3 Lessons for Aspiring Authors

Twenty years ago, I convinced my cousin Josh to help me move to New York City.

Arriving Labor Day weekend with only four suitcases and $750 cash, I had a dorm room in Brooklyn Heights and an interview at Simon & Schuster.

Spoiler alert: I got an internship which turned into a job as an editorial assistant, which led to a job as associate editor at Penguin.

Twelve years ago, I started my own business helping authors.

And nearly five years ago, I started to share what I knew with folks like you.

2024 is the anniversary of three major steps in my professional and personal love of books. In honor of that, I want to share three lessons I’ve learned from each to help you with your dream of becoming a traditionally published author.

1.Be You.

My first-ever bestseller, The Bro Code, didn’t happen because a literary agent sent me the project. Instead, that book happened for two reasons.

First, because I was watching a show I loved (How I Met Your Mother).

And second — when I saw Neil Patrick Harris’s character, Barney Stinson, mention the bro code, I knew that this was a thing beyond the show because my college ex-boyfriend referenced “the code” constantly. He was a bro, albeit a nerdy one.