Kate Myers: It’s Cool if People Don’t Like Your Book
In this interview, author Kate Myers discusses keeping the reader’s experience in mind when writing her new novel, Salty.
Kate Myers is the author of the national bestseller Excavations. Her writing has appeared in Elle, BuzzFeed, and Self magazines. She studied archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and has lived in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, where she's worked for CBS in television development and for CollegeHumor. She now resides in Annapolis, Maryland, with her husband, daughters, and dog. Follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Kate discusses keeping the reader’s experience in mind when writing her new novel, Salty, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Kate Myers
Literary agent: Claire Friedman, Inkwell
Book title: Salty
Publisher: HarperVia
Release date: June 24, 2025
Genre/category: Commercial fiction
Previous titles: Excavations
Elevator pitch: Two estranged sisters reunite to work on a yacht in the Bahamas and take down their shady boss who destroyed their childhood home—and might have something to do with the body found next door.
What prompted you to write this book?
I love exploring jobs and places that are romanticized but once you get inside them, they’re obviously a lot less glamorous, contain a lot of kooky people, and I like to think through the hierarchies in place there. To put sibling dynamics in the mix seemed fun too, especially with a big age gap. My husband and his brother are ten years apart and I’ve always been interested in that shared family experience.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
While my first book, Excavations, was out on submission, my very wise agent encouraged me to start thinking about my second book. So, that was in the spring of 2022, I just started generally thinking about a concept. After Excavations was finished, in the spring of 2023, I wrote the proposal for Salty, and that’s what we took to my editor at Harper.
Yes, I’m laughing as I write this because of how much it changed—the original idea is really, really different than the book now. Originally the idea was centered on a yacht-owning family like the Sacklers who were responsible for the opioid epidemic and one of the sisters had struggled with addiction and so they were going to exact revenge on the family while working on the boat. Oddly enough, my editor didn’t think the opioid epidemic was a great topic for a funny beach read.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
My editor left in the middle of the editing process, just a few months after we sold the proposal. I actually ended up working with two other editors after her, so the book has lived many lives and had lots of input and feedback, which I think was good ultimately, but certainly was unexpected and in some ways, a creative challenge to make sure there was a clear vision throughout—and to make sure there weren’t too many glaring plot holes.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I learned a ton from working with my editor on Excavations. I also learned so, so much from meeting readers and hearing what they took away from the book and tried to keep the reader’s experience in my head while writing. What does the reader want to read versus what does the writer want to write, that kind of thing.
Right when I was beginning work on Salty I had a lot of meetings about the TV rights for Excavations, and it surprised me what those people—The TV People—loved about the book. They were things that I hadn’t consciously put in there. And it helped me to articulate what might have worked with Excavations and be more thoughtful with Salty’s structure and characters.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope they relax, cheers the person next to them, and have a great vacation.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Don’t take it personally, which applies to three things. First, the agenting and submission process, it’s hard, you get rejected a lot, and it’s not about you, it’s a big corporate business and just a numbers game. Second, your editor is your friend—their notes are not a personal attack, but rather you two have the same goal: to make the book as good as possible.Lastly, it’s cool if people don’t like your book, there are a lot of books you don’t like too, don’t take it personally.
