By Margaret Lea
Nadia worked for many years as an on-air television journalist and anchor at different news stations around the country. She worked briefly for the Boston Globe as a print journalist and even worked in Boston as a singer/songwriter. She grew up always writing and knew that she wanted to be a writer. She became a stay-at-home mom in 2010 and began focusing on writing for kids.
In 2015 she joined SCBWI and a critique group. She’s in several critique groups now, including that first one she joined. She credits SCBWI with teaching her the KidLit industry and providing networking, craft techniques and more. Not long after joining, Nadia started volunteering. She was Assistant Regional Advisor for the San Francisco North and East Bay SCBWI chapter for over eight years and has filled the same role for the Western Washington chapter for almost a year now.
After three years of querying, she signed with her first agent in 2018. They parted amicably last year due to creative differences, and it took another year to find her current agent, Ritu Anand at D4EO Literary.
Her top tip for pre-published authors is, “Don’t give up! Keep learning your craft. Develop a thick skin.” She says to embrace the inevitable rejections and learn from them. “Cultivate genuine relationships in the writing community, and you may be surprised by the professional opportunities they lead to.”
For published authors, her advice is the same, “Persevere! You may have to shift gears and try something new. Don’t be afraid to look for the commercial hooks.”
She has met many wonderful authors and illustrators such as Dan Santat, Laurie Halse Anderson and Arree Chung. Both Laurie and Arree remembered her years after their first meeting. Laurie even remembered Nadia had said she was working on a graphic novel. When they first met, Arree had given a leftover poster to Nadia’s five-year-old daughter, who told him her mom was a writer and also drew pictures. Now he often asks Nadia about her progress with her illustrative endeavors.
Check out Nadia’s website at https://www.nadiasalomon.com/.

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