“You have really helped me so much, especially when I was starting out with A French Girl in New York, and I was relying on your criticism and comments. You were very honest and made the whole process really easy.”
Books
French Girl series
author
Anna Adams
service
Substantive Edit
Background
Anna Adams is the author of the bestselling YA French Girl series. Fresh Ink first started working with Anna in 2012, before the books were published. Since then, these fun and charming books have gone on to become a wild success, selling over forty thousand copies and garnering over three hundred gushing reviews on Amazon.
Anna's Story
Beginnings
Anna was born in Paris and raised mostly in the north of France. She also spent parts of her childhood in the US, where she learned English, her preferred language to write fiction in. Young Anna was an enthusiastic reader, writer, and piano player. French Girl, which she conceived of when she was sixteen, unites all her interests—travel, music, Paris, New York, and romance. “I wrote a letter to myself to open at twenty-six, asking if I’d written the novel.”
When she had a completed draft, she sought out Fresh Ink Book Editing for help. Fresh Ink assisted Anna with copyediting and developmental editing and has continued to do so over the course of her career. "It's super important to me that I can trust someone to be honest, and you were. You also really helped with my confidence, especially when I was starting out."
Building an Audience
Self-publishing piqued Anna's interest after she heard about an acquaintance's positive experience doing so. She was attracted to the freedom, as well as to the opportunity to be in direct contact with readers. Anna first published on Amazon Kindle, doing the formatting on her own. One of her early breaks was when she published on Apple iTunes, where she found few competitors. She also put some of her writing on Wattpad, which led to her becoming a Wattpad Star. Eventually, Anna had six books in the French Girl series. For aspiring self-publishers, she recommends, "patience, educating oneself, and sending newsletters."
Present Life
Anna was pursuing a law degree while her books were just taking off. She attained her law degree but ultimately decided not to become a lawyer. She decided to try writing fiction full-time and is loving it. She travels often, writing in libraries throughout the world. Her next big trip will be a return to India, pictured in the slideshow above. She's currently working on her next book, a fantasy novel that takes place partly in France and partly in a world inspired by her India trips.