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

Libby, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I were starting over, I wouldn’t waste time mastering craft or developing my skills before seeking publication. I would write what mattered to me without censoring for tone, subject, or trying to stay in a genre. And I wouldn’t be so careful about where I submitted work. I’d send it everywhere. Constantly.

The biggest shift would be prioritizing output over polish. Not submitting sloppy work—but finishing work and sending it out there. Early on, I’d spend so much time trying to make something flawless when I should’ve been building volume, stamina, a body of work.

I also would have skipped the academic route and gone straight to people who were doing what I wanted to do. Publishing authors. Working writers. People living by their art. There’s a kind of calibration that happens when you’re in proximity to that—it shapes your sense of what’s possible, and how the work gets made. It also shows you to reality of the creative world.

Most of what I know now didn’t come from theory I learned in my MFA program. It came from watching other writers (and myself) survive bad drafts and hundreds of rejections—and keep going anyway.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve been in the writing world for a long time, but I became a paid editor in 2007. At the time, I was still a student, doing the work—writing, editing, pushing myself creatively hard instead of going to parties or having much of a social life. Word started to spread inside the classrooms, then beyond them. One afternoon, I was walking out of a building when a professor I had never met stopped me. “Are you Libby?” he asked. “I heard about you.” That’s how I got my first paid editing job—working on a book manuscript for a professor at the college. It was the first time I realized that if you take the work seriously, people will start to take notice.

Since then, I’ve spent years helping writers make better work—not more marketable, not more formulaic, but stronger, truer, more fully realized work. My clients range from first-time authors to seasoned professionals, and what they all have in common is a deep commitment to the creative process.

As an editor and creative advisor, I meet writers exactly where they are—not where the industry says they should be. I don’t try to contort their work into whatever happens to be trending. I care far less about what’s selling and far more about what’s unique. What I offer is both structural and intimate: developmental editing, deep manuscript consults, voice work, long-form project and author brand shaping, and creative advising. The problems I solve tend to revolve around clarity, structure, and tone—but more than that, I help people get out of their own way. I am here when a writer needs someone who can see what they’re really trying to say and help them say it.

What I’m most proud of is that my work makes space for people to be fully themselves on the page. Conformity flattens originality fast, and I work with writers who are willing to risk being honest over being safe. I’ve built my practice around that. I’ve spent years inside this work, helping people say the things they thought they couldn’t.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Over the past several years, maintaining a newsletter has proven to be the most steady and effective way for new clients and readers to discover my work. I use Kit (formerly ConvertKit) as my newsletter host, and I talk about them so often I probably should be their spokesperson. I recommend them because they’ve built something that works for entrepreneurs, creatives, and small businesses.

Relying on social media to maintain a professional presence as a writer or creative is inherently unstable. Algorithms shift without notice. Visibility can drop off regardless of the quality or consistency of the work. Entire accounts can be flagged or removed without much recourse. In light of all that, having an independent and direct line of communication with your audience is necessity. A newsletter provides that. It allows for direct engagement without the performance metrics.

While it’s true that newsletters are having a moment—and yes, oversaturation is inevitable in any tool that proves useful—email still remains the most efficient and respectful way to communicate with people who have actively chosen to engage with your work. Whether they’ve been reading you for years or have only recently discovered what you do, a newsletter allows you to inform them immediately when something fresh is available, without the need to translate your message into platform-specific shorthand or hope it will surface on someone’s feed.

Kit’s Creator Network, in particular, has been helpful in expanding my readership by thousands. It simply puts your work in front of readers who are already looking for the kind of writing you do. That visibility is what helped me grow my subscriber list and, by extension, my client base.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

My clients know that whenever they find an agent, land a book contract, settle on a title or cover art, write THE END, or get ready to release their work, I’m there, genuinely cheering them on. Their victories are my victories. I want to root for them fiercely and help spread the word about the beautiful, uncompromising work they’ve created.

But it’s not just about celebrating the milestones. When a client emails me at two in the morning, struggling to solve a plot hole or reeling from a rejection by someone they hoped to collaborate with, they know they’ll hear back with exactly the kind of clarity or encouragement they need to keep going. That immediate, unshakable support—that’s how I foster loyalty. It’s about showing up in the moments that feel both triumphant and utterly fragile.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.Libby-James.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/libby-james-writer