Author Q&A: What It's Like to Co-Write & Self-Publish a Book

Writing a novel is no easy task, but it’s often a challenge taken on as a solo endeavor. However, there are occasions when two writers decide to create a story and become authors together! Lifelong friends, Emma and Esme, are an example of this, having been writing partners for much of their lives, and successfully self-published their debut novel in 2026 under the pen name, Alexis Roberts. Not only have they written a book together, but they also co-host What We Wrote, a bookish podcast filled with literary insights, book discussions and lighthearted banter.

The FolioFox team serendipitously met the pair at Book Fair Australia a couple of months ago, and we thought it would be a no-brainer to have a chat and ask them some questions so they could share their experiences on co-writing, co-publishing and of course, co-printing their debut novel. Let’s get into the answers to our burning questions!

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Author Duo Q&A: Meet Emma & Esme, aka Alexis Roberts

Hi Emma and Esme! Tell us a bit about who you are and what you do.

Esme: I am a veterinary nurse by day. I work in a regional GP practice and I have a special love for small animal dentistry. If you’re wondering if this ever comes up in our writing, it doesn’t. I am also a stereotypical horse girl, and have two horses. I live on a small property with my dog and soon my horses will be joining me, too.
Emma: I have a much more boring and stereotypical writer job, in that I'm actually a librarian! However I do work at a university library which means a lot more journal articles than books. I also have two horses and a black Labrador and live on a property with all my critters and my long suffering partner. 

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You co-write together under the pen name of Alexis Roberts, with Revelation your joint debut novel as a writing pair. How did the idea of co-writing together come about?

Esme: We started writing together in high-school not long after we met. First we bonded about horses. Then we bonded over writing. I remember asking so many people to write stories with me over the years. Emma was the first person who finally said yes, haha.

Emma: What she said! I don't remember actually how it happened but I do remember that we really started a trend with lots of our other friends later joining the co-writing train!

How does co-writing work in practice? What did an average day or writing session for Revelation look like for the two of you?

Esme: We both work full time. But we write together every evening, usually just on fun projects that are just for us and that we never intend to let see the light of day. These days, when we’re working on our bigger projects, like Revelation and the Second Coming Trilogy, we tend to go away on writing retreats and just churn out as much as we can while we’re together. I think on our last 2 day writing retreat we managed to write around twenty thousand words between us? (Emma fact check me, you have a better memory!)

Emma: Something like that, we added 14k words to the manuscript but we also deleted a bunch of old stuff. We try to plug away at editing and re-writes on weekends and before/after work, but like Ez said, the big stuff happens when we lock ourselves in some crummy apartment and just immerse ourselves in the project. 

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Besides writing, there’s also plenty of other things involved in bringing a book to life - from creating the files and printing to designing the cover and marketing. How do you delegate these steps in the book printing and publishing processes?

Esme: I don’t know if we ever really sat down to decide who does what. We were both kind of across everything. Emma does a lot of the social media because she has more time than I do around work. 

Emma: We do tend to have rough spheres of influence - I do a lot of the emailing (my job is emails, I'm very good at emails) and Ez did a lot of the platform set up, website stuff, uploading everything and so on because she's pretty web savvy. We just try and make sure someone is doing everything!

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Tell us a little more about Revelation - why was this the story that you both just had to write together and share with readers?

Revelation is the first book in the The Second Coming Trilogy. This book starts with Merry, a human girl who was born with the Sight and the inability to leave anything alone. All her life she has seen these ‘monsters’ where no one else could. When the people of Brooklyn start disappearing in droves, and she’s convinced the monsters have something to do with it.

Merry is thrown into a world of angels and demons. She meets Ithuriel, a freshly fallen angel who is desperate to stop the demons from taking over the city, and Belial, a fallen angel that gave up on the likes of Heaven a long time ago.

Revelation is a fast-paced, action packed urban fantasy. If you liked The Shadowhunters series, but wanted something more mature, then this is the series for you. It’s also been compared to TV shows like Supernatural (without the queer baiting) and Lucifer.

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Esme: Out of all the stories we have written together, The Second Coming has always been the one that jumped out at us the most. We both love the genre, the excitement that urban fantasy brings with an edge of familiarity that makes everything feel just that little closer to home. We’re big book nerds as well, so drawing from classic works like W.B Yeats and John Milton gives us a real kick too, I think. 

Emma: It's also the one story we've written that always had a very clear arc - a lot of our other projects are a bit meandering and while we could probably whip some of them into a book-like shape, The Second Coming always had that lovely narrative structure that meant it had a clear beginning, middle and end. Over the years it's just been about putting more flesh on its bones and tightening up some of the tension. 

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How does having a teammate alongside you during the writing, printing and publishing steps when creating a book assist you in the process? What are some of the perks or opportunities it provides you that might not happen if you were writing solo?

