There isn’t some magic potion to getting published, and, more often than not, writers need to make a living before they obtain published author status. Let’s look at how some of these famous female authors made a living before getting their first novels published.
Harper Lee
Harper Lee was a hard worker, and she took any job she could to pay the bills. One of these jobs was a ticket agent for Eastern Airlines and BOAC, The British Overseas Airways Corporation, the precursor to today’s British Airways. After seven years of working for BOAC, a friend of hers gave her a magnificent birthday present. Her friend Michael Brown, a Broadway composer, gifted her a year’s worth of wages. In a note, he told her to use the year to write. So, that’s what she did.
In the year that she took off, Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, her debut novel. Harper’s nationally acclaimed novel was published in July of 1960 by J. B. Lippincott and Co. She has also published essays about her home state of Alabama. The sequel to her debut novel, Go Set a Watchman (written before To Kill a Mockingbird), was published in 2015, more than fifty years after it was written.
Maya Angelou
Another woman who made her living in the transportation industry was Ms. Maya Angelou. Unlike Harper Lee, though, Angelou worked for the Market Street Railway Company. She worked on the back platform of electric streetcars, collecting fares and ensuring passenger safety.
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, wrote her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It was published in 1969 by Random House. The book was nominated for a National Book Award and adapted into a film in 1979. After her first book, Angelou wrote several volumes of her autobiography, the first of which was called Gather Together in My Name in 1974. She’s also worked as a columnist for several African periodicals, acted on both stage and screen, wrote and directed screenplays, and wrote several collections of poetry.
Margaret Atwood
Before writing her debut novel, Atwood worked as a session instructor in the English department at the University of Alberta. One of her odd jobs included working for a coffee shop in Toronto, Canada. She made it through by being intensely frugal. She grew up poor as her father lived in a tent and cleaned rabbit hutches just to send the money home to his wife and kids.
The Edible Woman is Atwood’s first novel, published by Knopf Doubleday in 1969. The novel was not her first publication, however. She published several collections of poetry, one of which, published in 1964, was called The Circle Game. Atwood went on to publish dozens of writings, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short story collections, and even a stage play. One of her most famous novels, made into the successful Hulu original, is The Handmaid’s Tale, which has to be my favorite of her publications.
Anne Rice
Not everyone is given a year’s wages to write a book like Harper Lee. Anne Rice had several jobs while writing her first novel. Most of them aren’t directly related to writing. These included different positions in the food service industry like waitress and cook. She also spent some time as an insurance claims examiner.
Rice’s first novel, Interview with a Vampire, was published in 1976 by Knopf. It was later adapted into a movie by the same name in 1994, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Interview with a Vampire was the first book in the trilogy The Vampire Chronicles, but it was not the only one in the series to be optioned for a feature film. Queen of the Damned also makes that list. Anne Rice’s writing is highly varied in genre, from supernatural to Christian to erotica.
Octavia Butler
More often than not, getting a series of rejections is a precursor to publishing your first novel. Ms. Octavia Butler’s experience was no different. Butler got out of bed at two in the morning to write, and then she was off to a plethora of odd jobs. Butler has worked as a telemarketer, warehouse employee, and dishwasher. The oddest, in my opinion, is her job as a potato chip inspector.
Octavia Butler published her first novel, Pattern Master, in 1976. The science fiction writer went on to write several books, including Kindred, which is considered a modern-day classic. She’s also won many awards, like the Nebula and Hugo. Butler was also the only science fiction writer to win the MacArthur “Genius” Grant.
N. K. Jemisin
Unlike most of the authors on this list, N. K. Jemisin worked extensively in academia. Not to say that other authors don’t have other experience in academia, but Jemisin’s academic work is center stage in her story. After receiving her undergraduate degree in psychology and her master’s in education, Jemisin worked as a career counselor in Massachusetts.
Jemisin published her first novel, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, in 2010. It became the first in The Inheritance Trilogy. This was her first published novel, but not the first novel she wrote. N. K. Jemisin wrote The Killing Moon prior to her debut novel, but there was no interest in it at the time. It later got picked up by Orbit in 2012.
Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado had a slew of random jobs before publishing her debut publication. She has worked at a paint-your-own pottery studio hosting children’s parties. She also worked for hotels and in retail at a sex toy shop. After graduating, Machado didn’t want to be in D.C. anymore and was offered a place with a friend for two months in Berkeley.
Machado’s debut book is not a novel but an awesome collection of short stories. Her Body and Other Parties, published in 2017, centers on the female experience in many facets. These include relationships, motherhood, body image, and societal norms. My favorite is “Eight Bites.” Her first novel, In the Dream House, was published in 2019.
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The moral of the story? Not everyone starts their journey the same way. From teacher to potato chip inspector to insurance claims examiner, authors are born from all walks of life. I can’t wait to read yours!
Interested in Muslim female authors? Check these authors out!
Women that published under male pseudonyms? Here you go!