Before publishing her debut novel THE SCOOP (out now with Grand Central Publishing), Erin worked as a journalist for almost 15 years, first in Sydney and then in New York City. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Daily Beast, and Elle. Born in Sydney, she now lives in Brooklyn.
Erin was featured in our AWNY newsletter back in 2016, it’s fascinating to hear about her career and life development over the last ten years.
Please start with some background about yourself – why you moved to NYC? Where are you from? How long have you been here?
I moved to New York in 2016, so ten years ago (time, it flies!). I came to be a journalist; before the move I’d been working in the media in Sydney for about seven years. Not long after arriving, though, the idea of writing a novel about journalism – a satirical look at the state of the industry and the lives of the people who work in it – took hold. I continued to work as a journalist for a few years, a mix of full-time jobs and freelance work, writing the novel early in the morning before work and on weekends. In 2021, wanting the novel to be as clear-eyed as it could be, I decided to leave the industry, so I could have enough distance to see it more objectively. I worked a few corporate writing roles, in tech and then VC. I did eventually finish the novel – it’s called THE SCOOP, and it was published this year! I had a launch at Books Are Magic, and the book has got some great press in People magazine, Forbes, LitHub, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere.
Where do you live? Why did you choose that area?
Crown Heights – I’ve lived there the entire time I’ve been in NYC. I immediately felt comfortable there, in a way I didn’t in other parts of the city, and that hasn’t changed.
Any advice for other professionals working in NYC?
Lean on the Australian community – for friendship and for professional connections. Fellow Australians can help translate your experience to a potential employer, give you inside tips for how to navigate the culture and norms of an industry or company, and serve as a community, which is especially helpful if you don’t have an alumni network.
What’s your favourite New York spot?
Anything you miss about Australia?
Twisties. And going barefoot in the summer.
What is THE SCOOP about?
THE SCOOP is a dark, funny, and propulsive story about a down-and-out journalist in New York City desperate to reclaim her place in the media elite, and how far she’s willing to go – and who she’s willing to destroy – to do that. It’s been described as like “if The Devil Wears Prada and Succession had a chaotic little baby” (by fellow Australian author Rebecca Armitage, author The Heir Apparent) and that sums it up pretty well.
What support did you need to transition to being an author?
I don’t have an MFA, so I had to build a literary education and network ad-hoc. I took classes through various places like Catapult (though unfortunately they don’t do them anymore), The Shipman Agency, and some individual authors who offered classes: Sheila Heti, R.O. Kwon, Leigh Stein, Alexander Chee, and others. But the most valuable thing I did was read obsessively and excessively (classics and new fiction, craft books, non-fiction, short stories, poetry – everything!) and commit to regular writing sessions.
Signing with a literary agent was crucial to get my manuscript in front of editors at the big publishing houses. I got my agent by cold emailing with a strong query letter that painted a clear picture of how the book could be marketed, including comp titles – other books published in the last few years with a similar vibe and target audience to THE SCOOP. The rejection involved in this process is relentless – it’s normal to be turned down by dozens of agents. You need a thick skin and a delusional kind of optimism.
I see authors as being like mini entrepreneurs, have you needed to be actively involved in promoting your idea to get published? Building a personal brand etc?
It’s very entrepreneurial, absolutely, in the sense that you have to invest your time, energy, and, yes, money, without any guarantee of things working out. It’s a bold, risk-taking move, to write and try to publish a novel. You have to believe in your vision long before anyone else does, and work for a long time without any gratification or applause.
I’m not sure how effective I’ve been at building a “personal brand”. I just try to be genuine when posting online, sharing things that I find funny or interesting, and also be supportive of other writers. I might put more effort into building a platform at some point, but I’d only want to do that if it felt exciting, fun, and natural, and if I felt I could genuinely provide something of value to an audience. If you don’t enjoy it, neither will an audience.
How did moving to New York City influence your decision to become a novelist?
From a young age I knew I wanted to be a writer (as a child I read a lot and wrote stories) but the only path I saw for that was to be a journalist. If I did want to write books, or fiction, I’d suppressed that desire. But over the winter of 2016/2017, my first winter in New York, I was frequenting Brooklyn’s amazing bookstores (shout out to Books Are Magic and Greenlight Books in particular) and spending a lot of time alone; my husband worked really long hours in a restaurant, and I knew hardly anyone. It was over that winter that the urge to write fiction, and the idea that would become THE SCOOP, began to bubble up. There’s something about living far away from everything and everyone you know, as well as how stimulating it is to be in a new place, that can allow another side of yourself to come out that you didn’t know was there. My sense of who I was, or who I could be, became more expansive. I’m not sure I would have acknowledged the desire in myself to be an artist if I’d stayed in the world I knew. Or I might have eventually, but living in New York accelerated it – New York will do that!
THE SCOOP is out now in the US from Grand Central Publishing and in the UK and Australia from Wildfire Books. Order at Bookshop.org or wherever books are sold.
Follow Erin on Instagram or find out more at erinvandermeer.com
