Last night I was going through some old boxes and found, I believe, my only still existing piece of juvenilia—a story that I co-authored with my friend in junior high, and still probably the corniest thing I have ever written. (Really, the zebra print border says it all.) But the best part is I also found a letter from my gramma, written to me around the same time. It’s a response to a letter I had written her, in which I had gushed about all of the writing I was doing. She replies:

Little did my eleven-year-old self know the long and winding road I would end up taking on my path to authorship. A path that included long letters to friends, a tall stack of journals, blogging through my adventures studying abroad and interning, an English degree, a decade of writing book reviews, social media, over a dozen years (and counting) in the publishing industry, starting my own business, teaching classes and workshops, a book proposal, and… it’s still going. I haven’t quite reached my goal yet, but I’m doing it. I’m here, doing the work.

My gramma would be so proud. That eleven-year-old girl is so proud.

The creator of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry, recently posted an article on “The Ladders of Wealth Creation,” which lays out a common progression to building wealth as an entrepreneur. It’s incredibly well written and thoughtful, and if you’re in a service-related business (like writing or editing), I highly recommend it. But it got me thinking about all of the possible progressions to authorship that I’ve seen amongst the various authors I’ve worked with over the years, as well as my own.

There are a variety of paths available for certain kinds of writers based on our goals, and each path provides a menu of steps you can take. The beautiful thing about following these paths is that they help us grow our skill and self-efficacy so that we pick up momentum as we move through each step toward our dream of becoming authors. I’ve written before about how to build our self-efficacy (our belief in our own abilities to achieve a goal) as writers, but I realized for the first time that this process can look different based on what those goals are.

In other words, your why should determine not just what you write and how you publish, but also the steps you can take to get there. I’ve identified roughly six kinds of writers (each with a different “why”) and what each writer’s path to publishing a book might look like. Although I’ve presented them here rather linearly for clarity’s sake, you’ll see there’s lots of overlap and anyone who’s been in this space for a while knows that this process is anything but linear.

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This isn’t prescriptive. Do you have to follow any of these paths? Absolutely not. Can following a certain path guarantee you success? Nope. But if you do, will the road to authorship be easier and will success be more likely? For sure.

Each path helps us move from more personal and short-form writing to more global and long-form writing, while building our skills and self-efficacy. Publishing is, like it or not, a business endeavor, and so following a path will also help us improve our business acumen along the way. It’ll prepare us to ask the right questions, negotiate a favorable deal, and ultimately be happier with the whole experience. Each step helps to bring us closer to the next one and makes it more doable and attainable. As psychologist Albert Bandura identified, engaging in progressively more difficult and complex mastery experiences builds our confidence. Those small wins add up to big breakthroughs over time.

On the flip side, trying to skip over certain steps or make big leaps in the progression will, understandably, feel intimidating, out of reach, and hard.

It’s not wrong to skip steps. You can do whatever you want. Heck, sometimes publishers seek out authors early on and offer contracts. That’s great!

But there’s a way to make it easier. There’s a way to do it so that you will write a better book, grow your confidence, and set yourself up for greater success later on.

It’s not sexy. It’s not fast.

But damn, you’ll be proud.

Read More

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On the Hungry Authors Podcast

This week, Liz and I talk about literary agents: what they do, why you need one, where you find them, and how to write a great query letter. Literary agents are definitely authors' friends in the industry; they provide a valuable service of not only connecting you to publishers, but also helping you understand and navigate the publishing process.

We also talk about our amazing agent and some of our own experience with pitching!

Next week we have a special guest joining us to talk about rejection. Sounds terrible, but I promise it's amazing. ;)

Listen now

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Two Truths & a Lie Revealed!

Last week I thought it would be fun to play two truths and a lie with some trivia from my life. Thank you for all of your guesses! Without further delay… here are the results!

