Brandy Colbert: Surviving the Sophomore Novel

Brandy Colbert is the Stonewall Award-winning author of Little & Lion, Pointe, and the forthcoming Finding Yvonne.

Her essays and short fiction have been featured in several critically acclaimed anthologies for young people. Her work has been named a Junior Library Guild selection, a Book of the Month Club selection, and has been included on ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list, as well as best-of lists from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Vulture, and more.

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Brandy's third book, Finding Yvonne, comes out Tuesday, and she speaks of the fears of writing the second novel, including not living up to the first book, or letting down readers, or having new characters feel too similar to the characters in your first book.

She shares her tips for navigating these waters, including:

Leverage the relationships you've built from publishing your first novel.

and

Remember that "each book is different, and each book will be written differently."

and

How it's important to block out the noise of publishing.

Brandy recounts how advice from her editor both worked and inspired her for the next book, shares how insecurity is part of this journey (when your book doesn't make this list, or get some cover reveal, or win that award), and so much more.

One last tip/insight from Brandy to share here:

Don't forget why you write. As Brandy puts it, "I love writing and would continue to do it even if I never got published again."