I Wrote For Star Wars Insider, and I'd Do It Again
In fact, I think I will.
There are some things in life that are too good to be true. And there are other things in life that are so good you can hardly believe they’ve actually happened—even when they have.
Star Wars Insider #225 released earlier this week, and I’m honored to have been one of the contributors in this month’s issue. Seeing your name attached to something published never really stops being cool, but I don’t often get to see mine in traditional print. I still technically haven’t, but I will as soon as many local Barnes & Noble has its copies in.
It’s quite surreal. Like, I did that. I remember doing it. Those are many of my words. But it really does feel like a dream. I wanted to use this week’s Friday newsletter to talk about that — about writing for the official Star Wars magazine, but also about why I’m making an effort to really celebrate it.
How Star Wars Interviews Get Made
One weird thing about being a journalist is that there’s not much time to celebrate having a pitch accepted before you actually have to start working on it. I didn’t actually think my pitch about interviewing John Jackson Miller would get picked up on my first try, but it happened — and then I had to very quickly (the same day) begin the process of scheduling and preparing for the actual interview.
I spent a few weeks researching John’s career and rereading every Star Wars book he’d written thus far. Something the interview itself doesn’t tell you is that despite us talking about The Living Force, I hadn’t read it yet. Very few people had. We talked at the beginning of November; the book came out at the beginning of April.
So I had to do a little guessing about the contents of the book when writing my interview questions. It’s a small part of the final article, but as someone who’s used to having the book already in front of them when coming up with questions for authors, I was — I’ll admit it — extremely intimidated.
That’s in addition to the fact that even though I’d talked to John on my podcast before, it had been a very long time since I’d done a long-form Q&A interview. And with John Jackson Miller!! I told him before I started recording that I was nervous, and he told me not to be. It helped a little. Eventually.
I ended up turning the final draft in on November 30 — exactly five months before it would appear on newsstands. I now know what it feels like to have done something cool that you can’t talk about for MONTHS. Even after signing and invoicing and confirming everything was good to go, it was still a few months until initial previews finally came out last week and I could AT LAST talk about my article.
And now that it’s out in the world … I’m trying, as best as I can, to celebrate.
It’s Kind of a Big Deal
My mom called me earlier this week, while standing in Barnes & Noble, to tell me she’d found the magazine and couldn’t believe my name was in it. I have thousands of bylines online, I’ve been writing online since my first-ever blog post in 2009. But it’s rare for me to see my name in print — it’s only happened a handful of times. It’s special. It’s kind of a big deal.
You don’t just wake up one morning, decide you want to write for Star Wars Insider, and then do it. It’s a more complicated process — I’ll touch more on that below. This was years in the making for me. I had almost never written about Star Wars on the internet until 2018 (I honestly didn’t know people were doing that). I started writing Star Wars articles and guides for free, then for not much money. I wrote book review after book review until people started reading them. That wasn’t enough, so I became the lead editor of a Star Wars fan site, and started a podcast about Star Wars books.
And now I’m here. It’s impossible to say whether one of these things in particular got me connected with the “right” people. What matters, at least right now, is that it happened, and the hours of work that I put into it is finally available for other people to read.
There are so many times throughout your hobby or career when you’ll start to wonder if everything you’re putting into it is actually going to pay off. In so many cases, it will — but almost never in the ways you expected.
So I’ll do something this weekend to celebrate having done something very cool. When I do it again, I’m sure I’ll celebrate again — though now, at least, I know not to expect my local bookstore to have it on sale the day it comes out.
How to Get Published in Star Wars Insider
I know you’re wondering. I, too, once wondered.
You’re not going to like my answer, but here it is: Luck. Luck, persistence, and networking. In journalism, who you know is more important than just about anything. The connections you have with those inside and adjacent to your industry, no matter how big or small, are your map to the key that may or may not unlock the door.
Networking can happen anywhere, and while going to conventions (like Star Wars Celebration) is a great way to meet the right people, it isn’t the only way. It’s certainly not the most affordable way. I’ve only ever been to two cons in my life. So how did I get here?
Social media can also be your gateway. I met people online, which led to me seeking out other opportunities (writing, podcasting), which put me in touch with people I could talk to about finding more opportunities on an official front. I said what my goals were, and I was told what I needed to do in order to potentially achieve those goals.
I did those things, and on personal recommendation, I had the chance to pitch ideas to Star Wars Insider. And I did that twice—even at the door, I had to try a few times to make my way inside.
Long story short: There isn’t necessarily one simple path to get you here. You have to not only want it, but also be willing to do sometimes years of work to even have the opportunity in front of you. Plus, you have to go into it knowing how to pitch, how to interview (if that’s what you want to pitch), and how to tell a good story.
It may seem a bit unfair to say that being a Star Wars fan alone isn’t enough to automatically grant you access to opportunities like these. But this is paid work, and therefore there are some prerequisites.
I genuinely hope that anyone who genuinely wants this opportunity will find a way to carve out their own path toward achieving it. I’m happy to go into more detail about the work I did in the five years between first writing about Star Wars and having this pitch accepted if that would help some of you. I want you to succeed, but there are also unwritten rules we’re all following here. Those who deserve it will find a way to earn it, and I will try to help however I can.
Thank you, sincerely, to everyone who, even in small ways, helped me achieve something I’d dreamed about for years. Even listening to the podcast and reading this newsletter has made a difference. We don’t achieve things like these on our own. We put in the work, but even that isn’t always enough without the support of others.
I’m so proud of our interview. You can order a copy of Star Wars Insider 225 and check it out for yourself. There’s a lot of other good stuff in there too — it’s worth your dollars.
I hope you’ll continue reading and listening to my work. I have so much further to go, but I’ve come so far already — and I never, ever want to forget that.
Now This Is Lit is a podcast (and newsletter!) about Star Wars books, the people who make them, and the readers who just can’t get enough of them. You can find the show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the Substack for more deep dives, guides, interview transcripts, and book love.
More From Now This Is Lit