Esme: Aside from the obvious that a lot of the ‘harder’ work (meaning, everything that's not actually just writing the book), is halved? I think having a sounding board that you can bounce off is so great. More so because they are every bit as invested as you, and also because they know the project every bit as well as you do. It is so fun jumping on a long road trip and just hashing out plots and characters. But also, as someone who has ADHD and is very time poor and in a rather stressful job, having someone to keep me accountable and motivated is invaluable. I can honestly say I wouldn’t have done this if it hadn’t been for Emma.

Emma: Plus, doesn't everyone always say as a writer all you want to do is chat about your characters and squee about their relationships but you can't because they only exist for you until you're published? We don't have that problem! There's always someone there to gush with you and hash out thorny plot holes.

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What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced as a writing pair, and how have you overcome them?

Emma: Time?? I think of all the things that have been hard about this journey, being two full time workers has been the toughest. Finding time to write, finding time to go away together, finding the energy to put into something that is as all consuming as a book is really hard. On top of our jobs we're both people who have a lot of Other Hobbies - horses, dogs, reading, art, sport - which means adding a book and a podcast on top of that doesn't give us much free time! But the most important thing is we both love this book and love writing together so we always find a way to get it done, even if it takes us a bit longer than we expected. The pandemic was definitely a big challenge too but Ez can speak more to that because it was definitely harder on her than on me! The main thing is we always know we'll come back to it, no matter what, and that keeps us going through the tough times. 

Esme: Yeah, the pandemic and the lockdowns were pretty brutal for me. We took nearly a five year hiatus on Revelation from 2020 onwards. I was a frontline worker, so while the world slowed down for a lot of people, for me it actually became infinitely faster. People were buying more pets than ever (why not, when you’re spending all day at home anyway!), but a lot of the time we also had less than half of our staff available. Even after the pandemic ended, I was so burnt out as a result, it took a lot of time for me to get to a place where I had the capacity to work on Revelation again. Emma was a key factor in overcoming that. Because of her it meant I never truly lost touch with the project altogether, and she helped me find the pieces to pick up again once I was ready.

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How do you reach your audience and book-reading market through connecting to the literary community? What book fairs, festivals or other author-centred events do you participate in?

‍Esme: We're still pretty new to this part of the journey. Revelation only came out a few months ago, so at this point we’re just throwing whatever we can at the wall and seeing what sticks. So far we have had a lot of fun with things like the Book Fairs and other bookish/nerdy events. We’re also teeing up author talks and libraries. We’d love to get involved in more writers festivals, but a lot of those tend to be invite-only. So, we’re waiting for our invite! And then of course, we have the podcast, which we started before we published in the hopes of building a bit of a readership.

Emma: We are not very big social media people so that aspect has been quite challenging, but we're really excited to do more markets and fairs.. we do better when we can chat to people face to face!

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You also co-host the podcast What We Wrote. Tell us a bit about the podcast, how it came about, and what it’s like doing the podcast together.

Esme:  I kind of came up with the idea while I was listening to My Dad Wrote a Porno way back. That book was about as terrible as some of the first ones we wrote together as teens. And it evolved from there, because I thought, what better way to showcase the journey of a writer? Every single writer has stories like these shoved in their closet.

Now though, it’s just so much fun getting to spend time with Emma and read through these. Sometimes it feels a little bit like an episode of This Is Your Life. It feels like a documentary of our friendship, and I think it’s awesome that we’re gonna have this archived, just for ourselves. 

Emma: We also live a long way away from each other now (3ish hours) so the pod is a great excuse to catch up and make sure we prioritize seeing each other in person. We talk every day so it's easy for months to go by without seeing each other! I was initially very doubtful about the podcast, but Ez convinced me to give it a go and I'm so glad we did! It's so much fun and so nice to see proof of how we have grown as writers!

And finally, what’s your favourite thing about working together?

Esme: I mean, I just couldn’t imagine doing anything different. Emma is my best friend, everything I do with her is my favourite. It’s weird to even hear the phrase ‘working together’ in the context of Emma. Because it’s never work.

Emma: Who wouldn't want to spend all that extra time with their best friend? Ez is my favourite person, and writing with her has been one of the true highlights of my life. To be able to now see the stories we created together making their way out into the world just makes it even more special. We're so excited to be sharing our friendship and the worlds we've created together with everyone else. But most of all I just love getting to share the characters and worlds inside my head with my bestie for the restie. That's something you just can't beat! 

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A huge thank you to Emma and Esme for kindly answering our questions for this Q&A. We can’t wait to see what else they’ve got in store for us through their books and their podcast.

If you love the sound of an urban fantasy like Revelation and want to grab a copy, make sure to check out Emma and Esme’s Alexis Roberts author website. If you want to listen to the What We Wrote podcast, you can find the latest episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts, and keep up to date on future episodes on their official Instagram. 

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When it comes to bringing your own self-published novel to life in print, you can always give us a shout by requesting a quote or getting in touch with the FolioFox team online.