Why She Stopped Waiting for Permission

About this video

In a two-minute lightning-round interview at Author Nation 2025, award-winning fantasy author Jessica Dean Norris — who writes young adult epic fantasy, has three books, and has been doing this for about four years — says she has been reading forever and writing since about sixth grade, and learned publishing faster by jumping in and doing it than by studying. She says the number of books does not really matter: with a good product you can still sell it, and she directly rejects the worst advice she received — that she needed far more than three books to make money — saying, as her claim, that she makes quite a bit of money from just three books. The best advice she acted on was to write to market and prioritize cover design, making sure she had an excellent cover that would sell the book. Her habits include getting up every morning and using quiet time already thinking about her business. She fears stagnation and not keeping up with a changing market, yet is also excited by constant change. She relies on Notion, which she uses ‘for my whole brain,’ fixes the cause when motivation drops, and resets creativity by leaving the house. Her closing belief, proved by action, was that she could be a published author without waiting for permission from traditional publishers — she decided not to ask and just did it instead.

Key takeaways

• Jessica Dean Norris says she learned publishing by jumping in and doing it, not by studying first
• She rejects the idea you need many books to earn, claiming she makes quite a bit of money from just three books
• Best advice she acted on: write to market and invest in an excellent, selling cover
• She uses Notion for her whole business and starts each morning with quiet work time
• She proved she could publish without waiting for traditional publishers’ permission

Episode details: published January 8, 2026 · 3:05 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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