Today I’m chatting with Dahlia Adler, who does so many things, and so we’re going to talk about all of them. We discuss her job history in publishing, and how different areas in publishing are very different from one another. We discuss her career as an author, and her adventures as a book blogger at BN, and her site lgbtqreads.com. The key moment in this podcast: how writing helped her recognize herself and her own sexuality.
We also discuss:
What queer YA and NA, math, and blogging have in common (when Dahlia’s working in those spheres anyway)
How one hunts academic mathematicians for publication
How she ended up as a fashion intern at Maxim
Some behind-the-scenes details of working in publishing
How she maintains space for the creative projects in her life
Learning story craft and structure from rejections
The weirdness of requesting galleys when you’re a reviewer
The absolute joy of helping people find the books that might mean the world to them.
How she discovers books and keeps track of titles she hears about online far, far in advance
How Sweet Valley High and The Babysitter’s Club were instrumental in her writing career
And the truth we both embrace: “free books will never not feel glamorous.” Very true.