Jenny Lawson (aka the Bloggess) is an award-winning humor writer best known for her inspiring candor in sharing her struggle with depression, anxiety, and chronic pain. Her books Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Furiously Happy, You Are Here, and Broken are all New York Times bestsellers. She’s been writing her popular, award-winning blog for over 15 years and continues to write and speak openly about her struggles while celebrating her often hilarious victories.
In How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay, Lawson shares more than 100 humorous, heartfelt, and genuine tools and tricks that she relies on to keep her going even when her brain isn’t working properly due to depression, anxiety, and ADHD. With chapters like “Wash Your Brain More Than You Wash Your Bra” (sleep, you beautiful human), “Working on Easy Mode Is Still Working” (asking for accommodations is okay!), “Celebrate Good Times, Come On!” (make it a habit to celebrate the good things), and many more, How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay reminds us all that we are not alone.
When asked what contributed to the book landing on the New York Times bestseller list, Lawson said: “People are attracted to both the name and the topic, and I think this helped get some attention from places like Today Show, which I’ve never been asked to be on before.” She credited her publishing team for publicity support, and as an independent bookseller (Nowhere Bookshop in San Antonio, Texas), she also felt the support of her indie bookseller network played a role.
“There are so many influences that affect success, and so many are things that I don’t have control over,” she said. “For example, Broken (in the best possible way) is a book I’m so proud of, that had very high reviews, but it didn’t sell as well as my others.” (It came out during COVID, and there were other external factors.) “But when it comes to things I can change, I have realized that touring can be really helpful even if it’s just a few stops. I’ve learned the importance of a great book cover. … And I have continued to use blogging (and Substack and social media) to stay in contact with my readers and to test out new material.” Lawson started building her platform almost two decades ago with great success (including 16,000 Substack subscribers, 381k Threads followers, 204k on Facebook, and 168k on Instagram).
She advises other authors, “Make friends with others in your industry. The people I started blogging with 15 years ago are now some of the most influential and successful people, but more importantly, they are people who can help you stretch, listen to your complaints, and inspire you to keep going.”
E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. She writes dark speculative fiction for adults and teens, including her new release, a young adult dystopian novel titled Departures (August 10, 2021). When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the Fantasy+Girl Podcast. Learn more at her website.
