Shlemiel Crooks author Anna Olswanger has been interviewed by the online book review program Just One More Book. Just One More Book is podcast devoted to literacy and children’s books.
During the interview, Anna detailed the development of her career as an author and literary agent and gave hints to aspiring writers from the perspective of both a writer and an agent.
Anna explained that she began her education expecting to be a painter, but realized her niche was in literature. When asked why she began writing, Olswanger responded that she “remembered painting what I considered my last painting and making a decision that it would be writing from then on that would be my creative output. So it was not my first choice, I really wanted to be an artist. I turned to writing and what I discovered was I really liked the whole professional aspect of it.”
The transition from a writer into a literary agent seemed to come naturally to Anna, who described herself as being “very happy” with her career path. Says Anna, “It allows me to be involved with all kinds of genres and work with different kinds of authors. I’m free to do whatever I want and that is something that is very gratifying for me.”
When giving advice to authors seeking to hone their skills, Anna suggests that writers learn how to “open the floodgates and stop judging themselves because the problem for most writers is that from the very moment they try to write they say, ‘this is not going to be good enough, nobody is going to be interested, I’m not going to succeed’ ‚Äî you must give yourself permission to take a risk.”
Listen to the full broadcast of the interview at Just One More Book.
Shlemiel Crooks, written by Anna Olswanger and illustrated by Paula Goodman Koz, is available from NewSouth Books, Amazon.com, or your favorite online or local book retailers.