A ccording to a popular proverb, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
For author Jodie Andrefski, it would read, “If at first you don’t succeed, learn the right way to do it.”
The Orwigsburg resident celebrated the release of her fourth book, “The Society,” a revenge plot young adult novel, in May.
But the journey to becoming a printed author wasn’t as easy as she expected.
Andrefski’s writing career began in 2010 when she started her first book, “Summer of Hope.”
“I can remember I wrote it and I thought, ‘Oh, you just write and I’ll send my manuscript out to one of the big publishers and they will say, ‘I love your work,’ and I’ll be the next J.K Rowling and be huge and successful.’ Obviously, it didn’t work out that way,” she said, referring to the author of the “Harry Potter” series.
Disheartened, she shelved the book but she couldn’t shake the writing bug.
“About a year later, I kept thinking, I really want to do this. I knew I wanted to write. I really still loved this story,” Andrefski said. “I pulled it out again. I actually then decided to do what I should have done the first time and research a little bit.”
This led to discovering a literary world on social media, specifically Twitter. Through this she made writer contacts, followed agents, joined writer groups and found critique partners and beta writers.
The next step was sending query letters to agents, which received good feedback. However, she opted to self-publish “Summer of Hope” and her second book, a follow-up called “Summer of Secrets.”
“Looking back at it, I kind of regret that decision because once you self published a work, you are not going to be able to traditionally publish it. They won’t take that story,” Andrefski said.
The reviews were favorable, with someone comparing it to “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks.
Over time, Andrefski said she has learned to not look at reviews unless an editor says it is a great one. She admits, however, that it can be hard to fight the temptation.
“You can never please all the readers. People have told me don’t read reviews, just don’t,” she said.
Reviews are a necessity though, and not for just a boost to the ego.
“You want your readers to leave it whether it’s good, bad or indifferent. You want them to leave it because they have a right to their opinion,” she said.
This year, Andrefski celebrated the release of her two latest books, “The Girlfriend Request” and “The Society.” They were released by Entangled Teen, which is under MacMillan Publishing.
The route she took in receiving a contract is like a plot out of a book.
Andrefski entered a writing contest on Twitter called Pitch Madness, in which an author must describe the premise of his or her novel in one tweet, or 140 characters. Agents and publishing houses favor the tweets they like, but only on the day of the contest. If liked, the author sends a query letter and the first few pages of the manuscript to the agent or publisher.
Andrefski’s idea for “The Society” was liked by a few agents and publishing houses, including Entangled Teen.
“That’s how I ended up getting my contract,” she said.
It turned into a two-for-one deal. The editor asked to see more writing, which would end up being the young adult romantic comedy “The Girlfriend Request.”
“I ended up signing a contract for both of them in, like, a month,” she said.
“The Girlfriend Request” was released in January in digital form. The release of two books by the same author only months apart seemed strange, but there was an idea behind it.
Andrefski said the goal of “The Girlfriend Request” was to build her brand before the publisher dropped “The Society” in print form.
Now that both are available, the author is turning her sights on her next projects — another rom-com through the Entangled’s Crush line and an in-development science-fiction story.
“I’d like to branch out. I want to try something different, a little more challenging for me as a writer,” Andrefski said.
Right now, her challenge is balancing her time as an author, her full-time job in tech support and her life as a mother.
She said she finds time to write at night and on the weekends. Her job in tech support allows her to work from home, but it’s almost like working out of an office. There is no downtime for her personal writing.
“Even though I work from home, I have set hours. I have to get up in the mornings,” she said.
Even when not writing, she gets assignments from her editor such as blog writing and edits to her completed books.
For “The Girlfriend Request,” the editor said books in the Crush line are dual point of view. Andrefski wrote the book in the view of the girl only.
“That was a huge rewrite and it had to be done,” she said.
She didn’t realize how many eyes and hands would be on her books during the editing process. She said there is a lot of back and forth between editors that result in changes, additions and subtractions.
She said the final product is mostly still her voice but by the time the process is done it’s a voice she doesn’t want to hear anymore.
“By the time, honestly, that the book comes out I hate my own books because I’m so sick of reading them,” Andrefski said.
Despite juggling multiple hats, Andrefski said she was able to write “The Girlfriend Request” in four months and “The Society” in six months.
It also helps that she can turn to her daughter, Hope, 17, for help. She said she gives scenes and drafts to her for feedback.
“It’s great because I have a built-in beta reader in her,” Andrefski said.
Being a teenager, her daughter fits into the audience Andrefski targets with her writing. Although sometimes her daughter would like to join the other readers and experience the book when it’s released.
“She was like, ‘Mom, can you just write a book that I don’t know what’s going to happen before I read the whole book,’ ” Andrefski said.
Including her daughter, Andrefski said she gets support from her son, Corey, 25, and her parents. She said it took a while for some people in her family to realize she is a published author.
“I don’t know if my family gets that they are ‘real’ books, because they are like, ‘So, they are in a bookstore?’ ” she said.
Despite convincing her family that her books are, in fact, real, Andrefski said she has yet to see one of her books in a store. She will get the opportunity this week when she attends a young adult book festival Saturday at Barnes & Noble at Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia.
One part of being a published author that she likes is being able to give back to the writing community.
Andrefski is serving as a mentor for the Pitch Wars writing contest on Twitter and, locally, she will run a four-week creative writing workshop for teens and adults at the Orwigsburg Public Library in July.
Six years after starting her journey, Andrefski is expanding her brand in hopes of becoming a full-time writer. As she reflects back on her growing library, “Summer of Hope” remains the one that’s closest to her heart.
“It’s the first one I wrote. It’s my baby. I still love the story line and I learned so much writing that one,” she said.