A little about my career background: I went to UVA to study English Literature in order to become a book editor. During my fourth year, I interned at the UVA Press, but the only opening they had was as the Design and Production Intern. Was this my dream? No. However, it was a great opportunity to really understand scholarly book publishing. In DesProd, you see the book as it moves from Acquisition to Editorial to Marketing and back again X number of times. It was my job to schedule each stage of the book and make sure it moved through each stage when it was supposed, often prodding other departments and external vendors (designers, compositors, printers), as well as physically or electronically delivering the materials to those folks. When I graduated, they hired me full time. It was at that point I realized it wasn’t a good fit. My boss wanted me to eventually take over for her and I knew I would fail at that (I am not artistic in that way. I was in awe of the way she and the other designers would create a jacket out of nothing. I would sometimes convert jackets to covers or pick out the spine die foil, but those were very small in comparison). Additionally, no one leaves editorial. To this day, 11 years later, the three editors that worked there still work there. And I wasn’t willing to move to a major city with a large publisher (I am not a city girl). So, I left publishing.

After some soul searching, I narrowed down my next career to financial advising, dietetics, and career development. I went with career development (though personal finance and nutrition remain two of my top hobbies to read about and play around with). For ten years, I worked my way through various positions, obtained a Masters in Education, and I truly loved the work I did. During that time, I moved to a different state and left higher education to work in ed tech. It felt like a dream come true: working from home doing work I love. But the nature of ed tech is volatile, especially as the pandemic went on. Of the four layoffs my companies went through while I was there, I survived half. After the second time I was laid off (November 2023), I decided it was time for a change. Exactly ten years after starting my career in career development.

I had already started working on the book that had been in my head the past 18 years, but now I had copious amounts of time to dedicate to it. My husband and I agreed that I would take the time off to focus on my writing and see where it goes. But it turns out, I’m not one to sit still. I’ve enjoyed the time off, but need something more. As I query my debut novel, I’m also starting an editing certificate with the University of Chicago to go back to my first love: editing.

Opportunities that didn’t exist before (or were at least few and far between) are now much more common. The possibility to work remote for a publisher, or work freelance helping Indie authors make their dreams come true, is something that deeply excites me.

I can’t wait for this next step and returning to the career path that I dreamt about for so long!