--- title: "Melissa Ferguson: A Single Inspiring Moment Sparks a Lifelong Bestselling Career" url: "https://authoritymag.co/articles/melissa-ferguson-a-single-inspiring-moment-sparks-a-lifelong-bestselling-career" publisher: "Authority Magazine" author: "Ming S. Zhao" authorUrl: "https://authoritymag.co/authors/ming-s-zhao" interviewee: "Melissa Ferguson" category: "Pop Culture" datePublished: "2022-08-24T10:48:15.934Z" dateModified: "2026-11-12T17:07:40.949Z" tags: "Pop Culture" --- # Melissa Ferguson: A Single Inspiring Moment Sparks a Lifelong Bestselling Career *Bestselling author Melissa Ferguson shares her incredible journey from writing in an extended-stay hotel to seeing her face displayed across six screens at Target.* > And the second. And third. And fourth. I read them in a few short days and one day shortly afterward I was in a grocery store when I saw a girl standing at a Redbox picking out a movie, and what was on her neck? A vampire tattoo with a clear reference to Twilight. --- As*a part of our series about*[Nashville’s rising stars](https://medium.com/authority-magazine/search?q=Meet%20Nashville%27s%20Rising%20Stars)*, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Melissa Ferguson.* *Bestselling author Melissa Ferguson lives in Tennessee, where she enjoys chasing her children and writing romantic comedies full of humor and heart. Her favorite hobby is taking friends and acquaintances and turning them into characters in her books without their knowledge. Connect with her (and prepare for the possibility of becoming her next character) at melissaferguson.com; Instagram: @our_friendly_farmhouse; TikTok: @ourfriendlyfarmhouse.* --- **Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?** Sure! I’m the only child of my mother who is a court reporter and was a single mom for most of my childhood. We moved from Jacksonville, Florida to Virginia after she heard about the great schools (and I heard there was real, live snow.) I played the harp in an ensemble starting in third grade which was quite the adventure. I always loved reading — -to the point that my sixth-grade language arts teacher let me sit in the hall during class and read on my own as I always finished my book assignment ahead of time. It wasn’t until I was graduating with my master’s degree at twenty-four that I first thought of writing my own stories. But the day I started writing, I couldn’t stop. **Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?** I just finished graduate school, and my husband and I were planning to move to Knoxville when he was told last minute he was needed to do a short construction management job in Ohio. I had the option to go ahead down to Knoxville or travel with him for the weeks that he would be in Ohio. I chose to go with him but once there quickly discovered that we would be living in an Extended Stay beside a Walmart off the interstate and I had very little money, no job, no purpose in seeking a job for such a short stay, no friends, and not even a kitchen to cook in. I had nothing to do while he was working twelve-hour shifts. And then one day I saw a bit of the Twilight movie on television before my husband got home from work. I couldn’t get the twenty minutes worth of story out of my mind and eventually I walked over to the Walmart and bought the book. And the second. And third. And fourth. I read them in a few short days and one day shortly afterward I was in a grocery store when I saw a girl standing at a Redbox picking out a movie, and what was on her neck? A vampire tattoo with a clear reference to Twilight. In that moment I thought, “Meyers was so impactful that she has literally reached around the world with her story, to the point, even, that this girl would do that.” And then I thought, “I wonder if I could write a story with adventure and a meaningful message? Why not . . . try?” I will never forget opening my laptop on that hotel bed and writing my first words. I had no idea what I was doing, but sure enough, I became addicted. Shortly after I told my husband, “I think I’ve stumbled into something here, and I think I’m never going to stop.” **Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?** I’m not sure it was the most interesting but when *The Cul-de-Sac War*came out Target asked me to make a video sharing the book for their stores. A video production team came and filmed at my in-laws’ house and when it released, I went with my sister-in-law to Target and saw my face on the big screen. Actually, my face was on 6 big screens. Right in the middle of Target. Right before President Obama and after Taylor Swift. It was the most surreal experience. **Can you share with us an interesting story about living in Nashville?** I live a few hours from Nashville, but as my publisher is in town I go on occasion and I tell you, when I go it seems that something happens there that inevitably ends up in my next book. Once when I went to visit my publisher I begged and begged my editor and marketing manager to go line dancing with me (which was met with a hard no, several times). I ended up going with another friend, and sure enough, the scene ended up in my latest book, *Meet Me in the Margins.* There is a quirky, slightly creepy character who is an author and ends up getting his editor to line dance with him (before being saved by the charming boss hero) at the saloon I went to in real life that night. Everyone thinks I write stories and resonate with the main characters but in reality, in that story at least, I’m side quirky character ! **Can you share with us a few of the best parts of living in Nashville? We’d love to hear some specific examples or stories about that.** My favorite spots in Nashville are Parnassus Bookstore (which also made its way in a couple scenes into *Meet Me in the Margins*) and my publishing house. I like to buy a book for my children or myself in every town I visit as my form of souvenir and *The Hug Machine*for my children is a sweet book I bought for my twin toddlers and newborn once at Parnassus when I visited. I highly recommend the tradition! **Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?