We were lucky to catch up with Jen Woodrum recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jen, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Looking back at my timeline of creative writing compared to publishing is interesting:

I started taking writing seriously in 2003. I started drafting my first novel in 2005. I came up with the story premise for current YA Dystopian series in 2010. I finished writing my first book (a middle grade fantasy) in 2013 and queried it. I wrote my first draft of my YA Dystopian series in 2017. I started querying on and off in 2018. In 2022, I decided to self-publish, and in 2023, my first book was released.

My creative journey spans decades, but it took a long time to decide I believed in myself and my writing enough to publish independently. Given that I have so many projects I want to complete after this YA Dystopian series, I sometimes wonder if I’d be further ahead if I started sooner.

But if I self-published my first book back in 2013, I’d be hurrying to take it down years later, as I’ve realized that there was a reason I didn’t get picked up. My writing still needed to grow.

As I look back on the progress I’ve made and how my writing has changed over the years, I realize that the timing is what it needed to be. While I could argue that it would have been nice to believe in myself sooner and have more years of publishing under my belt, I might have released a book that wasn’t ready for the public eye. By taking the time I needed, I’ve been able to refine my writing skills and release a book that I will hopefully be able to look back at confidently someday, even though my writing will continue to improve.

Ultimately, my creative journey has been part of me all along, but my publishing journey happened at just the right time.

Jen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a self-published author of the young adult dystopian fantasy series, The Severed Fates. My first book, When Death Is Coming, released in May 2023, and the sequel, When Death Is Watching, released in April 2024.

Writing has always been a part of me. I find that creative outlets help me express myself, process emotions, and understand the world better. As a mental health counselor, I pull knowledge of relationships and trauma into my writing in my efforts to create realistic stories that give hope while also exploring challenging topics.

I first developed the idea for my series in 2011 during the “young adult dystopian craze” of The Hunger Games and Divergent. I was curious about the question: what would happen to the world if death dates were known? This lead to interesting thoughts about society, culture, and even the fabric of life and death would be altered with this knowledge; hence, my young adult dystopian fantasy series was born.

One of the more interesting elements of my series is that the first three books of the series each follow a different female protagonist in a different part of the world where the death dates were handled in unique ways. In the fourth and final book in the series, the characters from the first three books will come together for the epic finale!

After sitting on the first book in this series for almost six years, I realized I would stay stagnant if I didn’t do something with it. Making the decision to self-publish was the best choice I could have made for my creativity. Now that my series is out there and I have readers cheering me on, I’m able to move forward in my drafting and publishing goals in a way that I couldn’t before.

I’m most proud of how I have put myself out there with social media, given that marketing does not feel like my strong suit. I have learned how to build a community through Instagram where I can be my genuine self, connect with readers, and cheer on other writers. I’ve found that I can provide both encouragement and education to newer writers and indie authors, while continuously soaking in the knowledge of others around me.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being a creative writer means that I spend about a year suffering through a messy, terrible, incoherent draft that I often want to throw into the garbage. It means many days of thinking I should just give up and spend my days binging Netflix. It means pouring life and energy and money into a project that won’t make me very much money (if any at all).

But the most rewarding aspect is enduring all of these struggles and seeing something beautiful come out of it. When I start to see my draft come together (finally), a reader fall in love with my story, and that moment of making it into the green before that profit has to get reinvested… the payoff is extremely worth it.

My favorite part of writing is endings. I love the endings of each of my books – the moment where all the twists and turns have been revealed and the final emotional punches hit you in the gut. Just as much as I love the ending of a book that perfectly pulls together all the pieces that author laid out, I love the ending of a project – that triumph of seeing it all come together and saying, “I made that!”

The joy comes down to looking at how you define success: do you define it by your sales? By your number of five star reviews? By your reach on social media?

Or, do you define success by the accomplishment of your goals? By doing a little better today than you did yesterday? By seeing a project through to the end even when it almost broke you? When we reevaluate how we define success, we can find satisfaction and reward in all of our little steps of progress.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I first made my Instagram account for my writing, I started simple: behind the scenes posts about my drafting process, excerpts from my manuscript, reviews of books I was reading, etc.

As time went on, I built the courage to show more of myself – partly because I learned that this is how you connect with readers and followers. I created reels to make people laugh, to share knowledge, and encourage other readers. And of course, to build excitement for my books.

While this can be scary, being your genuine self is what will draw people in. It takes courage to put yourself out there, but often people appreciate your vulnerability. I’ve been blown away by the positivity and support from the online communities I’ve developed.

My biggest piece of advice for building your audience on social media is to focus first on relationship. Going viral doesn’t mean you’re going to get a bunch of committed readers or customers. Getting a ton of followers doesn’t mean people are going to be invested in you. While those things are great, I’ve found that relationship is where everything starts. Developing relationships online comes from investing into the community we’re hoping to build – engaging with people, encouraging people, and getting to know them. Often through these steps, you meet people who are ready to cheer you on, too.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jenwoodrum.com
• Instagram: @jenwoodrumauthor
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/jenwoodrumwriter
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jenwoodrum
• Other: tiktok: @jenwoodrumauthor

Image Credits
Picture 1: Ashton Myerscough Photography