Y.M. Resnik’s debut novel, The Elysium Heist, was recently released by Solaris Nova. Her publishing journey is an interesting one. She shares some insightful advice in this Q&A. Sending a big thank you to Y.M. for her generosity in answering my questions!
From the publisher:
The Elysium Heist follows five women aboard a decadent space casino as they rig an intergalactic card tournament to win their freedom, even as they grapple with romantic entanglements and their dangerous pasts.
***
Myna: Tell us about The Elysium Heist! What’s it about and who are your characters?
Y.M.: THE ELYSIUM HEIST is a sci fi romance following a motley crew of women robbing a Space Casino. The heist is first proposed by Kiyokimora, an heiress with a troubled past who is trying to save her company from her father’s corporate greed. She recruits the inside woman, Psalome Shipmen, who is stuck working for the Casino as a dealer thanks to inherited debt. Rounding out the crew is a recovering alcoholic card counter, a munitions expert fleeing an abusive relationship, and Psalome’s own little sister who just happens to be a hacker genius.
Art by Amazing15
Myna: What’s unique about this book?
Y.M.: I genre mash a lot. I understand that some readers are looking for a straight up heist, or romance, or sci fi, so I try to make it clear going in that there will be elements of many different genres in THE ELYSIUM HEIST. However, I do try to keep all promises implicitly made to readers by using a genre tag – for instance if I call a piece of my writing a romance, the reader should feel safe knowing there will be either a happily ever after or a happily for now.
Myna: When a reader finishes the last word in the book, what emotion will they be feeling?
Y.M.: I think that is going to vary a lot based on the reader and what they bring to the book in terms of their own personal experiences and background. I hope they feel at peace, and that reading was an enjoyable use of their time.
Myna: How did this book come about?
Y.M.: The journey for THE ELYSIUM HEIST was a long one. While long processes are very common in traditional publishing, I think this journey was a little different than most, so I’m happy to share in case it inspires someone to persevere.
I wrote THE ELYSIUM HEIST four years ago. I’m a discovery writer, which means I write quickly and spend a fair amount of time editing. When I was satisfied with the product, I began to query agents. Responses were positive, and I received a number of full requests, but nobody was willing to offer. After over a year of querying I mostly shelved THE ELYSIUM HEIST. I say “mostly” because with some agents only opening briefly every few years, and increased response times, it’s almost impossible to query everyone on your list even within a span of a year. This is a very big difference from querying even a few years ago, and something a lot of established writers don’t necessarily recognize their querying colleagues are going through.
While working on other projects, I heard about digital first publishers opening up to unagented submissions, and really liked what I read about Solaris Nova. After researching, I decided to submit, and they accepted! With that offer in hand I contacted some of the agents who had previously been very positive about the book. Many were willing to take a second look. Which is how I signed with my wonderful agent Allegra!
There are two main takeaways for writers that I’d like to point out from my story. One is that you can approach agents about a prior book if the situation has drastically changed due to an offer of publication. Even the agents that were not interested in looking again were extremely kind and happy for me. The second point is that everyone has a right journey for them and the right decision for one writer will not necessarily work for a different writer. I did a second round of research before committing to Solaris Nova, and I feel I made the right choice for me, but I also realize another writer might have chosen to self-publish, or turn to a different manuscript, or made a different choice that never even occurred to me. This is totally fine! There’s no one size fits all in publishing.
… you can approach agents about a prior book if the situation has drastically changed due to an offer of publication.
The major takeaway for readers is that publishing can take a really, really long time. For digital first publishing, it’s actually really quick from signing to release, but I had all those years of traditional querying first. For books with physical print runs and distribution, on top of the years spent querying agents and then submitting to editors, the publisher needs to build in time for printing and shipping. The writer has likely written three more books and completely evolved their style by the time you get their first book in your hands. Hopefully that makes you even more excited to read the next one!
Myna: If your book had a theme song, what would it be?
Y.M.: “Last Laugh” by Fletcher. I listen to Fletcher a lot when writing, her music really brings on all the feelings.
Myna: How would you describe your writing style, in general? Does that hold true for this book?
Y.M.: I am a big fan of character interiority, which has surprised a few readers along the way! I 100% need to know what everyone is thinking and find this much more interesting than epic battle scenes for instance. I almost always skim those as a reader so I suppose it should come as no surprise that I have very little intentions to ever write one. I’m all about the relationships.
I’m also very much a discovery writer, but the point of editing is to ideally sand down the joints so the reader can’t tell I had no idea where I was going when I opened the document.
Myna: Of all the stories you’ve written, which character is your favorite?
Y.M.: She’s not published, and may never be published, but my favorite character is a mathlete named Aurora who joins the intergalactic military in order to rescue her brother who is marooned on another planet. Her story is so full of family, both biologic and found, that I never fail to smile when I think about her.
***
Y.M. Resnik (she/her) is a writer from the tri-state area. While she loves creating new worlds and re-imagining Jewish folklore, her main goal is simply to brighten your day with a story. The Elysium Heist is her debut novel.
Find Y.M. on Bluesky and Instagram.
Find The Elysium Heist here, or at these retailers:
Myna Chang 