** When I went to my first writer’s conference, I was terrified. I also drove through the night to Philly with twin newborns and went straight to the conference to pitch with zero sleep, so I was also a little bit delirious. Anyway, we were supposed to have these elevator pitches ready to go whenever anyone like an agent or editor at a publishing house asked what our book was about. This man who was the head of a publishing company was sitting in the lobby and he turned to me at one point and said, “So, what’s your book about?” And I panicked. I absolutely froze like those characters in romcoms where you, the reader, yell at them, “C’mon! This is so unbelievable! Just speak!” And yet, that was me. I said, “It’s . . . about a girl.” That’s it. Just. A girl. I drove hundreds of miles for this incredibly important moment to say my book was about *a girl*. Anyway, bless him, he studied me for a second, his eyes crinkled in empathy, and he slipped a business card out of his back pocket saying, “You know what? Just email me.” It was incredibly gracious (and incredibly hilarious looking back). **None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?** I think I’d have to say I’m grateful for my husband and his family. For the first year I wrote I didn’t have a job and for several years afterward I worked part-time teaching ESL to adult immigrants. Even though we didn’t have a dime (in fact, we lived with his parents for a year paying off school debts), neither he nor his parents ever encouraged me to stop pursuing writing. They were incredibly supportive and would read my earliest (i.e., shabbiest) drafts even when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. My in-laws would babysit the twins when they were newborns so I could write and didn’t laugh at me and my writing dreams despite having nothing to show for it for a long, long time. They all cheered me on, always. And for that, I’ll be forever thankful. **What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?** Currently I’m in line edits for my next standalone novel, *Famous for a Living*, that comes out May 2023. I have had the incredibly bizarre experience the past two years of building up a social media presence to about 400,000 followers now, and in the process, I’ve seen the underbelly of social media and all the wildly wonderful, horrible, and chaotic aspects of the world. I am thrilled to write the story about an influencer who gets flung to a national park in Montana and sharing some of the little secrets I’ve experienced and/or am learning along the way. I hope people enjoy the rom/com as much as I did writing it! **What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.** Oh, I get this question all the time! First, attend a writer’s conference before you finish your first manuscript. In fact, attend a writer’s conference before you have even started writing your first manuscript. A reliable writer’s conference with successful authors, editors, and publishers in your field of interest is *worth the investment.*I spent four years writing my first novel, and when I finally finished and edited it a hundred times and thought, “*Now it’s ready!*” I went to my first writer’s conference. And when I sat down with the agent and slid my proposal over, he looked at the first line and said, “Your manuscript is 147,000 words. You’re going to have to cut that to 90,000. Immediately.” I had no idea about the rules of traditional publishing and turns out, they didn’t care that “my book was special so of course it could break a few rules” (the thought many of us have!). So, my biggest tip is to **get to a writer’s conference**before that book is finished, and my second tip is like the first with some distinct differences: just plain *get to a writer’s conference.* People tell me all the time that writer’s conferences are too expensive or far away but let me tell you, we didn’t have *any money*and I had newborn twins when I went to that first writer’s conference and it was, bar none, the most important thing I ever did. I will never forget driving from ten o’clock at night with my husband up to Philly and then quite literally stepping out of the car at seven thirty in the morning to try and pitch my heart out to anyone in the industry who would listen. I snuck out of classes or pitch sessions every three hours to meet my husband in an empty room to nurse my twins. I was absolutely exhausted and living on coffee and adrenaline and dreams. I was ridiculed by the head of the conference in front of everyone for an apparently “stupid question” during Q&A time. I was ridiculed by a teacher for my proposal and how apparently horrible it was. I was turned down by multiple agents during the fifteen-minute pitch interviews. I was incredibly fragile and tired and rejected and knew next to nothing but was trying my best. But you know what? At the very end of the conference, they gave out an award for the best manuscript. I was sitting in the back of the room wearing my newborn son in a wrap. And I will never forget the pounding in my heart as I heard the speaker reading the first lines of my book over the microphone. *My book.*I’ll never forget the flush of my cheeks and how I kept thinking, “No. Surely *not*.” Or how I stood, eleven-week-old strapped on and everything, and moved on stage to shake hands and receive a check and smile for the camera. And I’ll absolutely *never*forget how one agent who flat out rejected me just hours prior in a private pitch session hovered around afterward and said, “So. You’re going to send me your manuscript, right?” He said it with such assurance, as though that was how our meeting went. I said, “I don’t . . . I thought . . . I don’t have your card.” And he brandished it for me as if I’d misplaced my first. From there, I got my first agent. Which led eventually to my first three-book book deal with my dream publisher. Doors *open*at writer’s conferences. Even though they are scary, even though it’s*so* hard, go. My third tip would be to accept rejection — it’s just par for the course! We all experience it. Most of us experience it *a lot*. I faced dozens of rejections before my first yes. And really, each no has only made me appreciate each yes more. My fourth tip is to not take every person’s “rule” as the standard rule for everyone. I heard a lot of “rules” about publishing in my time and am still untangling the ones that are just personal preferences vs hard facts. Remember to take someone’s opinion with a grain of salt — even those of editors or agents! Experience things for yourself and you’ll learn along the way what to pay attention to. And my fifth tip is to *just keep writing.