Interview with Jennifer Musselman

Interview by Amy Brozio-Andrews

Jennifer Musselman is the author of The Hip Girl's Handbook for Home, Car, & Money Stuff (2002) with Patty Fletcher.  She is Director of Communications for MTV Network's Nickelodeon TV and has written for magazines such as Shape and Seventeen. She teamed up with Patty again for this year's The Hip Girl's Handbook for the Working World, offering women real-world career advice on everything from resumes to negotiating skills.

You wrote the first book, The Hip Girl's Handbook for Home, Car, & Money Stuff back in 2002. What motivated you to write that book in the first place?

My co-author on that first book (Patty Fletcher) and I were having apartment issues-- something had broken in the apartment and I can't remember what exactly it was, I think it was a fuse box or something-- and we were saying, "We're not dumb girls, we can figure it out but we never were taught how to do it." And so we were talking about all the problems we'd had or our friends had had from their experiences in college, etc. There are things we think are probably relatively easy to fix but there's no guide out there if your Dad's far away, which typically your Dad or brother or somebody would take care of for you. What was a good way to resolve that when you didn't have the resources accessible to you?

We started looking at books and stuff and we were like, all these books are so technical-- how to caulk your windows-- okay, let's keep it real here; while we think it's awesome that there are all these domestic divas out there, the majority of us women, especially if you're working, don't have time to do all of those things and frequently don't have that interest. I don't have an interest in caulking my own windows, I just needed to take care of emergency situations.

So, that was kind of the impetus to write that book.

So then what made you decide to write the follow up, The Hip Girl's Handbook for the Working World?

We definitely saw the Hip Girl's Handbook as a brand, even initially when writing it because I think that there are a lot of books out there that cover these specific types of areas of our lives but they're not necessarily geared toward women or they might be geared toward women but they don't seem "real," they don't seem practical. They seem very heady, intellectual, and corporate-driven.

One of the things that's important to me about this book was I had to talk about the fact that, even in my own career, I've had several instances that could be construed as sexual harassment.  And my ability to pick and choose what was important to me-- meaning, my integrity helped me to discern what would be important to talk to a boss about and what did I have to learn how to dance around. That was something that was important to me, that I think kept that "real" tone throughout the book with, "Listen, running to Human Resources every time you have a problem or you've been sexually harassed-- depending upon what level and all of those things, of course-- could make or break whether you really move up in your career or not."

I need to be clear; I'm not in any way suggesting you should ever do anything inappropriate, like sleeping your way to the top or anything like that. In fact, that's exactly what I'm saying not to do. It's more of learning how to dance around or confront-- whatever your particular style is-- but somehow deal with it without always running and crying to Human Resources or to your boss.

Did you think that writing the second book was harder than the first?

Yes and no. Because we had already figured out the formula it was a little easier and because quite frankly, the working world is something I'm much more attuned to than unclogging my garbage disposal. It was easier in that sense to write the second book. It was more difficult in that there are many more gray areas in The Hip Girl's Handbook for the Working World-- meaning there are not necessarily absolutes in every situation. Whereas with the first book the steps that you take to success are much more clear, with this book I needed to make sure to say don't beat yourself up if you make a decision and you come back to regret it because at the end of the day there is no right and wrong in these kinds of situations. There are some choices that might be better than others and that's what we're here for, to help guide you, but that's what made this book a little more difficult.

Again, just to reflect back on the example of sexual harassment, the way I handled [it] when people were being very flirtatious or perhaps sexually harassing me-- by throwing it back at them, making light of it, making a joke of it-- is not the way somebody else would feel comfortable handling it. They might need to confront it… and that's the difficulty with writing this book versus the first book. There were no absolute steps to success.

Do you have another book in the works?

