From nonfiction to fiction: How a health care reporter wrote and sold her first novel

In elementary school, Amanda Eisenberg fantasized about becoming an author. But she didn't think it was a viable career path, so she set her sights on journalism. "I was a very practical child," said Eisenberg, who went on to study journalism at the University of Maryland and put the idea of more creative writing behind her. It wasn't until about seven years ago, while on staff at Politico, that Eisenberg began playing with fiction on the side.

She's now anticipating the launch of her first novel, "People Are Talking," set to release on April 22. The book centers on two estranged friends who belonged to a secret society tracking alleged rapists on their college campus. Then, their best male friend is accused of sexual assault.

"I wanted to explore the personal politics of what happens when you're a feminist and you believe that all women should be believed and that there should be repercussions for rapists," said Eisenberg, now 31. "But what happens when it's your best friend? And how can two women who are both friends with this person have different opinions about how to solve that problem?"

In this "How I Did It," Eisenberg, who now works as the editorial lead for a Medicaid newsletter published by the legal and consulting firm Manatt Health, discussed the path (and late nights) to publishing her novel, differences and similarities between the fields of journalism and book publishing, and what other nonfiction writers should know before trying their hands at fiction.

Where did the idea to write a novel come from?

Around the summer of 2018, I stumbled across the author Jami Attenberg on Twitter. She started this initiative called #1000WordsofSummer. The idea was to give writers a community where everyone else is writing 1,000 words a day. By the end of two weeks, you have 14,000 words. If you're working on your first draft of a novel, that's a good amount to get the ball rolling.

I participated for fun, and it was helpful to kick off a writing process. I didn't have a book in mind. I was just writing scenes. I used to live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and my commute to Politico was about an hour each way. So, I would sit on the subway and write in my notes app. I'd hear somebody say something funny and think, "Perfect. I want to turn this into a scene or just write something silly."

It was really cool to see the words add up. It goes to show that if you give a journalist eight hours to write 1,000 words, it'll take them eight hours. But if you give them 30 minutes, it'll take 30 minutes.

What happened next?

I did that writing challenge for two summers in a row, and then COVID hit. I was the New York City health care reporter for Politico, so I was on the phone with ICU nurses every single day. I would go to the Javits Center and ask Governor Cuomo questions about the COVID response. It was a super scary time. I was constantly talking to people who were watching other people die.

I thought, "I want to write a book." It was that feeling of coming up against mortality. I was 26 years old, covering this crisis in my city and feeling like if there's a time to do anything that you want to do, it's now.

So, I started writing basically "Sex and the City" meets "Girls." Very classic, women in their 20s figuring it out in New York. No plot, just vibes. I was just writing a funny dialogue and little things that I noticed about people. I felt like I was imbuing my writing with that journalistic eye. But then fiction is fun because instead of having to find 50 million sources to verify if somebody says something, you're just making stuff up.

I wound up abandoning that COVID book in favor of the book that is coming out in April. I got very lucky that I sold the first full book I worked on.

What other journalism skills do or don't translate to fiction?

I think journalists are well-equipped to write fiction or nonfiction. The skill set you have to learn from the former is structure and plot because as journalists, we already get the drama with what's happening in the world. We don't need to make up plot twists.

That's what I struggled with the most and bought the most craft books on: How do you structure a story that follows certain beats? I used my first government stipend to pay for a creative writing workshop with my favorite author, Jennifer Close, and listened to the podcast "The Shit No One Tells You About Writing " to learn how the publishing industry works.

Did you get tired of writing both for your job and on the side?

As a journalist, I didn't love the writing process. I loved my job because of the reporting. It was very rewarding to be able to talk to people and understand better what was happening and inform the public.

When it comes to writing novels, it's more of a compulsion. It's something that I don't necessarily enjoy while I'm doing it, but I feel better after. I'm not a runner, but I assume it's like a runner's high. A lot of writers say if they don't write, they go crazy. That's how I've always felt. If I'm in a bad mood, it's probably because I haven't written anything that day.

How did you fit book writing into your schedule?

Typically I woke up, worked out, and started at Politico at 10 a.m. I usually ended anywhere between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. We'd break for dinner, but it's that kind of job: If the phone rings at 11 p.m., I'm answering.

Then, my routine would be: from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., I would work on my novel. I would be able to sleep better because I was disassociating from work before bed. Instead of watching TV, I was sitting at my laptop or sitting with a notebook. If I was struggling, the second I hit the 1,000-word mark, I was like, "OK, I'm done." But if I was in a flow state and having the time of my life, I had those hours to be able to work until I got tired.

What's the book publishing industry like, as compared to journalism?

Whatever you think is slow in journalism, add a year to that in publishing.

In traditional fiction publishing, you write the book on spec, meaning you have to write the whole thing from start to finish first. Then, you start sending a few sample pages to agents for representation - that's called the query process. In that emailed pitch, you briefly describe your book, your background, and why readers should care about the characters or story.

In my query letter, I also talked about how, as a health care reporter, I covered a lot of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual misconduct among New York City's politicians and doctors. I was able to say, "I have some expertise in writing sensitively, but hopefully thought-provokingly too."

I queried 12 agents. Within the first month, six of them got back to me asking to read my manuscript. Then, I didn't hear anything for a year. I didn't know if that meant that they had passed or just hadn't read it yet. That's why more experienced novelists always say, "Work on something else while you're waiting because it takes so long." So, I started working on my second novel, which I'm pretty deep into right now.

How did the book end up getting published?

I teach an intro to journalism class at NYU, and one of my students - who had self-published a novel when she was in high school - ended up interning at a small publisher down on Bleecker Street in Manhattan. They publish six books a year, and you don't need an agent to submit to them. That's how my book got into the hands of Three Rooms Press: My student said, "Can you send me your book?"

I didn't think that was how I was going to sell my book, but she loved it. I wound up meeting with my publishers. They seemed great. Then, they hired this amazing editor. My process was pretty untraditional because I didn't use an agent, but I'm still considered a traditionally published author since I didn't self-publish or use a hybrid press.

What other advice do you have for journalists considering fiction writing?

Write that horrible first draft. The first draft is really you telling the story to yourself and not to an audience. That's hard for journalists, since audience is so top of mind for us. If you have 400 words in the paper, it needs to be precise and you have to know exactly who you're writing for. But with a book draft, it's much easier to look at a scene and think the scene is lame than it is to look at a blank page.

I also think that trusting yourself is really important. If you're a journalist by trade, you're a good writer. You pay attention to human behavior. You know what makes a story. All of those things make for really interesting writing. Now, you just have to learn how to put it into a format that's digestible for book people.

Of all the deficits to have, that's a good one: I would rather be told told the story is interesting and weird and the writing is good, but it's not in a structure that's sellable yet - than be told that the book technically follows all the rules, but doesn't have a soul.