1. In junior high band, I played the French horn. TRUE! I asked my mom if we had any photographic evidence and alas, we do not—but when I joined the band in sixth grade, I did indeed play the French horn. It didn’t last long because I was too small and literally couldn’t hold a full-sized French horn without leaning it on something. So I switched to the clarinet. Some of you guessed that this was false because you know that I play the piano, and you’re right that I play piano. But in band during school, I played first the French horn, then clarinet.
2. When I lived in California, I was on a radio show contest called “Battle of the Sexes” where I won Dodger tickets. FALSE! I was on the radio show, but I lost. The host asked the question, “What sport does Terry Bradshaw play?” and I misheard the question as, “What sport does Carrie Bradshaw play?” I was very confused because this sounded more like a "girl" question and I was supposed to be answering "boy" questions, but I wracked my brain to remember an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie Bradshaw might have played a sport. With the clock ticking, I blurted out, “VOLLEYBALL?!” On live air. Friends, this is still painful to remember. The radio team burst out laughing and the host said, “Um… no. It’s football.” And then I realized what he must have said.
3. I was almost kicked out of the UK for not having a visa for my internship. TRUE! It’s a long story, but I did indeed show up in England with no visa planning to stay for three months for an internship. In my defense, I had called the UK embassy before I went and asked them if I needed a visa because I wasn’t a student (so I didn’t qualify for the student visa) and I wasn’t being paid (so I didn’t qualify for the work visa), and they said no, I didn’t need a visa. If only I’d gotten that person's name, because the border agents heartily disagreed. I was kept in a waiting room for hours in the underbelly of Heathrow airport and was told I would probably be put on a plane back to the U.S. I had no idea what my fate would be. Eventually, they got hold of the company I was interning for and were able to verify my story, so they let me into the country with a stern warning never to let it happen again. No problem there!

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More for You

Mystery memoir coming soon!

Remember in 2013 when Beyonce dropped the album Beyonce in the middle of the night as a total surprise? The element of surprise and the use of secrecy has been an effective marketing tool for decades—and it’s kind of fun to watch a publisher take a stab at it now.

Flatiron has announced that they are publishing a mystery memoir (title and author unannounced) this July. It comes in at a whopping $45 and 544 pages, so whatever it is, this book is no joke! The first print run is 1 million copies and many bookstores are pre-ordering it, although those that receive advance copies are sworn to secrecy as well.

The rumors abound! The two most prominent rumors right now are that the book is by Taylor Swift or South Korean boy band BTS. What’s your guess? Would you buy the mystery book before it’s announced??

An inside look at the ghostwriting process for Spare

“Empathy is thin gruel compared with the marrow of experience.” - J.J. Moehringer

Speaking of highly anticipated memoirs... A couple months ago, I read Spare by Prince Harry. Liz and I also chatted about it on an IG live right when it came out, ruminating on the ghostwriting process. So I really enjoyed this behind-the-scenes peek at what it was like for J.J. Moehringer, ghostwriter for Andre Agassi and Phil Knight, to work with the legendary prince. Obviously, I've never worked with a celebrity on the same level, but I was surprised and intrigued to see that so much of it is the same. People are always people after all. Read the article here.​

Build Leadership Momentum is available now!

Last week I announced that a book that I co-wrote with my friend and author Danny Bauer is complete - and now it's available! If you are a school leader, or if you know a school leader in your life, be sure to grab a copy of this book. They've got plenty of time to read it over the summer so that they can start the next school year poised for success! Buy the book now.​

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What's Bringing Me Joy

Multiple friends started reading You Could Make This Place Beautiful, a new memoir by Maggie Smith, and were gushing about it, so I had to pick it up. I read the first 100 pages in one sitting. I can't wait to share more about it when I do my end-of-month book recap on Instagram.

The other thing that's bringing me joy is an empty calendar. In March and April, I was just inundated with meetings, so I made some hard changes and mustered up the self-discipline to start saying no to meetings - even meetings I wanted to say yes to. With more empty space in my life, I've been sleeping more, reading more, and writing more. It is *chef's kiss* perfection!

Hope you get to enjoy all of those this weekend as well.

Ariel