Well, we definitely have talked about it and that will also take the kind of tone that there are no absolutes and do what's right for you. We're talking about doing a Hip Girl's Handbook for love. And I think that comes on the heels of all of this success of He's Just Not That Into You which quite frankly, I see where they're coming from, I understand the underlying points he's making and so I agree with the book in many ways but I just don't really like the book itself-- the way that it's written. I think it's just very catchy so I think that-- I can't say we're absolutely doing it because you know, the whole topic of sex and all of that is such a very touchy topic. So we have to decide for ourselves what we feel comfortable writing about and if we can do it in a way that's still real but still mindful of the fact that, for instance, Patty is an elementary school teacher. So we have to be considerate of what's appropriate for her to be talking about.

When you pitched your first book, did you go to agents and publishers with a multi-book idea or did you just start with the first one and then when that did well go back to them with the follow-up?

I feel very blessed, and it's important for me to say that because I know there are a lot more brilliant writers out there than me. I just feel like I've learned that the book business is a business like any other and we were just lucky to find a publishing company that was looking for the kind of property and project that we were pitching them.

I don't have an agent; I've never had an agent. We came up with the idea. We got the Dummies guide to getting published. And I'd done some magazine writing-- freelance writing-- so between the Dummies guide to getting published and writing for magazines and working in corporate America, using all of those skills, we just put together a proposal. [We] sent it out to a handful of publishing companies we'd researched by just going to the bookstore and saying, okay, what books are out there that kind of have to do with our subject matter, like changing a tire, or girls' guides. So we sent it out to those companies and the long and short of it, one of them came back, which would be Wildcat Canyon Press who said, hey, we want to develop this. And so we started talking with them about it and of course, we started thinking, maybe we should pitch this wider, maybe we should go to like a Simon & Schuster or someone like that… More research helped me to recognize that you have more creative control by going with a smaller publishing company, both from a cover perspective and content, so we just decided that, you know what? Our guts just said, let's just go with a small publishing company that way we know [how] the product we're trying to pump out is going to come out versus it becoming something that wasn't at all anything we had imagined.

So that's how we got this book. It was in our contract that if we were going to write a second one that we would have to go back to the same publishing company, and you know, we'd built a really good relationship with them and they were good to us and so we wanted to go back and work with them because they did really listen to us.

When we first got the cover back the girl was in a skirt that was below her knees, she was in a pair of shoes with really thick heels, kind of like granny-looking heels, and her briefcase was an old-fashioned briefcase in her hand. I immediately went back to them and said, "Please, you have got to change this cover! She cannot be wearing this-- this is called The Hip Girl's Handbook and she is not looking very hip." I e-mailed them the briefcase that she's carrying-- it's my briefcase, actually-- raised the skirt, put boots on her, and this is especially important because of not only the title but there's an entire chapter on fashion. I really needed to feel like my voice would be heard and they're really good about letting my voice be heard.

How did you do your research for the books?

Honestly, most of it just came from my own work experience and my friends' work experiences. So I definitely kind of just outlined the things I wish someone would have told me coming up in my career and based on my own mistakes. And also looking at some of the other books that were out there-- what I thought was important that they covered and things that I thought that they didn't cover that I felt was important for us to cover. And I'll be honest and say that I really wasn't sure that I wanted to cover the whole first entire section-- for the resume and all of those things… because there's such a plethora of books out there specifically for those things. But part of our branding is to be the book that is your immediate go-to and then if you need more specific guidance we refer you to books that are more specific. So then I came to understand that okay, okay, I do need to include that in the book.

Do you have any tips or advice for balancing a full time job and writing and a personal life? How did you find the time to write and work full time?

Well, I'm not married, and I don't have any kids, and I don't have dogs, so my baby, if you will, my relationship-- was to my book. That took up so much of my time, including taking time away from my friends. Obviously I had to come to work every day… fortunately I come to job that I actually really enjoy so that's important. I'd get up early in the morning. I had to give up exercise. I knew, I just knew I had to give up for the next six months-- I had to take away something in my life in order to make this happen. And so I took away regular exercise. I had to fit it in on the weekends whenever I could, so I'd get up in the morning and instead of exercising I'd write for a couple of hours before I came to work, I'd work all day, and then at night I'd try to write for a couple of hours. And then that meant I also couldn't go out with my friends as often. So, I guess that's how I did it.

