We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Olive Persimmon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Olive below.

Alright, Olive thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?

I self-published my first comedic novel, because, quite frankly, I need to move on from it. It had taken me five years of dilly dallying to write and it was time to release it into the world. I had tried, unsuccessfully to get it traditionally published and also to get an agent. I spent over a year querying but no one thought it was ready to release. And they were probably right. I wanted to evolve and grow as an author and the only way I could do that was to release the first book.

I had no intention of writing a second book until one day an idea came to me at a party and I was EXCITED about it. My second book was about exploring sex and dating in NYC and given that I had been celibate for an ungodly amount of time, the experential piece was more exciting than anything.

But this time I wanted an agent. I wanted to traditionally publish, just to prove to myself that I could.

I sent out two queries a week and decided I would do it until I got an agent or died. I didn’t care if I was 65 years old and sending query letters, I didn’t care if I had to rewrite the query 6,000 times. I didn’t care about many rejections stacked up on my desk. It was agent or bust.

After 75 rejections between my first and 2nd book, I received an offer from two agents on the same day, my birthday in 2016. I felt like there was birthday magic in the air because to go from no offers to two on the same day felt crazy.

I ended up signing with an amazing agent but I always encourage others that writing, creating art in general is a long game. It’s full of a lot of rejection and pain but persistence usually wins.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Everything I love to do involves words. My hobbies, my job, my art- they all revolve around my obsession with words. I use them to make people laugh when I write comedic novels. I use them to connect with my audience when I speak. I use them to empower people when I am teaching public speaking.

When people ask what I do, I typically say I’m an author, speaker, and communication coach- but that’s only because it’s pretentious to say lovers of words.

Growing up I was very shy and didn’t have a lot of friends. At 9 years old, my sister auditioned for a play and I decided to tag along. I ended up auditioning too and when I got on stage, a side of me no one had ever seen before came through. The director told me I had stage presence and charisma. That started a long sting with theater, which turned into a love for public speaking, which ultimately turned into my day job. I LOVE being a communication coach and helping my clients go to the next level with their presentations and communication. I get to help them shines like the badasses they were meant to be. It’s really cool.

In terms of writing, I wrote my first book after choking on a hot dog. I was 24 and going on a 1st date with a guy named Luca who liked to talk like a 1920’s gangster. He used to always say “I wanna get sweet on you, darling.” We went to a popular hot dog bar in Cleveland where the whole schitck was “gourmet hot dogs” think truffle mustard and lucky charms, etc. About two minutes into my hot dog covered in mashed potatoes and raspberry jam, I felt the hot dog become lodged in my throat. I took two sips of my beer to help it go down but that’s when I realized it was stuck. Meanwhile, Luca’s friend had walked in the door at that moment and they were chatting, totally oblivious to the panic happening near them. 20 seconds pass and I realize I can’t breathe and I need help, I turn to Luca and make the universal sign for choking but he’s taking too long to figure out what’s going on so I stand up my stool, fall down on the bar and and the hot dot and beer come flying out. I started laughing wildly and then ran out of the bar with the remnants of my dignity and that’s the last time I ate a hot dog. I go into the office next day and my colleague asks how the date went and I say, “Well, I became asphyxiated on a hot dog, almost died, and then heimliched the shit out of myself. So I’d say 10/10”

And my colleague said “You gotta write this shit down.” So I did. That’s how I started my first book. Since then I’ve written three comedic books and I’m currently working on my first fiction novel which I’m hoping to sell this year.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the idea that you had to be a starving artist. Many years ago I was debating quitting my job to write full-time. Anyone who knows anything about writing knows that it’s a LONG GAME. It can take literal years from writing a book to the book being available to purchase. I remember talking to a creative to try to get advice and she said, “nothing will stifle your creativity more than struggling to pay your rent. You gotta figure out the financial piece- otherwise you’ll get desperate for money and take crappy gigs and not have time to write anyway.”

This was good advice and still is.

I remember being horrified when the book “Real Artists Have Day Jobs” came out. I remember thinking “NOT ME!! Some Day, I’ll make it” but at 37, that’s one of the most practical things I’ve ever heard. Find a way to pay your rent that doesn’t kill your confidence or creativity, doesn’t suck all your time and energy, AND make art in your free time. Make art consistently. Hopefully one day art will be a sustainable source of money but until then, don’t be afraid of taking the day job.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had taken the time earlier in my career to understand financial literacy. We tend to think, I’m an artist, I’m a creative, I don’t need to know about money or finance stuff. But we do. Learning how to manage your money is one surefire way to ensure you can keep making art.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.olivepersimmon.com
• Instagram: olivepersimmon
• Facebook: Olive Persimmon