From book blogger to book professional.
In which I really just talk about how awesome and passionate book people are.
This isn’t a how-to. I’m not sure I even really know how I got here. Sometimes it seems like a series
of coincidences and luck, but I’m so happy to be here. I started book blogging in the winter of 2008.
Maybe this isn’t how your blog started, but I know for me it was always about the passion. Home
from college, with nothing to read, I googled book reviews and found my first book blogs. It was like
the opposite of my real life – instead of walking into a room and feeling automatically out of place
and uncomfortable, I walked into book blogging and felt like I was home. Regular Rumination took
a forceful hold on my life that was wholly unexpected. I didn’t think anyone would read my blog, let
alone that I would meet people that I would eventually call friends.
Sometimes, in the real world, it’s hard to explain that you’re really friends with people you met
on the internet. Some I’ve never seen and I probably never will, but they know me better than
some friends I have in real life. We are a group of people who are so absolutely passionate about
something that we spend hours a day working on a blog that we mostly do for free, for nothing
except the joy of talking about books with another human being. That’s a pretty beautiful thing.
But let’s leave blogging and talk about what I was doing in the real-world. I was convinced I wanted
to be a professor. If I couldn’t be a student for life, well at least I could be a teacher for life and that
was almost as good. I’ll save you the sordid details, but, eventually, something started happening. I
started to get disillusioned and upset with the way academia worked. I went to Spain and I had an
amazing time, but I think I was slowly realizing that I didn’t want to be a professor anymore. I didn’t
want to speak academic Spanish for the rest of my life.
That planted the seed, but what happened next really got the idea growing. I kid you not, my
publishing career started with a tweet. Okay, really it started with a blog, but it got serious with a
tweet. When Bethanne Patrick, @thebookmaven, tweeted she was looking for a FridayReads intern,
I didn’t hem and haw about it. Something told me that this was my chance and that instinct was
right. During my last official semester in graduate school, I was the FridayReads intern. If I hadn’t
answered that tweet, I’m not sure where I would be right now or what I would be doing.
Fortunately, when things really started to go bad with my graduate degree, Bethanne and
FridayReads were there. I was being exposed more and more to publishers and what they did and
it hit me. This is what I need to be doing with my life. Thanks to Bethanne, FridayReads and the
experience and connections I made during that internship, I started my publishing career. This
summer, after interning at Algonquin Books, I made the big move to New York. And here I am.
I’m now a sales assistant at a publishing house in New York. I never thought I would be in sales,
but, so far, I love it. There’s just something remarkable and comforting about being surrounded by
books. We are always talking about books; we have rooms and rooms of books at work. Like with
book blogging, you walk into a room and everyone has the same passion you do. Look, I was that
kid who got made fun of for sticking Harry Potter in my history book during class. I am that kid who
would rather read at a party than socialize. So finding people who probably did the same thing?
That’s amazing.
Book blogging made me realize that I know what I love and that my passion could also be my
career. It made me realize that there is a whole industry of people that love the same thing. My book
blog is still a hobby, but it opened so many doors for me that I never even thought were possible.
So I guess if you came here looking for a how-to, that’s your answer. You already have the most
important tool you need: passion.
If you have any questions about this experience, please ask me! I’ll try to respond to every
question in the comments, or you can go to my blog and comment there. You can also email me at
regularrumination@gmail.com.
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This is such an inspiring post, Lu! I love how your book career started with a tweet.
Thank you! It is a good story. I feel like one day I’ll have my grandchildren on my knee explaining how this all started and I’ll say, “With a tweet!” and they’ll look at me like I’m crazy. Also, what child who is small enough to sit on your knee will ask you how your career started? Maybe in the future
Thanks, Lu – this was inspirational! I’ve been trying to break into the publishing world for years, and I sometimes wonder if I’m taking my book blog too seriously. I’m glad to hear that all the hard work (and the crazy passion) isn’t always totally in vain!
You have one of the smartest blogs around, Adam! You can’t take it too seriously. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll definitely answer them if I can! I’m still learning a lot about this business.
Lu, this is such an amazing post! I’m so happy to read about how you found a job that came from figuring out what you love. It’s fantastic, and certainly couldn’t have happened to anyone more deserving.
I’m going to pass this post on to a student who recently came to chat with me and wants to go into book publishing somehow. I mentioned your blog to her as a great example, but I’m sure this post would help too.
Thank you, Kim! What you said really means a lot to me. Also, feel free to pass my email along to that student. I would love to answer questions (any that I can). Thanks for mentioning my blog to her!
This is so awesome! I’m not sure if I knew you were an intern at FridayReads–I knew you were connected somehow but wasn’t sure what the connection was. I’ve thought about trying to work in publishing, but I really enjoy what I do now and I kind of feel like it might be good to keep my book life and job life separate. I don’t know. Only time will tell.
Congrats on realizing your dream. That’s a real kick in the pants for me. I need to get my novels written and that poetry manuscript finished.
I am so happy!!!! */*
Lu what an amazing story… I would love for something similar to happen to me… LOL Love the connections you made and so excited we were finally able to “meet” and chat abit!
Yay for Lu! She was my interview partner during BBAW 2009. It’s lovely to see how much she’s been doing and thinking about since then!!