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

Nicholas, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

When I made the decision to take my writing seriously as a profession in the year 2000, my very first short story submission was purchased by the first market I sent it to. I received a check for I think around $300. I remember thinking, “Boy, this writing thing is going to be a snap!” Of course, I was very, very wrong about that. Even now, after writing professionally for almost 25 years, my work still gets rejected and can sometimes take months or even years to find a home.

But that first check from my writing? Wow! It’s an incredibly potent feeling of validation to be paid for your creative work. It lets you know you’re on the right track. Perhaps more importantly, it reminds you during the hard times, when you’re stuck or it feels like all your work is being rejected left and right, that there is a market out there for your work. It reminds you to keep persevering.

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

I’ve always wanted to tell stories. Part of that is because I’m a voracious reader. I think most writers start out as readers. We fill our creative wells with other people’s stories until we’re ready to tell our own.

I’ve been writing since I was little, scribbling stories in my notebook at school when I should have been paying attention in class. Back then, I was mostly interested in science fiction and fantasy. Stories of real-life drama didn’t catch my attention (or light up my imagination) the way sf/f did, with their strange new worlds and fantastic creatures. I was a monster kid growing up. I loved dinosaurs, Godzilla, and the stop-motion monsters of the Ray Harryhausen Sinbad films.

It wasn’t until later, probably around the time I was graduating high school and entering college, that my reading tastes changed toward horror, thriller, and suspense. I credit finding Clive Barker’s Books of Blood series at my local bookstore with showing me that horror doesn’t have to have giant monsters or cape-wearing vampires in cobwebbed castles. Horror lit up my imagination even more than sf and fantasy did. I was drawn to the heightened emotions of it, and how its more fantastical elements leaned toward the dark. When I started writing professionally, my work leaned toward the dark, too. I’d say the great majority of my short stories and novels are in the horror, thriller, and suspense genres.

I’ve had nine novels published, the latest being The Mind Worms, the third in the Dr. Laura Powell series of horror-thrillers, and over two dozen short stories. I’ve also been nominated for four literary awards–the Bram Stoker Award, the Thriller Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Dragon Award–for which I’m very grateful. Sometimes it can feel like we release our work into the void and we never know how it’s being received, so the award nominations were a great way of learning that there were people out there who liked my work!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an author is hearing from your readers. Occasionally, I will get an email or a direct message on social media from someone who has read one of my books and wants to let me know how much they enjoyed it. I go to several conventions every year, and meeting readers is an absolute joy.

If you’ve ever read a book that really moved you or that you just plain loved, and you think you would only be bothering the author to let them know that, you’re mistaken. Authors so rarely get feedback from readers–especially positive feedback–that I assure you, your favorite authors will love hearing from you. It means the world to us to know our books are touching people’s lives.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

In order to be a successful writer, I had to unlearn my fear of rejection.

There’s no two ways about it: rejection is a part of the writing life. When you’re just starting out, you’re going to get rejected a lot. It’s understandable, since you’re still honing your craft and developing your voice.

I’m no exception. I’ve been writing professionally for nearly 25 years, and I still get rejected. It took a long time to build up a thick skin and realize rejection only means the publisher you sent it to didn’t think it was a good fit for them. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer, or everyone is out to get you, or you didn’t know the secret handshake. It just means that wasn’t the right place for your work.

I’ve seen writers, especially newer ones, make some bad publishing decisions out of fear of rejection. They publish their stories in magazines (or websites, or anthologies) that don’t pay their readers, and therefore accept any story that comes their way, in exchange for “exposure.” Except no one reads those magazines, so who is their work being exposed to? I’ve seen people leap right to self-publishing because they’re afraid agents or acquiring editors at major publishers will turn them down. I always tell beginning writers to reach for the top first, then work your way down. Otherwise, you’ll never know what you could have accomplished.

Similarly, rejection incentivizes you to continue working on your craft. If all you do is find ways to get around your work being rejected, what incentive do you have to try to become a better writer?

The only way to move past rejection to acceptance is to persevere. Keep writing, keep submitting, no matter how many rejections you get, because one day, you’ll get an acceptance instead, and that first acceptance will be the best day of your writing life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nicholaskaufmann.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicholas_kaufmann/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicholas.kaufmann.79/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-kaufmann/
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/nicholaskaufmann.bsky.social

Image Credits
Alberto Vasari, M.M. De Voe, Alexa Antopol