I recognize now, I've invested so much in my career in my 20s and now into my 30s… my career obviously is still important to me and I'm still very ambitious but I've come to a place where I'm very confident and comfortable with where I'm at that I've realized that now it's the other part of my life that I have to start focusing on. And that is the part that I can't give up anymore.

What was it like to work with another writer? How did you and Patty Fletcher divide the work?

Patty and I co-authored the first book; we outlined it and decided what chapters she wanted to write and decided what chapters I wanted to write. That really just came from our fathers, to be honest with you. Her dad is an accountant and because her dad handled all of her finances growing up she wanted to do all the tools and stuff because she wasn't as familiar the financial part of the book. I took those sections because I always had to do those things for myself and my dad is a carpenter so he always took care of the hammering and stuff for me so I didn't want to write that part, so it just kind of worked out that way for us.

We swapped chapters. I took on most of the editing just because that's been my background. She's a great voice for helping me speak to the real girl--sometimes I get into my head-- and so she'll say, I don't understand that, we need a different analogy here.

And then on the second book, I wrote it but I wanted her to stay on as kind of an editor, if you will-- a contributor-- because again, her voice is so valuable to me. First of all, she's a schoolteacher and I work in corporate America so having the balance of a broad range of careers was important to this book; having that kind of field represented was really important for this book, I thought… and that it reads well to the everyday girl.

And this actually goes back to the work style chapter-- my style is much more assertive.  Patty has her opinion; she knows when to say, "No, I really think we should do this." She was the one who said, "I really think you should have the resume section and cover letter section," and it was because of her that that was included in the book.  But in other parts, her work style was like, you know what, whatever you think-- that's fine. Her willingness to be flexible really helped our partnership. In writing it, I'd just e-mail her the chapters, I'd usually send her five at a time, and she's sit down and read over it. There were times she'd say, I think you need to look at how you've structured the negotiations chapter because I read it and it's confusing to me… and so I restructured it.

What kind of PR have you done for the book, especially in terms of working with a smaller publisher?

In my opinion, that's the hardest part of going with a small publishing company. In my experience, they don't have the resources to reach the mass audience and that's probably the biggest frustration for me, especially considering that's what I do for a living. And the marketing and the publicity resources. Fortunately, the company-- like I've said, they've been so great to work with-- hired on a publicist to try and pitch the book but it hasn't been kind of the success that I was hoping for. It's been average, but considering what I do for a living, I want more.

How has it been received at your day job, that you've written a book on the working world?

It's funny, this is partly why I've stayed at my company for eight years; they have been so supportive of me this entire time, with helping me to explore my own creative adventures. And that just partly comes from my boss-- I have an amazing boss and her boss is great, so they've been really supportive of me that way. You know, obviously, as long as it doesn't conflict with what I'm doing, it's no different than Jennifer Lopez who is an actress and a singer and whatever else. So it's kind of the same sensibility. And as far as the reaction, they've been so proud of me. They've offered to host book signings for me.

My most recent intern was a guy [who said], I couldn't help but notice you wrote this book for the working world; I went out and bought it this weekend and I've been reading it and basically, what you've written is a Bible on how to handle you.

I've had a couple of assistant level people who are supervising interns come to me and say, I had my intern go out and buy your book and she was reading about it. And the interns come to me and say, Omigosh, this is just like the best book ever, thank you so much, will you sign it? And I'm like, yeah, that's so weird, but thank you!

Amy Brozio-Andrews is a freelance writer and book reviewer. She brings more than five years' experience as a readers' advisory librarian to her work, which is regularly published by Library Journal, The Imperfect Parent, and Absolute Write. Her reviews have also been published by The Absinthe Literary Review, ForeWord Magazine, January Magazine, and Melt Magazine. Amy is also the managing editor and an international markets columnist for Absolute Write. Visit her online at http://www.amyba.com.

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