Conversations with Madi Nispel

Today we’d like to introduce you to Madi Nispel.

Hi Madi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I never planned to be an author. I had always loved reading and writing when I was younger but never thought to do anything with them. When quarantine hit, I rediscovered my love of fantasy. I was struggling with my mental health and needed an escape. I started reading a book a day and then at one point, I realized that I wanted to read a specific story. A story that I had now come up with in my head.

So I began to write. It gave me purpose and it gave me joy. I would write in my free time and suddenly after a few months, I had a book. Something that was whole and real and mine. So I decided to share it with a few others and then they told me they wanted more. The story I had given them was simply the bones and it needed everything else. So I started adding more and editing and I decided that I wanted to share it with the world.

So I pursued traditional publishing and when that was taking too long and I wasn’t hearing back from book agents, I decided to take matters into my own hands and self-publish my book. I hired an editor, cover designer, format, etc., and made a plan to start my journey on TikTok to connect with other people who might like what I have to offer.

In March, I self-published The Immortality Trial by my pen name Madison Nicole. And here I am, a little over a month later with close to 700 books sold and almost 14k followers on TikTok.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not. Everything along the way was hard. There were so many times I had no idea what I was doing and I am so thankful for the BookTok (TikTok community of book friends) who were there because they answered questions I had and the ones I didn’t think to ask.

They told me to keep going. My parents, family, friends, and partner all were rooting for me and encouraged me to keep at it. It takes an extreme amount of money, stamina, endurance, and tenacity to simply make it to the publish date, and then the amount of energy that has to go into marketing is huge.

I have cried and labored over this work for so long with so much fear of what people would think. It was never if someone doesn’t like my book but simply when. Reviews are hard and cruel and feedback is tough. I am extremely honored and humbled that so many more reviews have been kind and celebratory.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Immortality Trials is my debut novel. And I am not a full-time author. My day job is teaching fitness and yoga which is its own type of creativity.

I am also an aerialist. I love the creativity in moving your body and telling a story. I am extremely vocal and passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. My novel needed to encompass that.

It also needed to show the difficulties of dealing with depression, anxiety, queerness, and lack of purpose. Along with that I run an Etsy shop that specializes in bookish merch and signed copies of my novel

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I will speak specifically about my writing. I write in the new adult fantasy romance genre. I see that only exploding over the next few years.

Additionally, I identify as queer/bisexual so stories that involve LGBTQIA+ stories will only continue to be needed in the future as there has been a severe deficit of those stories being told.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.madisonnicolebooks.com
• Instagram: @madisonnicolebooks
• TikTok: @madisonnicolebooks