Ellen O’Clover: Publishing Is a Business, but Writing Is an Art
In this interview, author Ellen O’Clover discusses the real-life experience that helped inspire her new romance, If Not You.
Ellen O’Clover writes stories about love, identity, and belonging for both teens and adults. She grew up in Ohio and studied creative writing at the Johns Hopkins University before moving west to Colorado, where she lives in a little green house under a giant aspen tree with her rocket scientist husband and two perfect bulldogs. Follow her on Instagram.
In this interview, Ellen discusses the real-life experience that helped inspire her new romance, If Not You, her hope for readers, and more.
Name: Ellen O’Clover
Literary agent: Claire Friedman and Jessica Mileo, InkWell Management
Book title: If Not You
Publisher: Berkley/Penguin Random House
Release date: September 15, 2026
Genre/category: Contemporary romance
Previous titles: The Heartbreak Hotel, The Someday Daughter, Seven Percent of Ro Devereux
Elevator pitch: Rival copywriters with years of contentious history get stuck together on a month-long work trip as their advertising agencies compete on a career-defining pitch for a luxury resort brand.
What prompted you to write this book?
My first career was as an advertising copywriter, and right out of college I moved to Chicago to work at an enormous agency. It was a unique and emotionally rich experience: I was in an intern class with tons of other people my age, and all of us were figuring out how to be professionals (and adults, period!) for the first time. In the pressure cooker of tight deadlines and demanding clients, we bonded quickly.
Years later, I had an idea for a story about two copywriters who meet in an intern class like mine—fierce competitors and brilliant writers who only have one thing standing in the way of their success: each other. I was eager to write about professional envy, and the self-worth we derive from our work (for better or worse). And, of course, about what might happen when you’re so impressed by the way someone’s mind works that you just can’t get them out of yours.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I first shared the idea for If Not You with my agent in spring 2023, a few months after my debut YA novel, Seven Percent of Ro Devereux, came out. I wasn’t writing adult romance at the time (I was still working on my second YA, The Someday Daughter) but knew that I wanted to eventually.
Originally, I’d titled the pitch for this story Hard Copy, which makes me laugh now! I ended up developing a different idea for my adult romance debut, which became The Heartbreak Hotel and published with Berkley in 2025. But I mentioned this idea about rival copywriters to my Berkley editor during our very first conversation, and she loved it—at that time, I was calling it The Pitch. The story has largely stayed the same, though of course it has a third and final title: If Not You, which is the name of a pivotal ad campaign in the book.
From that very first mistitled pitch to publication, If Not You took about three and a half years.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I’m lucky that this is my second book with Berkley, and that I’m working with the same editorial, marketing, and publicity team as I did for The Heartbreak Hotel—a genuinely incredible and kind group of women. This has made a lot of the publishing process familiar, in a great way!
I did have a very specific idea for If Not You’s cover, and I’m surprised that my team took the (horrifically bad) sketch I sent to them as seriously as they did. We all trusted the vision! Lila Selle, the cover artist, did an astonishing job translating my chaotic sketch into the gorgeous final cover, which is so cinematic!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
If Not You majors in my favorite romance trope: rivals to lovers. I knew it would be sharp and sparring, full of banter and angst. After writing The Heartbreak Hotel, which explores a lot of pain and grief alongside love and healing, I was eagerly anticipating the fun of writing a rivalry.
But I was surprised by the achier things my characters wanted to tell me—especially Mattie, the heroine. Underneath her prickliness, she’s really so scared that if she can’t finally beat Campbell, the hero, it might mean she’s worthless. Her sense of self is so tied to her work. I loved writing the rivalry between Mattie and Campbell, but writing the tenderness between them once they finally excavate each other turned out to be the real joy of this project.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope readers will take from If Not You all the things I love most about the romance genre: joy, and comfort, and a renewed belief in the goodness that comes from human beings caring desperately about one another.
Also, I hope, some solace about envy and self-worth. Because Mattie has this idea that Campbell is so much more successful than her, she’s built him up into sort of a bogeyman. He’s a walking embodiment of her failures by comparison. But Campbell’s only a person, with his own pain and fears. There’s so much to gain when she finally sees him as he is: forgiveness and compassion for Campbell but also for herself. Love, obviously. I hope readers close If Not You reminded that to envy is to be human. But that we are all only people finding our way through, and that we don’t gain anything—not anything—by thinking badly of ourselves.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Protect your magic. The feeling you get from having a good writing day, or from unsnarling a plot tangle, or from catching an unexpected flash of inspiration—that’s the stuff. Publishing is a business, but writing is an art, and the more you can keep those separate in your mind, the happier you’ll be. There will be inevitable disappointments on the business side of the equation, because no one makes it out of this entirely unscathed by rejection! It’s just part of it. But if you’re creating things you love, if you’re telling stories you’re proud of—nothing can take that magic from you. It’s no small thing, just to write something at all. I think it’s really the biggest thing, all on its own.
