We are so excited to welcome internationally bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz to our podcast!

Melissa is incredibly successful--she's written more than 50 books, and sold more than 8 million copies.

But her path to publication was anything but easy. It took four agents and many "almost but not quite" responses to sell her first book. There are lunches she thought would turn into offers, and years of working at her day job and hoping for the best.

Now, Melissa is at the top of her game--and has been known to write entire books in two weeks! But here’s the story behind all that. We talk procrastination, deadlines, and how her editors help work with her creative brain (and create false urgency! Hello, ideal team) to get everything in on time.

We also discuss how she deals with writer's block, the editorial process (many times longer than her first draft!), how and why she gets to jump between genres and write everything from thrillers to sweet Hallmark movies.

We talk everything from rejection postcards (yes, those were a thing!) to the YA "gold rush," to genre switching for authors, and how to do it the smart way.

You can listen to the first page of her book, The Birthday Girl, here (and the voice actor is also seriously excellent, so do give it a listen): https://www.penguinrandomhouseaudio.com/book/586465/the-birthday-girl/?ref=PRHD9DF6A1939

And you can find Melissa online at melissa-delacruz.com.