Deesha Philyaw didn’t educate me the right way to write, however she did educate me the right way to flip writing right into a profession. I’ve spent many hours on the cellphone together with her asking what I ought to cost for a sure piece of content material, or the place to submit my work. She is a sort human being who has all the time cheered on her associates and contemporaries, so seeing her win—and win massive—over the previous three years has been a thrill. 

If anybody is aware of the right way to make entrepreneurship and writing look simple, it’s Philyaw. The Secret Lives of Church Girls creator signed a seven-figure e-book deal with Mariner Books in September for her debut novel, The True Confessions of First Woman Freeman, and one other brief story assortment referred to as Lady, Look. 

A seven-figure e-book deal may be very spectacular. However anybody who is aware of Philyaw is aware of that she has the hustle it takes to make writing a enterprise. In 2011, once I was a child content material author trying to make an honest facet hustle out of the one factor that I’ve ever been actually good at, Philyaw taught me numerous ideas and tips—and all the time advised me to by no means settle for lower than I’m price. 

To be a author you’ll want to be entrepreneurial

The enterprise facet of writing might be powerful. Writers have to be enterprise savvy and perceive the ins and outs of the right way to promote as a author. There are additionally essential nuances that first authors want to grasp once they exit to question an agent. 

“[It’s] not simply writing an agent and sending them your work and telling them how nice it’s,” Philyaw says. “There’s truly a format for a way you question an agent and what you ship and what you don’t ship and whenever you ship it.”

Like many profession writers, Philyaw began out as a freelancer. She additionally knew that she wished writing to be her profession. 

“It’s been entrepreneurial from the start,” she says. “As soon as I knew that, I wished to try to make a dwelling at writing and never simply write as a passion or for my private profit. And that was once I was getting divorced. I used to be like, ‘I’m gonna have baby assist and alimony for some time, however ultimately I bought to try to make this work.’”

“I used to be gunning for publication,” Philyaw continues. “The issue to start with was that I used to be writing novels, and it takes a very long time to write down novels. And in order that’s not a factor that’s gonna get you paid immediately frequently to pay your payments.”

Philyaw submitted her work wherever she might, although she admits the way in which she went about it didn’t fairly make sense. “I used to be not writing issues that have been a superb match for these prestigious publications. However I wished the status as a result of I wished to construct my byline and I additionally wished to receives a commission extra,” she says.

How Deesha Philyaw bought her first break

This was earlier than the financial collapse of 2008, when media shops and magazines paid freelancers fairly properly. Surprisingly, it was an unpaid writing job that began to convey Philyaw actual work. 

“I noticed a name for a columnist for a website referred to as Literary Mama. I pitched a column referred to as ‘The Lady’s Mine’ about being an adoptive dad or mum, they usually preferred it,” Philyaw says. “And in order that was not a paying gig, however I did it for 4 years at no cost. It was one of many ones the place publicity actually did repay as a result of that’s what bought me on the radar of nationwide print publications, newspapers and magazines. And editors began reaching out to me about publishing issues with them.”

“One of many editors reached out and invited me to pitch him and I used to be like, ‘Thanks a lot. How do you pitch?’” she remembers. “I had no concept how. And now you realize, looking back, I in all probability ought to have requested another person or simply googled… However he was so form and he taught me the right way to pitch him. Then I pitched him, after which I ended up writing a number of items for his journal and that was nice till, once more, the economic system collapsed.”

When the journal Philyaw had been writing for in the end went underneath, she needed to diversify her workflow. She started writing parenting articles and writing for companies eager to outsource work. Since she was writing parenting content material and had a wholesome co-parenting relationship together with her ex-husband, Philyaw and her ex co-authored a e-book referred to as Co-parenting 101: Serving to Your Children Thrive in Two Households After Divorce. 

“The co-parenting e-book got here out in 2013,” she says. “And that’s how I bought an agent. And that agent knew I used to be engaged on a novel, and she or he was encouraging me to complete it so she might take it out on submission.”

Philyaw’s massive hit: The Secret Lives of Church Girls

Finally Philyaw’s agent observed a theme throughout the brief tales Philyaw was nonetheless writing.

“She stated, ‘You realize, I actually preferred these church girl tales,’” Philyaw remembers. “She referred to as them that—I didn’t actually discover the by means of line between them.” 

These church women ended up receiving an amazing reception. Philyaw’s brief story assortment, The Secret Lives of Church Girls, was a finalist for the Nationwide E-book Award (typically described as “The Academy Awards of Literature”) and received a number of awards, together with The Story Prize, The Los Angeles Occasions E-book Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. It’s also being tailored right into a drama collection for HBO Max with each Philyaw and playwright Tori Sampson writing the script. 

It’s uncommon for a brief story assortment to be so profitable, however Church Girls struck readers and critics alike. 

“Folks in publishing will inform you brief story collections don’t promote; they’ll all the time need you to try to promote a novel first,” Philyaw says. “And so they’ll additionally inform you you possibly can’t promote issues on a partial manuscript, however my agent believed in any other case.”

Despite her super success, Philyaw nonetheless takes the time to mentor different writers, educating them the right way to assume strategically and making useful trade connections. 

“The success of Church Girls gave me a level of energy that I didn’t have earlier than,” Philyaw provides. “I can use that to empower writers who’re coming after me.”

Picture by Vanessa German.