thanks to @jaredphotobee for capturing the moment!

And huge thanks to @mike.roth.355 and the whole crew at Hot Sword Summer for hosting a fantastic weekend of tournaments! Overall, happy with my performance, sweeping pools, and finishing 7th in the standings before my love bounced me in the round of 16. Up next Cactus Cup! 🌵

#hema #longsword #longswordfencing #fencing #sword taken in Gainsville, Florida. by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

Part 2 on Publishing Expectations! P&Ls and AFPs!

A deep dive into the numbers that signal how many copies of a book a publisher expects to sell, and what this means for you as an author in managing expectations for your career.

Note: This has gone from being a one-off post to now a three-part series because I blabbed for too long about AFPs. In Part 3 next week I’ll talk more about print runs and preorders!

#books #bookish #publishing #authorlife authorcommunity by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

New publishing info mini series!

What was supposed to be a quick-post on managing expectations in traditional publishing wound up becoming a two-part mini-series because apparently I can’t shut up. 💀

✏️ Part One: On why it feels like publishing lies all the time.
✏️ Part Two: On sales expectations and what the numbers actually mean for authors.

Save if you find this helpful! Part Two on Thursday!

#publishing #bookish #bookpublishing #editor #author by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

Photo dump from Hearn Sibs take the World Cup!

Spain 🇪🇸 vs Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

Lucky one of us had a connection who made it into the ticket queue through the draw, and we were ecstatic our game “Match 38” turned out to feature one of the top teams in the tournament in Spain!

Highlights:

⚽️ Got to see Lamine Yamal’s first World Cup goal
⚽️ The World Cup “everyone coming together” vibes
⚽️ Country Roads is unironically the US WC anthem
⚽️ The Benz (“Atlanta Stadium”) always impresses
⚽️ Atlanta was electric and the free fan fest was really fun!

I’ve watch an unholy amount of soccer in the last two weeks and looking forward to more. 😝 Glad I got to take part and share the experience with my sibs. Also, if you’re in ATL, it’s definitely worth heading to the fan fest area to catch a game! The set up there is electric!

#worldcup2026 #worldcup #atlanta #atl #soccer by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

Peachtree Pride Stacks 🏳️‍🌈✨

It’s been an honor to watch this collection grow over the years. 🥹 Note: these are just the queer @peachtreeteen novels I’ve edited. My amazing colleagues continue to add even more outstanding queer books to the peaches lineup.

Is one of your favorite books here?

(Also note: Looks like I need more warm toned covers, green and purple are popular 🤣)

#pride🌈 #bookish #books #yabooks #pridebooks taken in BOOKSTA by @_ashleyhearn

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3 months ago

“What do Editors Wish Authors Knew About… Submissions”

Aka, the “I’m sorry” 🫣 post.

Authors are absolutely right that editors are taking longer to respond to submissions than ever before. Here’s a look into what’s happening on our desks to cause this delay.

Not discussed: The changes in printing schedules and increasingly earlier sales deadlines putting a squeeze on when editors need to have developed manuscripts by. Every time a schedule gets “bumped up,” it’s editorial that has to make up that time. And that time usually comes from submissions reading.

‼️ Please save and share if you find this helpful so the algorithm gods put it in front of more authors who need it. 🙂

#author #authorlife #publishing #bookish #bookpublishing taken in Atlanta, Georgia by @_ashleyhearn

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4 months ago