I absolutely believe in the need to train the current and next generations of writers. Our world is in desperate need for Christ-infused content that can challenge and counter a broken culture. One person who is doing this every day is Brett Harris. Today, I’m delighted to present an interview with Brett. He is the bestselling author of Do Hard Things and co-founder of The Young Writer’s Workshop and The Author Conservatory, which have trained thousands of writers since 2017. His mission is to raise up the next C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
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You published a runaway bestselling book at 19 years old. Do Hard Things won the ECPA Gold Award for selling over 500,000 copies—and it continues to sell. But over the last 15 years, you’ve focused more and more on mentoring and coaching other young writers and authors. What was behind that shift for you?
It’s interesting to me, because it looks like a shift in focus; but from my perspective, it’s just a continuation of the same mission.
The message of Do Hard Things is that young people are far more capable than society expects. The teen years are not a vacation from responsibility; they are the launching pad of life. And we need to be inspiring and equipping young people to do hard things.
I’m taking that message and I’m applying it to the publishing industry.
Young writers are far more capable than most of us realize. The teen years are the perfect time to hone the skills that will someday support a writing career. And we need to be providing high-level training to young writers, just like we do for serious young athletes and musicians.
I’ve had the opportunity to engage with your students inside your programs, as well as in-person at writing conferences—and I’m impressed with what I’ve seen. Do you think there is a particular advantage to receiving this kind of training at a young age?
There is a massive advantage to starting young.
We did an informal study of 119 successful authors—from modern giants like Randy Alcorn and Francine Rivers to famed writers throughout history like Jane Austen and Mark Twain.
We pulled from biographies, interviews, or directly reached out to authors to answer the question: “How old were they when they first started writing seriously?”
The results were surprising.
84% of the published authors we surveyed were doing significant extracurricular writing (meaning outside of school) by the end of their teen years. 94% started by their early twenties. Only 6% started after the age of 25.
This lines up perfectly with what we know from the field of brain science, where research shows the brain optimizes itself to be good at activities a person spends time on during their teen and young-adult years.
Students who practice writing novels, building platforms, and engaging with industry professionals at a young age will be better at those things for the rest of their lives. It’s not that you can’t learn these skills as an adult; it’s just harder.
If we want to raise up the next generation of excellent authors (including the next C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien), we need to be supporting and encouraging them at a young age.
Many people would discourage young people from pursuing a writing career. They might say, “Writing is a great hobby, but not a viable career.” Do you agree or disagree?
Well, it all depends on how you define a writing career.
The average person has a pretty narrow definition. They imagine writing books in a lakeside cottage and receiving large royalty checks a few times a year that are sufficient to live on.
With that definition, pursuing a writing career is like playing the lottery. Only a tiny percentage of authors achieve that level of success.
But if we expand our definition to include those who have learned to monetize their writing skills in various ways (not just publishing books), it becomes more viable.
There are currently 171,000 people in the United States who claim “Writer & Author” as their primary occupation (source), which means there are more full-time writers and authors than there are dentists, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (source).
Now, please note these statistics include those who are employed in writing-related jobs or self-employed offering writing-related services and not just people writing books, correct?
Yes, I’m not saying 171,000 people are living in a lakeside cottage collecting royalty checks. Very few people earn a full-time income just from writing books. But quite a few people are making a living through a combination of books and getting paid for their writing skills in other ways.
Now, these numbers may be hard to believe; but keep in mind this is not some narrow sampling of writers and authors who volunteered for an informal survey. This is mandatory reporting of annual income for tax purposes from everyone who claims “Writer and Author” as their primary occupation. And as you know, there are very strong incentives to be absolutely truthful when reporting your income to the government for tax purposes.
These 171,000 writers and authors earn an average annual income of $63,607, which is $7,653 higher than the average national salary of $55,954 (source). And 16.2% of these writers and authors are earning over $100,000 per year (source). That’s 27,700+ people earning six-figures a year with “Writer & Author” as their primary occupation.
These numbers should give young people (and their parents) the confidence to pursue a writing career, knowing that strong writing skills can earn them a job or provide opportunities for self-employment that generate a decent income. They’re not going to just write books and live off royalties, but they can build a career around their love for writing.
If 171,000 people are doing it right now, there’s no reason motivated students can’t do it, too, especially if they start young and get trained in both writing and business skills.
One of the things I find most interesting about The Author Conservatory is the emphasis on teaching real business skills and not only writing craft. Talk to me about why you believe combining writing with entrepreneurship is so important.
