An End and a Beginning

Reflections on three years of running a business

Photo credit: Brittney Shazier, Shazier Photography

Hi friends,

As some of you have guessed by my cryptic hints in the past couple weeks’ newsletters, I made an exciting career shift and I wanted to share with you a little about it.

This week, I started a new role as Sr. Editor at a company I’ve followed and admired for many years: Sourcebooks.

I’ve known that someday I would like to go back to working in traditional publishing, and the right opportunity came up. I love their mission - to create books that change lives. They’ve published some of my favorite books in the last 10 years (like Radium Girls, The Woman They Could Not Silence, and The Auschwitz Photographer). Plus, it gives me an opportunity to acquire creative nonfiction - something I’d dreamed of but wasn’t able to do in my former position. Pinch me!

As I started in my new role this week, I’ve been reminded that there is something magical about working with a lot of incredibly talented book lovers to bring world-changing books to life. Although saying no to promising authors and ideas always breaks my heart (truly!), I love saying yes to a project I believe in and being the one to set in motion the chain of events to bring it to life. Editors don’t make decisions alone - we are held accountable to a board of our colleagues and peers - but we are the first domino to fall. (Forgive the mixed metaphors!)

With every change - even happy ones - comes a bit of grief, though. For me, the grief is closing down the business I started almost exactly three years ago: Ariel Curry Editorial.

When I left my last company, I thought that I would be doing part-time developmental editing while we pursued IVF. The plan was: get pregnant, take on some easy developmental editing, and then have a baby and maybe keep working, maybe not.

We make plans, and God laughs.

The baby never happened - but the business grew much more quickly than I could have anticipated. I never worked part-time; I was fortunate to have enough referrals and agency work to keep me working full-time right from the beginning. Pretty soon, I wasn’t just doing developmental editing; I was ghostwriting book proposals. And after that, I was ghosting full books.

I also started teaching. First, I applied to teach a course for an online writing group, and from there I taught another one and another one (and I think another one). I realized people needed more support, so I created a cohort version. And I started coaching authors 1-1.

Then, two years ago, my husband was laid off, and suddenly my freelance salary had to provide for the bulk of our expenses (with the new added expense of health insurance! and then children!) while he filled in the gaps with some side gigs. The pressure felt enormous, and there have been many times in the last couple years when I wondered how on earth I could hold everything together. I have a whole new respect for single parents and those in single-income households.

But here’s the thing: Many people work their asses off to provide for their families at jobs they hate. I got to work my ass off to provide for my family while doing something I love.

Along the way, I met this cool girl Liz, and we decided to create a course together, which morphed into a book. And then a podcast. And then a much better, simplified version of the earlier cohorts. We got an agent! And a book deal!

In the last three years, my work has unfolded in ways delightful and often overwhelming. And always, always - I have been inspired by the authors that I work with. Their passion, their knowledge, their wisdom, their fears and doubts, have motivated me to continue pouring absolutely everything I have into supporting them in their work.

Making books is, without a doubt, the reason God put me on the planet. And I’m so freaking proud of and grateful for how I’ve been able to do that in the last three years:

• I worked on 115 books (that’s almost 40 books per year).

• I’ve sold and led 6 cohorts of writers - not including all of the classes and one-off webinars/workshops I’ve taught.

• I ghosted 7 books, writing over 320,000 words.

• I wrote this newsletter nearly every week three years in a row.

• I mentored a handful of other freelance editors and helped to grow their careers.

I really can’t take credit. I’ve had opportunities because other people believed in me - including all of you. And while I try to repay that kindness, I feel forever indebted. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Now, I get to help make books in a different way. I’ll still be cheering authors on through the Hungry Authors podcast and the Map Your Book cohorts, but at Sourcebooks I’ll be focusing mostly on helping readers by bringing to market books that inspire, inform, and instruct us on how to live in better relationship with ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

There’s plenty more to come here, folks.

I cannot wait.

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Tips & Tidbits

Don’t forget to preorder

Hungry Authors the book is coming August 6, so you’ve still got time to preorder! We’re also giving away a number of cool bonuses if you preorder the book and fill out this form:

• The Hungry Author's Guide to Book Mapping (PDF) with sample book maps included!

• The Hungry Author's Quick-Reference Guide to Commercial Nonfiction Genres (Google Spreadsheet)

• Access to our Bestselling Book Idea Masterclass (video)

• Exclusive invitation to our in-person VIP book launch parties

• Plus... be entered to win a special writerly prize each month until publication (April to August)!

Register for the July Map Your Book Cohort

We just wrapped up our May Map Your Book cohort, and registration is open now for the July cohort! Here’s what some of our May students had to say:

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Happy weekend,

Ariel