*I spent four years writing my first book and another three trying to get someone to publish that book (hint: it’s still unpublished). I adored that story and dealt with rejection after rejection over it and was afraid to move on to another book before getting that one out. But once I did, once I moved on and wrote another story, things started to go my way. It was actually my third book that was contracted; the first two are collecting dust. But I learned from them and hope one day to dust them off, edit them with the eyes I have now for the industry, and see them into the world. But don’t stop writing while you wait on that one to do something. Keep moving. Keep writing. **Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?** Pick your 2–3 priorities and don’t be afraid to say no to anything else, no matter how important it seems. Step away from writing if you want to for a season to refresh and get perspective. Don’t compare yourself to other authors on social media; in fact, if this is a temptation, just don’t follow or look at their accounts. Remember that readers read more than one book and another author’s success doesn’t mean anything about your failure. You can and should be thrilled for their success, just as you hope they would be for you! Befriend a few fellow authors along the way — *not*for the sake of networking as though they are merely props in the play that is your life, but because the support and comradery of fellow writers is unlike anything else. They are real people who are going through the same things you are and in this writing world where very few if any around us understand what it’s like, *they*get it. Those relationships are incredibly special. **You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)** I say all the time: If I were the President, I would find a way to declare that property owners needed to keep a certain percentage (say, 50%?) of their land for natural landscape. How wonderful and healthy would it be if people had a certain quota of trees they had to have or keep on their property? My latest romcom is about an influencer who heads to a small national park in Montana (and is completely overwhelmed, but that’s beside the point), and I intend to set aside a certain amount from each book sold to One Tree Planted — a company dedicated to reforestation you can read about here: [https://onetreeplanted.org](https://onetreeplanted.org) . **Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?** I can’t think of a favorite life lesson quote, but I will tell you one I was repeating just the other day. *Work smarter, not harder.*For me, I’ve seen this quote in action several times. After I had written my first novel and was trying desperately to get an agent and a publishing house to publish it, I did everything. I cold queried dozens of agents via email. I submitted my manuscript to every writer’s contest I could find that remotely related to my genre. And in an effort to build up my proposal (a package of information sent to agents or editors with everything about you and your manuscript), I drove four hours each week to lead this small group of fellow aspiring writers. Somehow, I thought that having “President of such and such infinitesimally small and inexperienced club” would make a difference to a publisher or agent looking at my proposal. But you know what? They didn’t care. Nobody cared that I hauled my infant twins and newborn baby into a van each Monday night to drive for hours and drop them off with grandparents just to chat with a tiny group of five ladies about our publishing woes. What did agents and editors care about? My manuscript. And my efforts at growing a social media presence that could actually move the needle. That was all. I wasted so much time on sweet but empty conversations (we were a bit like the blind leading the blind, unfortunately) and all the time I kept thinking, “*This is so hard. Surely that means it’s meaningful and matters.*” In reality, I should’ve just spent the time writing more books. And the same goes with cold querying agents. I should’ve just skipped that long, tedious, and unsuccessful step and spent a weekend at a writer’s conference. I’ve learned and continue to have to remind myself daily that work doesn’t mean meaningful work. Sometimes it’s just busyness. Work smarter, not harder. **Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)** I would absolutely love to have breakfast with the romcom author Sophie Kinsella. Though we differ in that I write romantic comedies that are of the *You’ve-Got-Mail-they-kiss-in-the-end* variety, and she has more spice, her writing style is my absolute favorite. Her wit and character development and humor are the *very*best (to the point I called my editor up after listening to her latest book and begging my editor for a British audiobook narrator for my next novel, *Famous for a Living*. She kept repeating that my next book takes place in Montana. I kept telling her that was irrelevant. ) **How can our readers follow you online?** I’d love for any readers to join my newsletter at melissaferguson.com and/or on Instagram or TikTok at @ourfriendlyfarmhouse! **This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!** --- Source: https://authoritymag.co/articles/melissa-ferguson-a-single-inspiring-moment-sparks-a-lifelong-bestselling-career (Authority Magazine, Pop Culture). Interviewee answers are first-person statements of the guest. Index of all pages: https://authoritymag.co/llms.txt