Shana Galen: My Characters Are Always Surprising Me
In this interview, author Shana Galen discusses learning to trust traditional publishing with her new regency romance, A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord.
Shana Galen is an award-winning writer and bestselling author of over 50 historical romances. Shana taught middle and high school English in Houston’s inner city for more than a decade. She is also dedicated to animal rescue and advocacy. She writes full-time, surrounded by four rescued cats and one spoiled rescue dog. She’s happily married and has a daughter who is most definitely a romance heroine in the making. Follow her on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview, Shana discusses learning to trust traditional publishing with her new regency romance, A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord, how she reverse-engineered the novel by first having a title for the entire series, and more.
Name: Shana Galen
Literary agent: Joanna MacKenzie at Nelson Literary Agency
Book title: A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord
Publisher: Berkley/Penguin Random House
Release date: June 9, 2026
Genre/category: historical romance
Previous titles: Over 50 historical romances, including Lord and Lady Spy, When You Give a Duke a Diamond, Earls Just Want to Have Fun, Third Son’s a Charm, and When Dashing Met Danger
Elevator pitch: A down-on-her-luck shop girl and the son of an earl find they have more in common than they thought—including sexual chemistry they can’t resist—in this fresh Regency romance by Shana Galen.
What prompted you to write this book?
My agent had been encouraging me to write something we could submit to traditional publishers, which meant it couldn’t be a continuation of a previous series or a niche passion project. For some time, I’d had the series title The Heiress Hunters in the back of my mind. I wanted to come up with a proposal for a book that would have a strong hook, a fresh take on familiar tropes, and a cast of main and secondary characters that I could grow and develop. Once I started writing the novel, I fell in love with the characters and the world, and I really believed readers would as well.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I started the book in March 2024, so it took over two years to go from idea to publication. The core of the book never changed. It was always a story about two people from different worlds who find they have a lot more in common that they anticipate.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I’d been indie publishing for a few years when I sold this book to Berkley, and I was very used to doing everything myself. Like most authors who’ve been writing for any length of time, I’d had some negative experiences with traditional publishers. It took me some time to begin to trust a publisher again, but I’d say after reading the suggestions in my first editorial letter, I realized Esi Sogah and Genni Eccles really wanted to make this the best book it could be, and their recommendations were amazing.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
Absolutely! I don’t tend to outline or plot before I start writing, so my characters are always surprising me. Early on in A Shop Girl’s Guide to Wooing a Lord, my characters visit a pawn shop, and I mention a broken mechanical caterpillar on a table. Little did I know that tiny machine would end up being very important to the story and lead me down a rabbit hole of researching all about 19th-century automaton.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Firstly, I always hope my readers will be immersed in a story set in the past and be able to forget about their daily chores and modern problems for a few hours. With this story in particular, I hope readers will also see that even the people we think are the most different from us aren’t so dissimilar after all.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
I live by Winston Churchill’s paraphrased words—Never, never, never give up. Keep writing, keep submitting, keep trying.
