Former KLIO Stars Forge Their Own Paths to Publishing

Apr 14, 2022 | Blog, Interviews, Where Are They Now?

By Dana Lynch, Webmaster ~

Chloe Cullen, courtesy of Instagram.

Laura Nejako, courtesy of Instagram.

When I joined the KLIO staff and scrolled through past issues, two names stuck out to me: Chloe Cullen and Laura Nejako. These two BA/MA students and friends graduated together in 2019, and in their time as students at Penn State, they published many works of fiction and nonfiction in both KLIO and Kalliope. As I read through their works, as well as previous KLIO feature articles about them, I discovered that they are insanely talented and hardworking people.

But I couldn’t shake the questions I had for them. Where are they now? What have they done since leaving Penn State? How have their passions changed?

Over the past month, I had the pleasure of interviewing and getting to know each of these wonderful women writers. And they shared a lot of insight on their English studies and the field of creative writing, as well as how their adult lives have changed since leaving school, but I discovered one thing each of them has worked on recently that changed their lives the most: publishing books.

Chloe Cullen published “Perf” in August 2021 and has recently made it to the BookLife Prize Quarterfinals for their nonfiction contest. She wrote this book as a commentary on Perfectionism, American culture, and the mainstream media. She didn’t write it to be a self-help book, nor a memoir, but rather an informative relatable book that has something for everyone. To get this book to become a reality, she used IndieGoGo to kickstart her dream which had 241 backers, gathering $9,765 towards her publishing.

When I asked her about the initial inspiration she said, “I wanted to write essays but had no proper direction. I wanted to write about high school and stand-up comedy and maybe even cooking shows.” The research rabbithole of internet videos and interviews was her favorite part about writing the book. But what really sparked the idea was her constant comparisons of herself onto others. It was the one voice that stood out amongst the rest while she did anything, constantly wishing she was better or working harder than the person next to her even though she was already doing an amazing job and succeeding in multiple feats. “Perf: The Unspoken Flaws in a ‘Perfect’ Culture” can be purchased through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Laura Nejako is currently working toward publishing and releasing her first book, also nonfiction, titled “Let’s Become Strangers,” which will be released in October 2022. The pre-sale period launched last month and continues through the end of April. She has plans for a release party in State College at the Art Alliance when the book drops. She has currently raised $3.4 thousand dollars for her book through the kickstarter platform IndieGoGo, the same kickstarter as Cullen used.

Her book is a collection of humorous essays about living in the in-between world of a twenty-something year old. According to her website, “Essays in this collection include dating horror stories, pandemic beauty routines, and one dog’s arduous journey towards making friends at daycare.” Nejako has loved humor writing since she was in the BA/MA program at Penn State, but strayed away from it from the guidance and advice of older authors. Finally as an adult, she is freeing herself and conquering the “behemoth” she knows as humor-writing. She notes that she values the genre as one that “thrives on connection between people.” Like Cullen’s book, Nejako’s is not a memoir, as it’s not really about Nejako, but instead is about those close and not close to her. She took interactions, even small encounters when she might have had only one interaction with a person, and transformed these into lessons and laughable memories to reflect upon.

Let’s Become Strangers Funding

The completely new journey toward publishing wasn’t easy for either of them. They both decided to use hybrid publishing through New Degree Press, which bills itself as “community- owned and community-driven publishing,” something that is still very new to the industry. Hybrid publishing is relatively similar to the normal model of publishing. A publisher and writer sign a contract together and the publisher offers resources to the writer for a fee. The real difference though is that there is financial risk to the writer, whereas traditional publishing alleviates all the risk. The author takes on all marketing feats and outreach as well, but above all they still own all the rights to their book, something that most traditional publishing companies take. According to Nejako, this one of the main reasons she jumped on the bandwagon after Cullen, since owning her book’s rights were very important to her.

The two writers and friends have supported each other on their publishing journeys, acting as readers, cheerleaders, promoters, and sounding boards for each other. For instance, Nejako wrote the following blurb for Cullen’s book: “Chloe Cullen’s Perf refutes the notion of perfection through self-reflective anecdotes and candor. This is a book that will make you empathize, wonder, and change. Cullen’s revelations will leave you wanting to know how she managed to move beyond her own perfectionist crisis into a woman willing to be flawed so that you might begin to do the same.” And Nejako hosted a video virtual reading and Q&A to celebrate the publication launch of “Perf.”

 Using social media as marketing for their books was a new endeavor for them. Originally only used as a form to stay in contact with friends and catching up with people, it now turned into the main form of finding attention for their books and their publishing journeys. They both created new public accounts for their writing journey, and stay active, posting information about their books, the books they enjoy, their pets, thoughts on the process of publishing, and more. Cullen even posts on her personal blog, a website filled with shorts and updates on her life, successes, rejections, and heartbreaks. I highly recommend checking out their journey so far and reading their pieces that are published on KLIO — all of them timeless and powerful.

Nejako’s dog, helping write “Let’s Become Strangers.”

Cullen’s Links:

    1. Deb’s Diner
    2. Girl Meets World

Nejako’s Links:

    1. The Nature Of Love
    2. The Gringo Lingo
    3. My Neighborhood
    4. I Let
    5. The Nobody of the Planet

 

Dana Lynch is a computer science and English double major at the Pennsylvania State University. She is currently the KLIO webmaster, president of the Google Developer Student Club on campus and an avid writer. She hopes to someday escape the desk job lifestyle and write fiction for a living. For now, she can be found buried underneath coding projects and writing submissions at a State College local coffee shop near you.

Share this post:

Share on WhatsApp Share on SMS