Balancing Craft and Business with Bestselling Author Sloane Crosley

When it came time to work on her latest novel, Cult Classic, author Sloane Crosley didn’t find inspiration in just one place. She knew she wanted to take a meaningful look at love and dating, but elements of the story came from everywhere from personal research to a disused synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  

That combination of resourcefulness and creativity is also what helps Sloane manage the various demands of being a professional writer. Learn how Cult Classic had her reading up on cult manifestos, how she makes time for both administrative and writing work, and how her Squarespace site helps her maintain her online presence—while giving her the creative freedom to sprinkle in a few surprises for visitors.

Finding creative inspiration in the everyday

Cult Classic tells the story of Lola, a magazine editor in New York who, though she’s recently engaged, feels a sense of dissatisfaction with her relationship. Then one night, she runs into an ex-boyfriend—and another, and another. Lola soon discovers that a cult run by her former boss is purposefully placing these exes in her path as part of an experiment. What follows is a funny and thoughtful narrative about revisiting the past and, maybe, making peace with it. 

Sloane can’t pinpoint a specific “aha” moment for the idea behind the novel, but her own experiences of wellness culture and modern dating went into the manuscript. “I suspect that anyone who reads this is their own wellness and dating expert by now,” she says. “We’re all so immersed in these subjects, they take the form of satire in the novel.” 

She did do some very specific reading about cults to get those particular details just right. “I needed manifestos or instruction manuals from the inside, so I could borrow from the language for comedic purposes,” Sloane says.

Building an online presence with a Squarespace website

Sloane has been a Squarespace customer for several years, and chose a website template that shows off her published work and professional information in an eye-catching way. “The template I use is probably not the typical one used by most authors. That’s my thrilling secret,” she says. “Because the template is meant for far shinier objects than books, I can have negligible design skills and voilà: Here’s this clean sidebar. Here’s this nice slideshow.” 

The flexibility of the design even gives her chances to drop in the occasional Easter egg for readers. “There’s some borderline embarrassing stuff on my site if you follow the trail,” Sloane says.

Sloane’s website also functions as an evergreen, easy-to-navigate repository for all of her professional highlights. “It’s like a plant I can keep watering to keep it alive,” she says. The website, especially between releases, is a place where she can share and update contact information and news about upcoming books, tour dates, and recent articles.

Protecting your creative time as a working writer 

Finding time to write is a struggle for most professional writers. It can be especially tricky for authors who are simultaneously promoting current or upcoming projects and handling their own administrative work. For Sloane, striking that balance starts with setting boundaries around focus time. “What I try to do (and often fail at) is set aside mornings for writing. I’m good in the early evening too,” she says. “I have an hour or so of emails or calls and try to keep an eye on the clock.” 

But, she’s also realistic about what works best for her. “My brain is sort of in a perpetual state of spinning, so I like to address things as they come up,” Sloane says. “It’s slightly detrimental to writing to do this, but I find the consequences of me vaguely knowing I've forgotten things or sensing a workload in the distance are worse.”

Her advice to others juggling creative work and the business of being a creator is similar. “You have to really pay attention to your own habits and see what works,” Sloane says. “Maybe the balance is about simultaneously knowing what conditions you need to work and your lines in the sand, and not being so hard on yourself if and when you cross them.”

Inspired by Sloane’s story? Start building your own brand on Squarespace.