We recently connected with Melody Warnick and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Melody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you signed with an agent or manager? Why or why not?

For the months (fine, years) that I was working on my proposal for my nonfiction book This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, I obsessively thought about agents. I knew I wanted a traditional publisher if I could manage it, and I knew that agents were the magic door to that world—and that’s about all I knew. Even though I’d written for magazines for years, I had zero connections. Legwork would be required.

So I began collecting names, compiling a list of agents thanked at the end of books or interviewed in Writer’s Digest or online. Only nonfiction agents made the list; people who repped the kind of vaguely self-helpy memoir hybrid that I was working on (think Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project) got an asterisk. I subscribed to Publisher’s Marketplace online, where I could find exactly which agent had represented which comp book. Those names went on the list too.

By the time I was ready to send email queries, I had a list of 80 or so agents, and I was determined to query all of them, in batches of six or so, until I sold my proposal, however long it took. Miraculously, I never had to go past the first eight names. Within a day I had four or five requests for the full proposal, which turned into three phone calls with agents the following week.

I ultimately signed with Lisa Grubka, then of the Fletcher Agency, for three reasons: she was enthusiastic about my idea, she was a transplant to NYC from Michigan (my book is about falling in love with where you live, and I thought her Michigan roots helped her get the concept), and her agency repped Gretchen Rubin, my dream blurber. Maybe Lisa could pull some strings.

She did. Gretchen Rubin blurbed my book. But more than that, Lisa has been a fabulously smart and wise and helpful cheerleader along the way. Did I mention she sold my first book to Viking and my second to Sourcebooks? There’s that bit of handiwork to be grateful for too.

I know I lucked out. But I also crafted a good list. And if it hadn’t worked right away, I would have kept at it till that list ran out—and then I would have added more names.

Melody, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a writer who helps people find great places and thrive where they live. My first book, This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are, was published by Viking/Penguin in 2016; my second book, If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-from-Anywhere World, came out from Sourcebooks in 2022. I’ve spoken all over the country about the powerful concept of place attachment and shared strategies for creating a feeling of belonging and rootedness no matter where you live. I love that my message resonates with all kinds of people, whether they’ve lived in their community for 50 years or 5 days, and it can genuinely make their lives (and their towns) better.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Before becoming a book author, I was a freelance writer for many years, mainly for magazines like Reader’s Digest, Woman’s Day, Parents, and Ladies’ Home Journal—the kinds of old-school print magazines that you pick up in the grocery line or thumb through at the dentist’s office. (Seriously, so many people read my Reader’s Digest articles at the dentist’s office.)

I adored magazines. Still do. Writing for ones that people had heard of, that my mom could buy at the supermarket, that I’d read as a kid—that was my dream. I worked from home, around my kids’ schedules for the most part, doing something that creatively fulfilled me and often felt meaningful. I couldn’t envision myself ever quitting.

But over the 20 years I freelanced, the world got harder. Assignments were harder to get; the pay was the same, or worse, as when I’d started out. Editors were overburdened. There was more competition. I began to hate the hustle of pitching, how it felt like a game of roulette, with totally unpredictable outcomes. I spent a lot of time getting excited about ideas that ultimately never went anywhere. I don’t even need to talk about COVID.

So in 2021, I got a full-time job doing writing and communications at the university in my town, Virginia Tech. I spent six months doing that and finishing up freelance assignments at night, and that sucked. But eventually I had one single 9-5 job, and not gonna lie, I kind of love it. I still write stories and interview people who excite me, but I never have to pitch or worry about when my next paycheck is coming in. I have retirement benefits! And writer colleagues I can grab lunch with! And an ultra-creative photographer whose desk is next to mine and whose job is to create art to go with my stories. My schedule is hybrid, so I can still work from home whenever I want.

What I hate: Limited vacation days. Not being able to drop everything and buy groceries or take a hike in the middle of the workday. Working too much in general. Writing for publications that only a few hundred people read.

But I’m glad I pivoted. It works for this point in my life .Maybe I’ll pivot back to freelance one day, but for now I’m pretty happy being a staff writer.

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

That writers just sit down and write. On TV writing always looks like rapid-fire clickety-clacking at a computer as an endless stream of words gushes forth. Instead, my actual writing process is a frenzy of stops, starts, and prolonged moments of despair.

Particularly in writing my books, I’ve had to learn that writing is excruciatingly slow, often happens out of order, requires drafts and drafts and drafts, and inspires a lot of self-loathing along the way. I wish it were easier. But I’ve learned that for most people it just isn’t.

Contact Info:

• Website: melodywarnick.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/melodywarnick
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melodywarnick/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/melodywarnick

Image Credits
Sydney Biggs