Leah’s Advice to Aspiring Authors

By: Robby Phipps
Two semesters ago, as I transitioned from core curriculum to major classes, I had the honor of having Leah Franqui as my first creative writing professor. Franqui is a student in the MSA program at Georgia State University, as well as a creative writing professor and an author of three books: Mother Land: A Novel, America for Beginners, and After the Hurricane. She made a great impression on me, unintentionally forcing me to take everything she taught into all my subsequent writing classes. As I got closer to finishing my degree, I realized that I would soon be left with the freedom to start my own career, unsure of the first thing to do. So, I thought of Franqui, a woman who has books published in her name, and I wondered about all the advice she has to give to people like me.

Franqui decided to join the MSA, or PHD program, because she wanted to teach. “A lot of writers, a lot of artists try to find some kind of balance in teaching,” she said. “I personally feel like teaching is incredible fuel for writing, that it constantly reminds me of how exciting this is, how exciting it is to write and talk about writing.” So, while teaching inspired her all over again when it came to her writing, she learned from a beloved past roommate to stay disciplined: “You have to take it seriously, take it like a job, because if you don’t take it seriously, nobody will.” She made writing her priority. She calls this an internal balance, something that needs to be discovered and created from your very own method.

Something I discovered the hard way as an English major is that no one really teaches you how to find a publishing agent. Franqui informed me that the first thing one should so is, “find an agent who gets what you’re doing.” But how does one find an agent?

Franqui gave me a list:

1. Find books similar to the ones you want to publish.
2. Find who their agent is.
3. Look them up on an agency website.
4. Write them a query letter. This is usually a one-page letter about yourself, the book you wrote, and what inspired you to write it.
5. Give them around 20 to 50 pages of your work.

According to Franqui, it’s safe to prepare for little responses and a lot of querying. “If nobody responds, A: your query letter is not great, B: You’ve got to work on your writing, or you’ve made a bad choice on agents who are not going to be interested in you,” she said, which sounds harsh, but it is simply the reality of looking for an agent.

One thing I have struggled with along my journey as a writer is rejection. This is something that is not talked about enough within the creative writing community. “It’s really hard,” said Leah with a knowing chuckle. Writing is a form of art, and though art can be incredibly personal, it is also meant to be shared, and accepting the fact that not everyone is going to love your work like you do is difficult. “You know, I should just be happy with rejection because I made it for myself, but still baked into the form is a reader,” Leah continues. “People reject your work in lots of ways. They reject it both literally in the sense that they won’t publish it, but they also reject it like they read it and go, ‘no I don’t like this.’” It is important to note that rejection will always be a part of your publishing journey, so do not fear it. “You have to find ways to evaluate your work outside of external validation,” states Leah.

As a writer, it’s important to find your own style, and reading other author’s work may inspire you. When asking Leah how she found her style, she bluntly told me, “Oh, I totally stole a lot.” “Stealing” was a term we used in her class, and it didn’t mean stealing someone else’s work, but more so adapting it into your own. “You know, the thing about stealing is that you feel like a poser, you feel like you are doing something wrong, but you’re not. That’s how art works. Unless you are line by line trying to follow their style, it won’t sound like them,” she said. You must do the work of figuring out why you are attracted to certain genres, or why you like to write in specific ways.

After my interview with Leah Franqui concluded, I felt more prepared for my future as an author. Her own story is an inspiration, and also something I could relate to, and perhaps something other writers can relate to as well. Graduation is an exciting, yet terrifying moment in a college student’s life. When it all comes to an end, we must figure out life as an adult. Franqui’s story shows that there are options after graduation. Maybe you’d like to be a teacher, maybe you’d like to immediately strive to publish your work, or maybe you’d like to do both. Regardless, as young writers, it’s possible to have a career and write at the same time. It’s possible to succeed.