Part #2 of our chat with author @jesseverlee LUV: Many people dream about being a writer. What is the one thing you wish you had known when you started your career? Jess: It took me a very long time to get published. I started writing novels for fun in about 2004, seriously pursuing publication in 2014, and didn’t get the contract for my debut novel until the end of 2021. By that point, I’d poured a lot of knowledge about the industry into my brain and knew a lot about it, so there weren’t a lot of huge surprises. That said, when all you’re doing is reading and researching the industry on your own, a lot of the information you stumble on is either overly optimistic, or overly pessimistic. On the one hand, you’re seeing these bestsellers, award-winners, TikTok sensations. On the other, you’re reading blog posts that aim to “tell it like it is” or highlight all the nearly impossible odds of succeeding in this industry. It can be demoralizing! I wish I’d known earlier that the very best information would come from writers conferences, both the workshops and the conversations I was able to have with professionals, especially authors who are a step or two farther along in their publication journey than I was at the time. A whole afternoon down the rabbit hole of “industry research” couldn’t hold a candle to what I learned in casual conversation with a couple authors at the bar after a long day of workshops. I will always be so grateful for the authors who shared information with me, and always try to pass that energy along to aspiring writers whenever I can. If I could do it all again, I’d have gone to a conference much earlier!

Posted by LUV Team at 2023-07-25 19:00:11 UTC