Who: Eric Smith

Claim To Fame: Eric Smith is a Young Adult author and literary agent with P.S. Literary. He is the author of IndieBound bestseller The Geek’s Guide to Dating, Inked, the adoption-themed anthology Welcome Home, and the novel The Girl and the Grove. His next novel, Don’t Read the Comments, will be published by Inkyard Press in January 2020. Pre-order it for very cute pins and bookplates, here! His new anthology, Battle of the Bands co-edited with Lauren Gibaldi, is due out in 2021 with Candlewick. You can also listen to him on Book Riot’s HEY YA podcast with Kelly Jensen.

Where To Find Eric: His Website, Amazon, Twitter

Praise For Eric: “Don’t Read the Comments has so much heart: the kind that makes you fall in love, and the kind that makes your breath short. If you’re not already a gamer, you might be after this book. And if you need a little hope, Eric Smith delivers the sunshine.”— Olivia A. Cole, author of A Conspiracy of Stars

When and where do you like to write? Are you the same-thing-every-day kind of writer or can you write anytime, anywhere?

My writing habits have changed in a big way since becoming a Dad. It used to be write when I can, when I have free time from work and all. I’d hit up a local coffeeshop with my local author friends, and we’d get a bit of work done, laugh it up, all that good stuff you’d expect from that cliché image.

But these days, I have to set aside the time. Family comes first, so I set aside specific times to sit down and get the work done. It’s usually one day a week, usually Fridays. And for me, right now, that’s enough time. It might change later, when my kid is a little older, off in school and all that… but for now, just a day a week.

The writing will still be here. Him being a cute toddler, that changes. It can wait.

One thing that’s never changed though, is that I really love writing with friends around. Other writers. Being able to randomly take a little break, talk things out in real time, catch up on other life nonsense… that helps so much. And when it can’t be in-person, I’ll take Google Chat.

Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits before you sit down to write?

Oh, not really. I do enjoy my ridiculously sugary coffee drinks to accompany a good writing session. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Morgan Matson (in addition to how her books are a great study in learning to write friendship and romance, do read them), it’s how a candy-flavored sugary coffee drink can really make the day a bit brighter, and deadlines a little less scary.

What do you do when the writing isn’t coming easy? Do you struggle at all with that dreaded enemy of writing: writer’s block?

I do something that “refills the well” as some of my author friends like to say. Spend time with friends, go for a long walk, play an over-the-top adventure game (Skyrim is an EXCELLENT way to break writers block). It’s so important to step away from your work, when it’s starting to drag you down, and remind yourself of why you write in the first place. What you enjoy about it.

I’m not saying I’m driven to write because of Skyrim, but hey, sometimes it helps.

When did your aspirations to become a writer begin? At what age did you start writing in hopes of making a living out of it?

Oh, I always knew I wanted to write. When I was a little kid, I’d write terrible short stories on an electric typewriter, and give them out to friends. Usually the stories were about them.

It’s been less about making a living as a writer, and more about making a living as a person who works with books, for me. I work as a literary agent and I mentor MFA students, and in the past I worked at a publishing house, so my life is pretty much all encompassed with the book life.

That was the goal since college, and now here I am.

Deciding on an idea to pursue writing about can be the most challenging aspect for a writer. How do you come to find the stories and lives that become the subjects of your books and stories? Are there habits or daily tricks you use to think about book ideas?

There’s a YA author I love a lot named Erin Bowman, and she talks about mining from your own life as a source of inspiration. How we should do it, if we can. And that’s basically my approach.

The Girl and the Grove, which came out in 2017, pulled from my life as an adoptee. Don’t Read the Comments, which comes out in January (oh my goodness it’s really almost here), digs into my experience as a person-of-color in digital spaces, as well as my passion for video games.

If you look at my upcoming books, you can see that pattern continuing. Origin Story (2021) with Summer Heacock is about an adoptee, and Battle of the Bands (also 2021) with Lauren Gibaldi is all about music, which was a huge part of my life as a teen and college kid.

That’s the trick, really. Mining from my life. That’s the trick. Perhaps when I run out of life stories to explore, it’ll be time to retire.

Writers have to be master prioritizers — juggling all sorts of projects and deadlines at the same time. That’s certainly the case for you. Do you have any methods for managing tasks and time to stay productive and not let overwhelm sneak in?

I do! I have an office that’s not at home, where I keep my computer. I don’t let that get in the way of my life. It’s a lesson I actually had to learn this year, because juggling all of it and working at home became an impossible task. So keeping work, at work, has been the ultimate balancing tool.

You are also a literary agent. Given the thousands of query letters you receive, how does a writer stand out and really capture your attention and interest? What common mistakes do you see in query letters?

The biggest mistake I see in query letters, comes from writers who don’t know their genre and don’t do their research. You have to be an avid reader to be a good writer, and you have to be informed of what’s on the bookshelves in the bookstore to push through publication, in my opinion. So take your time. Know what you’re writing, who you are writing for. And research agents.

The best query letters get to the heart of the story. But what’s going to get an agent’s attention overall, is going to be a good story. There’s no lifehack for nailing that. You just have to write one.

What books or writers have most influenced the way you think and the way you write?

In the adult world, Nick Hornby really pushed me into wanting to be a writer. But in the YA space, writers like John Green, Nova Ren Suma, Zoraida Cordova, Adam Silvera, Mindy McGinnis, and Nina LaCour. My favorite novel of all time is Hero by Perry Moore, and I’ll be chasing the high of reading that book for the rest of my life.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Read widely. Stephen King said something along those lines, reading to be a better writer. And take your time. There’s no rush, and any “I need to do X by this age” is a nonsense deadline you set for yourself. Relax, let the words come. It’ll happen when it happens.

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