Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an NYC author and I’ve written five books, but only my last 2 books were under my real name. I published my first book when I was 17, and then quickly published 2 more under different pseudonyms.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled The Ultimate Secrets of Intelligence. I wrote it because I’ve never seen anything like it and I feel that people need a guide to confront their ignorance. There are also so many misconceptions about intelligence that I wanted to both clarify and prove wrong, so I hope it shows people that intelligence isn’t something that a select group of people are born with, but rather something that is quite fun to obtain.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My unusual writing habit is that I never have a specific plan with how I’m going to write something, I just always wing it. What I end up with is always a huge contrast from what I thought I would end up with at the beginning.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wallace Wattles has influenced my entire work ethic, as well as writers like Adam Grant and the classics like Hemingway & King.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on promoting The Ultimate Secrets of Intelligence, getting it distributed in the NYC bookstores, my future book launch, and publishing my personal essays online through indie blogs, literary magazines, journals and more!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t think there’s one best way, but rather the best way is to be open-minded toward all of the ways. The larger you distribute and more you expand your book, the more successful!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice would be to not care about the money or the statistics, just write the book you’d want to see on the shelf and don’t care about whether or not people support you in that writing. Once you make it public, people will not think of you as a polite person anymore, but that’s a sign that you’ve spoken your truth.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice (especially for writers) is to know that failure is the default. Once you know that failure will happen to you 99 out of 100 times, you’ll produce 100 essays and the 100th will be famous, while the other 99% of people probably gave up before their 50th try. Rejection gets rid of everything irrelevant, and writers should learn to ignore anyone that says no to them and continue on their relentless way, as well as take any feedback to help them improve their work for the future.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading Adam Grant’s “Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success” and I’m really into Ryan Serhant’s “Sell It Like Serhant.” Both of these books are completely different, but their underlying themes help me to build my ongoing work ethic.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a book launch coming up, as well as my book The Ultimate Secrets of Intelligence will be on shelves throughout NYC’s Shakespeare and Co. I’m also going to be distributing a lot of personal essays and shorter works.
What is your favorite book of all time?
My favorite book of all time, and the best book of all time, is The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles.