The WRITE Prompt had a chance to speak with Molly Pohlig, celebrated breakout author of The Unsuitable. She talked to us about what it took to get published during a pandemic and why, if you love writing, you should keep doing it.

Molly grew up in Virginia but has lived in Brooklyn since 2005. Until the pandemic struck, she was working as an assistant editor of a knitting magazine. More recently, she has been focusing on freelance writing.

Her first book, The Unsuitable, was published by Macmillan in April 2020–very peculiar timing! But then again, she says, it’s a pretty peculiar book.

It is the story of a woman in Victorian England whose vicious father is trying to marry her off to anyone who will take her. She’s lonely and strange, largely because she believes herself to be bodily inhabited by the spirit of her dead mother. It’s Gothic and grim, Molly says, but not without a lot of dark humor.

THE UNSUITABLE
(courtesy of Macmillan.com)

Molly Pohlig's The Unsuitable is a fierce blend of Gothic ghost story and Victorian novel of manners that’s also pitch perfect for our current cultural moment.

Iseult Wince is a Victorian woman perilously close to spinsterhood whose distinctly unpleasant father is trying to marry her off. She is awkward, plain, and most pertinently, believes that her mother, who died in childbirth, lives in the scar on her neck.

Iseult’s father parades a host of unsuitable candidates before her, the majority of whom Iseult wastes no time frightening away. When at last her father finds a suitor desperate enough to take Iseult off his hands—a man whose medical treatments have turned his skin silver—a true comedy of errors ensues.

As history’s least conventional courtship progresses into talk of marriage, Iseult’s mother becomes increasingly volatile and uncontrollable, and Iseult is forced to resort to extreme, often violent, measures to keep her in check.

As the day of the wedding nears, Iseult must decide whether (and how) to set the course of her life, with increasing interference from both her mother and father, tipping her ever closer to madness, and to an inevitable, devastating final act.

TWP: You have a lot of published essays and short pieces. How did these fit into your journey to getting your novel published?

Molly Pohlig: I would say that the essays and short pieces accomplished two main things:

One, I gained a lot of confidence in my writing. I had the good fortune to publish with both The Hairpin and The Toast while they were still up and running, and there was a lovely community around both of supportive and encouraging readers.

Two, I think that having your name out there on a number of things gives you a big boost when it comes to finding an agent. My agent represents a number of writers with similar online backgrounds, so it is a really good fit.

TWP: When did you get your big break and what did it take to get there?

Molly Pohlig: I’d say the most important step was getting representation by Kate McKean.

There was no magical recipe to make that happen, I basically spent a few months querying just about every agent in New York that represented even remotely similar books.

There is someone out there with whom your book will resonate. You just have to find your people.

It can get very discouraging, but diligence was the key. Every rejection I got, I made myself send another query, and eventually, Kate requested the manuscript and offered to represent me.

She was instrumental in getting me to Macmillan, Henry Holt, and my editor Caroline Zancan, and it was just a lovely group to work with. 

TWP: How do you keep going when you are struggling to write?

Molly Pohlig: Ugh, I wish I had something surefire to say here.

The key is just sitting myself in a chair and making myself write. I try to set daily goals, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

Pre-pandemic, my routine was after-work or weekend writing in a coffee shop or bar, just me and my notebook. It’s a little harder now, but my apartment has a strange, long closet that I’ve converted into a strange, long office.

It’s nice to have your own little space where writing is the only thing that you do.

And when I’m feeling super-stuck, I try to go easier on myself. I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books. Nothing makes me want to write more than reading a really good book or seeing an amazing film.

TWP: What advice do you have for aspiring writers looking to someday be published?

Molly Pohlig: Again, I wish I had something wise to say!

I think you need persistence overall, persistence and a love of writing. If you don’t really love writing, it’s going to be a chore, so why put yourself through it?

But if you do love it, get it out there in any way you can, whether that’s traditional publishing or self-publishing. And try not to let rejection and criticism get to you too much.

There is someone out there with whom your book will resonate. You just have to find your people.

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