Jennifer Romolini: Surround Yourself with Good People

Jennifer Romolini is an author and podcast host. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, ELLE, Fast Company, Vogue, and many others. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

In this interview, Jennifer discusses the raw honesty in her new memoir, Ambition Monster, her hope for readers, and more!

Name: Jennifer Romolini
Literary agent: Nicole Tourtelot
Book title: Ambition Monster
Publisher: Atria Books
Release date: June 4, 2024
Genre/category: Memoir
Elevator pitch: Drinking: A Love Story meets Uncanny Valley, a deeply personal addiction memoir centered around workaholism and the connection between ambition and childhood trauma.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I hadn’t seen the raw, honest book about work that I wanted to read; about the all-consuming nature of ambition and its origins, an anti-hustle book about burnout from a different POV, exploring class and how childhood trauma seeps into so much of our careers; the truth about “dream jobs” and the lies we’re sold about conventional success.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I’d been thinking about writing a book about ambition since 2016 and finally got the nerve to put together a proposal in 2020. My first (not great!) instinct for this book was something called, “Big F*ck-Off Energy: A Career Guide for When You’re Out of F*cks,” which tells you a lot about my headspace at the time. That proposal was rejected wholesale but an editor called and said, “I like your writing style, if you were willing to retool this proposal, make this more of a literary memoir/a personal excavation, I’d be willing to take a second look.” We were still heavy in the pandemic, I was in no shape for the kind of emotional toil a truly honest memoir requires, but I tried writing a few sample chapters and I liked the way they sounded, and when we sent out the second proposal, editors did too.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I’ve been writing professionally for decades, but I’d never really understood the value of pushing yourself through an ongoing revision process. Over the course of 18 months, I revised and revised and revised this book. My first draft was clean and “good,” but the book we’re publishing is the best work I’ve ever done.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I’ve always been a self-deprecating writer who used a lot of humor and jazz-handy sentences to tell my tales, but the deeper, more painful subject matter of Ambition Monster left me with few of my old tricks to hide behind. I had to relearn how to write without always making a joke. The result is more direct and raw, which was painful but cathartic.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

My goal is to make people reimagine the traditional ways we’ve been taught to think about success. I hope readers — particularly women — feel seen in this book.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Persistence! I’d been thinking about this book for nearly a half a decade, my first proposal didn’t sell, and I wrote 14 drafts of the second proposal before my agent felt it was ready to take out. Also: Surround yourself with good people who care about you personally and want to see you succeed.