Still Aspiring Superstar: The Part Where It Gets Complicated with Sophia Chang Part 2
She wants a book deal badly. Here's what's standing in the way.
Standout Reinventions is where I document what starting over actually looks like from my move to Costa Rica, to the memoir I’m writing about it, and the conversations with creatives who’ve reinvented themselves too.
Sophia is speaking at the Book Finishers Summit on June 25 — Day 1 (available at 8am ET)!
Lights, Camera, Character! The Actor’s Guide to Writing Unforgettable Characters. An on-demand workshop with FREE cheatsheet.
In Part 1, Sophia Chang talked about MOG antibody disease, Harry Potter smut, and why being yourself is the only filter that matters.
Part 2 is where it where the reinvention gets complicated — the book deal she wants badly, the gurus she’s done with, and what it actually costs to start from zero when you’ve already done it before.
Highlights
Wanting something badly doesn’t make it easy.
Sophia doesn’t pretend the path has been clean.
“I want a book deal so badly. I run into that conflict every single day, every word I write.”
She’s on her seventh novel. She has an agent. A Reese’s Book Club fellowship. Her last query had a 100% request rate. By every measurable standard, she’s at the top of her game.
And she still doesn’t have the deal.
So she asks herself three questions every time: Is it timing? Is it the market? Or do I suck?
She can only control one of those three. So that’s where she puts her energy.
Selling herself was easy, staying not so much.
Sophia can sell. That’s not in question.
She got a diversity scholarship to a counseling psych program. Left. Got a full ride to journalism school in New York. Left that too — after getting so sick from carrying 50-pound cameras as a 5’2” woman with no help that she coughed up blood.
What she took from all of it wasn’t failure. It was proof of concept.
She founded Wise Child Admissions Coaching, got kids into Ivy League schools early, landed a client a $100K scholarship. All because she knew how to get in the room.
“Huge part of traditional publishing — and self-publishing in a different way — is selling. And boy can I sell, baby.”
But she also learned something the pitch workshops don’t tell you.
Getting in the room doesn’t mean they’ll let you stay.
“People over-focus on selling because that’s easy to sell. Pitch workshops. But once you get that foot in the door, it doesn’t mean they’ll allow you to stay in the room.”
“Follow your bliss” is advice from people who can already pay their bills.
Sophia spent thousands on life coaches and guru programs that told her to redefine success.
“Stay away from that whole redefine success thing until you’re actually making money. And then you can start spouting that BS.”
She’s not abstract about it. She has infusion treatments every four weeks. Real bills. Real stakes.
“Only the top people making six figures off their Substack paid subscribers are going ‘follow your bliss, redefine success, stay in your own lane.’ I just want to be like: shut up.”
And the gendered version of it bothers her just as much. Gary Vee drops F-bombs and gives it to you straight. The woo-woo female version wraps the same advice in soft new age language and sells it to women at a premium.
Her actual advice: get your Maslow’s hierarchy first. Then talk about bliss.
The algorithm is a fickle beast.
Sophia came back to Substack after six years off social media because publishers wanted to see a platform. Not because she wanted to be there.
“I would love to go back to the writing cave — ignore my best friends for a week — but I don’t feel like I can do that anymore.”
She has 15 days to three weeks before she drops out of the Apple and YouTube algorithms. The pressure is real and it pulls directly against the deep uninterrupted writing she does best.
She’s not pretending that tension doesn’t exist. She’s just living inside it and figuring it out in real time.
That’s what reinvention actually looks like from the inside.
Starting from zero is hard even when you’ve done it before.
Sophia has reinvented herself enough times to have a method. She calls it scorched earth: new website, new branding, new taglines, clean slate.
“I need that tabula rasa.”
She had a list of 500 to 600 people from a previous life in new-age astrology and life coaching. Lost it while she was blind and in a wheelchair. And then her ESP shut down her account.
“Constantly feeling like I’m Sisyphus and I’m back at the bottom of the hill pushing that damn boulder up all over again.”
She’s not sure scorched earth is the right method. But half-starts don’t work for her. She needs the blank slate before she can build.
Don’t blame yourself for starting over from scratch. That’s just how some people work.
Your darkest feelings are pointing at something.
Sophia doesn’t care about being positive. She wants you to be honest.
“Bitterness and spite and jealousy have been huge motivators for me. Just being so frustrated at my circumstances and then writing my way through that has fueled some of the most honest writing.”
Your darkest feelings are pointing at something.
“If you can radically accept all of yourself and all of your feelings, then you can accept all of your character’s feelings. And that will make you a stronger writer.”
Closing Reflection
Sophia Chang is proof that rock bottom is just a starting point. Aerial acrobat. Wheelchair. Harry Potter smut. Reese’s Book Club fellow.
She’s still aspiring for superstar status. Getting there had nothing to do with being palatable. It had everything to do with refusing to stop.
Got a reinvention story of your own? Leave it in the comments.
Thank you Tomesha Campbell, Steena Hernandez, Meli’s World: Songs & Sketches, and many others for tuning into my live video with Sophia Chang!
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This really captures the reality of traditional publishing-the waiting, the uncertainty, and the in-between. Cheering you on, Sophia. 💖