Business skills are the missing ingredient for many writers.
Writers with business skills are able to avoid becoming starving artists. They’re actually able to sell books and make their agents and publishers happy.
As Kristen McLean said in The New York Times last year, “Publishers need authors to be entrepreneurs these days.”
That’s why we not only help our students learn how to write and pitch novels, but also how to start their own business ventures and earn money as entrepreneurs.
There are so many advantages to gaining business experience before you publish:
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- You get to practice marketing skills with easier business ventures (e.g., pet-sitting, house-cleaning, or an Etsy shop) before you need to market your books.
- Entrepreneurship teaches you to handle rejection and persist through failure. This is invaluable once you start pitching your novels.
- Developing business savvy prepares you to navigate the business of publishing, including book contracts, rights and licenses, etc.
- Young writers who are making and saving money can afford to attend writers conferences, pay for professional edits, and invest in their writing career.
- Entrepreneurial skills give writers more options to craft a viable career around their love of writing.
Most importantly, I believe some of the best writers in the world have left writing behind because they are smart people who know the importance of earning a living.
Combining writing with entrepreneurship makes it possible for smart students to pursue their writing dreams while still growing into responsible adults who can actually pay their bills.
And that means more talented, ambitious, and hard-working people pouring into our industry instead of heading for greener pastures elsewhere.
Raising up the next generation of Christian authors is not a small task. You’ve worked with thousands of students, and there’s no way you could do that on your own. Tell us about some of the other people behind your programs.
Well, I wish I could take the time to shout-out each of our 30+ team members–but that probably wouldn’t be the most helpful thing for your audience.
Our team is comprised of published authors, professional editors, former high-school teachers, homeschooling moms, and successful entrepreneurs.
But let me give you some names your audience might recognize.
My co-founders are both successful authors who got published as young people and understand the unique challenges and opportunities of being a young writer.
That’s what ties us all together and makes us so good at what we do. We all got published at a young age and succeeded at a high level. We know what it takes and where the pitfalls are.
Jaquelle Crowe Ferris is the bestselling and award-winning author of This Changes Everything (Crossway, 2017), and Kara Swanson Matsumoto is the Christy award-winning author of Dust and Shadow (Enclave, 2020 & 2021). It has been an incredible privilege to work with two powerhouse women like them.
We’ve also been honored to have people like Andrew Peterson, Christopher Paolini, S.D. Smith, Nadine Brandes, Sara Ella, and Tricia Goyer engage with our students in an ongoing way as instructors, visiting experts, or experts-in-residence.
We also have this guy named Steve Laube who comes every month to scare our students and answer all their questions.
I’m tempted to end the interview early. (!!)
When I visit with the Author Conservatory, I am answering student questions in an “Office Hours” format (and scaring them with my stories). But much of what you do in that program is to provide in-depth, personal feedback on student work. What kind of feedback are students getting, and why is that such an emphasis for you?
Getting more and better feedback is the fastest way to grow as a writer.
Most writers are sharing their work with family and friends who aren’t writers.
Or they are getting critiques from other writers or classmates who aren’t that far ahead of them in their level of skill and experience.
The highest quality feedback you can obtain is from professionals: literary agents, editors, and successful authors. But this is the hardest kind to get.
Inside the Author Conservatory, we focus on providing professional feedback. Students are receiving two manuscript assessments from professional editors and weekly developmental feedback on their projects from published authors and professional editors.
We’re talking about full manuscript read-throughs, edit letters, and weekly calls with professionals where you talk one-on-one about your projects.
We do the same thing on the business side of the program, where we coach students step-by-step through launching their own business ventures.
We’ve found that with this level of support, students can consistently accomplish things they’ve never been able to do before.
You’ve made a compelling case. Let’s say some of my readers know a serious young writer and think The Author Conservatory might be a good fit for them. Where can they go to learn more?
They’ll find everything on our website: AuthorConservatory.com.
They can look at our full syllabus, complete faculty list, student achievements, and more.
Students must apply and be accepted into the Conservatory. Not everyone is ready for a program like this. We currently accept about one in five applicants.
There’s no penalty for applying and not being ready. In fact, talking to our admissions team is a great way to get some coaching on how to move forward with your writing.
If anyone wants to delve deeper into the career strategy we teach, they can also check out a free lecture I delivered last year called “The Smart Writer’s Path To Publication And Beyond.”
