Being a debut novelist always has its own sets of challenges and high points, but in 2021, the experience is indelibly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, when authors with books coming out in the near future aren’t doing readings in bookstores or having book parties.
To find out what it’s like to have a debut novel published in 2021, I asked Aggie Blum Thompson, author of thriller I Don’t Forgive You (Forge, June 8) and creator of the website 2021 Debuts, an offshoot of the private Facebook group of the same, about her experience.