We were lucky to catch up with Havilah Sciabbarrasi recently and have shared our conversation below.
Havilah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
The customer success stories for me are the ones where you get them to come back. Time is our most precious resource, so having any customer willingly choose to come back to the same place because of how you made them feel is special. I work at a bookstore, and there’s nothing quite so magical as having a moment of connection with someone who walks in innocently, just looking for a. book. It can be the difference between a good day and a bad day. I had this one guy who came in and treated me like his most trusted confidante immediately. I love people like that, but he was especially brazen. He slapped his hands on the counter in front of my register and proclaimed emphatically that he needed a really good book. This part of being a bookseller always terrifies me. I feel like I’m holding someone’s fate in my hands. And I kind of am. But looking at this guy, I knew I needed to get over my fear of steering him wrong and trust that my instincts qualified me to tell him what direction to go in. I pitched two books: one that I read a long time ago and never stopped thinking about (Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy), and one that I had never read but couldn’t stop thinking about (Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar). They felt like the right things to say in the moment, and I could tell I had done the right thing by how excited the customer was getting about the books. He bought both. I was worried that he’d hate them and personally blame me, but that’s not what happened. Instead, he came back about a month later. In this time I had read Martyr! just in case he wanted to talk about it. And he did. He told me he thought they were both terrific. That I was 2 for 2. He then asked me for another recommendation and I racked my brain for something good. I came up with nothing, so I told him in good conscience I couldn’t recommend anything. We went out on a high note together! I haven’t seen him since, though.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Havilah Sciabbarrasi. I believe books are one of the core ways humanity can come together. My craft has always been editing. I am content to help other people realize the best version of their work and operate behind the scenes to make it happen. It’s been this way ever since I was a kid, and wasn’t okay just letting a book leave once I finished it. The first time I felt this way was with the Percy Jackson series. That world became my own. I hoped one day to help another writer create one just as beautiful, just as full of meaning, something that could save another kid. Ever since, I’ve been chasing opportunities that help me tap into the thing that comes most naturally to me: looking to see what can be improved, how to make something better.
To that end, I now work as a bookseller at Book Culture, an editorial assistant at Random House Books for Young Readers, and an unpaid freelance editor. I am a confidante, an advisor, a support system, a voice that talks people off the ledge or pushes them over it, depending on what they need to hear. At Book Culture, I offer advice and counsel to people who are seeking meaning in their own lives. I also occasionally sell books. At Penguin Random House, I’m a housekeeper, acting as a liaison between my supervising editors and other departments, all to ensure the books that they believe in get to print. Sometimes I get to read and decide for myself what we should throw our weight behind. After only working there for three weeks, I firmly believe it’s a miracle that any book ever gets published. And I get to be surrounded by miracles constantly. There’s a whole team behind every title, and we get to make people’s dreams come true when we take a chance on a story that is very special. As an unpaid freelance editor, I help my friends when they get too lost in the weeds of their own writing and need a second look. I try to pay it forward, because the people who made me better were always the ones who were honest with me. Money would be nice, though. I do live in NYC.
The main problem I solve for clients is telling them what they need to hear. People need honesty, even if they’re scared. In all my jobs, I am trying to guide people in a way that feels true and genuine. I won’t recommend a book if I didn’t like it. I will tell my editors to pass on a manuscript if the writing isn’t where it needs to be. I will let writers know what needs to be fixed if they want to achieve their goals. I think what sets me apart from others is my deep craving for knowledge and to learn from the world around me. I am certainly not the premiere authority on editing or books, but I know this. I’m not trying to be. I only care about making the story better. It’s not about me, it’s about the work. I am most proud of helping one of my former clients complete his dissertation. He was struggling for a while, but we made it through. I could have chosen to be nice and lie to him, but I chose the other route–tough love. He texted me later when his dissertation passed muster. Now he has “Dr.” in front of his name. I’m so proud.
The main thing I would like potential clients, followers, and fans to know about me/my work is that I won’t lie to you, but I’m always on your side (you can do both!). I care about people. not just the work they produce. Nothing is created in a vacuum. I want to get to know the people behind the project, because the people are what make the project possible. The work I’m trying to do is help people find the books that stay with them for a lifetime. Maybe they’ll even recommend them to someone else. I want people to take children’s literature seriously. It is worthy of every respect given to “serious” literary fiction or nonfiction.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My favorite stories to tell are the ones where I didn’t get what I wanted. Because being successful is about turning anything that happens to you into an opportunity.
I thought I was such a hotshot in college, and I applied to be an editor for an online magazine called Study Breaks, thinking it was just one more thing to check off my list. Rightfully so, I was denied a position as an editor. Instead, the EIC offered me a spot as a writer. I thought about rejecting the offer and leaving the whole effort behind. I really didn’t on paper need another internship. But then I thought about it and confronted the ugly truth, which was this: I thought I was “too good” to be a writer. I was arrogant, prideful, etc. etc. But I wasn’t better than anyone else. Once I realized how stupid I had been, I decided to change things up. I reworked what had previously been an insult to my ego into a learning opportunity. I clearly had much to understand about being a good person.
I resolved to give writing my all and understand the craft from a different perspective. My first article was one I wrote from the heart and had a personal connection to. I traveled to Illinois for it. It ended up being one of Study Breaks’s top performing articles for the month of November. It brought me joy to be myself and have people be interested in what I had to say, but the best thing to come out of it was the lesson: learn from other people, never assume anything, go outside your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to fail. That’s when the growing starts!
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Yes, I would strongly recommend reading the entire Percy Jackson canon and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series to everyone. They taught me everything I know about humility, kindness, and friendship. I owe my entire personality to those books, for better and for worse. They teach you about sacrifice, the intermingling of holding on and letting go, managing personal relationships, learning how to make mistakes and how to fix them, how to be brave even when you don’t feel like it. Thank goodness I was gifted them (shoutout to my parents).
I don’t think I have a philosophy or management tactic at the moment. I try to remind myself that everyone is human and we are all in various stages of trying. I can never begrudge anyone who puts themselves out there, and I owe it to them to be honest in return.
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Image Credits
Second photo is not a real book! I designed it for a course. It is an imagined middle-grade debut for Jenny Han about a Korean-American girl who becomes overly obsessed with skin care while navigating the normal ups and downs of seventh grade.