Interview with Debut Author Amran Gowani

The author of the upcoming novel "Leverage" discusses the authoring process from pitching to publication and offers insight into the financial realities of traditional publishing.

I met Amran Gowani at the 2023 Chicago Writers Conference. We started chatting about Substack; he was already a pro at it when I was just hearing about it for the first time.

“I treat it like a job,” he told me. He talked about networking, building an audience, and producing content on a regular basis. With a background on Wall Street, Gowani’s advice to me as a beginner was refreshingly pragmatic, looking at growing an audience like growing a financial portfolio, and prioritizing the things that bring in the most subscriptions.

Two years later, Gowani’s Substack, Field Research, is booming and he’s landed a book deal with Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. I wanted to learn about his journey from CWA conference attendee and Substack writer to soon-to-be published author.

B.A. Durham: How did you know your story was ready to show to agents and publishers?

Amran Gowani: In a lot of ways, it’s easy to feel like a story is never ready. There’s always another word to tweak, scene to heighten, or plot to thicken. But part of the process is being able to say “it’s complete” and then trying to get the work published.

One of my favorite writing idioms is: “Every writer in the world has a perfect first chapter.” Writers fiddle with and optimize the beginning of their story but never create forward momentum. If you’re not forging ahead, you can’t complete your piece.

In terms of doubtful moments, I had the biggest imaginable: I wrote an entire dang novel and queried it to deafening silence from literary agents—no response is the new rejection. The obvious thing to do was quit, but I’m stubborn like that, so I started again from scratch and created Leverage.

The writing game is much more about endurance and tenacity than talent. You’re going to experience setbacks – that’s a given – but the key is to learn from your mistakes, adapt, and, frankly, refuse to give up.

BD: Once you feel your book is ready, you have to query or pitch it. What is the difference between querying and pitching? And how do you know which one to do?

AG: With respect to a novel, they’re similar and somewhat interchangeable terms. Querying usually means contacting a literary agent or an independent publishing house and asking if they’d like to represent or acquire your work. This is, as the name implies, achieved with a query letter. There’s no shortage of literature online describing how to write one of these, but as with all things publishing, go to Jane Friedman’s website and get the correct answer.

I think of “pitching” as more of an in-person activity, whether structured or impromptu. For example, an author can pitch literary agents or publishers at a conference, and this would usually involve a one- or two-minute spiel about the novel, the author, why the book will sell, and why the agent is the right person for the job.

Regardless of the setting, a logline is a helpful screenwriting tool that can help the author narrow the scope of their pitch or query and focus on the most interesting and pertinent elements.

https://screencraft.org/blog/101-best-movie-loglines-screenwriters-can-learn-from/

BD: Has Substack been an effective platform for promoting a new book?

AG: I recently moved off Substack to an independent website and newsletter (www.amrangowani.com.) At the end of the day a “Substack” is an email newsletter, which is an author’s good friend. Whether it’s hosted on Substack or elsewhere, an author newsletter creates a direct connection with readers and the people most excited about and interested in a writer’s work—the people most likely to purchase the book and give word-of-mouth promotion. It’s too early to tell how effective my newsletter may end up becoming. I can say with certainty it has generated a few dozen pre-orders.

BD: You’ve mentioned that a book advance isn’t a big check upfront, which is definitely what I thought it was. Can you explain to our readers what an advance really is and how that payment structure works?

AG: An advance is a guaranteed sum of money based on expected royalties. Royalties vary by region and format—like hardcover vs. e-book—and the algebra can get wonky.

In the current paradigm, when an author gets an advance, say $10,000, it will typically be paid in four tranches: at contract signing, manuscript acceptance, hardcover publication, and paperback publication. Depending on the publisher, these milestones will probably occur over two or three years. However, after agent fees and taxes the author will only get about $3,500 per year, assuming it’s the two-year plan.

If the book ends up netting $8,000 in royalties, the author will still get to keep the entire $10,000. If the book ends up netting $12,000 in royalties, they’re said to have “earned out” their advance, and they’ll collect the additional money on a quarterly payout schedule.

Authors often spend years between books, so there’s rarely a consistent revenue stream. When authors say authors can’t make a living from writing books, it’s not a joke or sour grapes. The vast majority of working authors support themselves with a full-time job, like teaching or something in the corporate world.

BD: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to write a novel but may only have 30 minutes a day to write?

AG: In my view, if you’re compelled to write, you’ll find a way. If you’ve got a day job and only have 30 minutes to spare per day, use them! I wrote most of Leverage between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. when my house was deathly quiet and my wife, kids, social media accounts, and decaying condo couldn’t distract me.

Regardless of your personal and professional situation, it’s important to be honest about your goals and expectations. I wanted to write a Big Five-caliber novel, so I worked at bizarre hours, studied craft techniques, attended conferences, and networked like mad. All the while, I focused on generating forward momentum for my story and ignored my wife’s wholly reasonable claims I’d gone insane and the insinuations she might divorce me.

I also made other sacrifices, in the form of forgone wages from “real” jobs I could’ve worked, missed social opportunities, less time for reading, and perpetually skipping the hot Netflix show.

At the end of the day, financial and personal constraints are very real, and I don’t mean to diminish them. But if you’re bingeing Bridgerton or playing pickleball, you have time to write.

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Leverage, Gowani’s debut novel, comes out on August 19th from Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It’s a literary thriller about an up-and-coming hedge fund star who faces bogus insider trading charges and turns to the financial dark web for help. Gowani describes it as “darkly funny” and “grimly topical.” Read more about it on www.amrangowani.com or check it out this summer from Atria.