Colleen Hoover went from a low-wage social work job to one of the best-selling novelists alive, and she's blunt about what got her there. Her advice to new writers keeps circling back to one idea: write for yourself first.
Write the Book You Want to Read
Hoover's core piece of advice is also her simplest. Write what you'd actually want to pick up yourself, and don't try to reverse-engineer a bestseller from what's selling this quarter.
Write the book that you want to read. Write the book that's in your heart.
Colleen Hoover
She's especially wary of chasing trends. As she's pointed out, whatever is hot right now won't be by the time you finish your manuscript, so writing toward a fad is a losing game. She'd rather follow the idea that genuinely excites her, which is part of why her own catalog jumps across romance, thriller, and young adult. She pairs this with a reminder that reading feeds writing. The more you read, she's suggested, the more you absorb structure, character, and voice without even trying.
Her own story backs the advice up. She wrote her debut, Slammed, in 2012 with no plan to become famous, self-published it while working as a social worker, and only later watched her books explode. She wasn't writing to a market or reverse-engineering a hit. She was writing the story she wanted to tell, and the audience found it years afterward.
Don't Write for Fame or Sales
Hoover is direct about motive. She discourages writing just to get famous or to move copies, and encourages writing because you feel you have to. When your heart is fully in the work, she believes the book comes out stronger for it.
She also wants writers to redefine what success looks like. Finishing a book at all is the achievement, in her view, whether or not it sells a single copy. She's said she hates watching people give up when the numbers don't match their hopes, because completing a manuscript is something to be proud of on its own. None of this comes with a rulebook, either. Hoover has said she has no formula, that every book is a completely different experience, and that her main rule is to never let writing feel like a job.
She's also honest that it never stops being scary. Even at the top, Hoover doesn't pretend the fear goes away. Ten years into her career she admitted she was still terrified every time she published a book. The nerves are part of the deal, and she treats them as normal rather than a signal to stop.
Notice what's missing from all of this. There's no talk of hitting a certain word count, landing an agent by a certain age, or gaming an algorithm. Her advice is almost entirely about motive and mindset, which tracks with how she works. She protects the reason she started, and she trusts the craft to follow. For a writer just beginning, that's the part worth copying before any technique.
Read the full Colleen Hoover writing routine to see how these principles play out day to day.
What You Can Steal
- Write the book you'd want to read. Your genuine interest carries straight through to the page.
- Ignore trends. They'll shift before your draft is even finished.
- Redefine success as finishing. A completed book beats an unwritten hit.
- Expect the fear. Even bestsellers stay nervous, so don't let it stop you.