Introducing The Inkwell
All the helpful writing career advice Hannah Selinger and I can muster
Hi! I’m going to keep Letters from Hannah about mom life, writer life, cheese life, etc. and move my writing career advice thoughts over to a brand new and shiny newsletter called The Inkwell. If you’re building a thriving writing career, please give us a subscribe over there.
Here’s our welcome email from yesterday!
Welcome to The Inkwell!
We are so glad you are here. I wanted to share a little bit about my WHY for this new newsletter, and a lot of the work I do with Hannah Selinger:
I’ve had a sort of compulsion to write since I can remember. It’s how I make sense of my brain and the world around me. In middle school and into high school, I chronicled my angst and my adventures with my misfit friends in a zine called Power Dreams. (Yes, I still have a box in my closet, mostly issue #2). The summer before senior year of high school, I attended the beautifully nerdy Governor’s School for the Arts. It was my first time being surrounded by other people who loved to write, and I felt, for the first time, anointed as a real writer.
That was two decades ago now, which is wild. My writing career path has been windy, but my love for writing—my need to write—has remained constant.
I’ve felt, at times, anointed. I’ve also felt insecure, rejected (rejections are an inescapable part of the writing life), stuck, frustrated, and lonely.
I’ve had some writing highs: two Amazon bestselling memoirs Feast and Plenty, bylines in publications I admire, interviews with WNYC and NY1 about my work. And some writing lows, too: a book proposal resoundingly rejected, deafening radio silence from editors, one million false starts and counting on a novel I really hope to write one day soon.
I’m here to tell you (and myself), it’s all part of the process.
When I started teaching food writing classes at Catapult in 2018, I absolutely loved it. Getting to connect with other writers and dip deep into work we admired—and didn’t admire—felt good on a soul level. Hannah S joined us as a guest teacher to talk about more practical aspects of writing, like pitching and freelancing. When Catapult shut down their classes (boooo!), we started teaching on our own on Zoom. We’ve created this incredible community of writers showing up to learn and grow. It’s become a highlight of my work.
When I went to get my MFA in 2016—which was generally an amazing experience—I noticed that the craft of writing was treated with this sort of hushed reverence. It’s great that we were reverent about craft, that’s a huge part of what we came to explore. But when anyone asked a practical question about, say, finding an agent, or GASP, money, they were met with a tsk, tsk, and a very firm, awkward, swift changing of the subject.
We don’t have to be awkward here. We are in this together. We're all about the money questions, the nitty gritty questions, the how-am-I-supposed-to-already-know-this questions.
There’s no MFA for a writing career. Hannah and I both figured out so much of this stuff on our own—how do you write a pitch that doesn’t get lost in the shuffle? When do you follow up? How do you get out of the loop of cobbling together $250 assignments to pay your bills? And WTF about quarterly taxes? Is AI going to take all our jobs anyway? (Not any time soon.) And once you have some success, what’s next?
We’re going to talk a lot about the nuts and bolts of building a sustainable, lucrative, fulfilling writing career here. I’m passionate about this because I don’t think writers should be met with tsk, tsk for trying to make a living. We all need to make a living.
Zero writers I know sought this career because of the big bucks, yet we deserve to get paid fairly for our work. Writing can be lonely, but we are stronger when we support each other.
Think of us as your writing work mentors/friends/fellows/big sibs here at The Inkwell. We’re honored to be on this journey together. We hope you come along for the ride.
We have three subscription models - a monthly for $5, or a yearly for $50. You’ll get access to our newsletter advice AND you get to ask us any questions you like. We’ll both weigh in. Or join us as an Inkwell Founder for $200, and you’ll get access to our class archive of more than a dozen classes on everything from “Money for Writers” to “How to Find a Literary Agent.” You’ll also get a 30-minute one-on-one with Hannah or Hannah where we’ll give you support and feedback. Thank you for being part of this mighty writer community.
xo,
Hannah H
PS We want your book to find its way into the world. Hannah and I are teaching a book proposal class on October 21 at 12 PM and it’s going to be a good one. Get $25 off with the promo code “friendofhannah.”
