Meet Emmie Hamilton | Author & Developmental Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Emmie Hamilton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Emmie, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
My favorite affirmations and quotes have changed over the years in the same way that I’ve changed, but the most recent one that I’ve been holding onto for the past few years is, “Don’t you dare settle for fine.” If you recognized it from Ted Lasso, you’re right!

I spent quite a few years of my life settling, and being okay with, “fine.” This book I’m reading? It’s fine. This workout routine? It’s fine. My marriage? It’s fine.

But overtime “fine” turned to a mask, a dishonesty to both myself and others. I wasn’t living authentically which means I wasn’t performing my craft with the parts of me that were real. I felt the “fine” start to bleed over in my stories and my business, and I very quickly realized that “fine” wasn’t actually fine.

Now and then I get in a rut and still need the reminder not to settle for “fine.” Life should be fulfilling, exciting, scary, brutal, and emotional. None of those describe a life that’s fine, or art that’s fine, so now I like to remind myself to strive for more.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Believe it or not, I always pictured myself as a businesswoman. I thought I’d be in upper management for a well known company, making money and crunching numbers. I ended up getting a Marketing degree and an office job where numbers were law.

And I was miserable. The only things that kept me going were reading and writing. I needed anything that was the opposite of what I was doing so I went back to the basics. The way I handled stress when I was younger was getting lost in a good book and the remedy stuck as an adult.

After months of agonizing over whether I should stay in a job I hated just because it paid well and I was good at it, I decided to take the risk and dive into the world of words. I went back to school and graduated with my MFA in Creative Writing and from there decided to start my own publishing imprint and have spent the past few years honing my craft. I had fellow authors ask me for writing advice enough that I figured I should start charging for it, so I joined the Editorial Freelancer’s Association and started freelance developmental editing as well.

I say it as if it happened simply and organically, but it honestly didn’t. When I left school, I intended to teach creative writing. Publishing wasn’t on my radar. Then covid happened and despite my education and internship and previous work experience, it was still impossible for me to find a teaching job, so I decided to go in a different direction.

The publishing process was new to me since I didn’t choose to focus on it in school, so I had to learn whether I wanted to go the traditional route or independently publish and what that might look like for me. I did spend about ten months of querying and after receiving well over fifty rejections, I decided to re-evaluate. The advice I kept receiving from agents on why my book wasn’t right for them or for the market was because no one likes a prologue anymore, no one cares for the chosen one trope, and my book simply won’t sell.

I sat on that for a while and wondered whether it was true. I read an immense amount over the next few months and focused on what sold well at the time and which indie authors were making big moves in the community. After much deliberation, I decided to ignore the advice of the agents. I left a career that focused on numbers and sales, and though it’s a major part of my job today, I didn’t want it to be the sole focus. Life has enough daily pressures, and I didn’t want my one outlet to turn to ash before I bean. Instead, I added in another point of view and sub plot line to my book and researched indie publishing. Did I still make every mistake along the way? Absolutely yes. The growing pains were difficult, but necessary toward my success.

Now here we are. That book that everyone said wouldn’t make it won two awards and has sold in six continents. It continues to sell out at every event I sign up for, and has been referred to as a comfort read by many.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh, I love this question. Let’s set the scene.

It’s autumn in central Connecticut and my best friend has just arrived. We want a chill first day so we’re going to the Gastropark in West Hartford. There’s food trucks, live music, a bar. We sit outside at picnic tables and in the evening gather around the fire pit. Throughout the week we’re heading to the shoreline to visit The Book Barn, the largest used bookstore in the state. Then we’re heading down the road to Mystic to take in the historic downtown district. We’ll get dinner and drinks at The Oyster Club.
We can’t forget day trips to Boston and NYC, seeing a show on Broadway, and filling the extra time with hikes, waterfalls, and all of the fall foliage. And of course, dessert at Dees in Glastonbury for a delicious gluten free treat. (Seriously, if you’re ever in the area, it’s New England’s only non-GMO bakery that’s free of the top 8 allergens, and everything is decadently amazing. I recommend the chocolate torte and pumpkin pie bars.)

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I couldn’t never be where I am in life without the amazing support I’ve gotten both online and in my everyday life. I have to first give a huge shout out to Jessika Grewe Glover for passing my name along. I live my life quietly, without calling attention to myself despite the need to market my business, but Jess doesn’t hesitate to shout my name to anyone who will listen.

I also want to give a huge shoutout to my best friend, JP McDonald, is my anchor, my North Star, my balance when life’s scales threaten to overwhelm me. I wouldn’t have continued with any passions of my life without him to steady me. I’m incredibly fortunate to have another author friend as my critique partner and my equal in every day life.

The online writing community has also been a boon to my success. I started off not knowing anything about…anything. I learned how to indie publish, start my own publishing imprint, build my business from the ground up and it wouldn’t have gone anywhere without the support across all social media platforms encouraging me and other new authors to keep going.

Website: www.emmiehamilton.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/authoremmiehamilton

OTiktok: @emmie_ham

Image Credits
Emmie Hamilton