Hybrid author endorsed and what I submitted!
Hybrid author here!
I applied for exceptional promise on February 6th.
Referred to ACE February 15th.
Endorsed May 15th. (12 weeks and 5 days I think)
I benefited so much from going through this subreddit, so I wanted to share what I submitted, especially since literature isn’t as common (and I felt like I was flying blind through most of this process!).
Add on that I am primarily an indie author first, and only recently moved into the trad space, I thought this would be helpful to others.
A disclaimer- of all my evidence submitted, I have no idea what was accepted and what wasn’t, only that I was endorsed.
Evidence 1- Publisher’s marketplace for a “significant” trad deal that was posted at the end of 2025. (This could have made all the difference in my application, but there’s really no way to know)
Evidence 2- KDP Dashboard data. I pasted in screenshots of my lifetime pagereads and orders. I also included a breakdown per country for each section.
Evidence 3- Publisher’s marketplace for a translation deal to an international publisher a few years ago.
Evidence 4- The series page for my self-funded German translations on the German Amazon store.
Evidence 5- Partnership with a specialty bookbox subscription company. I showed screenshots of the website showing my books for sale and then the email from the bookbox showing the numbers sold and money owed to me.
Evidence 6-UK sales and readership. I showed the KDP dashboard screenshot where it shows the percentage of sales by country. UK showed 27% for that current month.
Evidence 7- Podcast reviews- I added 2 podcasts in this one evidence piece (I’ve since heard that you should only have one item per evidence). Both podcasts were unsolicited and I found them by searching my name on spotify. One was actually very negative but I added it anyway. I added the links to each podcast and the screenshot of the Spotify episode that showed my name or book title in the headline/image.
Evidence 8, 9, and 10. All niche blog reviews. One from an ARC blog tour. I added a screenshot of the blog post, the link, and then name of the reviewer.
Other notes: I used Gofullpage to capture my screenshots. This showed the date, time, and URL on the screenshot.
I also added a clickable link under my evidence blurb, and author name where appropriate.
For letters:
Letter 1- A UK Book signing organizer I’ve signed with. Getting a UK organization to write this letter for me was EXTREMELY difficult. I received a lot of nos, and a lot of ghosting. I questioned if a book signing organizer would even be acceptable but we highlighted all of their achievements and authors they’ve worked with, plus reviewed their author acceptance process, which in the end sounded like a high bar.
This organization started in 2024, but incorporated in 2025. I saw another post that a 2025 org was rejected, so I think this shows that the panel uses their discretion on what counts as an expert voice in the field.
Letter 2- My US agent.
Letter 3- A bestselling author in the UK who I’m in a mastermind group with that meets weekly.
For my CV, I listed:
A short professional summary
All my books and the dates they published
Publishing deals (I only have the two that were listed in the evidence)
Commercial achievements
Media recognition (I added blogs that I didn’t include as evidence)
International appearances and engagements (I added book signings I attended)
Community engagements (I was asked to present at a book conference in 2025)
Professional networks (I joined a UK book association in 2025)
My social media pages
My education—my education has nothing to do with writing, but I hold a masters and included it anyway.
That’s it! If you have questions, please drop them in the comments. I won’t respond to DMs.
Good luck to everyone applying and I hope this was helpful!